I have learned loads from running this site (which was a completely new thing for me). Apologies for the lack of posts recently. I am looking into a major relaunch. I’d like your feedback so if you can spare 5 mins …Please click here to take my survey.
If you need a handy reminder of FCP shortcuts on your desk you can now download this Iphone/Ipod Touch App. From beginners who want to learn the shortcuts of FCP, to Pros who need this App as a pocket size reference or to learn some hidden shortcuts not even published by Apple. Keep this on your iPhone as a mobile “cheat sheet”. FCP Shortcutz costs 59p or $.99 and requires the iPhone 3.0 Software Update or later.
Go see FCP Shortcutz at the Apple store 
Where to position your subjects is an absolutely key decision you have to make before you hit the REC button. Whatever you decide you generally have to live with it in the Edit and there’s nothing worse than having to work with a shot you hate! Before you shoot take a deep breath, don’t get rushed by pressure of time coming from your subject who might need to get back to work, your bosses checking up on progress or your urge to check your Twitter.
Before you shoot a frame, walk around the location to figure out where to put people, use stand ins so as not to take up your subjects time unecessarily, get the camera out to have a look at the shot, move people around, swap them over, think about using stools or whether standing works, look at the light direction, basically check all the options, then decide. If the location you are offered is problematic ask to see a different room or area, don’t get pushed into using the wrong space.
When you have two people in a classic Presenter/Interviewee situation, as in the Video example above you need to think how to cover them chatting (especially with a one camera shoot) but also if they are showing off stuff, how to best cover reactions, interactions and cutaways of the ‘product’ on display. Ultimately you want the shot to not distract from the ‘action’.
This Rocketboom clip (and BTW I am a big fan of their videos) starts off smoothly enough but when they move to a new location at around 2′04″ (pictured as thumbnail above) it gets a bit awkward with the huge space between them, they become disconnected and the eye is taken to the void between.
Better (for a 1 cam shoot like this) to have them side by side, and mix it up between a 2 shot and single of the faces picking up the hand shots later, and repeat a couple of the big questions, opening and ending on a big wide 2 shot to set the context. Of course you can rapidly adjust the shot size as you go when you know you have a surefire cutaway to use in the edit that will cover the join. If you screw up at the start of a sentence (with an ugly move) note it for later to be repeated or simpler interject and get the Presenter to kick off her line again.
This interview has a few nuggets if you are thinking of starting a Video Blog. Sukhjit is a former TV Producer turned Videoblogger and I clocked her recently on YouTube. Her enthusiasm for Producing her own content is infectious. Also check out Sukhjit’s Vlog, where she has more info about some of the social video tools she uses including Tokbox and 12 seconds.tv.
This video shot on 14th July (Bastille Day) in Paris jumped out at me straightaway. Great visuals that play tricks on the eye plus an ultra cool soundtrack. JTV checked in with Albrecht Gerlach, Photographer/Director from Alta Media Productions to find out how the Video was made.
ALBERT GERLACH: ‘The hardest part of pulling this off was getting access to the Rooftop on the Champs Élysée. We probably knocked on about 50 doors and almost gave up on the project. In the end it worked out really well thanks to and old lady that let us up on her terrace. We actually were right next to two Snipers of the French Special Forces watching over the terrain. After all you had the President (Sarkozy) and a bunch of high ranking officials passing by just in front of you.
On the technical side we used four 5D MKIIs. Two cameras from the main position. One with a 24mm TSE shooting the whole scene, and one with a 90mm TSE getting the close ups. The shot of the planes going by as well as the opening shot was done from the rooftop of an office high-rise. No TSE lens on that camera. The effect was done in Post, you can probably tell. We did also have one camera on the Eiffel Tower with a long lens but ended up not using those angels since the lighting conditions didn’t match well with the main footage.
Canon EOS-5D-MKII
The parade and the preparations were on for about 4 hours, and it was pretty tricky to shoot with two cameras, and manage the files at the same time. I was constantly emptying cards and making backups on a notebook. I only had 6 CF cards with me that day. However I did get my hands on those elusive LP-E6 spare Batteries just before the shoot.
Probably quite hard on the cameras, doing around 14.000/h for four hours in a row. On a side note, I did have one of the bodies checked by CPS in Paris and they were all confused and were like: Sir, did you know that your camera already has xxx.xxx shutter actuations?!?
