Saturday, May 7, 2022
7:43 a.m. Room 1102, Phannu House
Mae Sot, Thailand
My return trip to the hospital (my fifth trip) was successful. I was able to submit my vaccine passport and request that my latest vaccine booster information be officially entered into it. It wasn’t easy in the end, and of course I made things much more difficult than they needed to be.
The first thing I did to make it difficult was simply walking there. Normal people would take their scooter or their car. Failing that, they would hire a Grab or a taxi. It’s too hot now to be walking that far in Mae Sot. But I decided to walk.
The second thing I did to make it difficult was to make a video about the experience. Walking the streets of Mae Sot is challenging enough. Getting something done at a large public hospital where few people speak English is also quite challenging. But fold in recording that experience on video and talking into two cameras the whole time makes it far more difficult.
Finally, at the last minute, I decided to use a different two-camera setup. I’d recently watched a video from Paddy Doyle in which he was testing a new camera he’d just purchased: the DJI Pocket 2. As I think I mentioned on a previous day, I don’t think he will end up being that happy with it. It’s very much a specialized tool. It’s good to have one, and I use mine all the time. But I don’t tend to use it for general vlogging. But since I watched Paddy’s video and I was thinking about the Pocket 2, I decided to mount it on a chest harness and see how it works from there. And this one decision easily doubled the complexity level of my trip to the hospital.
The first thing I had to do was figure out how to mount it. I have all the adapters and tools I need to do so, but I had to assemble them and play around them to get them just right. I even tried an experiment where I mounted the Pocket 2 on the shoulder strap of my knapsack. I thought that might be a good way to have the camera mounted a bit higher than when it is smack in the middle of my chest. However, that didn’t work. And then I ran into issues with the chest harness as well. My first attempt involved using the same quick release buckle system that I use for a GoPro. And this buckle is my tallest buckle. And it needs to be tall in order to allow the GoPro to swing backwards and point a bit upwards. With the normal short buckles, the GoPro hits the chest plate and can’t tilt. But I discovered that when I used this taller buckle with the Pocket 2, the camera was placed far away from my chest and was sticking far out into space. It was too visible out there and just felt weird. But when I switched to a shorter buckle, the special thumb screws with the wings wouldn’t work. They can’t turn, because the wings hit the chest plate. I had to use a normal GoPro thumbscrew, and those can’t be tightened enough.
I encountered more problems once I had the Pocket 2 mounted. The main problem is that all the buttons and controls are on the front face of the camera, and with the Pocket 2 in the chest harness, the front of the camera was pressed up against my chest. It was impossible to access any of them or see any of them. The same thing kind of happens with a GoPro, but at least the record button is on the top. The Pocket 2’s record button is on the front, and I can’t reach it. I thought I could fix that problem by using the wireless mic. The linking button on the wireless mic serves as a remote switch, and I can start and stop recording with that. However, it’s very hard to locate that button. It is smooth and impossible to find by touch. Plus, the Pocket 2 gives nearly inaudible beeps as feedback. So even when I pushed the button on the mic, it was difficult to impossible to hear the beeps that confirm that the camera has started or stopped recording. And then I have to twist down the Pocket 2 to look at the back anyway. And even then, it is hard to confirm, because the camera’s tally light is quite dim. It also has a small red light on the LCD screen, but this one is so small and dim that it is almost impossible to see in bright daylight without pushing the camera right up against your face.
Another problem is that because the Pocket 2 is so long and tall, and the way I had mounted it, I couldn’t bend it forward far enough to get good access to the front controls. The bottom of the Pocket 2 hit the chest plate and stopped it from going very far forward. And because it is a gimbal, every time I bent the camera forward to gain access to the controls, the gimbal would reposition itself in some way. And then when I raised it back into position, the gimbal would be pointing in some weird direction. But to reposition and recenter it, I have to use the buttons. But the buttons are hidden again. It’s a crazy dance.
The final problem with the Pocket 2 is battery life. To use a camera in the chest harness, you need the battery to last a long time. But the Pocket 2’s battery is not replaceable. Once the battery runs out of power, you’re done. You can’t film anymore until you plug in the whole camera and recharge it.
