This is one of the things that I haven't jumped in and started doing (in my copious spare time!) which makes me feel like a Bad Technologist. The two Davids (Free and Lee King) gave a great jumpstart presentation, including playing with audio and video tools and creating our own practice podcast and video. The important stuff for me was the reviews of tools and file formats and the Davids' other tips and tricks.
- David Free: Podcasting
- Register your podcasts in iTunes! Make sure they're discovered
- Use podcasting to boost/promote existing programming: this provides instant content and is a great ROI on work you're already doing. BUT, get permission from speakers ahead of time(note to self: add that to "Schedule Event" form on intranet)
- Be mindful of ambient noise where you record (HVAC, etc.)
- Outline and script, but don't just read
- Multiple voices can be effective and fun and can spread the work and ensure continuity
- Go easy on the music (think NPR, short intros and outros)
- Sources for music: creativecommons.org/audio, ccmixter.org, music.podshow.com, Garage Band has some "bumper" type sound clips
- Transcripts? Sure, they're useful, but not a lot of podcasters do; there are some transcripting services, i.e., Casting Words. Don't bother with the transcripting software; doesn't work well (yet?)
Videocasting: David Lee King
- Differences from podcasting:
- What you're wearing and how you look matter (no loud shirts, comb your hair)
- Flip camera: note to self: fill out purchase request for one of these...
- As far as camera quality, start cheap to get videocasting; get a more expensive one later if you start wanting more features
- Free and Cheap video editing software:Windows Movie Maker, Quicktime Pro, Power Director, Ulead's Video Studio
- Online video editing comes and goes: jumpcut, etc.
- Formats not tidy as as podcasting: .mov, .m4v, Flash
- For iPods: Quicktime or Apple format (iPods don't do Flash)
- Store the big files elsewhere (also unlike podcasting); unless you have/set up a media server, you'll really bog things down: blip.tv, YouTube, Vimeo, literally 100s of others
- You can edit the embed code to avoid ads/launching into YouTube after watching the video
- Don't forget to put videos on your blog so that people find them--lots of people forget this!!!
- End on a brand bit/contact info for your library
- Fun Video Ideas:
- Library director's strategic planning (Mary S., are you reading this?)
- Teach "normal" library stuff in a fun way in 2 minutes
- Traveling library staff
- Train the trainer videos
- Behind the scenes: what goes on in a department?
- Patrons training patrons
Play Time: The Hands-On Stuff:
David F. showed us basic (and soooooo easy!) audio editing with Audacity, open source audio editing software (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) Been meaning to download this for a while, but soon I'll have my MacBook Pro and Garage Band. Here's Matt Hogan's and my exciting CIL 2009 podcast, edited with audacity and posted to blip.tv: http://blip.tv/file/1932063.
David L.K. demonstrated video editing in iMovie, which is also incredibly easy--go figure, it's a Mac product. We sent it out into the world using tubemogul, and it can be viewed in its thrilling entirety at YouTube (NEED LINK) The movie is of us creating the podcast. How meta is that?
Some notes for video formats in iMovie: Export your files as .mpeg4; good image size/resolution is 640 x 360; use H.264 format for good but compressed file size/quality (YouTube moving to this); optimize for streaming.
Final words of wisdom from David L.K. about quality concerns and legal issues:
"You're not making a multi-million dollar movie; you're communicating with your customers."
US Law states that video and pictures can be taken in any public place; the policy issues (and forms!) come in to play with individual institutions and legal teams.
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