October Magazine Highlight: Popular Mechanics

“The Video Issue – How to Make the Most of the Essential Tool of Our Age” – hmmm, I LOVE taking videos on my phone of my sweet grandson & other life events! I also have a great little camera that takes excellent videos (and photos), so I thought I would investigate what Popular Mechanics (of all magazines) had to say about videos! The cover looked out of focus, which seemed odd, but then I saw this notice in the bottom left corner:

“Shazam the cover to watch videos of what’s inside” – What?! Is “Shazam” a verb?! I have never heard of Shazam, so I googled it. I found out it is an app that does several things. I downloaded it to my phone & it took a couple of minutes but I finally figured out that I had to touch the camera icon, then focus in on the “Shazam” symbol on the cover of the magazine, and…WOW – it’s works!! So Cool!! Come in and find this magazine & TRY IT!

I am constantly amazed at the way people on YouTube are becoming famous! Do you know who Kawehi is? I didn’t, but I do now, thanks to Popular Mechanics. She is an up & coming musical star – circumventing the old way of getting known as a popular musician & now on tour, all because of her videos on YouTube. (pp 32-34)

Do you know about Periscope*? This issue of Popular Mechanics introduced me to Periscope as I was scanning it this morning. They gave an overview display of possible videos to watch, so I looked it up and found the website. You can watch “Live” videos of many things-they are like short “Reality TV” spots. (pp 50-51)
*If you want to create videos, you need an account. This is NOT a recommendation to sign up! If you sign up in a browser, there isn’t a place to log off. This is really an app for your phone and uses a Twitter, Facebook or Google account to sign up.

The article that kept me coming back for more is the one that is about “How to Do Everything With Video”. It has multiple sections about how to create the “best videos on the internet”. The “How to Shoot like the Experts” section gives specific, helpful information about how to position the camera for different types of events and then a section on how/why to edit for dramatic effect. The awesome music chart gives very specific pointers about when & why or why not to add music to a video, plus a musical selection that could work in that context. To top it off, Popular Mechanics supplies a list of 7 other places besides YouTube where you can post or watch videos. (pp 58-67)

If you want to create an awesome video and maybe become famous – come in and read this issue of Popular Mechanics, October 2017! It’s also available online through our Journals website, but then you won’t be able to try out your SHAZAM app!