Need pointers for stuff to do website VidProduction

1. domineaux
   Member

   

   I have found reviews, watched Youtube tutorials, and spent two weeks researching and Videomaker looked like a great place to get solid competent information about my needs.

   My interest is to acquire the proper equipment and software for making video productions that will go onto/within webpages, including some Youtube stuff as well.  Creating DVD training disks are also part of my needs. 

   Researching has been helpful, but now I'm down to applying what I've learned to actually buying the equipment to accomplish the work I have planned.

   The reviews I've read and viewed for the most part are only about features and now about how the features affect applications.

   My list includes ---

   A Camcorder

   Tripod - I'm looking seriously at the Velbon 7000

   Green/Blue Screen Backdrops - I've found muslim 9x12s in both colors to do this at 40.00 each. 

   Lighting  I'm looking at low cost alternatives to start no real thoughts on this at the time.

   Audio - I've read a Wireless Lapiere Mic kit is a best place to start

   Editing softwares - I have windows movier maker with my Vista

   --------------------------------------

   I have purchased a very competent computer Intel Quad E6600 PRocessor, 4 gig ram, 8800 GTS 512MB video card, Abit A35Pro Mobo.

   Looking at cameras I am better educated and have been able to elimate many camera candidates, but I'm still not sure about a best choice or alternative choices.

   1.   I don't have any idea what I'm going to need for efficient and competent webside production.

   2.   I know I need HD for production of training DVDs, but will HD work well on the Web.  I do know the colors availble on the web are limited. 

   3.   I have no idea what kind of connections/ports I need on the camera to do what I plan.  There are a number of things mentioned from Firewire, USB, SDI, etc.  I don't know if HDMI works both ways to record from a HD TV or play only to an HD TV,etc. I have an HDTV that uses HDMI from the Cable recorder to the TV, but that's about the extent of my HDMI knowledge.

   4.  I guess I'm looking for a site with shopping lists for guys like myself that want to make a go at Video production on a semi-professional basis...eventually becoming professional.

   I have reviewed the Camcorder Sony HDR-SR12 about 100 times, but when I look at all the port/connections I'm lost.  It looks to be a pretty good camera going it...

   I looked at the JVC GZ-HD7 and HD5, which has more connections, but review information is rather spotty.  The price appears very attractive for this camera, for the more professional features it seems to provide. Then of course I don't know pee-nut from pea-nut about camcorders.

   I have been reviewing the HVR-HD1000 Sony, which looks like a professional camera.  I'm not sure it is, or whether it is kill or overkill for what I want to do.

   Get the Video Plugin

   I planned to spend around 1,000 on a camcorder, but I could extend that upwards to around 1,600 or even 2,000.  I just can't afford to put out a 1 to 2 grand for a camera that isn't competent to do what I really need to do.  I can't afford more at this time, later for sure, but not to start.   

   The HDD format appeals to me.  I don't enjoy the prospects to carry around a lot of tapes and stuff, which require carefully handling and tape wind issues. 

   I've read alot of things about format issues. By that I mean formats work well for uploading to websites and youtube, some don't work without expensive software for edits, etc. i.e., AVCHD, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MP3, etc.  I understand it's mostly about compression of the formatted data, but I'm kinda lost when it comes to the better choice of format or storage media.  

   Currently, most of the work I will do is in a room of my house I plan to dedicate as a studio.  I will do some videos outside, when I'm competent enough to do decent work.  I've got pretty good camera skills as far as layout and creative issues are concerned.  I just don't have the hardware/software education to get a jumpstart into this.

   I would appreciate any links or information to get me moving on this.  

   Posted 1 year ago # Login to Send PM

2. shippocaio
   Member

   

   I am new to this videographer thing too, so i dont have a lot of tips....but i know one thing.

   I bought a AVCHD camera that records in mini-dvd discs, and doing some reserching, i found out a solution to edit AVCHD without losing any quality.

   If your future camcorder have a hdmi output, you can buy a black magic capture card ( http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/ ). it converts in realtime the AVCHD format to a editable file.

