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hey, thanks

I’m fairly down in the dumps tonight and I miss my dad horribly—can’t really tell where the stress ends and the grief begins and every other messy bit of mess that goes along with being human intersects—but I went back and read the comments on my video about vidcon and my dad’s passing and I still am completely moved to tears every time I read all the kind things people have said to me since that very rubbish news. It was funny watching The One Show earlier (Lex had a small appearance) because it once again confirmed to me that lots of people really don’t “get” it, this lovely community and interactivity between people connected in seconds to people in places thousands of miles away (or just down the street, still magical to me!). I don’t think that’s reason to shut them out, I’d love it if they all “got” it, but goodness, it really is something special and I just wanted to reiterate my gratitude for the lovely things you’ve done.

I’m partly sad because I opened one of my favourite books about Shakespeare, James Shapiro’s 1599 which looks closely at the year it’s suspected Shakespeare penned Hamlet and is really interesting and readable. My dad gave me that book maybe three or four years ago and when I opened it up today it had a pad of post-its inside it full of his trademark tiny handwriting, impossible to decipher save the odd word. I suppose one day I’ll be glad to find those things but for now it feels like a slap in the face rather than a comfort.

Oh and I’ve started planning my Project for Awesome video. Woo :) But I should really concentrate on my coursework. Augh! Final year is proving very difficult.

Anyway, I wanted to say thanks again.

Today’s the four month line. It’s harder than I thought it would be probably because I’m really burnt out at the moment, I don’t think I’ve slept for more than three/four hours in over a fortnight. I like this particular video (originally cinefilm) a lot. It’s me, small fat and toddling (look at how blonde I was), my dad, mum, sisters and the two bunnies my sisters used to own (brownie and whitey! Guess what colours they were…).  I think you’ll be seeing more of this video in my p4a video this year, which I am slowly slowly editing together. Have any of you started working on your p4a videos?

Today’s the four month line. It’s harder than I thought it would be probably because I’m really burnt out at the moment, I don’t think I’ve slept for more than three/four hours in over a fortnight. I like this particular video (originally cinefilm) a lot. It’s me, small fat and toddling (look at how blonde I was), my dad, mum, sisters and the two bunnies my sisters used to own (brownie and whitey! Guess what colours they were…).  I think you’ll be seeing more of this video in my p4a video this year, which I am slowly slowly editing together. Have any of you started working on your p4a videos?

Consider yourself warned. I’d like to note that the version Kristina saw was far far far less depressing than the four versions I’d made before it! But it’s great to have friends whose feedback you can trust so I enlisted Kristina as official previewer. Now I’ve exported the final version and it’s sitting in my “films” folder ready for Saturday. I think this is the first year I’ve been ready for p4a in such good time, normally I’m editing frantically up until five minutes before I have to upload it. How are your Project for Awesome videos going?

Consider yourself warned. I’d like to note that the version Kristina saw was far far far less depressing than the four versions I’d made before it! But it’s great to have friends whose feedback you can trust so I enlisted Kristina as official previewer. Now I’ve exported the final version and it’s sitting in my “films” folder ready for Saturday.

I think this is the first year I’ve been ready for p4a in such good time, normally I’m editing frantically up until five minutes before I have to upload it.

How are your Project for Awesome videos going?

