Theremin videos on Veoh

I added a new theremin videos page (videos.asp) to start cataloging all these videos. If you post one to Veoh (or anywhere else), please feel free to submit a link to the videos page. I didn't post all of yours yet Gordon so the site will give you credit for the contributions (points) when you add them. Thanks again for starting this video kick!

Thanks.

You have got your first subscriber!

Interesting video. 5 stars from me. :-)

Now, World Thereminisation...

Veoh is very new. At the last count it had only 10,000 subscribers, but it is growing apace.

This means it currently only needs 100 downloads for a vid to make to top 25 and get front-page billing, and 600 will put it in the number 1 slot. And that will expose it to every user.

These are achievable figures but it's going to need a concerted effort.

We need one vid that really nails what the theremin is about - the "if you only ever download one theremin vid, let it be this one" one, and then we need to download it ourselves and start telling people about it.

Obviously this is not one of my little vids we are talking about. :-)

... and hopefully that video points viewers back to ThereminWorld :)

I hope people don't find the watermarking on the cello video too annoying. Since the JonB video escaped into the wild without any pointer back to TW, I want to make sure that people who see these things know where to look for more information. I think we have a great community thing happening here, and the more the merrier!

I love the idea Gordon. We've needed something like a video theremin FAQ for a long time (something shorter than the documentary, that is). Something that demonstrates what's truly possible with the theremin & excites people into wanting to learn to play...

Any takers?

Either a FAQ or perhaps a sampler.

I'm a great one for spreading the workload - here's my idea.

As far as I can tell, both Theremin World and levnet are awash with heavyweight thereminists of all genres. I am sure that if you asked them nicely they would be happy to make a contribution to a compilation video album. Each gets to promote their website/cd/venue or whatever in return.

My guess is, given that these are technically competent, creative folk they won't find it too hard to lay their hands on a decent digital camcorder and make a recording of a performance.

I am happy to help in whatever way I can, either with a FAQ or a sampler.

As you may have noticed if you watched Invasion (Part 2) I do digital photos. (I also do non-weird pictures - if you search in Veoh for rickmansworth you will find a non-theremin related slideshow of some of my nicer piccies. [edit: soon! minor tech hitch :-(]) I can also crank out rather more sophisticated slideshows that I have published so far with panning and zooming and stuff. So if someone is happy to put in some music but can't manage a video I could produce a filler, either with supplied photos of the band or of archive images if say a Clara Rockmore piece were available or with something appropriate to the music of my own as a last resort.

Having said all that, I acknowledge that I am nothing more than a happy amateur - I will not be in the slightest bit offended if you decline my offer or if someone with actual experience in this field steps forward.

(Also interesting to note at this point that when Veoh comes out of beta it will include pay to view options [EDIT: not pay to view, pay to keep - I've been talking to their CEO and support manager - Archive to CD/DVD functionality is in development] - I say give this away nonetheless - our professional players might like to view it as a trailer for their forthcoming video album! I don't know what the pricing structure will be - I am guessing a cafepress style deal - charge what you see fit, Veoh takes a cut and gives you the rest.)

Good news, bad news, good news, bad news, good news.

Veoh 2 is out. It's still a beta, but the interface is way improved. :-)

They broke wmv playback on the mac, so I can't watch Pamelia on the theremin-cello again until they fix it. :-(

You can now embed flash-based lo-res previews directly into your website (Jason, are you taking note?) Examples here (http://croxleycameraclub.blogspot.com/). (Meet the family - Laura on front of Harmony Play Group, Alex and Maya in Invasion Part 2. :-)

They broke the permalinks! (That's perma- as in "permanent" - links.) Including the links on ThereminWorld. I have complained, here (http://appserver.veoh.com/contact.html), and await their response! (Actually, this might do some good - they have been very responsive in the past and not at all like talking to a brick wall.) But still. :-(

I added up the number of downloads of each vid from my series, Gordon and the Theremin (http://appserver.veoh.com/seriesDetails.html?s=s2683), multiplied by the length of each vid and it comes to one and a third days of unique exposure man-days! :-)

Gordon

Thanks for the notice about the upgrade. I hope they fix all those problems - especially permalinks. I'll take a look at the embedded previews too - sounds like a very cool feature.

And Gordon, I have a Maya (http://www.dylanandmaya.com) too :)

My Maya says hi to your Maya.

Veoh 2 has a neat new trick - you can add other people's videos to your series'. So instead of all those unreliable Veoh permalinks on the Theremin Video page you could have one link to a series called, perhaps, "ThereminWorld Recommends" and then when you find a neat video you could just add it to the series (takes two mouse clicks) or if someone else finds one they could use the Send To A Friend facility to draw your attention to it.

I'm using that trick for a slightly different purpose - to flag videos that my friend Mark (who does not have time to go data mining) would enjoy (we have many similar tastes) - previously I was tagging them "upper circles" but anyone can add tags so it was an imperfect solution. Despite the obscure name the upper circles tag made it into the "popular tags" list - so perhaps my "Gordon's Favourites" series will drive some traffic towards my other series. :-)