Fun and frustration with Substack video
My experiment at creating a video and struggle to upload it to a post
Today’s post is not what I had planned. I was going to share a video, but uploading it to Substack in a format it would accept has proved frustrating. So it will have to wait until later in the week when I have – I hope – sussed out how to make it work.
Meantime I will tell you a bit about the what and why, to tempt you to watch when I am successful. If you are not keen on viewing videos, or lack any interest in creating one yourself, feel free to skip my semi-technical explanation below. Don’t worry, I haven’t caught the TikTok craze – my normal service of illustrated text posts will resume after this.
What the video is about
I shot this video during a walk I took on Wednesday, which was blessed by sunshine and remarkably warm temperatures for Scotland at this time of year (over 10ºC). It started from Comrie Croft, originally a small farm barely able to support one family, that now provides a living for about 40 people. Since becoming a hostel and campsite (and ‘green’ wedding venue), several enterprises have grown up here, including: a bike shop and mountain bike trails, a market garden, a tea room, an art hut and a sauna in the woods.
The route I took crossed onto neighbouring Fordie estate then meandered uphill through woods with some remarkable trees. Higher up I crossed open ground, detouring to a deserted township, on my way to a Neolithic stone circle on a hilltop. This was a superb viewpoint, especially on a blue sky day. The sun was setting as I came back down, passing a lacy waterfall.
In a week’s time I will be leading my walking group around this route and I wanted to check whether anything had changed since I was last there. Plenty had, with Fordie’s new owners forging highly-engineered tracks deep into the hills, replacing some lovely old grassy tracks. Fortunately my return downhill used untouched, grassy old tracks on the hill land of Balmuick farm.
During the day many thoughts crossed my mind about the history of these places, the people who have inhabited them and changes in land use over the centuries. I will write about these over the coming week for next Saturday’s post.
Why I am trying video
I decided to have a bash at video, inspired by the fact that Live Video became available across the Substack platform this week. I wasn’t inclined to go live, which requires a WiFi connection, but to create a video outdoors that I could subsequently share in a Video post. Walking and exploring the natural world interests me more than sitting at a desk having a conversation.
As well as conventional text posts (which can have images, video and audio embedded in them), Substack offers specific Video or Audio posts, which behave differently on the platform. I was intrigued to see how a Video post would appear to my subscribers, whether they look at my posts on the app, web or simply in an email. Presumably in the latter case, the email will include a link to view the video online? I don’t know without trying, as it doesn’t seem to be explained in the Support pages.
iPhone experiment
Attempting to take the quickest and simplest approach possible, I tried filming and editing the video entirely on my iPhone. In the past I have lugged a camera and tripod around walks in order to film a series of clips. That takes a lot of time and effort. So, knowing that iPhone video has some pretty good in camera stabilisation, I gave it a go.
I recorded the sound without using an external, shielded microphone, so captured some wind noise, which becomes more obvious at higher elevations. If I was going to do more of this, I would get an adaptor for the microphone I use on my camera that would allow me to attach it to the iPhone. My numerous short video clips were remarkably easy to edit together in iMovie, albeit I needed time and patience to order and trim them.
However, getting the resulting video into Substack was easier said than done. First of all it can’t be done in the mobile app and needed me to be logged in on the website. Secondly, Substack’s support pages are pretty vague about what formats it will accept, so I’ve been spending hours trying to squeeze my video into a form that will upload to the platform. I’m beginning to wonder whether it would have been easier to simply upload it to Vimeo and include a link in the post.
In addition, I’ve concluded that Substack won’t accept Mac’s .mov Quicktime format, so I have been trying to convert my video to .mp4 using FreeConvert. This stalled, so I’ve been progressively reducing my video resolution, hoping I can make it work.
What next?
I’m not there yet, so watch this space..
You will find out whether I succeeded in my next post.
That's strange. I've uploaded videos I've taken on my phone, after sending them to my laptop, without a problem. That's been in the text post though rather than a video post.
Very interested that you found it difficult to upload videos, I have tried simple ones on a number of occasions and just get the dreaded upload circle, until I give up and delete it. I haven’t worked it out at all. So will look with interest at your findings. I am loathe to upload short videos to YouTube and share the link although I know that is an option too. Anyway - like you I will keep trying!