Documenting Your "Now" For The Future

I'm excited to be able to take part in Discovery Channel's The Colony social experiment.

I created a video to share tips on how to report the news with a videocamera. This is something that I'm passionate about and am happy that I get to spread the word further along via social media.

Here the video:



Watch on YouTube.

When you enter the The Colony, you're presented with a 'Facebook-like' community.

You can particiapte at:

http://jointhecolony.com

Here's what The Colony site looks like TO ME, when I'M signed in through FACEBOOK:



When YOU sign in, you'll see yourself there. Everyone's experience will be different, depending on whether they sign in with Facebook or not. Neat!

My post looks like this:



Here's the description:

Now's a great time to learn how to document the world around you. Citizen journalism is more important then ever ... and anyone can report and share the news! Steve Garfield reports.

This is a rough transcript of the contents of the video:

Hi, this is Steve Garfield from SteveGarfield.com, author of Get Seen, Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business.

In times like these with rapidly changing news events, WE need to be prepared to share information.

Citizen reporters, performing acts of journalism, are an important part of the news process, sharing stories, sometimes faster than mainstream media.

II'm going to highlight the tools that you can use, and how to share your video stories with them.

First, let's look at cameras...

The best camera to use, is the one that you have with you.

Does your cellphone have a video camera? [ Show iPhone 3GS ]

How about your digital still camera? [ Show Panasonic ]

You can also use a pocket HD video camera. [ Show Kodak Zi8 ]

All these tools depend on power. Make sure you have extra batteries, or chargers. If the power goes out, you can use chargers to run off of car batteries. [ Show Duracell Charger ]

When shooting your video, keep these tips in mind.

- Think about Sound
- Look for the Light [ LitePanel MicroPro LED Light ]
- Hold the Camera Steady

Once you've shot your video, you'll want to share it.

The best way to do that is to share it with friends. Your friends won't want you emailing them videos because that fills up their mailboxes, so you'll want to host the video somewhere and then share it with a link.

Some social media sites you could upload your video to include YouTube and Facebook. Once you've got y our video up there, you can easily share it's link.

Also, if you want people to find your videos, make sure you give them descriptive titles, and tags.

If possible add a transcript so your video can be found when people are searching for the content of your video on sites like Google, YouTube or BING.

One more way to share video from a computer with a webcam. You can either record video directly up to YouTube or Facebook, or live stream to sites like UStream.

You can also live stream from cell phones.

What will help you capture a story when something happens is to be prepared. This means that you have experience recording and sharing video.

Practice NOW.

- KNOW How to turn the camera on and put it into record mode
- KNOW How to you review the footage you've shot
- KNOW How to quickly share it

I'll be looking forward to seeing your news worthy video.

Disclosure: http://cmp.ly/3/cgot0p

Read more about the project:
Viral site spreads fear, speculation and info for Discovery's "The Colony"
#StillHere, A Fiction Experience For Discovery Channel’s “The Colony,” Is Online
#TheColony on twitter