If you are looking for a camera that will keep your web video looking professional and crisp, as well as easy to upload into your computer, you will want a hard drive camcorder.  These hard drive camcorders will allow you to record stunning images, however, it is how you upload these videos into your computer for editing that makes them so great.  With a hard drive camera, you are able to record video without the need of tapes or DVDs.  This is made possible because the camera records information onto its hard drive.  Once you have recorded everything that you need, you can simply attach the camcorder to your computer, usually through a USB cord, and then your computer begins to upload the videos into its own hard drive.  After you have done this, you can then begin the editing process.

Choosing the right type of camcorder for web videos is extremely important, and if you know that you are going to be filming many web videos, than it is a good idea to invest in a decent camera that has great resolution and user-friendly exporting options.

Another piece of equipment that you will want to have is a microphone.  While every camcorder comes with a built-in microphone, they will not give you the professional quality that you desire.  You do not have to go out and purchase a $300 microphone in order to get good audio quality; however, you will want to have a microphone that allows you to guard wind and other types of background noises.  Another reason why having a microphone is so important is because it will give you the chance to make videos that are not only pleasing to the eye, but also to the ears.  Did you know that sight and sound makes up for 85% of the information that we absorb around us?  This is why making sure you have a great quality camera and microphone is so important.

However, if you don’t have this last piece of equipment, than you will most likely not be able to post your videos online.  The last piece of mandatory equipment for making web videos is a computer.  Whether you are working with a desktop computer, or laptop, it is very important that your computer can handle the amount of CPU’s you are going to be requesting of it.  However, even though you want to have your computer run smoothly, you will also want to ensure that it has enough memory to hold all of the information that you are going to be putting in it.

With many different files that need to be saved, such as massive video files, audio files and the other various types of media that will begin to accumulate onto your computer, you must ensure that you have ample memory.  Many individuals that make web videos usually invest in an external hard drive.  These are great accessories to have, and will keep your computer running smoothly, because the amount of memory needed will be spread out among different hard drives.

Need help producing web videos for your business?

Give me a call at 423.757.9585 or send an email to start a discussion. In the meantime, check out my website and online portfolio.

There are many great web video editing tips out there, however, there are several that are the foundational tips you must follow.  Of course, like any video, you must film with editing in mind.  When you are filming your web video, make sure that you stay away from sudden camera movements, and long-distance shots.  Because of the averagely small size of a web video, when your video features many long-distance shots, you will notice that the clarity is off, and many people will not know what they are looking at.  Keep everything simple, for the most part, and always make sure that you stick with close-ups.  As
a web video filmmaker, close-ups will be your new best friend, and it is a great way to keep your audience’s attention.

Also, when you are editing your web video, you want to keep sudden, or quick, transitions at a minimum.  This is because just in case some of your viewers are running at a lower Internet connection, when you have quick transitions, their player might actually skip over a pivotal scene, and it will make the video seem choppy.  The main rule in web video editing is to make sure that everything is smooth.  If you look at some very popular web videos, you will notice that there is very little actual camera movement and camera editing performed.  Actually, there is a rule among many web videographers that they follow exactly.

This rule basically says that all of their web videos should be done with one take.  This means keeping massive amounts of transitions and different shots at a minimum.  While some videos require having many different shots, especially if you are making a how-to video, try to keep these shots smooth and precise.  However, if you are merely explaining a product, try to do so in a single shot, which will require little-to-no actual video editing.  The only editing that you may do is add text screens and other types of informative frames.

Editing for the web is much different than any other type of editing.  If you have performed editing for actual films and other productions, you may find that editing for the web is boring, or extremely easy.  However, once you see the finished product on the Internet, and understand how smooth editing and minimal transition shots reflect the overall condition of the web video, than you will finally understand why minimal editing is key.

Need help producing web videos for your business?

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Perhaps one of the biggest reasons why so many webmasters are using web video as a means to drive traffic is because it is a great, and free, way to interact with potential visitors, as well as providing them with pivotal information that is fun to watch.  Web video is an amazingly powerful way to show your viewers information, and inform them of your various website and products.  There are several keys that you must follow when making a web video for website promotion.  When you follow these tips, you will be able to have an extremely successful web video campaign, and you will reap the benefits of this.

The most important key to using web video for website promotion, is to make videos that are interesting, entertaining and above all else, informative.  Individuals will find your videos based on what they are about.  If you are selling a how-to book on fixing home appliances, the best way to reach your audience is to make short videos on how to fix various problems within your home.  An example of this would be to make a web video explaining the steps to fixing a leaky faucet.  This not only will give your viewers a chance to see how informative your information is, but you will also be helping them out as well.

