Help needed on how to produce videos

Hi Mark,

To answer your questions:

1. Sanyo Xacti is cheap and very powerful ($169 from Amazon, look at the Videos in my Operation Cash Tornado WSO). If you want to scale it up then there are some great JVC deals at the moment.

2. MP4 is almost universal and offers the best quality for compression and quality. I would recommend recording in HD as well.

3. Camtasia studio is my main editor and it does a fantastic job without overloading all the bells and whistles. Other than that you can use Windows Movie Maker (or IMovie on the Mac)

4. I have worked with a few fulfillment companies and so far Kunaki has been the most reliable and pretty cost effective.

5. MP4 is ideal, if you are posting to YouTube then it will reduce nicely to 640x360 which is the standard format for it's player. If you submit in HD then it will also offer a HD version for higher quality playback

6. None that I can tell, depends on your market. In terms of Social Proof, speaking with customers in their own setting is a great way to do this. The only issue I forsee is lighting and sound quality. The Xacti does a good job but the JVC will allow you to get an external mic (clip on mics work best)

Also, lighting can be a pain, see if you can get some cheap photogrpahers lights and diffusers (so the light is not so harsh) and that should do the job.

Good luck with your project

Sean

Hi Mark,

If your final destination is DVD, you can pretty much forget about the video formats used on the web and at YouTube. DVDs use Standard Definition video (rather than HD) although, if your camcorder is HD capable, you can shoot in HD and "down res" the video to SD for editing.

You want to capture the video from your camcorder to your hard drive in the camcorder's native, uncompressed format. Stay away from camcorders that store their video on a small DVD (and some camcorders with built in hard drives) because they compress the video into MP2 for storage, which is very difficult to edit and is much lower quality.

Once you have your uncompressed video edited, you want to export it in an uncompressed format. On Windows, that's usually AVI. Then you switch to DVD authoring software, which allows you to create a menu for your DVD and encodes your video in the proper format and arrangement for burning to a DVD blank.

I can't recommend DVD authoring software for Windows, although I'm sure there are several out there. I use a Mac, which comes with iDVD.

Steve R.
R.A.M. Video

Hi tgilberg,

Thats a great setup, I wish I new this a year ago too!

Thanks a ton!

Sean

1. Unless you're going to do a lot of this, I wouldn't shell out a lot of money on a camcorder. Have a look on eBay for a good second hand one. Format wise, I'd go with mini-DV as professional edit suites also use it, so you won't have any trouble if you want to farm out the editing. Hard-drive or direct to DVD camcorders should be avoided IMHO. Be sure to get one that has an external microphone socket, and invest in a tie mic otherwise background noise will be a problem. If you are going to do these on a regular basis, an HD camcorder will keep you future proof.

2. AVI or MP4 would be best, although if your editing software can burn directly to DVD, you can burn a master DVD and send that for duplication.

3. I've never used Camtasia for live action editing, but I think it would be a bit limited. I use Serif MoviePlus, and have been very happy with it. It enables you to burn directly to DVD from the timeline, and will handle HD. Serif are based in the UK.

4. I've used Vervante in the past. They're based in California, but they are very reasonable and quick -- even to the UK.

5. For posting on YouTube or Google video, go with MP4, if you're planning on streaming it from your own site, FLV would be the way to go. Camtasia will enable you to create this format, no problem.

6. I can't think of any.

As far as dealing with harsh lighting is concerned, try recording the interview outdoors, in a conservatory, or somewhere with a lot of natural light (not easy given all the rain we've been having lately). Interviews on the news are generally done outside for this reason. You might also want to invest in a tripod to keep the shot steady.

Feel free to PM me if you have any queries.

Shaun

Sony Creative Software - DVD Architect Studio 4.5 - Introduction
Check into Sony's DVD Architect for authoring the video onto discs only $40
I like Sony Vegas for editing too.
Pro and consumer versions $599!yikes vs $99

Steve Robertson's got it. Shoot to MiniDV or similar uncompressed
format, render to .AVI and edit in .AVI - from this format you'll
get the best results going to a real DVD prospects can play on their
TV sets.

If you are doing all the technical stuff yourself then I can tell you what I did for myself and it costs next to nothing.
I had all my ideas mapped out first and knew what I was going to do.
If you are interviewing people then I would do it in their home-since it is then from a very real perspective(if you video them all at one place it can look like paid actors-keep it real)
My daughter has a Canon Eos 1100D and she video-ed me on there.
I downloaded it to my computer and then used Movie Maker-(free download and has special effects like captions and music overlay etc.)
If you would like to preview what my mini-promo looks like you can view it on my website which will be removed in January. I made two of them. One was a promo and the other was a "How to" dvd when the product was purchased. All in all it took just a few day to film and put together. It's free and easy and you will learn alot. ************************ Journey to.....****** Self Empowerment - Welcome/Free Video blogs-Insight & Meditation Jennifer

Please do not post this is a 6yr old thread some one dug up to sig spam