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Posts Tagged ‘embed video on web’
By: stu | Posted: Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
When adding videos to your website, it used to be that we were locked in to where the video could be positioned. When designing a web page, you could never put a video anywhere in a vertical side bar. But now, even a video can go in the side bar. “How”, you ask? “All videos are the wrong shape to fit in a vertical space”, you might add. That used to be true. But what if you could output a custom sized and shaped video from Premiere, and had a video management console that allowed you to create a custom shaped player?
The sample below is a real vertical video created in a standard version of Adobe Premiere. Then hosted on EZWebPlayer.com. Check it out. Click anywhere on the image below to start the video playing.
Both the size and shape of the vertical player are completely customize-able. So, regardless of your vertical space requirements or limitations, you can easily choose a vertical player that fits your needs. But this isn’t even the best part.
Up in the video, you can click on the top image and take your viewers to an ordering page or anywhere your heart desires, because the ad image is programmable for the next URL you want them to see. I easily set the image to pop-up 15 seconds into the play.
How To Customize Your Video Size and Shape
VIDEO EDITING APPLICATION
In Premiere, after opening up a new document, in the startup window before you click on anything else, click on the GENERAL tab.
Then, you’ll notice the dimension values. You can insert values here to suit your needs.
EZWebPlayer SETTINGS
Edit player settings and change the ASPECT to CUSTOM, and the dimensions to that of your edited video. Don’t forget to save your settings before leaving that window.
How To Create Embedded Image Advertising
For the pop-up ad,
you’ll need to upload your image in EZWebPlayer’s ADVERTISING setup by choosing ADD NEW ADVERTISEMENT.
When browsing for the image on your hardrive, don’t forget to change the file type from VIDEO FILES to IMAGE FILES.
And then in the Video Settings Editor, choose that advertising image and enter the pop-up time and destination URL.
To try yours, simply sign up for a free 7 day account (no credit card needed) at EZWebPlayer.com.
Have a video that you want to share now? Click on the “Sign Up Now“, or “Try it Free” buttons.
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For more How To tips on Video On Your Web Site, under real business conditions, check these links;
- Upload Web Videos With No Black Bars and Auto Upright Vertical Videos
- EZWebPlayer, CES, and the Pawn Stars?
- EZWEBPLAYER Launches Unlimited Video Player at CES
- Why Won’t My Videos Upload Smoothly?
- WEB VIDEO PLAYER ALERT Pacific N.W. Video Viewers Get Big Speed Boost
By: stu | Posted: Tuesday, August 9th, 2011
A Part of our Culture
America has over 170 million people watching online videos each month and with viewer usage reported to nearly double since 2010 that also shows that adding video to your website is a must in today’s online market. A recent study from L2 states that company websites that have an online video player converts visitors to buying customers by 30%. More and more people are going online to research and buy things, but to have a successful conversation rate with them you must have more than just a fancy video to post on your site.
Even having a professionally produced video with the newest filming techniques doesn’t guarantee the video will be a successful sales video, you need to ensure that the video calls out an action for your viewers to perform; visit our product page, send feedback, or a simple “contact us.”
How it Works
Here are the basics; you are watching a customer testimonial video about Inflatable boats, the call to action at the end of the video is for you to check out the specifications of the boat in the video. This call to action can be the onscreen talent or narrator telling the viewer to visit their site, or a simple graphics and title stating the domain name and requesting them to check it out.
The Push to Action
Here’s the enhancement; with an EZWebPlayer account your Call to Action becomes a Push to Action –The player can be easily configured to push the user’s experience to the exact webpage where the product is available after the video plays, no extra clicks and nothing is lost in the mix.
A) Video reaches its end,
B) The new URL magically appears immediately.
Three Easy Steps
Using EZWebPlayer to push to action the user’s experience to the exact spot where the product can be purchased will certainly help increase your conversion rate of purchases.
Here’s how to make your video’s call to action a push to action by using your EZWebPlayer.com account. Whether your videos are hosted on EZWebPlayer’s Amazon Cloudfront servers, or you’re linking YouTube videos, setting a push to action is simple.
1) Select settings for the video you are working with.
2) In the Video Setting section, you’ll want to check the box “Change page after playback”.
3) Then populate the URL of the page you want your viewers to go to and set whether or not it will open the page in a new window. Remember to click Update, it’s that simple.
I’ve set this sample video to open our blog page in a new window after this video is finished playing.
I’m Mike Pudlo and thanks for watching.
Have a video that you want to share now? Click on the “Sign Up Now“, or “Try it Free” buttons.
Mike Pudlo
Video Producer
Increase Sales With Video
Boosting Your Sales with the Power of Video
www.IncreaseSalesWithVideo.com
For more How To tips on Video On Your Web Site, under real business conditions, check these links;
- Why Won’t My Videos Upload Smoothly?
- Video SiteMaps; Create Them Automatically with EZWebPlayer
- Advertising Video in that Vertical Web Space? Absolutely!
- 1 Quick Easy way to improve your Web Video SEO
- Lens side video tips; masterful confidence in front of the camera
By: stu | Posted: Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
Makes no difference what product or service you offer; sports fishing, video production, cheese making, firearms, auto service, furniture selling, real estate. You are dealing with new advertising media. After your small business has gone through all of the How-To’s you can find to engage in the new social media marketing craze, just to keep up with the competition, when all is said and done, your most powerful tool is still simply telling what you know directly to your market.
