This post is part of a series that we’re writing for social media and inbound marketers over at @SMBAustin. If you’ve found these posts to be beneficial, please subscribe to our feed. We’d appreciate it.
Want to download this? We’ve turned it into a pdf for you over at Scribd.
Pre: 15 minutes to get your questions together. Even less if you’re just running down the hall to get the breaking news from your CEO.
Production: 5 – 30 minutes depending on how structured you want to be.
Post Production: 5 – 30 minutes. If you’re just going straight from iMovie to YouTube without any extra goodies then you can be in and out on the blog in minutes.
Distribution: Up to 60 minutes. Again this can be 4 – 5 minutes if you’re not doing any editing. Assume that while you’re uploading your video, you’re tagging, doing descriptions, SEO, creating pdfs and blogging.
Camera: Use anything from your iphone, Kodak Zi8, Canon HV40 or on up the spectrum. Ultimately, don’t be afraid to just shoot with what you have. Your customers care about YOU not the quality of the video (yet).
Audio: If you’re using the Zi8 or a more expensive camera, please shoot with a microphone. All on camera microphones are terrible. Again, the caveat here is – Produce First. Ask Questions Later.
Editing Tools: We’re Mac fans and recommend iMovie for straight captures and Final Cut Express for more detailed editing work. Final Cut Pro after that.
If you’re on a PC, there are loads of inexpensive tools out there:
- Sony Vegas
- Pinnacle
- Adobe Premiere Elements
- Roxio Creator
There are free online ones too:
- www.jaycut.com
There are a variety of interviews that you can shoot quickly and easily.
Breaking news, right now: Did you just get the latest results in on a poll? Did a competitor do something your CEO should comment on? Run down the hall, now!
People Around The Office: Your co-workers may be annoying, but they are interesting. Sure they’re good at their jobs, but they’ve got hobbies, families, commutes and things to talk about other than the latest TPS report. Your customers and friends will think that’s great stuff.
The folks over at Pet Relocation.com have some great anecdotes about customers who have seen their videos of their crew.
Sit Downs With People You Like: Grab a few minutes with a person that you just find interesting in your field. Chris Brogan has latched on to this with this kitchen table talks. You can also use your new camera skills to grab people in your industry.
We talked with Kyle Flaherty over at Breaking Point about the things he’s trying using this technique.
Hey, I’m with…!: At the bar after a great seminar? Pick up your camera and ask your partners for their feedback on what they just learned.
Interviewing can be a difficult skill to master. Keep your subjects in the loop with the questions you’re going to ask and make sure that they know what you’re going to talk about.
Keep it down to a few key points to make things easier on them, you in post production, and your viewing audience later on.
Produce First. Video is about people sharing their stories. Get out there and shoot.
In this post, we show you how to shoot a video book review that shouldn’t break your already stretched time commitments. You can download the pdf over at Scribd. We’ll be improving the package as we add more posts to this series for the folks over at @SMBAustin.
Here’s a rough sketch of the time it takes me to do a video book review. Your time commitment will depend on how much you put into post-production.
Maximum, I spend 2 hours on book review. That includes uploading. If you’re a better multi-tasker you’ll get these things knocked out more quickly – literally in 5 – 10 minutes without a lot of post.
Read the book: This depends on your style.
Get Your Bullets: 15 minutes
Shoot The Review: 5 – 10 Minutes
Edit: 5 -15 minutes
Export and Compress: 10 – 12 Minutes
Upload: Up to 60 minutes depending on file size
Tagging/Descripting: 5 Minutes
Writing Blog post : 10 Minutes
Transcribing: 2 Minutes
Scribd: 3 – 5 Minutes
Keep your book reviews short and to the point.
People tend to stop watching videos that are over 1:30 long as it is. You want to speak from the heart, but only say the 3 – 4 things that you really want people to know about the book.
For examples of people who do it well, take a look at www.chrisbrogan.com and read Chris Ming Ryan. Chris is a professional storyteller and offers great insight on how to keep things zipping along.
Also check out Brand Autopsy’s dramatic readings, they’re definitely a different spin on the genre.
