Here is a 6:17 review of My Video Talk, an online video platform for video email, video conferencing and more.

The services offered by My Video Talk are EXACTLY what many readers of this blog are looking for.

My Video Talk is booming and being talked about a lot in internet marketing and online video circles, for very good reason. First, it’s a very innovative service whose time has come PLUS it’s business model is MLM, so many people are attracted to it as a business opportunity, not just for the video services it provides.

Now as a business opportunity, I personally do not yet have experience with it as I’m just now getting involved but it looks good in that My Video Talk has an 8 year track record, a good reputation and a debt free bottom line. I’m generally not a fan of MLM marketing but it seems to be working well here.

The My Video Talk company is based in California but started its service in smaller, international markets. They did this in order to work out all the bugs both technically and from a marketing standpoint. Now that they’re well established internationally, they’ve got their sights set on the American and Canadian markets and it’s full speed ahead.

My expertise of course is as a video producer, not MLM, so looking at it from that perspective, my video talk is indeed an incredible, well-rounded service that is very affordable, easy to use and delivers a whole lot. There are a million ways to use it, both personal and business uses.

Their service is broken down into five different products that all fall under the umbrella of online video. Which ones you get depends on which package you signup for. The least expensive option is just $14.95 a month with no joining fee and the most expensive is still very affordable at $49.90 a month. Now compared to other online video services, that is a really low fee given what you get in return. Even when you tack on the starter fees, which apply only to the 2 highest two levels of service, My Video Talk is still a BARGAIN.  ($199 and $299 are the start-up fees for the highest two levels.  )

Here is a list of the five different products offered by My Video Talk.

• My Video Designer
• My Video Broadcaster
• My Video Channel
• My Video Web Show
• My Video Boardroom

My Video Designer is what they call their video email platform. Now video email can be used to great benefit by almost everybody. All you need are simple talking head videos done with a webcam. The video you send in the email is seen inside a brandable template. In addition to using them as video emails, you can also turn them into easy video landing pages.

My Video Broadcaster is the name they gave to their video webinar platform. Here again, the system is brandable with your own images and logos. Inside their conference room, you can show power points, images or use a white board. Now you can hold even bigger online video meetings with up to 16 webcam inputs using the service they call My Video Boardroom. Between the two products, you can get every type of online video meeting technology in existence.

My Video Channel is a product that allows you to easily build a video-oriented website all your own. Your own private, brandable video channel online with no other ads popping up anywhere. My Video Talk covers all the video hosting, and gives you all the templates for easy website channel creation.

Top all these online video services off with the live video streaming service they call My Video Web Show. Not only can you stream live video, but you can also store video content so you can have viewers 24-7 for your own personal web shows. There’s a programming guide and the ability to link up with all your social networking sites with too.

All five of these products added together give you just about all the online video services you could ever use. They’ve been tested by the markets the company started in. They’ve designed to be really easy to use. My Video Talk is all in the cloud, there’s never anything you have to download or install.

My Video Talk is absolutely one of the most successful companies offering these kinds of services. As an observer of the online video world, there’s a lot of competition in this space and I’ve seen several companies come and go. I think the fact that My Video Talk perfected its technology before hitting the US market, and because they’ve made it so far being debt free with a good customer service reputation, all that bodes real well for their continued success.

If you are interested in signing up for My Video Talk either as a customer or a distributor or both, please contact me for more information. I can get you in touch with representatives of the company if necessary.

For Video Production Tips, I’m Lorraine Grula.

This is the squeeze page video I created for a client in the Cash for Gold business.  Two other versions of this squeeze page video are down closer to the bottom of this post.  It is one part of the huge video marketing campaign I am working on right now.  Although the campaign so far features about 15 videos, this squeeze page video is probably the single most important.

Of course we all know that the money is in the list, and a squeeze page video is the list entry point.  So obviously a squeeze page video can make  or break your list building efforts.

This particular video marketing campaign is so large that it is giving me the opportunity to do some experimentation and I plan on passing the results on to my readers. We’re just beginning so this is my first post on it.

In addition to this squeeze page video, I am going to make at least two other squeeze page videos that use different tactics.

