Wow, can you believe that The Challenge (formerly The thirty Day Challenge) has come round again? Another year has flown by and the super-challenge-team have come up with an amazing new approach this year. You can check it out here – http://www.challenge.co/

If you've have ever wondered how to make money online and would like to set up a business working from home, then you'll need some guidance, top mentors and a plan. The challenge is now by far the best free training available anywhere on the planet and its run by some of the most wonderful people you could ever wish to meet. Do yourself a favour and check it out.

Of course a new challenge for me was to come up with a brand new theme song for this years challenge. With the help of family and few friends the music video to "Take My Hand" was born and the challenge had a new theme song. You can see what the song is all about in the synopsis below.

Song Synopsis:
As ever, the lyrics and sentiment are based around the whole ethos of what a challenge means to different people and how we all face different challenges of varying levels.

The video has a very show/theatre/Glee-style feel to it, starting off very sombre with a black and white visual. The opening shot is of the girl (Annie Larkin) see's her sharing her problems and how she's confused and unsure where to go and what to do from here. The manly hero (Josh Fish) comes to her rescue with "the challenge" being the solution to her problems – only to then reveal that he has similar problems too! They both unite and take the challenge together and the whole track ends with an upbeat crescendo which I hope will give people a positive attitude to get on with the challenge.

The whole "Take My Hand" theme runs throughout the song to let people know that they can achieve anything with the right guidance (the challenge course) and with other people behind them with the same goals and dreams as them.
End Of Synopsis

N.B: You might want to pause the video and let it stream down for a while if playback is a little choppy.

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Let me know if you're facing any challenges getting started online and I'll do my best to help. I'd also love to hear what you think about the music video and please click the "Like" box if you dig the tune. Please leave your comments below and I'll chat with you soon.
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Credit to the stars of the show.

A huge thank you to everyone who featured in the video from the College of West Anglia- Isle Campus. Your dedication and ability to learn a routine so fast was very impressive – Cheers. Those wonderful people are;

In Alphabetical Order
Jenna Allen, Lisa Arbon, Justyna Bartosevic, Becky Best, Hannah Boast, Katie Brown, Luke Burridge, Josh Fish, Lucy Groves, Allison Harley, Bryony Hewitt, Annie Larkin, Poppie Mason, Kayleigh Moss, Alistair Penman, Ellie Pettet, Victoria Rixon, Vicky Taylor, Richard Thompson and Toni Townsend.

The choreography was quickly put together by Michele Larkin and it was amazing to watch how quickly Michele whipped the students into shape, pulling off dance sequences in time with the track they'd just heard, for the first time only minutes before. Top-shelf Michele, your professionalism is always admired, thanks.

Thank you to my super lead stars – Annie Larkin & Josh Fish for your extra dedication during filming in the studio. You're both stars in the making.

Thank you to my super hand-holders – Delia Basuc, Eva Mason, Oscar Mason and Tony Twitchett.

A big thanks to Jack & Jo Griggs for letting me borrow Ross Griggs and stuffing him in a silver wig and blue dress. He has the best figure out of the 3 of us.

A Massive Super-Spangley (with glitter on top) thank you from the bottom of my heart to my beautiful wife and kids for putting up with me over the last few weeks. This definitely would not happen without your continued support. I Love You All – Thanks.

Music by Phill Mason
Lyrics by Katrina Mason
All Instruments by Phill Mason
All Vocals by Katrina Mason, Ross Griggs and Phill Mason

The final thanks goes to the lovely Silver – Blue beauties. Not sure who they are or where they came from, but they did sing the most wonderful backing vocals and they definitely have absolutely nothing to do with me what-so-ever, honestly, eerrrmm yup for sure, to be sure.

This beautifully delivered interview with Stephen Fry is one of the most enjoyable slices of footage I've ever had the good fortune to come across. Aside from being a life-long follower and admirer of Stephen Fry, I am continuously in awe by the way Stephen shares his views on human behaviour and the many mysteries life throws at us.

A huge thanks to Interviewer Peter Samuelson wonderfully captures Stephen's thoughts and philosophical outlook on technology, social networking, learning and how we interact with others. What is it that people like and dislike about people? Stephen explains all.

Stephen is always a pleasure to watch and listen to and I'm confident that many of my marketing and technology friends can take away a few valuable life lessons from the Genius that is Stephen Fry.

Take half an hour to relax in a comfortable chair and watch this video, I think you'll appreciate its content.

I'm fairly certain that I can safely say that cloning yourself is not an option, but there is a way that comes pretty darn close.

Outsourcing.
When I first outsourced a task back in 2007, a slight sense of fear was released as I gave away a small task from my business. If you're anything like me you know exactly what I mean. You can do everything right? and no one else could possibly do it as good as you can? Of course not, you're the boss and if you allow one tiny ounce of your business to be managed by someone else, you're ruined right? Wrong. Outsourcing is exactly what all the successful entrepreneurs have been doing for decades and it's exactly what you should be doing right now if you want to expand your business.

John Reese shoots from the hip and has never released anything that didn't do exactly what is said on the tin. I've been a client of Johns since the early "Reese Report" days and have always had excellent results using any of John's material. As soon as I saw John had a new video explaining how he gets so much done, I paid attention.

Sure he's got the fancy-pants videos, but that's because he's got Andy "Hollywood" Jenkins in the tool box and Andy sure can produce the visual stuff.

Check out John's videos here and you'll discover the eye-opening "$2 Per Hour" power formula and how the wildly successful Blue Man Group have been taking advantage of this little secret to pockets Millions of dollars every year.

Click the image below to see how cool this is.

More videos will be added over the next few days.

Following much extensive research, I took all the essential ingredients required to be able to play guitar and boiled them down into 30 high definition video guitar lessons.

You can join for free and check out the "Free Muso" guitar lessons to see if you like it. This is a great way to see if we're compatible. Do you like the way I teach and can you actually get something from it? I'm pretty confident I can have you playing within the first couple of minutes into the very first free lesson, so there's absolutely no risk on your part. Give it a go, I think you'll like it.

There is a monthly membership option an annual option and then there's the Crash Course which is called the "Course Muso" membership. This is the most intense and also the fastest learning course available.

Short and easy to digest was top of the list when I created this course, as I'm very aware of the limited time people have these days and the ability to consume short bursts of information is far easier than hour long videos that you'll most likely forget. Short and sweet visual media consumption is the order of the day and plenty of it across 30 days. Everything comes with a full 60 day money back guarantee, so you've got nothing to lose and everything to gain by giving it a try.

If you're looking for something new in 2010 and you really do want to learn to play guitar, then try Crash Course Muso because it will take you from a complete beginner to an accomplished guitarist in next to no time.

Click below to see what others are saying about the course.
http://crashcoursemuso.com/

How To Get The Best Video Format For The Web

In part one of "How To Get The Best Video Format For The Web" I spoke mainly about testing various renders from my NLE as this was goal number 1, get the best, sharpest, most colour rich render I possibly could, regardless of video format or size. For me this was an m2t file right out of Sony Vegas Pro. The colours really popped and the contrast saw the blacks looking like proper deep, dense blacks not washy greys. The m2t file was a great combination of colour saturation similar to a WMV file and the sharpness of an MP4 or M4v video, neither of which looked as good as the m2t, so decision made.

Incidentally, you can simply change the extension of an m2t file to mp4 and it'll play beautifully in your chosen MP4 player – VLC Media Player being one of my favourites.

Once a successful render had been achieved, the next phase was transcoding these mega files into a decent web size and format. The m2t files were usually somewhere between 1GB – 2GB for a 10 minute video) at 1280 x 720 x 25p and this is clearly unusable online, so time to open every transcoder/converter I had and heat up those cpu and graphics cores!

It would be easy to explain every tiny adjustment I made to each and every conversion, but you'd drop down dead of complete boredom and I'd be typing for the next couple of months. Afterall, you're reading this because you want the meat and potatoes, not the scraps, so I'm going to cut out all that crap out and give you the results first.

So Here They Are………..

The best format conversion was to an MP4 using the H.264 codec and the software that performed this miracle was – VisualHub. Sad thing is, it's Mac only and is no longer available, so if you see a copy anywhere, do yourself a favour and grab it, it'll be well worth it. Now I'm generally a PC user, but, (Ed Dale's gonna love me for this) since using a Mac I can hands down say that if they do one thing well and one thing only, its how brilliantly  they handle images. Whether they're still or moving, Mac's can toss your footage around, bend it, stretch it, mash it up and put it all back together again and still pop out a render thats far superior to anything I've experienced before.

So there you have it, an m2t to mp4 conversion via Visualhub using the H.264 codec and I have a web-ready file of around 50MB for a 720 x 400 px video.

Okay, here's what you should go and do now:-

1.   Master and render out your video to the best possible quality achievable. Disregard file size at this point, just do some tests to get the best possible colour, contrast and motion smoothness you can. You can worry about file size and web-format – see the video converters section below.

2.   When performing your tests, pick around 5 – 10 seconds of footage to test with. Don't render a 12 minute video only to find it's not what you want.

3.   If you're still unsure how others will see your videos, then view them on other devices. My Mac, PC, laptop and Plasma or LCD TV's all look different, so test and do a visual check on several screens if you can. I usually do about 5 or so different colour and sharpness renders and then burn them to a DVD so I can go to all the other screens and test. This works well for me and also allows me to see the same size video on different sized screens.

** Video Rendering Tip **: For the best quality renders, always try and keep your video aspect ratio's to multiples of 16. You can use 8 and indeed 4, but I'd recommend 16 for the best quality results. I've played around and edited video with odd screen sizes like 705 x 405px and 640 x 270px and they just have so many unwanted artifacts around the edges, especially white text, that seems to suffer quite a lot, but there was marked visual improvement when I changed the resolution to a size that was divisable by 16 like 720 x 400 or a smaller 640 x 272px (I like that uber-widescreen look on smaller videos sizes) even though 640 x 320 is more common – Pah! who likes common?

Alrighty then, techie video nerds, continue if you do so desire:

Now an mp4 video file is still not the most web-friendly format, but it was the right size and quality I was after, so I then looked at converting this into something the web would prefer like a SWF or an FLV video or similar. Here's a list of the software I tested – used – bought – borrowed – demo’d – stole – pillaged – abused – used on a mates machine etc.

I've placed them in a "converter/transcoder I found most useful" order:

1: VisualHub
2: Handbrake
3: Super ©
4: AVS Video Converter
5: Allok MPEG4 Converter
6: Prism Video Converter
7: Ultra Video Converter
8: Xilisoft FLV Converter 3

At time of writing, there was a new version 0.9.4 of Handbrake available, I used version 0.9.3 in this test, so I have not tested the new one yet, but if it stacks up to the release notes, then more improvements can be expected – Yo Mamma!

What I really like about all the software above, is the ability to change a wealth of parameters. Being able to setup up my own presets is something I really like, because it enables me to have exactly what I want for a particular project and not what someone else thinks I may want. With that said, I always try the presets first if there are any, because afterall, the creators of these software titles know what they're doing and I'm pretty certain they've tested all the options to death in order to find the best results and then made those into presets, well, that's at least what we're hoping they've done.

It was soon obvious that not all presets did what they said on the tin. The only real way to find out was to test all the ones that came close to my desired outcome. This would also be an easy way for me to tweak some settings afterwards and save my own presets based on the originals. I've found this to be the best practice throughout most of my tests.

After choosing my desired video resolution and frame rate, video kbps and audio sample rate and bitrate, it was then a case of finding out which video rendering engine performed the best with my large m2t file. Now the footage I used for most of my testing was my video guitar course, which is a tuition based video course that teaches you how to learn to play guitar. Now 99% of the footage is fairly static, single shot, straight on to camera, so there's no great movement involved which is great as this really tests the rendering engine because when you're testing with both high and low level motion within a video, it's more difficult to be subjective to the quality of the render as you always have the added variable of the amount of motion within the video. With this taken away from the equation, I was able to achieve more accurate results in my low-motion tutorial video.

I began testing to see how many kilobits I could get away with, ie, what's the lowest kbps (kilobits per second) I can use and still achieve excellent quality, no pixelation, smooth transitions all with a small file size. Most of us know that video compressed for online use is always a bit of a trade off between 2 main factors – quality verses file size. Once again this is where the amount of motion and transitions in your footage come into play, if there's less visual data in a scene, then the bitrate can be lower – another decision to make when choosing between variable or constant bitrate.

