Your PC may contain hundreds of video files, all encoded differently - AVI, MPEG, RM, WMV, DVD, VCD, MOV, etc. If you are looking for video conveter tools, here are some suggestions.
WinAVI Video Converter
WinAVI Video Converter is a nice tool for converting video clips to an assortment of formats. The attractive, modern interface features large, clearly labeled icons, so you won't have to dig through the menus very often. You can convert a variety of file types to WMV, AVI, MPEG, and RM. Other notable pluses include a built-in DVD-burning utility, a batch-conversion tool, and a preview pane.WinAVI Video Converter is easy to use and powerful enough for experts. Burning VCD/SVCD/DVD is supported. WinAVI Video Converter supports almost all video file formats, including AVI, MPEG1/2/4, VCD/SVCD/DVD, DivX, XVid, ASF, WMV, RM, QuickTime MOV, Flash SWF.The program also has a powerful video decompress/compress engine that convert whole AVI movie to DVD in 1 less than an hour.
More Information: http://www.deprice.com/winavivc.htm
Aare AVI to VCD DVD SVCD Converter
This tool is very basic, but also very inexpensive - less than eighteen dollars. This program is capable of converting an avi file or Merge some avi files to a VCD DVD SVCD format MPEG file.Plus it Supports avi to vcd dvd svcd conversion with NTSC/PAL setting option, processes avi with DivX/XviD avi format and works with MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 video files and MPEG layer1, layer2, layer3 audio files. In addition to that there is the "Split feature" that splits big mpeg files into several smaller segment, so that it can be fit onto a CD. Other features include:
* Input/Output preview.
* Fill in / Customize options for cropping output video.
* Support output effect.
* Support Input/Output list and other options saving automatically, finishing it anytime.
The program is brainlessly simple to use:
Additional information:http://www.deprice.com/aareavitovcddvdsvcdconverter.htm
John Deprice is a multimedia professional. He shares his tips and tricks on working with video at http://www.deprice.com/multimedia.htm
Shooting High Definition Video Footage in Italy
Italy is without question the place to shoot high definition video. Nearly everything in this sun-drenched part of the world cries out for a photo or video capture. My feelings about the country have never wavered from this opinion.
Having said that, I must also admit that Italy - particularly in metropolitan areas - is a problematic country for videographers. Rome, among other Italian cities, has some of the toughest regulations and laws limiting commercial photography.
My husband, Wayne, and I formed our company - VITA Digital Productions - 5 years ago to shoot European video footage - both for our own specialty-market treadmill virtual walks ( www.treadmillwalks.com ) and to sell as stock footage to TV networks around the world ( www.hdeuropeanstockfootage.com ). We made the decision last year to switch over to HD (High Definition) footage after getting our first request for HD footage.
Our biggest concerns, in planning our recent three-week shoot in May 2005, were 1. the safe transport of our video equipment (all in carry-on bags, for obvious reasons!), 2. the ability to shoot in and around tourist-laden locations, and 3. finding ways to get video footage in spite of the stringent regulations enforced in Rome.
Wayne and I have done this several times over the past five years - researching a picture-worthy destination in Europe, making our own travel plans, and packing up like two serendipitous vagabonds to go forth and shoot (you'd just have to know me to appreciate how foreign this is - no pun intended - to my accustomed, orderly way of life). When I look back to the first part of 2001 (pre 9-11) and our two trips to Italy in spring and summer of that year, I realize now how easy it was to get through customs with unusual looking video equipment.
When the two of us travel on a video shoot, we have slowly learned to take the bare minimum of clothing so that we can accommodate the camera, tripods, SteadiCam apparatus, batteries, filters, wide-angle lens, fluid heads, and tape in addition to spare parts for repairs.
This trip, anticipating problems with airport security, we took pictures of Wayne wearing the SteadiCam vest and showing the camera mounted on the articulated arm. We then tucked the pictures inside the luggage for quick and easy retrieval. When the security agents x-rayed our bags, they never failed to have us open our luggage and inspect the equipment contained. It expedited the process when we were able to produce pictures showing how every piece of equipment fit together. Wayne also mailed a small and inexpensive packet of tools (a screwdriver, a pair of pliers and an Allen wrench) to each of our two hotels so that we would not have those little forbidden items confiscated in the airports. And for some reason, an Allen wrench is an absolute no-no with security agents! I suppose that all of the items could have been purchased in Italy, but time is money on a shoot and we didn't want to waste time searching for a source in a strange city.
Safely arriving with all of our equipment in Italy, we were ready to begin shooting. We had an itinerary and a shooting agenda for each day, but we knew we would have to build in some flexibility to allow for both the weather and the unexpected. We have been extremely lucky in this regard, even on our two previous shooting trips to England.
So how does a videographer shoot around the tourists? If too many people are between the camera and subject or site being shot, the whole effort can be an utter waste of time. And also, unfortunately, the Italian polizia and carabinieri are quick to tell a videographer or still photographer to fold up that tripod and move on!! They do NOT have any patience with a foreign professional photographer, so common sense and a little stealth are requirements.
For tourist-filled sites, we have found that shooting in the very early morning works well for us. For one thing, Italy is a late-night country, so there are few people (and that includes police) out on the streets at first light. Typically, we would get to a site by 7 AM each morning, shoot for a few hours and then return to the hotel for breakfast: then back out into the streets for more shooting.
The first part of our trip focused on the Amalfi Coast where we filmed, in addition to some incredibly beautiful stock footage, a virtual walk through the Valle di Mulino (the Valley of the Mills) above Amalfi, another through Pompeii, a third on the Isle of Capri, from Anacapri to Torre Damecuta, and yet another from Ravello to Atrani into the Piazza Umberto.
The last two weeks of this trip took us back to Rome, where our focus was HD stock footage and Renaissance art - Bernini sculptures and Raphael paintings claimed the lion's share of our time and attention. We spent much of our time filming the Pantheon (Raphael's Tomb and the occulus); the Church of Santa Maria de Popolo and its Chigi Chapel; Santa Maria della Vittoria with Bernini's "Ecstasy of St. Teresa"; the Fountain of the Four Rivers in the Piazza Navona; St. Peter's Basilica and Square; and those delightful Breezy Maniacs of Bernini's along the bridge to the Castel Sant'Angelo.
We devoted a day filming a virtual walk in the medieval town of Viterbo (just 1.5 hours by train from Rome). An historical note about Viterbo - had John Paul II or Benedict XVI been elected Pope in the 13th century, it would have happened here rather than in Rome. Now a well-preserved provincial village, but in its heyday, Viterbo was Rome's greatest rival!
Rome was more crowded with tourists during this trip than we've ever encountered. Much of that could be attributed to pilgrimsflocking to the Vatican in the month following the death of Pope John Paul II and the subsequent election of Pope Benedict XVI. We've also heard that more Americans are traveling to Europe this summer than ever before. Whatever the reason, there were visitors everywhere.
At the end of the trip, we were exhausted but satisfied with the 20 plus hours of High Definition footage we shot along the Amalfi Coast and in Rome. There was an unfortunate incident with a French gendarme in the Charles deGaulle airport, but that will remain a story told within the family!
Is a foreign shoot worth the time, expense, and aggravation? I'll give you a resounding yes on that one - but with a caveat: pack an extra dose of patience and a big heart, and both will be rewarded many times over!
My husband, Wayne, and I own a video production company that focuses on European travel. In addition to our Virtual Walks Series, we also shoot stock footage of Venice, Rome, the Amalfi Coast, London, and English villages. We have sold our footage to numerous television networks and production houses around the world.
Having said that, I must also admit that Italy - particularly in metropolitan areas - is a problematic country for videographers. Rome, among other Italian cities, has some of the toughest regulations and laws limiting commercial photography.
My husband, Wayne, and I formed our company - VITA Digital Productions - 5 years ago to shoot European video footage - both for our own specialty-market treadmill virtual walks ( www.treadmillwalks.com ) and to sell as stock footage to TV networks around the world ( www.hdeuropeanstockfootage.com ). We made the decision last year to switch over to HD (High Definition) footage after getting our first request for HD footage.
Our biggest concerns, in planning our recent three-week shoot in May 2005, were 1. the safe transport of our video equipment (all in carry-on bags, for obvious reasons!), 2. the ability to shoot in and around tourist-laden locations, and 3. finding ways to get video footage in spite of the stringent regulations enforced in Rome.
Wayne and I have done this several times over the past five years - researching a picture-worthy destination in Europe, making our own travel plans, and packing up like two serendipitous vagabonds to go forth and shoot (you'd just have to know me to appreciate how foreign this is - no pun intended - to my accustomed, orderly way of life). When I look back to the first part of 2001 (pre 9-11) and our two trips to Italy in spring and summer of that year, I realize now how easy it was to get through customs with unusual looking video equipment.
When the two of us travel on a video shoot, we have slowly learned to take the bare minimum of clothing so that we can accommodate the camera, tripods, SteadiCam apparatus, batteries, filters, wide-angle lens, fluid heads, and tape in addition to spare parts for repairs.
This trip, anticipating problems with airport security, we took pictures of Wayne wearing the SteadiCam vest and showing the camera mounted on the articulated arm. We then tucked the pictures inside the luggage for quick and easy retrieval. When the security agents x-rayed our bags, they never failed to have us open our luggage and inspect the equipment contained. It expedited the process when we were able to produce pictures showing how every piece of equipment fit together. Wayne also mailed a small and inexpensive packet of tools (a screwdriver, a pair of pliers and an Allen wrench) to each of our two hotels so that we would not have those little forbidden items confiscated in the airports. And for some reason, an Allen wrench is an absolute no-no with security agents! I suppose that all of the items could have been purchased in Italy, but time is money on a shoot and we didn't want to waste time searching for a source in a strange city.
