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In this segment. I want to quickly introduce you the tools I recommend for lightweight
video production. First, I’ll go over the equipment, give you a quick description of
each item and a rough estimate of the cost. Then I’ll show you the software I recommend,
describe briefly what the software does, and also give you a rough estimate of the cost.
Since lightweight video production doesn’t require high-end production values, we won’t
need all the higher-end features of the more expensive video. However, we do want to shoot
in High Definition in order to give us the best quality across several media.
The Kodak Zi8 offers full HD 1080p video capture. Even in smaller formats, the relative quality
of the video from this camera is evident. It uses the common SD/SDHC cards for memory
and can hold up to 32GB for about 10 hours of HD video.
This camera has an external microphone port, a 5 mega-pixel still camera and a flip out
USB port for the easy transfer of files to your computer.
This camera, with 16GB memory card and an extra battery runs about $280.
If you already have access to a tripod, by all means use it. If not, I recommend the
Gorillapod tripod. This is a small, lightweight tripod that can be bent into any position
and can even be wrapped around objects for getting camera angles that might otherwise
be very difficult with a traditional tripod.
This tripod runs around $60.
The importance of good sound in your videos cannot be overemphasized. For that reason,
I also use a digital voice recorder to capture sound during filming, and then sync the sound
with the video in the editing process. For that, I use this Sony UX200.
The important features of this sound recorder are: 2GB memory for 8 hours of high quality
sound, a microphone out port for attaching an external microphone, the MP3 sound output
for easy integration into video editing software, and the same USB “flip” feature that allows
you to connect it to your computer’s USB port for transferring the sound files.
This voice recorder costs about $100.
To enhance sound quality even further, I use this lavalier mic from Audio-Technica. It
plugs directly into the digital voice recorder or camera and has a 20-foot cord for flexible
camera positioning. The mic clips onto a lapel and offers excellent sound quality and reduces
ambient noise.
This microphone runs about $40.
The final piece of hardware in your lightweight video production toolset is a computer.
I use an Intel-based MacBook Pro because I prefer the software that runs on a Mac. However,
all of the video equipment I’ve mentioned will work just as well with a PC.
A MacBook Pro runs about $1800.
So that brings the total for equipment to about $2300. If you already have a useable
computer, the equipment cost is about $500.
Now, let’s take a quick look at the software.
ScreenFlow is software designed to create screencasts on the Mac. It turns out that
ScreenFlow is also an excellent video editing environment. About 90% of the lightweight
video editing I do is in ScreenFlow.
ScreenFlow runs about $100.
iLife is a suite of products by Apple. The 3 applications in iLife that are relevant
to lightweight video production are iPhoto (for handling photos), iMovie (for video editing),
and GarageBand (for sound and music production and editing).
iLife runs about $80.
Keynote is one of three pieces of software in the iWork suite by Apple. It is essentially
Apple’s answer to PowerPoint. While I don’t often use the typical slideshow format, I
have used Keynote to create some of the text and graphic elements in videos. This is especially
easy with Keynote as it can export slideshows to the QuickTime video format.
Keynote cost about $80.
Although I am increasingly using YouTube’s free captioning technology for my video projects,
I include MovCaptioner here as an alternative for projects that YouTube’s service may
not handle as well.
MovCaptioner normally cost about $40. But it’s free for us here at Cal Poly.
That brings total software costs to about $260.
In the next video segment, I’ll quickly go through the process I use to create lightweight
video.
Please join me there.