I’m thinking that I might have created a lot of my own problems. Perhaps my concerns over the camera being too visible were silly. And if that is the case, then I can use the same mounting system that I use with a GoPro. The Pocket 2 will jut out far away from my chest and be more visible. But maybe that isn’t so bad. Plus, I had slid the Pocket 2 into its mounting strap quite far because I wanted the strap to tighten around the middle of the camera. That seemed more stable. But perhaps it would be okay to wrap it around the very bottom. That would raise the camera higher, which could be a good thing. And it would allow the camera to tilt all the way forward when I want access to the controls. Finally, I was focused on using the wireless mic. And that added another layer of complications. But with the camera mounted right on my chest and relatively close to my mouth, perhaps the built-in mics would be suitable. After all, the high quality of those microphones is one of the key advantages of this camera. Why not take advantage of them?
Something I also realized later on is that I have an alternative mounting system to the strap. I can also use a regular ballhead and attach it directly to the base of the Pocket 2. That would allow me to use the tall quick release buckle, I think, because the Pocket 2 would no longer be set in front of the buckle. It would be sitting right on top of the finger mounts. I haven’t tested that idea yet, but it might work better. Plus, I realized I may not have to have the Do-It-All Handle attached. If I remove the handle, I lose all of the handle’s functionality, but it would make the camera much smaller and therefore less visible and perhaps easier to handle.
I shot some video with both the GoPro Hero 9 and the Pocket 2 as I walked to the hospital. And because I was experimenting with a new camera setup, I made lots of mistakes. And when I got to the hospital, I was hot and sweaty and quite stressed out. I was a mess. I sat down in a chair in the hospital lobby area to gather my wits and get out my vaccine passport and normal passport and Mor Prom app. Then I went up to Window 102. I was told multiple times that I needed to go to Window 2, but I knew from previous visits that they actually meant Window 102. But what I had forgotten is that even Window 102 is incorrect. Every time I’ve gone to Window 102, they’ve redirected me to Window 103. THAT’s where you are supposed to go.
There were two young women at this window, and neither of them spoke English, but with all the items that I handed them, they knew exactly what I was there to do. They confirmed with me verbally that I was registering my third shot. And then they got to work and took a photocopy of my passport and filled out a bunch of forms on paper and on a computer. And then they handed me an appointment slip that was instructing me to return on May 13, which was a week in the future. They would keep my vaccine passport, and a doctor would fill out the details, and I could pick it up on May 13.
One wrinkle in the system was that they also handed me a computer printout. And this computer printout looked like a receipt. And I remembered that I got a similar receipt on previous trips, and I had to take this receipt to Window 108 and pay a fee. However, I was confused, because this form they gave me had no numbers on it. It was completely blank. I tried to ask the two women what I was supposed to do, but we couldn’t communicate. I sat down in my chair again and got myself organized, and I told my story on camera. I had had the Pocket 2 recording this whole time. And I was vlogging and speaking into the Hero 9 when circumstances permitted. And once I was all caught up with my story, I walked over to Window 108. I tried to ask the woman there a question, but we couldn’t communicate either. So I simply let her do her thing, and she took this blank form and did some typing on her computer. Then she printed out another receipt, exactly like the one I had handed her, except that this one had the figure of 50 baht written on it. I paid her the 50 baht she was expecting to receive, and that was all I needed to do there.
The last time I paid a fee at this window, I was expected to go back up to the 6th floor to the vaccination clinic and give this receipt to the clerks there so that the next stage in the process could take place. But I didn’t know if I was now supposed to return to Window 103 with this receipt. I didn’t think I had to, but just to make sure, I went back. And there was no one there. But I stood there and waited for a while, and eventually the two women came back, and I showed them the receipt for my 50-baht payment. They didn’t react in any way, and then I used sign language to ask them if I needed to give them this receipt or not. They indicated that they didn’t need it. I was all done, and I was free to go. I just needed to return on May 13.
That was my fifth trip to the hospital for this booster shot. And it appears that the sixth one to pick up my completed vaccine passport will be the final one. I told this story into my GoPro as I walked along the streets and back to Phannu House.