To reduce time, I also shoot with a Canon HV40 right into iMovie on my laptop. This keeps me from having to record to tape and then import later. I despise iMovie for editing and move into Final Cut Express when there’s real work to be done, but it’s great for getting the video shot quickly.
You don’t HAVE to shoot with a microphone, but it sure sounds a whole heck of a lot better. On camera mics are terrible. Plus, people will stick around if they can hear you.
I’ve been using the Audio Technica ATR-3550. It’s wired, easy to use and produces a sound good enough for a quick book report.
Not everyone wants to watch your whole review. They may just want to skim it.
Transcribing your videos not only helps your readers consume your content the way that is easiest for them, but helps seed your post with fresh, SEO tuned content.
I’ve been using SpeakerText with some great results. For $20, you can get several videos transcribed. They usually cost me .33 to $1.50 a piece depending on how verbose I am. Another reason to keep things pithy.
One warning, SpeakerText is in BETA and at times it can take a while for them to find your YouTube video. Don’t get too addicted to the juice just yet – they’re still working out the kinks. UPDATE: Matt Mireles, CEO SpeakerText, and Bjiorn Liljequist were extremely fast and helpful in fixing the problems I had.
It’s all about production and reach these days. While YouTube is your most trafficed video site out there, I highly recommend that you try TubeMogul for launching your book reviews. This can take some time to set up, but you’ll be happier when you see your shining face show up in random places.
Remember that distribution doesn’t just mean video – you’ve created a lot of text-rich content as well. I like to use www.sribd.com to load up my transcriptions and build links back to my videos.
More social media savvy authors will already be listening for mentions of their books. Be sure to tell Twitter what you’ve just created and there is a good chance that the author will comment, respond and even debate with you about your points.
So that’s it. The trick is to just get the video up and work your way into your own style. As you produce more content, you’ll develop patterns that will help you move along more quickly.
In this clip, @Talmadge shows you how to convert the h.264 codec from the Zi8 into an Apple Intermediate Codec that plays well if Final Cut Express using a free tool called MPEG Streamclip. This should cut your render times way down and give you more time doing the creative video work that you really love.
The Zi8 records video to the h.264 codec which is a finishing format, not really a production format. It’s great for sending files up to YouTube, but not good for editing. Plus Final Cut Express only supports DV, HDV, and AVCHD footage, so in order to work with a file from the Zi8, you have convert the file to something that it supports natively.
1) Download MPEG Streamclip from Squared5. It’s free.
2) Import your file from the Zi8.
3) Open your file in MPEG Streamclip. File > Open Files.
4) Convert your file to Quicktime. File > Export To Quicktime
5) Choose these settings:
Compression: Apple Intermediate Codec
Quality 100%
Frame Size: 1920×1080 (HDTV 1080i) or whatever you shot in
Click Make Movie
6) After you have your movie, bring it into FCE and you’re done!
Check out VideoCamp Austin for more tips on becoming a faster, more creative web video storyteller.
We recently loaded up a video for our customer Morris, Craven & Sulak, Austin personal injury attorneys and I wanted to share the two day results here.
On Monday, we released the video on YouTube in the late afternoon.
Tuesday, the video had not indexed in YouTube or in Google Video search.
Wednesday, our video was ranked # 3 in Google Video search and # 1 in YouTube for the keywords that we had defined.
Screenshots of the results are below.
Oh, and if you want to see the video, it’s here!
Three point lighting is a simple technique that still photographers and videographers alike use to set their subject off from a background and remove any unwanted shadows often caused by direct lighting.
As you can see from the snapshots below, lighting makes all the difference:
Often, when you’re shooting video in the office you don’t have access to multiple lights or a high-dollar light kit. What follows are some tricks that you can use to create pleasant lighting when you’re grabbing video of your cube-mates and executives.
Key Light
The key light is your main source of light. It sits in front of the subject and illuminates your subject directly.
Fill Light
The fill light does just what it says. It fills in shadows from the key light. Normally, it sits to the side of the subject a little lower than the key light and is a softer light. Often you can use a reflector to bounce light off of the key if you’re looking for something softer.
Back Light
The back light sits opposite the fill light and a little behind your subject. Its purpose is to set your subject off from the background by providing highlights or a “rim” along your subjects contours.
