Newcastle Uni said:
Hey Francois! I've already bought at least 5 clips from you and would buy many many more if only the selection was greater, but I suppose it takes a lot of time to upload your entire catalogue. I'll just have to be patient. I can be patient........who says I can't be patient.......I'm patient.....just post THE FRIGGIN CLIPS MAN BEFORE I EXPLODE!
And calm down......
Good job. I know that most people around here are always nice regardless, but I am rude and criticise people regularly, which means that I think it means more when I say something positive.
Hahahaha! An enthusiastic customer indeed. Thanks, I appreciate it.
Well, the problem isn't with the uploading process as much as it's with the creation of the actual clips. Up until this summer I had never created any clips before. Converting all of my videos takes a lot of time. I have to recapture the original footage, edit it, produce AVI versions of the clips, convert them to WMV, back up everything to disk for safekeeping, write short descriptions, create sample pictures, and only then can I upload the clips for sale. That can take a few days for a single video, especially considering I'm currently going to school full time. I expect it's going to take me several months to catch up with my entire back catalog. It's not that big, but nearly 20 tickling videos and a few foot videos, each between 50 and 60 sminutes in length, still represent a lot of clips. And I have to produce new videos from time to time as well. Starting with the next new video, I'll create and release clip versions at the same time I do the DVD versions (although I might release the clips in more than one batch).
I'm very pleased that you like the clips. They're selling fairly well, but for some reason I'm not getting much feedback. I assume people like them well enough, since several people are repeat customers, but I'd be curious to know more about how people feel about certain aspects of my clips.
The screen size issue used to big me. I wasn't sure what was the best screen size vs file size (and bitrate) compromise. Eventually I settled for 480x360, compared to the larger 640x480 some other producers offer. I assume it's not really a problem, as 480x360 is still reasonably big (plus it allows me to create better-looking clips), but I wouldn't mind hearing people's opinions about this.
What I'm especially curious to know is how well the clips play and how much I could boost the bitrate. I chose a bitrate that's a good compromise between file size and playability, so that most people can play the clips without problems. And I think the picture quality is decent enough. But I wish I could improve the quality a bit more, going from a bitrate that gives clips of about 6.5 MB/minute to, say, about 8 MB/minute. It would be very convenient for me to know just how high I can crank up the bitrate without having to offer smaller versions of the clips for people with older computers. Not an easy thing to determine, though.