Safely arriving with all of our equipment in Italy, we were ready to begin shooting. We had an itinerary and a shooting agenda for each day, but we knew we would have to build in some flexibility to allow for both the weather and the unexpected. We have been extremely lucky in this regard, even on our two previous shooting trips to England.
So how does a videographer shoot around the tourists? If too many people are between the camera and subject or site being shot, the whole effort can be an utter waste of time. And also, unfortunately, the Italian polizia and carabinieri are quick to tell a videographer or still photographer to fold up that tripod and move on!! They do NOT have any patience with a foreign professional photographer, so common sense and a little stealth are requirements.
For tourist-filled sites, we have found that shooting in the very early morning works well for us. For one thing, Italy is a late-night country, so there are few people (and that includes police) out on the streets at first light. Typically, we would get to a site by 7 AM each morning, shoot for a few hours and then return to the hotel for breakfast: then back out into the streets for more shooting.
The first part of our trip focused on the Amalfi Coast where we filmed, in addition to some incredibly beautiful stock footage, a virtual walk through the Valle di Mulino (the Valley of the Mills) above Amalfi, another through Pompeii, a third on the Isle of Capri, from Anacapri to Torre Damecuta, and yet another from Ravello to Atrani into the Piazza Umberto.
The last two weeks of this trip took us back to Rome, where our focus was HD stock footage and Renaissance art - Bernini sculptures and Raphael paintings claimed the lion's share of our time and attention. We spent much of our time filming the Pantheon (Raphael's Tomb and the occulus); the Church of Santa Maria de Popolo and its Chigi Chapel; Santa Maria della Vittoria with Bernini's "Ecstasy of St. Teresa"; the Fountain of the Four Rivers in the Piazza Navona; St. Peter's Basilica and Square; and those delightful Breezy Maniacs of Bernini's along the bridge to the Castel Sant'Angelo.
We devoted a day filming a virtual walk in the medieval town of Viterbo (just 1.5 hours by train from Rome). An historical note about Viterbo - had John Paul II or Benedict XVI been elected Pope in the 13th century, it would have happened here rather than in Rome. Now a well-preserved provincial village, but in its heyday, Viterbo was Rome's greatest rival!
Rome was more crowded with tourists during this trip than we've ever encountered. Much of that could be attributed to pilgrimsflocking to the Vatican in the month following the death of Pope John Paul II and the subsequent election of Pope Benedict XVI. We've also heard that more Americans are traveling to Europe this summer than ever before. Whatever the reason, there were visitors everywhere.
At the end of the trip, we were exhausted but satisfied with the 20 plus hours of High Definition footage we shot along the Amalfi Coast and in Rome. There was an unfortunate incident with a French gendarme in the Charles deGaulle airport, but that will remain a story told within the family!
Is a foreign shoot worth the time, expense, and aggravation? I'll give you a resounding yes on that one - but with a caveat: pack an extra dose of patience and a big heart, and both will be rewarded many times over!
My husband, Wayne, and I own a video production company that focuses on European travel. In addition to our Virtual Walks Series, we also shoot stock footage of Venice, Rome, the Amalfi Coast, London, and English villages. We have sold our footage to numerous television networks and production houses around the world.
Google Video Viewer tweaked for Non-Google content
'DVD Jon', a Norwegian programmer, has tweaked Google video to make it play clips that are not on Google's servers.
Google Video ( http://video.google.com ) is a web-based video search service that lets people use keywords to search for videos from numerous suppliers.
To watch videos on Google Video, a browser plugin is necessary. Google Video Viewer can be downloaded here: http://video.google.com/video_download.html.
Google has restricted his Video Viewer to only play back files that are stored on video.google.com. The Google Video Viewer is based on the open-source VLC player ( http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ ) which is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
When you download and run the patch of Jon Lech Johansen ( http://nanocrew.net/?p=114 ) to remove this restriction, you can also watch with the Google Video Viewer non-Google hosted videos! Running the patch requires a .NET runtime.
People are advised NOT to install this Video Viewer patch, according Google, as "It could result in security vulnerabilities on their computer and may disrupt their computer's ability to access Google Video". But why should we believe Google? Google is protecting his Video Viewer, but when you can use it for other content, why shouldn't you do it? Give it a try and post your feedback on the wallies.info blog.
Url: http://nanocrew.net/?p=114
For feedback on this article, please visit http://www.wallies.info/blog/item/170/index.html
Walter V. is a self-employed internet entrepreneur and founder-webmaster of several websites, includingwallies.info :: A snappy blog about snappy blue things :: blog | wiki | forum | links - http://wallies.infomblo.gs :: A snappy moblog community - http://mblo.gs
Google Video ( http://video.google.com ) is a web-based video search service that lets people use keywords to search for videos from numerous suppliers.
To watch videos on Google Video, a browser plugin is necessary. Google Video Viewer can be downloaded here: http://video.google.com/video_download.html.
Google has restricted his Video Viewer to only play back files that are stored on video.google.com. The Google Video Viewer is based on the open-source VLC player ( http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ ) which is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
When you download and run the patch of Jon Lech Johansen ( http://nanocrew.net/?p=114 ) to remove this restriction, you can also watch with the Google Video Viewer non-Google hosted videos! Running the patch requires a .NET runtime.
People are advised NOT to install this Video Viewer patch, according Google, as "It could result in security vulnerabilities on their computer and may disrupt their computer's ability to access Google Video". But why should we believe Google? Google is protecting his Video Viewer, but when you can use it for other content, why shouldn't you do it? Give it a try and post your feedback on the wallies.info blog.
Url: http://nanocrew.net/?p=114
For feedback on this article, please visit http://www.wallies.info/blog/item/170/index.html
Walter V. is a self-employed internet entrepreneur and founder-webmaster of several websites, includingwallies.info :: A snappy blog about snappy blue things :: blog | wiki | forum | links - http://wallies.infomblo.gs :: A snappy moblog community - http://mblo.gs
Beginners Guide to PC Video Editing
If you're new to PC video editing then knowing where to start can be a bit daunting, so hopefully this guide will point you in the right direction.
To start with you will need a few items of equipment
Camcorders/Video Decks
Depending on your requirements or aims there are number of different solutions to discuss, so i will split these up into separate sections.
1. If you are starting from new then i recommend buying a new digital camcorder, this will give you superior video and sound quality as well as making getting started in video editing very simple, so ideal for the beginner. There are thousands to choose from catering for various types of budgets.
2. You may already have an old video deck or camcorder which uses the old analogue outputs such as composite or s-video (be sure to check first what outputs you have). For this kind of setup you would need a capture card/analogue to digital converter, this is discussed in more detail further on in the article.
A PC for Video Editing
It is now possible to easily capture footage from your Digital Camcorder directly to your PC and edit it.If you looking at buying a new PC or building a new one then the currents spec's are more then powerful enough, a typical spec PC these days is a P4, 512Mb Ram, 80Gb HDD, Windows XP or something along those lines. You could always use your existing PC if you have one, but i wouldn't recommend using anything below a PIII 600.
Additional Hardware
When transferring video from your camcorder to your PC there are a number of additional things to consider depending on the type of camcorder your using.
If you're using a digital camcorder then all your need is a firewire card (also known as an IEE1394 card), a lot of current PC's have these as standard now, otherwise you will need to purchase the card separately. Some of these will come bundled with editing software such as Adobe Premiere but this really depends on which card you buy and how much you spend, once your camcorder is connected to your firewire port windows will automatically recognise your Digital Camcorder.
If your using the old analogue camcorder then you will also need an analogue to digital converter, see the section on video editing cards below.
Speed?
Its worth considering your Pc's Processor speed, the speed will effect the rate your video will encode, encoding is where your DV video clips are converted into a more compressed format, for example DVD's are encoded to MPEG2. So the faster the better really. Also consider the amount of RAM in your PC, 256Mb would be the minimum.
Extra Hard Drive Storage
Its worth considering having an extra dedicated drive for your video footage, remember that five minutes of DV footage uses 1GB of hard drive space so consider a large capacity hard drive such as an 80Gb or 120Gb, also consider the disk drive RPM, at least 7200RPM would be recommended.If your PC supports it (most new ones do now), then a Serial ATA (SATA) drive will offer increased date transfer rates of up to 150MB/sec compared to 100 or 133 offered by the IDE drives, you may also consider a SCSI drive if you're PC has an SCSI adapter as standard.
DVD/CD Burners
If your planning on putting your film onto CD-ROM (VCD), or DVD then a CDRW or DVDRW is an essential piece of kit, most new pc's may have a CDRW or DVDRW as standard, to burn your DVD, you'll need DVD authoring software.
Video Editing Cards
If you have and older analogue video camera/deck then an analogue USB or PCI capture cards will suffice.
These dedicated analogue to digital converters take process of conversion away from the CPU and therefore speeds up transfer.
If worth getting a quality capture card as the cheaper cards can produce mixed results,
The Video Editing Software
This is where all your creative work starts and the creative work starts, you can capture video from your camera, edit the captured clips, arrange them into a sequence, add transitions, credits and a soundtrack, titles and when your ready export your movie back to the camera or a suitable encoded file format (DVD, VCD etc).
Founder of http://www.avmechanic.co.uk, offering a free friendly helpful community for anybody that needs computer help or help with PC editing products
To start with you will need a few items of equipment
Camcorders/Video Decks
Depending on your requirements or aims there are number of different solutions to discuss, so i will split these up into separate sections.
1. If you are starting from new then i recommend buying a new digital camcorder, this will give you superior video and sound quality as well as making getting started in video editing very simple, so ideal for the beginner. There are thousands to choose from catering for various types of budgets.
