Rotational Banner

Thursday, April 18, 2013

The 2013 RevScene Spring Meet


This year has had the most enduring cold temperatures that I've ever experienced. It is coming near to the end of April and I'm still not sure whether I should swap my winter tires to my summer tires yet. The cold weather persisted to freeze us to death when Puyang and I went to the RevScene meet. However, it was still great to see everyone so enthusiastic about cars and friends.

There were a lot of cars that we have never seen, but also a lot of classics that we saw last year. I deliberately tried to film the cars that have never made it onto film in the past RevScene meet videos. If you would like to see some of the other cars from the 2012 Spring and Summer meet, be sure to check out those videos too

When I was shooting the film, I was sort of expecting this video to be very short. While walking around and looking at all these magnificent project cars, I realized we had skipped a lot of cars because we have used them in videos in the past. However, upon dumping all the files on the computer, I was surprised to find out that there were still too many cars! This final video has been edited down, and many of the cars I shot were actually cut out for the exact run time I had wanted.

This video wasn't a huge improvement compared to the videos shot last year, but we did experiment with some new film filters that I think made the video look a bit nicer. Hope you think so too.

We'll see what the Summer meet has in store later this year, but until then, stay tuned!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Expect what you'd expect

After around two weeks of errands and ordering parts, we have finally gotten everything we need for the next step in our videos. No, sadly it's not stage 2 on the STI just yet, but hopefully I will get some updated news about that later... hint hint.

I have much to tell you, but since a picture is worth a thousand words, I will let most of the pictures we took reveal to you of what's in store for Machine Zealots:

Three episodes will take place on the STI as shown here: Clutch Fluid Change, Transmission Fluid Change, and Rear Differential Oil Change.

Expensive Subaru oils.

Puyang will be leading an episode on the Engine Oil Change for the 2012 VW Golf GTI.

Tools that will be helpful in some of these episodes.

More tools. Even tested some of you on what this is, and what it is for. ;)

Puyang will also be making his first modification episode on the Golf GTI. This shift knob is pretty great!

These are just some of the episodes you guys can expect. These will be our usual technical tutorial videos, that most of you guys watch us for. There are still two car show videos I have yet to edit and upload as well: Revscene Spring Meet 2013, and the 2013 Vancouver Auto Show. That's all for now!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Swift and Silent

YouTube sure works very fast, especially when it has something to do with copyright claims. In the previous post, I mentioned that someone took one of our videos without permission from us, and used it as his/her own. Here are some screenshots of what had unfolded:




Not much else needs to be said, it's pretty clear what had happened. All I had really wanted, was the video to be taken down, but apparently it was enough to shut down the entire channel. Puyang told me that I should have contacted the channel owner first, instead of YouTube.

I feel guilty. And I'm actually sorry. If you are reading this, the owner of flat4online, we didn't mean for YouTube to take down your entire channel and we are sorry to see this happen. Hopefully your future endeavors will prosper.

I hope that anyone who wants or has created a YouTube channel will be diligent, and hard working, and not to steal content from other hard working members online.

This case is closed.



Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Stolen Property

Yesterday afternoon, a concerned viewer sent Machine Zealots a private message on YouTube. They warned us that our video was being ripped off and used on another channel. With the link provided, I checked it out, and as it turned out, someone was indeed stealing our videos for their own channel.

Side by side channel comparison. Identical episodes, uploaded on different dates, and obviously the video is of our creation.

I was sort of shocked, nothing like this has happened to us before. I would say I'm somewhat flattered, because they might have seen some value for them to steal it. However, we aren't going to allow others to upload our videos without prior communication, and granted permission from us.

At this time, we have already filed a copyright claim with YouTube, and they will proceed with the investigation. In the meantime, we don't know if there are any other videos out there that were stolen from us.

If you ever find any of our videos, or even segments of our videos on other channels, please contact us. We would greatly appreciate your help and support.

Thank you!