More than likely, when you provide a web video that answers a question, the viewers will come to your site to find other answers to their various questions.  This is a great way to build loyalty with the potential customer, as well as giving them an actual reason to purchase your product.

After you have compiled several videos on your topic, you will then need to post these videos online in order for them to be seen.  Yet, the biggest question is, where should you post you web videos?  There are literally hundreds of various web video sites that allow you to put your own video on their server.  However, the key is finding the correct site to place your video on.  It’s no question that YouTube is the most popular video site on the Internet.

And by placing your video, along with proper keywords, on YouTube you will soon be experiencing a flow of constant traffic to your site.  Although, if you do not want to go through and post your videos on all of the various websites by hand, you can use video submission services to do this for you.  Perhaps the best out of all these systems is Traffic Geyser.  This system will submit your video to all of the major video hosting websites, thus growing your traffic immensely.

Need help producing web videos for your business?

Give me a call at 423.757.9585 or send an email to start a discussion. In the meantime, check out my website and online portfolio.

The greatness of most web videos comes from the pre-production phase.  It is here that you will discuss how you want your video to look, what you want to say and why you want to say it.  When you figure out the answers to all of these questions, than you will be on your way to creating a wonderful web video, of course, figuring out how you want your video to look is extremely important.  If you are going for a more polished look, than you will want to spend more time discovering the actual appearance of your video, all the way down from lighting, clothing and camera angles.

If you want to create a web video that has presence than you want to set a mood.  The success of a web video all depends on what mood it is giving out to its viewers.  If you want a humorous video, than there are steps to creating a video that exudes humor, and likewise with serious web videos.  The planning of how you want to convey your message is extremely important.  Of course, there are several tips that everyone must follow if they want to properly explain their content.

The first of these is making sure that your web video has a story.  In order to understand how to make a story, you must first realize what a story is.  When you think of a great story, there are usually items called peaks and valleys.

A peak is a strong emotional moment; you can convey this many different ways.  If you are making a video about a product, than the “peak” of the story would be explaining how this product can enhance your life and what it will do for you.  The same concept is true for the “valley” of a video.  In the same product web video, the valleys would be showing how the product works, and also how it is made.

This is a great way to engage the viewers, as well as keep their information.  If you want to make a lasting impact on your web video audience, than you must touch their emotions in one way or another.  It doesn’t matter if your web video makes individuals happy, sad, angry or even content, when you are able to create a video that alters the mood or emotion of the viewer, than you have a very successful web video on your hands.

Need help producing web videos for your business?

Give me a call at 423.757.9585 or send an email to start a discussion. In the meantime, check out my website and online portfolio.

One of the best ways to make money through your web videos is by using ad revenue sharing sites.  These types of sites allow you to place your web video on their sites; however, whenever your video generates income through the ads that are placed on the page, you are created a certain amount of money.  While you will most likely not become rich through this type of site, you will however, make a decent amount of money.

The key to making the most money off of ad revenue sites is by uploading as much content as you can, and making each video for a specific type of audience.  This why you will have a targeted audience that will be more interested in clicking through the ads at the end of your video.  Some good ad revenue video sites are Revver and Google Video.

Another way that you can make money through web videos is by going through a more professional approach that can end up being quite profitable.  These types of websites are places where you can sell your videos, and photos, such as iStockVideo.  This website allows you sell your videos; however, they must be of a certain quality.  In order to maximize your sells through these types of sites, make sure that you take time with the videos and make them as unique and powerful as possible.  You will then see then income starting to roll in.

If you want to have a unique way to make money through web videos, than simply begin to search sponsors.  Say you really love a certain product, and you want to create videos about this product, however, before you do, contact the company that makes this product.  Let them know that you want to begin a web video campaign, and show them your ideas.   You may be surprised that it may be quite easy to get web video sponsors, and after doing so, you will be able to have someone to actually pay you for making a web video.

This is a great way to create a constant income, because if you do a good job, than most companies will keep having you make videos for them.  Remember, the key is to be professional in your videos and have at least five to ten videos already outlined and ready to film. There are many different ways that you can make money through making web videos; all it takes is a desire to succeed and a desire to be creative.  After you have done these two, you are on your way to making money by doing something you love.

Need help producing web videos for your business?

Give me a call at 423.757.9585 or send an email to start a discussion. In the meantime, check out my website and online portfolio.

However, it is understood that many people who want to make powerful web videos simply don’t have the time to sit around and map out every detail of the video.  While doing so guarantees that you will have a aesthetically pleasing video, there is a simpler way to organize your web video.  Before you ever begin to film, you must first have a shooting, or concept, script.  Whether you literally write down dialogue that you want to say, or if you just need to organize your thoughts, always write a shooting script for a web video.  If you are making a video for a product that you are selling, than you will want to explain the product clearly, and also demonstrate the product.  This is one of the greatest aspects of web video, individuals are actually able to see the product in action before purchasing it.