This one is quite dramatic with an ominous feel.  I achieved that feel by using very dramatic music along with a dramatic read.  Honestly, a different voice (deep, male) might achieve this better than mine, but the client likes my voice so who am I to argue? 

The script was also designed and written to be a bit fear-inducing.  The free product being offered is, of course, going to alleviate the fear of the consumer.  The script makes clear that without the free product, they are throwing themselves to the sharks.

The two other squeeze page videos I am planning for the campaign will not be so dramatic in nature.  One will still be sales oriented but  simply be less dramatic.  That means I’ll write the script with less dire overtones and give it a softer read as well as more light-hearted music.

The third squeeze page video will be formatted more like a news story.  In other words, an informational video that is not so heavy on the sales language.

Over time, we will see which video gets the best conversions.

At this point, I kind of hate to even make any predictions because I am so unsure of the outcome.  I know enough to realize that one method will work better on some people than others but which one will appeal to the majority is just a guess.

I personally do not respond well to overly dramatic videos.  I actually laugh at them which is NOT the reaction we’re going for of course.  But my 30 plus years in the TV business has proven to me time and time again that  I am a weird-o!  I guess you could say I am the “PBS type” and like stuff most people consider boring!  In my observation, scaring the bejeezes out of people is a very effective strategy.  That’s why the first one out of the shoot is this one!

I promise to expand on this post as time goes by and let readers know which strategies work best.  We’re all learning here.  Online video marketing is a relatively new thing so I hope my efforts can add to the body of knowledge that will propel the industry forward.

In the meantime, let’s hope my client, who indeed offers the best place to sell jewelry, sees his list grow by leaps and bounds!

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips!

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

UPDATE WITH TWO OTHER VERSIONS OF THE VIDEO

As I said, I wanted to make a version of the squeeze page video that was not so dramatic. Some people might use the word hokey, or corny, or silly and not dramatic! But whatever your adjective preference, the two videos below are significantly different in tone than the first video above. We’re going to split test to see which does better. The only real difference between the two below is one is shorter than the other. The shorter is :57 and the longer is 1:24. I’m thinking the shorter one will do better but we shall see!

These are “less dramatic” mostly because I read the narration completely differently. I also used less dramatic music and took out the slow motion flame.

3:43 video on Dano Songs, a GREAT source for high quality Royalty Free Music on a budget.  All of us interested in creating online videos are looking for good sources of royalty free music. Of course music is one of the best and easiest storytelling elements at any video makers disposal.

Royalty free music is a type created specifically for people doing lower-budget video productions and other multimedia projects that benefit from the addition of music.  Music you hear on the radio can’t be used unless you pay licensing fees which can be huge, especially if the song is popular.  Cadillac can afford to license Led Zeppelin for their commercials but most of us can’t!  Royalty Free music is what’s used.  Royalty free doesn’t mean fee free though, some R.F tunes can run 60 bucks or so for a basic track.

Today’s blog post shares a wonderful royalty free music resource online that comes to us from a gentleman named Dan O’Conner who lives in New York.  He’s dedicated to helping online video producers with their music needs for much less than the standard prices.

Dan O'Conner of Dano Songs

A multi-talented musician and composer, Dan has about one hundred royalty free songs he’s composed on his blog right now that you can download. He tells me he’s adding more every day! Now, Dan offers them with a very liberal, user-friendly license. Basically, to use his songs in any video, podcast, game or whatever, commercial or personal, all you need to do is either give him credit in your production plus a link back to his site, or if you want to use it without doing that, pay just 10 bucks per track. Either way, it’s a great deal!

I must confess that I had a great time making this video today about Dano Songs because it was so much fun listening to the music. If you watch the video, you’ll get to hear about twenty examples of Dan’s fine work.

I’m sure this awesome resources will help you make better videos.

I asked Dan in an email  interview what motivates him to do this.

I want to help people, organizations and businesses who are doing YouTube videos, apps, indie films, self-producing games, etc. and can’t afford the very high prices of stock music.

I started this site several years ago as a place to post a few tracks I recorded as a singer/songwriter. Then one day I added some instrumentals I created for fun. Since then the requests from visitors for music for YouTube videos, games, indie films, and slideshows has been non-stop.