   P.S: It dosen't need to be the intensity PRO, it can be the normal one. 

   Posted 1 year ago # Login to Send PM

3. chrisColorado
   Member

   

   Hmm. this is a lot of questions, domineaux. I'll take a shot at some of them.

   Software is my forte, I know more than some. I've used your computer/editing software before, and Windows Movie Maker on Windows Vista is probably THE WORST EDITING SETUP YOU COULD FIND. I don't think I could come up with a worse software and computer together, except maybe Avid Free DV on Windows Vista. AND YOU'RE DOING HD, AS A PROFESSIONAL, FOR THE WEB?!? Wow. you are much braver than me. That's sort of like going to play one-on-one basketball against Kobe Bryant, using some old tennis shoes you found in a dumpster and forgetting to practice at all beforehand. It may not matter much as long as you plan on shooting perfect footage with your camera, and using your tripod, but your video certainly won't look professional after you put it through Movie Maker. This is my opinion after using many editing software including Movie Maker, and also windows vista, XP and mac.

   now for some of your questions:

   1. I don't have any idea what I'm going to need for efficient and competent webside production.

   I'm a pro web designer (meaning I get paid), and I'm just learning about FTPs and things. Video and web are two humongous things I've been studying for a while (Video, 1-1/2 years, Web 6 months). Flash video or Quicktime are the best formats for web video. You should Google up "Riva FLV Encoder" which can render AVIs out of movie Maker and turn them into Flash video. You can also look at my blog here on videomaker called "Free Stuff: Making your Dream Movie for Nothing" to see reviews and info about both Movie Maker and Riva FLV Encoder. You will then need a player for your flash video on the web such as Flowplayer, but I haven't figured out how to get that to work and you will need to study web design and code like HTML and CSS. After 6 months, this is where I am.

   2. I know I need HD for production of training DVDs, but will HD work well on the Web.  I do know the colors availble on the web are limited. 

    When web designers say "web colors", we mean the colors we can type on the computer in CSS code and say "a {font-color: blue;}" That's a very simple CSS code saying "Turn the font color of all links on this page blue". There are only some colors that work well and very few colors that work perfectly. Video is ok with regards to that, but as to HD on the web, I don't know anything about it and haven't risked it.

   3. I have no idea what kind of connections/ports I need on the camera to do what I plan.  There are a number of things mentioned from Firewire, USB, SDI, etc. 

   The most used two imports from your camera to your computer are Firewire and USB. I love USB. At work, we even use USB for our HD footage.

   4.  I guess I'm looking for a site with shopping lists for guys like myself that want to make a go at Video production on a semi-professional basis...eventually becoming professional.

   Wouldn't that be useful? LOL Videomaker can help with what is what and showing things you could get. B&H catalog can help with what there is and how much it costs. I also recommend mediacollege.com.

   you picked two of the hardest most complicated forms of multimedia I've used to make a career out of. (If you picked 3d animation, you'd hit the trifecta!) Study up more and you could make a lot of neat stuff.

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4. jerronsmith
   Moderator

   

   >> 1. I don't have any idea what I'm going to need for efficient and competent webside production.

   I'm a pro web designer (meaning I get paid), and I'm just learning about FTPs and things. Video and web are two humongous things I've been studying for a while (Video, 1-1/2 years, Web 6 months). Flash video or Quicktime are the best formats for web video. You should Google up "Riva FLV Encoder" which can render AVIs out of movie Maker and turn them into Flash video. You can also look at my blog here on videomaker called "Free Stuff: Making your Dream Movie for Nothing" to see reviews and info about both Movie Maker and Riva FLV Encoder. You will then need a player for your flash video on the web such as Flowplayer, but I haven't figured out how to get that to work and you will need to study web design and code like HTML and CSS. After 6 months, this is where I am.<<

   Actually you don't need a player for your flash file on the web. A flash video file (FLV) is embedded into a swf file and plays through the Adobe Flash player.  The best program to do this with is of course Adobe Flash, there are probably other programs that will also take your FLV file and wrap it in a SWF for you but I am not familiar with any of them.

