So I’m a little dizzy from trying to respin the spinmaster, but I gave it a whirl and here’s what I came up with. (You can play too, read more here)

I haven’t been able to find an easy to use online video mixer yet, so I used Snapz to grab footage and edited it on my computer. Snapz has a trial period long enough for this contest, but ultimately it’s a program I own and love. You can import the files into iMovie and cut them up. If you’re having trouble with the Snapz compression, open the file with your Quicktime player and export the file as a “DV Stream.” This helps to cut down on the rendering time when you edit.

Also, it looks like Crooks and Liars has some O’Reilly footge up on its site as MP4s, which can be easily downloaded and imported into your editing program.

Thoughts on editing software-- If you are on Vista, you probably have Movie Maker 6. On a Mac? You have iMovie. There are several online tutorials that you can follow if you need help getting started. Finally, here’s a link to a free video editing program, Video Thang, which on first glance seems accessible and fun.

My biggest challenge was keeping the video simple, Kerry reminded me that it’s better to keep things short and to the point. So even though I love the idea of incorporating some of the awesome old timey public domain clips from the Prelinger archive, it’s okay to just focus on one idea. Mine: show that O’Reilly doesn’t, um, listen. (That said, I think next time I'll use as many wacky video effects as possible!)

I had a pretty good time pulling this piece together. Now I can take a breath and get my balance back.

Kerry has more on how to add your spin here.