Now I post new MP3s on my blog every day. Since I was a Music Business major in college I knew just what to do to set up a very user friendly license. If you have questions about using the music you can read the License FAQ on my blog.

Dan is a graduate with a Bachelor of Music, Music Business, from the Hartt School of Music, Professional Degree, Jazz Guitar and Vocals, Hartford Conservatory of Music.

I appreciate Dan letting me review his site.   I truly had fun listening to all the great music.  I am glad to be able to pass excellent resources  on to my readers so please enjoy!

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

Telling a great story with video in under 1:30 is always a challenge. EVIL WOMAN is the theme of this video.

Using just a few shots, video creator Craig B. told a very distinct story about this very evil woman he met!  Craig’s video was created for the WeVideo and Video Production Tips contest to win a free video camera.  Craig is the current leader in the contest so I thought readers  would find his storytelling adventures interesting.  (Scroll down for a video analysis with different info than this text post.)

First, let me say that Craig is pretty much a novice at digital video editing.  He has some experience with the old-style analogue video editing but of course that is radically different.

Even so, Craig says he was able to navigate through the WeVideo editing platform quite easily.   From start to finish, it took him about two hours to edit the video you see above.  That includes the time it took to upload all his video clips, arrange them in the timeline, pick out his royalty free music, place it and then edit in the graphics and export to You Tube.

The most time consuming thing was uploading his clips.  They are all royalty free clips he had previously downloaded from the free video clips download service called Bottled Video.     Like any good video producer, Craig had his clips all picked  out before he began editing.  To make the selection and upload process easier, Craig moved the clips he wanted to use to a new folder.  That way, once he got inside WeVideo, all he had to do was go to that one folder, select all, and do a batch upload.  Then  he took a dinner break.  When he was done chowing down, all the clips were in his free WeVideo account.

Then it was just a matter of putting everything in order and mixing it together.  Craig says he was not sure if the close-up shot of the door locking was telling enough for the story.  He actually wanted a shot of the couple walking into a room and closing the door behind him but he could not find one.  So he settled for the close-up of the door locking, then cut to the fireworks.

As a viewer, do you think that is enough?  This is one of those instances where it pays to be a critical viewer so you can have a better feel for what works and what doesn’t.  Then, if you find yourself in a similar situation editing, you can make the best decision.  Visual storytelling hinges on whether the shots you select are understood by the viewer.

Craig says he came up with his storyline based on the video he saw from Bottled Video.  He was glad the woman in the gym shot and the woman in the bathtub shot were both blondes!  I guess this guy has had a few bad experiences with women, but often the best art imitates life!

I thought the fireworks shot was a GREAT example of a visual analogy.   Coming after the “flirting” shot inside the gym, then the locked door, it is obvious what is happening.  No one will think they are attending a 4th of July event!   When he then immediately cuts to the shot of the guy getting busted, I personally burst out a good belly laugh.  I guess I have a sick sense of humor, but it was just so unexpected.  I never in a million  years was expecting THAT shot!  Like I said, I guess the guy has a sad history with women!  (We’re  not ALL like that!)

Using the bath tub shot with the music Evil Woman by Electric Light Orchestra after the arrest shot leaves no doubt in the viewer’s mind what has happened!

Overall, I think this is pretty good visual storytelling! What do you think? 

The video analysis I made for this page covers different stuff from this text post and shows you the inside of Craig’s WeVideo account and how he put the video together.

I appreciate Craig taking the time to make this video and enter it in the contest.  Now, can YOU make a better video and beat him out for the prize of a free Sony Bloggie Video camera?

This 3:46 video shows you where to get FREE Royalty Free Video Clips.

In order to edit together a compelling video, you need to have quality video clips to use.  Shooting them yourself is not always an option due to budget, time and travel constraints.  In those cases, Royalty Free video clips are the answer.

WHAT ARE ROYALTY FREE VIDEO CLIPS?