Marketers, scriptwriters, social media gurus and ad agents might know how to engage people, but they don’t know your product and service like you do.
Go Directly to Your Market
Cut through all of the media hype by talking directly to your market on your web video player. You, on video, for 90 seconds can do more to bring business through your front doors than hundreds of hits on a Face Book page or a thousand short tweets on Twitter. And, a compelling and personal video from you to your market has the added frosting on the cake of actually creating Face Book and Twitter hits. Done right, it can happen naturally and automatically.
“Get ‘em through your door…”
Get ‘em through your door by shooting a compelling web video. Place it on your custom web site, email links out, even utilize YouTube as a secondary outlet and of course track all of the responses with built in analytics.
If you are finding it difficult to locate a media management application that does all of the above, contact the Customer Support Pros at EZWebPlayer.com. They’ll take your video and help you turn it into a social media magnet. They’ll even work with your ad agency to do whatever it takes to get your video up and running on The Web.
Have a video that you want to share now on your website video player? Click on the “Sign Up Now“, or “Try it Free” buttons.
Stuart Marks
Executive Creative Director
Business Video Applications
For tips on Video On Your Web Site, under real business conditions, check these links;
Executive Creative Director
Business Video Applications
By: stu | Posted: Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
In marketing, the most important tools are not humor, a web site, TV commercials, or nationalizing your brand; though, all of these are effective and certainly there is a reason that 3M, Coca-Cola and Nike all use these. The absolutely most important tool is tracking.
If you don’t know where you’ve been, you cannot plan ahead with any accuracy. Agencies that handle million dollar accounts are strongly encouraged to “Get it right” more often than not by the results of return business from those million dollar clients. And, the biggest and most powerful tool that the big agencies like Leo Burnet and Aegis use is testing and tracking.
So, if you want to play The Game for your own products and services, and market successfully like the big boys, you must know what makes big differences in your efforts: what delivers and what doesn’t. And, video delivers.
To prove it to yourself, make one change and watch the results.
Here’s how:
1) Establish a base line. Use site hits, or a well established dollar value somewhere before your bottom line.
2) Add video to your web site, or include a link to your powerful web video in your regular newsletter.
3) Run this for a predetermined period; 30 days minimum.
4) Check your stats the day after your predetermined period ends.
Knowing this type of information helps you make decisions with a certain amount of credibility and reliability as to the outcome. Why is this important? So that you choose the right tools at the right time in your marketing cycles. If you only have $1,500 left in your 90-day advertising cycle, and your radio rep comes a’ knockin’, you want to have an answer to those at the head of the big table as to why you are dropping radio for a few months while you run a video that is going to cost you $1,000 to get up and running (your marketing lead is begging for a new HD web cam to record your next group of customer testimonials and they can cost up to $1k for a really good one with good audio pickup).
After you get that powerful testimonial video up and running, you can always return to radio. Now you have radio, AND a powerful web video bringing in new business. All due to your savvy testing and tracking. The next time you are charged with doing something to increase sales, more folks sitting in the big padded chairs will be listening.
Have a video that you want to share now? Click on the “Sign Up Now“, or “Try it Free” buttons.
Stuart Marks
Executive Creative Director
Business Video Applications
For tips on Video On Your Web Site, under real business conditions, check these links;
In marketing, the most important tools are not humor, a web site, TV commercials, or nationalizing your brand; though, all of these are effective and certainly there is a reason that 3M, Coca-Cola and Nike all use these. The absolutely most important tool is tracking.Executive Creative Director
Business Video Applications
By: stu | Posted: Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
The Challenge; One size does not fit all.
The Fix; Custom sized video player.
Back before video was the ubiquitous animal that it is today; showing up everywhere from billboards to pocket sized movie players and everywhere in between, there was TV. TV was one shape; 5:8 ratio. Sure, it came in all sizes, from the little black and white TV/AM/FM/Cassette Player to the giant 27 inch, in cabinet color model that sat right there on your shag carpet (please don’t ask what shag carpeting is, I’ve got socks older than you).
It made no difference what Hollywood studio was producing the TV show you were watching, they all had one camera configuration for TV shows and that was a 5:8 ratio lens and tube config. There were no chips, there were no CMOS capture plates, there were no wide screen or ultra wide, no HD. 5:8; that was the made for TV shape.
Today, there are many more choices and for good reason. Manufacturers are competing. RCA, Phillips, Panasonic and Sony all want to be unique. And with the new transistorized technology that started popping up thanks to NASA and other large scale funded projects, manufacturing engineers were able to present to their respective marketing designers new and varied product ideas.
Today, we have so many different digital video camera CMOS plates that there is no longer a true standard. By the time computer and web based rendering gets done with a video file, there really is no telling what the precise shape of a video file might actually turn out to be. The obvious answer is a web player that is versatile.
This is a screen shot of EZWebPlayer’s setup window for your video file. I have circled the custom fields where one can enter any value. This is a powerful setup tool that every video player SHOULD have.
Here’s a sample of what happens when one’s web video player can’t match the custom shape and size of their video.
Here’s a sample of properly matched video in a player with custom sizing.
It just makes so much good sense, one is left wondering why the heck doesn’t Youtube have this. How long will it take for the rest of the web video world to catch up to EZWebPlayer’s forward thinking?
Click on the SIGN UP NOW button on this page to get your own free trial account.
Stuart Marks
Executive Art Director
Business Video Applications
For more tips on rendering your video for the web under real business conditions, check these links;
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
History Says it All.