Processing the files does require some beefy hardware. Even with a top of the line MacPro, I had Final Cut crash on me all the time.
Basic color correction in FCP, some Grain with Tiffen DfX and cloning away birds etc. in Photoshop. The Smoothcam Filter was also invaluable, since even with a heavy tripod there was always some camera shake due to wind.
I’m very happy about the soundtrack. It was mixed by Camille Michel, a Paris based sound designer.’
Credits:
Photography: Albrecht Gerlach www.albrechtgerlach.com
Production: Tatiana Pereira @ Alta Media Productions
Camera Assistant: Tom Chabbat
Sound: Camille Michel www.unterdecke.com
5DmkII rental in Paris: www.photocinerent.fr
ALTA MEDIA PRODUCTIONS ON VIMEO
See the Canon EOS 5D MKII at Jessops
High Speed Kingston Compact Flash Memory Cards
READ MORE POSTS LIKE THIS? See the ‘Making of Hot for Words‘ with Number 1 Russian YouTube star Marina Orlova!
‘Know Your Meme‘ is an excellent Web series from the people who bring you ‘Rocketboom’. Some of the epsiodes get 350,000 views on YouTube alone. So call me a killjoy but I couldn’t help noticing the mixed lighting.
Now I have ‘mixed’ feelings about this, you could say it’s a creative tool or I’m being picky and it isn’t a big deal, but I reckon it would be better if the whole shot was consistent in colour balance.
As you can see from the thumbnail above the Presenter is lit with unfiltered tungsten (warm light) and the camera is white balanced to that light, but the windows, walls (and Computer screen) have all gone blue due to the high level of ambient daylight (or cooler light).
Solution? Put blue gels on the Tungsten light to balance them to the daylight (easiest way), or add orange gels to the windows (carefully so it doesn’t show up in shot) to balance the daylight to the tungsten light which can then be used as is, without gels.
A great light that doesn’t require any gels is the Kino Flo Diva Lite. You can just swap the tungsten balanced strip lights for daylight ones in a couple of minutes, and you have a soft light ideal for lighting people that also doesn’t give off masses of heat and can be easily dimmed. (See video below)
Looking for a Tungsten softlight? I also use the Rifa Lite (economic, soft light that’s great for interviews and presenters). Check out the Lowel Rifa LC-66eX eXchange-Lite, 120-230VAC, 25″ x 25″ Collapsible Soft Light System
I can’t quite remember how I spotted this App review show called Apps & Hats, Twitter maybe. All I know is there are so few Brit made Web shows out there, I take my hat off to these ladies for giving it a go. I pinged co-Producer Christine to find out more about the production:
JTV: What is Apps & Hats, and how many of you make it?
Christine: Apps & Hats is a quirky iPhone application review show. Every other week the girls (Christine and Hattie) review iPhone applications within a wide range of categories.
The 6 minute sessions are aired every 2 weeks. Each episode will have a particular item of fashion from Victorian Corsets to Uniforms. Hattie will try to find a free App and Christine is checking out if one is worth your cash. There will also be prizes, promo codes and other goodies along the way.
Currently we are me Hattie, Kate who does all our wardrobe, from either making or sourcing the outfits, and styling during the filming, Nick who does the filming, sound & photography and Kovshenin who does the dev and maintenance of our site.
JTV: Why did you decide to start a show?
‘Hot For Words’ is a smash hit Web series. If you haven’t seen it yet where’ve you been? According to Tubemogul as of today ‘Hot For Words’ is registering a massive 225,901,955 all time video views and in the past 30 days alone, 13,065,929 views, ranking it as the Number 4 show globally.
With the tagline ‘Intelligence is Sexy’ the show is presented by the fabulous Russian host Marina Orlova and each show focusses on Marina explaining the origin and meaning of a Word.
I spoke to Marina about the making of her Web show and here is the Jules TV exclusive interview which has some Hot Tips for videomakers.
JTV: Right back at the beginning how did the idea come about for ‘Hot for Words’?
Marina: I have two degrees in philology which is the study of the origins of language. I’ve always been fascinated with the origins of words and I wanted to share that fascination with as many people as I could, and when a friend showed me YouTube in December of 2006, I thought.. WOW, I can tell perhaps thousands of people about etymology. I never thought that my videos would end up being seen over 220 MILLION times!!
