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HOW-TO, Techniques, & Best Practices Channel
Fast Track to Vidcasting
By Chris Cavallari
posted May 6, 2009, 11:40 |
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Chris Cavallari has been working in television, video, and
film for 11 years as a cameraman, lighting director, video
editor, and grip. By day, he is the Lead Television Studio
Technician for an Internet Webcast TV Network; by night, he
writes and directs films and podcasts for his company
Filmosity Productions, produces the podcast, �The Martini
Shot: Moviemaking for Beginners,� and runs the New Jersey
Podcasters Association. His website is www.filmosity.com.
Podcasting has become a hot topic over the past year and
with good reason. The format, which uses RSS to
automatically download audio content to a user�s computer,
has brought freedom of speech to a whole new level.
Ordinary average guys (and gals) are now able to switch on
their mics and broadcast their thoughts to anyone willing to
listen. And people are listening. However, many would-be
producers are finding that learning the in�s and out�s of podand
vidcasting is not so easy to grasp.
First Things First.
We should start with a definition: A podcast is an audio
file, most often .mp3, that is automatically downloaded to a
user's computer via an RSS feed with enclosures. We�ll go
more in depth into RSS later. Technically, any file can be
downloaded via RSS, but podcasting specifically refers to
audio content. A vidcast is a derivative of podcasting, but
uses downloaded video files instead of audio files.
The Basics.
You're going to need to do some prep work to get started
with vidcasting. Podcasting and vidcasting aren�t the easiest
undertakings, so it's best to get all the technical material out
of the way first. Following these steps will get you moving
on the fast track to creating your vidcast.
1) Get a blog. Any will do. Blogger (www.blogger.com)
and WordPress (www.wordpress.org) are two popular ones.
Blogger will host the blog for you, while Wordpress requires
your own web server for hosting. Liberated Syndication, or
Libsyn (www.libsyn.com), is a good one-stop shop for
podcasting, providing both a blog and hosting services. Set
up your blog, and get it going by making a post. If you know
HTML and CSS, you can tweak the code to make the blog
page visually interesting. We all like to look at some eye
candy every so often. Just don�t go overboard, or you run the
risk of oversaturating your audience and driving them away.
2) Set up your RSS feed. RSS stands for Really Simple
Syndication, and is a way to send content � like news stories
- down to a reader without the reader having to do much of
anything. A reader simply subscribes to the RSS feed using
an aggregator, (in the case of podcasting, they are called
�podcatchers�). The news aggregator automatically
downloads fresh content on a predetermined, userconfigurable
schedule.
RSS uses the Extensible Markup Language, or XML, to do
all this. Podcasts use a specification of RSS called
�enclosures.� These are simply lines in the code that point to
a file � any kind of file, in fact, located somewhere on the
web � and alert an aggregator that there is something to be
downloaded. Special aggregators, such as Doppler, Juice,
and even iTunes, are needed to download podcasts.
FeedBurner (www.FeedBurner.com) is a good free service
that will automatically configure the RSS for you and give
you an easy-to-remember URL for your feed. It also offers
some good tools specifically targeted towards pod- and
vidcasters, like automatic formatting of your feed to be in
compliance with iTunes Music Store specifications, and feed
subscriber number tracking. You can also go with Libsyn,
which I'll get into in a moment.
3) Prep, shoot, and edit your video. Keep it relatively
short, as the attention span of most online video content
viewers tends to be pretty short. People are finding they
don't want to watch long shows on the tiny screens of their
portable media players, so keeping your content short,
sweet, and to the point will likely make the most impact.
Also, file sizes in video can become very large very quickly,
so keeping the length shorter helps to limit the load on
people's bandwidth.
Choosing the right codec to encode your video can aid in
that. (See Step 4 for more on codecs.) In a huge
contradiction to myself, I will say that some shows have
been known to be up to an hour long; these shows,
however, are generally produced in the standard television
format, which includes unique segments, interstitials, and
even commercial breaks. The shows that are successful are
also the ones with very high production values. Oh yeah,
and the content isn�t half bad either.
4) Export your video. This is the tricky part. I�ve found that
the best way to do this is to export as mpeg4, which is the
.mp4 file extension. You can also use the .m4v extension
with either Sorenson or h.264 compression. These two
codecs offer the best quality for file size. You could do a
Windows Media file, but iPods won't play those, or a .mov
file, but those file sizes tend to be quite large. Apple requires
that iPods with video capability only play movies encoded
in .mp4, .m4v, or .mov. You can export any of these formats
directly from Quicktime 7 Pro, so using it with the Final Cut
Pro or Express non-linear editing system should be a snap.
They are all MPEG codecs, so the difference between them
really boils down to file size and image quality. Experiment
with each and compare to see which works best for you.
5) Upload your file to a server. It can be anywhere, as
long as your RSS feed's enclosure points to it. If you're using
the Feedburner service, you don't have to worry about RSS
and enclosures, but if you're maintaining your own feed, this
is an important step. A good file hosting service dedicated to
pod- and vidcasting is Liberated Syndication
(www.libsyn.com). It's inexpensive and features unlimited
bandwidth. You also get a blog that you can customize, and
the service will do all the RSS work for you. All you have to
do is post! At $5 a month for 100MB of storage space, a
podcaster really can�t beat the price. At the end of the
month, your shows are archived to the Libsyn archive
servers, and your 100MB space is renewed. Past shows are
always accessible. There are other package prices available
as well.
6) Post to your blog with a direct link to the video file. If
you chose not to use Libsyn as your blog or webserver, then
you need to host your files somewhere. Any web hosting
service will be fine. Just be mindful of your bandwidth
usage. If you've used FeedBurner, the service will
automatically update your RSS feed every time you post a
link to a file in your blog, and viewers' podcast aggregators
will automatically download the file. Again, Libsyn will do
the same, but at this time, you have less control over certain
things in the feed.
7) Publicize your vidcast. That's a whole long, drawn out
mess with lots of drama, espionage, and intrigue. Well, not
really, but it does take some effort on your part. Start out by
going to one of the many podcast directories available on
the web. A Google search for �podcast directory� will leadyou in the right direction. These directories usually have a
section in their user forums specifically for promoting your
show. If you have a specific topic you talk about, find user
forums for that topic and register. People will be receptive to
you promoting your �cast, as long as you participate in the
forums on a regular basis.
8) Submit the feed to the iTunes Music Store's podcast
directory. Again, long, drawn-out drama, but with more
espionage and less intrigue. (Just kidding. It�s easy.) In iTunes
version 5 or above, click on the �Podcast Directory� link at
the bottom of the �Podcasts� playlist. Click on the link to
�Submit a podcast,� located in the menu bar on the left. Add
your vidcast�s feed URL and hit submit. The vidcast will then
go in for review by Apple, and if you�re lucky, you�ll be
listed in their directory.
9) Revel in your vidcast afterglow. 'Nuff said.
There are many more intricacies to the vidcast/podcast
world, but this primer will set you well on your way to being
a vidcast producer.
There is, however, one more important thing: vidcasting.
By its very nature, it is a chronological beast. This means
that you don't just put up one video and nothing more, then
call it a vidcast. One file does not a vidcast make. Thou shalt
not be a one-cast wonder. You have to keep at it. Enjoy your
new hobby, but � as with any hobby � make sure you
have the time, money, and resources to keep it going and
make it a success.
This article may not be reprinted in print or internet publications without express permission of StudentFilmmakers.com.
Check out this article in the April 2006 print edition of StudentFilmmakers magazine, page 44.
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