2. You may already have an old video deck or camcorder which uses the old analogue outputs such as composite or s-video (be sure to check first what outputs you have). For this kind of setup you would need a capture card/analogue to digital converter, this is discussed in more detail further on in the article.
A PC for Video Editing
It is now possible to easily capture footage from your Digital Camcorder directly to your PC and edit it.If you looking at buying a new PC or building a new one then the currents spec's are more then powerful enough, a typical spec PC these days is a P4, 512Mb Ram, 80Gb HDD, Windows XP or something along those lines. You could always use your existing PC if you have one, but i wouldn't recommend using anything below a PIII 600.
Additional Hardware
When transferring video from your camcorder to your PC there are a number of additional things to consider depending on the type of camcorder your using.
If you're using a digital camcorder then all your need is a firewire card (also known as an IEE1394 card), a lot of current PC's have these as standard now, otherwise you will need to purchase the card separately. Some of these will come bundled with editing software such as Adobe Premiere but this really depends on which card you buy and how much you spend, once your camcorder is connected to your firewire port windows will automatically recognise your Digital Camcorder.
If your using the old analogue camcorder then you will also need an analogue to digital converter, see the section on video editing cards below.
Speed?
Its worth considering your Pc's Processor speed, the speed will effect the rate your video will encode, encoding is where your DV video clips are converted into a more compressed format, for example DVD's are encoded to MPEG2. So the faster the better really. Also consider the amount of RAM in your PC, 256Mb would be the minimum.
Extra Hard Drive Storage
Its worth considering having an extra dedicated drive for your video footage, remember that five minutes of DV footage uses 1GB of hard drive space so consider a large capacity hard drive such as an 80Gb or 120Gb, also consider the disk drive RPM, at least 7200RPM would be recommended.If your PC supports it (most new ones do now), then a Serial ATA (SATA) drive will offer increased date transfer rates of up to 150MB/sec compared to 100 or 133 offered by the IDE drives, you may also consider a SCSI drive if you're PC has an SCSI adapter as standard.
DVD/CD Burners
If your planning on putting your film onto CD-ROM (VCD), or DVD then a CDRW or DVDRW is an essential piece of kit, most new pc's may have a CDRW or DVDRW as standard, to burn your DVD, you'll need DVD authoring software.
Video Editing Cards
If you have and older analogue video camera/deck then an analogue USB or PCI capture cards will suffice.
These dedicated analogue to digital converters take process of conversion away from the CPU and therefore speeds up transfer.
If worth getting a quality capture card as the cheaper cards can produce mixed results,
The Video Editing Software
This is where all your creative work starts and the creative work starts, you can capture video from your camera, edit the captured clips, arrange them into a sequence, add transitions, credits and a soundtrack, titles and when your ready export your movie back to the camera or a suitable encoded file format (DVD, VCD etc).
Founder of http://www.avmechanic.co.uk, offering a free friendly helpful community for anybody that needs computer help or help with PC editing products
Video Biographies; Why Hire a Professional?
There are lots of reasons to create a video biography. Some people have a desire to share and pass down stories from one generation to another while others would like to leave behind a family or personal legacy. Whatever your reason is, while creating a video biography can an incredibly enriching and rewarding experience, it can also be a very daunting task.
There are many things to consider before you start your project. Here are just a few:
The Story
It is my opinion that if your stories require a lot of details such as time, date, place, clothing worn, and other historically factual data, then just pick one or two stories to tell. Many people bite off more than they can chew and get discouraged when they start to understand the effort truly involved in just putting together their storyline. If you would like to tell several stories that tell of a person's character or lessons learned than it is probably not necessary to go into a considerable amount of detail.
Who Will be Involved?
Are you working alone on this project or with a group of people such as other family members or friends? The more input you receive from other people the more time it can take to put together your story and content. This is not a bad thing, just something to be aware of.
Content
What kinds of content do you want to incorporate into your production? Photos, slides, video from different sources such as VHS tape, 8 or 16mm home movies, documents, quotes, personal interviews, narration? The list goes on and on.
You're Audience
Who is the desired audience for your project? Is it close friends or relatives, will your Piece de Resistance be passed down to future generations for their viewing pleasure? Sometimes these questions must be answered before any other considerations because they may determine what kinds of stories and how much detail you will add.
The Delivery Method
For many years VHS tape was the standard for viewing video at home. However DVD is now the medium of choice for many reasons. On screen menus and chapters that allow for much easier navigation, superior audio and video quality, and longevity are just a few reasons DVD has become so very popular. However the internet has also become a viable means of delivering video. If you have a personal website then family and friends around the globe can access your video as soon as it is posted.
All of the points above require serious consideration and expertise. A professional video biographer can help you answer these questions and more. They can keep you on task; help you stay focused, craft your project into a meaningful video biography that will be cherished by family and friends now as well as future generations to come.
Jay Corrao is the founder and president of Memory Archivers, a video production company based in Apple Valley Minnesota. His company specializes in wedding and event videograpy, video biographies, and consumer digital archiving.
http://www.memoryarchivers.com
jay@memoryarchivers.com
There are many things to consider before you start your project. Here are just a few:
The Story
It is my opinion that if your stories require a lot of details such as time, date, place, clothing worn, and other historically factual data, then just pick one or two stories to tell. Many people bite off more than they can chew and get discouraged when they start to understand the effort truly involved in just putting together their storyline. If you would like to tell several stories that tell of a person's character or lessons learned than it is probably not necessary to go into a considerable amount of detail.
Who Will be Involved?
Are you working alone on this project or with a group of people such as other family members or friends? The more input you receive from other people the more time it can take to put together your story and content. This is not a bad thing, just something to be aware of.
Content
What kinds of content do you want to incorporate into your production? Photos, slides, video from different sources such as VHS tape, 8 or 16mm home movies, documents, quotes, personal interviews, narration? The list goes on and on.
You're Audience
Who is the desired audience for your project? Is it close friends or relatives, will your Piece de Resistance be passed down to future generations for their viewing pleasure? Sometimes these questions must be answered before any other considerations because they may determine what kinds of stories and how much detail you will add.
The Delivery Method
For many years VHS tape was the standard for viewing video at home. However DVD is now the medium of choice for many reasons. On screen menus and chapters that allow for much easier navigation, superior audio and video quality, and longevity are just a few reasons DVD has become so very popular. However the internet has also become a viable means of delivering video. If you have a personal website then family and friends around the globe can access your video as soon as it is posted.
All of the points above require serious consideration and expertise. A professional video biographer can help you answer these questions and more. They can keep you on task; help you stay focused, craft your project into a meaningful video biography that will be cherished by family and friends now as well as future generations to come.
Jay Corrao is the founder and president of Memory Archivers, a video production company based in Apple Valley Minnesota. His company specializes in wedding and event videograpy, video biographies, and consumer digital archiving.
http://www.memoryarchivers.com
jay@memoryarchivers.com
How to Interview on Video
When doing an interview there need to be at least three people involved. The person being interviewed, you, the interviewer and someone to work the camcorder. It could be argued - I would so argue - that an extra person to handle the sound is a great benefit but this is a policy of perfection.
Interviewing for video is a skill that can be acquired with practice. The key to successful interviewing is research, research and yet more research.
Before you interview a subject you need to know as much as possible about the person you are interviewing.
And you need to read everything that anyone has ever written about the subject.
This is what the Internet is for. Typically it contains everything written in recent times.
The more information you can get, the more research you do, the smoother the interview will go.
Having said that it is vital that you, the interviewer, both asks questions and knows when to shut up.
The problem is that often you will find yourself knowing more about a subject than the person you are interviewing, and the temptation then is to show off your knowledge.
This is fatal.
The viewer is not interested in your views. It is the person being interviewed ? the interviewee ? who should be the center of attention. And before you ask, yes, this is a major problem for me. I cannot keep my big mouth shut.
Be prepared for interviews that go smoothly and those that get a bit ragged. Three examples.
I had an hour interview with Bill Gates in Sydney for Australian television. My questions were well prepared. He would listen to the question, stay quiet for a moment and then give a cogent, grammatical answer. Amazing. As an interview it went like a dream.On the other hand, I got one very wrong. The interview with the late Tony Hancock, perhaps the greatest British comedian of his day, took place in the Sebel Town House in Sydney. It started as a shambles for I had not done enough homework. It evened out after a while and in the end worked reasonably well. As it happens it was the last interview given by Tony Hancock.
Then I did a series of interviews with members of my family. I stayed out of shot and just let them ramble on what they thought about their siblings. It was electrifying stuff. If you were a member of that family.
Write all of your questions down and create supplementary questions in case an answer, a good answer, is not forthcoming. Avoid questions that invite the single word answer 'yes' or 'no'.
If you ask 'Are you in favor of premarital sex?' you will probably get a single word reply, which is not the idea at all.
Phrase your questions so that they lead the person being interviewed into expanding their views. 'Your book suggests that you are against premarital intercourse. What are your views on this?' is much more likely to elicit a full and frank comment than the first question.
To avoid a 'yes' or 'no' answer use the tried and true journalist technique of asking who, what, why, how and when questions. None of these can be answered with a straight 'yes' or 'no'.
Before the interview starts, you, the interviewer, must meet the subject and establish some sort of rapport. There are interviewers, a few, who can go in cold and get a good result. But they are few and far between.
The preliminary chat is, as it were, part of your research. With it you will establish the ability of the person being interviewed to talk, to express themselves, to answer questions. It is possible that this preliminary talk will end in you modifying some of your questions.
In your preliminary chat avoid asking the specific questions you will be asking in the interview.
