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August 29th, 2005 | #1 |
Administrator
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video advice
Gary North's REALITY CHECK
Issue 474 August 19, 2005 GUERILLA VIDEOS AS A SIDE BUSINESS If you are ignoring the video revolution, it's costing you money. You are watching the parade go by. It's time to get into the parade. The digital communications revolution is real. It is making things possible that were not possible before. It is doing this in three ways: (1) innovative technology; (2) radical cost-cutting; (3) cheap distribution on-line. We all have had our lives changed by e-mail. The Web is changing the way we shop and buy and learn. But most of what influences us is text-based: words on a screen or maybe on paper (print-outs). Audio has been limited mainly to file-swapping of music. File-swapping is a huge market, but it's mainly for downloading now and listening later. Now the iPod phenomenon is upon us. This is going to undermine commercial radio. The Federal Communications Commission will wind up regulating an essentially empty bag. That is very good news. Now web-based video is beginning to fly. But it's more like a bi-plane in King Kong than a jet in Top Gun. Yet developments here are speeding up. On the production technology side of it, new editing programs are making possible highly sophisticated production for essentially no money. Time, yes, but no money to speak of. On the distribution side is broadband. It's still overpriced. But competition is going to have its way. Let me show you something that I find remarkable. Spend a few minutes looking at a show produced by the Wall Street Journal Online. It's a technology show. It covers a great new product. I have been waiting 25 years for this product. It's here. It's free. At last! If you have a pair of speakers connected to your computer, click here and watch the show. Then I'll discuss the implications for you, personally, of what you have seen. (If you have no speakers, at least click through and spend 60 seconds watching the video.) http://shurl.org/evernote THE VIDEO REVOLUTION This "Personal Technology" show is really pretty good. Here are a pair of interviewers interviewing a man with some useful information about a highly useful piece of software. For me, the information was vital. The video screen is small. That's a broadband issue. As costs fall, screen size will get larger. But for communicating new information, a small screen is fine. Compared to audio or text, video is a quantum leap ahead. Here's the kicker. As you watched the video, you got the sense of watching a professionally produced, live- action studio production. It looks like a CNN production. It looks good enough for the Wall Street Journal. I am convinced that the whole thing was done with a $300 piece of software. That's because I own that software, and I can do everything you saw on screen. If they used anything more expensive, then they got stung. What tipped me off was the logo: "Personal Technology." It looks exactly like the logos that I can create. But what about a camera? Isn't that a bundle of money? Only if $600 is a bundle of money. I can produce a video that you cannot distinguish from what you saw on- screen with my Panasonic PV-GS150, which by now is probably obsolete. It's two months old. It's a 3 CCD camera, which means that colors are sharper because each primary color has its own chip. It's 2.3 megapixels, which means the image is crisp, even for a DVD. For a web broadcast, it's overkill. It has a separate input jack for an external microphone, which is an essential feature for producing a professional-looking amateur video. If you pay $25 to $50 for a lavaliere mic that clips onto your tie, that's really all you need. (I know people who spend more on a tie than I spent on a mic.) What about lighting? That can be done for $500 if you're a big spender, or $100 if you're not. You can use florescent lights if you buy color-balanced bulbs and use an electronic ballast (plug-in). Use two units with two bulbs each. This cuts down on the shadows. It also increases the signal-to-noise ratio: clarity. Here's how: http://shurl.org/cheaplights http://shurl.org/videobulbs But what about a fancy studio? It's all digital. I have a green plastic drape tacked to the wall behind me. The studio background is graphically generated. I have several studios to choose from. The program I use is called Visual Communicator Pro 2. It really is a powerful tool. They also sell a $40 DVD (computer DVD-only) that shows you more than you need to know about how to use the program. The company has created a series of representative demos for various groups: business, education, government. Churches can use this tool. Take a look at what a couple of these low-budget productions look like. It really is astounding. http://shurl.org/vcdemos Let me show you a nice example of what can be done with this technology. Victor Urbach has produced a video that is impressive. At first, it's animated. But when you get to the main section, it's real. Sort of. But the background isn't. This is one man standing in front of a video camera. Take a look: http://shurl.org/urbach His video is really valuable if you're in direct mail. It shows how to get people to open a solicitation letter. The images are not quite right. At times, he looks like he is in a shrunken room. But he'll get it right. A SIDE BUSINESS Two decades ago, Bill Myers rented a video camera and produced one video. He recorded his presentation in his 28-foot used trailer at the end of a 7-mile dirt road. He would have used his house as a studio, except a tornado had blown it away a few months earlier. He advertised his tape with a cheap classified ad. When it was all over, he pulled in more than $200,000. Then he moved out of his trailer. He still teaches people how to do this sort of thing. He has a site devoted to it. www.bmyers.com I found out about Visual Communicator on his site. He sells a low-cost DVD on how to produce your own "guerilla video" DVDs. http://shurl.org/dvd Google is now accepting how-to videos from people like you. Google will post them, take money from sales, keep a reasonable commission, and send you the rest. I have a whole list of videos that I intend to shoot in the next six months. Each one offers the potential of generating a little stream of income. https://upload.video.google.com These guys are marketing geniuses. Why not piggyback on their genius and their web-search technology? THINK OF PROJECTS Do you know of some out-of-the way place where you know your way around? Shoot a video. Sell it on-line through Google. Do you have some specialized knowledge of how to do something? Hobby? Business? Craftsmanship? Shoot a video and sell it. Think of Myers. He holds a seminar and gets people to pay to attend. Then he puts it on 10 DVDs and sells the set for $595. Most people know the details of how to do something unique. They think, "everyone knows how to do this." In fact, hardly anyone knows how. There are always people who want to learn how. They will pay to find out how. The problem has been to find distribution. I think Google will solve this problem. At least for some videographers, it will. THE SHOELACE PROBLEM Let me offer you a challenge. Tell someone how to tie a shoelace. Don't show him. Tell him. Words only. It's not easy. It's close to impossible. If you wrote a manual on this, it would look like a 1982 manual on how to program a VCR to record a show when you were not home. It was easier to stay home. Shoot a video. It's easy. As you shoot it, narrate what the person is seeing on-screen. You don't need a manual. My point is this: lots of tasks in this life are the equivalent of tying a shoelace. Manuals are useless. You have to see it being done. A DVD that you can produce from a digital master and send by UPS for $4, total, can be sold for $19.95, plus shipping & handling. It can be sold on a website as a download. It can be sold through Google. It can be given away. The fact that you mention your website or blogsite at the beginning and the end and even in between won't hurt. |
August 30th, 2005 | #2 |
Supreme Allied Commander
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 848
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Awesome! I had a hundred ideas percolating through my head as I read that. The information about Google was especially helpful. Thanks for posting it Alex.
-Brian |
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