Monday 25 August 2008

YouTube for duffers

I've decided that YouTube is my poison this year. So I decided to make some rough-and-ready videos that will form a discussion of my growing disenchantment with football, and how I feel disenfranchised from the team I have followed for 30 years, Walsall FC. Now the subject matter is irrelevant, but the process of making the videos has been eye-opening.

I captured and edited them in a way that is easily low-tech, to prove that with limited resources it is possible to make something useful and more media-rich or user-focused. So my process is:
  1. have a single focus for each video, within a larger theme;
  2. use a Nikon Coolpix 7600 in video mode;
  3. capture video handheld or using tripod;
  4. use RAD Video tools from Bink Video to convert files from Quicktime to .avi, as I am using Windows Movie Maker - no need for extra whistles/bells in this project;
  5. import .avi files to Windows Movie Maker, by dragging and dropping;
  6. edit videos, spliced with simple transitions;
  7. embed user-feedback along the way;
  8. embed photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 7600 as appropriate;
  9. add extra audio recorded with Plantronics DSP500 headset and audacity [producing mp3 files] as appropriate, by dragging and dropping;
  10. login to YouTube [you need an account but you can create one with your google account]; and
  11. upload from your homepage and wait for the video to load.
The first video took 30 minutes to record, 4 hours to edit and a while to upload [I went away and had a cup of tea, so lost track of time]. The second took 30 minutes to record, 2 hours to edit and an hour to upload. Give it a go - it's great fun!

1 comment:

Mohamed said...

This is great Richard. A good point of view for the novices out there, very easy and encouraging to follow.

A note to all DMU staff that read the blog that part of our move to eric wood building we'll be having to high-tech video editing suites set up just for staff. So in the near future we'll be able to give a little guidance for all you budding Speilbergs!