Thanksgiving is one of those American traditions that I (as an Australian) don’t really understand. However if you were looking for something to be thankful for it would be hard to go past a free copy of Fast Video Converter PRO.

For a limited time DVDFast are giving away licenses to Fast Video Converter PRO to celebrate Thanksgiving. All you need to do is tell them the names of people you are thankful for. You can then share this license code with ten other people to spread the gratitude. (Note that recipients of the free licence are not eligible for technical support.)

Fast Video Converter PRO allows you to convert your video files to multiple video formats including AVI, MP4, MPEG, WMV, FLV and MP3. It also includes specific settings for producing videos for specific platforms such as iPods, iPhones, PSP, Apple TV, PDA, 3GP and (though, like Thanksgiving, it hasn’t made it to Australia) the humble Zune.

Fast Video Converter PRO supports the following platforms: Microsoft Windows 98, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, Windows 7

[Via Twitter users @retrogrrl and @tomkuhlmann]

iJustine made a music video for the Nikon Festival and in this video she takes us through her creative process – from idea generation to finding a backing track to recording vocals, setting up shots and finally editing.

Justine’s tips include:

• Find royalty free music. She uses iStockPhoto.com for this purpose.
• Limit headphone spill by having your backing track loud enough to hear and no louder.
• If you’re shooting outside, schedule around daylight hours and use available light effectively.
• Plan your shots to help the process move along smoothly.
• If you are the camera operator and the talent and using a camera where you cannot see what you’re shooting, consider using an external object – Justine uses trees and cushions – as a reference point for framing and getting correct exposures.
• Shooting in public places is deeply problematic as bystanders stop to ask questions.
• When using SD cards, use a high speed card to help speed up the process.

It’s quite inspiring to see one lone woman singing and dancing in the streets, being her own camera operator, and dealing with the barrage of questions she meets while trying to get these shots.

For more details on Justine’s setup, check out her blog post.

You don’t need to usually plan or script very much if you’re recording a quick vlog, but for more adventurous video undertakings a little planning can go a long way. Sure you could type a script quickly in a word processor, but if you want something a little more sophisticated check out the free Celtx software.

Celtx combines screenplay writing, storyboarding, general text editor and scheduling modules to help keep your next movie project on vision, on script and on time!

The software is available for Windows, OSX (10.4+) and Linux platforms, and includes some great sample files (including the Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, as pictured above in screenplay mode) to help get you started.

While we’re mostly interested in video making here, it is perhaps worth noting that Celtx could also be a great way of organising your NaNoWriMo notes too. (Good luck to anyone taking part in National Novel Writing Month!)

This tip comes via Stacie Ponder. For more great budget movie making tips with a horror genre focus – including a recipe for fake blood! – check out her article at AMC. [Horror/slasher fans will also enjoy her Final Girl blog.]

Simply add a code or two to the tags section of your YouTube video to change how it plays.

You can adjust the dimensions of your video by either cropping or stretching…

yt:crop=16:9 (zooms in on the 16:9 area, removes windowboxing)

yt:stretch=16:9 (fixes anamorphic content by scaling to 16:9)

yt:stretch=4:3 (fixes 720×480 content that is the wrong aspect ratio by scaling to 4:3)

Or ensure that your video defaults to high quality (where available).

yt:quality=high (default to a high quality stream, depending on availability)

Bill Myers (guerrillabill on YouTube) takes us through a few different techniques for converting the aspect ratio of your source footage to 16:9 widescreen in Sony Vegas Movie Studio.

YouTube is changing. Apparently the homepage will be overhauled to encourage strategic partnership with content producers like Disney. There is a feeling among many YouTube users that the ‘golden age’ is over and that YouTube itself is turning its back on them in an attempt to make money and/or break even. My tip? Don’t panic.

I was discussing the impending changes with a fellow YouTuber earlier. This is basically what I told him – and what I’d like to tell you, too:

I think people are getting a tad too hysterical about the site changes to be honest. The global feature gets a person a lot of exposure in a short period of time, but those are as rare as hen’s teeth. Audiences grow more organically. Yes that requires time and word of mouth and lots of promotion. But there will always be amateur video makers and there will always be people wanting to watch that sort of thing.

There may come a time when its no longer worth being on YouTube, but I doubt that will happen this month. But if you keep that in mind and start building a bond with people and encourage them to go to your site or your blog or have some off-site interaction with you… when/if that happens you can take at least some of them with you.

If you are meeting the changes with trepidation, here are a few ideas that might help.

• Tell your subscribers and friends how else they might interact with you: Make a video explaining that changes are imminent, that you want to make sure everyone can stay in touch with you easily and then provide people with all the relevant usernames and links. Status update services like Twitter are particularly useful for disseminating information to a lot of people on an opt-in basis.
• Give people options: Make your content available over a number of video sharing websites through tools like Tubemogul. Start your own blog or website where people can find your videos and news easily. Introduce your community to the wonders of RSS. Show them that they can subscribe to your blog or your YouTube videos themselves in a feed reader like Google Reader.