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”
George Santayana 1863-1952
Ask any recognized marketing guru. It’s true; the strongest marketing tool is an organization’s record of sales and marketing efforts and the response they actually drew from the target demographic. All that means is that you will learn how to get a strongly favorable response from the public at large by observing how they responded to your marketing efforts in the past.
Marketing communications are a one-way street right up until one gets a response from the target audience. Then, the marketing becomes a function of sales. We want all marketing to turn into sales. Without the sales aspect, marketing is a useless function and a total waste of resources.
The issue is knowing for sure that one’s marketing efforts are generating a positive sales response. Any positive response from a member of the demographic is a sign of a good marketing asset, and a buying signal.
What is a buying signal? The buying signal goes way beyond an actual sale and shows up way ahead of the actual shipment of product. Questions from the audience about the product are good buying signals. And beyond that, any audience time spent taking in product information is also strong buying signal stuff.
If one is displaying a marketing or promotion video 120 seconds in length that is only getting 20 seconds of play time from ¾ of the audience, it would be much better to find that out earlier rather than later.
If a poorly performing video only needs minor tweaking instead of total replacement, this can be discovered by looking at when the audience is bailing out of the offending materiel. Are they leaving the video early on? If this is true, then maybe just making the intro more dynamic would fix the problem. Knowing what part of the video that is causing yawns and the killer “NEXT” button to be stroked can be worth thousands of dollars in resource time.
What would happen if you could break your video into three parts; INTRO, BODY, CALL TO ACTION? Can you imagine how much more simple it would be to precisely tweak a marketing video that is already rolled out and online? This isn’t just a new or refreshingly good idea. This is standard marketing procedure that corporate professionals use to release the marketing genius of their high dollar advertising agencies. Team A works on the concept of the attention-getting introduction of the video, Team B works on the informational body of the video, and Team C works on the powerful call to action of the video that gets the target market to take action immediately upon watching the video.
Your video in three parts
Anything less than a three part video design is virtually an unfinished video.
One thing I have found that helps streamline this established business video process is choosing a video player that gives one the opportunity to add an introductory video clip at the beginning and a closing video clip at the end of each video. EZWebPlayer is actually the only web player I could find that offers this as a standard feature. It seems that the guys over there at EZWebPlayer understand a lot about marketing video on the web, not just the technical web part, but the actual marketing science behind all of the techy stuff.
By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & video consultant.
By: stu | Posted: Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
History Says it All.
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”
George Santayana 1863-1952
Ask any recognized marketing guru. It’s true; the strongest marketing tool is an organization’s record of sales and marketing efforts and the response they actually drew from the target demographic. All that means is that you will learn how to get a strongly favorable response from the public at large by observing how they responded to your marketing efforts in the past.
Marketing communications are a one-way street right up until one gets a response from the target audience. Then, the marketing becomes a function of sales. We want all marketing to turn into sales. Without the sales aspect, marketing is a useless function and a total waste of resources.
The issue is knowing for sure that one’s marketing efforts are generating a positive sales response. Any positive response from a member of the demographic is a sign of a good marketing asset, and a buying signal.
What is a buying signal? The buying signal goes way beyond an actual sale and shows up way ahead of the actual shipment of product. Questions from the audience about the product are good buying signals. And beyond that, any audience time spent taking in product information is also strong buying signal stuff.
If one is displaying a marketing or promotion video 120 seconds in length that is only getting 20 seconds of play time from ¾ of the audience, it would be much better to find that out earlier rather than later.
If a poorly performing video only needs minor tweaking instead of total replacement, this can be discovered by looking at when the audience is bailing out of the offending materiel. Are they leaving the video early on? If this is true, then maybe just making the intro more dynamic would fix the problem. Knowing what part of the video that is causing yawns and the killer “NEXT” button to be stroked can be worth thousands of dollars in resource time.
What would happen if you could break your video into three parts; INTRO, BODY, CALL TO ACTION? Can you imagine how much more simple it would be to precisely tweak a marketing video that is already rolled out and online? This isn’t just a new or refreshingly good idea. This is standard marketing procedure that corporate professionals use to release the marketing genius of their high dollar advertising agencies. Team A works on the concept of the attention-getting introduction of the video, Team B works on the informational body of the video, and Team C works on the powerful call to action of the video that gets the target market to take action immediately upon watching the video.
Your video in three parts
Anything less than a three part video design is virtually an unfinished video.
One thing I have found that helps streamline this established business video process is choosing a video player that gives one the opportunity to add an introductory video clip at the beginning and a closing video clip at the end of each video. EZWebPlayer is actually the only web player I could find that offers this as a standard feature. It seems that the guys over there at EZWebPlayer understand a lot about marketing video on the web, not just the technical web part, but the actual marketing science behind all of the techy stuff.
