#motivational #motivation — I’ve been buying a few items on eBay lately to better outfit my camcorder so that I could bring you, my awesome viewers from around the world, more motivational videos outdoors. This will not only give some more variety in scenes and backgrounds for my Clint Cora Motivational WebTV episodes, but will show some interesting sites from my travels.
Previously, I had two major limitations in doing more outdoor scenes. First was audio quality. I’m already using an external microphone since onboard mics on camcorders tend to be pretty lousy. So I’ve been using a wired external microphone but the length of the wire was quite short. As a result, I couldn’t stay very far from the camera.
If I went venture further away from the camcorder and microphone, the sound quality would drop significantly especially if there’a a breeze in the air since the mic picks up wind noise. Motivational videos would not be very inspiring if the sound quality was garbage.
So the solution was to get an extension wire for the external mic which I got on eBay. Now, I’m able to have the microphone close to me for optimal sound while having the freedom to be as far away as 13-14 feet from the camcorder if a shot warrants that.
The other problem was the aging Sony battery that came with the camcorder was quickly dying. Even if a full charge indicates over 100 minutes left in battery power, it was more like five to six minutes before the battery dies on me. This meant that I have been restricted to indoor shooting during the past few weeks. A typical motivational video episode would require at least two separate charging of the battery before I finished getting footage for a complete show. This was becoming a real pain in the butt.
A replacement battery with longer capacity would cost me about $75 at the Sony store. I checked on eBay for an equivalent and found one for half the price. Even though it took over a month for it to arrive from Hong Kong where the eBay seller was located, it finally arrived today. I just finished charging it and it indicates that it has about 26 hours of power!
With this new high capacity battery, things are going to be really fun. I’m finally going to be able to shoot some hopefully great scenes outdoors. I plan to shoot some Ontario autumn scenes in the woods since many parts of the world where my viewers are located, do not see the beautiful red-orange leaves we have each fall here.
I’m also going to shoot video that will be connected to the topic of youth violence and want some dramatic graffiti backgrounds for it. I’ll finally able to shoot this one soon. I haven’t decided whether this will be a motivational video or present it as a clip separate from my WebTV series.
I’m also going to be able to take my camcorder down to Cuba and hopefully shoot some great footage of Havana which many viewers have not seen before especially since there has always been a US embargo in place restricting Americans from travelling there. So I hope to act as my viewers’ eyes while I’m down there, thanks to the upgrades I’ve made to my camcorder system. So do stay tuned for great motivational videos soon!