With your shooting script, you will also want to lay out where you want to film the video and how many people are needed.  You may find that you can do this all yourself, however, usually the more people that you have helping you the easier the project will be, and the better the ending result will also be.  While many people do not understand how to compose a professional shot, it is very easy to learn.  When you are looking through your camera, what you see in the screen is what will be recorded.  Take a moment before you begin filming to make sure that everything in the “frame” is what you want to be seen.

Make all of the surrounding objects neat, or simply take them away.  If you’re going for a unique look to your web video, make sure that all of the elements that you want to be seen are visible within the frame.  A great way to make sure that you have a beautiful shot every time is to follow a simple rule, that even Hollywood filmmakers follow, and that is the Rule of Thirds.

When you’re filming in the Rule of Thirds, imagine that the screen is split into a basic tic-tac-toe formation.  Always make sure that the person you are filming has their head placed on either the right or left side of the screen.  Instead of filming a person that is precisely in the middle of the frame, move them over to the right or left section of the screen pattern.  This will provide the viewer with a sense of balance, and will give your web video a professional appeal to it.  You can see the Rule of Thirds in action within almost every web video or even in movies.

Next time you watch an interview, or a character in a film is giving a monologue, 90% of the time they will be positioned either on the right or left side of the screen, following the Rule of Thirds.  Also, the most important part of filming a web video is to make a story out of the video.  This doesn’t mean that there needs to be dramatics involved, although this can make for an interesting addition to your video, it simply means that you will want to create a sense of flow to the information that is being given out.

Need help producing web videos for your business?

Give me a call at 423.757.9585 or send an email to start a discussion. In the meantime, check out my website and online portfolio.

If you want to have a beautifully lit web video, than you will want to engage in 3-Point Lighting.  This is a great way to light any type of web video, and it also ensures you will stay away from hotspots and shadows, which can ruin a video.  3-Point Lighting stands for the three main type of lights that you will be using.  These lights include Back Light, Key Light and Fill Light.  It doesn’t matter what type of light you use, as long as you follow the rules that are associated with this type of lighting process.  After you have followed the process of lighting your video in this manner, you will have a gorgeous outcome.

First of all, you need to understand what the Key Light is, and how you can use it.  The Key Light is a light that you place in front of your main subject.  Of course, you will never want to place the light directly in front of your subject, because this would ultimately wash the subject out and create unattractive shadows.  When you are placing your Key Light, you will want to put it at a 30 to 45 degree angle in front of the main subject you’re shooting.  Make sure that the Key Light is to the side of the camera.  This light will give you perfect lighting for the subject, without washing it out.

The next light in the 3-Point Lighting concept is the Fill Light.  You will place this light directly across from the Key Light, on the other side of the camera.  How you know you have the Fill Light in the correct position is the light will be parallel to the Key Light, and it will soften the shadows that the Key Light has created.  You must be careful in how bright the Fill Light is, because you do not want to put too much light on the subject.  Normally, when you are using a Fill Light, you only use 50% of the light’s power, or you use a soft light.  It is suggested that you do use a soft light instead of a spotlight, because it provides a beautiful contrast without being too bright.

The last light in the 3-Point Lighting design is the Back Light.  The Back Light is exactly what it sounds like, it is lighting the back of the subject.  This is very important because it will literally separate the main subject from the background by creating a nice outline of light around the rim of the main subject.  You will want to place the Back Light directly behind the main subject, and also make sure that it aligns directly with the camera.  Some filmmakers decide to place the Back Light above the subject; however, this can be dangerous.

Make sure that when you do this it is tied down appropriately; also make sure that the Back Light does not create awkward shadows on the main subject.  This is a common mishap and can cause the subject to look sickly.  The purpose of the Back Light is to allow the subject to seem three-dimensional and to also separate it from the background itself.  If you want to light your background, you will need to use a separate light.

Need help producing web videos for your business?

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The main reason why hosting your web video on a free server is because many of these free servers will have bandwidth restrictions, but what exactly is this?  Every time someone views your video, the video is sent from the hosting server to their computer.  This requires bandwidth, and the longer your video, and depending on how it is optimized, you will use a certain amount of bandwidth.  If you are like most people, than you want your web video to be extremely popular, and thus it will help your business, or ego, grow.

However, when you use a free web hosting server that has limited bandwidth, you may quickly exceed this bandwidth.  What happens after this usually depends on the web hosting service you are with, although many of these hosting companies will simply shut down your website after it has exceeded your monthly allowance.