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
Whether your website is marketing the latest gadget to hit the industry or just expressing opinions in a video blog series, adding video to your website is the best way to get your viewers to stay longer on your site. When adding video to your website you’ll want to ensure the video file is encoded properly. A couple things to keep in mind when exporting your HD video to a web video player are to keep the video ratio consistent and achieve an acceptable balance between bitrate for both video and audio data streams and the overall size of the video file. If the frame width and height values are not keep consistent the video might result in a distorted picture, black bars on the top or bottom and could even affect the frames per second of the video causing issues during playback. The video hosting site will have to stream the compressed video file and then decompress the file during playback, so a large file might be difficult for some users who have slower connections and systems. I will be using Adobe’s CS5 to demonstrate some example render setting to use when exporting your HD video to a streaming file for the web.
|
Video Frame Size |
Video Bitrate |
Audio Bitrate |
1minute File Size |
|
1280×720 |
VBR 2 pass - Target 3.5M, Max 5MB |
160kbps |
26.1MB |
|
1280×720 |
VBR 2 pass -Target Target 2.5M, Max 4MB |
112kbps |
18.6MB |
|
1024×576 |
CBR - 1MB |
96kbps |
11.3MB |
|
768×432 |
VBR 1 pass Target 3.5M, Max 5MB |
80kbps |
7.69MB |
HD Render Settings Example 1
HD Render Settings Example 2
HD Render Settings Example 3
HD Render Settings Example 4
By Mike Pudlo: Chicago Area Video producer and Creative Writer
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
When adding some nice bells and whistles to your web videos by way of fun but purposeful motion EFX, the time line can get bogged down and you might find your computer crashing a lot.
Following some professional secrets will reduce your crashing and maximize your processor’s ability to render the video in a shorter time.
A) Close all unnecessary software programs. These are programs not being used to edit the project at hand.
B) Pre render high activity timeline elements on their own time line, then bring them into the main timeline as a single element.
C) During rendering of the main timeline, you can choose to only render a smaller segment at a time while you go to the kitchen or break room for filling up your coffee cup, instead of relying only on the whole timeline being rendered while you go watch a movie or clean out the garage.
My process for the final rendering session goes like this:
-I empty my machine’s trash
-Reboot, keeping my MS Office closed so that Outlook doesn’t hog resources during rendering.
-I then open my editing program and execute final renders.
If you do all of this and still have problems, start by deleting all of your PREVIEWS, then reboot, etc. Obviously, you’ll have to re render your pre rendered segments again unless you chose to save those specific renders. But, your machine will be running leaner when you do.
Incidentally, most professional editing suites are devoid of all other software other than those environments necessary for post production tasks and editing . There are even many editing suites that have a separate machine for high level tasks like operating After Effects. The only other program they might have on all of their machines is a file sharing program to move files around amongst their various tasking machines.
So, you can enjoy near the same CPU leanness by simply shutting down unnecessary programs.
If you’re still having problems, buy a new computer with lots of processing power. The more, the better. And, keep it off of the Internet; another pro trick. Free of charge. Your welcome.
By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & video consultant.
Flickr Photos credits:
ATC Don’t Panic by Sarabbit
By: rbouchez | Posted: Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Agenda:
- What you’ll need
- Audio first
- Shooting tips
- Get the footage onto your computer
- Publishing formats
- Upload video to your website
1.Video equipment needs
A Suitable Video Camera.
Records digitally to tape, DVD or Card.
Good zoom ratio so the camera doesn’t have to be close to the front of the room.
An external audio port so the camera can receive input from the existing sound system. XLR is best and most reliable.
A Good Tripod
Heavier is better, but more expensive.
Good Isolating Headphones
Blocks outside noise from the wearer’s hearing.
Seals around ear.
Editing Software
There is often free video editing software on new computers.
Using a direct capture to the software can save money on recording media by recording directly to the computer hard drive, but does not offer a backup solution if the computer crashes during the recording.
Media Ready Computer
Good sound card.
Fast enough to handle editing video.
Large enough hard drive to handle over an hour of video.
High Speed Internet Connection
Even the slowest high speed connection should be suitable.
Faster is better, speed = time.
Subscription to EZWebPlayer.com
www.EZWebPlayer.com
2. Audio First
A word about the audio-video relationship.
Worship service recording is a unique event. As a video, there is nothing like it in the entire media arena. The genre’ handles a very unique content and therefore has both special limitations as well as a few caveats like no other media event.
For this reason, the video can suffer more on the visual side and get away with it, such as only using one camera, and that being locked down on a medium wide shot. A single camera angle locked down might be preferable to a single camera angle being manually operated by an inexperienced volunteer or novice. Eventually, the video library should show marked improvement approaching professionalism for future viewing generations.
The audio, however, must be near perfect from Day One. Those viewing the video must be able to enjoy the music as well as understand every word and inflection of the important message.
Patch the sound system into the video camera via a cable. No wireless.
- Make sure your camera is receiving the audio signal from an original output source of the sound system, as apposed to taking it from another recording device like the CD, tape or digital audio recorder, or another computer.
Constant monitoring of the camera’s audio via headphones insures quality
- Use headphones that completely cover the ear.
- Make sure the headphones are plugged into the camera.
Make sure the audio source is raw, board out, audio. No extra effects or extra sweetening at all like reverb or inappropriate equalization. The finished video file will be naturally compressed somewhat during rendering.
Don’t allow the camera to be an audio source for any other output. No daisy chaining from the camera. The only output should be to the headphones.
Turn off the camera’s auto audio limiter and record manually.
The audio limiter employs top end compressing that can cause strange phasing effects when recording in an auditorium that generates natural echos and ambiance, and bottom end boosters that can increase background noise and cause his and rumble. It is much better and easier to becom accustomed to properly setting and monitoring the sound manually.
If the camera has manual settings for two channels, check for balance.
Single channel recording is preferred to problematic stereo. Good mono is better than bad stereo.
3. Shooting Tips
Camera movements should be smooth or not attempted at all.
Virtually anyone can learn to smoothly operate a tripod-mounted video camera. Practice makes perfect. Until a practiced hand is available to operate the camera to follow the movements of a lecturer who does not stay behind the podium, a static shot is preferable.