Royalty Free video clips are shots that you pay a one-time fee for in exchange for the right to use them in your projects.  Most royalty free video clips come with a limited license, you do not OWN the clips but you can use them in certain ways.  Contracts differ (so ALWAYS read them) but generally speaking, Royalty Free licensing lets you use the clips in any project that you do not then turn around and sell as a royalty free video for others to download and use.  In other words, I can not take royalty free shots, repackage them superficially, then sell it as my own product.  What the R.F. video companies are trying to avoid is someone using their own clips in a competitive way against them. Other than that, you can use the clips in any type of project.  Videos  you give away, and videos you sell.

Using Royalty Free video clips is usually much less expensive than shooting them yourself and it is certainly faster.  If I need a shot of an Egyptian pyramid, you can rest assured that paying $75 or $100 for a royalty free shot is faster and cheaper than me humping it over to Egypt with a video camera!  (Although no doubt the trip would be fun and I am sort of bummed that I can not go!)

Having said that, paying $75 or $100 bucks for every single shot of a 5 minute video is going to get expensive.  (If a shot lasts 10 seconds, you’d need thirty shots to fill five minutes.  30 x 75 = $2,250.)

Since I edit a lot, I am constantly on the look-out for quality royalty free video clips.  I have amassed a huge library of R.F. clips because I simply never know when I am going to need that pyramid shot.

I discovered an awesome resource the other day for FREE Royalty Free video clips that I wanted to pass on.   What is better than free? Free AND high quality with lots to choose from.

The clips at Bottled Video.com are professionally shot AND completely free.  As of this writing, they have a total of 10,604 clips to choose  from.  Not only are all the clips free, but you do not even have to sign up for an account.  There are no upsells and no obligations.  They do not even have your name and email address so they could not upsell you even if they wanted! 

HOW DID SUCH A GOOD DEAL COME ABOUT?

My first question was: “How can they do this?”  Being the cynical sort, I figured there had to be a catch somewhere.  So I asked David Schmerin, the owner to explain.  Turns out, he has been in the video business selling Royalty Free clips for a very long time.  He has been so successful at it that he now is in the enviable position of being able to turn his business into philanthropy.  Below, I have pasted his exact response to my email inquiry.

INTERVIEW WITH DAVID SCHMERIN, OWNER OF BOTTLED VIDEO.COM

Just about 20 years ago I started a web site called Wrightwood.com which is the oldest royalty free stock footage site on the internet. While
Wrightwood.com is still up and running, over the years we expanded into a site called GotFootage.com where instead of licensing royalty free stock footage collections we created the first site to allow individuals to license and download individual clips. From there we expanded to GotFootageHD.com which is the same as GotFootage.com but licenses only HD materials.

Here I am now some twenty years later… One day something happened to me. I received a call from a student looking for a deal on one clip because they just didn’t have any money and I sort of just snapped. Suddenly it seemed like every person over 20 years I had to say I could not help if they didn’t have any money was weighing in on my shoulders. I turned to my wife and partner and said that I have a lot of Karma to make up for. Since money was no longer an issue in my life, BottledVideo.com was born.

Right now we currently have just over 10,500 clips on BottledVideo. Every clip on BottledVideo is from our private library and more clips will be added from our pay sites to the free site every week until all 100k clips in my library are available for free.

So the short answer is no I do not make any money from BottledVideo.com nor is making money the goal of the site. The goal of the site is to give back to the next generation for everything those who came before have done for me, my family, and my life.

THANKS DAVID!

I personally applaud David and his team for being so generous.  They do not have to do this but I am glad they did.  I spent all afternoon yesterday downloading clips.  I like the fact that these clips are REAL, not staged.  Staged shots look staged and sometimes that is perfectly OK, but I am a reality lover so I prefer unstaged.   They have real doctors performing real surgeries.  Real soldiers.  Real cops.  Real chefs.  The list is very long and David promises it is destined to get even longer.

So head on over to Bottled Video.com and start downloading!

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips.

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

This 12:08 video describes the “Easy Video Player” product sold on Clickbank.  Is it worth the money or just a bunch of hype?  Easy Video Player is a product created by Josh Bartlett and used by some of the big name “gurus” in Internet Marketing like Frank Kern, Mike Filsaime and Ryan Deiss.   It runs $127 and is an in-the-cloud membership giving you an easy-to use interface for hosting and playing videos out of  your own Amazon S3 account.  The sales page, of course, makes it sound like a must have.  OMG, the sky will fall and crush you if you don’t immediately open your wallet to use what the gurus use!  Well, how true is that?

