Online Video Production Blog

This is a guide to producing simple but good quality videos using easy to find, and cheap, equipment and software.  For this exercise we will be using a basic Mini DV video camera and Windows Movie Maker Software.

Step 1.  Plan

• Prepare what you are going to film.  Plan your ideas and have a very good idea of the “story” you are trying to tell.  If you are going to present your storey “on-camera” almost memorise your script and practice saying it out loud.
• Storyboard or “script block” your script. 
• When recording “pieces to camera” ensure no one can accidentally interrupt filming, take phones off the hook or close the door.
• Look at the backgrounds of your shots and ensure it is tidy and contains nothing that is offensive or is commercially sensitive.
• Ensure you have sufficient copies of “Permission to Publish” forms to get signed by your “talent”
• Ensure you have permission to film the event, check with organizers/managers to ensure you can access to where you want to film.
• Remember most Shopping Centres, Train Stations, Public venues etc will not allow filming and WILL escort you from the premises.
• Choose your music, pay attention to copyright. Free sites and “Creative Commons” music is available!!
• 16x9 or 4:3?
• Test and check your equipment prior to leaving for the shoot, check you have enough tape stock and are your batteries charged

Step 2. Shoot

• Lighting Lighting Lighting……. Ensure you follow basic lighting principles: DO NOT film subjects in front of a bright light source, MORE light is always better.
• Ensure there is a consistency in your filming, don’t try and mix and match indoor and outdoor, bright and dark footage.
• Think “Story”.  Shoot in sequences: Establishing shot followed by subject.  Shoot lots of cutaway shots, you can never have too many.
• Tripod/Stability – Shots always look better and encode better when steady.
• Use the “rule-of-thirds”.  Divide the picture into 3 equal parts vertically and horizontally. Your eye line should rest on the top third line in the middle. When filming scenes the intersecting lines are the points of greatest interest, pay attention to this.
   
• Avoid placing objects “middle & centre”, be creative with your composition.
• Don’t over use zoom.  Wide angle shots are more stable, “Zoom with your feet”
• When speaking “to camera” remember to look into the lens as much as possible, this is the “eyes” of your audience.  If you get interrupted or make a mistake either stop recording and start again or just start again, it is better to record in one continuous take.  If it becomes impossible to “get it” in one take break the script into smaller manageable sections and perform these in one take.
• “Listen” to the room prior to recording, use an external microphone if possible, if no microphone is available ensure your talent is as close as possible to the camera microphone.
• If using an external microphone USE headphones and check them often.

Step 3. Capture your footage

1. Connect your digital video camera to your computer using an i.Link/Firewire cable.
   
2. Turn your camera on, and set it to playback mode. When prompted, click Capture Video using Windows Movie Maker. Then click OK.
   
3. Microsoft Windows Movie Maker starts the Video Capture Wizard. On the Capture Video File page, type a name for your video. Then click Next.
   
4. On the Video Setting page, accept the default settings by clicking Next. Choose DV-AVI for greatest editing capability, this setting will use more disk space but is preferable, if you must use the “Best Quality” setting.
   
5. On the Capture Method page, choose method then click Next.
   
   Manual is best to save space, un-tick “Show preview during capture” on slower machines. If you choose “Automatically” Movie Maker rewinds your tape and then begins capturing it. While the tape is being captured, you'll see it playing in the Preview (if you haven’t unchecked the box) window and you'll be able to hear the audio through your speakers. After the whole tape is captured, the wizard will stop automatically. If you reach the end of your recording before it reaches the end of your tape, click the Stop Capture button.
6. If you choose “Manual capture” use your video camera to rewind or fast-forward to about five seconds before the start of the clip that you want to download. Then press the play button on your video camera, and immediately click the Start Capture button in the Video Capture Wizard. It's okay if you start capturing too early, because you can trim the beginning of the clip later.
   
7. Movie Maker automatically breaks your movie into clips and adds the clips to a video collection with the name you provided. Now you're ready to edit your report.