Anyhow, I found, (as with most types on online video), 768kbps to be an ideal bitrate for streaming video from a server to the client. On Crash Course Muso (my online guitar course) I chose to display a 720 x 400 MP4 video size via EZS3.com who convert my MP4 into flash video and wrap it up in a nice video player. You will need an Amazon S3 account if you want to use this facility, but given that it's dirt cheap and a great secure video host, I'd recommend you do that anyway if you're considering distributing any amount of media across the world wide web. Another option is new-comer "Easy Video Player" who offer a similar video content management interface but with a one-time payment only as apposed to EZS3's monthly plan. They both look pretty similar so although I haven't yet checked out Easy Video Player I will do so within the next few weeks and most likely write about it at some point.

Soooooo, there's a couple of possible distribution ideas for you, now all you need to do is convert your video the best format for the web you possibly can and to upload it. Well you already know that my huge m2t video was way too big to consider uploading, which is why I made my master video – an MP4 with a 768kbps cap limit in Visualhub. This gave me something usable to use as a master to upload to the net.

Youtube likes 720p MP4's, so does Facebook and pretty much all other video sharing sites, so using an MP4 as your master gets pretty good results all round. It's also worth mentioning that Youtube converts better with a 30 frames per second video. I've done a couple of test on this and I think it's less relevant these days, perhaps a couple of years ago when their conversion were terrible, but to be honest, now they're pretty good and with the introduction of 1080p, its only going to get better – at last. Anyway, that's all fine and dandy for video sharing sites as they are converting/hosting for you, but what if you are wanting to put that wonderful MP4 on your own website?

Which Format To Put On Your Own Website
Well, that's where the converters come in. I love using "Super" for that. It can chuck out just about all the likely formats you'll ever need for the web and I'm currently using it to make some nice video banners for my Crash Course Muso affiliates and it's converting either my m2t or MP4 files nicely into SWF (Flash) video files to easily use across the web.

PC Users – Use Super or Handbrake
Mac Users – Use – Handbrake (MP4 & MKV Containers only) – (if you can't find VisualHub)

With the above said, if you do use a service like EZS3.com then there's no need to convert your MP4, you can simply just upload it and they'll do that for you behind the scenes. All you need to do is upload it and choose a few player options and you'll be given some neatly packaged code you can drop right into your website, blog or anything els you can drop code into!!

So To Summarize:
** Just as a quick note. If you can render directly to a decent MP4 from your NLE and you're happy with the results, great, do that. There's no need to go through all this converting jazz if your MP4's sparkle right from the outset, but mine didn't, they looked washed out, hence the slightly long post.

• Render out the shinest, squeakiest,  video file you can – with lots of rich colours and contrast from your NLE.
  
• Convert to an MP4 for your master video.
  
• Upload it to a sharing site and let them transcode it.
  
• Convert yourself using your preferred software or one of the above software converters listed above – (with a sensible kbps limit for streaming)
  

Don't forget to save or write down your settings. After a laborious testing session you don't want to go through all that again next time you're making a movie masterpiece

The above should give you a decent looking quality video at a reasonable file size for use across the web. I hope you managed to find something useful in this post and please let me know your video transcoding and encoding results in the comments – thanks.

Encoding or Transcoding – what do they mean and which is best?

It's a question that's been asked many, many time before – What's the best video encoding format that provides the best results for the web? This is something I've spent countless hours of research on and continue to develop over time. As the internet changes so indeed do the steps required to ensure decent encoding results online.

For ages the battle of file size vs quality has always caused issues when streaming high definition video online. For many, watching such a high bit rate video online is still not possible due to the extremely poor bandwidth so many people still experience from their so called 2mb, 4mb or even 8mb and 16mb broadband connections. I'm one of those people who live in sticks and my broadband connection is rubbish. (Personal Gripe Coming Up). It annoys me why I have pay the same monthly tarrif as someone who lives in town whos getting a cracking 8mb connection, whilst I'm just a measly 4 miles from the local phone exchange, yet I rarely crack 1mb download speed. My phone call quality is the same as it is in town, so why shouldn't my broadband be? Should be based on a pay per bandwidth-quality type thingy, I'd gladly pay top dollar for a 16Mbit connection any day of the week, but I do seriously grudge paying for something I'm not getting! (Ok, rant over – sorry about that).

Anyway, back to encoding video. I wont bore you to death with results and figures of every single render I've done over the last 6 months, but I will try to share with you what I found to be a winning workflow combination and I hope you can take something from it and save yourself a headache and a shed-load of time! During my tests I reckon I've rendered close to 300  videos, in 7 various formats and transcoded them testing around 10 or so different pieces of software, so some serious painful testing time Here goes…..

