My film "From Flamenco to Fez� presents a 2 continent, 3 country trip to Spain, Morocco, and Portugal. It features Madrid, Toledo, Grenada (the Alhambra), Seville (Spain), Fez and Marrakesh in Morocco, Lisbon, & Fatima in Portugal, plus much more, including a lavish Berber spectacle of music, dancing, and horse riding.
The video can be seen on the web, if you have a high internet speed connection. In case you just installed DSL or cable, here's a fun way to test it out.
This is a free, non-commercial, streaming video on the Windows Media Player. No ads and no strings attached. I sell absolutely nothing.
There are 28 of my other amateur travel videos on-line including trips to China, Russia, Antarctica, Italy, Britain, Hawaii, Australia, Bali, American National Parks, Africa, Greece, and Turkey; see lions, whales, elephants, or penguins. The planet is yours.
Give these films a try. (I also have still pictures from every continent, which you can link to at the bottom of the video page regardless of the modem being used.)
The Intrepid Berkeley Explorer
David Mundstock
Posts: 6 | Location: Berkeley, CA USA | Registered: 03 November 2004
I want to thank Jer, Puna, and Madsue for your kind comments above. It's all very welcoming.
But Jer, could you help me out by explaining why my post first looked like an ad to you that was going to be deleted. The truth is that some forums do delete my posts, or they are attacked as spam.
What more can I say in a post to be clearer that everything is free, non-commercial, and I sell nothing? Is the problem that assurances in my post are ignored because it struck you as unlikely anyone would stream travel videos for free?
The Intrepid Berkeley Explorer
David Mundstock
Posts: 6 | Location: Berkeley, CA USA | Registered: 03 November 2004
no matter how helpful you want to be and how generous you are by offering your videos for free, i think you are instantly deleted from other forums because there is something inherently suspicious and a bit cheesy (sorry, this is my opinion) about joining a board to plug your own website.
some board admins refer to this as "trolling" = visiting other websites and/or forums and trying to bring visitors to your site.
most admins do not let people plug their sites (except for in their signatures perhaps), especially if it is the members first (or in your case, second) post ever.
i think if you were an active board member (actively participating on the forums) for a while and then posted about your site, it would be looked upon better than just joining and instantly posting about it.
if you could look at it from an admins point of view you would understand.
also, i think the "This is a free, non-commercial, streaming video on the Windows Media Player. No ads and no strings attached. I sell absolutely nothing." looks "spammy", you might want to do away with it. you know, it rings "methinks thou doth protest too much" in the ear of the admins and they instantly hit the "delete thread" button before reading the rest.
I understand your point about participating first, and posting a link later. But most of what I know about Spain is contained in the video. It's difficult for me to write about the subject without referring back to the film.
When things work well, responses to the video allow me to participate constructively by answering questions, discussing mistakes/omissions, clarifying wrong impressions, and/or admitting ignorance. It's the same in e-mails I receive from people who have watched a film.
I guess the post text is just a lose-lose situation. After being accused many times of running some kind of deceptive scheme to make money as a travel agent or video dealer with a product to sell, I decided to tell the whole truth with conviction in a post.
My hope has been that doubtful administrators will at least check out the facts for themselves, as was the case here. With the current post language, accusations against me for fraud have disappeared.
Dave The Intrepid Berkeley Explorer
David Mundstock
Posts: 6 | Location: Berkeley, CA USA | Registered: 03 November 2004
I have not seen your film/video yet so I will not talk about that yet. I am a film/video maker myself as well as a host of other things. What I will say is that you need to come up with an honest one line explanation of what your intetion is and why you want people to watch the film / video. This is first, as jer says, introduce yourself to the forum / audience and then make your clear and concice disclaimer about the film / video. This way as time goes on and people get to know you better you can build their trust by staying true to your word.
I could not come up with one sentence that does all you suggest. It's entirely beyond my capacity. In the post I tried to include what two years experience offering free streaming videos over the internet has taught me is necessary.
Explaining the video's contents should be enough for a person to decide whether they wish to view it. Anyone can stop watching if they don't like a film. The need for broadband must also be covered, since that's an internet connection requirement over which I have no control.
Clearly the importance of my building trust is a very high priority on this forum. Hopefully the current thread will produce such a desired result, even if I got off to a shaky start.
Eventually, "From Flamenco To Fez" will have to speak for itself.
Dave
David Mundstock
Posts: 6 | Location: Berkeley, CA USA | Registered: 03 November 2004
Hi IBE!! If you have been reading this forum today, you will now realise that mm is very much a huge group of friends who chat to each other, joke with each other, answer questions and generally help each other out, rather than just an information service!!
Maybe that is why your initial post made alarm bells ring, in this case!!!!!!! Your initial post could be written in the "style" of each forum you want to post on, perhaps that way you will have more success!!! Good Luck!
________________________________________ Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional
).
- rent or buy a cell phone from me for your stay in spain, more info at 
- already have a cell phone, get a spanish SIM card for it at 
