Better Internet Video

I’ve always wondered if I’d ever be confident enough to appear on live TV and today I found out that it’s not quite as nerve-racking as I feared. Public speaking (without having an interviewer to ask questions) is probably scarier, so I definitely owe a debt of gratitude to Toastmasters for helping me conquer my fears of being in the spotlight. What are your fears? Have any of them kept you from putting yourself out there in a YouTube video?

I’ve seen so many cheesy wedding videos with cheap graphics and awful transitions that I’ve had to be clear with people that I’m not a wedding videographer. Recently, however, I’ve been blown away by the incredibly high quality that wedding videos have taken. Before, when I heard talk of wedding video I think of the worst possible quality. But now, there’s almost been a 180-degree shift. Okay, yeah, I’ll say it: wedding video is actually cool.

1. The biggest reason for higher production value is the invention of digital still cameras (DSLR’s) that can shoot video, which allow a highly skilled photographer to now double as a highly skilled cinematographer.
2. The second reason why I believe that producing wedding video is no longer career suicide for a video producer: YouTube has given us a license to be as funky and creative as we like. With the popularity of dancing bride-and-groom videos, it’s clear that fun is in.
3. Even if you’re not an event videographer, you can still be part of a couple’s wedding festivities with carefully crafted videos that can play before during the reception or to announce the wedding to family and friends.

The show that gives you the inside scoop on how to break in to the entertainment industry

In this special episode, recorded live from Platt College in San Diego, we interview Destin Cretton, Sundance award-winning filmmaker for his short film SHORT TERM 12. Destin spoke to us about the rocky road of the film festival circuit. As with any craft, filmmaking is a long-term investment, demanding that the artist log the proverbial 10,000 hours before being anywhere close to mastery of the craft. To give yourself a jump-start on those 10,000 hours, you can also buy a copy of SHORT TERM 12 on DVD at http://shortterm12.com/ and watch the behind the scenes features to learn even more about Destin’s process.

Take us with you on the road. Subscribe to our podcast through iTunes

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YouTube is a goldmine for quirky, irreverent and candid-camera videos, but what about when you’re craving something on par with the movies and shows you have saved on your TiVo? Finding new and edgy entertainment-based content on the web can require a lot of patience to sift through all the stuff that’s out there. That’s where Vimeo sets itself apart, staking a place for filmmakers to showcase their short films without being lost among all the video slideshows, video blogs and screen capture videos that seem to dominate the web. Check out Vimeo’s list of their 25 favorite videos of 2009 and you’ll feel like you’ve just gotten a free ticket for a short film festival. To all aspiring filmmakers out there: prepare to be inspired.

For the past few months, I’ve been uploading videos to YouTube in HD (high definition) using the 720p compression preset in QuickTime. But there’s a problem. After the upload, I play my video in YouTube and the only options are 360p and 480p. How do I get the 720p (or HD) option for my video which was shot and edited at 1280 x 720 resolution? Below is a quick video from a fellow YouTuber who obviously shares my frustration.

After running a test of 2 different types of QuickTime compression (number 1 and 3 in the screenshot below), I found that the only way to have the HD option in YouTube is to upload an HD video with no compression. It takes a lot longer but will be worth it in the long run if quality if your footage was shot and edited in HD. Why? Because computers and TV’s are steadily making the shift to HD as the new standard, so you might as well have your videos up to speed with that. Otherwise, your business video will look outdated when the day comes that standard definition camcorders are no longer sold. For the 3-minute video I used in my test run below, it was only the uncompressed version (number 2) that gave me the HD option during playback.

Better Internet Video does an HD upload test on YouTube

In short, upload a fully uncompressed self-contained QuickTime movie to YouTube and your viewers will have options for the best possible viewing quality that YouTube currently offers. To view my HD tests for yourself, you can watch them at http://www.youtube.com/midwest2LA and you’ll see that only #2 has the option of “720p” in the viewing options menu in the lower-right corner of the player.

In recent news, it was announced that YouTube is now the 2nd most popular search engine on the web. What’s that mean? It means YouTube has topped out Yahoo, Bing and every other search engine on the web and is now 2nd only to Google. Let’s face it, YouTube is everywhere and it’s being embraced by people from all walks of life from around the world. That idea of YouTube as the voice of “Main Street” was taken even further yesterday when President Obama did an interview with questions taken directly from the webcams of YouTube users. Watching this I kept thinking about what an exciting time it is to be online and to have the opportunity to have your voice heard.

