3 New videos for you to enjoy!
Week 1 of 2021 has certainly been interesting. Video editing has been keeping me entertained for the first bit of 2021, as I was feeling a little under the weather. We had a subdued new years celebration. 2020 was not too kind on us, and money is a little more tight than we would like.
Then, of course, we are also seeing an increase in COVID-19 numbers now, and our government has decided to introduce curfews and some social distancing rules to try and curb the rising numbers. So, a very small group of friends got together and had a little BBQ, and a little too much to drink.
2021 started with a good hangover, and a cough for me. 1st of January I felt pretty rotten, thinking that I’m getting old and can’t handle my booze like I used to. Then the rest of my family also started sneezing, coughing and having blocked noses. Tell you what, having a cold in the middle of a pandemic does fill you with dread. As I am writing this on the 14th of January, we are all feeling much better, but still keeping to social distancing just in case.
The numbers of Walvis Bay has gone down quite a bit, but not quite to the levels it was just before the December holiday season.
Without further ado, let’s show you some of the videos that were produced in the first weeks of 2021!
The Illofa clan video was a bit of fun to make, as usual. The family helped quite a bit in capturing the spirit of the new year on video, and stitching it all together brought back all those memories.
I had some drone batteries to flatten, and we popped out to the desert for some aerial footage capturing. Looking straight down on dunes when the shadows are showing, either early in the morning or late at night, shows the true beauty of the shapes of the dunes. See for yourself:
The Youtube channel of Awesome Chapters also needed a bit of sprucing up! So, first on the list was a greeting for new visitors to the channel:
Short and to the point! Nice videos here, please subscribe and enjoy the videos!
Then, there is the video for return subscribers:
Also, short and to the point. Thanks for being a subscriber, here are some interesting links and videos that you might like to see… The footage was of a fireworks display in Mobile, Alabama, USA.
So, then I started going through the old footage that I have, and decided to make some videos of the popular destinations that we have been seeing in the past.
First on the list was the spectacular Brandberg. In making these videos, I am learning a lot about what to shoot to make an interesting video.
Blutkoppe itself has not changed much through the years, but the technology used to capture it sure has. I remember being amazed at how good the quality was of my first HD camcorder, and trying to use the footage captured with it in this video it was totally bad in comparison with what we have to play with now.
Right now, (14th January) it’s raining inland, and we hope to have a green Namibia in a few days. Hopefully, this editing of old footage will give me some pointers as to what to capture. And no, it’s not simply everything.
Brandberg was next on my list, and released on the 13th.
Brandberg is a favorite camping spot of ours. Pity the road there is in such a bad condition, as the views and wildlife is definitely worth the effort.
Also worth mentioning is that I am trying out an ad for Awesome Chapters. Using adwords and paying Google to play the video to a worldwide audience to see how it works. I spent N$ 200 on it, and so far there are a few views pouring in, and people are taking a look at the rest of the website, too. Which is nice.
Here is the ad for Awesome Chapters:
As you can see, there is very little branding on the video. I was hoping that people would be so intrigued with the nice footage that they would watch it to the end, where I ask to subscribe and explore the website. So far, the video is getting a 13% watch to the end, as it’s a skippable video.
I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not, or what the metrics are supposed to be. So far, it’s not a very good return on investment. I’m hoping that going to the green spots in Namibia and capturing a bit of that will give me a better exposure.
Something else that I am experimenting with is square thumbnails for the video on social media. I just have not found a way of making them clickable yet, but I am sure that there is a way.
Here is an example:
