Videos of my thru hike attempt, why is nobody watching

[Wülfgang]

...Even a large percentage of books suck. Many are just awful trail journals. I have at least a dozen on kindle i simply couldnt continue with.

Totally agree. I stopped reading trail books and memoirs because of this. It gets really redundant and after you've read a couple good ones, the magic is lost.

[Tipi Walter]

If you could've gotten Redford.... justsayin

Not Redford but on my last trip I got a pic of a backpacker from Georgia named Alex Van who is an actor and who has a small part in the new Redford movie and is "Peter". See---


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1178665/...=tt_cl_sm#cast


http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0888391/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t24


Alex Van camping in the high Gap of Naked Ground, Slickrock wilderness NC.


Alex on Hangover Mt with my backpacking buddies Patman and wife Susan.

[g00gle]

One point of view that has not been raised very well is that, through video, people who are looking forward to hiking on the A.T. are often able to see a very vivid picture of what others are talking about when they describe certain shelters, the incline of a section, types of water sources, or just how many rocks there are at a given section.

Obviously, viewing these things are NOTHING compared to actually being out there (and can instill a false sense of security or ability in some viewers if they forget that fact.) However, I myself love trail videos because I have often gotten to see various parts of the trail that others try to describe with words. At some points on the trail, such as Macafee's Knob (spelling?) or the NOC, I've actually looked over at my wife and said, "Hey, they're at so-and-so point" or often said to myself, "What in the hell are you getting yourself in to?"

The thing is, I'm not a terribly detailed person when planning, but I do try to gather as much information as I can from as many points of view as I can when considering an endeavor like this. (Okay, perhaps considering something smaller, as this seems like the biggest endeavor I've ever considered in my life up to this point.) So, IMHO, videos (amateur videos or not) have their place. I even started a thread here on WB to keep track of a few of them. Got some great advice on other videos from other members here, too!

Also, I watch all kinds of videos and those views are never registered. This is because of something I learned from Google a long time ago when I took one of their Digital Marketing courses -- often, it is only views from users who are logged-in to their YouTube or Google account that are recorded. That is because user accounts are the only true metric that can be used to sort people from bots (auto-pilot software programs) when it comes to measuring particular forms of internet activity. SO… Don't always rely on that view count as a true indicator of people that are viewing your videos. (The same thing happens with the software that runs this forum board, with good reason. If every page that was viewed on this site over the years was actually quantified, some of these pages and especially some of the articles would have view counts way in to the millions!)

I mostly enjoyed your videos, excepting the few times you took liberty with your timing or the personal space of others. (Believe it or not, you are not the worst at doing that.) But some of the narrating and some of the footage was spot-on, IMHO. In all fairness, perhaps that is simply because I am often viewing videos like these for reasons other than just an entertaining narrative. Whatever.

Keep hiking -- and, if the notion strikes you, keep on filming!

[Bronk]

If I were you I would mail your memory card back to someone in civilization (like your daughter) and have them edit the video for you since you won't likely be able to do it on the trail or even at a hostel. And it shouldn't be taking you 3 hours to upload a short video...if the file is that big you need to compress it. Get a program like handbrake and compress it down some...the first time I tried to upload a video Youtube said it would take 1968 minutes...yep, even a $129 camera can shoot high definition video...but most people are going to be watching your video on a smart phone, ipad or desktop computer and all you're doing is causing the video to take longer to load because the screen and device they are using aren't going to show the detail of an HD video.

[Another Kevin]

.... (oops, double post)

[Another Kevin]

Thanks! for the advice. This old fat man went to engineering school using a slide rule, this new technology must be learned. Try, try, again I think I will design my own stabilizing handle or use the hiking pole as it is obvious that hand holding a camera is to bumpy. As for 50% of you that only look at hot women, ?? Marketing media has you by the _____ you may discover women also have a mind.

Went to engineering school with a slide rule? I resemble that remark!

Trekking pole supported tripod: http://www.trail-pix.com/

Now... about the advice people have given. I'm no videographer, nor do I have a charismatic manner on camera, so making videos is not likely to be my thing. (I'm really not interested enough to devote the time to developing the skills.) But I do write, a fair amount, and I like to chronicle my trips, for myself and my family and friends, in either blog or trail-journal form. I don't get large numbers of readers, but my people tell me that they enjoy reading what I write.

One thing that they enjoy is that I don't talk about just the hiking, which tends to turn into a mind-numbing discussion of miles and trail conditions and what you had for dinner that day. Even if that's what we mostly focus on when we're Out There, nobody really wants to read that. They like that I bring in other subjects - things I've learnt either preparing for a trip or hiking it - and try to vary them. The precise things discussed depend on the trip. On one trip it might be the reason that horny butterflies would visit sweaty hikers. On another it might be the tale of a daring rescue of a snowbound cable TV crew. Perhaps I'll bring in some local history, like the escapades of a robber baron, circa 1704. It might be a very personal account of climbing the mountain where a relative of mine disappeared, long ago. It might just be a rambling photojournal about bridges - which rather offended the trail crew, some of whom thought I was complaining. (Nonsense, I told them: the varied bridges were part of the charm!)

Sometimes, very rarely, I judge that the hike itself makes for an interesting enough story, as when I fell in whitewater, and struggled to avoid repeating the incident the following day. That made for enough excitement that I thought nothing else was needed, and in fact I deferred a planned discussion of local history to another day. But journal entries that focus merely on the travel are quite rare for me.

I daresay that I might garner a few more readers if I threw in gratuitous pictures of decorative ladies. But (1) that's not my style, (2) my wife would have something to say to me if I were to do something like that, (3) my daughter would have even more to say to me if I were to do something like that.

Anyway, I try hard to make it more than documenting the hike. I try not to write one of these journals until I actually have something to say.

If I wanted to have a lot of readers, I'd have to work much harder on promoting myself, and deliver content much more regularly. (Which, in turn would mean that I'd really have to resort to telling other people's stories. Mine just isn't consistently interesting enough.)

[Roche]

As for 50% of you that only look at hot women, ?? Marketing media has you by the _____ you may discover women also have a mind.

Top Ten

10. Last time I heard that one was the same day I bought a new Chevy Vega.
9. Who knew there were no smoking hot chicks before the days of marketing media?
8. Marketing media videos are watched.
7. ...has you by the ____. May I buy a vowel, please.
6. Hiking video backlog is now down to 999 +.
5. ...has you by the ____. I would like to solve the puzzle, please.
4. Does Minecraft have smoking hot chicks?
3. Rumor is Vanna will now appear in hiking videos.
2. The other 50% are not honest.
1. Wife does not allow me to watch videos of women's minds anymore.

[tflaris]

I scanned through it watching bits and pieces.

TF


"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed that is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead, Anthropologist

[1234]

Man wish I had access to baby chickens, "chicks" I would put them under a heat lamp and take a pic of "HOT Chicks"

Oh the other 50% are women, silly.

Actually the professor hung the slide rule up and declared it an antique forevermore.

Well no some of us record every show watched just to fast forward through any commercials.

[g00gle]

Trekking pole supported tripod: http://www.trail-pix.com/

Another one that might suit a hiker is the StickPic camera-to-pole adapter. I'm not a video guy myself but this thing sure seems pretty popular with many other hikers.

[RangerZ]

Went to engineering school with a slide rule? I resemble that remark!

I keep my collection of slide rules out on display, although I've misplaced my circular one. My father in law's WWII Navy slide rule works as good as the day he
got it.

[Another Kevin]

Another one that might suit a hiker is the StickPic camera-to-pole adapter. I'm not a video guy myself but this thing sure seems pretty popular with many other hikers.

That's more a selfie stick, not very useful as a tripod. If you get the ball head, the trail-pix will do both.

[rocketsocks]

I keep my collection of slide rules out on display, although I've misplaced my circular one. My father in law's WWII Navy slide rule works as good as the day he
got it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoIfB4J3sqU

[Fredt4]

You shouldn't be asking why we're not watching your videos, you should be asking the ones watching why they're watching. Hollywood figured it out a long time ago: guts, ****s & nuts. Use analytics to determine who your audience is. No one is entitled to an audience, there's usually a lot of effort behind the camera determining what the audience wants. Your comment about the 50% indicates that you believe that content deserves an audience. If it was that simple there would be a lot more being produced. Improve your skills if you wish, but don't think that will necessarily get you an audience.

[Traveler]

A Humble Filmmakers Guide to Watchable Fare on AT-TV:

To make a marvelous film using Hollywood as a guide is great fun and super easy. The current Hollywood film model ignores anything fresh and new or that requires much if any insights, thinking, or consideration. Instead there are some basic formulas and necessities used in the mega billion conglomerate film making world, which include;

1. First things first, Hollywood today would never make new what they can remake from old. I would recommend a remake of "The Call of the Wild" using a Chihuahua or a Bassett Hound as Buck, the non-speaking hero of the film. Cast Ed Begley, Jr. as Bucks friend John Thorton and you'll attract an audience right there. I can see the trailer scene now, Buck and Thorton sitting in dawns first light, fire going, sipping steaming coffee, Thorton saying, "Buck, do you have to drool like that? Why can't you be neat about it like the other dogs and why are you so meshuga around other dogs?"


2. A successful Hollywood film needs humor. Specifically humor targeting 14 to 19 year old boys, which is bathroom humor and a lot of it, given there is little money in "thinking" comedy that requires an audience to pay attention. For this any latrine and/or toilet paper mishaps/high jinx would suffice. The obligatory "I used poison ivy leaves for TP" is always a scream along with the bear that sneaks up behind the pooping party boy type. If the latter is consumed, his violent death is usually quite funny, on par with Jurassic dinosaurs eating lawyers.


3. Fleeting nudity is always welcome with hollywood, and a necessity to capture and hold 14 to 19 year old boy's interest. Camera angles that show fleeting bits of rear ends moving behind trees, jumping into lakes, and screaming from a tent as a snake is tossed in is always welcome Hollywood fare.


4. A love interest is usually part of the corporate Hollywood formula. Since it is unlikely our Thorton hero will find a nice girl to pal around with in the forests, I would recommend a nice American Beech sapling in a pot to lug around as the love interest. The tree would listen with rapt attention to the meanderings of philosophy that is completely meaningless to all but the target audience, with such postulations that if all life is sacred why do bad things happen to non-shelter mice, and other fertile ponderings designed to impress and expand the 14 to 19 year old mind.


5. As a production cost bonus, the potted American Beech love interest can also act as the Trail Sage on par with Obi-wan, Tonto, or any of Andy Devine's characters, who offers up great wisdom and dispenses life lesson advice (I recommend using the voice of John Houseman - Professor Kingsfield of Paper Chase fame, or James Earl Jones). "Yesss, John, throw the stick and it will come".


6. Then there is the discovery, defiance, and ultimate defeat of evil that is required. For a true scare (not to mention the savings of really big bucks) never show the evil creature or person when you can use heavy music (think Jaws), movement of bushes, air displacement (think Blazing Saddles Evil Gang - passing gas is the ultimate 14 to 19 year old humor button), or shadows just out of clear sight playing against flickering fire light should be enough to encourage any audience there is evil afoot and up to no good.


7. Once discovered, evil is typically dispatched in an epic battle that is supposed to be the age old little guy defeats big guy schtick. This battle generally starts with the death of the love interest is usually completed by means of explosion, falling off a 5,000 foot cliff, boring the villain to death by forcing them to watch AT film footage of everyone who has ever made one, or a dramatic running gun fight that never seems to run out of ammunition. This scene should be late in the film where a lot of the now open ends are tidied up. Buck the dog senses danger and runs off in search of help from a family about 277 miles south. The American Beech love interest is then killed off with its dying words... "All I wanted was to branch out".


8. Our Thorton hero takes great inspiration from the death of his precious Beech and through a series of vignette scenes fading in and out showing him fashioning various weapons made of hemlock branches and bits of stump, and tying a sock around his forehead in preparation of visiting immense and final violence upon the evil doer. Who, when the film reveals the evil incarnate to be Richard Simmons in short shorts the audience gasps and roots for his demise as Thorton and he spar in a classic, hands moving too fast to film hissy fight that winds up with the evil doer falling off a cliff and exploding half way to the bottom.

9. As the film closes, the dog never does come back, but Thorton finds a new love, a sprightly Scotch Pine, with a very nice potting soil from a good family, and the sun sets to the west in a final approximation of living happily ever after.


Now THATS a movie by Hollywood's image. Getting Begley will be the toughest part I think, but worth it.

[sfdoc]

Ice Cream, I enjoyed your videos. I know that you're not a pro, and I wasn't expecting pro. Instead of showing your face all the time, as others have done, you showed scenery, trail conditions, and shelter sites along with the surrounding tents and tent sites. Keep it up. Good luck with your next hike (your AT continuation). Thanks.

[ExNihilo]

I started watching your vidieos and I would add y feedback here and not on YouTube.

I am providing this feedback because I want to see your improvement in your videos. Check out the videos that Sam Ducharme is posting for some examples.

I met Sam when I was sectioning and his videos are enjoyable. But they are insanely long! I find myself skipping around because I don't have 25 minutes for a trail video.

[JaketheFake]

You do however look a little like Merry Jerry!

[Nodust]

I watch plenty trail videos. More youtube than actual TV thanks to smart tv's. Don't expect to have great videos right off the bat. Most you tubes I see their first videos aren't all that great but after a few dozen get better.

Keep it short, interesting, show something different. And cute females do help, that's just natural.

[Bucketfoot]

Seen too many videos of he trail already. Read too many books about it already. Have come to think people who do this are just tooting their own horn. Hope you get healed up and back on the trail.