I chose the name ‘Hot For Words’ for the channel as a kind of homage to the Van Halen song “Hot For Teacher”. I always found that I paid more attention in classes where the teacher was hot .. so why not bring that to YouTube?
JTV: What camera do you use to shoot the show, what software do you cut with plus tell me about the green screen set up?
Marina: I currently shoot with a Sony HVR-V1U Camera that shoots in HD on DV tapes. I shot the first couple hundred of my videos on my MacBook camera, but when YouTube started offering HD, I switched to the Sony. I prefer the cameras that shoot on DV tape over the hard disk units as the DV tapes make for great backups in case you ever have a hard drive fail.
As you can see in this shot I put the external mic right in front of me to get the best sound. I have a one of those folding Blue/Green screens behind me and I use DayFlo fluorescent lights that are matched to Day Light so that I don’t have to cover my windows. The fluorescents are great because they don’t consume much electricity and they don’t get hot! I have a total of 5 lights .. two in front and 3 lighting the green screen.
I edit my videos in Final Cut Studio, which is great because it comes with all kinds of templates that can get you up and running very quickly and that make your videos look great even if you are just starting out.
JTV: Do you need to follow a strict schedule, for example do you have writing and researching days and shooting days and editing days or does it just happen when you feel like it?
Marina: I try to shoot most of my videos on Monday and then spend the rest of the week editing them. I also do my research during the week as well. I prefer to stick to a schedule as it forces me to make the videos on time. I have one of the most prolific channels on YouTube putting out more videos than most.. and my strict schedule is what allows me to accomplish that.
JTV: The show looks quite different now than even a year ago, you’ve added more effects and graphics, why did you decide to go for a more polished look and is it important keep the show moving forward?
Marina: I just changed as I got better at editing on Final Cut Pro. When you sit at a computer for 5 hours at a time editing videos, 7 days a week, you are bound to get better at what you are doing! The style of my videos simply changed with my abilities as an editor! People also seem to appreciate it when they see you getting better and better at something. You definitely DO NOT need to start out all polished as people on YouTube like stuff that looks home-made anyway. If you start out looking too sophisticated, people might ignore you thinking you are some big Hollywood production. This fact is actually great as it means you can start out really cheaply.. editing the videos yourself .. even if you are horrible at it!
JTV: What’s the most rewarding thing about making your own show and distributing it on the Web?
Marina: The most rewarding thing about making your own show on the net is that it is 100% YOUR OWN SHOW! You’re not at the mercy of a TV Network .. you are your own boss! What’s also nice about having your show on the net is that you get INSTANT feedback from your audience. You’ll get a lot of idiotic comments from kids, but you’ll also get a lot of helpful feedback that will help you make your show better and better! You can’t get that kind of instant feedback from other mediums!
JTV: Do you have any tips for people who want to start their own Web video show?
Marina: Make videos on a topic that you find interesting. Since you will need to make lots and lots of videos to attract your audience, it had better be something you find interesting, otherwise you will burn out before you gain traction.
Also.. get into a schedule of making videos on a regular basis … you want to build your subscriber base and there is no reason for people to subscribe to you if you are not making any videos!
Picking a topic you love will allow you to always be thinking about the next video and having that schedule down will force you to make each video in a timely manner.
I’ve posted below one of the early shows so you can see the quality difference we talked about plus I found a really great behind the scenes film made by Snob Magazine (Russia) that is worth a look too.
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Got the bug? Pre Order Marina’s new book US Hot for Words
Respect to the people at Beet.tv for their extensive coverage of the US online Video scene, well worth sticking them in your feed. But the odd composition of this interview framing really got me puzzled and then had me very amused. Hit play to see what I mean. You’ll need to wait 12 seconds to see things get interesting.
Newbie tips: Compose the shot so your subject is looking into the available space rather than out of the nearside of the frame, go for the long end of the zoom, shoot tighter on wide open aperture to throw a distracting background out of focus.
