There comes a time in every savvy, blog-reading techie type person's life when you want or need to produce a smallish, but good-quality-ish video that looks decently like it is at least screaming "cool little video" if not "Oscar." For me this time came at work when I was asked what could be done to really spice up our sales pitch to hook a really big and important customer. What better way to inspire confidence and awe in the customer, but to put together a video on the cheap (nearly free) and wow the customer with a timely expose of one of our new state-of-the-art distribution technologies? When my boss didn't answer, I knew I had hit pay dirt. He enthusiastically said "go for it" once I elaborated on the idea of a video a little bit. Honestly, I didn't quite knew HOW I was going to do this, but I knew I could figure it out, I mean we're talking about tipping the scales in our favor on a $10 million/year deal here, so why not give a shot? I typically give myself more work this way, volunteering for tasks like this, but now I can share my experience with you and the best easy and free ways I found to produce such a video in a day and a half on no budget that looks decent and make customers drool. You don't need excellent computer skills either, but a little will to learn and a few hours time depending how involved you want this video to be. Take one, marker, action!Setting up your rig, Action!, and Pre-production after the jump...
Task One: Setting up your video rig
What you need:
1. Digital still (with video capability) or video cameraI used a Kodak DX7590 digital still camera that records video to shoot my small video, sure, not the best gadget for the job, but when it's all you have, you make what you can out of nothing. Almost anything will do a decent enough job, if it is fairly new within the last year or two. You will get decent video out of it. Beware of video format though. The DX model I have is capable of 640x480 video and saves to QuickTime's .MOV format.
2. Tripod or other similar rig
My wife is a photography buff, so I borrowed her tripod. It was like $18 bucks at Wal-Mart, so if you must, it isn't going to break the bank. Usually your digital camera will have a small hole underneath that fits the universal tripod mount, but if not, simply tape the camera to the tripod so it doesn't move. You want a secure and fairly immovable camera and tripod setup so you get very smooth and unshaken video. Shake what your mama gave you, but not the video, unless she also gave you the camera. Then it would be okay. You owe it to your audience; film-makers don't let other film-makers shake their video. Stop the madness.3. A rolling apparatus
I used an inexpensive and ubiquitously available multimedia cart we had sitting around my department, you know, the ones that are textured, doomed to carry around video projectors or transparency machines all their lives. That works well, but you could use a rolling desk-chair, a rolling hard suitcase, a moving piano dolly, or any other type of cart. The rolling part is important since you will be moving for many videos, but it may not be needed for stationary videos. It does help for moving the camera and making adjustments to move with the action without video shake. Use your imagination here a little bit.4. Duck tape, preferably black
Black duct tape is the tape of choice for A/V savvy techies everywhere, but hey go crazy if you want, they now sell blue, red, yellow, green, paisley (not), and one that closely resembles the Power-puff Girls color scheme. The tape is to fasten the tripod and camera rig to the rolling cart. I know it sounds ghetto, but it actually looks bad and works well. I would set the tripod and camera setup as far forward on the cart as you can, so you'll have ample room to handle and move the cart without bumping the video recording process on the business end of this rig. Duct tape also ensures that no one comes along and crashes into your camera knocking it to its death before its time and to your chagrin. Duct tape, depending on the color, actually makes you look friggin cool while filming. The duct-tape stigma is as follows: black=ominous & dangerous, blue=daring & revolutionary, red=serious & moody, green=green & inexperienced with a hint of youthful innocence. Pick your poison. 5. A laptop, Audacity and a Microphone
Everyone has a laptop, can borrow a laptop, or knows someone who would allow the use of their laptop under close scrutiny, so don't even start thinking you'll have to buy that new wide-screen monstrosity of a laptop to shoot this video. If you borrow the laptop from someone, make them the stand-in director while you are shooting, so they can make the difficult video-making decisions like turkey or ham for the caterer (later today). This also makes them a suitable decoy so the media circus can attack them, and leave you (the true director) to focus on shooting. Do I hear evil laughs from the peanut gallery? Next, be sure you have Audacity (or other suitable audio capture program) installed on your PC and your microphone connected. Be sure to check your levels to make sure you are recording at a nice volume. A big note here is that this is the hard way to do this. If your video camera (or still camera) is recording audio you are happy with, then by all means skip the Audacity and microphone, and just use the audio from the video recording. This allows for much easier editing later on. My particular video had to have the audio recorded separately because of our new warehouse technology. Task Two: Action!
So now you have your camera, securely fastened to the tripod, which is securely duct-taped to the rolling cart (or whatever) which has your laptop and microphone on the back of it. Great, now you're ready to rock, and roll both your cart and roll film. You are ready for action.