   There are three viable streaming video formats on the web Apple Quicktime, Adobe Flash, and Windows Media. According to the last study I looked at the most ubiquitous media player on the web is the Flash player so in general Flash video will just work on most computers. Windows Media has the second highest deployment with Quicktime third. Microsoft has recently released a new development platform called SilverLight which is there alternative to Adobe's Flash technology. The best looking High Def video I have seen on the web has come from the silverlight platform. It is what NBC is using to webcast the Olympics right now; http://www.nbcolympics.com. If you are going to want to create good well designed web sites I would suggest hiring a professional to do it for you or find a good template to base your design on. For software for web design Adobe Dreamweaver is the professional web design standard, there are other programs that will create sites for you that have less of a learning curve than it does though.<<

   >>2. I know I need HD for production of training DVDs, but will HD work well on the Web.  I do know the colors availble on the web are limited. 

    When web designers say "web colors", we mean the colors we can type on the computer in CSS code and say "a {font-color: blue;}" That's a very simple CSS code saying "Turn the font color of all links on this page blue". There are only some colors that work well and very few colors that work perfectly. Video is ok with regards to that, but as to HD on the web, I don't know anything about it and haven't risked it.<<

   Actually I believe what you are both referring to is the phrase "web safe colors". Web safe colors are a concept that was created well over a decade ago and in fact had nothing to do with a weakness of the web and everything to do with the weaknesses of the monitor technology at the time. At the time most monitors could only display a maximum of 256 different colors. The operating systems (Windows and MAC OS) each reserved 20 colors for their own use that left a total of 216 colors that could display at one on a computer screen without banding. Now, modern monitors can display millions of colors simultaneously so the web safe color palette is pretty much an anachronism. Monitors pretty much have the ability to display any color you can create in the RGB color mode. What causes the problems is that there are many color settings that can be used on each monitor and this cause a lack of color consistency.

   @Chris-That isn't CSS code "font-color" isn't a css attribute as far as I know. I believe it would be written a{color:#hexvalue;}.  I believe there are something like 12 or 16 color names you can use in HTML code, everything else would be written using the hex code for the color.

   Jerron Smith
   Editor-Animator-Educator
   blog: http://www.thepixelsmith.blogspot.com

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5. domineaux
   Member

   

   Thank you, I appreciate the responses.

   I've been researching cameras very carefully.

   I don't have the big bucks $2,000+ to spend on a camera.

   There do appear to be a few shoulder mount HD camcorders under $2,000.

   A shoulder mount may be the best way to go, if the necessary tools for web production are present.

   I'm not too sure about media, but hard disk does appeal to me.  

   High def is a priority, because that is the best alternative for now and especially future. 

   So far,  I have looked at the following camcorders.   

   Sony HDR-SR11 or SR-12  

   Sony HVR-HD1000U

   JVC GZ-HD7 or HD6

   Canon Vixia HV30

   I am familiar with website construction. I have used pre-made video on some sites.

   I have not produced the video myself.

   Several things I'm very much in the dark about.

   I understand when transferring data to computer the firewire is faster than USB.

   Then I've read where people are very happy with USB. 

   -------------------------------------

   The process of making the video for website production is still unclear to me

   1. Moving the video from camera to the computer - is there a best efficient way or better connection type to use, or connections to absolutely not use.

   2. Editing the video from the computer - this is complicated to me, because some formats AVCHD, etc. seem to have their own problems and remedies. 

   3.  Along with editing of video it would appear archiving of video data would have it's own problems and solutions. 

   4. After editing there is the thing about the better format for the web to accomodate High def play.  Then I'm wondering how important the format the video is captured to editing and then putting into final format that is web friendly. 

   There do appear to be quite a few camcorders using the AVCHD format, but I know that isn't web friendly and needs conversion.  I could use a suggestion own whether to look for another preferred record format instead of the AVCHD or what software to use to convert to web friendly format.

