I published my first video podcast this evening over on PodLeaders.com. As it is the first one, I am re-publishing it here too.
The podcast is an interview with LouderVoice‘s Conor O’Neill. Conor discusses how the site is based on Microformats (making the data fully portable), how the sites makes extensive use of tagging and how you can subscribe to RSS feeds for almost every aspect of the site.
Video is a rich visual media, so my nit is very small, the glare on Conor’s glasses was distracting.
Nice one Tom – we also finally have the interview we did at Mix07 up at http://blogs.msdn.com/ptstv/archive/2007/05/16/mix-07-dave-nicholson-from-zopa-com.aspx
cheers
Steve
@Branedy – video is very rich as you say. I think fewer people will consume video (as opposed to blogs or podcasts) but their experience is much richer when they do.
As for the glasses, I tried to get Conor to put foundation on his glasses to reduce the glare but he wasn’t having any of it 😉 Frankly I was more worried about the glare from the top of my head (my Franciscan bald patch!).
@Steve – nice one thanks – unfortunately it crashes my browser!!!
Good start Tom well done.
Just a small nit if I may?
As the this is more of an interview I’d rather see the video take more of an interview format. As it stands it’s like conor doesn’t know where to look, to speak to you or to the audience. It just seems a little uncomfortable or unnatural.
The format you have at the moment would be more suitable if you were both presenting the podcast.
That’s just my opinion anyway, many may disagree 🙂
Good point by Branedy with the reflection from outside (I’m guessing the garden?) on Conor’s glasses. Audio is fine, filesize is grand, I think seating-wise it could be done a bit better, maybe separate chairs angled towards each other, just so your profile isn’t lost and interviewee (Conor in this case) doesn’t have to turn as much to address you.
If it was me I might also cut down on the amount of headroom, to make the framing a bit tighter.
There’s a great vibe between the pair of ye chatting away though, makes it quite enjoyable. Maybe branding the video as well for future podcasts? Small podleaders logo in the corner perhaps?
@John – thanks for the feedback. I agree and think I will definitely have to experiment with where I place the camera.
@Ken – just to clarify – by headroom, I assume you mean all the wall visible above our heads? Yup, definitely need to angle the camera further down for the future.
On the branding, in picture branding is a great idea (must look into how to do that, thanks). I was thinking of branding the video podcasts VodLeaders – what do you think of that? Bit over the top?
Guys, on the seating – would it be better if I was facing Conor with the camera behind me, do you think?
Tom, yes the camera would definitely be better placed just behind you, shooting over your shoulder perhaps. But don’t be afraid to change angles up and make things a bit more interesting.
I’ll agree with john, it is an interview after all so positioning the camera behind you would be a good move, over the shoulder shoot. If you were able to grab a second camera you’d be laughing – shoot both directions and cut between the question and response – after all, its your video and you should be seen at some point! Alternative would be if you had a patient interviewee that you could shoot some of the questions from over their shoulder to include yourself in the video, just keeping a watch on the continuity of the audio.
And yep – I was on about the wall space, looks like Robin mentioned it on PodLeaders. VodLeaders isn’t bad as a brand name, little logo overlay would top it off nicely 🙂
Can I ask what camera you’re using?
Ok, play with the camera angles it is so!!!
Ken, good idea about alternating the camera as questions are asked (I don’t have two cameras!).
The camera I’m using is a Sony Handycam HDR SR1. A very nice camera which shoots fantastic HD footage but for which there is virtually no editing software available (because it uses a new format called AVCHD).
Seriously frustrating but my own fault for not doing my homework properly before buying!
I did a quick look around for editing packages that support AVCHD and Pinnacle Studio 11 appears to support the format. Pinnacle Studio is a good application to break into the whole video editing vibe.
I’ve never used it myself because I’ve been using Adobe Premiere for years but I know my little brother has been editing home videos with Pinnacle Studio with some really nice results and having no prior knowledge.
John,
thanks. I ordered Pinnacle last night!!!
It was very frustrating though that they don’t have a trial version for download and nor can you download the full version once you buy it. You have to wait for them to post it to you!
I thought those days were long gone!
What’s Post eh? 🙂
Hi Tom,
For a first go, the podcast was pretty good. If you plan to make this a regular show, like your Podleaders Audio podcast, can I make some recommendations.
Firstly for some great resources and advice on making Internet TV you should check out http://makeinternettv.org. It is a project being run by the Participatory Culture Foundation, they are the organisation behind http://www.downhillbattle.org and the Democracy Player.
Next, while most people will say you have to get your feed up onto the iTunes Podcast Directory, I would agree, but I would strongly suggest also putting your feed as a channel on the Democracy Player Channel Guide and make a 1-Click Subscribe button for the Democracy Player to put on your website.
If you are not familiar with the Democracy Player, it is an Open Source Video Feed Aggregator. While iTunes is very good for Podcast, Democracy is far better for Video Podcasts. It is multi-platform and also supports Bit Torrent Video Feeds. They also make the Broadcast Machine, which is very easy to use platform for hosting your videos yourself and distributing them as a Bit Torrent Video Feed or just an ordinary Video Feed.
I am a volunteer moderator with them for their Channel Guide and their other Video Voting site, VideoBomb (its like Digg for Videos). The guys have been after me to find some Irish vlogs to get into their Channel Guide, so please check them out.
Everything I have mentioned can be found here: http://www.getdemocracy.com (soon to be http://www.getmiro.com).
And a tip for your Blip.tv feed. By default Blip only loads I think 20 or 25 videos to your feed, so if you build up large vlog and you want your viewers to be able to go further back on the feed, to say, the last 100 videos, you can give them your feed as this:
http://TomRaftery.blip.tv/?1=100&skin=rss&pagelen=100
I’m glad you found Pinnacle useful to handle your AVCHD video editing. I hope at some stage the Open Source editor Jahshaka will also support it.
Best of luck with your new project
Stephen,
thanks for all the great suggestions. I’m a complete newbie at this so any/all suggestions gratefully accepted!
On the Pinnacle front, as it has to be posted out, I’m still waiting for it to arrive!!!
How I edited this video was I used TMPGenc Express to convert from AVCHD to .mov. I then imported the .mov into iMovie on the Mac and edited from there.
Probably not the optimal way to do it but I was very much winging it!