Wisdom for the ages from "Ice, Ice Baby"

This list of multimedia rules to live by blew me away so I wanted to share the love. In short, the author recommends that before starting any video production that we follow the advice of Vanilla Ice and we, “Stop, Collaborate and Listen.”

1. STOP. Before jumping in to a new video project, guns-a-blazin’, ask yourself a couple key questions about who is your audience and what will they respond best to? It sucks to pour a ton of time and energy into a video when your message is off the mark from the beginning.
2. COLLABORATE. You don’t have to do everything yourself and the best videos are usually strengthened by the best talents of many people. In the case of the web videos I produce for Mission Media, even if I do have the skills to do most of the work myself, I always seek feedback from other professionals to be sure my message is coming across.
3. LISTEN. Audio is one of the invisible arts of video production. You never notice it when it’s done well, yet it’s all you can think about when it’s done poorly. In short, use an external microphone whenever possible, avoid speaking directly into it (which creates “plosives”) and let the audio from a compelling interview and/or music be the inspiration for your visuals.

For a sample of what closed captioning looks like, you can click on the viewing options button at the bottom-right of your video player in YouTube.

Most people know that it’s important to label your video with keywords in the title and tags to help with the search engine optimization, but there’s another thing that can also help google index your videos so it’s easier for people to find them. What is the magic ingredient I’m talking about? Captions. Not only do they help out your hearing-impaired audience, but they also provide even more keywords for google to draw from. Here’s how I added captions for my video, “FCP Muscle Memory.” I’m copying the steps below from YouTube’s support page and will be adding in my comments in RED to explain how I’ve been able to make this process work for me.

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Here's the .txt file I uploaded for the transcript to my video "FCP Muscle Memory"

Once you have the files, log into your YouTube account to upload them: AND TO CREATE YOUR FILE, TYPE OUT THE WORDS THAT ARE SPOKEN IN YOUR VIDEO USING A STANDARD WORD PROCESSOR AND SAVE THE FILE AS A .TXT DOCUMENT

1. Mouse over the ‘Account’ link in the upper right corner of every page.
2. Click ‘My Videos’. You will then be directed to a page showing your uploaded videos.
3. Find the video to which you’d like to add captions/subtitles, then click the ‘Captions’ button.
4. Click the “Add New Captions or Transcript” button.
5. Click the ‘Browse’ button and find the caption/subtitle or transcript file to upload THIS WILL BE THE .TXT FILE MENTIONED ABOVE. If you are uploading a transcript (no timecodes), select “Transcript file”, otherwise, select “Caption file”. I RECOMMEND KEEPING IT SIMPLE AND SELECTING THE “TRANSCRIPT” OPTION.
   
6. Select the appropriate language. If you wish, you can also enter a track name. I HAVEN’T EXPERIMENTED WITH THIS, BUT I DEFINITELY SEE THE VALUE IN UPLOADING YOUR TRANSCRIPT IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES TO APPEAL TO AS BROAD OF AN AUDIENCE AS POSSIBLE.
   
7. Click the ‘Upload File’ button.

Have you ever wanted to make your entire video black-and-white and just have a single piece of color shown in the frame? An early use of this was in Schindler’s List but this is frequently referred to as the “Pleasantville” effect. Another excellent film that did a great job of using this effect to make a symbolic statement throughout the movie. (Good soundtrack too.) I thought GeniusDV did such a great job explaining the Pleasantville effect in a quick and thorough way, I decided I’d give them some props and pass along the info to my viewers at home. To learn more about GeniusDV, I’d recommend checking out more of their video tutorials.

Starting today, FreeEnterprise.com is hosting an exciting contest to award the person who can give the create the most compelling example of why they represent Free Enterprise. I love this contest because it’s right in line with the reason I created BIV, to help the dreamers dream big — whether it be an aspiring filmmaker or a business person looking to tap into the power of YouTube. The videos don’t need to be professionally done to win the contest. The most important thing is to having compelling content that will help the video go viral. The 25 most viral videos will then be narrowed down by a panel of judges. See their website (above) for full contest rules. Deadline for entries is April 9, 2010. Word to the wise: the sooner you submit your video, the sooner you can begin your viral marketing campaign to help it go viral.