OK, I want to let you in on a secret about me.  I cringe when I see “as seen on TV” blaring in bright red off any printed advertisement.  The advertising firms that create those ads no doubt think the majority of people are impressed if a product has been seen on TV.  And I guess the majority are.  But me,  having worked in local TV production all my adult life, realize the sad reality is that the product might very well be a flimsy piece of junk destined to break within ten minutes of taking it out of the box!

Many of my experience online make me feel the comparison is apt.   I react much the same way when sales pages brag about the multi-gagillion dollar “gurus”!

Is it just another gimmick designed to make their little circle of friend richer or does the product actually live up to the hype?

A few folks I trust told me they used it and really liked it, so I wanted to check it out for myself.  I am please to say my cynical self got a slap on the wrist for being too pervasive, as I found Easy Video Player to be a very handy tool with a lot of very functional features.

As I’ve blogged about before, relying on YouTube (or any other free service) for hosting your videos can be a dangerous practice for those in business.   I always advise my clients to have some videos in an account of their own where they have complete control.  There are three basic ways to do this:

• Paid video hosting account with any one of dozens of online video hosts like Brightcove, or Veeple
• A bare bones Amazon S3 account that is much less expensive but hard to use
• Your website host that probably will charge you a fortune for bandwidth but won’t have any provisions for easy-to use video players or anything else video oriented.

Doing it the third way is fairly unheard of but it’s possible so I listed it.

Trying to go bare bones with an Amazon S3 account can be more of a headache than it is worth unless you are really familiar with several programing languages.  The average person has to use some sort of third party interface.  There are several on the market and here’s a post on one long time favorite for many people,  EZS3.  Here is a review of another  one called Cloudberry labs.

Services usually charge a monthly fee in the neighborhood of $35.

A Clickbank Product called Easy Video Player does not bang your credit card every month.  It’s a one-time $127 purchase.  For a bit more you can get a commercial license.

I LIKED IT! 

I was quite impressed with Easy Video Player because it had a lot of beneficial features for that one-time fee. As a comparison, getting a paid hosting account with a service like Brightcove (I use Veeple) is going to be a monthly fee too, a MINIMUM of $100.

Largely what you pay for in any paid video hosting account is all the bells and whistles.  The ease of use.  The ability to have fancy players that create an attractive-looking display of videos for your web pages.  Universal playback on both Flash enabled devices and HTML5 devices is critical now because so many people are going online with mobile devices.  Within some hosting solutions but not all, this complex problem is automatically ironed  out.  That’s a big plus these days as it’s been hard even for the biggest of players in the video hosting space.

I was quite impressed that Easy Video Player made mobile playback possible and it was VERY easy.  It was a multi-step process, but it works flawlessly if you follow their precise instructions.  (My video goes over their instructions.)

Easy Video Player was also able to match the features I’d only expect with more expensive video  hosting.  For example, EVP had an easy way to self-brand your player with a watermark.  There were multiple ways to precisely control how your video plays, pauses, goes full screen, auto-plays or comes out of a light box.

Even more awesome were the additional marketing tools such as adding various overlays on top of your videos that can do great things such as re-direct the viewer to another website, or contain an auto-responder form.

As an online video professional, I personally have used a fairly large variety of online video hosting solutions and I promise some are better than others.  Trying to go the bare bones route with an inexpensive Amazon S3 account can cause more headaches than it’s worth.  If you rely on videos for your online life, it often pays to fork out a few bucks for a quality video  host,  just as you do for website hosting.

But I can with confidence say that Easy Video Player is one of the better solutions for getting your videos uploaded and hosted online.

Selecting a video skin in Easy Video Player

THE FOLLOWING IS THE TRANSSCRIPT OF THE VIDEO ABOVE SO YOU CAN MORE EASILY FOLLOW ALONG.

GUESS WHAT?  IT’S HOSTED ON EASY VIDEO PLAYER! 

Easy video player is a hot product used by lots of the big name internet marketers.  Hi, this is Lorraine Grula with Video Production Tips.  But is it something you need? Well, let me explain what it does so you can decide.

