Beyond Web Video

All of Digital Juice''s packages are composed of prerendered content that can easily be previewed and selected via the company''s Juicer 3 software.

The last several years have seen dramatic shifts in how we view video on the Web and how we produce web video. First of all, bandwidth has constantly expanded. Standard broadband (3Mbps) has given way to turbo broadband (6Mbps to 10Mbps). Now even faster options are emerging, such as Verizon''s FiOS, which clocks in at 50Mbps. The days of nervous excitement while a technician comes to hook up your T1 line (1.5Mbps) are long gone; not surprisingly, faster pipes have paved the way for larger and better video.

The term “HD web video” is even murkier than the format wars we''re accustomed to in HD production; nevertheless, it''s impossible to ignore the amazing picture quality that''s now pumping through the World Wide Web. Five years ago, web video at 640x480 and 30fps dazzled, but in 2009, it''s so low-res and so ... five years ago. The once-acceptable 320x240 video clip is now just about extinct. As a consequence, audiences expect both more content and more production value. As qualified producers step in to fill demand, there''s more competition for eyeballs. So in order to gain traction with an audience, you''ll need to produce your program well and often—and therefore quickly.

Luckily, there are compelling low-cost software solutions for efficiently producing web-video programs whose polish justifies their newly expanded window and higher resolution. In this article, I discuss methods for producing professional-looking web-video programs—focusing on recording, effects, music, and distribution, as well as some important production tips for creating a successful web video.

In years past, interfacing a production studio with a PC was a big challenge. Installing boards in your Mac/PC and timing various cameras and external switchers—it all got complex quickly. Today, savvy media artists know that the studio is the actual computer. More recently, all-in-one software programs that follow a live-production paradigm have emerged as simpler, more efficient alternatives to the more complex postproduction software suites.

Telestream''s Wirecast provides everything needed to switch from multiple cameras; mix in content (images, logos, and clips); cue up titles; and chroma-key in backgrounds—all on a desktop computer. You can record to hard disk or stream out live using QuickTime Streaming Server either in 4:3 or as HD in 16:9. Cameras can be a combination of HDV, FireWire, DV, or USB. Everything is digital, so there is no syncing or timebase problems. Keying is accelerated by the GPU.

All of Digital Juice''s packages are composed of prerendered content that can easily be previewed and selected via the company''s Juicer 3 software.

BoinxTV from Boinx Software is a popular and highly polished program that works with multiple cameras and offers many built-in templates for different types of shows, such as news or sports. Boinx allows the creation of layers of onscreen images to achieve complex and professional graphics for live and taped productions.

Adobe Visual Communicator 3 (VC3) also works as a software-based production studio. You can cue up all your clips and record in realtime while adding in supers and titles. VC3 lets you input the text of your show so you can read it via the built-in teleprompter. The program can record to disk, but it can also stream live FLV video presentations over the Web using Adobe Flash Media Server.

Another Adobe program worth looking into is the dual-platform Adobe OnLocation CS4. It offers direct-to-disk recording, and while it does not offer the effects and production elements of Wirecast, BoinxTV, or Visual Communicator, it does present a great way to plug in a camera via FireWire and record/log multiple takes in master quality direct to the hard drive with no tape involved. The current version does have one drawback: The audio cannot be recorded from a separate source. It grabs the camera''s audio via FireWire. But OnLocation CS4 does connect your HD camcorder directly to your computer-based studio, which is a great step toward efficiency.

Once your footage is recorded and perhaps switched live, you''ll likely want to do some post­production on the project before it hits the Web. If you are doing a web show that is produced on a consistent basis, you might want something a little more scaled-down for editing. Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, and Adobe Premiere Pro are often overkill for doing straight cuts and encoding to web formats, and they can even choke on the ingest of compressed formats. Apple iMovie ''09 is not on a lot of producers'' radars, but it should be. It does actual realtime editing (as in real realtime editing), and it''s packed with options for tweaking. At the same time, it''s simple enough for weekly or daily assembly-line web productions. My studio produces web shows weekly, and iMovie is one program that''s always in use. In addition, you can import in all kinds of already-compressed files for realtime edit into iMovie ''09—such as MOV, MP4, and M4V. I wish iMovie ''09 would export to Apple''s Compressor 3, but you can export out to any web format and also to QuickTime, so you can then do anything from basic web-video formats to high-def Apple ProRes 422. QuickTime has basic settings and a wide variety of formats. However, Apple''s Compressor 3 has additional settings for every parameter of each format, allowing precise output and granular control over the encoded file. It offers options such as multipass (for added quality), which is absent in the standard QuickTime encoder. iMovie ''09 just released a new update (8.0.1) that now allows built-in export for HD 1280x720, so that is a step in the right direction.

High-end effects can help your program break out of the crowded web-video pack. Red Giant Software''s Trapcode Suite offers a lot of the 3D strokes, particles, glints, and glows that you see on many TV promos and programs. It''s a go-to package if you want to render or alpha-channel some swirling dazzle to make the super on a talking head really pop. My studio also uses Red Giant''s Mega Bundle.

If you don''t have time to render, look at some of the offerings from Digital Juice, such as its Compositor''s Toolkit, which offers hundreds of prerendered, organic HD backgrounds and foregrounds—complete with mattes—to give your web production some sizzle. The company also offers DJ Fonts packages in case you want to step up your fonts a few notches. Another great font program used by web producers is Yanobox''s Motype, a text-animation program for creating motion effects, trailing blurs, 3D effects, panning, and much more. Your online productions will typically have a shorter turnaround time, so it''s important to have premade elements that can be engaging on a consistent basis. Web-video viewers have extremely short attention spans on average, but dashes of color and light can keep them engaged for extra seconds or even minutes.

As web-video bit rates gets higher and viewers upgrade to better loudspeakers, your audio needs to come through sounding better than ever. Make sure it''s up to spec. There are several programs for creating music and intro tracks, and most are easy to use. Of course, Adobe Soundbooth CS4, Sony Creative Software Cinescore, and SmartSound Sonicfire Pro 5 all do a fantastic job of music creation. But there are also alternatives for lower budgets and for certain specific needs. Abaltat Muse 2.0 is an automated program that allows easy creation of royalty-free music tracks. It also does automatic alignment of music cues to your video track, perfect for high-energy intros. Also worth looking into: MixMeister Technology has a number of audio tools, such as Fusion, for combining shorter pieces into longer backing tracks—all with automatic merging and beat-mapping.

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.

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.

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