Suggestions For Creating Video Content

Question

Hello Element 14 Community!

My name is Trent and I would like to know what your suggestions are for creating video content in the E14 Community.

What kind of video capture equipment do you use?

Which editing software and methods would you recommend?

Most of the video content that I've previously shared has been captured with a smartphone camera.

While the smartphone method works for some instances, it's not very good with hands-free video capture.

I recently purchased a Logitech C930e USB Webcam and tripod. This webcam has performed exceptionally well in my tests with Windows10 PC and the Win10 Camera Software. This software limhas it's limitations and I would really like to find methods that offer more control in capture format and encoding (preferably open source and/or free).

I'm also interested in learning methods of capturing video screenshots from Win10, adding voice audio from separate microphone sources, and any other tip that you can recommend for producing the next E14

Thank you for your time.

Trent

dougw · Answer

I am firmly in the cheap, easy camp when it comes to video production. I do have a decent camera though (Panasonic FZ1000) which can do time lapse photography and 4K video. I use CamStudio for capturing screen activity. I use Adacity for editing audio tracks. I use Microsoft MovieMaker to edit VLOGs - add video, transitions, still images, captions, audio, etc. The most important things are: use a tripod for the camera use lots of high temperature lighting get a decent microphone and position it properly (I use cheap mics, but at least I can position them close to my face ) I use a low-cost headset with my camera (because it is mono) that puts the mic consistently close to my mouth I use a Soonhua SH-666 mic when adding voice-over with Moviemaker (<$10)

shabaz · Answer

I found the audio most difficult too : ( I tried several USB mics (some Audio Technica one, and a blue Yeti? was silver colored..) that were advertised as Youtube-creation friendly with great reviews, and they were both pretty bad (for me) - I speak quietly, so the signal-noise was terrible. Either that, or I was too picky.. There was so much hiss, and Audacity clean-up is quite rotten. Next on the journey I tried two handheld mics (Sennheiser) and two brands of lapel mics (Sennheiser and one I can't recall), but the recommendations from a couple of audio experts was in the $$$$ mic range! : ) so I tried some friendlier-priced dynamic mics (Sennheiser again) - only to realize that most consumer music audio interfaces (like Focusrite) that are in the $100 or so bracket, only have good SNR with low gain - they don't provide specs at the higher gain settings for the cheaper interfaces : ) and no good for dynamic mics.( I don't do much audio of myself facing the camera, so the lapel mic wasn't as essential for me. Anyway, this was all turning out to be a terrible time-waste and money sink. I almost gave up. Surprisingly, the best value-for-money thing for me turned out to be the sub-$100 all-in-one Zoom H1N , i.e. has an in-built mic. I still have to speak deliberately louder slightly, but finally I was reasonably happy with it. It is quite small - fits in a small pencil-case incidentally - not that that matters. I used it a lot. My little nephew liked it, so after a year or so I gave it away to him (so he can act as a football match reporter and interview his younger brother each time he misses a goal in the garden), and bought a more expensive Zoom product, but it wasn't perceptibly better. In comparison I feel the lower-cost H1N was the better product for easy audio recording, so if I had to do it all again, I'd just get that. The H1N is handheld, but has a thread for a stand (or can use a mobile phone angle stand, which is nice). Also, maybe Youtube audio processing has improved too - compared to a couple of years ago, today if stuff is recorded with slightly poorer quality sound, it seems to sound better after a few hours on Youtube (this is subjective, I've not really investigated). So maybe it is becoming less important to faff so much on the audio side : ).

Sean_Miller · Answer

Nowadays, smartphones can be very competitive in quality to video cameras and they are definitely easier to use. In fact, the major movie release Unsane was filmed entirely on a iPhone 7 plus. It's gotten that good.

You'll want to get you a tripod mount so you can go hands free and eliminate shakes.

For the Ben Heck show, they had a couple of cameras. The Panasonic Lumix G7 was one of them. https://shop.panasonic.com/search?q=g7 . I have one with a couple of lenses. Getting the light right is my biggest challenge as it isn't always what you see is what you get like an iPhone.

No matter how good your camera video setup is, it is the sound that makes things come off as an amateur.

A thrifty approach is to buy a used digital recorder and add a lapel mic to it. You replace your camera audio track with the digital recorder track in software.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Voice-Activated-Recorder-4GB-Sony-Audio-mp3-Built-in-mic-speaker-VOR/160962187022?epid=…

https://www.amazon.com/Sony-ECMCS3-Omnidirectional-Stereo-Microphone/dp/B0058MJX4O/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=ecmcs3&qid=157824…

For screen capture, there are a lot of offerings online. If you have an AMD graphics card, they offer ReLive that is free which can capture and stream. There are a lot of "freeware" options, but I have trouble trusting "free". I never understood such a model that could give things away and fund their web sites.