You can subscribe to a user’s YouTube uploads in a RSS feed reader by using the following URL format
http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/users/[insert username here]/uploads

• Ask People to Subscribe: For all the speculation about the coming changes, it seems unlikely that something as integral as the subscription facilities will change much.
• Reassure people within your community that you haven’t abadoned them: Continue to watch your subscriptions, continue to rate, comment and favourite. If people whose content you really enjoy seem to fall off the radar, send them a private message. This will be an adjustment for everyone; lend a hand when you can!
• Become responsible for your own promotion: Even now sitting around, waiting, hoping that YouTube editoral staff will somehow stumble across your content and place it in a predominant place for all to enjoy is a bit of a pipedream. You need to get into the practice of sharing your content across your various social networks – Facebook, MySpace, Twitter. You need to be actively viewing other people’s videos and leaving comments. Participate in video collaborations and gatherings when opportunities present themselves. You need to be repositioning old videos as they become topical again. Consider using older content as video responses where applicable. Don’t upload your video and just hope for the best!

Understand the difference between a Facebook profile and a Facebook page. Facebook profiles are exclusively for real people using their real names. Facebook pages are for people, products, services, businesses and other entities. I, for example, could have a Facebook profile for John Lacey, but if I wanted to set up something for ‘JohnOfJordan’ it would have to be a Facebook page. Setting up a ‘JohnOfJordan’ profile is against Facebook Terms of Service and will result in the profile being deleted.

• Consider the different ways people find videos and video creators: There’s a good chance one of three things happens: They search for something and find you, they watch something you’ve commented on or made a response to, or they hear about you from a friend. Make sure you title and tag your videos with appropriate information. Interact with other users a lot – leave a digital footprint others can follow. And do things that are worth talking about and make it easy for other people to talk about you. If you tweet about your video, it is easy for those with a Twitter client to retweet that information if they enjoyed it.

But most of all… don’t panic!

I’ve said it about the so-called ‘Global Financial Crisis’ and I’ll say it about the impending YouTube site changes… as far as I’m concerned it isn’t really a “crisis” until we start eating each other. Have fun with it!

It is often quoted sagely advice: think about your video thumbnail.

Make it appealing, employ sexually suggestive imagery (though that can be misleading and sometimes run risk of breaking YouTube Terms Of Service). Be your own eye candy, or find yourself some kind of ‘eye candy’ stunt double.

But I was looking at the promoted videos on the Australian incarnation of YouTube this morning, thinking, maybe there’s another approach you could use. Maybe you could intrigue would-be viewers in other ways.

I like to call it the “Dude, what’s wrong with your face?” approach to video thumbnails.

Whether it’s the cheesy 70′s persona exuded by JuanMann (the ‘free hugs’ guy), the inexplicable fisheye of Frederick, the Killertoothbrush “Just how happy can a person be?!” grin, or Frezned’s facial contortions… one thing is for sure, they all warrant a second look.

I’m sure (or rather, I hope) that many of us have been victims of unintentionally unflattering thumbnails. This is my particular favourite example of this phenomena:

But just think, the same thing that has you cringing for years might be the final impetus people need to click on the thumbnail and find out what you’re all about. Chris Pirillo recently suggested that perhaps your true audience is really all those other people who use the internet but who don’t know you yet. Perhaps silly facial expressions are just one more tool for the arsenal in making yourself known.

If you try this out for yourself, let me know in the comments how you go. And link to the video so I can check it out for myself.

Want more attentive viewers? Learn Polish. I’m only half joking.

We’ve long known that the attention span of the average internet user is short to say the least. Now those lovely people at TubeMogul have released some statistics about the more dedicated video watchers organised by country and the results might surprise you.

And a BIG HELLO to all the JohnOfJordan subscribers from Poland, Iceland, Spain, Mexico, Japan, United States, Taiwan, Portugal, Vietnam and Estonia!

Well we all hope you had a very Merry Christmas, or Happy Hannukah, or just a great day in general.

Today’s tip comes courtesy of Lynn Terry, and via Twitter no less!

Lynn writes:

Video Tip for Dummies: You get much higher quality videos if you take the clear plastic off of the lens before you shoot your first video

Along these lines we also hope that you remove any packaging from your Christmas toys and gadgets, and that you remembered to also get the relevant batteries, memory cards, and USB connections. And remember if all else fails… try reading the manual.

Lynn Terry is the mastermind behind ClickNewz! and can also be heard on Internet Marketing This Week.

Its that time of year and you want to let people know that you’re thinking of them. But paper Christmas cards lead to clutter and aren’t environmentally friendly, and yet eCards are traditionally very boring – dreadfully designed extravagances with shrill MIDI soundtracks. What is a person to do?

Why not send a YouTube Greeting Card? Simply select the video of your choice, pick a theme and add a message – it’s really that easy.

If you’re feeling adventurous you could even use this offering from Shane of October Roads Films.

Please note a YouTube account is required to use this service.