The rest of the day was spent working on some YouTube-related things. And then at seven in the evening, the new Premiere took place. This video Premiere was about my second visit to the Nam Lod Cave. I had high hopes for this video, because I had taken all of my experience from previous Premieres and used it to re-edit this video. Essentially, I had deleted all the typical Planet Doug content that felt painful during the other Premieres – all the times when I was talking about cameras, all the times I was giving practical how-to information, and all the times I was summing up what I was GOING to do. I rewatched the video myself multiple times during the editing, and every time I felt my attention wandering or I felt myself wishing the video would just get on with it, I deleted that section. The end result was that the video was much shorter and more streamlined. And I had already felt fairly confident about the quality of the video itself. I had shot this cave visit with the G85, and by this point in my trip, I had figured out a few things, and I had managed to capture some nice video of the interior of the cave.
And the Premiere experience itself definitely reflected these improvements. The video felt better to me. And I felt better watching it with an audience. I wasn’t cringing and feeling embarrassed and wishing the video would move faster. It’s still a long video for YouTube, of course. It’s more like a TV show or a National Geographic documentary than a YouTube video. So it’s not designed to get a lot of views or be very popular. But at least the viewing experience wasn’t as painful as earlier Premieres.
As far as the numbers are concerned, there certainly isn’t a lot of encouragement to continue with YouTube. This feels like one of the best videos I’ve ever cobbled together. Yet, in terms of views, it is ranked #9 out of the last 10 that I’ve posted. It’s only been viewed 438 times so far. The average view duration is way down from even my low average. The impressions click-through rate is way down even compared to my usual low rates. With low numbers like that, there’s hardly any point to doing it at all. And, of course, making the video required days of work. I’ve lost track of the number of days that went into this video. It’s the very definition of a labor of love.
Ironically, just last night I watched a video from Paddy Doyle in which he answered questions from viewers. The video was intended as a kind of “state of the union” for his YouTube channel. And he talked a lot about how successful the channel has been and how much money he has been making. He doesn’t give any specific numbers, but it’s clear that with all the various income streams he has developed for himself, he’s making multiple thousands of dollars a month. This comes from Adsense, YouTube Memberships, Patreon, Ebooks, and straight donations. He doesn’t say how much he makes through Adsense or YouTube Memberships or donations. But his Patreon income is listed on his Patreon page at $647 per month. And he mentioned that his profit margin on his Ebooks is about $17, and he sells 60 of those a month. And that comes to $1,020. Adsense income also has to be more than $2,000 a month.
Despite the lack of real specifics, it was still an interesting video to watch for me, because it does show how he approached his YouTube channel specifically (and successfully) as a business. He thinks of it as a small business through and through. It’s about making money for him, and that guides most of his decisions. What he does is very similar to what I noticed Lost LeBlanc did. In fact, he was actually much smarter and more comprehensive than Lost LeBlanc. Lost LeBlanc would visit a random bunch of places in a country, and then he would publish his ebook claiming it was about the BEST places to visit in that country. But the book really wasn’t about the best of anything. It was just about the places that he happened to visit.
Paddy Doyle was very smart in that he structured his initial videos as a kind of quest and adventure to visit every province in Thailand. I could never do that because, for me to claim that I actually visited a province in Thailand, I would have to spend two weeks in each province. How else could you really see anything in that province without spending at least a week there and probably two weeks? And then visiting all 77 provinces would require up to three years. But he has a rather loose definition for claiming that he has been to any particular province. He just has to have ridden his scooter down at least some of the roads in that province. For example, he can claim to have visited Tak Province when he simply rode down a couple of highways in a day or two and saw nothing at all. He tried to see the Bhumibol Dam, but he didn’t even succeed with that. His experience of Kamphaeng Phet, I remember, consisted of little more than going to one waterfall. And he posted an entire video claiming to be about Sukhothai Historical Park, and yet he never even went to that park. He went to the wrong place entirely. And that was the only place he visited in the whole province, and it was the wrong place.
