My experience with Social Media. I only entered the whole social media scene a couple of months ago, I went from no social media to having an Instagram, Facebook and Twitter account. I'm middle aged and fairly computer savvy (although you may disagree after seeing this website!) but it was still quite a culture shock. I wanted to reach as many people as possible, so the lessons that I had learned and created videos for on my YouTube channel could be reached by as many people as possible, I wanted particularly younger people coming into the hobby to avoid the pitfalls that I have fallen into. This would have saved me time and more importantly money. You'll see a lot of the focus on my website is on cost, this is because I think at the moment this is one of the biggest barriers on younger people coming into the hobby.
I will also provide what advice I can on the whole YouTube experience. What kit I use and how I get the videos uploaded, the computer savvy youngsters will probably find my advice outdated, but I think us older folk could provide this information useful, I am continually learning so will update this page frequently as I go on.
My 5 top tips, if you are putting it up on YouTube or Facebook (or wherever) and whether you are filming it for your own viewing pleasure.
| Number | YouTube | Notes | Personal Consumption |
| 1. | Lighting | This is hyper important, it doesn't need to be expensive kit but can make the difference between a great video and a good one. | Important so you can see what is going on, but not as important as if you are publishing them. |
| 2. | Staging | WHAT you are going to shoot, try to declutter (I fail at this continuously) the background so people can see what you are talking about. | As above. |
| 3. | Framing | As a minimum have your scenes shot level, as in horizontal, if you're not using a tripod don't "spin" the shot too much, people can actually get sick. | Always nice to look back at level shots. |
| 4. | Audio audio audio | In addition to lighting the biggest impact you can have is on the sound of your videos. Be VERY wary of autofocus (check out a few of my early vids for this), it is exceptionally loud and sounds like a machine gun going off and completely detracts from the commentary. | This is still important, particularly the autofocus. A microphone will set you back about 30 quid and is a big leap forward. |
| 5. | Editing | This is one of the hardest things to do well and takes an inordinate amount of time (hours!!), it's something I really struggle with. You end up filming hours of tape, how to condense that down to 20/10/5 minutes??? Also be aware that most people only watch a few mins of YouTube and then move on, depressing I know. Still you can always watch your videos in their entirety..... | Not important, keep your videos as long as you like :). |
If you don't have access to a fancy DSLR then a really useful, if not integral part of your filming kit is a basic tripod for your phone. I have recently purchased a great bit of kit that allows you to remotely trigger your phone (over bluetooth) and comes with a tripod, I've been using it for a couple of weeks and it is great.... It's so handy being able to activate your phone REMOTELY (no cables) (check the specs before you buy it to confirm it works with yours, mine's an iPhone) whilst it's set up on the tripod.
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If you fancy getting one, you can get one in small phone shops and they're also pretty cheap on Amazon here*AL.
| Date | News |
|---|---|
| 23/06/2020 | New Home Page constructed. New design and feel. New pages added, including a "How To" section.... |
| 11/06/2020 | For those of you have suffered my terrible website to date, I have decided to write a new one. Started the new coding today, will probably take me a week or two to get a V2.0 uploaded, until then I can only apologise. |
| 15/05/2020 | I have a new loco!! My fleet has doubled. Got a lovely new ViTrains Class 37 "Caerphilly Castle" |
| 12/05/2020 | Finally worked out how to get my Guestbook up and running: http://www.aberhaltjunction.co.uk/guestbook/gbook.php?a=sign |
| 11/05/2020 | Updated my Layout Construction page |
| 10/05/2020 | Got my first few YouTube subscribers, THANK YOU all!! |
| 10/05/2020 | Uploaded my first "real" YouTube video, introducing my layout. |
| 04/05/2020 | May the forth be with you! Joined MRYCG on Facebook, what a great place, so much inspiration, from basic to expert. |
| 01/05/2020 | Uploaded my first ever YouTube video!!  |
| 01/05/2020 | New version of website uploaded, landing page complete plus "About Me" Section. |
| 30/04/2020 | Work started in earnest on the New (improved hopefully) Website. |
| 30/04/2020 | Hornby affiliate account kindly accepted by Hornby, thanks!  |
| 26/04/2020 | Draft 1 of the website launched. YouTube Channel created, with no videos yet! |
I hope you enjoy your visit around my website, I hope you find it is an improvement on my last incarnation. If you have something which puzzled you for ages and then you managed to fix, please feel free to share it with me, I'm sure you won't be the only person who has the issue. Please feel free to drop me an email, sign my guestbook (very 80's I know) or tweet me with any recommendations that you may have, I'm always learning.
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Read all about it on my home page here.
My Hornby Affiliate Link: 
Contact me with any comments or questions, I'm always keen to learn:
OOGauge; Model Railways; Model Railroad; aberhaltjunction; hornby; hornby select; dapol; class 121; ESU; Loksound V5.0; Hobby; Shed; Class 121; Class 37; Beginners; Trains