A standard tripod has friction settings that effect the pan and tilt of the head. These settings should be such that the start and end of each movement executed without an initial jump or ending stop-jerk.
Zooming in and out a lot is not a good idea. If multiple cameras are being used, it is better to already have the chosen zoom set before coming to that camera.
Operator fatigue is a real issue.
Use a larger view finder instead of the eye piece.
Having more than one camera operator might be a useful way to keep production value high while training more camera operators.
Wearing comfortable shoes is a must.
Wearing dark, plain clothing helps the camera operator be less of a distraction to those seated in the auditorium.
4. Getting the footage onto your computer
Before editing or posting to the web site, the footage must first be transferred from the camera or its media, to the computer’s hard drive. Which video editing software you own may effect the way your footage gets from camera to computer hard drive, but mostly they are the same.
If your camera is so equipped, you can simply plug it into an available USB2 or Firewire port on your computer, and execute a standard file transfer through your computer’s operating system like Windows or Mac, if the camera outputs to an editable file format recognized by your editing software. This is not common, but as technology changes it may become common.
The standard operating procedure for conventional video editing environments is to execute a “capture”. In Adobe Premiere, the command path would be FILE > CAPTURE.
Remember that you get what you pay for, but three of the more common free programs are;
Windows Movie Maker. This program came free on some bundles installed with Windows XP.
Apple iMovie
Avid FreeDV
Also, it has been common practice in the past for companies like Sony and Canon to include fairly decent editing software bundles with some of their consumer cameras.
5. Publishing formats
Publishing your video makes reference to rendering or developing your video for a Web Ready state, just like developing an old style film for viewing in a theater. In this case, you need to make sure that your video is assembled the way you intend your viewers to watch it.
Cuts, edits, transitions, graphics and audio video matching might be something you did not intend on manipulating: hoping that your camera would spit out a watchable product virtually direct from camera to web. In some cases, this might be possible. But, just in case you would like to change or add something, now is the time.
Most publishing software packages allow for various levels of video editing.
This is a sample of Adobe’s Premiere Pro CS4 timeline. All of the simplest editing environments will have some characteristics of this sample. Visual clip manipulation, audio control as well as transition effects and titling are all here.
When finished editing, you will most likely be faced with a list of choices no matter what editing software available to you.
Since publishing to the web is your goal, many of the overall technical decisions are already made on a higher level. You want a small file size with a premium quality. Fortunately, you have the luxury of trial and error in case web pixel values and the rendering thereof is not your strong suite. Don’t worry, it’s not mine either, and I’m a business video producer with a degree from an Art School.
Rendering video is an art form in itself and many institutions have full timers devoted to doing just that; rendering videos for web.
So, do what I did, and simply try some of the default file types suggested by your web video publishing software. The one that was defaulted for me in Camtasia for the previous video clip in this PowerPoint presentation was MP4. And sure enough there was no tweaking needed in either Camtasia or PowerPoint. It worked smoothly the first time, so I stayed with that.
6. Uploading your video to your website
We recommend www.EZWebPlayer.com.
Upload your first video.
Follow the instructions for installing the one time code set on your web page.
We hope you found this tutorial helpful! Thanks for visiting!
By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & specialist in Church Video Consultant, Chicago.
Reposted 11/3/10, originally posted to blog.EZWebplayer.com & *updated 7/2/10
Flickr image by Jim the Photographer
Agenda:
- What you’ll need
- Audio first
- Shooting tips
- Get the footage onto your computer
- Publishing formats
- Upload video to your website
1.Video equipment needs
A Suitable Video Camera.
Records digitally to tape, DVD or Card.
Good zoom ratio so the camera doesn’t have to be close to the front of the room.
An external audio port so the camera can receive input from the existing sound system. XLR is best and most reliable.
A Good Tripod
Heavier is better, but more expensive.
Good Isolating Headphones
Blocks outside noise from the wearer’s hearing.
Seals around ear.
Editing Software
There is often free video editing software on new computers.
Using a direct capture to the software can save money on recording media by recording directly to the computer hard drive, but does not offer a backup solution if the computer crashes during the recording.
Media Ready Computer
Good sound card.
Fast enough to handle editing video.
Large enough hard drive to handle over an hour of video.
High Speed Internet Connection
Even the slowest high speed connection should be suitable.
Faster is better, speed = time.
Subscription to EZWebPlayer.com
www.EZWebPlayer.com
2. Audio First
A word about the audio-video relationship.
Worship service recording is a unique event. As a video, there is nothing like it in the entire media arena. The genre’ handles a very unique content and therefore has both special limitations as well as a few caveats like no other media event.
For this reason, the video can suffer more on the visual side and get away with it, such as only using one camera, and that being locked down on a medium wide shot. A single camera angle locked down might be preferable to a single camera angle being manually operated by an inexperienced volunteer or novice. Eventually, the video library should show marked improvement approaching professionalism for future viewing generations.
The audio, however, must be near perfect from Day One. Those viewing the video must be able to enjoy the music as well as understand every word and inflection of the important message.
Patch the sound system into the video camera via a cable. No wireless.
- Make sure your camera is receiving the audio signal from an original output source of the sound system, as apposed to taking it from another recording device like the CD, tape or digital audio recorder, or another computer.
Constant monitoring of the camera’s audio via headphones insures quality
- Use headphones that completely cover the ear.
- Make sure the headphones are plugged into the camera.