You always want to light your subject and you want to get your lighting right the first time. But without a light kit, what do you do?
It bears repeating that there are a couple of good rules of thumb about light:
• Fluorescent lights are bad.
• Sunlight is good.
• In the daytime, always be on the lookout for a window next to which you can shoot your subject.
Before you get shooting, do yourself a favor and take note of the lighting in your office. Do you have fluorescents? Have a window handy? Do you have direct inset lights in the ceiling?
Ideally, look for a window and use that as your key light. For a fill, use something reflective to bounce light back onto your subject. This can be foam core, aluminum foil, a reflective car sun visor…
For a back light grab whatever’s handy around you. Clamp-on work lights make great hair lights–but just about anything will work. The trick is to just get a nice little glint of light off the top of their head to give it a little more depth. But don’t waste time on it. All you really need is a key and a fill in a pinch.
Always use whatever natural light is available whenever possible. Don’t believe people when they say there is no natural light at their office. Look around for that window with the boring view that everyone’s forgotten about because they’ve got too many fluorescent lights blaring down at them.
Turn off the lights and practice unpacking your gear in the dark while your eyes adjust.
If the light’s too low, see if you can kick it up a little with a light of your own to keep your ISO from going too high.
Those clamp-on lights do come in handy though.
@BigManWeston used one as a key for an interview where the only natural light was straining its way in through a small 1.5′ x 2′ window near the ceiling. That ended up being the fill. It looked great.
Some caveats to all this:
Don’t be such a sun worshiper that your ISO creeps up and your footage ends up a grainy mess.
Buy good light bulbs for that clamp-on work light. They need to have at least a 90 CRI (color rendering index–to give you vibrant color) and a color temperature around 5000-6000K (to match the tone of natural light).
You can get them here:
http://www.naturallighting.com/web/shop.php?crn=565&start=1
These kind of lights cost between 4 and 10 times as much as the ones you pick-up at 7-11 on a whim–more than that clamp light cost you. They are worth every penny. If you don’t want to spend that much on light bulbs, leave the clamp on light at home.
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Images thanks to Wikipedia, FromTheNorth, and Sheba_Also.
Have you ever noticed that executives tend to come off stiff, polished and rehearsed on web video? And who can blame them. It’s their job to provide a clear vision for their employees and boards of directors. They have to be ON. All. The. Time.
But when you’re trying to humanize your company with a few quick Flip segments, having a well trained, professional, speaker can come off, well, kinda fake. Your boss’s heart is in the right place, but all that professionalism can get in the way of some good ol’ fashioned transparency.
It often takes practice to appear natural in front of a camera, particularly for some executives who might associate an informal demeanor with being unprofessional or even disrespectful. So here are a few tricks to try to help your client feel and appear a little more relaxed on camera.
On almost every shoot we do, an interviewee will explain something over and over again while on camera and just not get it right.
The second we flip off the camera though, he says, “No, it’s really true.”
Then he proceeds to provide a heartfelt, thoughtful explanation of the topic. You can tell that he genuinely believes the message he wants to convey in the video, but has trouble speaking informally when he’s got a camera recording every sound and move he makes for all the world to see on the internet forever and ever. That could make anyone nervous and no one can appear nervous and credible at the same time.
Solution?
Don’t turn off the camera. Don’t lie and say you’ve done it when you haven’t. Just reach over and touch the back of your camera and change your tone of voice. What do I mean by change your tone of voice? The next time you’re on a shoot, be mindful of the shift that occurs in your feelings and actions after you turn off the camera. Do your shoulders relax a little now that you don’t have to be keeping track of everything in real-time? Do you speak more freely or even a little louder now that you’re not worried about talking over an interviewee’s line and messing up the audio? Maybe you take a deep breath and reach for your water bottle. Often these changes are subtle, but these non-verbal cues can be incredibly effective at setting your client at ease.
You’ll find that the weight of the world lifts from your boss’s shoulders, the skies open, birds start singing…
And they tell you the truth.
Transparency is so important in web video. Especially if you have to respond to a crisis situation with a quick YouTube video – much like what Dominos had to do earlier this year.
Does that video feel off to you? Yeah, me too.