Instead, indicate general areas of interest. If you ask the specific questions the filmed interview will give an impression that it has been rehearsed.
Before you start your interview have your key questions laid out and ready. You need a certain amount of flexibility but most of the time you will find that your first and logical thoughts or question order is much better than one you compile while winging it.
There are two main way of handling an interview.
The first is where the question is not heard and the questioner not seen. Instead, you get answers that are obviously directed at someone who is out of shot.
A series of answers like this can be edited together from either one person or several, to provide the effect of a continuous interview.
In this sort of interview you ask the question and then you keep your big mouth shut. If some sort of reaction is needed nod or shake your head vigorously or smile encouragement. If you speak you will have to be edited out afterwards. Which is not always easy.
This technique can be seen being used to magnificent effect in the movie 'When Harry Met Sally' which contains a series of such interviews with married couples describing their lives together. Magic.
The other type of interview is where you are both on screen in the manner of a normal conversation. This sort of interview can easily be covered with one camera.
Shoot the interviewee's answers first and then shoot the interviewer from where the interviewee has been sitting, asking exactly the same questions. At the end you do a series of 'noddies' that can be used for cutaways.
The key to making such an interview work is to get the person relaxed. Try to film them in a familiar surrounding so that they do not feel threatened. Keep the camera work and the lighting as unobtrusive as possible.
The first question should be a sound level check and should be totally innocuous.
Start the interview very gently in a chat mode and always move from soft to hard questions imperceptibly. Do not start like gangbusters or the interviewee will clam up or, in the worst case, walk off. It happens.
At the end of the interview I always ask 'Is there some question you would like me to have asked that I have missed out on?'
This allows the subject to expand on a point or deal with an area they feel has been skipped. It is quite remarkable how often you will get an excellent and usable response after that last question.
Start off with a long shot of the person being interviewed facing the interviewer. The interviewer's back appears, which gives a three-dimensional aspect to the shot and gets the scene in context for the viewer. Change the shot sizes in rhythm with the questions. New question, new framing.
Another form of interviewing on video is vox pop ? from vox populi, Latin for the voice of the people ? are quick interviews with people in the street to demonstrate public opinion on a subject.
What you want to end up with is a series of statements that can be cut rapidly together and, in the end, give a clear indication of the current attitude on a subject.
To make the interview more interesting change the shot size as a new question is asked. That is, switch off, zoom in from, say, mid shot to close-up, and then resume filming again.
Use different backgrounds and different eyelines.
Work out how many interviews you want and then shoot to that number with perhaps a 50 per cent safety margin. Do not go on shooting after that point. You could be getting useful footage for another scene rather than wasting your time. In vox pop moderation is the key.
Note carefully that subjects can move backwards and forwards when making a point and may even wave arms around in the air and you need to be prepared for this so they are always in shot. That the camera does not cut off parts of their bodies. Armless interviewees may be harmless interviewees but that is not the point of the excercise.
Gareth Powell has done many interviews for newspapers, magazines and television. He writes about making videos on his site, Digital images, http://www.pixelates.com
Interviewing for video is a skill that can be acquired with practice. The key to successful interviewing is research, research and yet more research.
Before you interview a subject you need to know as much as possible about the person you are interviewing.
And you need to read everything that anyone has ever written about the subject.
This is what the Internet is for. Typically it contains everything written in recent times.
The more information you can get, the more research you do, the smoother the interview will go.
Having said that it is vital that you, the interviewer, both asks questions and knows when to shut up.
The problem is that often you will find yourself knowing more about a subject than the person you are interviewing, and the temptation then is to show off your knowledge.
This is fatal.
The viewer is not interested in your views. It is the person being interviewed ? the interviewee ? who should be the center of attention. And before you ask, yes, this is a major problem for me. I cannot keep my big mouth shut.
Be prepared for interviews that go smoothly and those that get a bit ragged. Three examples.
I had an hour interview with Bill Gates in Sydney for Australian television. My questions were well prepared. He would listen to the question, stay quiet for a moment and then give a cogent, grammatical answer. Amazing. As an interview it went like a dream.On the other hand, I got one very wrong. The interview with the late Tony Hancock, perhaps the greatest British comedian of his day, took place in the Sebel Town House in Sydney. It started as a shambles for I had not done enough homework. It evened out after a while and in the end worked reasonably well. As it happens it was the last interview given by Tony Hancock.
Then I did a series of interviews with members of my family. I stayed out of shot and just let them ramble on what they thought about their siblings. It was electrifying stuff. If you were a member of that family.
Write all of your questions down and create supplementary questions in case an answer, a good answer, is not forthcoming. Avoid questions that invite the single word answer 'yes' or 'no'.
If you ask 'Are you in favor of premarital sex?' you will probably get a single word reply, which is not the idea at all.
Phrase your questions so that they lead the person being interviewed into expanding their views. 'Your book suggests that you are against premarital intercourse. What are your views on this?' is much more likely to elicit a full and frank comment than the first question.
To avoid a 'yes' or 'no' answer use the tried and true journalist technique of asking who, what, why, how and when questions. None of these can be answered with a straight 'yes' or 'no'.
Before the interview starts, you, the interviewer, must meet the subject and establish some sort of rapport. There are interviewers, a few, who can go in cold and get a good result. But they are few and far between.
The preliminary chat is, as it were, part of your research. With it you will establish the ability of the person being interviewed to talk, to express themselves, to answer questions. It is possible that this preliminary talk will end in you modifying some of your questions.
In your preliminary chat avoid asking the specific questions you will be asking in the interview.
Instead, indicate general areas of interest. If you ask the specific questions the filmed interview will give an impression that it has been rehearsed.
Before you start your interview have your key questions laid out and ready. You need a certain amount of flexibility but most of the time you will find that your first and logical thoughts or question order is much better than one you compile while winging it.
There are two main way of handling an interview.
The first is where the question is not heard and the questioner not seen. Instead, you get answers that are obviously directed at someone who is out of shot.
A series of answers like this can be edited together from either one person or several, to provide the effect of a continuous interview.
In this sort of interview you ask the question and then you keep your big mouth shut. If some sort of reaction is needed nod or shake your head vigorously or smile encouragement. If you speak you will have to be edited out afterwards. Which is not always easy.
This technique can be seen being used to magnificent effect in the movie 'When Harry Met Sally' which contains a series of such interviews with married couples describing their lives together. Magic.
The other type of interview is where you are both on screen in the manner of a normal conversation. This sort of interview can easily be covered with one camera.
Shoot the interviewee's answers first and then shoot the interviewer from where the interviewee has been sitting, asking exactly the same questions. At the end you do a series of 'noddies' that can be used for cutaways.
The key to making such an interview work is to get the person relaxed. Try to film them in a familiar surrounding so that they do not feel threatened. Keep the camera work and the lighting as unobtrusive as possible.
The first question should be a sound level check and should be totally innocuous.
Start the interview very gently in a chat mode and always move from soft to hard questions imperceptibly. Do not start like gangbusters or the interviewee will clam up or, in the worst case, walk off. It happens.
At the end of the interview I always ask 'Is there some question you would like me to have asked that I have missed out on?'
This allows the subject to expand on a point or deal with an area they feel has been skipped. It is quite remarkable how often you will get an excellent and usable response after that last question.
Start off with a long shot of the person being interviewed facing the interviewer. The interviewer's back appears, which gives a three-dimensional aspect to the shot and gets the scene in context for the viewer. Change the shot sizes in rhythm with the questions. New question, new framing.
Another form of interviewing on video is vox pop ? from vox populi, Latin for the voice of the people ? are quick interviews with people in the street to demonstrate public opinion on a subject.
What you want to end up with is a series of statements that can be cut rapidly together and, in the end, give a clear indication of the current attitude on a subject.
To make the interview more interesting change the shot size as a new question is asked. That is, switch off, zoom in from, say, mid shot to close-up, and then resume filming again.
Use different backgrounds and different eyelines.
Work out how many interviews you want and then shoot to that number with perhaps a 50 per cent safety margin. Do not go on shooting after that point. You could be getting useful footage for another scene rather than wasting your time. In vox pop moderation is the key.
Note carefully that subjects can move backwards and forwards when making a point and may even wave arms around in the air and you need to be prepared for this so they are always in shot. That the camera does not cut off parts of their bodies. Armless interviewees may be harmless interviewees but that is not the point of the excercise.
Gareth Powell has done many interviews for newspapers, magazines and television. He writes about making videos on his site, Digital images, http://www.pixelates.com
What You Need To Know if Your Company Wants To Produce A Video
Studies show that people remember merely 20% of what they hear, and only 30% of what they see, and an incredible 70% what they hear and see. * With this in mind, it's no wonder why video is such a powerful communications tool.
So your company has decided they need a video. Where do you start? What questions do you ask? How can you make sure the final product is what you are expecting? This article will give you the tools you'll need to have a professional video project you can be proud of.
First, let's talk about money. As with most things, you get what you pay for. Especially with video production, if you make a decision to hire a production company solely by picking the lowest quoted bid, you will probably end up with a video that is much less than what you expected. Remember, this video represents your company. Do you want your video to look like a high school A/V project? On the other hand, there is no reason to go crazy and spend ungodly amounts of money. It's important to find a company that gives a fair bid for the type of video you need and can produce your project in a professional manner.
Two Decisions
To start your video project, there are two decisions that you will need to make. First, do you want to hire an independent producer or a production company? Second, you will need to decide if you wish to receive your bid for production as a "Package Price" or "Piece Meal".
Independent Producer or Production Company?
Independent producers usually work for themselves and do not own any equipment. They generally rely on outside production companies to supply their equipment and crew needs. This means that if you have an immediate need, the producer is dependent on someone else to help service you. However, unless the independent producer is very busy, you should get good personal attention.