Make sure the audio source is raw, board out, audio. No extra effects or extra sweetening at all like reverb or inappropriate equalization. The finished video file will be naturally compressed somewhat during rendering.
Don’t allow the camera to be an audio source for any other output. No daisy chaining from the camera. The only output should be to the headphones.
Turn off the camera’s auto audio limiter and record manually.
The audio limiter employs top end compressing that can cause strange phasing effects when recording in an auditorium that generates natural echos and ambiance, and bottom end boosters that can increase background noise and cause his and rumble. It is much better and easier to becom accustomed to properly setting and monitoring the sound manually.
If the camera has manual settings for two channels, check for balance.
Single channel recording is preferred to problematic stereo. Good mono is better than bad stereo.
3. Shooting Tips
Camera movements should be smooth or not attempted at all.
Virtually anyone can learn to smoothly operate a tripod-mounted video camera. Practice makes perfect. Until a practiced hand is available to operate the camera to follow the movements of a lecturer who does not stay behind the podium, a static shot is preferable.
A standard tripod has friction settings that effect the pan and tilt of the head. These settings should be such that the start and end of each movement executed without an initial jump or ending stop-jerk.
Zooming in and out a lot is not a good idea. If multiple cameras are being used, it is better to already have the chosen zoom set before coming to that camera.
Operator fatigue is a real issue.
Use a larger view finder instead of the eye piece.
Having more than one camera operator might be a useful way to keep production value high while training more camera operators.
Wearing comfortable shoes is a must.
Wearing dark, plain clothing helps the camera operator be less of a distraction to those seated in the auditorium.
4. Getting the footage onto your computer
Before editing or posting to the web site, the footage must first be transferred from the camera or its media, to the computer’s hard drive. Which video editing software you own may effect the way your footage gets from camera to computer hard drive, but mostly they are the same.
If your camera is so equipped, you can simply plug it into an available USB2 or Firewire port on your computer, and execute a standard file transfer through your computer’s operating system like Windows or Mac, if the camera outputs to an editable file format recognized by your editing software. This is not common, but as technology changes it may become common.
The standard operating procedure for conventional video editing environments is to execute a “capture”. In Adobe Premiere, the command path would be FILE > CAPTURE.
Remember that you get what you pay for, but three of the more common free programs are;
Windows Movie Maker. This program came free on some bundles installed with Windows XP.
Apple iMovie
Avid FreeDV
Also, it has been common practice in the past for companies like Sony and Canon to include fairly decent editing software bundles with some of their consumer cameras.
5. Publishing formats
Publishing your video makes reference to rendering or developing your video for a Web Ready state, just like developing an old style film for viewing in a theater. In this case, you need to make sure that your video is assembled the way you intend your viewers to watch it.
Cuts, edits, transitions, graphics and audio video matching might be something you did not intend on manipulating: hoping that your camera would spit out a watchable product virtually direct from camera to web. In some cases, this might be possible. But, just in case you would like to change or add something, now is the time.
Most publishing software packages allow for various levels of video editing.
This is a sample of Adobe’s Premiere Pro CS4 timeline. All of the simplest editing environments will have some characteristics of this sample. Visual clip manipulation, audio control as well as transition effects and titling are all here.
When finished editing, you will most likely be faced with a list of choices no matter what editing software available to you.
Since publishing to the web is your goal, many of the overall technical decisions are already made on a higher level. You want a small file size with a premium quality. Fortunately, you have the luxury of trial and error in case web pixel values and the rendering thereof is not your strong suite. Don’t worry, it’s not mine either, and I’m a business video producer with a degree from an Art School.
Rendering video is an art form in itself and many institutions have full timers devoted to doing just that; rendering videos for web.
So, do what I did, and simply try some of the default file types suggested by your web video publishing software. The one that was defaulted for me in Camtasia for the previous video clip in this PowerPoint presentation was MP4. And sure enough there was no tweaking needed in either Camtasia or PowerPoint. It worked smoothly the first time, so I stayed with that.
6. Uploading your video to your website
We recommend www.EZWebPlayer.com.
Upload your first video.
Follow the instructions for installing the one time code set on your web page.
We hope you found this tutorial helpful! Thanks for visiting!
By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & specialist in Church Video Consultant, Chicago.
Reposted 11/3/10, originally posted to blog.EZWebplayer.com & *updated 7/2/10
Flickr image by Jim the Photographer
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
As a professional or novice web video producer or photographer, your opportunities for fall color captures is wearing thin. Get out there and shoot, shoot, shoot.
At Shutterstock, 30 seconds of HD “leaves falling”, or a printable photo of the same genre’ gets the owner $50, with the lowest price payable to get that at the $250 tier. The buyer has to buy at least $250 worth of product to get fall photo or video.
Just when do you think a buyer needs that footage? Think about it. If you are looking at an ad in a glossy magazine right now that features a color or B&W photo of fall leaves, that photo was not shot this year. The editing and production staff of the print world was working on the 2010 October issue of Shocking But True in Hollywood magazine in March of 2010. There aren’t any fall color leaves in March in this hemisphere. As a matter of fact, there aren’t any fall leaves any where on this planet in March.
Photo and video archiving is all about opportunity. The paparazzi rush around from Hollywood train wreck to Hollywood train wreck because they only make money if they capture the event. It’s all about the opportunity. Lady Gaga’s streaked hair and other-worldly shades being seen in front of some mundane location like a 7-11 while she and her denim and leather bedecked entourage’ buy 99 cent slurpies is, unfortunately for this generation, an Event. Someone who shoots that and is the first to submit it to Shocking But True in Hollywood magazine close to deadline gets the lion’s share of $500 if they are lucky and good.
