Over two thousand busy mummy bloggers already jostle for attention on the British Mummy Bloggers social networking site and as if their voices were not loud enough, the whole thing is about to be rebuilt and relaunched with video footage at the forefront.
To kick things off, site founders Susanna of A Modern Mother and Jen of Jenography invited a critical mass of twenty five established mummy bloggers to attend a video workshop in London, learn to use a Kodak Zi8 pocket video camera and upload footage to the new BMB video site.
I was honoured to be included in such a fabulous group of ladies… and guess what – we get to keep the toys.
The new British Mummy Bloggers’ site will be regularly setting conversation topics for people to respond to on film. Thus far I’ve found editing film of recipes a bit longwinded and dry to work with so I’m planning mini documentary style numbers that don’t take me too long to make and don’t demand too much of your time to watch.
Our cameras were about the size of a Blackberry with just five buttons on the front to adjust settings, delete, record/navigate and switch between record and play mode. Also in our kits was a mini tripod that screws into the base for hands free recording and various wires to play stuff back on the TV or upload to the computer.
Everyone was up and running immediately as you’ll see in this 2 minute film below. The only disadvantage I’ve found with this handset is that it doesn’t have an alternative lens on the same side as the screen like my iPhone – hence the first clip chops off most of my face. For authenticity I left this in. I felt very self conscious chattering to a camera even though everyone else was preoccupied doing the same thing.
My heart sinks when I click on vids that are much over 2 minutes long so the ones you find here should be pretty short and sweet. I’m acutely aware how tedious some internet video can be so hopefully I’ll soon master a few snappy editing tricks in iMovie and bring you a fairly regular stream of quick films that are fun to watch.
These two first efforts below are my 2 minute film of the workshop and a 1 minute (ish) film of our first “assignment”, Why do you blog. There are lots of reasons why I blog but here is how (and what) came out when Ted was with me…
With thanks to Susanna and Jen of British Mummy Bloggers who organised the day and Kodak who provided us with the cool cameras.
Oooh I wasn’t expecting to see myself when I popped in to say hello! Lovely to meet you and to meet your blog now too. Enjoyed the vlogs and still salivating over the Raymond Blanc food you cooked.
Shame I live in Northumberland really! Sounds like a brilliant course to be involved with.
CJ xx
Was nice to meet you there, I could see my hand in your clip 🙂 I’m still struggling with software!
I enjoyed your rough cut and the why I blog bit, you come across very natural. And your boy’s so cute, he looks just like you!
So great to see you there and I LOVE your video, especially the credits.
Thank you Susanna, I was delighted to be there!