Bart Feder’s presentation and our discussion last night had my mind racing about the challenges I have with video on my website at work. I have worked at a small center at Harvard the past few months as their publications/communications/web person. I inherited a website with tons of streaming video and have not been quite sure what to do with it. Very, very few people were viewing the videos, mostly likely because they were buried a dozen clicks deep on our website, among other problems. I actually took that part of the site down because I figured out none of the videos had been properly encoded in the past, and most users probably weren’t able to play them.
The professors at the center are eager to record all of the events we host and post the footage to the website. But if I keep relying on the established method of recording the video will have all of the bad qualities we discussed last night: static shots of hour-long plus panel discussions with bad audio and heads and raised hands blocking the camera at various times.
I have enough money in my budget to hire a student reporter or two this semester, and the plan was to have them write stories to fill our online newsletter. Last night, I started to think I should have them record interviews with the speakers we bring in and post short, more intimate videos instead of what was done before. My question, though, is who edits the videos? We don’t have the staff resources to do it. Do reporters edit their own videos in the new single reporter/cameraman world? And do any of you have recommendations for easy-to-use, inexpensive or free video editing software? I could give access to a Mac with iMovie. Will that do?
Your advice will be much appreciated. Streaming video is completely new to me.
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I worked in film and still do some freelance work in TV and my day job is all about boring videos so I think I might be able to help.
First, start before the beginning. Pre-production is the key to making everything else go more smoothly down the line. Also, don’t be afraid to play a little bit with what types of videos you will create until you find the format your audience wants. Who is your audience? That will guide you in deciding how to proceed.
Given the poor audio and video quality of these panel discussions, you’ve already learned the necessity of high production values. For your purposes that means nothing more than getting clear, unobstructed shots of the person who is speaking and clear, clean, audible sound. This is something to keep in mind if sending someone out to shoot interviews: who’s watching the video and audio while the interview is being conducted? Ideally you’re talking about a crew of three (sound person, video person, and “talent” or interviewer) but it can be done well with two people. I would strongly advise against sending someone out with a camera and expecting that person to shoot, monitor audio, and conduct an interview.
It’s very reasonable to expect, and in Boston would be easy to find, someone to both shoot and edit a piece. The two go hand in hand. iMovie would be ideal for producing simple pieces.
It might make more sense to improve the production values on the panel discussions and edit excerpts from them than to just shoot interviews and edit those. It would probably be best to mix it up and do both: excerpts from the panels and interviews. A really good interview requires skill and talent so don’t count on those being an easy fix. And a good video editor can frequently work magic – provided the raw materials (video and audio) are intact and clean.
I hope this helps. I’d be happy to answer any other questions that might come up as you go through this process. Have fun!
I'm glad you brought this up. I, too, inherited a website at a small program in a huge center at the Kennedy School. Our professors here, however, seem to be stuck in the pre-digital age: until recently, we'd never uploaded a single in-house video to our website.
That being said, I had a very positive experience putting the video from our recent conference on our site (the first of its kind at the Kennedy School and a huge deal for us). It was filmed by StudioKSG (our in-house media services) and it came out rather well. Our web manager did an absolutely amazing job coding it and uploading it to the site and I think it is great for what it is: eight hours of keynote speeches and panel discussions (www.dubaiinitiative.org).
During the presentation and discussion on Monday, I also wondered whether this was our best use of video. But I got to thinking in the past couple of days about who would be watching our conference video and who,in the days following, and leading up to the conference, who had asked me if we would post it anywhere. It seems to me that those who would watch the video are exactly the kind of people who would attend a eight hour conference on the Middle East.
It's nice to think that the online video enables people to gather information even if they aren't able to physically be there and I think this is why your faculty is so keen on the online video.
Anyway, I'd love to hear how your experiment with student reporting goes, it would certainly spice things up a bit!
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