   At this point I'm really looking seriously to just get the camera with most competent features to do what I need at a price affordable.

   Oh, I'm also very interested in efficiency and time saving. Some choices might work, but be too time consuming and difficult to apply.

   I forgot to mention I would like to convert some previous video files that are on VHS tapes, DVDS. I might be able to accomplish these if I can capture video directly from HDTV, since I have players for those formats to TV.  I realize there are specific port connections I need on a camera to do this, but I'm not familiar with what I might actually need.

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6. chrisColorado
   Member

   

   Thanks Jerron, you are right again: font-color is not really a valid css attribute, but I was in a hurry. thanks for clarification. (There are other ways of coding color besides hexvalues and my current FTP changes my hex values to something else when I type in #FF3459 or whatever.)

   OK, domineaux. I'll try the 2nd round too.

   1. Moving the video from camera to the computer - is there a best efficient way or better connection type to use, or connections to absolutely not use.

   What I do: I plug my Flash Media camera in to my laptop with USB, Windows Explorer opens and I use Explorer to navigate through my media on my camera and copy or move to my computer hard drive. in explorer, my camera acts as another hard drive, usually called Removeable Disk E (or F sometimes). It's a lot like a USB flash drive, or "stick", hence it's called a Flash Media camera. 

   2. Editing the video from the computer - this is complicated to me, because some formats AVCHD, etc. seem to have their own problems and remedies. 

   If you aren't using those formats, it's not a problem. AVCHD, or anything for that matter, can be handled by my favorite editing software on the planet: SONY VEGAS!!! Vegas, Avid Media Composer, Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro are the big four editing software and they are worth every penny you pay for them. I was very surprised that you were going to try to edit with funny little windows Movie Maker, but that's up to you.

   After you import your footage to the computer hard drive, you the open your software and import the footage by going under File > Import and navigating to your footage on your hard drive from your camera, not the footage currently on your camera. (This is different from capturing, using Firewire, where you import your footage into your software from your camera. I don't like that method and can't do it with my camera anyway.)

   3.  Along with editing of video it would appear archiving of video data would have it's own problems and solutions. 

    For me, archiving is just moving files from the camera to my laptop's hard drive with Windows Explorer. When you move or copy files with explorer, you can make new folders, organize, etc. and this is VERY IMPORTANT. So, i have my own little system of folders with video footage in them. One folder is the original footage, one is the footage I edited, one is my projects from my software, etc. Figure out a system that work for you.

   some people have cameras that record to MiniDV tape or DVDs, etc. so that's what they use for archiving original footage and you should keep these around in case you want them later, just like I keep my original footage in a folder in windows explorer. just different ways of archiving, saving.

   4. After editing there is the thing about the better format for the web to accomodate High def play.  Then I'm wondering how important the format the video is captured to editing and then putting into final format that is web friendly. 

   This is a little hard to understand. As Jerron said, Flash(flv and swf), Windows Media Video and Quicktime are the big formats and the pro software can render out to these formats. Out of these big three, Movie Maker can only render out to Windows Media Video(and you have to watch to make sure you don't render out to another format by mistake!). This is just one problem with Movie Maker. 

   There do appear to be quite a few camcorders using the AVCHD format, but I know that isn't web friendly and needs conversion.  I could use a suggestion own whether to look for another preferred record format instead of the AVCHD or what software to use to convert to web friendly format.

   Domineaux, all cameras are going to need to convert their footage to web friendly stuff. I've never seen a camera that shoots either FLV, SWF, WMV or MOV(quicktime) and you'll be doing that anyway since you'll be editing.

   At this point I'm really looking seriously to just get the camera with most competent features to do what I need at a price affordable.

    I feel your pain. After 1-1/2 of study including a year of college, a year of videomaker magazine and reading anything i could get my hands on, I'm beginning to figure out what's right for me. It's come down to three radically different cameras, one from Canon, two from Panasonic. you'll figure it out.

   Oh, I'm also very interested in efficiency and time saving. Some choices might work, but be too time consuming and difficult to apply.

