blog: videos

Video: Building a DIY TelePrompTer for $0.00

I’ve been making a bunch of videos for Machine of Death Kickstarter updates, and I love watching the particular brand of YouTube channel about making low-cost DIY camera equipment, whether it’s a camera stabilizer or a slider or a TelePrompTer (so capitalized because it’s a trademark).

The stabilizer and the slider I can approximate with some scrap wood and a skateboard, but I got to watching a few of the prompter videos and realized that, while I didn’t have all the stuff mentioned in the videos, I did have some other, similar stuff and could probably figure out how to build my own. I was fascinated by how simple the key element is — literally just a piece of glass — and thought I’d give it a try.

So here’s my DIY video, “Building a DIY TelePrompTer for $0.00, Using Just The Stuff I Already Have Lying Around.”

I assume you have all the same stuff, so go ahead and follow along.

ANIMATION: Real True Actual Stories of America

Here’s something neat! I was contacted by Audible.co.uk and asked if I’d like to help promote the new book by historian and memoirist Bill Bryson, One Summer: America 1927. TURNS OUT it’s a really interesting book filled with factoids and stories about the personalities and social movements of the 1920s — Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, Al Capone, Al Jolson, and many others whose names are less familiar to us now.

Audible allowed me to, uh, loosely interpret some of the moments in the book to create a series of six animated videos! The first casts Babe Ruth & Calvin Coolidge as odd-couple roommates. The second is about good ol’ Henry Ford.

I’ll post the others in the coming days. Check out the videos, I hope you like them! We had a lot of fun making them.

Toronto Roll-a-Sketches! And THIS WEEKEND: Maker Faire!

Here are a couple of the many Roll-a-Sketches I did in Toronto last week! Thanks to everyone who came by the table, it was a great reminder of why I do that show every year. Everybody’s so nice and it’s such a neat environment for art and friends!

ICE CREAM + KNIGHT: (click pics for bigger)

OSTRICH + AIRPLANE + CAVEMAN + HELICOPTER:

RHINO + ICE CREAM + CAVEMAN + COWBOY:

CACTUS + TOASTER:

Would you like a Roll-a-Sketch of your very own?? THIS WEEKEND I will be returning to the Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo! The show is Saturday and Sunday, May 18-19.

I’ll have a booth in the Bazaar Bizarre section, right next to my old pal Chris Yates (handmade puzzle crafter extraordinaire).

BONUS VIDEOS: The last time I was at Maker Faire, two years ago, I recorded a video journal of the drive up and back! Full of HIGH DRAMA and BURRITOS and THE TERRIFYING SPECTER OF FATIGUE. If you’ve ever wanted to see a lot of me in sunglasses, YOU’RE IN LUCK.

I re-watched these videos tonight and the whole thing seems like just yesterday. But it was TWO YEARS AGO. I don’t even KNOW.