I as hunted around for today’s video to share I stumbled upon Ranveer Singh’s latest ad for Akshaye Patra. This guy has a wacky sense of humour, I really like him. Good looks, an cheeky smile, stunning body, brains and a witty sense of humour is an excellent combination in a man. 😀

After one, I went on a hunt looking for more ads done by Ranveer Singh. He’s been doing some really wacky and weird ads lately. Here’s 5 ads I really liked.

This one’s killer. Until I saw this one I used to think only his Durex ad was cheesy. 😛

And here’s the much talked about #DoTheRex ad. Ah ha ha ha ha, ah ha ha ha aha… Do The Rex. 😛

And another performance for Ching’s.

This guy is a good talker too. Like here in Chup – The Durex MTV Rex Talk

And finally the ad that started it all. Ranveer Singh’s latest – India Ke Hunger Ki Bajao.

I loved all these ads of his but my favourite is the RUPA Frontline one. It doesn’t get cheesier than that. 😛 What’s your favourite?

P.S. – Day Twenty-Three of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge.

Most people want dogs with a breed. Golden Retrievers, Labradors, Cockers, Boxers and such are hot favourites but few understand the history of breeds and its side effects.

Dogs were quite like mongrel-wolves until man interfered. Man started to tweak the mongrel to create dogs that looked and did specific things. Each breed had a purpose. Some were retrievers, others hounds, some herders, others sniffers, and so on.

Over the years the purpose of breeds has been lost. Today breeds matter only in terms of looks and behaviour. And breeding or inbreeding has caused trouble.

Let me explain, quite like humans, dogs are a large group made up of many family trees. Each breed is a family. When you mate repeatedly inside the family, there are health issues and defects seen over generations.

It’s the side effects of breeding and we are seeing now. For example hip displacia is now very common in labradors and retrievers. And at the rate we are going, it will soon be a breed characteristic, and a very painful incurable one at that.

Anyway… My angst about breeds and breeding is a story for another day. For now, here’s Adam of College Humour who explains breeding and why mutts are better.

What do you think? Are you a breed fan?

 
P.S. – Day Sixteen of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge.

Youtube is turning out to be quite a medium for video consumption and I’m slowly getting sucked in. I’m not much of a Youtuber but I’m trying to experience it and see if I like it.

One of the key criteria for this is enjoyment. Apart from the movies I watch online, my other Youtube consumption also has to be fun. That means I need to follow the right channels so I get the right goods.

In an attempt to curate and cull my subscription list I have been going through the videos the channels I subscribe to post. This process is going to take a while but the upside is that off and on I come across a well done video or short film.

Here’s two short films I came across and enjoyed. One’s the sweet cute love story types, the classic story most of our Bollywood movies are build on. The other is a thriller of which I didn’t see the end coming.

Enjoy…

The Most Beautiful Thing

A Missing Housewife

I’m on a search to find good Youtube channels for short films. Have recommendations? Please, let me know in comments.

 
P.S. – Day Nine of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge.

In the last couple of weeks Preeti and I have been trying to record a few home videos and we’ve learned so much while recording and editing the videos.

We used a Canon 500D to record and it did a good job with the video but its biggest drawback was that it focuses on the highest volume sound at any point for the audio. That means that every time a dog barked that become the focus point for the audio recording and Preeti speaking got faded out.

We tried Audacity to remove noise from the audio file but found no way to correct these interruptions. Let me correct that, we found a way to remove sharp sounds but that also altered the vocals and we couldn’t seem to enhance just Preeti speaking. [If you know a way to do this please let me know in the comments. 🙂 ]

In the whole process we learned a few things to keep in mind when recording. Here are a few tips you can use to make the video better even before you use editing tools like Audacity and MovieMaker.

1. Find a quite spot if possible. This is quite tough sometimes, especially if you have dogs and kids at home.

2. Record 10 seconds of silence at the start of the video. Do not speak during this time. You can use these 10 seconds as a sound profile in Audacity to remove background noises/hums like the fan, ac, refrigerator, etc. It’s a great way to enhance the audio of the video. Make sure there are no sudden loud sounds during this time, as sudden spikes in the sound profile will impact the entire audio quality.

3. While you are speaking if there are sudden sounds like dogs, construction, vehicles or even airplanes, stop speaking. Wait for the sound to fade away, then go back a sentence and start speaking again. These clips of noise can be deleted later when editing.

4. Record a separate audio track along with the video and audio on a camera. This audio track can be recorded on a range of devices. You can even use your smart phone to record this audio file. A hands free headset mic would work quite well to do this. You can then use this file in to fix the audio in the video.

Once you have a good recording of the audio and video you can use tools like Audacity, MovieMaker 2.6, MovieMaker Live and iMovie to edit and publish your video. There are a lot of videos available on how to use these tools, just Google it :). A quick tutorial will have you all set-up to try out and use these tools.

Do you make home videos? Have tips to add to make them better? Please share them in the comments.

Special thanks to Preeti for letting me help her with her videos and adding her two bits to this article. Preeti is a Wire Haired Dachshund breeder and a great resource on dogs and their behaviour. If you haven’t seen her doggies you should at Windward.in.