Since orange, red, plumb, yellow and rust colored leaves falling is a sellable commodity, and there is a bunch of those things falling right now, now is the time to shoot them. You most likely won’t sell any footage right now because everybody can shoot them right now, just like you. But, you might enter an autumn color contest right away and win a great award. The best selling goes on long after the last leaf has landed gracefully on your local library’s front lawn.
Remember your CP filter for great color in sky, grass and of course the star of your show, leaves.
For video, shoot a variety of shots. One can never guess for what exactly the art director is looking. It is most likely that they have a specific layout in mind and are looking for the closest capture that fits their idea. If you think that your shot will best serve YOU as income by being the perfect shot around which art directors all over the buying world will design an entire campaign, just keep wishing on that star and gathering moonbeams in a jar, Bunky. Art Directors who make the big bucks do most by coming up with really killer ideas, gathering footage that fits into their layout and then pitching it to The Board.
So, shoot slow pans zoomed all the way out. Put on a fisheye lens and just let the camera roll while the leaves fall. Come up with unique shots as well as standard shots standard shots. Think like an art director. Where will the text go? Will this be used as a green screen fill? If so, where will the talking head go? Or where in the shot will the logo and catch phrase slide in? And, don’t forget sound. Video is only half of the video. Your video capture can be worth a lot more if you shoot with natural sound being captured as well. This takes even more planning and work, and usually a lot of patience, but the geese taking flight through the upper center third of your shot in the distance is not a distraction, it’s a Godsend. By the way, most of your sound should be clean, not filled with openly bumped air movement, “shshshshshshshshshshshshshshsh”. This is not what makes you extra dough. The sound needs to be interestingly natural.
For stills, it’s much the same, only easier because there’s no movement. The movement is implied in still photos, not real. It’s a theater of the mind much like radio. What I mean is, you must capture shots that spark emotion. A tree full of fall color setting in the midst of a green field is very pretty and a very sellable commodity; go shoot it. But while you’re out there, also look for the same tree next to a river or lake. “Water always does the work for you” I often tell my students. Water shots can emote sensuality, action, and passion of all sorts. The Lincoln Memorial Mall in Washington DC is one of the most photographed scenes in the world. The reflecting pool that multiplies the fall color leaves with the alabaster architecture in the background is unique, grandiose, fiery, patriotic and certainly passionate.
Look for opportunities everywhere you go. T
he background you choose is one of your most unique opportunities to grab attention to your work. The fall color sugar maple doesn’t only exist in a purely natural setting. Modern man has adopted the sugar maple into his environment. So a very common scene for video would be cars passing in front of your off centered shot of a row of sugar maples marching away into infinity with an American flag waving in the distance. Kill the flag and insert a busy city scene of corporate America at work with its reflecting glass canyons. Kill the glass canyon and go for the city park with pedestrians, bicyclists, skate boarders and vendors obliviously enjoying the scene in which they are a major player. Don’t forget to capture a few country and farm scenes to help round out your fall archive for 2010. Ooh, and the county fair. I just can’t stop. The possibilities are endless.
And, you’ve only just begun. Rockwellian Americana is only the beginning. The human factor transcends nationalism. Go for pure human texture. The different ethnic children at play. The couple “spooning” under a maple with the checkered picnic tablecloth nearby. A boy and his dog, or a girl and her duck, or a man and his vending cart or a lady and her giant wicker basket of wheat on her head.
And, you need to display your work or all of that hard labor was of no use, right? So, post everything to a forum that gives you complete control of the viewer’s moment in front of your work. Nobody else’s ads, videos or photos to distract, and no way to steal and use without permission. And whether you need a Flash web player or not, EZWebPlayer is the best I’ve seen yet for serving up images to literally any viewing audience in any web forum. Email link, web served, or downloadable flash video; makes no difference.
So, to summarize,
Get out there and shoot NOW for next year’s autumn color imagery market.- Be versatile and diversify. Shoot a broad spectrum for multiple uses.
- Shoot both still and video.
- Expose your work in a forum that you control. Make sure to make use of your own website video player on your own site (if you have one) or simply send out an email link and let EZWebPlayer do the heavy lifting; hosting directly from their servers.
And, if it is too late for you and the fall color scheme for this year, start setting up for your winter scene captures. I wonder if there are any geese left in the north when the snow starts falling.
By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & video consultant.
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
If you’re shooting & posting web videos on your site you’re probably thinking life is pretty good out there on the cutting edge! You might be right but, chances are, you’re also missing out on a ton of Web Best Practices you can only get with text on that page!
Your catchy title just isn't enough!
No script for your video? No problem! Use a traditional Outline format with bold headlines and brief descriptions. Outlines are easy to skim and a well developed outline can add an air of credibility to almost any post!
Here are 5 ways to take back to get the credit your content deserves and make your Videos or Video Blog Posts even better!
- Bolded (or html) headers: if they’re keyword focused you will improve your SEO dramatically!
- Bullet Points: Open up your content to those who are not able to immediately watch a video. They might be at work, on a mobile device or whatever, but if you show them there’s good content in that video, chances are, they’ll bookmark it, share it or come back to watch!
- Pull out Quotes & Key Phrases: Because I’ve been disappointed by so many videos with big promises and no payoff, it’s rare if I stop to watch a video. Show me you have an expert making a good point or two and I’ll click play!
