Presentation by Bruce Sharpe at Northern Voice 2009. Tells all about adding audio and video to your blog, and podcasting

1. Bring Your Blog to Life
Video and audio are where it’s at.
Get with it.
Bruce Sharpe
brucesharpe.com
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2. This Talk is For...
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3. This Talk is For...
1. Baby steps (minimal time, free)
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4. This Talk is For...
1. Baby steps (minimal time, free)
2. A little bit serious, but not very (⌚$)
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5. This Talk is For...
1. Baby steps (minimal time, free)
2. A little bit serious, but not very (⌚$)
3. Even a little more serious (⌚⌚$$)
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6. This Talk is For...
1. Baby steps (minimal time, free)
2. A little bit serious, but not very (⌚$)
3. Even a little more serious (⌚⌚$$)
4. Some tips for the experts
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7. PC and Mac
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8. After Today
• You can get started
• You can get better
• You can try something new
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9. Who Am I?
• Digital imagery at MDA
• Detoured into enterprise software
• Seduced by podcasting
• Conversations Network
• VancouverTechScene.com
• Now: media software and services
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10. What’s It All About?
• Podcast = blog + audio or video
• like having a radio or TV show distributed
over the internet
• add enclosure tag to RSS/Atom feed
• And of course ...YouTube
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11. The Five W’s
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12. The Five W’s
• Why would you want to do this?
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13. The Five W’s
• Why would you want to do this?
• What kinds of content
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14. The Five W’s
• Why would you want to do this?
• What kinds of content
• Where to host it
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15. The Five W’s
• Why would you want to do this?
• What kinds of content
• Where to host it
• Whow to do it
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16. The Five W’s
• Why would you want to do this?
• What kinds of content
• Where to host it
• Whow to do it
• Wrecommendations
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17. The Five W’s Things
• Why would you want to do this?
• What kinds of content
• Where to host it
• How to do it
• Recommendations
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18. Recommendations
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19. Why
• Why add media to your blog?
• Because your audience wants it:
• FeedBurner: serves 249,728 podcasts
• 20 million podcasts available for download
• YouTube: 10 hours per minute
• 12 billion online videos per month viewed
• New medium of expression
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20. Examples
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21. Documentary Montage
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22. Art and Film
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23. Instructional Screencast
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24. Slide Shows
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25. More Video Examples...
• crowd powered media: NowPublic
• culture: Underground News
• unboxing: YouTube
• live events: brucesharpe.com
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26. Audio Examples
• News
• Commentary
• Interviews
• Education
• Conference presentations
• Sports chat
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27. The Steps
1. Get your gear
2. Record
3. Edit
4. Publish
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28. Get Your Gear
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29. Audio Recorder
• On the camcorder
• Direct to computer
• Olympus Voice Recorder
• Zoom H4
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30. Microphones
Basic USB: $30
• Laptop built-in mic
• Camcorder mic: barely acceptable
• Mic to plug into camcorder
• Basic USB mic $54
• A better USB mic: BlueMic Snowball
Two or more USB mics in
Windows? Tricky...
Better USB: $125
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31. Camera
• Cell phone: live stuff only, immediacy
• Still camera: surprisingly good!
• Brand-name camcorder
• Mic input, flash memory or HDD
• Sony, Canon, Panasonic, ...
• No: Samsung, tape, DVD
• HD: go for it!
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33. Oh yeah, get a tripod
Velbon, London Drugs Manfrotto, B&H Photo
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34. Web Resources
• Still cameras:
• dpreview.com
• Camcorders:
• camcorderinfo.com
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35. Lights
#1 Way to Make Your Video Look Better
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36. Lights
• Halogen work lights
• Don’t do it!! (Illegal in California)
• Recommendations
• Natural/practical light
• Go to a camera store, ask
• Fluorescent, daylight balanced, diffused
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37. Green
Screen
• OK, this is an advanced technique
• But it’s just too fun
• TubeTape.com
• YouTube tutorials
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38. Record
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39. Recording to Your PC
• Use
• your USB mic
• your audio editing software
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40. Interviewing?
• Prep the questions
• Prep the interviewee
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41. Phone or Skype?