If you have two interviewees you should ideally pull in and pick up answers on single shots to make it cut together and give it more variety. Otherwise pan with the action which is a lot trickier if your tripod or handling isn’t up to scratch. Get noddies from the interviewer to help cut between the One and Two Shots and a listening shot of each interviewee listening to the other. The Direction to your subjects would be: Look at interviewer for a few secs, turn to listen to colleague, hold 5 secs then turn back to interviewer so it will cut with the Two shot.
If you have to see a microphone in shot with a hand attached (i.e when you don’t have a Radio mic or boom swinger) you need to establish the presence of the Reporter early on by seeing them in a Mid Shot with interviewee. Or pull the Mic just out of shot and shoot tighter to crop it out.
Finally, if you have to start a two headed interview with one person missing start tight on your first interviewee before the other one turns up. If you are Operating camera, flag up any problems to the interviewer (eg. related to make-up!) at the earliest convenient point.
If you’re making a Webisodic series, rather than going out filming on location all the time, look for people and organisations with interesting stories that have already shot the footage, repackage with a new interview and it will add new value for both parties.
Right now the economics of making a success out of factual Web Video depends on effective use of your time versus outputting regular and prolific content. Making original video is a very time consuming business compared to sticking up a two paragraph blog post and someone else’s photos.
What’s great is nowadays loads of people are filming what they do/organise/create to stick up on their own site. But they may not have the traffic, distribution reach or google rank that your show has or if they do have loads of views they may still want to reach your specific audience. If you can repackage their material, give them new exposure via your show and follow through traffic they will give you their archive to use. Their goal is not a hit series but to gain exposure for an enterprise so little chance of conflict.
Case in point check out this Rocketboom Episode (above) on the Break Out In Sound project in New York. Ella Morton the new Rocketboom Field Correspondent links it together with a couple of simple master interviews with Producer Ryan Mackey and Choreographer Andrew Turteltaub, but what makes the piece come to life is from the Break Out In Sound archive. BOS has done well with their own YouTube view count (c. 100,000 for a clip I just looked at) but add the reported 350,000 (or so) weekly views Rocketboom has and you can see the advantage for them to release archive.
When asking what your next story is, why not look if someone has already filmed it for you?
A Jeremy Clarkson (Top Gear) beatbox mash up has gained a lot of traction on YouTube and has been picked up across the Web. Jules.tv caught up with Videomaker Swede Mason who reveals how the hit was created:
JTV: Do you make these films for a reason, is there some meaning attached to them?
Swede Mason: I’m not sure where the motivation comes from. I’m the most unmotivated person when it comes to most other things in life. I just have fun making these and I get a buzz out of it.
I think concepts and ideas are more important than high end production. A lot of the equipment and software that was unattainable a few years back is now at the disposal of the average cash strapped musician like myself.
JTV: How do you source all the footage and how long did it take to get the Clarkson video made?
Swede Mason: I record everything I watch on TV onto VHS. I wish I had sky+ (UK equivalent to Tivo) but I am skint. I just hear stuff that I think would be good to remix and keep ‘em on my computer. I’ve got shitloads of crap. With the Clarkson vid I recorded the powerslide bit about 2 years ago. Then I recorded the “eeeerr” noise and the bass drum sound about a year later and then decided to collect a load more sounds whilst I was laid up with a broken collar bone. The actual tune and Vid didn’t take too long after I had collected the footage - about 20 hours in total.
JTV: I guess getting the sound right is the tricky part, what kit do you use?
Swede Mason: I use hardware samplers and synths and a sequencing program called Logic for Mac. Logic has software synths that are quite useful for specific sounds, but hardware is good ‘cos you can kind of sketch ideas for the tune manually before sequencing it in Logic. Not many people use it anymore so you can pick stuff up pretty cheap. I recommend the Zoom ST-224 sampler. I’ve hammered mine for 10 years and it’s only just starting to pack up. I record the tune, then export into imovie and edit the video from the original samples over the top, syncing it up to the audio. The hardest thing is getting hold of the good samples.
JTV: What’s next for Swede Mason?
Swede Mason: I have got another load of clips I collected about a year ago of Richard Madeley (Brit TV presenter) but never used ‘em - similar thing, beatbox. I might try to do something with them. No way near as good as the Clarkson sounds though. There are other random things I wanna do too. Having a bit of a break at the mo and just trying to get my head around all this exposure. It’s been mental.
Long term I just want to carry on making this stuff and see what happens. A bit of editing work would be nice to pay the bills + I’d like to play live but need some better gear. That’s about it.