By hiring a production company, you can get a producer who is part of the production company that has the equipment and crew resources in-house. They can generally respond immediately to your needs. Depending on the scope of your project, a production company will either use an in-house producer or hire a freelance producer to coordinate your project.
Either way you decide, be sure you have an experienced producer to manage your project.
Two Ways to Hire
There are two ways of hiring a producer or production company to create your video: "Package Price" and "Piece Meal".
"Package Price"
A package price for the entire project is the way many videos are negotiated. For most situations it is the most logical. The client knows exactly how much to budget for, and the production company knows how much money they will have to work with.
If you choose this route, be sure to have a very clear bid with exactly what each side will be responsible for. The advantage for this is if the company requires to do more work than initially planned to finish what is described in the bid, they are obligated to do whatever it takes to complete the project. However, it is very important to understand that if you, as the client, request more than what is described in the bid, you would be expected to pay extra for your request.
"Piece Meal"
The other way to produce your video is "piece meal". Hire your production company by the day, or by the hour. This way, whenever someone is working on your project, you are paying for their time and only the time they are working on your project. Your producer should be able to give you hourly and daily rates and to estimate the total cost for the project according to your needs.
Your Producer
Whether you hire an independent producer or a production company, you should have an experienced video producer coordinate your entire project. Your producer should be available to you at any time to answer questions and to consult with you about any part of the production. Don't scrimp on your producer; they could make or break the entire project, and they should not be learning on your nickel.
Your producer's job is to manage the project from beginning to end. They are responsible for coordinating the scriptwriting, pre-production, shooting, and editing. Depending on where you live and his or her experience, you can expect to pay your producer between $350 to $1000 a day.
Scriptwriting
Scriptwriting is usually charged by a finished minute rate. For example, if your script is 10 minutes long and you are charged $200 per finished minute, your cost for a complete script should be $2000. A complete script should include all voice tracks and equally important, the video shot descriptions that match the voice track.
Shooting
Shooting is usually charged by the day. Depending on your needs, your shoot may be as small as hiring one cameraman with gear, all the way to having a complete crew that may include a cameraman, lighting director, audio technician, production assistant, teleprompter operator, make-up artist etc. Rates vary depending on your location, but it is standard to hire a strong two-person news style crew for $1,000 - $1500 per day, including professional camera gear, audio and a lighting package. On smaller projects, the shooter can also act as the producer.
Editing
Editing is almost always charged by the hour. For most all projects, a high-end digital (non-linear) editing system will handle your project beautifully. Depending on the system, you should pay between $100 - $200 an hour for editing, including an experienced editor that can make suggestions on how to make your project even better. Finding a Production Company
Looking under "Video Production" in the Yellow page directories is generally a good way to find a local production company. Remember: just because the size of an ad is bigger for one company than another, it doesn't mean the production company is better.
Personal referrals sometimes are your best bet. But remember that this video will represent your company, so be sure you are referred to a professional video producer with experience and not cousin Billy who has a consumer camera and wants to get into the video business.
You can also search the Internet. One of the best sources for lists of production companies on the web is at www.mandy.com. There are many others sites with lists, but this one seems to be the best. Using search engines like Google to find production companies that have a presence on the web is also a very good source.
Awards
Has the production company won any awards for the videos they have produced? There are regional and national awards that producers can enter their projects. If your production company has won some critical acclaim, it's a good chance that they would be a good company to produce your video.
Quality and Format
Other than the producer's expertise, the quality of the final product depends largely on the equipment used to shoot, light and edit the video. For most corporate video projects (marketing, training, communications, etc.), commercials and television programs, the Betacam SP or DVCAM formats are the smartest choices because of their widespread compatibility. There are a number of new excellent broadcast digital video formats, like DVCAM, that are just now emerging on the market. From a client's point of view, Betacam SP or DVCAM or one of the new professional digital video formats (DVCPRO, Betacam SX, Digital Beta) will give you broadcast quality images. Even though Mini DV is quite an incredible format for the prosumer market, it doesn't have quite the quality of the professional formats.
Meeting the Producer
When you initially talk with your producer, be sure to ask some questions. But more importantly, the producer should ask you most of the questions and listen to what you want. This is your company's video and it's up to the producer to try to get in your head to give you a product that you want, not what the producer wants. Be aware if the producer tells you what you need without listening to what you are saying. At the same time, ask the producer for recommendations that would enhance the project beyond your video knowledge.
Set up a time to meet with the prospective producer. Meeting at your location is usually most beneficial. If you want a marketing or training video for your widget, it would be important for the producer to see the widget. Bring copies of videos you would like to emulate and tell your producer what you like and don't like about these videos. Be sure the producer brings sample tapes similar to the project you want to do. Look at past projects your producer has completed. You should also call the producer's past clients to get feedback on their professionalism, work quality, and personality to understand what is was like to work with them.
Q and A
Your producer should listen to what your company's goals are regarding the video, ask a lot of questions, then give suggestions for the best way to produce your video within your budget. Often, your production company won't know anything about your business and vice-versa.
Questions to Ask Your Producer
What can I do to keep my costs down?
A good producer will help you keep the project within your budget. Some of the more common ways to save money are:
?shorten the length of the program,
?use fewer professional actors, and
?keep the shoot days to a minimum.
Holding a pre-production meeting to coordinate the project could save hundreds of dollars. If the shoot is scheduled at your company's location, try to do everything possible to facilitate the videotaping process. For example, if you are creating a marketing or training video for your widget, let your manufacturing line take direction from the video producers and allow disruption of their work.
What kind of experience does the producer have?
The experience of the producer relates directly to the quality of the finished product. Be sure to see examples of video work that the producer has personally produced.
Are there any extra charges?
Ask up front if there will be any extra charges. Some common extra charges: taxes, tape costs, mileage, travel expenses and duplications. It's important to understand that if you, as a client, make changes to the project that require additional work from the production company not originally agreed upon in the proposal, expect extra charges to apply. What will you need from me?
You, or a representative from your company, will need to be an accessible contact person to help coordinate approvals, schedule shoots, and answer questions to help make the production process as smooth as possible.
Questions Your Producer Should Ask You
What do you like and dislike about other videos?
What do you want to achieve with this video?
Who is the target audience?
What do you want the audience to do after watching the video?
How will the tape be shown?
How many shoot locations are there?
Will we be shooting during business hours?
If we are shooting during business hours, are there any logistical concerns?
How long does the video need to be?
Will a company executive need to be on camera?
Do you need a professional on-camera talent or voice-over?
Who will write the script?
Will you need extra graphics or animations in the video?
Are there any other materials that need to be included in the video, such as photographs?
Final Points to Remember
An important point to remember, especially if you are a rookie at using video, is that communications is key to the success of your video. Your production company should be available at any time to answer any questions you may have. Your producer should be kept informed of the project's status and what the next steps are.
Television is a huge part of our lives and we are very accustomed to top quality programming. Today's audiences are sophisticated and expect broadcast quality video productions. If your video is anything less, your message and image will suffer greatly.
Remember to ask questions, be sure you are asked a lot of questions, and go with your gut feeling. Chances are you will end up with a great product and have a fun time in the process.
Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have any questions. Greg Coon
Eyecon Video Productions
Dallas, Texas
214-368-3932
Toll Free (877) 704-1517
greg@eyeconvideo.com
http://www.eyeconvideo.com
*Source: Harvard Business Review
Greg Coon is the President of Eyecon Video Productions, a professional video production company based in Dallas, Texas.
So your company has decided they need a video. Where do you start? What questions do you ask? How can you make sure the final product is what you are expecting? This article will give you the tools you'll need to have a professional video project you can be proud of.
First, let's talk about money. As with most things, you get what you pay for. Especially with video production, if you make a decision to hire a production company solely by picking the lowest quoted bid, you will probably end up with a video that is much less than what you expected. Remember, this video represents your company. Do you want your video to look like a high school A/V project? On the other hand, there is no reason to go crazy and spend ungodly amounts of money. It's important to find a company that gives a fair bid for the type of video you need and can produce your project in a professional manner.
Two Decisions
To start your video project, there are two decisions that you will need to make. First, do you want to hire an independent producer or a production company? Second, you will need to decide if you wish to receive your bid for production as a "Package Price" or "Piece Meal".
Independent Producer or Production Company?
Independent producers usually work for themselves and do not own any equipment. They generally rely on outside production companies to supply their equipment and crew needs. This means that if you have an immediate need, the producer is dependent on someone else to help service you. However, unless the independent producer is very busy, you should get good personal attention.
By hiring a production company, you can get a producer who is part of the production company that has the equipment and crew resources in-house. They can generally respond immediately to your needs. Depending on the scope of your project, a production company will either use an in-house producer or hire a freelance producer to coordinate your project.
Either way you decide, be sure you have an experienced producer to manage your project.
Two Ways to Hire
There are two ways of hiring a producer or production company to create your video: "Package Price" and "Piece Meal".
"Package Price"
A package price for the entire project is the way many videos are negotiated. For most situations it is the most logical. The client knows exactly how much to budget for, and the production company knows how much money they will have to work with.
If you choose this route, be sure to have a very clear bid with exactly what each side will be responsible for. The advantage for this is if the company requires to do more work than initially planned to finish what is described in the bid, they are obligated to do whatever it takes to complete the project. However, it is very important to understand that if you, as the client, request more than what is described in the bid, you would be expected to pay extra for your request.
"Piece Meal"
The other way to produce your video is "piece meal". Hire your production company by the day, or by the hour. This way, whenever someone is working on your project, you are paying for their time and only the time they are working on your project. Your producer should be able to give you hourly and daily rates and to estimate the total cost for the project according to your needs.