• Skype
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42. Recording Skype Calls
• Skype
• Wear a headset (Logitech USB)
• Pamela
• Total Recorder
• MX Skype Recorder
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43. Recording Phone Calls
• From an actual phone
• Radio Shack gizmo
• JK Audio QuickTap
• JK Audio digital hybrid
• Using a conference call service
• TalkShoe
• Use Skype with SkypeOut
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44. Screencast Software
• Windows
• Camtasia Studio
• Mac
• SnapZ Pro X
• ScreenFlow
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45. Advanced Techniques
• Green screen
• Multicamera
• Dual-system audio
• Tape sync (double ender)
• VGA2USB to record screens
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46. Advanced Techniques
• Green screen
• Multicamera
• Dual-system audio
• Tape sync (double ender)
• VGA2USB to record screens
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47. Editing
Post-Production
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48. Should You Edit?
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49. Should You Edit?
• I want to be edited.
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50. Should You Edit?
• I want to be edited.
• It is possible to edit so much that the
person doesn’t sound like themselves any
more, but instead sounds inhumanly
smooth and intelligent.
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51. Should You Edit?
• I want to be edited.
• It is possible to edit so much that the
person doesn’t sound like themselves any
more, but instead sounds inhumanly
smooth and intelligent.
• That’s how edited I want to be.
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52. At Least Do This...
• Trim the ends
• Cut the dead air
• Adjust levels
(please please please)
• Add intro/outro with music
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53. Levels
• Same message every year
• Some of you are still not listening
• I beseech you, from
the pit of my eardrums:
adjust your levels!!!!!!!!!!
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54. Monday, February 23, 2009 41

55. Twittersphere says...
BTW, Levelator is THE SHIT! LOVE IT!
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56. More Editing
• Get rid of um’s and ah’s
• Tighten it up, quicken the pace
• Add music
• Reduce noise
• Sound effects
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57. Audio Editors
• Audacity
• GarageBand
• GoldWave
• Audition
• Soundtrack Pro
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58. Video Editors
• Movie Maker
• iMovie
• Pinnacle Studio
• Final Cut Express
• Sony Vegas
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59. Resources
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60. Resources
• Photo/video/sound: iStockPhoto.com
• Voice overs:Voices.com
• Tutorials:YouTube
• Using the software: Lynda.com
• Conversions: MPEG StreamClip
• Sound effects: Soundsnap.com
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61. Music
music.download.com
111,052 FREE MP3S!
Magic GarageBand
Pinnacle Studio
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62. Logos, Web Design
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63. Prepare for the Web
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64. Audio => MP3
• Audacity
• LAME
• Commercial editors have it built-in
• You will be asked some questions
• 44.1 kHz, 64 kbps, joint stereo (or mono)
• Tag editor:
• ID3-TagIT
• iTunes
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65. Video Encoding
• Your video editor does this
• You will be asked some questions
• Format: QuickTime or WMV
• Codec: H.264 or MPEG-4
• Bit rate: 750 kbps for > 15 min
• Bit rate: 2000 kbps for < 15 min
• The host will convert to Flash
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66. Publish
Serve the world, make someone else pay
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67. The General Idea
Host your website/blog and media separately
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68. Where to Host Video
• Blip.tv
• Free
• High-quality
• Ads are optional
• Pro version: MP3 and iPod
• YouTube
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69. Where to Host Audio
• www.libsyn.com
• $5/month for ~ one podcast/week
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70. Where to Host Slides
• SlideShare.net
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71. Add It to Your Blog
• Video
• Embed Blip.tv player in your blog
• Customize player in Blip.tv dashboard
• Audio
• Embed Yahoo Media Player
• Customize via CSS
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72. Make A Feed
• WordPress => PodPress.org
• Other => use FeedBurner
• Tell it to use SmartCast
• Turn on iTunes tags
• Tell iTunes that you have a feed
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73. Submit to Aggregators
• iTunes
• SpokenWord.org
• podcastpickle.com
• blubrry.com
• podcastalley.com
• odeo.com
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76. Show Notes
• Highly recommended
• Put in links, summary
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77. Coding Resources
• RentACoder
• ODesk
• eLance
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78. email: bruce.sharpe@singularsoftware.com
blog: www.brucesharpe.com
Twitter: brucesharpe
singularsoftware.com singularproductions.com
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