JTV: And how about the future for Video mash ups?
Swede Mason: I’m expecting to see a lot more of this kind of music/video, now that practically anyone can have a shot at it and get there vids online, potentially reaching a massive audience. It’s just the copyright laws which need amending in my opinion, then I wouldn’t have to work in a pub to pay the rent. Could rant for ages about stuff but gotta get to work. Cheers for the interest and support.
I spotted these photos via Alex Albrecht’s Blog (Diggnation, Project Lore, The Totally Rad Show). It shows the new garage studio in Alex’s house where they are to record the weekly hit Web series The Totally Rad Show.
Note the huge green screen to accomodate 3 presenters and I am sure some more elaborate set ups in future. Black walls to stop the green from bouncing around and spilling onto the subjects and ruining the key. Also the set of soft Kino Flo Diva lights, which have economical flourescent (or daylight) balanced tubes which last ages and emit a soft bank of light.
You can see the strip lights used to illuminate the green screen evenly, essential for an easy key, and the key and fill Kino Flows to give even and flattering light to the faces.
Right now in Web Video the buzz is to keep overheads low. With Ad rates tumbling and sponsors being more cautious you need to make your profits last longer. Hiring an expensive studio, with all mod cons isn’t an option for the majority of Web creators. As well as the cost saving by having an improvised home studio, the time saved getting to a hire studio, setting up each time etc can be invested in producing the next show, distributing and promoting.
Two mentions of Ijustine in two consecutive posts, what’s happening to me? If you think you can’t get your own videoblog to look professional think again. Ijustine often creates her videos alone but check out the quality she manages improvising in her own kitchen. Ok it’s not perfect but when you think the video is made by a team of one it’s pretty impressive.
In the video above you get a brief glimpse of her green screen set up, and you can see the finished video below. Three lights, a MacBook Pro running Final Cut, some green fabric mix it in with some decent background graphics and away you go. Just add a camera and talent.
Like this post? You need to see my interview with another Top Web Video creator Marina from Hot For Words.
I spotted a cool Behind the Scenes Video on IJustine’s addictive Tasty Blog Snack. It’s made by Photographers and Videomakers The Bui Brothers. The video is BTS at a photoshoot they did with Star Videoblogger Justine Ezarik and there was something about the way it was put together that engaged me within the first 30 seconds.
Quite often videos like these are slung together as montages with hardly any sync at all or any change in pace or tone to break them up. I like the fact that the Producers actually ask some questions and turn it into a reality piece, but it’s the use of the new breed of Digital SLR which captures video that really gives it an extra visual layer.
I asked Lan Bui about the kit they used and he was good enough to ping me back with this:
JTV: What was the Vid shot on?
Lan: The video was mostly shot on the Canon 5D mark II (as well as all of the stills) and some of the ‘dark’ clips were with a Canon HF10. We really like using the Canon 5D mk II because you don’t need any adapters, it just works with any Canon SLR lens. It was edited in iMovie 09.
JTV: It looks like you put a lot of effort into your BTS movies?
Lan: We take our video blogs and BTS videos seriously and want to tell a story with them, the music is a massive part of that. We owe all of the music credit to Paul Dateh of pauldateh.com, he scored it with Ken Belcher to give it the great flow and mood you feel when watching it. Usually BTS videos are short and don’t say much, we believe in giving everyone a good look into our personalities as well as tell the story of what happened to create the images you see.
JTV: Thanks!
Here’s the kit:
The EOS 5D Mark II boasts a new 21MP CMOS sensor, an expanded ISO range of 50-25,600 and a wealth of improvements and new features including full 1080p HD movie recording, live view, 3.0″ 920k dot LCD, DIGIC IV processor, increased battery capacity and sensor dust reduction.
Check out the Canon 5D mark II on Amazon.com
The Canon Vixia HF10 records in the AVCHD format with full 1920 x 1080 output, a new 17 Mbps bitrate, and has 60i/24P/30P frame rates.
Interesting interview by TechVi with the creators of Epic Fu, Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf. They talk about the mistakes they made producing their first Web series ‘The Jet Set Show’ and how they turned it around with Epic Fu. Love Steve’s quote: ”The Internet is the only place left where you can fail”.