First, if you are using the separate audio recording method (as described above), turn on Audacity and start recording, noting the seconds that click by until you begin your video recording. This will allow near precision to sync the audio and video portions later. Then start your video camera recording and shoot. Each time you have the urge to cut different scenes of your video, it may be a good idea to keep rolling instead, since it is quite difficult to sync audio and video together if it isn't continuous. This works well for most small projects. Most cameras will also hold plenty of video footage so you should need to worry about it too much. When shooting is complete, you will want to convert the whole thing to the right format for your editing software. Sure you can split the scenes into clips, but again it is harder with audio syncing to do, not to mention the sheer difficulty of keeping track of all the clips of video and audio mingled. After all, this isn't supposed to be the most extensive how-to ever; we are trying to keep it relatively simple.
Task Three: Pre-production and video conversion
Many times, the video format in which you record will not be compatible with the editing software you have. This is especially true of QuickTime .MOV format, which seems to be popular among camera manufacturers, but not among video software writers. For Apple users, this is no big deal. For Windows users, and for the purpose of this how-to, you will need to convert your video to .avi (or mpg) format, because it plays nice with Windows Movie Maker, which we will use to edit and arrange our video in a minute. There are several video tools out there to help convert video, but none of the ones I found for free would convert .MOV format into AVI. A mere $30 later, I was the proud owner of QuickTime 7 pro (a download unless you already have iTunes, then you just get a license key), which does allow almost every export option know to man or beast from MOV to AVI, MPG4, AIFF, and many others. You may need to play with this a bit to get the best conversion rate and settings for your particular project, but a good stock of options are all there for your video delight. Other converters for non-MOV videos are the free downloads: STOIK (good for many formats), AutoGK (XVID/DIVX mostly), VirtualDub (good for AVI and MPEG).
Come back soon for Part 2, where we'll cover editing, effects, sound loops, rendering, and finishing touches.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-08-2006 @ 9:32AM
BabaFree said...
Great Article! Can't wait for the next. Here's a tip that I've found useful when using a camcorder with a swivel LCD screen. Take the tripod and extend it out. Keep the legs in and carry the camera around above you while shooting. Turn the LCD down so that you can see what you're filming. This gives a good bird's eye view when needed, and the added length of the tripod helps with stability for me, at least until my arms give out.
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9-08-2006 @ 11:10AM
Jesse said...
I second the gaff tape recommendation. It holds nearly as well as duct tape (for what you're using it for, anyway), comes off much more easily, and doesn't leave any sticky residue!
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9-08-2006 @ 11:33AM
Semmy said...
At last that approaches for my domestic records has appeared.
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9-08-2006 @ 12:03PM
Qwfwq said...
Let me just add a suggestion that should cover most of your video conversion needs - MediaCoder, a truly excellent open source audio/video batch transcoder. Check it out at:
http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/
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9-08-2006 @ 7:31PM
Craig said...
Actually, duct tape doesn't work well for ducts at all. And add to your list of colors camouflage=mysterious and undercover (http://www.duct-tape.com/camouflage_ducttape.html).
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9-08-2006 @ 8:09PM
ToddO said...
Nice, very basic instructions but...
"Gee, let's do a cool video!" can be the death nell of successful communication. And that's your point, right? To win over this customer? I didn't see the planning part of the video production equation.
Every video person will tell you that they spend about 20% of their time shooting and maybe 30-40% of their time editing what they shot. The rest of their time (40 - 50%) for a project is planning and figuring it out. And that all happens before the fun shooting and editing part.
The electronics giants would have you think that you just charge up your batteries, load up a tape and BAM! You gots yerself a professional-like video!
But doing media is like cooking. Anyone can throw an egg in a hot pan and get something roughly edible. With practice you can make a tasty omelet. Or you can go out to eat and have a chef cook up their best frittata with aioli pesto dribble.
"Making a video" is all about how appetizing you want it to be to your audience. With planning and practice it can be pretty tasty!
So, I sound like Mr. Killjoy. But I think EVERYONE should understand... No, that's wrong: everyone should actually KNOW how to make a video or a podcast or a simple webpage. We all consume media everyday. We all "eat" so why not learn how to "cook" some too?
p.s. Ditto on the duct tape. Gaffer tape is the only tape you want use. Besides it not all shiney.
p.p.s. The blog link above is not really started but my comment is the kind of stuff you'll start finding there.
Todd
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9-09-2006 @ 3:39PM
gcremeri said...
Another hint for video conversion that saved my live a couple of times already: Super(C) (http://www.erightsoft.net/Superdc.html) that converts almost everything, including MOV to AVI, and it's free.
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9-09-2006 @ 7:54PM
deepb said...
Don't listen to #7 - those are all things you need to figure out for yourself. There are some projects that _do_ require that much planning time, but there are some that _do not_. It all depends on your style of working, the content, etc.
Either way, these are all things you figure out the hard way on your first time through. I would highly recommend the "hard way", as it usually guarantees that you won't repeat your mistakes. It sounds like such a small project -- you can always start over!
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9-10-2006 @ 8:43AM
pixel pusher said...