But setting all that aside, the decision to structure his videos this way was a clever one from a marketing and business point of view. It allowed him to use superlatives in his titles throughout as he claimed for every province that THIS province was the most beautiful and the most amazing and the most incredible one yet. He also had the clever idea of asking viewers to send him Google Maps links to all the places they recommend in the country. And now that he has all this footage and all this information and all the Google Maps links, he is producing a series of ebook travel guides. And it sounds like those Google Maps links are a key part of what makes the Ebooks useful to people. And right now, he is putting together a set of five videos, with each video being about the ten best of everything in Thailand. He is working on videos of the top ten temples, the top ten Thai foods, the top ten provinces, top ten beaches, and top ten islands. I know already that I won’t have any interest in any of these videos. Personally, I just don’t have the brain that thinks in terms of stating what is the best of any type of anything. Everything is relative for me. I can’t say that this or that is the best place to go. The very idea makes no sense to me. All I am left with is story. There is my story of what I did when I went to this place. And that’s it. I don’t feel comfortable saying things like, “Ban Rak Thai is an amazing place.” All I can do is tell the story of what I experienced when I went to Ban Rak Thai. That’s the only truth I know and am comfortable with. I can never go the superlatives route about anything. But making them is a very smart move for Paddy. After all, after visiting every province in the country, he actually has a realistic foundation for the lists he is making. He saw all the major temples in the country, so he can legitimately claim to have a valid opinion about which are the ten best. Lost LeBlanc could never do that because his travels in any one country were never extensive.
I can only hope that my next Premiere from the Mae Hong Son Loop is as successful as the Nam Lod Cave Premiere. The very next video is the Pronto Coffee video. After that comes the video about Zone 1 of the Chiang Dao Cave. I think I mentioned before that my idea is to set both videos as Premieres together. The Pronto Coffee video will play first as a kind of establishing video for the one that follows. At this point, I actually forget what the Pronto Coffee video is like. But at least it is relatively short at seventeen minutes, and it makes it clear that I’m in Chiang Dao now. There is no indication of how I got from the Nam Lod Cave in Pang Mapha to Chiang Dao. I shot no video of all those days in Pai and on the road. So even if the Pronto Coffee video is not Premiere material, at least it will get across the idea that Planet Doug is in Chiang Dao now. And then the Chiang Dao Cave video that follows might make more sense.
I also gave the Chiang Dao Cave Zone 1 video the Premiere treatment. I went back and changed it dramatically. I deleted everything that struck me as boring. And I tried to leave just the most interesting parts. This was actually a painful edit, because it involved removing a lot of the video. I originally had the entire sequence in which I climbed up the cliff and peered down into the cave from the edge of the dangerous hole in the roof. But that section of the video came after my visit to the cave, and it seemed to drag on for a long time. And it led to me talking a lot about my guidebook stuff. So I made the decision to remove all of it. And I deleted a lot more. The video is probably much improved, but I also really miss all the stuff that I deleted.
One idea I had for Patreon was to give people the option as a perk to be able to watch the full and uncut versions of these videos. In this case, for example, I have both videos. They are both uploaded to YouTube. The original is much longer and has much more information. Videos like that could be a perk. However, I still don’t understand how that works with Patreon. I keep hearing about YouTubers moving videos to Patreon when they get a copyright strike. But that made no sense to me.
I’ve been doing some research, and I found out that Patreon itself has no video hosting capability. Nobody uploads videos to Patreon. The videos have to be hosted elsewhere, and then you post links to those videos on Patreon. Therefore, I’m guessing that YouTubers simply take their YouTube videos and restrict access to them via Patreon tiers. I haven’t heard anyone actually break it down, but I think it goes like this: Tyrone Magnus might post a video to YouTube and monetize it. And then it gets claimed through copyright by someone else. And then what he does is turn off monetization so the other company or person can’t earn money from it. And then he changes the video visibility from Public to Unlisted. And then he adds that video to Patreon through a link. The video remains on his YouTube channel, but no one can see it except for his patrons.
And I guess it works the same way for reaction videos. Channels like Blind Wave post an edited reaction to a movie or TV show on their YouTube channel as normal and monetize it. This video can show only ten minutes of the movie or TV show. But they also make a video of them reacting to the entire movie or entire episode of the TV show. And they upload this video to their YouTube channel as well, but they don’t make it public. They set it to unlisted and then post a link to it on their Patreon page.
However, I still have questions about this. My understanding is that anyone can watch an unlisted video on YouTube as long as they have the link. But then couldn’t anyone who has access to that video through Patreon share the link with other people? Or is it only the video creator that can access an actual share link? I don’t know why I can never find answers to these obvious questions, but I never can. The only way I’ll be able to figure it out is to do it myself and test it.