While the above answer should be enough reason to not host your web video site on a free web hosting service, many people still think that this is the best way to promote their video and website.  Another major downside to using a free web host for your web video website is because it will make you and your business, if you have one, seem extremely unprofessional.  This appearance of unprofessionalism is only increased by the every-lingering pop ups.  These banners, ads and whatever else is crawling around your website is nothing more than an annoyance to your website visitor.

Many people when they come across a website that is loaded with banners and other pop-up advertisements quickly leave because they do not want to risk the chance of infecting their computer by spyware and other malicious content.  When you hose your web videos, and website, on a free hosting service, than you are literally destroying any chance of creating a reputable and loyal relationship with your visitors, which will hinder or completely stop any sales that you hoped would occur from your web videos.

Of course, if you want to host your videos for free, you do have many great options.  These options are from the many, reputable, web video hosting sites, such as YouTube and Google Video.  These sites will host your web video for free, and you can then direct traffic to your website from the video itself.  This is a great way to save money on the amount of bandwidth you have to purchase, as well as giving you a sense of clout among the millions of web videos out there.

Need help producing web videos for your business?

Give me a call at 423.757.9585 or send an email to start a discussion. In the meantime, check out my website and online portfolio.

Lighting for web videos isn’t exactly different from lighting for actual films; however, it does take an understanding of how the Internet will show your video.  There are several tips that if you follow, you will have a beautifully lit web video.

The first tip in lighting your web video is understanding what type of lights to actually use.  While many people
that are filming their very web video simply use their house lights, some understand the need for extra lighting; however, they usually go too far.  You may notice that many web videos look washed out, or are too bright to see the details of the video.  This is because the individual used harsh light.  The key to having perfect lighting for web video is by using soft-light.  But what exactly is soft light?

This phrase is easy to define, basically in order to have soft light; you want to defuse the light as much as possible.  You can do so by detracting the light from directly hitting where your camera is filming.  You want to have a glow, instead of a harsh beam.  These harsh light beams are called hotspots, and they are the enemy to have a beautifully lit shot.

When you are filming inside, it is easy to go overboard and have too much light.  The key to softening the light is to deter it through several methods.  Some individuals simply put a thin sheet over the light in order to defuse it enough to get rid of hot spots, but still let enough light to go through to give the shooting area a soft, yet bright, glow.  By pointing a light directly at the subject that you are filming, you are going to drain them out and create shadows and various hot spots.  Remember, hot spots and shadows, or any other type of contrasting light is not cohesive to a great web video shot.  Always look through your camera’s viewfinder and try to point out any shadows and extra-bright areas.  By doing so, you will have a finished product that looks professional and clean.

Filming outside can sometimes be a difficult task because you have an ever-changing source of light, when you are filming during the daytime.  Instead of putting your subjects directly under the sun, which will cause them to squint and look washed out; set them back to where the sun’s rays are not directly in their faces.

You can defuse the light by using reflectors, which will allow you to sit in the shade while still obtaining enough light to clearly see the subjects.  One of the biggest tricks of the trade is to lay down a white sheet directly in front of the subject that you are filming.  This will reflect the light, as well as giving the shot a nice glow.

Need help producing web videos for your business?

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The main reason why web videos are so important to Internet marketers is because it allows them to connect with their potential customers on an intimate basis.  Since there are so many Internet marketers consuming the web, it is extremely important that you stand out from the crowd.  Also, another reason why Internet marketing is boosted by web videos is because it sets them apart from the various scams and other schemes that are surrounding the web.

More than likely, a customer has been scammed by an Internet marketer, thus many people do not pay heed to the marketing efforts that you put forth.  A main reason for this is because you are following the same paths that many scammers have used.  Thus, if you want to make a sale and gain the trust of a customer, than you must think outside of the box.

A great way to interact with your customers, and provide them with pivotal information is through using web videos.  With a web video you are able to show the customer the product or service in action, without having to use fancy words or tricky sentences.  You can be honest and upfront about the product and build a relationship with the customer.  This is very important in turning a potential customer, into a purchasing customer.  One great way to utilize web video is to simplify the product and give all of the information that the customer needs in less than three minutes.  If you are able to successfully do this, you will help gain loyalty from the customer and they will be more likely to purchase your product or service.

Web videos are a great way to interact with potential customers, and also a great way to showcase your product.  There are only so many words and photographs that you can use to get your message across, however, when you use video in conjunction with these other two communication methods, you will have a very successful stent at selling your product.  They key to becoming a world class Internet marketer is to be honest, give important information and reason with the customers.

Allow them to feel that you understand where they are coming from, and how the product will actually enhance their life.  And by using web videos, you are able to successfully do this.  Remember, always make sure that the product is the star of your video and explain all of the benefits of owning this product or using your service.

Need help producing web videos for your business?

Give me a call at 423.757.9585 or send an email to start a discussion. In the meantime, check out my website and online portfolio.