#7 is right. Make a storyboard, shot your stuff with alot of light (like twice what you think), shoot alot becuase tape is cheap, record the best audio you can and then edit the footage to look like your storyboard. Rinse & repeat.
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9-10-2006 @ 8:47AM
Ryan Carter said...
I never said this is the right way to do it. This is a simple, quick and dirty way to throw something together last minute. Obviously if I had time, resources, etc I would have planned the whole thing, but this happened to be a "do it by tomorrow thing" that I had no choice. I completely agree with #7, except I had no other option under the circumstances. We had the customer coming in the next week. I guess for me this is how to get decent results out of nothing.
Thanks, you guys have some great tips, which I will remember for next time, I appreciate it.
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9-11-2006 @ 6:53AM
NB said...
An easier way to sync up the video with the sound would be start the sound recording, then the video recording. Now step in front of the camera and clap your hands once loudly. When you load the video and sound, sync up the sound with the video of the hand-clap. This is a cheap version of the clapper-boards you see with the scene/take, etc written on them.
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9-11-2006 @ 1:16PM
Patrick Haggood said...
If you're really looking to get your feet wet, check out Amazon or your favorite brickNmorter BS for Michael Dean's "$30 Film School" - loads of add'l info on promotion, techniques, financing, etc.
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9-12-2006 @ 3:01PM
Aaron said...
A planning tip: Run with a two column printed "script" to get your thoughts together -- column one is the images you'd like to see, column two is the words to go with it, whether it be spoken on or off camera, or posted as a graphic in the edit. Check it all off one by one as you film while in the field so you don't have to return later.
I've found that a looser filming style works best as long as it is structured in broad strokes and the "actors" are given context for each shot. Let it come naturally -- if you need to force your talent into a roll or tone, you have the wrong person. And no amount of scripting or planning will save you.
Also - Shoot takes at a couple different paces if you can and see what works best when you have a chance to digest in the edit. Try a pan, a still shot, a zoom, etc. to experiment and see what works best.
I've worked with quite a few well regarded commercial film/commercial makers and the truth of the matter is that they throw out 10times more material than they show you. A loose script and a willingness to go through the tedium of shooting scenes muliple ways (action and camera-wise) will help you come up with dynamite footage in the end.
Great article!
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9-14-2006 @ 9:33AM
Cameron said...
I can't agree more with the previous posts about planning and storyboarding.
A couple more very basic things to consider that have a HUGE impact on the technical quality of your videos are: sound and lighting.
While people watching video will often put up with a bad picture, people get really annoyed by bad sound. Try to do something, anything, to get away from using the built-in camera mic. The closer you can get a mic to your sound source, generally, the better off you'll be. For lots of situations, a boundary mic (a microphone that you place on a table or floor in front of your sound source) can be very effective. Boundary mics attempt to reject reflected sound and admit direct sound -- giving a more close-up, intimate and clear quality to the sound. Try Radio Shack for inexpensive mics.
Go to the camera shop and buy some photofloods (About $8 each). They come in both a daylight version (for matching outdoor light) and a 'tungsten' version (for matching indoor light). Buy some clamp-on reflectors from the hardware store (About $10 each). Next, get some wax paper to use as diffusion material -- you are going to put this in front of your lights to soften up the light. Industry pros use wooden clips (called C-47s, or clothespins to you and me) to attach things like diffusion material to light fixtures. Be careful, these bulbs are hot! If you have a low ceiling, you can also shine your lights up at the ceiling to soften the light. Next, many camera shops sell the Smith-Victor gel assortment for around $20 (this is a set of 6 differnt colors of heat-resistant cellophane that you clip onto your lights to add color. http://www.smithvictor.com/products/detail.asp?prodid=148) For under $100 you can build yourself a basic 3-light kit that can take you pretty far.
Obtaining good sound and lighting your subject are probably the two most important things you can do to make your videos look more professional.
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9-26-2006 @ 6:31PM
Bill Smith said...
"Many times, the video format in which you record will not be compatible with the editing software you have. This is especially true of QuickTime .MOV format, which seems to be popular among camera manufacturers, but not among video software writers."
Huh? Windows Movie Maker is about the only video editing software that doesn't understand QuickTime, and QuickTime using the h.264 codec is the best way to present a lot of information with a small file size, so the native QuickTime file formnat is the best choice in most cases for the finished product. Also digital still cameras with a video mode usually record data in mpeg 1 format, and simply label the file with a .mov extension so that it will be opened in QuickTime, a program that most computers have installed.
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12-26-2006 @ 9:56AM
tim said...
Actually, I think you'd do better with gaffer's tape, rather than duct tape, which is harder to work with and can really put a hurting on a lot of surfaces that aren't, well, ducts.
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12-26-2006 @ 9:56AM
tim said...
URL to gaffer's tape info:
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000163.php
(A preview button would help!)
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