Video Creation GuideGeneral
Creating Videos may seem to be a daunting task. There are hundreds if not thousands of sites online that are dedicated to video production. Unfortunately most of them assume you have some knowledge of the process and use terms you may be unfamiliar with. In this guide we'll stick to the basics and you'll see that video production can be painless and simple.
Producing a video is a three step process.
- Shoot the Video
- Edit the Video
- Produce the Video
To shoot the video you'll need a camcorder or a video screen capture program. To edit and produce the video you'll need a video editing program. Video editing programs take raw video footage, allow you to add titles, text, cut out scenes or add scenes and narration.
They then produce the video in a format accepted by the video submission sites. Think of the video editing program as a grinder. Ingredients go in the top, and turning the grinder handle forces those ingredients to be combined and compressed and come out the end in a new, smaller, neatly packaged form.You will shoot one of three types of videos.
- Full Motion
- Screen Capture
- Slideshow
Let's take a look at each type.
Full Motion
Full motion videos are basically home movies. You sit at your desk or take a walk outside and talk to your audience as the camera rolls.
Watch out for the sound quality. Even inexpensive digital camcorders can produce good looking movies, but they often fail on the sound quality. If the sound quality is less than ideal and your camera accepts external microphones, invest in a good one. Most clip-on mics are under $50 and are well worth the investment. There are also sound editing programs available that can improve sound quality, and most video editing programs allow for some sound adjustment.
When producing your video, try to choose a 44 MHZ stereo output. This usually results in decent quality on most computers with a good file size. Increasing the "sound sample rate" over 44 MHZ is usually not worth the additional file size. Most computer speakers won't really playback the sound any better at a sample rate higher than 44 MHZ. Sound takes up a LOT of file space and can easily triple your file size if you use a high sample rate.
Your camera should have come with some software to take the video from your camera and put it on your computer. The resulting file will probably be pretty large. Most camera software saves videos in a variety of formats. Choose AVI format for saving your video to your computer if available. This will cut out an extra editing step and be compatible with most video editing programs.
The next step is to edit your movie. Most video editors will accept AVI input, many will accept other digital camera formats. The Windows Movie Maker program that comes with every Windows installation is a good choice - and it's free! Mac users also have free built in video editing software. For more advanced work, Camtasia Studio available from TechSmith is hard to beat.
With your video editor, you can add titles, voiceovers, still images, other clips and edit out errors. You can put two or more clips together to make a longer video, or split one video into two or more smaller videos.You'll also use your video editor to produce the final version that will be submitted to the video sites of your choice. This final step takes all the elements of your movie, the title screens, text overlays, clips and voice or background recording and puts it all together in a new file suitable for submission.
Be SURE to check out each submission site FAQ or help section to find acceptable file formats. In general try to use WMV. It is accepted by just about every video site and produces a high quality, small finished file size video.
Whether you use Movie Maker, Camtasia, or some other program, experiment with different settings until you're satisfied with the end product.
Screen Capture
Screen capture is often used by software makers to give people a visual "hands on" tour of their software or their site. It's half way between "full motion" and "slideshow". There usually isn't a lot of action on the screen, just the mouse moving from place to place, or screen changes.
Unfortunately, some video sites do not deal well with screen capture videos. See the YouTube Guide for more information on producing better quality screen capture videos.
To produce this sort of video you'll need to have a video screen capture program which acts as the video "camera" filming the screen action. Camtasia Studio does an excellent job of filming the screen and is relatively easy to use. To find other capture programs, simply Google "video screen capture software" and you'll have hundreds of programs to explore.
Video capture programs almost always output the raw footage in AVI format. Just like full motion movies, you'll need to edit this footage in a video editor for final production. Windows Movie Maker, Camtasia Studio or other video editors make this an easy task.You will want your text as legible as possible. Camtasia Studio and many other video programs have a Zoom and Pan feature that can be used during shooting or applied during the production process. Remember - some submission sites recompress videos and text will suffer. You also might want to adjust your browser text size while filming. If you normally browse at a normal or small text size, change your browser view|text to a larger size for filming.
After filming, you will again use your video editor to produce the final video. Add or delete screens, add voiceovers, title screens or text to your raw footage to produce the finished product. Again try to use the WMV format for output which is accepted by most video submission sites.
If you can't get the quality you need with the WMV output format, try other formats such as MPEG, MPEG4 or MOV. Watch your finished file size - most video sites have a 100MB limit and a few are even less than that. Balance quality and file size for the best results.Slide Show
Slide Show videos have become popular way to do "How To" videos or product presentations. They are easily put together and many "directors" simply use Power Point to produce their raw footage and then use a video editing program for the final submission video.
A slide show video is usually made up of still images. These can be photos, Power Point screens or screenshot images. There are often screens of text describing what the viewer is seeing and voice over narration is usually included.
Each "screen" is then set to run for a specific length of time, giving the impression of a watching a movie. Depending on the amount of text you have on the screen, you need to set this time for at least 5 seconds, and as much as 30 seconds to allow the viewer to read and absorb the text message.
Each still clip is added in the video editor and the time set for each clip until you have your finished movie. Slide shows are usually smaller in size than a full motion video of equal running time length. They also usually have a smaller "frame rate". Frame rate is how many frames are shown every second. A full motion video is usually 30 Frames Per Second, while a slideshow is generally shown at 10 Frames Per Second.
Those video submission sites that recompress your video submissions have a hard time with slide shows. The output is often blurry, and text will often have a "halo" effect around the letter edges. Check out the YouTube Guide for more information on producing high quality slide shows.
Camtasia Studio does a good job with slide shows and is a better choice than Windows Movie Maker, although WMM CAN handle the job. If you're making Power Point Presentations you might want to check out Flair from Wildform Software. This is an all in one editor, allowing you to create the Power Point presentation and produce it as a video in one package.
Both Camtasia Studio and Flair have free trial offers that will allow you to test drive the software to check out it's suitability for your projects.You might also want to check out TrafficMom.com. TrafficMom is a subscription site that allows you to check out video sharing sites before registration. Categories, accepted file types, ad placement (some sites will place ads ON your video) and other pertinent data is included in their "Site Profiles". Registration can be done from with out leaving the program and they place no limits on the number of videos you can upload. With a submission service you upload your video once, and the service will then submit it automatically to each video site you choose. This can be a real timesaver!