Video fit for the internet

Viewing a made-for-the-internet video on a desktop is not the same as experiencing a programme destined for HD DVD playback on a high res television screen. So the traditional television tools used to produce video can seem rather OTT.

Incredibly good cameras with HDV are available incredibly cheaply. OK, its still best to be able to use better lenses. You can often get away without lighting too. Sound is more important than ever - what you can’t see on your 320×240 screen can be compensated by good sound from a properly placed mic not set to auto. Editing gear likewise is cheap and powerful.

You can be up and running with a decent little production studio for about £6k. This is all fine, but what can get lost amidst the constant demand for “content” and “assets” is the idea of story and structure. Never has it been so important before lifting up a camera to sit down and think about what we’re going to say and how we’re going to put it into pictures and sound that will . If we do, then with all the affordable hardware at our fingertips we can produce something more easily and with more quality than it’s ever been possible to do before.

But even if the equipment is relatively easy to use and isn’t expensive, just how much are the skilled professionals worth to get the most out the production? Internet or not, the video is still going represent your brand or your company?

Tontine

When Toyah Wilcox is interested in getting involved in a television quiz show project, you join up at once! This is what happened nearly two years ago. With Colin David, who created the game basics, Player shot a run-through on with Toyah at the helm, using friends and relatives as contestants. When we analysed the game, we decided massive surgery was needed. Armed with a

sleeker game play and more fully formed visual concept, we briefed a props designer, commissioned a beautiful frock for Toyah, booked the Cafe de Paris, a three camera shoot with big lighting rig and a hatful of production assistants, not to mention Suggs in disguise as the Angel of Death and shot a proper taster for the show. Some weeks later, after some generous assistance with editing and post, the DVD was born and duly celebrated.

We then decided the game play still needed refining. Why we couldn’t have seen this BEFORE shooting this expensive taster, I don’t know, but that’s what happens with this kind of show. So we re-wrote it again, re-voiced it and re-cut it to create a new game just re-shooting a small element. Tontine is now out with our agents Berlin Associates to place it with for UK broadcast. We are currently in talks with a couple of major indies.

Starting a commissioned video

On my website, I make great play of the importance of starting a project for a commissioned film on the right footing. But what do I mean by that?

Your project has a number of given objectives - usually to change your audience’s perception or attitude towards something. Whatever the business sector, whatever the actual subject of the film that audience will bring with it it’s own attitude towards your company and the subject matter of the film. Gauging that feeling and responding to it appropriately is, to me, the only way to begin.

Is the message of the film going to be welcomed by them, dreaded by them or be a matter of complete indifference; do they have to be sufficiently impressed to download it in the first place; have they been press-ganged with the rest of the department to watch it after hours with warm Chardonnay and crisps; are they busy members of the public walking past a screen display; will there be a facilitator present each time; are they cynical journalists looking for a reason to switch off; are they at a luxury conference centre in the sun being rewarded for a good year’s performance; are they doing some high level management e-learning alone in their hotel room; is their colleague who sits at the desk opposite going to be out of a job when the curtain comes down?

This is why the first questions I always ask clients are who is the audience, how will they react to what we’re about to tell them and in what viewing situations will they watch the film? Once I have a good understanding of these cornerstones I can start to think about the best creative approach.

Does this sound like a good way to start your next project?

Encoding video for YouTube

How do you get the best out of video on YouTube? Player Communications has just started its channel there and obviously, being a video production company, I want my uploaded videos to look as good as they can. Where did my adventures take me?

The first place I looked was, predictably enough, YouTube’s own Help menu under, “What’s the best format to upload for high quality”. Mistake (… in the UK at least, possibly). Whenever I tried to upload any video clips as a DivX file at 320×240 screen size, at 30fps with MP3 audio as recommended YouTube couldn’t play it. So a period of experimentation began.

I created a little 10 second clip from a good quality original programme shot on PAL DigiBeta and tried encoding it using different formats and bitrates selected from my Canopus Procoder Express software. The 320×240 screen size was good so I kept that as a constant. My material is PAL through and through so I’m rather attached to 25fps. I concentrated on MPEG2, Quicktime and AVI.

• AVIs produced huge file sizes (YouTube has a limit of 100MB which is very generous for a free service as far as I’m concerned) so I left that alone.

• MPEG2 was good. Set to encode at about 2500 kb/sec it produced reasonable quality images/sound at about 20MB per programme minute. So if your video clip runs five minutes that would fit nicely. If the clip’s shorter you can afford to up the bitrate proportionately – so a two minute clip could be encoded at about 6250 kb/sec. The quality gets appreciably better. Equally if you want to run to YouTube’s 10 minute maximum running time, you’ll need to reduce the bitrate and therefore the quality to slip under the 100MB limit.

• Quicktime works out at about the same and I used that too. Visually it had its quirks, just as MPEG1, but was just as good.

If your clip has mostly static images, it’ll look good however you encode. If you have fast movements, mixes, slo-mo etc. you need to experiment. There are so many codecs available under MPG and QT that scramble up your images so differently, you need to try a few. If you don’t want the world to see your tests, just select the “private” option so only you can your disasters. When you find the perfect match for that particular video clip, go “live” with it. Just use your full 100MB each time though.

That’s the way I’m doing it. How are you doing it? Let me know. Thanks.

Viral marketing video for Paul McCartney

Following the production of two fashion videos featuring his photographic work, I was approached by John Swannell to collaborate on the making of a music video for Paul McCartney. The track, “Nod Your Head”, has a global YouTube following and Paul wanted to respond personally to the thousands of clips submitted by fans. Our job was to film a number of beautiful models “nodding their heads” (just as it says on the lyric sheet) to support this viral marketing push. Paul liked the first edit so much, he wanted to be in the video himself. A finished video from the result can be viewed on YouTube and is downloadable as a video podcast via Itunes. It can also be viewed on Player’s Fashion & Music YouTube showreel through this website.