This is a workshop outline used at the Interfaith Resource Center on February 21, 2009.

Making Your Own Videos

Some Tips for Beginners

Instructor:  TCDavis

A.  Why bother with making videos?

1.  because video is the medium most like life as we experience it, with vision, sound, and sequence.

2.  because video has become the major way of learning for younger people, so that if you want to reach them, you had better be accomplished at using video.

3.  because it's a much more persuasive way for your church to communicate online with the public.  Start thinking of your church's website as a TV channel instead of a brochure.

4.  because its fun--a technical and artistic challenge!

B.  What equipment (hardware) do I need to make my own videos?

1.  Ideally, a camcorder.  However, many point-and-shoot digital cameras take decent video.  Even some cell phones are now capable!  And check out the easy to operate and inexpensive video camera at:  http://www.flipvideo.com.  It's solid state, has no wires, requires no tape, and is very quick to operate. 

 

2.  You can make great videos with still digital pictures and recorded sound.  For recording sound, it's best to use a digital sound recorder.  I recommend the Olympus LS-10.  Or, you could use a digital camera that takes video and shoot for sound, later stripping away the sound track from the video track.  I do not recommend trying to convert sound recordings made with an analog tape recorder, (such as a cassette recorder) because they almost always have a slight hissing sound (from the moving tape); and converting analog sound to digital files is complicated and, unless done professionally, yields a poor product.

 

In any case, don't wait to get the ideal equipment.  Learn now, with the equipment you may already have.

 

3.  A computer with at least 1 gig of RAM is desirable, because the editing process goes much better if your computer has sufficient memory to handle the processing involved.  Obviously, a computer with a fast chip and a dedicated graphics card is ideal for editing.  However, you can certainly get by with a less sophisticated personal computer if you use a no-fancy-stuff editing program, such as Windows "Movie Maker".  Some online editors will also get the basic job done. 

4.  You will take steadier movies if you use a tripod.  Camcorders are light, so you don't need an expensive tripod to support them.

C.  Before you begin shooting, here are some things to think about:

1.  My target audience:  Who will be my most likely viewers?  What would attract them, educate them, entertain them?

2.  Content:  What do I want to shoot for this audience?  What content will best achieve my communication purpose?

3.  Story line:  Video is sequential, even if it is not narrative in style.  How shall your movie proceed?  Sketch out a rough sequence of scenes.

4.  Equipment ready:  Make sure your camera and tripod are clean and in good repair.  Charge the batteries.  Make sure you have adequate card or tape space for the length of video you want to shoot.  Carry some spare tapes or cards just in case you encounter unexpected needs on the shoot.

D.  Basic tips for shooting good video

1.  GET CLOSE TO YOUR SUBJECT!  This applies whether you're shooting still pictures or moving ones.  This practice will  produce a more interesting video, but also a visually and audibly clearer one.  Cropping video is difficult, so don't include extraneous material as you frame your shots.  Fill up the frame.

 

2.  GET AS MUCH LIGHT AS YOU CAN!  Just about all consumer camcorders are not capable of taking good indoor video unless there is more light than usual trained on your subject.  If possible, open curtains at windows, turn on all the lights available.  And, once again, shoot up close (because the light on a subject's face falls off very quickly as you move away from him or her).  If you have a very low light situation, consider shooting still shots with on-camera flash.  You can edit still shots into a nice cinematic sequence and impart movement to the frames by zooming and panning (the "Ken Burns Effect").

 

3.  KEEP THE BACKGROUND BEHIND YOUR SUBJECTS SIMPLE AND WELL CONTRASTED IN COLOR WITH THE SUBJECTS.  A visually complicated background will make more work for the video compression coder (called the "codec"), and will produce inferior video for streaming.  This is the technical reason for keeping the background simple.  But, there is an aesthetic reason too:  It will not distract the viewer.

 

4.  USE AN EXTERNAL MICROPHONE IF YOU HAVE ONE.  Not only the intensity of light, but also of sound diminishes quickly the further you move away from the subject you are filming.  So, if you have a wand mic, or a lapelle mic, or a zoom mic on your camcorder, use it.

 

5.  IF YOU ARE INTERVIEWING A PANEL OF PEOPLE, DON'T PAN FROM PERSON TO PERSON; CUT OUT FROM ONE SUBJECT AND THEN CUT IN TO THE NEXT (by pausing your camera's record mode and then restarting it).  Panning footage when streamed produces inferior quality, and, it's boring and unnecessary.

 

6.  IF YOUR CAMERA HAS ZOOM CAPABILITY, USE IT SPARINGLY AND SLOWLY:  You will ruin the dramatic effect of zooming in to a subject if you overuse that technique in a video.  Also, you may risk giving your viewers motion sickness

: ).

 

7.  COMPOSE YOUR SHOTS WITH THE SAME COMPOSITION RULES YOU WOULD USE IN GOOD STILL PHOTOGRAPHY:  Especially, use the "Rule of Thirds".  Don't put your subject smack dab in the middle of the frame, but slightly to one side or the other.  This will make for an aesthetically more pleasing presentation.  Also, keep the visual content simple.  If you intend to stream the video on the Internet, simplicity is especially important, because you can include only so much detail in a small window!