Hmm, here are my tips: Be specific. That is, choose a specific charity or specific cause, preferably one you feel strongly about for a specific reason. For example, one of my earliest p4a vids was for The Whaleman Foundation and the Save the Whales Again campaign because I was shocked by Japanese whaling practices. The specificity might also have to do with the solution, e.g. I also supported onewater in a p4a video because I thought the playpumps bought with proceeds from buying a bottle of onewater were a clever and fun way to bring water to communities, giving younger members of the community a thing to play on that also serves an essential social function. Being as specific as possible will help you to… Be as clear and confident as you can. If you sound a bit confused or doubtful about whatever it is you’re talking about, your audience will pick up on that. Don’t stress out about it but I do think it’s important to both understand and believe what you are saying! If you’re having trouble coming up with or choosing between charities, give the lesser known charities a chance: sometimes they are the ones who take the most innovative and creative steps and sometimes they can need the most support. There are some really great charities out there, as no doubt we’ll see for the fourth (is that right?) year running this weekend — from last year, Film Aid sticks out as an original, interesting and effective charity I first heard about through Molly’s p4a video on Rocketboom. Give yourself time to research the charity you decide on. Look at current campaigns, any research they, the WHO or whoever else have published on how many people are affected by the problem they are trying to solve (again, be specific). If they have a page with information about how you can help, do they have any non-monetary donation suggestions? Kristina made a Save the Children video last year in which she spoke about the importance of warm hats for newborn babies and the hat-knitting campaign Save ran. Do they have a breakdown of where their money goes or of, say, how a £30 donation can help someone? Keep it fairly short! I know this sounds impossible after I’ve said “DO ALL THE RESEARCH” but pick the most important information and find a way of presenting it that’s true to yourself (i.e. it can equally be highly edited and all in one take). I’d say keeping it under three minutes is a good aim — this year I believe my video is about 1m45s. If you can get in touch with anyone from the organisation to ask questions or even for a little video interview within the video, that’s great, but if you can’t that’s totally fine as well — their website will probably have all of the information you need. Start making it today or tomorrow so you can finish it, step away from it, sleep on it and look back at it with fresh eyes. Or ask your friends to preview it (IRL or via mediafire or whatever) to make sure you’re being as clear as can be. Both in the video if possible and in the description bar put the name of the charity, their website and how you can help/donate. Also put the name of the charity in the title of your video! Once you have uploaded your video at 12 noon EST on Saturday 17th December, watch, comment and thumbs up other people’s p4a videos like mad. I’ve invited Marion, Lex and Kayley over for a p4a party and we are going to drink mulled wine, eat mince pies and watch hundreds of videos. I hope this was helpful, I’m sure projectforawesome.com has some really helpful suggestions (and of course, thumbnails)! Although I have been on Tumblr on my phone for the past 20 minutes instead of reading Salvage the Bones, it’s okay as this is for charity. That is my reasoning and I’m sticking to it. Feel free to leave further p4a questions in my /ask if you like.

Hmm, here are my tips:

  1. Be specific. That is, choose a specific charity or specific cause, preferably one you feel strongly about for a specific reason. For example, one of my earliest p4a vids was for The Whaleman Foundation and the Save the Whales Again campaign because I was shocked by Japanese whaling practices. The specificity might also have to do with the solution, e.g. I also supported onewater in a p4a video because I thought the playpumps bought with proceeds from buying a bottle of onewater were a clever and fun way to bring water to communities, giving younger members of the community a thing to play on that also serves an essential social function. Being as specific as possible will help you to…
  2. Be as clear and confident as you can. If you sound a bit confused or doubtful about whatever it is you’re talking about, your audience will pick up on that. Don’t stress out about it but I do think it’s important to both understand and believe what you are saying!
  3. If you’re having trouble coming up with or choosing between charities, give the lesser known charities a chance: sometimes they are the ones who take the most innovative and creative steps and sometimes they can need the most support. There are some really great charities out there, as no doubt we’ll see for the fourth (is that right?) year running this weekend — from last year, Film Aid sticks out as an original, interesting and effective charity I first heard about through Molly’s p4a video on Rocketboom.
  4. Give yourself time to research the charity you decide on. Look at current campaigns, any research they, the WHO or whoever else have published on how many people are affected by the problem they are trying to solve (again, be specific). If they have a page with information about how you can help, do they have any non-monetary donation suggestions? Kristina made a Save the Children video last year in which she spoke about the importance of warm hats for newborn babies and the hat-knitting campaign Save ran. Do they have a breakdown of where their money goes or of, say, how a £30 donation can help someone?
  5. Keep it fairly short! I know this sounds impossible after I’ve said “DO ALL THE RESEARCH” but pick the most important information and find a way of presenting it that’s true to yourself (i.e. it can equally be highly edited and all in one take). I’d say keeping it under three minutes is a good aim — this year I believe my video is about 1m45s.
  6. If you can get in touch with anyone from the organisation to ask questions or even for a little video interview within the video, that’s great, but if you can’t that’s totally fine as well — their website will probably have all of the information you need.
  7. Start making it today or tomorrow so you can finish it, step away from it, sleep on it and look back at it with fresh eyes. Or ask your friends to preview it (IRL or via mediafire or whatever) to make sure you’re being as clear as can be.
  8. Both in the video if possible and in the description bar put the name of the charity, their website and how you can help/donate. Also put the name of the charity in the title of your video!
  9. Once you have uploaded your video at 12 noon EST on Saturday 17th December, watch, comment and thumbs up other people’s p4a videos like mad. I’ve invited Marion, Lex and Kayley over for a p4a party and we are going to drink mulled wine, eat mince pies and watch hundreds of videos.

