We have been asked on numerous occasions to create a quick tip guide for making videos.  The below will encompass things to be aware of as you go through the process of recording your own videos and posting them to MIT TechTV or the web.  We will add to this as needed based on feedback.

1. Recording:

• Be aware of your lighting:
  - make sure your subject is well lit by any lighting means at your disposal, even a desk lamp can help
  - avoid having a bright light source behind you/your subject
• Tripod:  always use when when available, when not available, try to use some other fixed object to help steady the camera
• Audio:  be aware of background noise and try to mitigate unwanted noise as much as possible.

2. Editing:

• The trick is to keep it short and sweet.  Give just enough information to get your point across but not too much to bore or drive away your audience.
• Once you have finished recording, get your footage from your camera or other recording device into your computer and use an editing program (such as iMovie on a Mac or Windows MovieMaker on a PC).
• Save your project on a regular interval.  Editing programs can be fickle and crash from time to time so frequent saves can save your project and your sanity.
• When you’re finished editing, save or export your project

Compression for the web:

• Compression is an important step that takes your video from a very large file size and screen size and can help reduce it to a much smaller file size (and potentially screen size) to allow for faster uploads and user-friendly viewing on the web.
• Many editing programs can do this for you under an Export, Save For Web, or Share selection/menu.
• There are other free programs that can help with compression as well such as MPEG Streamclip (for Mac and PC – some guides to use MPEG Streamclip  – www.moviesmac.com or google search)
• Once your video is compressed, you can upload it to MIT TechTV (if you have any mit.edu email address) or other video sharing websites.  To upload to MIT TechTV, go to the home page and click on “sign in” in the top right corner and after you’ve signed in, click on the “Upload” button that will appear and follow the page instructions. If you don’t have an account yet, go to the MIT TechTV home page and click on “create account” in the top right corner and fill out the form to sign up.  The website is currently moderated for obscenities and copyrighted material.

Computer recordings: you can use software such as Quicktime Player 10 on newer Macs to record your videos directly with your computer to a file on your computer.  With Quicktime Player 10, launch the program, go to the File menu and select New Movie Recording.  Record your video and then save it by going to the File menu and select Save For Web.

Please send us any questions or requests for other information you’d like to see on this posting by adding a comment below.

Thanks, Kris @ MIT TechTV

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 24th, 2010 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.