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 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.’
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?
Chrisitne: I really wanted to get into making more video after editing a few films. I then did a few test videos for my personal blog (in the education field, I am a Lecturer in Creative Technology), I spent several months looking at other video casts that were out there and started making notes of their formula, their topics, etc.
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JTV: Why the hats and the dressing up stuff (not that it isn’t nice on the eye) have you been influenced by glamorous shows like Hot For Words, and The Naked Wine show targeting male viewers?
Christine: That was never the conscious intention. Technology does seem to still be predominantly male area but it has been my passion since the early floppy disc days. There are so many shows on iTunes / the Internet that there really had to be some unusual factor to it that might make it stand out, as well as good content. Hattie had a background in fashion and it suddenly became an exciting idea to think of dressing up in fabulous clothes every show. Initial intentions was to have designer gear, but that proved to be difficult to secure clothing for a show with no history.
JTV: It seems like you are targeting both UK and North American audience, is that your strategy to gain a bigger audience?
Christine: I think the Internet has afforded us with a luxury of no boundaries, that’s exactly the beauty of it. I’m Canadian and Hattie is British, we film in the UK so although we thought we should target the UK market, it’s a fact that Apple, with it’s American roots, means it would be silly to not cater to them as well. I really don’t see our show in anyway trying to hit an audience in a “country” - our audience is iPhone users, in any location. (Keep in mind the promo codes that app developers get are still only used for the USA.)
JTV: I think people underestimate how much work it takes, to keep a Web show running regularly, what sort of commitment does it take?
Christine: I underestimated that myself! Once I decided to take the commitment to make it every 2 weeks, I know the importance of keeping that schedule. It takes much more forward planning than I initially realized, we decide app categories, contact devs for codes, look for their promotional materials and videos, book fittings, plan for outfits / hats / accessories to be booked certain days… then there is the video editing. I introduced a “one more byte feature to be sure our content was bang up to date - so this means I am up very late hours editing things a day or two before to be certain it’s fresh. Also, take all the criticism, it’s so important to keep trying to make it better.
JTV: What monetization plans do you have?
Christine: We are currently putting together a marketing strategy, to get folks behind us to“support women in technology”, we would love a sponsor to fit that. We would negotiate with them a return by way of appearing at a PR event for them, or a one off video etc … So if anyone is interested please get in touch.
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JTV: What has been the biggest thing you’ve learned over the past few months about running a Web show?
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Christine: Oh - make regular back ups!! Be sure you can upload & hide your content before it’s due to air i.e don’t rely on your connections etc to work on the day. Try to talk to your viewers, give them value for viewing. Make it better. Every show you should be thinking, how do we make this better.
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JTV: You need to get a tonne of views to make a Web show pay. Based on your experience any tips on how to build an audience?
Christine: Be regular. You have to be consistent give each/any changes a few months before altering something again. Target your specific field and then try to leave comments on the larger blogs / sites who have similar content. Tell people about it - don’t expect them to find it. But definitely most important seems to be keep doing it!
JTV: What does the UK need to help give independent editorial web video production a boost?
Christine: I don’t think the current internet provisions provided by our networks is particularly strong. Reading the Digital Britain strategy, I believe they think 2Mb connections are ample. This isn’t even happening, and it’s far far too low. I am still waiting on a 10Mb connection that I ordered months back and keep getting “we are working on it” emails from them. They need to up our networks for sure, I think this would make a huge difference.
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JTV: Other than your own of course, what is your favourite Web series at the moment?
Christine: Always been a fan of Diggnation because it was one of the first I watched. Love the regulars, Epic Fu at the top - Tekzilla & Mac Break. Sometimes I watch what Chris Pirillo is up to. Also was there since the start of The Guild after a friend told me about it. (END)
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JULES SAYS: As Christine mentions they like feedback. Here you go! My thoughts are less about the content but more that the daylight is out of control in the shot, maybe it needs to be blacked out and the whole shot lit more low key. Otherwise reduce the directness of the daylight (scrim or ND) and fill the light with soft daylight balanced lights to give the shot a big lift and even up the contrast on the faces. It needs to be warmed up too, and ideally use a 16: 9 widescreen camera.
Audio wise the mic placement doesn’t sound right and the room itself might need to be dampened down with fabric to give it less reverb. Also not a fan of the cuts between the 2 shot and the single, it doesn’t work for me. The second shot needs to be a clean single and I reckon it would work better if it was shot from right next to the wide camera rather than at 45 degrees. I like the quirky style and reckon there’s loads of potential to move forwards.