I use a Panasonic HVX200 camera for most of my shoots and usually capture in 720pn with a frame rate of 24fps. This combination works really well for me as it allows for sensible recording times across my P2 cards and reasonable HD size image for DVD and or web distribution. Dropping the Panasonic MXF files into Vegas via the DVFilm codec is a nice, quick and easy workflow. I can dump 32 GB of HD video into my NLE and be ready to edit inside around 8 to 10 minutes. I couldn't go back to DV tape now – a 1hour tape meant 1 hour to get it into your computer. Ouch!

I tried so many different output renders from my NLE (Sony Vegas) that it was sending me round the twist trying to come up with the ideal solution for each format. I found my best result was to render out the best looking, most colourful, high contrast version I could possibly achieve and then use a video converter to transcode the video file into the formats I required depending on the videos final destination.

I rendered out some test videos from Vegas as MP4, MPEG 1, MPEG 2, WMV, AVI, M2t and MOV. They all produced vastly different results depending on several video content factors. Movement and transitions in my guitar tutorial videos were minimal, but I still experienced some choppy pixelation across large blocks of a single colour when rendering to the likes of MPEG 1, MPEG 2 and MOV. I wanted to test as many formats as possible to try and find a happy medium between file size and quality. I also filmed in front of a green screen for my teaching videos, so I had edge artifacts, lighting and colour correction to deal with throughout the video.

Here's a screen grab of a before and after the chroma key. There is quite a bit of colour correction and contrast adjustment applied to enable rich, deep blacks and a smooth keying out the screen.
Below is the Original Raw Image

Below is the finished image with Chroma Keying, Colour Correction and increased Contrast with a smidge of Sharpening.

I'm really pleased with the results I'm seeing on my screen and I hope it looks okay for you guys too? You can clearly see an increased contrast between the two images as the black t-shirt pops nicely in the rendered image, but what is interesting is that the skin tone has barely changed between the two images, yet it looks bucket-loads richer in the bottom image. I reduced a little of the red highlights from the face and that was about it . This is because when the blacks are truly black and not a washed-out grey/black like in the raw image, the colours really pop ten-fold and a perceived saturation in all other colours start to appear.

I could continue for another 10 or 20 paragraphs or so, but this post is already long enough. I'll post Part 2 very soon and discuss the final format  I mastered to, what software I used and how I converted the mastered videos into top quality and sensibly sized formats for web distribution.

Bye for now!

This is for anyone who’s performed on a stage and has had the privilege of the wonderful general public lending a helping hand. Not my words, but just too good not to share Enjoy!

How To Request A Song From The Band

When requesting a song from the band, just say "play my song!" We have chips implanted in our heads with an unlimited database of the favorite tunes of every patron who ever walked into a bar and all songs ever recorded, so feel free to be vague, we love the challenge. If we say we really don’t remember that tune you want, we’re only kidding. Bands do know every song ever recorded, so keep humming. Hum harder if need be… it helps jog the memory, or just repeat your request over and over again.

If a band tells you they do not know a song you want to hear, they either forgot they know the tune or they are just putting you on. Try singing a few words for the band. Any words will do. It also helps to scream your request from across the room several times per set followed by the phrases, "AW COME ON!" and, "YOU SUCK!" Exaggerated hand gestures expressing disapproval from the dance floor are a big help as well, such as the thumbs down or your middle finger up. Put-downs are the best way to jog a band’s memory. This instantly promotes you to the status of "Personal Friend of the Band." You can bet your request will be the next song we play.

Entertainers are notorious fakers and jokesters and never really prepare for their shows. They simply walk on stage with no prior thought as to what they will do once they arrive. We don’t actually make set lists or rehearse songs. We mostly just wait for you to yell something out, then fake it.

An entertainer’s job is so easy, even a monkey could do it, so don’t let them off the hook easily. Your request is all that matters. Once you’ve figured out what genre of music the band plays, please make your requests from a totally different genre. The more exaggerated the better. If it’s a blues band playing, yell for some Metallica or Slayer or Pantera. Likewise, if it’s a death- speed metal band, be sure to request Brown-Eyed Girl or some Grateful Dead. Musicians need to constantly broaden their musical horizons, and it’s your job to see that it happens….immediately.

