There’s a surprising number of actors willing to walk out from the side of the browser window and talk about your website. Don’t they get lonely though? Hanging outside the edge of the frame, silently waiting for their chance, going over their lines, just hoping, praying, that someone will come visit. To the lonely video spokesmen and spokeswomen of the world, I say “wait no more! Your time is now!” I’ve invited a bunch of them to my Video Spokesperson Walkout Party. And man oh man are they a boisterous bunch! Here’s how to throw a Video Spokesperson Party of your own:
- Pick a seed page. This will form the backdrop of your party. This time of the year, I like a good old-fashioned Yule Log.
- Add the first spokesperson. A few of the walkout sites offer the ability to preview, but as far as I could find, only the one at VirtualLiveActors.com exposes this functionality in a url-friendly format that will allow us to share it when we’re done. The only catch is that if your seed page contains a URL query string, we need to hide it because the VirtualLiveActors preview tool also relies on a query string to work. This is easily accomplished using bit.ly or any other URL shortener.
- Shorten the URL. If we want to have multiple spokespeople at our party, we’ll need to paste the VirtualLiveActor preview URL back into the preview tool. Again, we’ll need to shorten the URL to remove any query strings.
- Add the next spokesperson. Select a new actor and if you like, change his or her position on the screen. Paste your shortened URL into the preview tool to generate a new preview URL.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 until your party is happenin’!
- Go check out the party! Here’s one I made with the Yule Log background.