Easy video player integrates with your own amazon s3 account, where your videos will be stored. This account is free to set up with amazon. Easy video player gives you an amazing amount of choices about how your video will be displayed and even allows you to embed interactive “buy now” buttons, auto responder forms and things like that straight into your video. Not that Easy video player is the ONLY service where you can get these functions, it’s not, but it is one of the least expensive and easy to use. I can easily see why this is a popular product. It truly gives you a lot of features that help you maximize the function of your video with interactivity and auto responder forms and so forth.

Now let me back up and explain amazon s3 a bit. you probably already know that amazon created S3, their simple storage solution service, that provides unlimited hosting for pennies on the dollar. Cheap is always great, BUT, as a stand alone service, amazon s3 is incredibly difficult to use, you need to know several programing languages. So the market came up with LOTS of products and services that integrate with S3 and make it something the average Joe or Jane can use. Easy video player is such a service that is designed specifically as the interface to help you upload, host, display and play your videos in an s3 account. So, if you would like to use your own personal amazon s3 account to host your video files, Easy video player is one of the most independent and least expensive ways for you to do so. It’s an in-the-cloud service so there’s nothing to download, you join and then log in to go to your dashboard.

From the dashboard, you can upload any video you want, from your own hard drive or another page on the web. Then you get it ready for display and start adding your bells and whistles. click on the “change video settings” button to take you to this page. Here is where all the incredible options are located.

First, you can easily select a skin for your video, which gives you options for how your video player will look. you have lots of choices and to load one you just click on it. Some are pretty wild looking, but most are minimalist.

Next, you select all these options always click yes for the first 2, shadows gives you a little drop shadow under the player, auto play is good if the video is the only one on the page, but often auto play is not something you want because lots of folks will bounce if a video they are not expecting starts blaring out.

The options continue. you can add chapters to your video if it is long. Having you video open in a light box means this window will pop out and the rest will darken, then you have options for sharing or security. but the really good stuff starts down here.

you can have the video redirect to any url when it is finished, or you can have a button pop up, you have your choice of all these buttons.

You also have the ability to add any type of overlay, any image or logo. This kind of interactivity can really add to the functionality of your video.

You can butt two videos back to back using the “intro videos” function.

Elements is a function that lets you put arrows, buy buttons and other design elements on the page where your video plays.

A watermark is good for individualized branding,

Here is where you can create an entire web page around a video, it’s very easy you can add images and other elements out side of the video on the page.

Continuing on, Easy video player gives you options for security and sharing, which is good if you don’t want others copying your video, or if you want only those with a password to see it.

Now this share the love feature is pretty cool as it allows you to add a clickbank id for afifiate sales.

You also have the option of tracking the sales.

One of things that made easy video player quick and easy to learn was their good tutorials section,. here in the help section is a whole list of tutorial videos that show you the function of each and every feature. These videos were well done and easy to follow.

I like to recommend Easy Video Player because it really does a lot. I’ve used multiple services for uploading and hosting videos online and for the money, easy video player delivers a lot. And it truly is easy. Some of this stuff is touted as easy but once you get in there it’s anything but. Well, easy video player IS easy. And your resulting videos will play on any device, which is an incredibly important feature these days. You need mobile playback! if you follow their specific instructions, your video will play on mobile devices as well as the standard flash enabled devices, which of course is the long time standard.

Their specific instruction include encoding your video in a specific way using the free, open source video conversion software called handbrake. Handbrake is something you will download onto your own hard drive and use to convert your videos to a web-ready format after you’re finished editing them. Hardbrake is good software for lots of video encoding needs.

In summary, If you’re the kind of person who does not want to rely on YouTube for video hosting, and you don’t want to pay realtively big bucks for a video hosting account on one of the many video hosting services out there, easy video player and an amazon S3 account is one of your best choices. S3 only bills you for actual bandwidth usage on a pay-as-you-go system and like I said, it is waaaaaay cheaper than any other hosting you’ll ever find, the trick is to figure out an inexpensive but highly functional way to interface with it, and easy video player is one of your best bets. I hope the information in this video helps you out! Thanks for watching. I’m Lorraine Grula for Video Production Tips.