”TALKING WITH THE BAND”

The best time to discuss anything with the band in any meaningful way is at the middle of a song when all band members are singing at the same time. Our hearing is so advanced that we can pick out your tiny voice from the megawatt wall of sound blasting all around us. And we can converse with you in sign language while singing the song, so don’t worry that we’re in the middle of the chorus.

Musicians are expert lip readers too. If a musician does not reply to your question or comment during a song, it’s because they didn’t get a good look at your mouth in order to read your lips. Simply continue to scream your request and be sure to over emphasize the words with your lips. This helps immensely. Don’t be fooled. Singers have an innate ability to answer questions and sing at the same time. If the singer doesn’t answer your questions immediately, regardless of how stupid the question may seem, it’s because they are purposely ignoring you. If this happens, immediately cop an attitude. We love this.

”IMPORTANT”

When an entertainer leans over to hear you better, grab his or her head in both hands and yell directly into their ear, while holding their head securely so they cannot pull away. This will be taken as an invitation to a friendly and playful game of tug of war between their head and your hands. Don’t give up! Hang on until the singer or guitar player submits. Drummers are often safe from this fun game since they usually sit in the back, protected by the guitar players. Keyboard players are protected by their instrument and only play the game when tricked into coming from behind their keyboards. Though difficult to get them to play, it’s not impossible, so keep trying. They’re especially vulnerable during the breaks between songs.

”HELPING THE BAND”

If you inform the band that you are a singer, the band will appreciate your help with the next few tunes, or however long you can remain standing on stage. If you’re too drunk to stand unassisted, simply lean on one of the band members or the most expensive piece of equipment you see. Just pretend you’re in a Karaoke bar. Simply feel free to walk up on stage and join in. By the way, the drunker you are, the better you sound, and the louder you should sing. If by chance you fall off the stage, be sure to crawl back up and attempt to sing harmony. Keep in mind that nothing assists the band more than outrageous dancing, fifth and sixth part harmonies, or a tambourine played on one and three and out of tempo. Try the cowbell; they love the challenge. The band always needs the help and will take this as a compliment.

Finally, the microphone and PA system are merely props, they don’t really amplify your voice, so when you grab the microphone out of the singer’s hand be sure to scream into it at the top of your lungs, otherwise no one will hear what a great singer you are. Hearing is over-rated anyhow. The crowd and the sound guy will love you for it.

”BONUS TIP”

As a last resort, wait until the band takes a break and then get on stage and start playing their instruments. They love this. Even if you are ejected from the club, you can rest assured in the fact you have successfully completed your audition. The band will call you immediately the following day to offer you a position.

This is so true it’s just not funny. I hope you enjoyed the read, please share, thank you.

Can you believe another year has breezed past and here we are again at the beginning of August 2009 and that means only one thing, it’s Thirty Day Challenge time!

This years Theme Song Music Video sees a collaboration of people from all over the globe and to celebrate this, I have made a High definition version available for download. Now as many of you may know, the 30DC and all it stands for is Free and the training is absolutely amazing this year – best ever.

So why the paid download? Well, to keep in keeping with the 30DC’s preferred charity, we want to give a little back and help those less fortunate than us, so all proceeds from the Video and Audio downloads will be donated to the Kiva charity and this is how you can help.

We’re keeping it really simple – $2 for the HD Video and $1 for the MP3 Audio.

Simple click the "Buy Now" button and you can securely pay with your credit card via Paypal. It’s been suggested that I include a "Donate" button for those who can afford it and would like do donate additional contributions to the Kiva charity. There’s no download attached to the "Donate" button, it’s simply that a donation. If you want the Video or Audio, please click the relevant "Buy Now" button for each, thanks.

Donations Only	30DC HD MP4 Video	30 DC MP3 Audio

As soon as you’ve paid for your item, click on "Return To Merchant" on the successful payment page and your download window will automatically popup and begin.

I hope you enjoy watching the video as much as I did making it and if we can make a small difference in someone’s life, then it’s been well worth while, thank you.

Thirty Day Challenge Music Video 2009

30DC Theme Song, Lyrics & Chords Now Available For Download

Hey gang, it’s finally time to get busy with your video and audio creations for this years Thirty Day Challenge Theme Song Music Video. The 1st notepad mix of the song is available for you to use as a guide so you can record yourself singing parts, playing along or miming the song and then submit your parts to us, so we can include you in this years video collaboration. There is also an MP3 available of just the backing track, without the vocals on, so you can really go to town.