E.  Tips for editing your video

1.  The editing programs that come with your computer's operating system are good, such as Mac's iMovie and Windows' Movie Maker.  If you want to spend $50 or more for a good editor, I recommend Pinnacle or Ulead or Sony's Vegas.  Online video editors are mostly still in the experimental (beta) phases of development.  You can read a good review of online editors at:  http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2124590,00.asp

 

2.  As you edit your movie DON'T FORGET TO SAVE YOUR PROJECT FREQUENTLY!  The editing process is more complicated than lots of things your personal computer is asked to do.  If you work too long on editing without saving your work, your computer's available memory will be overtaxed and the program will likely crash.  You sure wouldn't want to lose everything you've worked so hard on for the last twenty minutes!  A good rule of thumb might be:  Save your work after editing each clip.

 

3.  When video editing programs import resources, like sound files and video clips and still pictures, they do not copy these to a new folder.  This is so because such files are usually large, and some users are limited in the amount of disk space they have, ruling out making duplicates.  So, when the video editor imports a file, it maps the location of that file on your computer.  Make sure that you have these resource files stored in a place where you can leave them, undisturbed.  (Your computer's Desktop is not a good place!)  By all means, avoid moving your resource files once your video editor has mapped their location.  If you move them, the next time you open your video project, the editor won't know where to find the resource files you moved (and you may not remember where you put them).

 

4.  For editing sound files you just can't beat the free, downloadable program for your computer, Audacity.  It's cross-platform, meaning that it works on Mac and Windows and Linux computers. 

F.  Respect copy rights and privacy

1.  Don't publish what doesn't rightfully belong to you.  Soundtracks can be an especially frustrating challenge to the amateur videographer, because you can't use commercially produced music as background for your videos without the permission of the person or agency who holds copyright to the music.  Some video editing programs have packaged sound tracks, organized by genres.  You can make your own sound tracks with loops of music in such programs as Mac's Garage Band.  Or, you can get together with friends and record your own music!

 

2.  You may be able to find free suitable Creative Commons music at http://www.jamendo.com.  Or, you may find reasonably priced music loops at one of the following sites:

 

http://www.gmpmusic.com/

 

http://www.ntracks.com/

 

http://www.studiocutz.com/

 

http://www.musicbakery.com/

 

http://www.uniquetracks.com/index.html

 

 

3.  If you are interviewing someone by video, it's a good idea to get written permission to publish material involving their likeness and words.

G.  Tips for publishing your video

1.  You can, of course, produce better quality video by burning your movie onto a DVD.  This is a good solution if the purpose of your video is to provide material for internal consumption of a group.  But, if you want your video to have a WIDE audience, publish online!  You can read a good review of online of video publishing sites at:  http://www.dvguru.com/2006/04/07/ten-video-sharing-services-compared/

 

Following are some critical notes about several video hosting services I've tried myself:

 

YouTube: the king of all video hosters.

Advantages: Serves a huge audience--more than all other sites combined.

Dependability of uploads is good.

Disadvantages: Quality is average.

Videos are limited to 10 minutes, with 4 minutes the recommended size.

Content is not reviewed. Much duplication. Some content is not suitable for youth.

 

My Space: also a huge audience

Advantages: claims 17 percent of viewing audience.

Disadvantages: not likely to be accessed by persons not on MySpace

 

Veoh

Advantages: no limit on file size, so videos over 10 minutes are possible

Disadvantages: uploader is fairly often not dependable

objectionable content easier to access than on some other sites

 

Metacafe

Advantages: excellent quality of the images, and content is well vetted and organized

If your video plays to more than 20,000 viewers, you get paid!

Disadvantages: commands only 1 percent of viewing audience

 

Yahoo:

Advantages: will make your video more noticeable, due to Yahoo's extensive info network

better video quality for Windows users, because player is Windows Media, not Flash

 

Vimeo

Advantages: family-oriented site

No limit on file size; however, weekly upload limit of 250MB

Viewers can download original video vile to their own computers

 

For uploading your videos to multiple sites all at once, try these two services:

 

Hey! Spread

If you have video already uploaded to one site, Hey!Spread will upload it from there to multiple sites which you designate

 

Tube Mogul

When you designate the multiple sites for uploading, Tube Mogul allows you to store your uploading passwords on its computer so that you don't have to enter these each time you upload.

 

Also, Tube Mogul allows you to track the viewing traffic at each site to which it uploaded your video.

 

The most critical factor in choosing an online hosting service, in my opinion, is:  Does the upload process work?  Many are finicky.  I find that YouTube is fairly reliable.  A criticism of YouTube was that its video quality has lagged behind some of the competition.  But I'm finding that YouTube's quality is improving, particularly if you observe the recommended settings for a movie:  320 x 240 pixels, around 30 frames per second; and save your movie as an .mp4 file.

 

H. YouTube's published tips for achieving optimum quality of video playback on their site:

Keep your video to 10 minutes or less

Export your video in mpeg-4 H.264 format

Size your video to 320 x 240 pixels

For best sound in mono, use AAC at 64 kbit/sec;

for stereo, use AAC at 128 kbit/sec

Use simple backgrounds, closeups rather than wide shots, hard cuts, no transitions, slow movements, no pans, tripod to minimize camera movement