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MillimeterBeyond Web Video
Apr 13, 2009 12:00 PM, By Franklin McMahon
Faster pipes and processing have cleared the way for web broadcast.
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Once your masterpiece is ready to go global, where do you post it? YouTube is the ubiquitous choice, and its new HD tools make it even more compelling. YouTube recently switched its player aspect ratio to 16:9, so now all 4:3 clips have black bars on the side. Newly added widescreen clips, of course, now take advantage of the full window of the player. HD is new for YouTube as well. To ensure you always see HD clips in YouTube, go to Playback Setup in your account settings and toggle on “always play higher-quality video.” You’ll notice higher-res image quality, and the audio gets a bandwidth boost for great sound. While you are in your YouTube settings, check out the new “YouTube Insight,” which is basically Google Analytics for clips. You can see a global chart of who is watching your videos.
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Vimeo is another hosting site that is really focused on good-looking HD video up to 1280x720. Check out some of the clips in its HD channel. Pull them up fullscreen and prepare to be impressed. Another site many web-video producers use these days is TubeMogul. After you set up your accounts with various web-video sites such as Revver, YouTube, BlipTV, and Google Video, TubeMogul allows you to upload to all these sites in one swoop. Amazingly powerful, the site has extensive tracking tools so you can see exactly what sites are getting more plays.
Don’t forget other options, such as streaming and podcasting. YouTube is set to introduce live streaming sometime this year (check out its incubator site at www.youtube.com/testtube), but there are plenty of options right now. UStream.tv is one of the most popular sites. Really all you need is a webcam to start doing a live weekly or daily show, complete with audience interaction via text chat. Two of the more popular sites that have been around for a while are Justin.tv and Stickam, both of which offer a wide variety of live broadcast options. BlogTV is a rapidly growing site, mainly because a lot of YouTube producers have set up camp there to do their weekly live shows to augment their taped shows that screen on YouTube. As for podcasting, iTunes still dominates. It’s an easy way to hit viewers in more than 20 nations for free. Tons of HD podcasts are now in the mix, which many users download and watch on their Apple TV units.
Beyond the trends
Over the past decade or so, I’ve gone from creating small streaming RealVideo clips to producing webcasts and podcasts for Fortune 500 companies. I can safely say that the landscape changes almost weekly, but I can offer some evergreen tips: Center your show around a personality first and content second, because the human face of your production is your only asset that can’t be duplicated elsewhere. Get the talent up close and personal with the camera. Wide shots of talent in virtual sets don’t fly. Zoom in for chest-up close-ups to double the impact—most of your viewers are not going fullscreen as they watch. Finally, scale down the production time by using prepackaged intros, outros, and supers. Focus on creating content on a consistent basis and very often (perhaps daily). Don’t bog down a new show with technical details and elaborate production—just get out there and do it. After all, it’ll take five shows or so to even get into the groove.
Web-video production has matured to the point where we can now create HD-quality programs right from our desktops. The available tools make it easy to turn your PC or Mac into a production studio, and software packages can add truly dazzling effects for little cost. Web video is still booming, podcasts are proliferating, and live-streaming video shows might be the next hot trend for this year and next. So take advantage of the current technology landscape and start producing now.
Franklin McMahon is a producer and media artist specializing in HD, podcasts, and web productions. He can be reached at www.franklinmcmahon.com.
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