Putting on a Musical-The Value of Google!

I am currently directing a short church youth production with around 150 youth ages 12-14. I've learned a lot, something I want to put into a separate blog, but today I want to sing the praises of two Google products: GoogleGroups and Google Video.

My actors have 6 songs to memorize in just 10 practices, spread over a couple months. Many of them don't have musical experience, and they need to hear the music and get it into their heads. I put together a Practice Cd, but knowing that some of them will lose it, I wanted to upload the songs somewhere online. I tried to upload it onto this blog--but Blogspot no longer uploads MP3s. A bit discouraged, I discovered the ease and flexibility of GoogleGroups (disclaimer: I am in no way connected to the Google company and don't make a dime off this "Ode").

GoogleGroups makes it possible to combine a website-type homepage, a discussion area, a file upload area (up to 100 mb)and a collaborative document area. For Free. You can imagine my enthusiasm. If you want to check out what I've done on our Youth Production Googlegroup, goto: Youth Production GoogleGroup

Because so many of my actors don't know what a musical production is like, I knew I needed to put together a visual picture for them. I combined video footage from a Newport Beach Youth Celebration with our songs to make a music video of sorts. Having put the hours in to make it (I like the movie making software Pinnacle Studio, but a couple times it deleted parts of my work or froze, so it took many hours, yuck!) I wanted the actors to have it, but I didn't want to burn individual dvds. I wanted to post it online somewhere and link it to my Google Group.

I first tried YouTube, but they only allow an upload of 100mb or less. And no matter how I changed the format, I couldn't get it below 100mb and still have it look good. Then I discovered Google Video. They have an "above 100mb" option. Free. It worked and now my GoogleGroup links to the "music video" I made AND some YouTube video footage of a Youth Celebration in Sacramento that I found while figuring this all out. AND I linked to a video of the 2006 Portland Dance Festival--who are lending us our costumes.

So my GoogleGroup has turned into a great place for information on our youth production. And the teaser lines of "costume sneak peek" might just bring them to the site. I don't expect it to be my only information outlet, but I consider it another way to help our communication.

I'm so excited about these technologies that I just had to share.

Anyone else tried them?

~Valerie