So, I use CyberLink PowerDirector for capture and editing. It's affordable compared to most. After 6 years, I haven't outgrown it.

Corel has a suite that comes with camera bundles, but it put adware on my PC, so I bailed on it as quick as I installed it.

See ya',

Sean

BigG · Answer

I would second shabaz 's suggestion that you should read through the " Tips for recording screen and camera ". Within that thread https://obsproject.com/ is mentioned. I took up that suggestion and I must say it works very well for my needs. In particular, it provides a means for capturing video screenshots from Win10, adding voice audio from separate microphone sources and it also can grab visuals from windows applications rather than just the video monitor. I still find that the microphone (or getting nice audio) is the biggest headache. So I rather like Sean's suggestion.

Jan Cumps · Answer

shabaz wrote: I found the audio most difficult too : ( I tried several USB mics (some Audio Technica one, and a blue Yeti? was silver colored..) that were advertised as Youtube-creation friendly with great reviews, and they were both pretty bad (for me) - I speak quietly, so the signal-noise was terrible. Either that, or I was too picky.. There was so much hiss, and Audacity clean-up is quite rotten. ... If your computer supports audio in, an old-school headset-with-micro (the ones that hava an extra contact on the connector for audio) can do a better job than a usb microphone. This is the very cheap one I use: a Trust from a discounter shop. I've forced myself to speak louder while recording - without shouting. It helps reduce hiss and get better pronunciation (you don't mumble when you force yourself a level higher). The downside is that it can sound a little forced.

shabaz · Answer

I used to have one of those for web-conferences. I didn't think of trying that, that's a good idea. For now I'm happy with the Zoom method, it meets my needs. Hehe yeah the speaking louder is a real solution : ) I forgot to add one more product I attempted along the journey to the list.. a Panasonic USB handheld mic for dictation.. no good, but probably fantastic for its intended purpose though! : )

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robogary · Answer

Hi Trent,

E14 does not present media arts academy awards, quick understandable content is most valuable to viewers.

My perspective for E14 videos:

decide on your target audience capability and include explanations to that capability
keep to the point and concise
speaking parts have to be clear. Dont need to be super rehearsed or scripted, but make at least a couple passes & video tries.
If background noise washes out your speaking, blank it out, and overwrite the audio from a mike.
edit out hmmms, ahhhs, retries on things that go wrong unless making a point of the failure
production and backround music is secondary
do include things that add humor or interest
exclude extraneous reference or include video, photos or screen shots that are not legible and dont provide value to the point
Publishing your video content online to E14, You Tube, Facebook, low resolution is fine to save cloud space and upload time.

Myself - I use some my Samsung phone and/or a 10 year old Canon Sure Shot to take video.

When I publish video to mp4 , I'm using lower resolution to make the mp4, see point #9.

I use MovieMaker for consolidating and editing raw footage in various formats (stills, drawings, video), and publish as mp4.

I use Adacity for editing audio tracks.

I publish my video content first to You Tube, and then publish the You Tube link on Element14 posts, as well as other online places.

This is my You Tube channel content if interested in seeing my video publish style:

https://www.youtube.com/user/RoboZombieDeluxe/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=0

Jan Cumps · Answer

I'm using a subset of dougw . I take care that audio is good. Video not so much. For capturing screen action, I also use CamStudio. I try to speak real-time, using a headset with good microphone. If I want to show action at the same time, I put an IP Camera Viewer window on the captured desktop showing a webcam pointing at the device under test. To capture live action, I use either an iPad or a smartphone, filming out of my hand (no tripod or other fixture), I plug that same headset into the iPad or phone. I try to do as much as I can in a single shot, to avoid editing effort later. Then I use the standard Microsoft Movie Maker to edit the result. I try to use as little cutting as possible. I use a fast animation (Bars, duration 0.25 to 0.75) to smoothen the cuts and avoid jumping video boundaries. Where needed, I make Captions to point out details, and Narration for overdubs. Then I generate the output for high definition, 1920 x 1080, 24000 bitrate, 29.97 fps.audio 192 kbps, 48 Hz, stereo (lord knows why I use stereo when recording with a single mono mike) I upload to youtube and use the e14 embed function if I want to have the video here. I never load the video to e14 because the player handles youtube videos better than uploaded ones I have an automatic sync with LBRY.tv just to annoy youtube. Example showing shaky video out of hand, + desktop and webcam together:

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Edit: heres the editing for the video above (click to enlarge). I did overdub the talk over the CamStudio capture. Most likely because my initial talk did not catch op with the LabVIEW automation at real time ... The cuts are at 0:30, 0:36, 0:39 (video only to reduce video length, the audio is continuous) and 0:53

Suggestions For Creating Video Content

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