Lights, Camera, Action!

[David H]

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I'm going to learn how to post video content on a web site to review Merchants products.
Whilst I can knock up a web site I'm new to posting video content.
As far as I can tell flash content seams the safest bet. Do you agree?
And what do you think of this tutorial...
Adobe - Developer Center : Presenting Video with the Flash Video Extension for Dreamweaver MX 2004

Would luv to hear from someone who has had experience of posting video content with examples of the sites theyve done it :-)

[shyguy0507]

I think that for putting video content up on the web if your going to add it yourself without the help of youtube etc, Flash is a great format, it's lightweight and takes (normally) nowhere near as much time as other video technologies like quicktime and windows media.

It's also compatable across most operating systems and does ship with Internet Explorer.

I guess you can tell i'm a fan of Flash, although i've never used video content on my sites.

[sgpratley]

I've not tried its webcam functions yet but I've been using Camtasia to create videos from screen capture ( you can import your video files also), edit the clips, and I can then either create flv straight from the application, or output as a .mov or .avi and upload into Google videos & youtube.

I'm looking for a reasonably priced camera at the moment to do some video footage demonstrating some sports gadgets on a new site so I'll let you know how I get on.

You can get a free copy of the old version 3 here:
The Online Marketing Blog | Get Camtasia 3 for free and make your own video demos

[gerry180]

Given the increased use of video does anyone use or see a market for something like WebPeople. Or is it just too gimmicky at the moment.

Actors for you to Choose from (web speaker, in person)

Gerry

[sgpratley]

Could be, especially if you can get them to do stuff like product walkthoughs & demos for you. like the one they have on this page, it's a lot more engaging than a 3 foot long sales letter.

Fretlight.com

I know a few of the brands on QVC hire in TV-trained presenters instead of using anyone in-house so it's nothing really new.

[David H]

Could be, especially if you can get them to do stuff like product walkthoughs & demos for you. like the one they have on this page, it's a lot more engaging than a 3 foot long sales letter.

Fretlight.com

I know a few of the brands on QVC hire in TV-trained presenters instead of using anyone in-house so it's nothing really new.

I totally agree with the above. Who wants to read reams of copy when video demo does the job a zillion times better. Regarding QVC they would be a good example of how its done and what style to aim for. I'm really excited about learning this, its going to through up lots of issues like what should I use to edit the video content, will my existing camera cut the mustard. But i know once Ive cracked it I'll have a serious tool to improve conversions so here goes with the flash plunge!

[sgpratley]

I'm in the middle of trying to work out what gear I'd need for doing some reasonably professional product demonstrations without breaking the bank.

Seems like a half decent camcorder for under £300 with an external light and either a better mic or a quiet room , and a clean backdrop are all you need to get started. (Already have a Mac with iMovie)

For hosting, revver.com looks quite good quality and has a rev share on the PPC ads that appear at the end of each video. It doesn't have the ugly youtube watermarks on either. Limited to input files of 100MB though so probably only a few minutes worth. I've just swopped one of the screen capture videos on my blog over from yuotube to Revver and the quality is very good despite using a more compressed input file.

Shawn Collins uses Revver a lot on his blogs also and he does enough video work that I guess he knows his stuff.

[TheGeneral]

Got to agree with a lot thats being said, it does make sense now that Broadband is kind of their that at least to offer some kind of video sales tool makes sense. Theres a product that I have used a fair bit on traditional kiosk and cd/dvd-rom based interactive products that you might want to take a look at :

Sorenson Media

Its a product called Squeeze and it does what it says on the tin, squeezes your video to a more manageable size and also allows you finite controls over timing/streaming/quality issues and then saves the video into a format of your choice...including Flash video. Of course to do this on any large scale a streaming provider of some kind would be a given. My personal choice for editing has been Adobe Premiere for the longest time and I see no reason to change, combine that with After effects and you have a pretty capable video effects system as well.

[pete_coles]

I'm in the middle of trying to work out what gear I'd need for doing some reasonably professional product demonstrations without breaking the bank.