‘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 shotI 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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Respect to the people at Beet.tvfor 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.
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.
Sky Arts have collaborated with Antony Gormley on his One & Other project (LIVE FEED) in London’s Trafalgar Square. The premise is that 29,255 people applied to be one of 2,400 places to appear for one hour each on the plinth in the square between July and October. The project runs 24/7 over the 100 days and so far the live stream is going down a storm.
Since 6th July the site, which includes both the live stream and edited highlights has already reached a total of 2.9m page views and 658,000 visits, with 407,000 unique visitors. The average time spent on the site is 10 minutes and 18 seconds.
The production has had a few problems to solve as no cables are allowed on the plinth. They are using wireless remote control HD cameras to transmit pictures back to a temporary gallery in the Square.
The appeal of Live Web Video like this project gets me thinking that with a free service likeLivestream available to Video Producers there might be openings to create Live independent hit shows rather than just going for the conventional edited 7 minute Web show. Of course you wouldn’t have the Media juggernaut that is Sky TV behind you to promote it.
Vodafone want you to buy the Nokia N97 so they have made a video to show you how to make the most of it. This video is basic but I guess it hits the mark with the target audience.
But the problem is that as a Video it fails because it is narrated via pop up text. Bad choice, it’s distracting to the eye when you really want to be taking in pictures of the phone camera in action and what’s on the display. Not an easy watch at all. Though I am never keen on masses of voiceover, in this case it would work better.
For an example of an innovative and engaging way to make a How to Video (albeit a different topic) look no further than the work of the highly rated production outfit Common Craft (example below).
You’ve got to feel for Video tutor Izzy Hyman. He’s been using Twitter to promote his biz, but when he left town and Tweeted about it, burglars struck and nicked his Mac Pro, two displays and a printer. This to many of us Mac lovers is worse than losing your wedding ring.
However, he did get a lot of media exposure for his enterprise, making the TV news as in the clip above.
If you are thinking about or already making Web video shows then you need to watch this video. It’s a panel discussion on Web Content Production from Streaming Media East with reps from For Your Imagination, Digitas, MTV and Next New Networks. It covers production, brand relationships and distribution. It’s long at 49 mins but worth every second you spend away from the Edit.
My favourite quote is from Tim Shey co-founder of NNW. Tim says, when it comes to Web Video their office slogan is: “Not just good, it’s good enough”. Meaning, it’s better to get a consistent flow of good enough content to build a Web audience than only make a few items Ad agency perfect. Make it the quality it deserves within the budget.
In this Video watch photographer Alexx Henry create a living movie poster using the Red One digital Camera: 4520 x 2540 pixels, interchangeable cinematography lenses, the quality of 35mm film. Ideal for when high res digital photography needs to turn into video for an Ad screen.
There’s a post that’s built a lot of momentum over at Felicia Days’ blog. For those of you who don’t know her Felicia is a Hollywood actress (Vi, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) turned mega Web Video show creator.
Her self-written, acted and Produced Online drama series about a group of online gamers ‘The Guild‘ (watch Episode 1 above) at one stage was funded out of her own pocket and by donations from the audience but now has proper funding from Microsoft and distribution via MSN Video and XBox Live.
In the post she covers 4 key questions to ask yourself before embarking on the rocky road to creating your own Web series:
You need to watch this Magic card trick from Marco Tempest. There are no edits or camera tricks involved but the Video is given an extra dimension with some clever animations.
Tempest gives credit to: ” Zachary Lieberman and Theo Watson who augmented the card wizardry using OpenFrameworks, Animation Cell for bringing the Jokers to life, Jillene Luce and Dominic FBI for the soundtrack, Matthew Holtzclaw for adding the magic of words, Robert Eaton for the 3D models and to all people creating amazing free tools available to artists everywhere: OpenFrameworks, ARToolkit, OpenCV, MacCam”.
If you think Web Video is just a Handicam and imovie then think again. Revision3 is a professional Production outfit based in San Francisco that outputs daily shows for the Web on subjects from Tech to Music. The quality is high and the kit is slicker than some low budget broadcast TV outfits.
In this video (it’s a long one!) Studio Engineer David Randolph takes the cameras on a tour of all the kit he assembled in the studio to create Revision3’s volume of output under tight budgets with slimline Production teams.