Get easy video player here

This 4:51 video describes the new, in-the-cloud online video editing system called WeVideo. 

I’ve just announced a contest involving WeVideo.  Click here for details.

NEW ONLINE VIDEO EDITING PLATFORM

We Video is  a new online, in-the-cloud video editing membership service that allows you to use their servers and video editing software system to put together your video online.  Anytime you have an open project inside WeVideo, you have easy access to essential elements like royalty free music, transitions and pre-animated graphics.

If you are looking for an easy way to edit video without buying or installing anything, then WeVideo would be of interest to you. It’s in-the-cloud nature allows you to edit from any internet connection, even if all you have is your Smart Phone or Touch Pad.

Pardon my amazement at ability of having access to full video editing through a telephone!

WeVideo Makes video editing accessible to everyone with internet connection

WeVideo is on a mission to give everybody the capacity to edit professional-looking videos easily and cheaply. We Video is a video editing system that is all online. There’s nothing to download, no software to buy or install. All you need is a membership to we video. You can start with a free account to see if you like it. I signed up the other day to see how well their system works. I found their claims to be very true; it was indeed amazingly robust and fairly easy to use. I was editing instantly after uploading my clips. Now, let me say that I do think it helped that I already know how to edit video and the WeVideo system is very similar to standard video editing software. So it was easy to find my way around, but if you are not as familiar with video editing, then it will take a bit more time to learn, but honestly, it is still quite easy and you can absolutely master their system.

WeVideo is not an automated editing system like Animoto, although they do have a feature called the video wizard which will automate part of the process if you wish. But generally, we video is more like standard video editing, it’s just that you do it in the cloud, and not on your own computer. So you have complete control over how your finished video looks, which is not the case for automated systems like Animoto. But of course, WeVideo will not be as fast or brainless as Animoto either. So both systems have their advantages.

Here is the process of using WeVideo in a nutshell.

First, I uploaded some video clips. WeVideo can accept clips taken on any device, camera or telephone, so that compatibility alone is pretty cool. Once the clips were in my account, I created a project and put the clips into the project.

Essentially, it is a drag and drop system, so you just put whatever clip you want to use down in the timeline in whatever order you want. The timeline of course is where you build your finished video, that is standard for all video editing systems.

Now, one cool thing with WeVideo is that they have royalty free music ready for you to use, all you have to do is select a clip and put it in your time line. They also have sound effects, transitions and easy titles and graphics. Some of the titles are even pre-animated. They also have a system where you can record audio and upload it as you record. I was able to use my webcam to upload some narration. I had to bring the volume control down pretty low to keep it from over modulating, so if you’re getting a lot of red in this volume meter, take it down a notch or two. But t his is a great feature, being able to record and upload the audio right into your project.

WeVideo gives you multiple video lines and audio lines, so make sure and put stuff on the correct line. Graphics and titles go on top of the video. As you can see, the music can be brought up and brought down, all you have to do is click on a point and move this line up or down. This is how you will mix narration and music. You also have lots of options for transitions, which you place between two clips. The WeVideo system lets you add as many lines as you need.

Once you are done editing, you can easily export from we video straight to YouTube, Facebook or other video destination sites. You can also post the video on your blog or website. Or, you can download it to your computer. This saves you the headache of having to convert and upload the video yourself. It’s already online, and WeVideo will automatically create the correct video file format.  That alone is a big help.

Who would benefit from using WeVideo?

All-in-all, WeVideo is a good solution for people who want to edit video but do not want to invest in a huge and powerful desktop computer and the software it takes to edit. You can access We Video from any internet connection, so you can now edit video on your smart phone or tablet!

You can also invite others into your account for collaborative editing and sharing of clips. WeVideo is pushing this aspect quite hard. They’ve got a growing community so you will find plenty of like-minded people on the site you can collaborate with or learn from.

We video is brand new, it’s still in beta but the system worked flawlessly for me and I was truly impressed!  WeVideo  makes video editing accessible to anyone and it’s so easy a child, or even a grandparent can use it!  Make your videos more fun to watch with video editing.

I hope this information helps you make better videos! I’m Lorraine Grula for Video Production Tips.  Thanks for reading.