Your Producer
Whether you hire an independent producer or a production company, you should have an experienced video producer coordinate your entire project. Your producer should be available to you at any time to answer questions and to consult with you about any part of the production. Don't scrimp on your producer; they could make or break the entire project, and they should not be learning on your nickel.
Your producer's job is to manage the project from beginning to end. They are responsible for coordinating the scriptwriting, pre-production, shooting, and editing. Depending on where you live and his or her experience, you can expect to pay your producer between $350 to $1000 a day.
Scriptwriting
Scriptwriting is usually charged by a finished minute rate. For example, if your script is 10 minutes long and you are charged $200 per finished minute, your cost for a complete script should be $2000. A complete script should include all voice tracks and equally important, the video shot descriptions that match the voice track.
Shooting
Shooting is usually charged by the day. Depending on your needs, your shoot may be as small as hiring one cameraman with gear, all the way to having a complete crew that may include a cameraman, lighting director, audio technician, production assistant, teleprompter operator, make-up artist etc. Rates vary depending on your location, but it is standard to hire a strong two-person news style crew for $1,000 - $1500 per day, including professional camera gear, audio and a lighting package. On smaller projects, the shooter can also act as the producer.
Editing
Editing is almost always charged by the hour. For most all projects, a high-end digital (non-linear) editing system will handle your project beautifully. Depending on the system, you should pay between $100 - $200 an hour for editing, including an experienced editor that can make suggestions on how to make your project even better. Finding a Production Company
Looking under "Video Production" in the Yellow page directories is generally a good way to find a local production company. Remember: just because the size of an ad is bigger for one company than another, it doesn't mean the production company is better.
Personal referrals sometimes are your best bet. But remember that this video will represent your company, so be sure you are referred to a professional video producer with experience and not cousin Billy who has a consumer camera and wants to get into the video business.
You can also search the Internet. One of the best sources for lists of production companies on the web is at www.mandy.com. There are many others sites with lists, but this one seems to be the best. Using search engines like Google to find production companies that have a presence on the web is also a very good source.
Awards
Has the production company won any awards for the videos they have produced? There are regional and national awards that producers can enter their projects. If your production company has won some critical acclaim, it's a good chance that they would be a good company to produce your video.
Quality and Format
Other than the producer's expertise, the quality of the final product depends largely on the equipment used to shoot, light and edit the video. For most corporate video projects (marketing, training, communications, etc.), commercials and television programs, the Betacam SP or DVCAM formats are the smartest choices because of their widespread compatibility. There are a number of new excellent broadcast digital video formats, like DVCAM, that are just now emerging on the market. From a client's point of view, Betacam SP or DVCAM or one of the new professional digital video formats (DVCPRO, Betacam SX, Digital Beta) will give you broadcast quality images. Even though Mini DV is quite an incredible format for the prosumer market, it doesn't have quite the quality of the professional formats.
Meeting the Producer
When you initially talk with your producer, be sure to ask some questions. But more importantly, the producer should ask you most of the questions and listen to what you want. This is your company's video and it's up to the producer to try to get in your head to give you a product that you want, not what the producer wants. Be aware if the producer tells you what you need without listening to what you are saying. At the same time, ask the producer for recommendations that would enhance the project beyond your video knowledge.
Set up a time to meet with the prospective producer. Meeting at your location is usually most beneficial. If you want a marketing or training video for your widget, it would be important for the producer to see the widget. Bring copies of videos you would like to emulate and tell your producer what you like and don't like about these videos. Be sure the producer brings sample tapes similar to the project you want to do. Look at past projects your producer has completed. You should also call the producer's past clients to get feedback on their professionalism, work quality, and personality to understand what is was like to work with them.
Q and A
Your producer should listen to what your company's goals are regarding the video, ask a lot of questions, then give suggestions for the best way to produce your video within your budget. Often, your production company won't know anything about your business and vice-versa.
Questions to Ask Your Producer
What can I do to keep my costs down?
A good producer will help you keep the project within your budget. Some of the more common ways to save money are:
?shorten the length of the program,
?use fewer professional actors, and
?keep the shoot days to a minimum.
Holding a pre-production meeting to coordinate the project could save hundreds of dollars. If the shoot is scheduled at your company's location, try to do everything possible to facilitate the videotaping process. For example, if you are creating a marketing or training video for your widget, let your manufacturing line take direction from the video producers and allow disruption of their work.
What kind of experience does the producer have?
The experience of the producer relates directly to the quality of the finished product. Be sure to see examples of video work that the producer has personally produced.
Are there any extra charges?
Ask up front if there will be any extra charges. Some common extra charges: taxes, tape costs, mileage, travel expenses and duplications. It's important to understand that if you, as a client, make changes to the project that require additional work from the production company not originally agreed upon in the proposal, expect extra charges to apply. What will you need from me?
You, or a representative from your company, will need to be an accessible contact person to help coordinate approvals, schedule shoots, and answer questions to help make the production process as smooth as possible.
Questions Your Producer Should Ask You
What do you like and dislike about other videos?
What do you want to achieve with this video?
Who is the target audience?
What do you want the audience to do after watching the video?
How will the tape be shown?
How many shoot locations are there?
Will we be shooting during business hours?
If we are shooting during business hours, are there any logistical concerns?
How long does the video need to be?
Will a company executive need to be on camera?
Do you need a professional on-camera talent or voice-over?
Who will write the script?
Will you need extra graphics or animations in the video?
Are there any other materials that need to be included in the video, such as photographs?
Final Points to Remember
An important point to remember, especially if you are a rookie at using video, is that communications is key to the success of your video. Your production company should be available at any time to answer any questions you may have. Your producer should be kept informed of the project's status and what the next steps are.
Television is a huge part of our lives and we are very accustomed to top quality programming. Today's audiences are sophisticated and expect broadcast quality video productions. If your video is anything less, your message and image will suffer greatly.
Remember to ask questions, be sure you are asked a lot of questions, and go with your gut feeling. Chances are you will end up with a great product and have a fun time in the process.
Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have any questions. Greg Coon
Eyecon Video Productions
Dallas, Texas
214-368-3932
Toll Free (877) 704-1517
greg@eyeconvideo.com
http://www.eyeconvideo.com
*Source: Harvard Business Review
Greg Coon is the President of Eyecon Video Productions, a professional video production company based in Dallas, Texas.
Streaming Video on Your Website - Convert Visitors into Customers
Streaming video is a sequence of "moving images" that are sent in compressed form over the Internet and displayed by the viewer as they arrive. Streaming media is streaming video with sound. With streaming video or streaming media, a Web user does not have to wait to download a large file before seeing the video or hearing the sound. Instead, the media is sent in a continuous stream and is played as it arrives. The user needs a player, which is a special program that uncompresses and sends video data to the display and audio data to speakers. A player can be either an integral part of a browser or downloaded from the software maker's Web site.
Major streaming video and streaming media technologies include RealSystem G2 from RealNetwork, Microsoft Windows Media Technologies (including its NetShow Services and Theater Server), and VDO. Microsoft's approach uses the standard MPEG compression algorithm for video. The other approaches use proprietary algorithms. (The program that does the compression and decompression is sometimes called the codec.) Microsoft's technology offers streaming audio at up to 96 Kbps and streaming video at up to 8 Mbps (for the NetShow Theater Server). However, for most Web users, the streaming video will be limited to the data rates of the connection (for example, up to 128 Kbps with an ISDN connection). Microsoft's streaming media files are in its Advanced Streaming Format (ASF).
Streaming video is usually sent from prerecorded video files, but can be distributed as part of a live broadcast "feed." In a live broadcast, the video signal is converted into a compressed digital signal and transmitted from a special Web server that is able to do multicast, sending the same file to multiple users at the same time.
Streaming media is audio and video that are transmitted on the Internet in a streaming or continuous fashion, using data packets. The most effective reception of streaming media requires some form of broadband technology such as cable modem or DSL. A packet is the unit of data that is routed between an origin and a destination on the Internet or any other packet-switched network. When any file (e-mail message, HTML file, Graphics Interchange Format file, URL - Uniform Recourse Locater request, and so forth) is sent from one place to another on the Internet, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer of TCP/IP divides the file into "chunks" of an efficient size for routing. Each of these packets is separately numbered and includes the Internet address of the destination. The individual packets for a given file may travel different routes through the Internet. When they have all arrived, they are reassembled into the original file (by the TCP layer at the receiving end).
A packet-switching scheme is an efficient way to handle transmissions on a connectionless network such as the Internet. An alternative scheme, circuit-switched, is used for networks allocated for voice connections. In circuit-switching, lines in the network are shared among many users as with packet-switching, but each connection requires the dedication of a particular path for the duration of the connection. "Packet" and "datagram" are similar in meaning. A protocol similar to TCP, the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) uses the term datagram.
MPEG, the Moving Picture Experts Group, develops standards for digital video and digital audio compression. It operates under the auspices of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The MPEG standards are an evolving series, each designed for a different purpose. To use MPEG video files, you need a personal computer with sufficient processor speed, internal memory, and hard disk space to handle and play the typically large MPEG file (which has a file name suffix of .mpg). You also need an MPEG viewer or client software that plays MPEG files. (Note that .mp3 file suffixes indicate MP3 (MPEG-1 audio layer-3) files, not MPEG-3 standard files.) You can download shareware or commercial MPEG players from a number of sites on the Web.
The term codec is an acronym that stands for "compression/decompression." A codec is an algorithm, or specialized computer program, that reduces the number of bytes consumed by large files and programs. In order to minimize the amount of storage space required for a complicated file, such as a video, compression is used. Compression works by eliminating redundancies in data. Compression can be done for any kind of file, including text, programs, images, audio, video, and virtual reality (VR). Compression can reduce the size of a file by a factor of 100 or more in some cases. For example, a 15-megabyte video might be reduced to 150 kilobytes. The uncompressed file would be far too large to download from the Web in a reasonable length of time, but the compressed file could usually be downloaded in a few seconds. For viewing, a decompression algorithm, which "undoes" the compression, would have to be used.
There are numerous standard codec schemes. Some are used mainly to minimize file transfer time, and are employed on the Internet. Others are intended to maximize the data that can be stored in a given amount of disk space, or on a CD-ROM. Codec's are used in many popular Internet products, including QuickTime, Netmeeting, Cu-Seeme, and VDOphone.
Flash, is a popular authoring software developed by Macromedia, and is used to create vector graphics-based animation programs with full-screen navigation interfaces, graphic illustrations, and simple interactivity in an antialiased, resizable file format that is small enough to stream across a normal modem connection. The software is ubiquitous on the Web, both because of its speed (vector-based animations, which can adapt to different display sizes and resolutions, play as they download) and for the smooth way it renders graphics. Flash files, unlike animated but rasterized GIF and JPEG, are compact, efficient, and designed for optimized delivery. Known as a do-it-yourself animation package, Flash 4 gives Web designers the ability to import artwork using whatever bitmap or illustration tool they prefer, and to create animation and special effects, and add sound and interactivity. The content is then saved as file with a .SWF file name extension.
Web users with Intel Pentium or Power Macintosh processors can download Flash Player to view Flash content, which performs across multiple browsers and platforms. Flash is lauded for being one of the Web's most accessible plug-in. According to an independent study cited by Macromedia, over 90 percent of Web users already have Flash Player installed. Macromedia was recently acquired by Adobe in a 3.4 billion dollar deal.
About the Author: Ole Arndt is President of Global Media LLC, in Branchburg NJ.
Correspondence to: oarndt@streamingmediabiz.com
Major streaming video and streaming media technologies include RealSystem G2 from RealNetwork, Microsoft Windows Media Technologies (including its NetShow Services and Theater Server), and VDO. Microsoft's approach uses the standard MPEG compression algorithm for video. The other approaches use proprietary algorithms. (The program that does the compression and decompression is sometimes called the codec.) Microsoft's technology offers streaming audio at up to 96 Kbps and streaming video at up to 8 Mbps (for the NetShow Theater Server). However, for most Web users, the streaming video will be limited to the data rates of the connection (for example, up to 128 Kbps with an ISDN connection). Microsoft's streaming media files are in its Advanced Streaming Format (ASF).
Streaming video is usually sent from prerecorded video files, but can be distributed as part of a live broadcast "feed." In a live broadcast, the video signal is converted into a compressed digital signal and transmitted from a special Web server that is able to do multicast, sending the same file to multiple users at the same time.
Streaming media is audio and video that are transmitted on the Internet in a streaming or continuous fashion, using data packets. The most effective reception of streaming media requires some form of broadband technology such as cable modem or DSL. A packet is the unit of data that is routed between an origin and a destination on the Internet or any other packet-switched network. When any file (e-mail message, HTML file, Graphics Interchange Format file, URL - Uniform Recourse Locater request, and so forth) is sent from one place to another on the Internet, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer of TCP/IP divides the file into "chunks" of an efficient size for routing. Each of these packets is separately numbered and includes the Internet address of the destination. The individual packets for a given file may travel different routes through the Internet. When they have all arrived, they are reassembled into the original file (by the TCP layer at the receiving end).
A packet-switching scheme is an efficient way to handle transmissions on a connectionless network such as the Internet. An alternative scheme, circuit-switched, is used for networks allocated for voice connections. In circuit-switching, lines in the network are shared among many users as with packet-switching, but each connection requires the dedication of a particular path for the duration of the connection. "Packet" and "datagram" are similar in meaning. A protocol similar to TCP, the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) uses the term datagram.
MPEG, the Moving Picture Experts Group, develops standards for digital video and digital audio compression. It operates under the auspices of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The MPEG standards are an evolving series, each designed for a different purpose. To use MPEG video files, you need a personal computer with sufficient processor speed, internal memory, and hard disk space to handle and play the typically large MPEG file (which has a file name suffix of .mpg). You also need an MPEG viewer or client software that plays MPEG files. (Note that .mp3 file suffixes indicate MP3 (MPEG-1 audio layer-3) files, not MPEG-3 standard files.) You can download shareware or commercial MPEG players from a number of sites on the Web.
The term codec is an acronym that stands for "compression/decompression." A codec is an algorithm, or specialized computer program, that reduces the number of bytes consumed by large files and programs. In order to minimize the amount of storage space required for a complicated file, such as a video, compression is used. Compression works by eliminating redundancies in data. Compression can be done for any kind of file, including text, programs, images, audio, video, and virtual reality (VR). Compression can reduce the size of a file by a factor of 100 or more in some cases. For example, a 15-megabyte video might be reduced to 150 kilobytes. The uncompressed file would be far too large to download from the Web in a reasonable length of time, but the compressed file could usually be downloaded in a few seconds. For viewing, a decompression algorithm, which "undoes" the compression, would have to be used.
There are numerous standard codec schemes. Some are used mainly to minimize file transfer time, and are employed on the Internet. Others are intended to maximize the data that can be stored in a given amount of disk space, or on a CD-ROM. Codec's are used in many popular Internet products, including QuickTime, Netmeeting, Cu-Seeme, and VDOphone.
Flash, is a popular authoring software developed by Macromedia, and is used to create vector graphics-based animation programs with full-screen navigation interfaces, graphic illustrations, and simple interactivity in an antialiased, resizable file format that is small enough to stream across a normal modem connection. The software is ubiquitous on the Web, both because of its speed (vector-based animations, which can adapt to different display sizes and resolutions, play as they download) and for the smooth way it renders graphics. Flash files, unlike animated but rasterized GIF and JPEG, are compact, efficient, and designed for optimized delivery. Known as a do-it-yourself animation package, Flash 4 gives Web designers the ability to import artwork using whatever bitmap or illustration tool they prefer, and to create animation and special effects, and add sound and interactivity. The content is then saved as file with a .SWF file name extension.
Web users with Intel Pentium or Power Macintosh processors can download Flash Player to view Flash content, which performs across multiple browsers and platforms. Flash is lauded for being one of the Web's most accessible plug-in. According to an independent study cited by Macromedia, over 90 percent of Web users already have Flash Player installed. Macromedia was recently acquired by Adobe in a 3.4 billion dollar deal.
About the Author: Ole Arndt is President of Global Media LLC, in Branchburg NJ.
Correspondence to: oarndt@streamingmediabiz.com
Streaming Video on Your Website - Convert Visitors into Customers
Streaming video is a sequence of "moving images" that are sent in compressed form over the Internet and displayed by the viewer as they arrive. Streaming media is streaming video with sound. With streaming video or streaming media, a Web user does not have to wait to download a large file before seeing the video or hearing the sound. Instead, the media is sent in a continuous stream and is played as it arrives. The user needs a player, which is a special program that uncompresses and sends video data to the display and audio data to speakers. A player can be either an integral part of a browser or downloaded from the software maker's Web site.
Major streaming video and streaming media technologies include RealSystem G2 from RealNetwork, Microsoft Windows Media Technologies (including its NetShow Services and Theater Server), and VDO. Microsoft's approach uses the standard MPEG compression algorithm for video. The other approaches use proprietary algorithms. (The program that does the compression and decompression is sometimes called the codec.) Microsoft's technology offers streaming audio at up to 96 Kbps and streaming video at up to 8 Mbps (for the NetShow Theater Server). However, for most Web users, the streaming video will be limited to the data rates of the connection (for example, up to 128 Kbps with an ISDN connection). Microsoft's streaming media files are in its Advanced Streaming Format (ASF).
Streaming video is usually sent from prerecorded video files, but can be distributed as part of a live broadcast "feed." In a live broadcast, the video signal is converted into a compressed digital signal and transmitted from a special Web server that is able to do multicast, sending the same file to multiple users at the same time.
Streaming media is audio and video that are transmitted on the Internet in a streaming or continuous fashion, using data packets. The most effective reception of streaming media requires some form of broadband technology such as cable modem or DSL. A packet is the unit of data that is routed between an origin and a destination on the Internet or any other packet-switched network. When any file (e-mail message, HTML file, Graphics Interchange Format file, URL - Uniform Recourse Locater request, and so forth) is sent from one place to another on the Internet, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer of TCP/IP divides the file into "chunks" of an efficient size for routing. Each of these packets is separately numbered and includes the Internet address of the destination. The individual packets for a given file may travel different routes through the Internet. When they have all arrived, they are reassembled into the original file (by the TCP layer at the receiving end).
A packet-switching scheme is an efficient way to handle transmissions on a connectionless network such as the Internet. An alternative scheme, circuit-switched, is used for networks allocated for voice connections. In circuit-switching, lines in the network are shared among many users as with packet-switching, but each connection requires the dedication of a particular path for the duration of the connection. "Packet" and "datagram" are similar in meaning. A protocol similar to TCP, the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) uses the term datagram.
MPEG, the Moving Picture Experts Group, develops standards for digital video and digital audio compression. It operates under the auspices of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The MPEG standards are an evolving series, each designed for a different purpose. To use MPEG video files, you need a personal computer with sufficient processor speed, internal memory, and hard disk space to handle and play the typically large MPEG file (which has a file name suffix of .mpg). You also need an MPEG viewer or client software that plays MPEG files. (Note that .mp3 file suffixes indicate MP3 (MPEG-1 audio layer-3) files, not MPEG-3 standard files.) You can download shareware or commercial MPEG players from a number of sites on the Web.