I hope this was helpful, I’m sure projectforawesome.com has some really helpful suggestions (and of course, thumbnails)! Although I have been on Tumblr on my phone for the past 20 minutes instead of reading Salvage the Bones, it’s okay as this is for charity. That is my reasoning and I’m sticking to it. Feel free to leave further p4a questions in my /ask if you like.

The Project for Awesome hasn’t even officially started yet and I’m already crying. DAMNIT KAYLEY.

Project for Awesome timezone situation

Good morning everyone, it’s my favourite weekend in the YouTube year! For an outline of P4A logistics, watch Hank’s video.

It took me longer than it should have to work out what 12 noon EST is GMT.

Vague P4A upload time cheat sheet:

British/GMT: 5pm
Paris/Amsterdam/Barcelona/Brussels/Vienna/lots of places: 6pm
Athens/Cape Town/Johannesburg: 7pm
Addis Ababa: 8pm
Singapore/Manila: 1am
Melbourne/Sydney: 4am
Wellington: 6am


 

Donate securely here: http://www.justgiving.com/rosianna
The Stroke Association: http://www.stroke.org.uk/
Project For Awesome: http://www.projectforawesome.com/

Music is “Fireflies of Montreal” by Laurena, whose other songs you can find here: http://youtube.com/lullation13 and on iTunes: http://dft.ba/permafrost — my dad always used to tell us about his holiday in Montreal, where he went when he was my age, so I thought this was quite appropriate.

I was very nearly going to support Macmillan this year because their nurses helped my dad out in his last 90 hours, made sure he was as comfortable as he could be and also supported my sisters and mum, which was very good to know as it was difficult to not be there. He didn’t even have cancer and they helped him. I can’t really put into words how much gratitude I feel towards them. This video from YouTube user MillionMilesAnHour lets you know a little more about the charity’s goals and work.

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/

ChildHelp:
http://www.childhelp.org/

Statistics:
http://www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics
(Note that 5 children die every day due to abuse, which may be from stress/job loss because of the recession.)

Child Abuse Definitions and Signs:
http://www.childhelp.org/page/-/pdfs/Child-Abuse-Definitions.pdf
(If you do nothing else with this video, read this PDF.)

We’re currently spamwowing this video but I think it’s also extremely important that you watch it, like it and favourite for the sake of helping to protect every single child and recognise the signs of abuse.

A terrific video about Habitat for Humanity in which you get to really see the construction process!

I really really cannot thank you enough.

I really really cannot thank you enough.

I have a lot of love for Parkinson’s UK, it’s a terrific charity. I also love the amazing energy of this vlogger!

http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/about_us.aspx

One of the bravest videos I’ve seen this weekend. Please go to the video, watch it all the way through and then comment, like, favourite, share etc.

http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/

http://www.b-eat.co.uk/

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