When I decided to put Make a Move out myself, eBooks were still the next big thing, and print was an obvious choice for me. I don’t regret that choice, and I’ll release a small print run of the next book when it’s done, but it did steer me down a path that undermined what Make a Move was meant to be. It was never supposed to be a novel – it’s six stories – but the cost equations of print forced me to squeeze it into that container, and defused some of its impact, its originality. I compromised.

I’ve never been happy about that, but now eBooks are mainstream, and give me all the flexibility I need to deliver the story as it was intended, which is what I’m working on. The hard part is the pricing, but I’ve got some ideas on how to get the numbers to balance. It’s going to take some more work, and probably some time booked off my day job, but it’ll be worth it as it will free me to create book two the way it should be done. Think of this processes like when Apple released Mac OSX Snow Leopard; a re-architecture step to make what follows even better.

So what else have I been up to? Well, something strange happened about 6 months ago, when I said yes to doing something I had no real idea how to do, namely shooting a video for a local Roller Derby team (YouTube link). I said yes because I was bored and thought it’d be fun, which it was. I learned so much about shooting and editing video, and even more about recording, mixing and mastering music. That was a period of extreme creativity for me, and I loved every second. It was also a lesson in the benefits of just saying “yes” and working out the details later; as long as you can outline what you need to learn in the time available, taking risks is a great way to get fired up.

I’m really happy with the result: the music-video-speed edit, the over-compressed colour palette, the punk-rock-meets-High-School-Musical soundtrack… I think it came out great.

And so did some other people…

I was asked off the back of that to do a studio shoot for a newly formed burlesque troupe (www.burlettes.co.uk) including stills. We had no idea how to light a shoot like that, but we knew we could work it out in time, and we nailed it. We’re still editing the dances together, but the quality of the footage is something the whole team are proud of.

Another derby video shoot came up, and we were happy to do that, as this time it included interviews, so the audio recording/processing gave us another learning opportunity, and it was off the back of that shoot that we were invited to work with some local magic practitioners, shooting a street magic show on a full set of broadcast-quality gear. And this show is targeted for more than YouTube…

So what has this got to do with Make a Move? Well, everything.

I can’t work in a vacuum, creating derivative plots and characters, recycled from all of the other media I’ve consumed. I just don’t see the point. I have to live these adventures, meet these people, breathe in these places, and capture those experiences, all enhanced with a touch of fantasy to elevate the narrative beyond the limits reality can endure.

You might be surprised how much of Make a Move is based on experience…

But I have a mortgage, and a child in nursery, and a day job to support them both, and the opportunities for adventure are harder to find. So when I get a chance to explore this life, and meet new people, and create something cool, I’m going to say “yes”, and fight that nagging thought that I should be writing, knowing that the only way that I’ll write anything worth my readers’ time will be to live it first.

But that doesn’t mean that there’ll be magicians in Make a Move 2, and you might be thinking that a show about magic might be boring (it won’t, not the way we’re going to shoot it) but you have to remember the fact of which I remind myself daily:

This is only the beginning.

But rather than be negative, I’ll try to be balanced by suggesting a fix. Saying something’s “broken” is pointless commentary unless you can state, clearly and with neither emotion nor agenda, what “fixed” is.

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking on Amazon for a book on audio mixing. I’d already bought one title for my Kindle (the well-written and professionally converted Zen and the Art of Mixing by Mixerman) but I wanted something more in-depth. A friend of mine did a degree in audio engineering, and has a load of books on the subject, but they’re all over ten years old, and a lot of the technology described within has moved on to the point of being unrecognisable, so I wanted something published within the last couple of years. I found Mixing Audio – Concepts, Practices and Tools by Roey Izhaki, and it has a Kindle edition, but I decided to go for the print copy for a few of reasons:

• It was only £2.21 more than the Kindle version
• It comes with a DVD, that I then won’t have to download
• I can lend it to my friend when I’m done

The second point is just laziness on my part, but the first and third could have been predicted and negated by the publisher. The point about lending is a contentious one, as legally, I’ve bought the book for personal use, and don’t pay the publisher for lending rights. Fair enough, but it’s a bit… backwards. Many software programs allow you multiple installs within certain, fair, scenarios. I’m thinking of audio plugins from Stillwell and Cytomic, but that’s just where I’m at right now. Other, much larger, companies are moving to the same kind of thinking. And that got me thinking.

I’ve bought books that teach software or technology, read them, and each time a new version of the product is released, I’ve just read up on the changes from the website; I’ll never buy a new release of that book again. But eBooks, in their simplest form, are software. You don’t buy a full license each time a new version is released; you buy a much cheaper upgrade. And you always buy it, because you like software, and you want the latest and greatest.

