Wanted to give everyone a chance to review TR2016's 6.5h edit before I collected. As I said, if you don't like all of it, I hope you like some of it. And I'm working now to make that "some of it" what you can share with others.
Thanks very much for your support, and I hope to see you at TEAC8 this year:
TEAC8
Thorium Energy Alliance Conference #8
on Rare Earths & Medical Isotopes
August 21st & 22nd, 2017
Downtown St. Louis, Missouri
I'll be presenting a brief tutorial on how to remix TR2016 to meet your own needs/tastes, and fielding questions. And, of course, I'll be busy video capturing as much of the event as possible.
Hopefully, between me wrapping up TR2016 remix infrastructure and TEAC8, there'll be some time to stop and think about coordinating interviews so that a TR2017 can offer up a fresh narrative angle.
Surprising bad news.
YouTube Editor has changed since I last assessed it. And YouTube/Google confirmed the changes are permanent.
New length limit on constructed videos are 1-hour.
New length limit on video assets (appear to be) 1-hour.
Both of these used to be 2 hours. As of December-2016 they changed. I never noticed because I haven't used the tool since 2013 when I tried eating my own dogfood on "Th"-series videos.
If such constraints had existed in 2011, then TR2011 permutations such as "LFTR in 5 Minutes" would not have been created and my work would have been far less viral. Nor would "Th" chapters have been copied and actively propagating today. (...Faster than my own copies as other people's copies tend to do.)
So that's a kick in the teeth.
But, luckily, I already planned on breaking up (and have broken up) TR2016 into chunks under 1h in size so the asset-limit has no impact on TR2016 remixing.
(And I'm going to also return to TR2011 and isolate some key moments as stand-alone remixable videos, such as the 5-minute intro.)
But the constructed-video-length-limit does have an impact. We can only create stuff that's up to 1h in length using YTE.
Most viral stuff will be much shorter, but I'd hoped to meet all needs with YTE. Can't do it. Some folks will need to use either offline editing, or construct YouTube playlists to achieve desired 1h+ mix.
What is Public-Facing? (But not yet announced.)
I've been pondering what to keep private, what to make public-facing but unannounced, and what to publicly promote.
Am very hesitant to actively promote remix tools until they are finished. I'll only get 1 chance to draw people's attention to them "a first time" and if they're too challenging for casual user they'll never come back.
Right now, the experience can be easy... or challenging... depending on your approach. And I don't yet have the time to create a tutorial or adequately document exactly how to do stuff, as that would delay the assets themselves.
So I'm sharing what I've got today with you, and if you are keen on trying stuff with minimal instruction then go for it. Don't worry about hiding my URLs or anything... if you know it you can share it. I just don't recommend spamming about incomplete tools, which is what I consider current remix infrastructure to be.
The -only- thing that is truly complete is my "THORIUM REMIX 2016 - Chunks " playlist, and Google Drive hosted MP4s .
Things will get easier to remix as I flesh out tutorials and assets. One day the remix tools will be "done" just as TR2016 is now "done".
But as they stand, while I write this, it is possible today to create something as distinct as "Thorium Debunked" with nothing more than a flash-enabled web browser.
For me, that's quite a different experience from being tied down to my monolithic Premiere Pro project and 64GB RAM desktop. (My noisy beast with noisy RAID storage.) Remixes can now be created on a wussy laptop running any OS. (Yay.)
But also, as of today, the YouTube Editor approach is not for the faint of heart... IF you have a very specific narrative in mind.
That is because TR2016 has been broken up into 33 "chunks". Here they are:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuGiwaUJYEZfNHZR1AUmMYoASGWBroXMM
I'd not exactly call them chapters because some are bridging-moments... like this one for example...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fcs_dw9J-Y&index=27&list=PLuGiwaUJYEZfNHZR1AUmMYoASGWBroXMM
...only 39s long and just me saying "I'm about to show you elevator pitches". Just context no content. So the chunks range from 39s to 30m as I felt topics or bridging-moments should be segregated.
I had a very specific narrative in mind with "THORIUM DEBUNKED". More on that below, but I wanted an editing challenge the could not be addressed by simply plunking together chunks of TR2016... this required more detailed editing / cutting / trimming.
That was to see just how challenging YouTube Editor is when working with the chunks in such a fashion. Answer: Very challenging.
Don't do it!
Yes, it is possible to do.
I created "THORIUM DEBUNKED" in a single day. So you could too. But if you value your sanity, only use YTE (YouTube Editor) to 99% slap-stuff-together and 1% tweak the footage. If you can't assemble what you want by just piecing together my chunks then try a different approach. (See below.)
The biggest challenge with YTE is that after every edit is made, it starts playing from the beginning of the edited sequence. So when you're fussing around in the middle of a 55m edit, make a change, re-find the spot you're working on, see if the change worked. If you missed the mark (with YTE's not-frame accurate tools) then repeat again and again.
If a person is assembling existing chunks from start to finish, that's ok. You'll likely be zoomed out to see all your work, and just keep dragging chunks to the end like slapping together lego blocks.