How To Record Your Content For The 30DC Music Video

How To Record Your Content For The 30DC Music Video

This audio below is not a final mixed version and I’m always super apprehensive about releasing this kind of unfinished work to the public, but of course this year is different as it will have you guys mixed into the track also. Some of you will want to actually play musical parts whilst some of you will want to mime, either is cool with us and we welcome all suggestions. Be as creative as possible with your video ideas and please do read and digest the lyrics as the message in the lyrics portrays what we as a team want to achieve by taking the 30 Day Challenge.

Here is a draft mix of this years 30 Day Challenge Theme Song so you can learn how the track goes – right click and "Save As" to download – enjoy.

Thirty Day Challenge Theme Song 2009 – Full Track- MP3 Audio.

Once you’ve got use to the full track above, you may find the MP3 below really useful! Its just the backing track without any vocals.

Thirty Day Challenge Theme Song 2009 – Music Only – MP3 Audio.

Additional Info Below For The 30DC Dancers

Hey guys and gals, we made the video below last night to give some suggestions for possible dance moves for the music video. Feel free to take from it what you want, do more, do less, but hopefully it will give those of your who said you’d like to dance in a group, a little inspiration – have fun.

30DC Dance Ideas

We now basically have an entire band on board a few times over – guitarists, drummers, bassists, piano and keyboard players, a few classical players and a handful of singers. As well as some great vocal talent on board, we also have a couple of groups of singers, some dancers and people who will hold up placards with messages and lyrics on throughout the video – great! The creative ideas floating around have been amazing and I can’t wait to try and fit it all in the video, (cue 10 min album track).
 
The 30DC Theme Song is in the early writing stages, I have a couple of notepad ideas roughly recorded but I need your help before I go too much further. The song needs to be uplifting, inspirational, melodic, memorable and toe-tappingly groovy.
 
The lyrics – the vocal hook. I would like you to get your thinking caps on and ask anyone and everyone you know who’s been involved with the 30DC to come up with a lyric or a line that sums up the 30DC. What is it all about? What does it mean? How does it make you feel? Can you sum up the Thirty Day Challenge in one line that will work well in a song?
 
You see singing the lyric "Thirty Day Challenge" is not exactly the most satisfying lyric to sing and I reckon we can come up with something more catchy that could be influential in more ways then one.
 
If like me, you’re sick of hearing Tina Turners – "Simply The Best" at every conference you attend as the "Go Get Em" theme, then lets try and replace it with with the 30DC 2009 song. How many times have you heard James Brown’s "I Feel Good" play in a film or TV advert? About a Gazillion (big number) I imagine, because it has a great vocal hook and a brilliant lyrical message.
 
Can it be done? Is the "30DC 2009 Theme Song Collaboration team" up to the challenge? Please comment below.
 
Below are a couple of common questions I’ve been asked:
 
So what happens next?
Once we’ve got the magical lyric, I will form the song around it – and at that point I will be able to start to give parts of the song out for players/singers/dancers to learn, rehearse, practice or mime to.More detailed info about how we will record this to follow soon.
 
Which Video Format?
Just as a side not, don’t panic about this too much, but just have in the back of your head that I would prefer the video to be shot in 16:9 HD (High Definition) 720p to be exact – that is 1280 x 720. Now before you panic, I will also be taking standard def DV video which is either 720 x 480 or 720 x 576 pixels depending on where in the world you live. If you can shoot in Full HD 1080p that’s fine also, but I would like to avoid low res, grainy webcam video if possible. Perhaps you have a friend who has a camera you could borrow?
 
I’ll also post this up on my blog, so please visit my blog http://www.phillmason.com/ and leave your comments with your answers/ideas for the lyric of the century.
 
Thanks guys and I look forward to your ideas.
 
All the Best
Phill Mason
E:  30dc2009@phillmason.com

P.S If you have any additional questions I haven’t covered here, please leave them in the comments below and I will make a video that covers the most popular ones.
 
P.P.S You can also stay up to date by following me around here: http://twitter.com/PhillMason or http://www.facebook.com/PhillMason
 
P.P.P.S Nope, I got nothing!!