I ordered the Roey Izhaki book, and I’m reading it now, but once I’ve read it, I’ll never buy a subsequent edition. It’s too expensive for the 20%-or-so of updated content you’d get in that full-price printed book. If the eBook came with updates – new editions at discounted prices to the owners of previous versions, as confirmed by your Amazon purchase history, I’d have bought it. I’d have bought it because the eBook, even at the same price, offered better long-term value. Never mind colour, or video, or embedded sounds (I can download them from the website once I pull my finger out…) upgrades to content that becomes quickly outdated are a serious value-add, at little cost to the publisher, that don’t impact future sales, of which there won’t be any anyway.

So that’s my suggestion for a new business model; find out how your customers want to use your products, and work with your distributor to allow them to do it, and pay you for the privilege.

Anyone Can Play Guitar

No, they can’t. As a musician, you’ll find yourself hanging out with other musicians, so you get the impression that everyone has a degree of musical talent. Most people, however, don’t. Not because they lack the raw ability, but because they lack the time, desire, or opportunity to learn. And, yes, some people will never be able to play, because their brains just aren’t good at that kind of thinking.

You tell someone you play guitar, they assume you’re good. The same is true of film-making at any level. You say you shot a roller derby video, people assume you know what you’re doing and that the end result is going to be awesome (it is, by the way – Steve). They don’t assume it’s going to suck.

You tell people you write, they assume you suck.

Not Everyone Can Write

Yes, they can. Not everyone can write well, but they can write. Most people use a computer at home or at work, so they all know their way around Word. They can use a web browser to research as well as you can. They can spell – maybe.

And this, I think, is the key to the different attitudes the three creative endeavours receive. Musicians and film-makers are seen to have technical skills that non-participants don’t, so even if the song or film is bad, it’s better than anything the unskilled observer could produce, which translates into a sympathetic view of the work. Add to that the significant financial investment in producing anything that can be played on an iPod or a DVD player, and the creatives are further elevated in perceived stature. Ignoring my computer, which I use for lots of things, my basic home recording setup – including instruments – cost over £3000, and I’m not quite done yet. My writing setup cost about £40. I could write an amazing book and record a terrible song, and the latter would still be seen as the greater achievement, as anyone can write a book, but not everyone can play guitar.

Customer Perception is Out of Our Hands

No, it’s not. Producing an eBook independently is never going to require a huge cash outlay unless you pay for professional editing, typesetting and conversion, but even if you do, that value perception won’t be increased, as readers won’t know. The book will be better for it, but readers won’t know why, or how much you spent. A professional cover designer adds visible value, but there are great designers working at all cost scales, so no help there.

But writers do have skills that non-writers don’t: namely grammar and typesetting/eBook conversion. The problem is, these skills are being aggressively devalued, and the group responsible is, well, us.

I’ve read way too many blogs/tweets stating that grammar is an evolving discipline – that it’s alive – and that as long as communication is maintained, anything goes. Anyone questioning this stance is branded a grammar Nazi (gotta love the internet) but a thorough understanding of grammar is what separates a skilled written communicator from the rest of the population that don’t understand even basic sentence construction. It’s a skill that makes our book understandable to anyone, and yet we seem hell-bent on throwing it away. Is grammatically correct prose seen as elitist? Condescending? Not to me. I think classical grammar combined with stilted writing can alienate readers with more modern tastes, but that’s just style; the underpinning grammar isn’t to blame.

Formatting an eBook isn’t easy either. Uploading a Word doc to Amazon is easy, but taking control of how your text is displayed on an eReader requires time, effort, and a steep learning curve. It’s a discipline most people would struggle with, yet it’s another skill that separates skilled eBook writers from the crowd. So why do so few independent authors try to do a proper conversion, or connect with someone who can help them? Even eBooks from my favourite mainstream authors are riddled with formatting errors, so this is one area in which a writer can elevate their standing, yet so few try.

As modern, independent writers/DIY publishers, we do have skills – skills we should be proud of – but as long as we’re happy to allow their devaluation, or to actively participate in that process, readers and outsiders will continue to look down on our independent trade while lauding others.

And right now, as a reader first and a writer second, I can’t say I blame them.

Credits

• Cameras, video editing and audio mixing – Chris Collins
• Audio recording and editing – Julie Cunningham
• Music – Theanon Wonder

• Close, or cross, your legs (one for the guys – women seem to have this down already).
• Leave your face alone.
• Speak more quickly than maybe feels comfortable.
• Encourage your interviewer to ask direct questions.
• Give direct answers.