- Highlight Controversy: If you’re out to get comments or go viral, “controversial” is where it’s at! Pull out the most heated arguments, bold them and throw them right up under your video!
- Add Brief Descriptions: Make your content more attractive, not just to search engines but to folks looking for something to quote. Include short, punchy, “retweet” friendly sentences to encourage sharing! Keep them under 130 characters, with spaces, so shortened URLs may be included.
Bonus Video Blog Tip: DON’T include “video” in your title unless it’s a post about video. DO include “video” in your category & tags! Why not in your title? Folks who are not in a position to watch a video won’t click it. They’ll assume there’s no content other than the video and in most cases they’ll be right – but since you’ve added key points in text to yours, they won’t be left empty handed!
Thanks for stopping by!
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
First let’s get something out of the way and address the question “Should your business be on Youtube?”
Answer: Yes!
YouTube is a great marketing channel, there’s no doubt about it… but that doesn’t mean it’s a great content channel for your business!
Here are 10 reasons you should look elsewhere when adding videos to your website .
1. Bad Ads
Certainly you know videos you post on Youtube may be subjected to distracting, and possibly even competitive ads right on top. Even worse, ad previews on popular videos force you to sit through a commercial that has nothing to do with the video and for the small business owner, this is actually a missed opportunity! Those should be your ads, but instead they are from a 3rd party and they reflect badly on you. Of course, if you are a “premiere” product, they certainly cheapen your brand!
2. Control embedding: Share Everywhere! …or not!
To embed or not to embed… that is the question. On YouTube, you only get 2 choices (yes or no), but if you use a custom player like EZWebPlayer, you can literally decide not to allow embedding on specific sites, you know – like your competition’s website, on a complaint site or even other sites that may be housing inappropriate content.
3. Quality
Youtube is hit or miss. Sometimes video plays great but more often then not I find myself suffering through YouTube’s stop and go loading process which just drives me crazy!
4. Flagging & Copyright
Let’s face it, that “flag” button is a prime target for sabotage and Google isn’t exactly known for for it’s great customer service! I’m not suggesting you upload copyrighted material – please do not – what I’m saying is this, if anyone sends a take-down letter to Youtube, whether it’s in the right or not, your audio will be yanked first and questions will be asked later… if at all. This is not a risk you should be willing to take for your business videos!
5. Backup
What happens when you lose a Youtube video? What happens if your video is the subject of a take-down notice? Well… it’s just gone! You are left to find and re-upload that video.
6. Youtube’s Video End Page Sucks (for you)
This is the “other videos you may be interested in” end page which is basically competition for your content. You don’t want someone sitting there watching random Youtube videos on your website, especially if they’re your competitors videos! With a custom web video player you choose the action at the end of your video. Perhaps you would just like the video to stop on an information page or maybe you’d like it to play again from the top. Your choice.
7. SEO (more of a tip)
Ok, Youtube is the second biggest search engine in the world, and that’s great, but Google is still the first and they love blogs! Don’t rely on a YouTube Channel to deliver your videos! Setup a blog and embed your video on it. It’s a fact that Google indexes text better than video and that means you should at least include an outline of content with the video on your page. This will improve your page ranking exponentially!
8. Length
Youtube just raised it’s time limit to 15 minute, but that not appropriate for every project. Realtors, for example, may want to host walking tours or elaborate interviews and how to videos. For photographers, while a demo reel should be kept under the 15 minute time limit, sponsored programming won’t make the cut! It only takes a couple of segments and sponsored messages to land you way past the 15 minute mark! Wedding videos? Forget about it!
9. Live Streaming
You’ll need to turn to 3rd party vendors like Ustream to get streaming functionality and that’s just another account and more you have to learn! Choose an Online Video Player that offers uploaded or streaming video in the same simple to manage solution.
10. Statistics
Measuring clicks, views, referrers or whatever it is that you use to gauge success is key! Yes, you can get some stats from YouTube, but get used to “insufficient data” for videos with lower views and, quite frankly, other online video players will actually give you stats that are worth reading!
So what can you do about it? How do you get someone who’s watching your stuff on Youtube to click over to your site?
Steer those distracted Youtubers over to your website where they can watch your pristine high-quality web videos featuring your brand & your ads! It’s “E-Z” …here’s how:
- Use Youtube’s annotation tool.
This will let you send a click-able message to you viewers right from the video they’re watching! Create a note at the beginning of your video that says something like “For a better ad-free viewing experience click here! Watch this video ad-free at www.MyWebsite.whatever” (Link to YouTube Annotation Tool How to Video) - Insert at teaser line in your video’s description pointing to your blog or website. The more relevant content you can offer, the better!
- Create an introduction for your video! No, don’t start your video with “Hey, go to my website and watch this!” – you’ll lose viewers. You need to be a little more clever than that. Create an introduction that pumps up your viewers about the upcoming video and, rather quickly, suggests that there is a better quality version available for them to watch & share over on your website.
- Offer a second link option. In your tweets, for example, you can say something like “Check out my video: How to tell time on Youtube http://bit.notly or Ad Free on my site http://bet.ter.video”
- Edit in a promo onto the end of your Youtube video, now you may be thinking “Why would I do that when the video is over?” …and that may be true, but hopefully that person will stick around to watch it, or perhaps they will share or bookmark your video. If they want to see it again they’ll go to your website and watch!
Thanks for stopping by!