Seems like a half decent camcorder for under £300 with an external light and either a better mic or a quiet room , and a clean backdrop are all you need to get started. (Already have a Mac with iMovie)

For hosting, revver.com looks quite good quality and has a rev share on the PPC ads that appear at the end of each video. It doesn't have the ugly youtube watermarks on either. Limited to input files of 100MB though so probably only a few minutes worth. I've just swopped one of the screen capture videos on my blog over from yuotube to Revver and the quality is very good despite using a more compressed input file.

Shawn Collins uses Revver a lot on his blogs also and he does enough video work that I guess he knows his stuff.

I've been playing around with vimeo recently and I think its a pretty nice solution. I tried out revver as well and was quite impressed, i just preferred the look of vimeo's interface in the end so ended up using that.

[JonLloyd]

We have been dabbling with video at grand prix legends on our diary site Leigh’s Diecast Diary. We use the podpress plugin on wordpress to manage the video footage. Mainly so anyone here can easily upload a video and the feeds get auto generated for itunes and the like.

We also have a link on the post to the youtube version. We normally see a 50 50 split on what people use to view the vidcasts.

In the small experience we have gained the best buy was by far the radio mic and green backdrop. Yes green!! The sound is so much better than the internal mic on the cam and the green screen allows us to overlay any background of choice during the edit.

I would agree that video footage is a sure way of improving conversions but 5 mins of video is usually 6 man hours work for us with set up, filming, filming close ups, edits and product put away.

Episode 12 - Leigh’s Diary - Diecast as it happens » Leigh’s Diecast Diary

for the latest edition.

[deadgoodundies]

Defiantley the way to go - i very rarely buy anything techy now with first seeing if someone has reviewed it on youtube as I want to see how it works not just have to look at a flat picture

[David H]

You can get a free copy of the old version 3 here:
The Online Marketing Blog | Get Camtasia 3 for free and make your own video demos

I think theyve pulled the plug on the free trial. I clicked on the link to fill in my details and got this message:
"Thank you for your interest in Camtasia Studio
This offer is no longer available, however we encourage you to test out a free 30-day copy of the most recent version, Camtasia Studio 5."

Bugger!

[David H]

I'm in the middle of trying to work out what gear I'd need for doing some reasonably professional product demonstrations without breaking the bank.

Seems like a half decent camcorder for under £300 with an external light and either a better mic or a quiet room , and a clean backdrop are all you need to get started. (Already have a Mac with iMovie)

For hosting, revver.com looks quite good quality and has a rev share on the PPC ads that appear at the end of each video. It doesn't have the ugly youtube watermarks on either. Limited to input files of 100MB though so probably only a few minutes worth. I've just swopped one of the screen capture videos on my blog over from yuotube to Revver and the quality is very good despite using a more compressed input file.

Shawn Collins uses Revver a lot on his blogs also and he does enough video work that I guess he knows his stuff.

Hi... I need your help please...

If I had the following would I have the toolkit to get video content onto the web:
Camtasia ( can this edit footage?)
A digital video camera
Technical competence in Flash
Knowledge of how to imbed code into the site

Really would appreciate your insight on this so I can direction on what I need to master to develop the tookit for getting video up on the web

[sgpratley]

Sorry about that, I'll edit the post.

Camtasia will turn your video into flash once you've edited it so no need for any flash skills
Either that or you can just output it as a .mov, .avi, or a .wmv and upload it to one of the video hosting services like Youtube, Google, or Revver.

There are a number of other packages out there that will also help with video editing. Macs & PC's both come with movie editing software pre-installed. (iMovie for the Mac, is actually quite powerful for a beginner).

If you collar someone in the shop you got the video camera from they're usually quite helpful.

[stu-art]

Another bit of software worthy of mention is Flix pro from On2 technologies. Will convert various video formats to flash and build the player skins for you at the same time. I found it a bit more intuitive than Sorenson squeeze although squeeze has a bit more in the way of options (it is quite buggy on a Mac though).