[Commons-l] Video skills and equipment

[Paul Houle]

Lars Aronsson wrote:
> I just tried to watch some presentation videos from Wikimania. 
> Some had very weak sound, some had no sound in the first minutes, 
> some only played the first minute and then stopped.  I don't think 
> the Wikimania videos are unique in having such problems.  Video is 
> new to Commons, and the expert contributors are more familiar with 
> still images.
>   
    Don't screw around with low-end cameras based on flash memory;  the 
best bet you'll get on the cheap end is a camera that uses miniDV 
tapes;  tmost miniDV cameras have firewire ports that you can use to 
read the video into a computer for editing.  You can certainly get 
something OK for under $1000,  but there are some panasonic cameras 
around $3000 that are quite a bit better,  particularly if you're 
shooting under low light conditions.

    Sound is the most important variable to control;  people will 
tolerate bad video if the sound is good,  but will tune out if they 
can't hear what's being said.

    There are two reasonable options for getting sound from presentations:

(i) a wireless lapel mike,  or
(ii) high-quality shotgun mike

    You're not going to get consistently good (or even occasionally 
good) results if you use the mike that's built into the average camera.  
If there's an amplification system in use,  you may be able to plug 
directly into the amplification system.  Personally I like wireless 
lapel mikes and take them to lecture shoots all the time,  although a 
friend of mine swears by shotgun mikes.

    For really good sound,  you can combine multiple audio sources.  
Stereo audio is the norm these days,  so this is easy.  For instance,  I 
might put a PZM on the right channel (hears all ambient sound) and the 
lapel like on the left channel.  I mix down to mono,  and usually use 
95% of the L channel to get the speaker.  When somebody asks a 
question,  I turn up the gain on R channel so viewers can hear the question.

    Also,  use a tripod;  it looks better on TV,  and it frees up bits 
to improve picture quality that are otherwise wasted representing camera 
shake when you're on low-band video like Youtube.