To avoid coming off stiff and rehearsed, ask your subject to give her side of things in her own words.
This is an art form. Let her write it out. Ask her to cuss or make it rhyme. Have fun with it.
Just ask her to do something different to break up the corporate PR speak that we’ve all grown to hate.
One way of accelerating a feeling of comfort with someone is to shift locations repeatedly in a short period of time.
When we’ve seen someone in multiple situations we tend to think that we know a lot more about them. The same works for video production.
After changing locations a few times, your subject will get used to the process and will eventually feel like he’s part of the team.
Feeling more involved, your subject will relax a bit and give you more natural dialogue.
There’s a line here. Be sure to be conscious of your boss’s time and let them know you will have better options in post-production with a good variety of angles and backgrounds.
Another spin on the “own words” trick is to have your executive explain the situation/pitch/subject as if he was talking to an old friend, or explaining it to a child. Or, better, his Mom.
This works well for subjects who have already internalized a topic. He knows all the points and can hit them with half a brain tide behind his back, but when the camera comes on he acts like he’s talking to the board of directors.
Finally, practice, practice, practice. Get your boss used to being around you and the camera. Get them involved in the project. Remember that she does have a lot of responsibility and it’s your job to make her (and your company) look good and credibly represent the truth behind your company’s message.
And, remember. Fly casual.
What’s worked for you? I would LOVE to hear your tips on this. Ping me at @Talmadge or leave a comment if you’ve got some ideas.
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There’s no doubt that a quick, unscripted video shot on your Nano humanizes you and your business for your audience. Sure, it may sound off and look a little dark. It’s good enough. It’s your story, your narrative, that matters the most, right?
Right. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that lower quality footage is synonymous with authenticity. Looking for the right lighting or improving your audio with a good mic or even scripting yourself a little is no more inauthentic than editing your blog posts.
For years the Hollywood advertising machine has super-produced and caramelized life into pithy plastic phrases that no longer ring true for us. We’ve just gotten too savvy. Not to mention that we want to know the people we’re buying from. We’ve rightfully swung away from over-budgeted shotgun advertising.
Let’s just not swing too far.
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Image courtesy of frerieke
As I look into my crystal ball, I see every business with an entertaining, educational, well-produced show. Eventually, all these shows will wind up on our own “business” YouTube where we don’t have to compete with Lady Gaga videos. As such, I’d like to help you get ready on the “well-produced” part.
And that starts with your camera. You gotta have one. You might as well make an educated choice.
The answer to this question will determine the camera you pick. Are you running around the office, grabbing co-workers for branding videos? Do you want to put on an ongoing show? Do you spend lots of time at after parties in bars? How much fiddling to want to be able to do with your new toy?
If you’re not technical and just want to grab shots while the getting’s good you may want to stick with an UltraHD Flip. For $199.00 you can get a lot done.
However, bear in mind that the Flip gives you no control over audio levels, white balance, aperture, shutter speed, gamma, etc. If you don’t know what most of those terms mean and don’t have the time or the inclination to learn about them, a Flip may be a good option for you.
If you’d like to do something other than point and shoot, then consider a larger camcorder with more features.
Anyone who has spent time with video knows that the real work begins in post-production (editing).
Before you select your camera think about these things:
Do you need to archive your footage? Flash based systems like the Flip are great unless you need to store your original footage. In order to store flash media you’ll either need to have lots of memory sticks or you’ll have to import the footage and then burn it to a DVD.
Tape makes archiving easier because it’s cheap and can be shelved, but it does take longer to get into your machine. You’ll also need a Firewire port on your laptop if you choose tape.
How much editing do you plan to do? If you plan on making small quick cuts, you can use something like the software that comes with the Flip or Nano. Alternatively, you could choose from a host of cheap/free editing programs that are available like Pinnacle and VideoSpin. These come out all the time and are always jockeying to be the best service by adding more and more editing functionality. Just search “online video editing reviews” to get more information on the latest offerings.
If you want to get into titling, transitions and audio changes, Mac owners will have to move up to a program like Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere.
PC owners will want Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas. These programs are incredibly powerful. However, they are not cheap and have a considerably steeper learning curve. Editing is an art, though the basics are easy to learn. Most of the best editors spend their entire careers honing their craft.