Create a title. Drag in video assets one-by-one. Create closing credit-cards. No problem!
So it is appropriate for simple stuff, and it is important that people without video software be able to participate in communication efforts. But if you know in advance you'll be developing a complex video edit, I'd recommend another approach.
Offline Video Editing
If you have any sort of Windows or Mac (or Linux) machine, this is an option.
High bandwidth MP4 of TR2016 can be downloaded onto your machine.
TR2016 as a single monolithic (vbr20k) MP4 ~50GB total...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B181Ezh6Cnz5a2NpMThDZ1ZTcU0/view?usp=sharing
TR2016 as 33 Chunks (vbr30k) MP4s ~100GB total...
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B181Ezh6Cnz5clAxbnE1WUNIVFE?usp=sharing
...use which-ever approach works best for you.
I think your choice between monolithic-and-chunks might be determined by how "professional" your video editing software is.
I use Adobe Premiere Pro, which is "Pro". As in "Professional".
(...not "Adobe Premiere Stable".)
But the [cough] "Pro" editor does allow me to easily use timecodes to find moments from a single long video.
Here is my Google Sheet with timecodes...
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1polwEZy7i86irlLTbtt7McCwXSYzG4NrS73po0u2Yx8/pubhtml#
...by searching the transcript you can find where in the timeline a moment happens.
In a nutshell, the "professional" way to do it is completely the opposite of the YouTube Editor approach. It is all about timecodes and lifting out the moments yourself... as opposed to slapping together Gord-determined chunks.
Offline was the approach I used to create a previous video I'd shared with you, "Nuclear Power - Visions of the Future ".
If you run Win10 but don't own video editing software, you can simply wait until the upcoming 2017 "creators" update to Win10 and Microsoft will provide a free video editing tool. (Just like Apple does with iMovie for Mac.)
Free non-pro tools are better suited for using chunks. Offline editing is way easier to trim those chunks down as needed, so there's absolutely no need to shell out for expensive editing software just to navigate 6.5h of video.
My still-to-do on offline editing, is to provide music-less track so that there's no jarring music issues because of cutting between music or in/out of a music.
Also the spreadsheet ought to be searchable by indexed topics rather than strictly by dialog.
And, for people with nothing but tablets and phones (which do not support YTE), it will eventually be possible to assemble chunks using whatever video tools they support, such as iMovie on iPhones and iPads. You can do that today using Dropbox (to download the clips) and iMovie (to edit them)... if you own a super-fancy device with tons of storage. I need to create lower bit-rate chunks to support everyday tablet/phone owners... is also on my to-do list.
But I need to finish something else first...
Improving YTE's Online Editing
The importance of YouTube Editor is that there's no barrier to entry. Even if the created videos are limited to 1-hour, it is still how I expect most viral content will be created. Simply asking people to download an MP4 is friction, where-as YouTube Editor is a single click away.
YouTube Editor: https://www.youtube.com/editor
TR2016 Chunks: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuGiwaUJYEZfNHZR1AUmMYoASGWBroXMM
...that is everything I used to create "Thorium Debunked".
To make YTE more versatile, we need smaller video pieces. (Because the challenge is in the cutting and trimming, and not in the assembling.)
This is NOT yet public (is UNLISTED) "THORIUM REMIX 2016 - Atoms"...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuGiwaUJYEZdPnw7H6fgTIWa5s9okLZrd
...you can see I'm still populating it. That is what I'm working on. It is going to take a while.
Had this been finished my test-project THORIUM DEBUNKED would have been easy to do... or so I expect. I'll try another test project once all the atom-sized-clips are available.
You'll notice the atom-size naming convention is a mess. It is all a mess... the "chunks" were once like that too, but I waited until I had it all sorted out before sharing with you.
If you wanted to make a 50m video, you will not need to assemble 50-odd atom-videos... hopefully a couple "chunks" exists to meet most of your needs, and these "atoms" are just here to help you avoid finicky edits at the starting or ending of your project. (Or bridge-moments between topics.)
Like if you want to pay for a coffee, you don't pay for it all in just nickels and dimes. (Maybe that is a stupid metaphor? I'm struggling with a metaphor on this.)
One the Atoms are all done, I believe anyone will be able to create a truly great viral video of "THORIUM DEBUNKED" quality in a couple hours... really just double the length of the final project and that's all it should take of your time to create it.
That will require all the Atoms to be indexed, my Spreadsheet to be fully updated with Atom video URLs, and... a video tutorial on how to use the Sheet in conjunction with YTE.
But once that's done I think this information will propagate without being bottlenecked by my own time constraints. (Or by my own creativity.)
Already TR2016 6.5h is seeing very different (better!) propagation than TR2016 2h... I don't yet have data to understand what & why, but I'll share details once I understand the difference.
YouTube Playlists
And if you want to compile Chunks together without even messing around with YouTube Editor, you can always make a simple YouTube Playlist.
You don't even need Adobe Flash to do that- Playlists can be compiled using any YouTube browser-based client.
