Archives for the 'Tips and Tricks' Category
Ian’s Sock Trick For Recording Audio
Ian of The 05 Project, has started making tips and tricks video posts. His first trick is a total DIY punk rock audio hack. Watch and learn how to rock with a sock.
Published by Bre Pettis on October 14 .
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Tips and Tricks
Beware of the parasitic edit
Early in my days of editing, I got a bit lazy on some small aspect of the post-production and left in an editing glitch that bugged me a little bit. Now whenever I see the final product, I cringe and curse that I didn’t spend the extra 10 minutes to fix it.
If there is some small thing about your edit that is bugging you and even if it is something that no one else will notice, it will keep eating away at you every time you watch it and never go away.
Do yourself a favour and fix it, you will be glad you did in 6 months.
Published by Graham Walker on September 13 .
2 Comments.
Tips and Tricks
Find some fresh eyes
One of the most interesting ways I find to look at an edit with fresh eyes is to show your cut to someone else. The point here is not about any feedback you will get but the key is to pay attention to how you react internally knowing that someone else is watching it.
I am always amazed at how different an edit feels to me when I know an outsider is watching (it does not work nearly as well if the person is involved with your video somehow). Slower sections feel painfully slow, sloppy editing becomes embarrassing, confusing sections bewildering. I even tend to stand back and watch it from behind them so I can keep an eye on their body language. This can also be very revealing. Small smiles at the right places or how they move their eyes away from the action if it is dragging.
So even if you don’t listen to a word they say you will learn a lot by putting yourself in this situation.
Published by Graham Walker on September 7 .
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Reading Yahoo Groups as threaded posts
One of things that frustrates me about the otherwise great info available on the Yahoo Videoblogging group is the inability to view threaded posts.
Imagine my surprise when I found this mail-archive for the Videoblogging group that organizes all the posts from the group into neat threaded conversations. The service is free and all it takes is the administrator allowing a special email address to subscribe to the group. Seems you can get it as an RSS feed too which might be helpful on some of the other less active yahoo groups.
Finally, I can actually follow the trail of a conversation without pulling my hair out.
Published by Graham Walker on September 5 .
1 Comment.
Tips and Tricks
Vloggers version of the KISS rule (Keep it Short Stupid)
Remember, since you are demanding someone’s attention to download and watch your work, you should recognize the value of their time. We all fall in love with our footage but as a storyteller you have to keep asking yourself:
Does my edit need all this footage?
Is it continually moving the story forward?
Can I make it shorter and tell the same story?
As a generalization, people’s attention span for Internet video seems to max out at 3 minutes, anything longer and you risk them scrubbing through to the end. Often getting rid of 10 or 20 seconds is all you need to really tighten up the edit and turn a decent short into a great short. Remember your audience will never know what you left out.
I fight with this principle all time and am often guilty of not following my own advice but I always try to keep in mind that the rule for comedians transfers well into vlogsphere: Always leave your audience wanting more.
Published by Graham Walker on September 1 .
3 Comments.
Transcribing can be fun
David Tames finds that Transcriva makes transcribing (almost) fun:
“I found that with very little practice I was transcribing an interview more quickly and efficiently than ever before. It’s a pleasure to come across a simple and elegant solution to a problem, especially when it’s such a good value for the money.”
Published by Steve Garfield on August 30 .
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100 Hacks
Ryanne Hodson, Jay Dedman, Josh Kinberg, and Michael Verdi are creating a book on videoblogging for tech publisher OReilly. The book will be part of OReilly’s “100 Hacks,” series, and will give all kinds of tips for making one’s videoblog into a sweet media machine. The quartet is collaborating with videobloggers from around the vlogosphere to come up with the freshest, handiest, vlogtastic hacks, which will help readers tweak their content, distribution, and production to their hearts’ delight. Check out the link to see the team behind the book working to meet the publisher’s deadline.
Published by Jonny Goldstein on August 28 .
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Different Editor, Different Feeling
Brother’s Vu Bui Videonatomy and Lan Bui Video of the Moment wanted to see how they would both seperately approach an editing project. So they took some footage that they shot together and did just that. The results can be seen here:
Lan Bui version Lottery - Lan Bui .60 sec.
Vu Bui version Lottery - Vu Bui .55 sec.
It is great to see the subtle differences of how each editor approaches the short.
Which one do you like better? But more importanntly, why?
Published by Graham Walker on August 28 .
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Tips and Tricks
Cut the Zoom.
There is a reason Hollywood movies use dollies instead of the zoom, it looks a 1000 times better. Nothing makes video look more like amateurish than the zoom function. Of course you can’t carry a dolly around in your pocket but you can at least, hold the camera firm and steady and use your arms/body to mimic a slight dolly movement.
Try this next time you are editing: Instead of showing a zoom from a wide shot to a close up try cutting out that zoom in the middle. Now, you have a nice one-two wide to close-up shot. Obviously, if you are doing dialogue this can be tricky but a well placed piece of b-roll (ie - that extra crap that you shoot) placed in-between can often fix that issue.
In reality, I find it pretty much impossible not to use the zoom (and yes they find their way into my videos all the time but I leave them out whenever I can). The main point is that even being conscious of this fact while you shoot and edit will go a long way if your goal is to make your videos look more professional.
Published by Graham Walker on August 24 .
3 Comments.
Tips and Tricks
On-board mics suck - People will actually put up with bad images but nothing turns people off quicker than bad sound and that is why, oddly enough, I am including this on a list of ways to get a better quality image. The most common issue with them is that they tend to pick up the sound of your camera’s internal workings. Obviously, it is more cumbersome to carry a mic and not as easy to just whip your camera out, but it your vlog relies on capturing good audio (other than when you speak directly to your camera) you may want to consider graduating to a better a mic.
Published by Graham Walker on August 19 .
2 Comments.