Will your software support the codec? Remember that cameras like the Flip are designed for easy distribution to YouTube so they compress immediately to H.264. This is good for small cuts, but if you’re going to scale up to more sophisticated editing, you’ll have to transcode to a different codec which takes time away from your computer and your life.
There’s not much to say here.
There’s no reason not to shoot HDV these days. The picture quality is superb. And you can get into HDV well under $200.00.
The Samsontech Q3
The only exception may be the recently released Zoom Q3 which records far superior audio to any other flip on the market. It doesn’t have HD, but if you’re just shooting for YouTube, that’s not really a concern.
The microphones that come on cameras generally pick up everything but the subject of your video. Often the mic is on top of the camera and as such it picks up the interviewer and the air conditioning system better than the interviewee. You wind up with footage that sounds like God has stepped in to do a little production work for the day.
Ideally, you want a camera that has audio-in jacks so you can plug in a shotgun mic or a lavalier. A lavalier is a small clip-on mic that the speaker wears. A shotgun mike is a long highly directional microphone. It’s the one you see on the end of a stick on film sets. If you’re going to stick with on-camera, try to go with one that has the microphone in the front. Like the Zoom Q3.
Without getting too technical, the general rule is that a bigger sensor is better because a bigger sensor means better resolution. But it’s not always true. Before you dive in, check out something like www.camcorderinfo.com to see how your camera rates for resolution.
In general, an optical zoom is always better than a digital zoom. This is because digital really doesn’t “zoom.” It blows up the image which causes loss of resolution until you eventually lose clarity around your subject altogether.
HDV cameras shoot in 1440×1080 resolution, but even HD video for the web is cut down to 1280×720. This means that you have a lot of room to zoom into your footage while you’re sitting in front of your computer. Again, this may test your limits as a videophile.
Video craves light. Things are a lot better than they used to be but you still need to be aware that cameras in the sub $600 range are all going to have about the same quality low light performance. Unless you’re working with a specialty camera you’ll find the ratings to be roughly the same.
When looking at camera specs to determine how a camera will perform in lowlight, what you need to know is that light performance is measured in lux. Lux measures the apparent intensity of light hitting a surface. Cameras that require lower lux perform better in low light conditions.
A couple of good rules of thumb about light:
• Fluorescent lights are bad.
• Sunlight is good.
• In the daytime, always be on the lookout for a window next to which you can shoot your subject.
Take 30 seconds to look around your shooting environment think about where the lighting is best before you start shooting your interview. Don’t be shy about asking your subject to move to get into better light. Most people are happy to do it when you explain that it will make them look better.
These few seconds of thought can often be the difference between capturing footage that is unusable and footage that is beautiful. This is true regardless of how fancy your camera is and even in less than ideal shooting locations, i.e. all of them.
There are many more things to think about when you’re choosing your camera for the office- from stabilization, to still pics, to lens quality – the options are legion. Ultimately, think about what you really plan on doing with your camera and once you purchase it, learn its limits. Mistakes made in production can sometimes be fixed in post, but don’t count on it.
Do further research into your camcorder. A great place to start is with www.camcorderinfo.com. They cover most camcorders and rate them across a variety of metrics.
If you’re in the Flip camcorder market, go ahead and get the best deal you can from an online retailer. Before you buy, go to www.resellerratings.com to verify that you’re working with a reputable store. There are a lot of charlatans who make wild claims about pricing that are too good to be true.
Finally, if you’re going to make a larger investment, buy from a store where you can build a relationship with the team there. It will cost a little more, but they will more than make up for it as a resource to help your with questions or problems you may have with your camera after you purchase it.
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I stole this title from Justin R. Levy, who posted a video of Chris Brogan speaking about Social Media Marketers and tools at the Inbound Marketing Summit.
I really wanted to watch the video. I really did. I dig what these guys are up to. At first, this post was supposed to be about Chris’s presentation. But here’s the problem:
I couldn’t hear it.
The echo on the mic is so bad that the presentation is extremely difficult to understand.
So, here are a couple things to keep in mind when you’re shooting a video for the web.