Not that I’m not happy with the finished product – it’s been a great way to communicate some of what I feel about writing, and about Make a Move in particular – and Chris and Julie did a great job on the audio and video editing, but I’d sum up my reservations about the video with a bonus item to my top-five list:

• Have a practice run and get used to being interviewed, and then don’t upload the results to a universally accesible video hosting service.

It’s taken a while to finish (hence the lack of posting recently) but it was our first attempt at making a video, so we were learning along the way. In fact, we had such a good time working on this, we’re sifting through ideas for a short film to make over the summer (using better camera and equipment and mics next time, though…).

Credits

• Cameras, video editing and audio mixing – Chris Collins
• Audio recording and editing – Julie Cunningham
• Music – Theanon Wonder

While I was away, two friends have been working on the video and audio for an author interview we recorded a couple of weeks back. They’re in the final stages of editing, polishing and bleeping out the swearing, and the video will be online before the end of the month, so now seems a good time to share what we learned. This was our first “proper” video (as in, something more involved than an amateur wedding video) and we learned by doing. The budget extended only as far as food and beer, so renting a camera and basic lighting wasn’t an option (despite my techno-fetishistic nature trying to tell me otherwise). That left us with one main camera (recording DV to tape), two extra cameras (recording compressed MPEG2 to hard disk or flash ram), a condensor mic (recording via an audio interface to a laptop), and whatever lighting our chosen location provided.

We decided to film at Travelling Man in Manchester, after hours, for three reasons: space, the visual appeal of walls of comics as a backdrop, and lighting. We turned up as the shop was closing on a Friday, unpacked the gear, and then tried to work out what the hell we were doing.

Thing is, with modern digital editing, you can make a video look semi-professional after the fact, but you have to have good, clean, well-lit footage to start from, and it was that requirement that guided our choices on the night. I hope we succeeded (I haven’t seen the edited footage from the main camera yet), but either way, I learned 5 tips that I want to share that I know will set you off to a good start in making an interview video of your own.

The List

• Lighting. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT resource available to you. Modern video cameras, even (especially) consumer ones, are adept at trying to make your subject look good. You know when your final footage is all grainy and orange-coloured? that’s your camera fighting for light, and boosting the light levels artificially. Give the scene enough light and your camera will do the rest. You don’t have to hire lights, and you don’t have to use daylight-equivalent bulbs; just get lots of overhead lighting, and if the scene comes out too yellow-orange, colour-correct it to “cool it down” afterwards in your chosen editing software. If too much overhead lighting is causing shadows under your subject’s eyes, add some low-level lamps to fill in the dark patches.
• Makeup. Seriously. If you followed the previous point about lighting, you now have two problems: you’re sweating like a pig and the lights are reflecting off your shiny head. This is nothing a touch of face powder won’t fix. Remember – you’re not trying to change the colour of someone’s face or make it look like they’re in drag, you’re just taking the shine off.
• Camera(s). I bought a video camera about 6 years ago for about £500; it records to tape and has become completely outdated by modern camera developments. Or so I thought… Cameras that record to hard disk or flash ram typically compress the footage to fit more on. That extra recording capacity is very convenient, but the quality of the footage does suffer. It’s only a tiny amount of image degradation, but it’s noticeable, and as with all digital creative activities, it’s important to keep the data quality as high as possible for as long as possible; compress for output, not while you record. You can get a video camera for £100, but if you can stretch your budget to get one that records digital video (.dv) and has a higher quality sensor, your footage will be the better for it.
• Sound. If at all possible, don’t use the built-in mic of your video camera. It’s too far away from the subjects, it’s possibly pointing the wrong way, and it’s probably low quality. If you can afford/borrow a shotgun mic for your camera, perfect, otherwise get any half-decent mic you can, mount it near your subjects, and record the audio separately to be stitched onto the video later. To synchronise the audio with the video, get someone in front of the camera to clap their hands together at the start of each shot (make sure you can see the point their hands connect).
• Timing. Work out how long you want the unedited to footage to be (shoot lots of content to ensure you have enough material; we shot 90 minutes with a view to editing it down to one or two ten-minute videos) then double that time and add an hour. That’s how long the filming will take. Minimum. As you get more experienced, you can start to shave that extra hour off, but don’t underestimate how long you’ll need and end up rushing or missing content you wanted to film.

So there are my tips, but there’s also one warning I wanted to add:

• Framing. Don’t assume that the view you’re seeing on the fold-out screen of the camera is showing everything the camera is recording. Take some test footage, rip it to a computer, and check it carefully. I made that assumption, and objects I thought were out of shot, aren’t. For me it’s ok, but for you it might ruin all of your work.

Results

You’ll have to wait to see if what we captured came out okay (I’m interested to find out myself) but I’ll blog the video and you can see for yourself if we did a good job and if these tips are worth following.