I just got done recording a “videowag” with Mike Laverick (http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/), which strikes me as a clever alternative to the podcast. In a podcast, typically I get on Skype with the interviewer, and they use some software to record the audio for both of us. Many bloggers and press folk have purchased studio microphones and audio interfaces, and the resulting quality is much better than a telephone call. Mike has taken things to a new level with his “videowags”, as he calls them.
Bascially, the audio portion is the same – use a decent microphone into an audio interface (or direct USB connection) and record that. The big addition is two bits of video. The first bit is that he recorded both his and my web cameras during the interview. The second bit is that I had set up a webex with the Xangati user interface running. Mike’s intent is to put all this together so that you see both Mike and I as we chat, with the Xangati user interface as a backdrop.
For me, this was quite ideal as I could quickly make reference to something in the UI to illustrate a point, but I think it is neat that you also get a bit of a flavor of who Mike and I are by the talking heads. I’ll be curious to see if this catches on in the blogosphere and becomes anything of a trend.
My curiosity is due in some measure to the fact that I’m pretty well prepared for this sort of thing. I do some photography, videography and film-making on the side, and have a modest set of lights, backdrops, etc. So, for this event, I was able to throw up a quick setup and eliminate the clutter of my home office! It seems to me that as video conferencing via Skype and other systems becomes more common, people will start to add capability: first a better mic, then perhaps a light or two, and maybe even a backdrop, or set up with a blank wall as the backdrop. The cost could be quite reasonable for folk that have several of these to do a month, and puts a lot more personality into a conversation. Kind of a personal, home studio.
On the audio side, USB microphones and/or audio interfaces are a big step up from the built-in microphone of a laptop and can be purchased fairly cheaply – say $100 each, although you can spend more or less than this. On the video side, the webcams built into most laptops are of enough quality to get the job done, provided they have enough light. It is a secondary matter to get the light looking decent, but it is a fact that most rooms are substantially “under-lit” for video purposes. Adding a couple daylight-color balanced fluorescent fixtures with a shade is not expensive and can be sourced at local stores.
I used standard video lighting equipment from Cool Lights (www.coollights.biz) in a pretty standard interview configuration. I used a “key light” to light my face from the front, a hair, or rim light clamped to the bar holding up the backdrop, and light on the floor pointed up at the backdrop to make some interesting light splashes and remove any shadow from falling on the backdrop from the key light. This is all lighting 101 stuff that anyone could do, even without the “studio fixtures” I used. I used a muslin backrop, but interesting results can be had by tie-dying an old sheet. This isn’t a big expense either.
In this screen grab from one of my tutorial videos, you can see what it looks like with a color gel throwing an interesting color wash behind me.
As social media become more and more prominent in our industry, it strikes me that there will come a point where enough folk have “good enough” setups that modest web-shows could be produced. If I set up against a green screen, and so did the other participants, we could be edited into a “room” inside any decent editing package. There would be some work to figure it all out the first few times, but then it would be a template and an understood workflow.
Perhaps this is more work than some will want, but it could make some virtual trade-show kinds of events interesting for folk who couldn’t travel to a physical event.
What do you think will happen with these video “podcasts”? Or do you prefer audio-only content so you can use it on drive time?
