Intro Video as a Brand Video or Brand Statement

This week we discuss the benefits of an intro video.  Should we add one to our YouTube videos. We look at some samples from oztablepc (http://tabletpc.com.au/) and Ben (http://mechanicalmashup.tv/)

Converting Video for YouTube

Converting Video for YouTube is this weeks blog topic. Specifically a real world example from a client this week, we encode a wmv file on the MAC to the H264 CODEC for YouTube.

This article by Phil Cooke confirms what I have experienced with creating video for the online and mobile market.  Attention spans are shorter online.  You need to grab your audience early and keep the video interesting so people wont click away.

One of the questions I am often asked is about when and how to compress videos for encoding to DVD.  While the "how" will have to wait for another post, I intend to discuss the pros and cons of compressing files prior to authoring and during authoring.

I write this blog from a number of locations.  I have been stuck in front of a another computer away from my main 2 machines, my office machine and my home machine, with time to kill and blogs to write.  I like to try and finish an article if possible so when I get back to my main machines I can get back to whatever work I need to do there.  As such I have had to set up some procedures so that I can work effectively on this new blog while away from home base as it were.

One techique I have used is to store high quality versions of all files I might need in a hidden folder on my site so that I can easily adapt any images on the go or add them to my various social media sites.  I also had to find a quick and easy online image editing application.  I found www.picnik.com

When I started this blog my intention was to come up with original content, I intend to do that but I also feel it is important to highlight great answers written by other bloggers.  I dont want this site to become a pointer to other sites rest assured I will continue to comment and write my own articles.  One of the most common issues I hear when it comes to editing, shooting and encoding (in fact a student here at TAFE just said "Why is this still picture flickering on the monitor)  comes back to interlacing issues.

Problems present as "shimmering" still pictures, jerky or jumpy moving shots to footage that "doesn't look right".  Usually it is caused by multiple software packages treating footage or stills differently or more correctly interpretting the interlaced image differently.  I wont keep writing about this as a far more intelligent and eloquent blogger than myself has written an excellent page of information with diagrams etc on this subject.  Check out http://www.100fps.com

5 minutes of DV quality footage equates to 1 gigabyte of space. Once your media drive is more than 80% full the performance of the drive begins to suffer. Ensure all unnecessary files are removed and that the drive is “defragmented” regularly. 

I have found this to be true over the years, funny unexplainable problems can be fixed by clearing out the hard drive.  I have heard one or two techs at editing companies and the like suggest that once a drive gets over 50% full its performance starts dropping off!!  Seems particularly  problematic on laptops.