5 Things for Basic Video
You only need a few items to have a “sloppy success” with your first video venture. Here are 5 things you need to be way ahead of the pack.
- Flip HD. The Flip HD is genius. Awesome quality, MP4 (works GREAT with a Mac & PC ). Cost is about $220. You can always try out the Flip Ultra SD (Standard Def) for about $99
- A Tripod. Get something to keep your Flip Stable and pointing at you. Doesn’t have to be huge, but a good tripod keeps viewers from getting sea sick.
- YouTube Account. Get you YouTube account set up. It’s free and it is your gateway to easy and efficient web video. YouTube gives you all the tools for embedding video into your website, your blog your friend’s blog, your friend’s friend’s blog…
- A Locale. Wait till the Kids are off to school or in bed. Pick a non-cluttered, well-lit location. Do it at your desk, do it at the kitchen table, do it at the easiest place for you to do it again. Keep It Simple Sweetie (K.I.S.S.) & Keep It Consistent Knucklehead. (K.I.C.K.)
- Patience. It takes a try or three to get your video mojo woikin’! Give yourself some slack. Your “video voice” will come. But do NOT shoot for perfection. Aim for a “sloppy success”. Shoot for 70% and increment from there. Give yourself permission to be “OK” and not perfect. What you have to say and share is important. Don’t stifle it with perfectionism. While the technology is close to perfection, it too demands some patience. Don’t get frustrated with yourself or the technology. Easy does it.
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Rich
March 31, 2009
@ 11:21 am
Hey Perry! Can you show us a “walk-around” with your Flip HD camera and tripod to show us some of the situations you would use it?
Thanks.
Rich
[Reply]
Perry Lawrence
March 31, 2009
@ 12:01 pm
Sure Rich! Stay Tuned…
[Reply]
Greg Friese
April 7, 2009
@ 2:26 pm
How about some tips on video editing? I find the Flip software to be inadequate for video editing.
[Reply]
Gerry Oginski
April 15, 2009
@ 7:58 pm
If you use the Flip HD outside, what is your experience with the sound quality if you are more than 10 feet away from the camera?
[Reply]
Perry Lawrence Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Gerry, The Flip audio is awesome, provided you are within 6 feet of the mic. It falls of after that, especially in outdoor settings. Not horrid but not optimal. The Flip is for intimate videos (audio wise). For wide outdoor settings I recommend a camera that has a mic in jack.
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Marco
April 25, 2009
@ 5:39 pm
What kind of video editor do you use to edit the Flip files? They produce a highly compressed mp4 format I assume, but then…
Which editor talks nice to it. (assuming you want more than the default Flip software)
Thanx! Grrrrrreat site!
[Reply]
Perry Lawrence Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Marco, I like iMovie as it really handles the files well (Flip Mino HD).
[Reply]
Pat Marcello
December 17, 2010
@ 12:48 pm
Hey, Perry!
Hope all is well with you. I can’t believe it’s been a year since I last saw you. Hope you’ll be at Underground!
Anyway, I’m having a conniption trying to get an HD video to be small enough for watching comfortably on a website. It’s straight from the Flip Vid HD and comes in at a whopping 1.5G.
I’ve tried tons of converters, re-renderings and nothing seems to work without them coming out a tad grainy.
Suggestions?
Thanks!
Pat
[Reply]
Perry Reply:
December 29th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Hey Pat! Happy New Year! Try vimeo.com pro version. If you want to host yourself try Elgato’s Turbo H.264. Quality is a factor of the following as it applied to compression:
1. Physical size (how wide is your final video?)
2. Compression amount (including audio)
3. FPS
The larger the physical size the more you need to compress it to get smooth playback. You need to find a balance of initial size, compression that allows a nice image when they click on “full screen”.
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