No editing or tweaking there... chunks are chunks. (When atoms are available there'll be more versatility to playlists too.)
And remember when sharing video URLs that deep-links are still a thing... even if you choose to share a single chunk of TR2016, it can be a moment inside that chunk.
Like with this deep-link to Dr. Helen Caldicott diagnosing George Monbiot as having "either a cerebral tumor or a psychotic breakdown". https://youtu.be/2vr7QmbSZZ8?t=9m49s
Eventually that will be a stand-alone (atom) YouTube URL, but until then, deep-links are handy for sharing moments.
Making YTE More Useful
The 33 TR2016 chunks are only the first stage of video assets.
I'm working on what will be hundreds of "atom" clips of very short lengths. (All the timecodes for these will go into Google Spreadsheet.)
I'll export full-length music-free audio.
Then I'll try export the timecodes from Google Spreadsheet and use some sort of FFMPEG command-line to automatically re-generate chunks and atoms that are music-free. (If I can figure that out. Don't want to re-do Atoms manually.)
That's my to-do. You won't get another update for a while, and when you do I hope to have Atoms finished and another creative exercise completed so I understand exactly how hard/easy I've made remixing for everyone.
Guideline For Use
One rule! Credit KiloWatts Music.
Either hot-link to him in meta-data, and/or include music credits on-screen baked into the video. If you include my credits sequence like I kept at the end of "Thorium Debunked" that'll do the job.
I'd like it also if you credit Thorium Remix in some fashion, like with a hot-link to ThoriumRemix.com but that's up to you... people can not credit me and I'll be ok.
But music must be credited, as Jamie Watts has jumped through some particular hoops with his music labels so that I could enable online remixing, and enable independent AdSense revenue for anyone/everyone making remixes.
If there's no independent AdSense, then only Th/MSR keeners will remix. We must have financial incentive to leverage the greater existing YouTube ecosystem.
We'd all want Jamie to know we appreciate his own giving-up of AdSense revenue which would de-incentivize that Th/MSR indifferent ecosystem propagation. My request to him on that was very unusual, and that he did it is also very unusual. IMHO these assets are a special and unusual thing on YouTube.
Useful YTE Tip
It is here: http://youtube.com/editor
You could search for TR2016c to find my chunks... that's a fairly unique string of characters (with no space) included in every Chunk title. But easier to copy/paste URLs from the playlist.
You'll want multiple browser tabs open, maybe even split-screen browsing if you have a big enough monitor.
Open one tab to the chunks playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuGiwaUJYEZfNHZR1AUmMYoASGWBroXMM
And right-click , copy-link-location to get desired URL for a single chunk.
Paste that URL into YouTube Editor in the search field. A single video thumbnail will be returned as a result.
For chunks that might be easier for you to navigate than 33 thumbnails.
Certainly, for atomic-size videos (in the hundreds) this approach will be essential for navigation.
Productively constructing videos using YTE from chunks & atoms (once all atoms are done) will definitely be easier with some browser tabs dedicated to video indexes, and copy/pasting video URLs into that YTE search field... that really is the trick to finding the pieces you need.
THORIUM DEBUNKED - Why?
I wanted to strip out all references to space exploration, and target the most skeptical who'd already decided nuclear is stupid and are only looking for reasons to justify their existing beliefs.
I had a video in "Th" series called "Nuclear Disasters and Coolants" which once performed pretty well in this regard. This is me taking another stab at it, and occupying another likely search term.
The political analog for this is a "demotivational video". Such an approach was used by the Trump campaign to target African-American Hillary Clinton supporters by featuring her "super-predator" comments. The point was not to get anyone to vote for Trump, but rather to keep likely Hilary voters from bothering to vote.
(I know that's just 1 tiny aspect of 2016 election, but there's a million tiny aspects... lets learn from them all. I'd like to demotivate anti-nuclear protesters.)
I know if you are pro-PWR (as I am liking AP1000 and hating to see premature PWR retirements) the listing of water-as-coolant concerns might be off-putting.
Never-the-less, that's a message which will resonate with people already concerned about nuclear power. Those are the folks who will be looking for a video called "THORIUM DEBUNKED".
So I acknowledge scared-of-nukes concerns, show them their concerns can be addressed, and just get them thinking about what fission actually is without the sky-is-falling tone of a Caldicott.
More Uses of MP4s
Oh, and those chunks (and any atoms available already) can all be uploaded to new platforms as you see fit. Twitter. Facebook. Uh... whatever the kids are using these days.
I'm too busy to do that, so please feel free to grab the Google Drive MP4s and re-upload them elsewhere! Even re-upload them back to YouTube, if that's is somehow easier for you than using YouTube Editor.
A transcript of the entire TR2016 can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/119m16JAKZIXbW3rtiI193s7PCpmDh7Q5kChhh7OPBsE/pub
...copy/paste chunks from that as needed, if you want to caption your own video creations using any video hosting tools auto-caption feature.
And remember the whole TR2016 indexing spreadsheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1polwEZy7i86irlLTbtt7McCwXSYzG4NrS73po0u2Yx8/pubhtml#