Bring Your Blog to Life

Bring Your Blog to LifeVideo and audio are where it’s at.

Get with it.

Bruce Sharpebrucesharpe.com

1Monday, February 23, 2009

This Talk is For...


This Talk is For...1. Baby steps (minimal time, free)



2. A little bit serious, but not very (⌚$)




3. Even a little more serious (⌚⌚$$)




3. Even a little more serious (⌚⌚$$)

4. Some tips for the experts


PC and Mac


After Today

• You can get started

• You can get better

• You can try something new


Who Am I?

• Digital imagery at MDA

• Detoured into enterprise software

• Seduced by podcasting

• Conversations Network

• VancouverTechScene.com

• Now: media software and services


What’s It All About?

• Podcast = blog + audio or video

• like having a radio or TV show distributed over the internet

• add enclosure tag to RSS/Atom feed

• And of course ... YouTube


The Five W’s


The Five W’s

• Why would you want to do this?


The Five W’s


• What kinds of content


The Five W’s



• Where to host it


The Five W’s




• Whow to do it


The Five W’s




• Whow to do it

• Wrecommendations


The Five W’s Things




• How to do it

• Recommendations


Recommendations


Why• Why add media to your blog?

• Because your audience wants it:

• FeedBurner: serves 249,728 podcasts

• 20 million podcasts available for download

• YouTube: 10 hours per minute

• 12 billion online videos per month viewed

• New medium of expression


Examples


Documentary Montage


Art and Film


Instructional Screencast


Slide Shows


More Video Examples...

• crowd powered media: NowPublic

• culture: Underground News

• unboxing: YouTube

• live events: brucesharpe.com


Audio Examples

• News

• Commentary

• Interviews

• Education

• Conference presentations

• Sports chat


The Steps

1. Get your gear

2. Record

3. Edit

4. Publish


Get Your Gear


Audio Recorder

• On the camcorder

• Direct to computer

• Olympus Voice Recorder

• Zoom H4


Microphones• Laptop built-in mic

• Camcorder mic: barely acceptable

• Mic to plug into camcorder

• Basic USB mic

• A better USB mic: BlueMic Snowball

Basic USB: $30

Better USB: $125

Two or more USB mics inWindows? Tricky...

$54


Camera

• Cell phone: live stuff only, immediacy

• Still camera: surprisingly good!

• Brand-name camcorder

• Mic input, flash memory or HDD

• Sony, Canon, Panasonic, ...

• No: Samsung, tape, DVD

• HD: go for it!



Oh yeah, get a tripod

Velbon, London Drugs Manfrotto, B&H Photo24Monday, February 23, 2009

Web Resources

• Still cameras:

• dpreview.com

• Camcorders:

• camcorderinfo.com


Lights#1 Way to Make Your Video Look Better


Lights

• Halogen work lights

• Don’t do it!! (Illegal in California)

• Recommendations

• Natural/practical light

• Go to a camera store, ask

• Fluorescent, daylight balanced, diffused


GreenScreen

• OK, this is an advanced technique

• But it’s just too fun

• TubeTape.com

• YouTube tutorials


Record


Recording to Your PC

• Use

• your USB mic

• your audio editing software


Interviewing?

• Prep the questions

• Prep the interviewee


Phone or Skype?

• Skype


Recording Skype Calls

• Skype

• Wear a headset (Logitech USB)

• Pamela

• Total Recorder

• MX Skype Recorder


Recording Phone Calls• From an actual phone

• Radio Shack gizmo

• JK Audio QuickTap

• JK Audio digital hybrid

• Using a conference call service

• TalkShoe

• Use Skype with SkypeOut


Screencast Software

• Windows

• Camtasia Studio

• Mac

• SnapZ Pro X

• ScreenFlow


Advanced Techniques

• Green screen

• Multicamera

• Dual-system audio

• Tape sync (double ender)

• VGA2USB to record screens


Advanced Techniques

• Green screen

• Multicamera

• Dual-system audio

• Tape sync (double ender)

• VGA2USB to record screens


EditingPost-Production


Should You Edit?


Should You Edit?

• I want to be edited.


Should You Edit?


• It is possible to edit so much that the person doesn’t sound like themselves any more, but instead sounds inhumanly smooth and intelligent.


Should You Edit?


• It is possible to edit so much that the person doesn’t sound like themselves any more, but instead sounds inhumanly smooth and intelligent.

• That’s how edited I want to be.


At Least Do This...

• Trim the ends

• Cut the dead air

• Adjust levels(please please please)

• Add intro/outro with music


Levels

• Same message every year

• Some of you are still not listening

• I beseech you, from the pit of my eardrums:adjust your levels!!!!!!!!!!



Twittersphere says...

BTW, Levelator is THE SHIT! LOVE IT!


More Editing

• Get rid of um’s and ah’s

• Tighten it up, quicken the pace

• Add music

• Reduce noise

• Sound effects


Audio Editors

• Audacity

• GarageBand

• GoldWave

• Audition

• Soundtrack Pro


Video Editors

• Movie Maker

• iMovie

• Pinnacle Studio

• Final Cut Express

• Sony Vegas


Resources


Resources

• Photo/video/sound: iStockPhoto.com

• Voice overs: Voices.com

• Tutorials: YouTube

• Using the software: Lynda.com

• Conversions: MPEG StreamClip

• Sound effects: Soundsnap.com


Music

music.download.com111,052 FREE MP3S!

Magic GarageBandPinnacle Studio


Logos, Web Design


Prepare for the Web


Audio => MP3• Audacity

• LAME

• Commercial editors have it built-in

• You will be asked some questions

• 44.1 kHz, 64 kbps, joint stereo (or mono)

• Tag editor:

• ID3-TagIT

• iTunes51Monday, February 23, 2009

Video Encoding• Your video editor does this

• You will be asked some questions

• Format: QuickTime or WMV

• Codec: H.264 or MPEG-4

• Bit rate: 750 kbps for > 15 min

• Bit rate: 2000 kbps for < 15 min

• The host will convert to Flash


PublishServe the world, make someone else pay


The General Idea

Host your website/blog and media separately


Where to Host Video

• Blip.tv

• Free

• High-quality

• Ads are optional

• Pro version: MP3 and iPod

• YouTube


Where to Host Audio

• www.libsyn.com

• $5/month for ~ one podcast/week


Where to Host Slides

• SlideShare.net


Add It to Your Blog

• Video

• Embed Blip.tv player in your blog

• Customize player in Blip.tv dashboard

• Audio

• Embed Yahoo Media Player

• Customize via CSS


Make A Feed

• WordPress => PodPress.org

• Other => use FeedBurner

• Tell it to use SmartCast

• Turn on iTunes tags

• Tell iTunes that you have a feed


Submit to Aggregators

• iTunes

• SpokenWord.org

• podcastpickle.com

• blubrry.com

• podcastalley.com

• odeo.com




Show Notes

• Highly recommended

• Put in links, summary


Coding Resources

• RentACoder

• ODesk

• eLance


email: [email protected]

blog: www.brucesharpe.com

Twitter: brucesharpe

singularsoftware.com singularproductions.com


http://www.brucesharpe.com

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Technology

Bring Your Blog to Life