Step 4. Edit your footage

• Compose you video using the “timeline” rather than the “storyboard” view for greater control.
• Cutting clips in half, Movie Maker allows you to “cut” your video clips in half. This is a great way to get rid of large chunks of “junk”. You cut your clips in two different places within the program … both in the preview monitor, and also while working on the timeline. Simply find the location you want to cut and click the “cut button” located under the preview monitor.
  
• Trimming the ends of clips; for the finest control, you can trim the ends off your clips by setting the exact “in and out” points of each video clip. While working on the timeline, simply “drag the ends” of each clip to the exact point that you would like it to start and stop. You can accomplish very fine control of each clips start/stop points by trimming … especially if you zoom in on each clip using the magnifying glass.
  
• Use video transitions minimally (generally only use dissolve, called “fade” in MovieMaker). Never do a transition longer than a second; it wastes the viewer’s time.
• Here are some of the most useful effects and some uses you might not have though of:
  
  1. Brightness Increase and Decrease
     These brightness effects are very useful for fixing your video’s exposure levels. If you filmed an indoor scene that looks too dark, you can simply brighten the video with the brightness effect. If your video still isn’t bright enough, you can repeat the effect several times until you get the look you want.
     
  2. Video Grayscale and Sepia Tone, both of these effects remove the color from your film, and the sepia effect gives your film a pleasant “yellowed old photograph” look.
  3. Video Rotation effects, there are several rotation effects, but they are not useful for video. However, they work great for photographs, and allow you to align your photos properly. These rotation effects allow you to rotate your pictures in the proper direction so you can create “video slideshows” of your picture collections.
     
  4. Slow down and speed up, these two effects can be useful for creating comedy “movies.”
  5. Ease In and Ease Out can animate your pictures to make them more interesting.
     
• Keep titles simple, no flashy fonts with fine lines.
• Place titles over pictures to “save time” or place them over a “background” to draw attention to them.
• Use “looping animated backgrounds” if possible to keep the production moving.
• Use music to drive the video but ensure it doesn’t dominate the production by controlling the volume.
• Drag clips onto the timeline (don’t use the storyboard view for this) at the points you would like audio. 
  N.B. MovieMaker is limited as to the amount of audio you can add.
• Adjust volume by right-clicking and adjusting the audio level to an acceptable level.
  
  • Narration can be added from within MovieMaker but pieces to camera tend to have more impact so use them where possible.  As with recording “in-the-field” use a quality microphone and pay attention to background noise.
  • If you do use the narration tool ensure that your audio levels are correct.
    

Step 5. Export your edited footage for PowerPoint delivery, DVD authoring and more!!!

•  Watch your video, critically analyze it.  Make changes as necessary. Ask questions such as “Is it too long?”, “Does it make my point?”, “Could I cut anything out without ruining the story?”, “Could I make it more interesting?”, “Does it contain “in-jokes” that only my friends would understand?”, “Does it meet company guidelines?”.  Ask someone else to watch it and make comments.
• If needed re-edit it, using “save as” so you can go back to the original if you don’t like your changes.
• Select “Save to my computer” and select a directory and file name for your finished video.  I always add the phrase “-final” to my completed finished file.
• Choose “show more choices”. In the movie setting dialogue select “Other settings” and choose “DV-AVI(PAL)” for utmost compatibility and quality. Use this setting for backups and for sending off to be encoded by Corporate Communications.  N.B. large files but highly compatible.
  
• You must use the “DV-AVI(PAL)” setting even though this will not result in the smallest files.  If using other programs, select something similar, when using Apple products choose a QuickTime movie with DV-PAL or similar settings.
• Burn this to DVD, or CD if it will fit, as a DATA file. i.e. the same way you would copy photos or documents.  This will vary depending on the burning software installed on the computer you are using.  Common burning programs include Roxio, Nero, and Sonic.  This disk/video WILL NOT play in a normal DVD player.
• DVD Authoring programs exist but not typically free not installed as standard on Windows XP computers.  Windows DVD Maker is available in Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate and it will create DVD’s but I have not tested it.
• Other formats you may consider creating are .wmv .mpg or .mov.