1) People Will Watch Poor Quality Video If the Audio Is Good, But Not The Other Way Around
2) People Generally Won’t Watch Video Over 3 Minutes Long
The combination of a 20 minute piece and an echo chamber made the clip unbearable for me. I feel like I missed an opportunity to learn something.
This makes me sad.
The folks over at the Inbound Marketing Summit have all the tools in the world to produce something that could be really extend the life of Chris’s presentation and the overall experience- something we could share easily. Either the audio could have been captured at the board or Justin could have chopped up the video into smaller chunks.
Often, video is “good enough”. Just look at the success of UltraHD Flips. Hell, Chris Brogan’s personal vlogs are phenomenal. And, in those situations the web cam is the right tool for the job.
But if you’re going to record a presentation, just take a few moments upfront to think about distribution and how your tools are going to get you there.
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A few weeks ago, I wrote a post called “What is Social Video Marketing?” then followed it up with this one.
I did it mostly because I wanted to explore a definition of the term. Originally intended as a two part post, this third piece wraps up my thoughts on the concept.
There’s a wonderful campaign put on by London’s Viral Factory for the Samsung I8910 HD phone that captures how to really engage an audience. Adage and Matt Cutler from Visible Measures picked it up and discussed how the truly are creating a new form viral video.
By creating a video that tickled the mind, they invited the audience to participate in the next video. Simply asking “How did we do it?” they invoked responses and added those to the next video in which they revealed the “magic.”
This kind of storytelling involves the audience and asks them to respond, participate and share in the story.
@daveiam here in Austin also engaged the local community by creating Lights. Camera. Help. – a film festival for non-profit organizations. Videos about causes and non-profit organizations were shown to develop the new “film-for-a cause” genre. The entire community got together to create, promote and discuss the videos.
It’s a bit like saying that writing requires a pencil, but video marketing does require technology in order to do all of the wonderful things that it does.
That doesn’t mean that the technology is the prime component of a social video marketing strategy. It merely enables it.
The people and the innovation behind the story are the fundamental piece of the video puzzle.
Not long ago, I interviewed @poneal and @kyleflaherty about using video. Their key point? You’ve got to be a great story teller. They technology is there, it’s inexpensive and necessary, but you’ve got to be able to come up with content that your customers want to pay attention to.
Just because you have a pencil doesn’t make you Shakespeare, but you can’t get there without a writing utensil.
So, Social Video Marketing it important to the future of small business marketing. It makes you easy to find online, develops your personal brand, builds connections with your customers, and is measurable. Though it requires some knowledge of the technology, you can still jump in with both feet. Most videos are “good enough” and can be produced with a sub $1000 commitment.
Get a video out there. Strive to get better. Go tell your story.
Check out the pilot we produced for TAKE Supply Chain’s web video series. More to come soon!
Our friends at Phurnace Software asked us to help them create a show that highlights their ability to automate java application deployments. Phurnace builds software to help companies automate the deployment of J2EE applications and configuration of WebSphere, WebLogic, JBoss or WebSphere Portal.
Shot on a Canon HV30 and performed by Larry Warnock and Jessica Gass [...]
Our friends at Phurnace Software, who make Java application deployment software, are gearing up to announce a new “rollback” feature in their Portal Deliver product at the next Websphere Portal Excellence Conference.
They asked us to put together a quick promo piece to invite people to their booth.
We are gearing up for a great [...]
We put together a book trailer for the book “Smoke Screen” by Sandra Brown.
Ms. Brown isn’t a customer of ours, but we felt like playing around a little with graphic animation, and intrigue. You can find out more about the book and the author over at Barnes and Noble.
The Pink Slip Festival in Austin, Texas provided free live music, family fun, cheap beer and hotdogs for Austin’s unemployed families. Dan Dillard of Amplify Financial created the Pink Slip Festival as an Austin styled response at to the down economy. The Pink Slip Festival was held at the Spider House coffee shop and featured [...]
It’s no big secret that @bigmanweston and I like to eat.
My wife is a killer cook and Weston’s culinary paramour, @girlblake, can make a mean Sunny Side Up-Cake.
So when she decided to take her cupcakes on the road to the Cupcake Smackdown 1.0, we thought we’d tag along with a camera.
There were many entries. [...]