   Exactly. my advice is to start studying now. I suggested some websites above. You can't go wrong with mediacollege.com and videomaker. I get the feeling from your posts that you are too impatient to start going. good video takes time. You have to study more before you run out and by whatever camera and stuff you need. Slow down, you must, padawan. 

   I forgot to mention I would like to convert some previous video files that are on VHS tapes, DVDS. I might be able to accomplish these if I can capture video directly from HDTV, since I have players for those formats to TV.  I realize there are specific port connections I need on a camera to do this, but I'm not familiar with what I might actually need.

   DVDs will be easier because your computer already has a DVD drive, I assume. vhs will require a vcr and cables and stuff.

   Here's some editing software knowledge to get you started:

   Sony Vegas Pro = My favorite because it's quick and easy. It's also A LOT like Windows Movie Maker, so I suggest you get a 30 day trial from Sony Creative Software's website. The free trial for Vegas Movie Studio includes tutorials that show you how to get going fast. If you like Movie Maker, you'll LOVE Vegas. I did.

   Avid Media Composer = This is too expensive for most people, since there's so many accesories you have to buy to make it work well. The free copy of Avid I used also had things like trimming in special modes that make it slower to get work done. If you only know Movie Maker, stay away.

   Final Cut Pro = This is somewhat like Avid, but it's cheaper and better for one person companies. It works different than Movie Maker though, so you should look at vegas first.

   Premiere Pro = I haven't used this yet, but it's said to be like Final Cut Pro.

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7. domineaux
   Member

   

   ChrisColorado

   What a great post!

   You really put the proverbial axe in the stump.

   I think the Sony HDR-SR12 is the camcorder of choice for me.  It uses hard disk and flash card from what I understand.  I like the features better than others in the same price range, the size is great.

   I would like more manual ability, but I don't see much in the way of manual features under $1,500. The Sony HVR-HD1000U looks good, but as you mentioned it's going to take awhile to get the knowledge to really crank out just what I do need. 

   I've never used the Windows Movie Maker.  It is included with windows Vista Ultimate, which is OS I use.

   Thank you very much, you helped a great deal.  I look forward to being of help to others as I learn and know more.

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8. chrisColorado
   Member

   

   you're welcome. Maybe you can help me sometime. Pass the help along.

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9. D0n
   Member

   

    Yep, the sr12 is a nice camcorder.

   I was using a hdrhc1 as my b-roll cam and renting a hdr-a1u as main for weddings.

   I tried the sr12 at a wedding shoot yesterday, and as I'm editing the video today, I've come to the conclusion, that the hdr hc1 and sr12 will be all I need for my work.

    

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10. jerronsmith
    Moderator

    

    @Chris

    >>There are other ways of coding color besides hexvalues and my current FTP changes my hex values to something else when I type in #FF3459 or whatever.<

    You're talking about using RGB decimal notation right? Aside from the few names (16 I think) that they understand the only way the browsers understand color is via hex code and RGB decimal notation. And FTP is just a series of protocols that allow one computer to transfer files to another over the web, it shouldn't change any of the code in your pages.

    @Domineaux

    Â The only thing I wanted to add to Chris's post involved this section:

    >>As Jerron said, Flash(flv and swf), Windows Media Video and Quicktime are the big formats and the pro software can render out to these formats.<<

    Not all applications can render to all of the formats. For some formats you may need a third party conversion program to make one of the web formats. For example, you can't render Windows media directly out of Final Cut Pro without a plugin. But since you are running a Windows PC Final Cut, which is MAC only won't be an option so you will probably want to use either Vegas or Premiere Pro. Chris will be able to tell you what formats Vegas can export to, but Premiere Pro can create all three.

    In the same vein not all editing programs handle footage from all of the camera's the same way. You may want to research the format of the video that your camera gives you and how it works with different editing programs.

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11. domineaux
    Member

    

    I appreciate all the responses to my questions.

    Some of the discusson went right over my head for sure. 

    I'll refer to the thread again as I get a better basic knowledge of what I'm doing. 

    Thanks to everyone

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