The term codec is an acronym that stands for "compression/decompression." A codec is an algorithm, or specialized computer program, that reduces the number of bytes consumed by large files and programs. In order to minimize the amount of storage space required for a complicated file, such as a video, compression is used. Compression works by eliminating redundancies in data. Compression can be done for any kind of file, including text, programs, images, audio, video, and virtual reality (VR). Compression can reduce the size of a file by a factor of 100 or more in some cases. For example, a 15-megabyte video might be reduced to 150 kilobytes. The uncompressed file would be far too large to download from the Web in a reasonable length of time, but the compressed file could usually be downloaded in a few seconds. For viewing, a decompression algorithm, which "undoes" the compression, would have to be used.
There are numerous standard codec schemes. Some are used mainly to minimize file transfer time, and are employed on the Internet. Others are intended to maximize the data that can be stored in a given amount of disk space, or on a CD-ROM. Codec's are used in many popular Internet products, including QuickTime, Netmeeting, Cu-Seeme, and VDOphone.
Flash, is a popular authoring software developed by Macromedia, and is used to create vector graphics-based animation programs with full-screen navigation interfaces, graphic illustrations, and simple interactivity in an antialiased, resizable file format that is small enough to stream across a normal modem connection. The software is ubiquitous on the Web, both because of its speed (vector-based animations, which can adapt to different display sizes and resolutions, play as they download) and for the smooth way it renders graphics. Flash files, unlike animated but rasterized GIF and JPEG, are compact, efficient, and designed for optimized delivery. Known as a do-it-yourself animation package, Flash 4 gives Web designers the ability to import artwork using whatever bitmap or illustration tool they prefer, and to create animation and special effects, and add sound and interactivity. The content is then saved as file with a .SWF file name extension.
Web users with Intel Pentium or Power Macintosh processors can download Flash Player to view Flash content, which performs across multiple browsers and platforms. Flash is lauded for being one of the Web's most accessible plug-in. According to an independent study cited by Macromedia, over 90 percent of Web users already have Flash Player installed. Macromedia was recently acquired by Adobe in a 3.4 billion dollar deal.
About the Author: Ole Arndt is President of Global Media LLC, in Branchburg NJ.
Correspondence to: oarndt@streamingmediabiz.com
Major streaming video and streaming media technologies include RealSystem G2 from RealNetwork, Microsoft Windows Media Technologies (including its NetShow Services and Theater Server), and VDO. Microsoft's approach uses the standard MPEG compression algorithm for video. The other approaches use proprietary algorithms. (The program that does the compression and decompression is sometimes called the codec.) Microsoft's technology offers streaming audio at up to 96 Kbps and streaming video at up to 8 Mbps (for the NetShow Theater Server). However, for most Web users, the streaming video will be limited to the data rates of the connection (for example, up to 128 Kbps with an ISDN connection). Microsoft's streaming media files are in its Advanced Streaming Format (ASF).
Streaming video is usually sent from prerecorded video files, but can be distributed as part of a live broadcast "feed." In a live broadcast, the video signal is converted into a compressed digital signal and transmitted from a special Web server that is able to do multicast, sending the same file to multiple users at the same time.
Streaming media is audio and video that are transmitted on the Internet in a streaming or continuous fashion, using data packets. The most effective reception of streaming media requires some form of broadband technology such as cable modem or DSL. A packet is the unit of data that is routed between an origin and a destination on the Internet or any other packet-switched network. When any file (e-mail message, HTML file, Graphics Interchange Format file, URL - Uniform Recourse Locater request, and so forth) is sent from one place to another on the Internet, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer of TCP/IP divides the file into "chunks" of an efficient size for routing. Each of these packets is separately numbered and includes the Internet address of the destination. The individual packets for a given file may travel different routes through the Internet. When they have all arrived, they are reassembled into the original file (by the TCP layer at the receiving end).
A packet-switching scheme is an efficient way to handle transmissions on a connectionless network such as the Internet. An alternative scheme, circuit-switched, is used for networks allocated for voice connections. In circuit-switching, lines in the network are shared among many users as with packet-switching, but each connection requires the dedication of a particular path for the duration of the connection. "Packet" and "datagram" are similar in meaning. A protocol similar to TCP, the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) uses the term datagram.
MPEG, the Moving Picture Experts Group, develops standards for digital video and digital audio compression. It operates under the auspices of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The MPEG standards are an evolving series, each designed for a different purpose. To use MPEG video files, you need a personal computer with sufficient processor speed, internal memory, and hard disk space to handle and play the typically large MPEG file (which has a file name suffix of .mpg). You also need an MPEG viewer or client software that plays MPEG files. (Note that .mp3 file suffixes indicate MP3 (MPEG-1 audio layer-3) files, not MPEG-3 standard files.) You can download shareware or commercial MPEG players from a number of sites on the Web.
The term codec is an acronym that stands for "compression/decompression." A codec is an algorithm, or specialized computer program, that reduces the number of bytes consumed by large files and programs. In order to minimize the amount of storage space required for a complicated file, such as a video, compression is used. Compression works by eliminating redundancies in data. Compression can be done for any kind of file, including text, programs, images, audio, video, and virtual reality (VR). Compression can reduce the size of a file by a factor of 100 or more in some cases. For example, a 15-megabyte video might be reduced to 150 kilobytes. The uncompressed file would be far too large to download from the Web in a reasonable length of time, but the compressed file could usually be downloaded in a few seconds. For viewing, a decompression algorithm, which "undoes" the compression, would have to be used.
There are numerous standard codec schemes. Some are used mainly to minimize file transfer time, and are employed on the Internet. Others are intended to maximize the data that can be stored in a given amount of disk space, or on a CD-ROM. Codec's are used in many popular Internet products, including QuickTime, Netmeeting, Cu-Seeme, and VDOphone.
Flash, is a popular authoring software developed by Macromedia, and is used to create vector graphics-based animation programs with full-screen navigation interfaces, graphic illustrations, and simple interactivity in an antialiased, resizable file format that is small enough to stream across a normal modem connection. The software is ubiquitous on the Web, both because of its speed (vector-based animations, which can adapt to different display sizes and resolutions, play as they download) and for the smooth way it renders graphics. Flash files, unlike animated but rasterized GIF and JPEG, are compact, efficient, and designed for optimized delivery. Known as a do-it-yourself animation package, Flash 4 gives Web designers the ability to import artwork using whatever bitmap or illustration tool they prefer, and to create animation and special effects, and add sound and interactivity. The content is then saved as file with a .SWF file name extension.
Web users with Intel Pentium or Power Macintosh processors can download Flash Player to view Flash content, which performs across multiple browsers and platforms. Flash is lauded for being one of the Web's most accessible plug-in. According to an independent study cited by Macromedia, over 90 percent of Web users already have Flash Player installed. Macromedia was recently acquired by Adobe in a 3.4 billion dollar deal.
About the Author: Ole Arndt is President of Global Media LLC, in Branchburg NJ.
Correspondence to: oarndt@streamingmediabiz.com
Video Email - The New Way to Communicate
he Internet is now a thriving means of communication and for everyone around the globe to receive the most up to date information at the click of a mouse button. Sending an email is now accepted as the quickest and easiest way to converse with your friends and family or business acquaintances and everyday millions of emails are sent worldwide.However, as in all aspects of life today even this form of communication is fast becoming the "old hat" system and the new kid on the block is now high streaming video email.
Basically video emailing gives you the opportunity to still email at lightning speed to your friends, family and business acquaintances but now also allows you to include a high quality video message. Although this concept has been available for a short time this form of communicating usually involved high cost software and the need to include large file attachments within your email thus making it generally prohibitive to the mass audiences.
Thankfully even this has now been improved by considerable measures and a leader in this field is Myvideotalk who have solved this problem and have made the software available to all at remarkably low cost. Even more impressive and of great importance, Myvideotalk have developed a system that allows you to send high quality streaming videos without the need for large file attachments or complicated operating software.
Also in a quest to keep at the sharp end of innovation the company has now also made available the group video conferencing software which allows multiple users to communicate with each other by video connection and thus enable people from all around the world to now not only talk to each other but see each other in a group environment.
As a means of Internet marketing this now really does give the individual online businessperson a real advantage to convey their business to the mass audience around the world and never has there been such a fantastic opportunity to build a business by talking face to face with prospects and established business associates.
This truly does mean that the phrase "isn't it a small world" is becoming more and more of a reality for us all.
Terry Till
http://www.myemailvideo.co.uk
Basically video emailing gives you the opportunity to still email at lightning speed to your friends, family and business acquaintances but now also allows you to include a high quality video message. Although this concept has been available for a short time this form of communicating usually involved high cost software and the need to include large file attachments within your email thus making it generally prohibitive to the mass audiences.
Thankfully even this has now been improved by considerable measures and a leader in this field is Myvideotalk who have solved this problem and have made the software available to all at remarkably low cost. Even more impressive and of great importance, Myvideotalk have developed a system that allows you to send high quality streaming videos without the need for large file attachments or complicated operating software.
Also in a quest to keep at the sharp end of innovation the company has now also made available the group video conferencing software which allows multiple users to communicate with each other by video connection and thus enable people from all around the world to now not only talk to each other but see each other in a group environment.
As a means of Internet marketing this now really does give the individual online businessperson a real advantage to convey their business to the mass audience around the world and never has there been such a fantastic opportunity to build a business by talking face to face with prospects and established business associates.
This truly does mean that the phrase "isn't it a small world" is becoming more and more of a reality for us all.
Terry Till
http://www.myemailvideo.co.uk
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