Here is a quick response to a question a reader asked the other day about how to green screen.  He wondered how far the on-camera person should be from the green background.    He said he was very frustrated because he had searched for an answer and everyone said something different.  There was no consensus so he was confused.

I explained that the reason no one seemed to agree is because the proper distance between the background and the on-camera talent is entirely dependent on the particular situation under which you are videotaping.

On a technical level, the distance is totally irrelevant. What matters is that the green background is an even color.  No variations.  Shadows are one of the chief problems that cause variations in color.  The darker color of the shadow will cause the green screen effect to be uneven.

If the on-camera person is standing very close to the background, chances are her shadow will fall on the background.  But if the on-camera person were twenty feet from the background, the same shadow would fall harmlessly on the floor, which is cropped out of the picture.

Problem is, most people do not have the luxury of that much room.

In an ideal situation, most professional videographers would place the on-camera talent at least five or ten feet from the background.    This gives the talent a little breathing room and helps ensure an even background.

However, when I took a tour of ABC news studios, I saw them videotape a news update and the anchor person was smashed up against the wall.  They shot the news update from her office, which was tiny.  It looked great on the air.  I could barely tell it was a green screen.  It looked real!

The lighting in her office was extremely diffused so there were no shadows.  The green behind her was homogenous in color which gave a beautiful green screen effect.

So if you have some room to play with, go for a distance of about ten feet.  If you don't have the room, do not worry about it.  Just make sure your lighting is diffused so the shadows will be minimal or non existent.

If you have a video production question you'd like answered, drop me a line a videoproductiontips@gmail.com  I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for being a subscriber.

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

Technorati Tags: green screen, Internet Video Gal, Video Editing, video production, videoproductiontips@gmail.com

Concise, conversational and easy-to-read.

Video script writing is the exact opposite from technical writing or academic writing. Those forms of writing use complex sentences, ten-dollar words and are usually very wordy. That is NOT what you want with a video script.

First, keep in mind that a video script is to be read aloud. Viewers will HEAR it rather than READ it. Therein lies the major difference. It's called writing for the ear instead of writing for the eye.

On a practical level, it is also writing for your narrator. No narrator, not even the really good ones, sound good stumbling through endless tongue twisters. Convoluted, run-on sentences are not only a nightmare to read; they are also hard for the audience to understand.

So forget everything you learned from those stodgy English teachers. (My best friend is an English teacher; that is not a criticism.) It's ok for video scripts to be full of sentence fragments because that is how people actually talk. If it makes sense when heard, then that is what you want.

The single best way to evaluate a video script is to read it aloud.  Have someone listen to you if possible and see how well they understand what you are saying.    Do not worry about using short, choppy sentences if that is what SOUNDS good. Inflection, tone of voice and pacing will have a lot to do with how well the script is understood and those things do not come through on paper.

Back when I taught TV production, I told my high school students to pretend they were speaking to a friend. If you wanted to tell a friend this story, what would you say? Write that down. Then, go back and modify it. Cut out the fat. Make sure the meat is prominent. Make sure the words you have chosen are descriptive, colorful, yet easily pronounced and understood.

Video script writing is a style unto itself. Remember too that whatever video you use also conveys meaning. Ideally, the video and the spoken narration work together in order to communicate. So if your narrator says, "Political leaders spoke to the public," and you show a hot air balloon deflating, then you have added considerable meaning without relying on words. That little trick is one of the things that makes video production so much fun!

Thanks for being a subscriber.

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

Technorati Tags: internet video, script writing, video production

Wow!  Am I excited!

I just discovered one of the greatest resources for video producers I could ever imagine.

FREE stock footage.   Yup, FREE.

As an independent video producer, having access to quality footage is essential.  I can not edit together a great video without great raw materials.   I love to shoot video myself but simply do not have the time or resources to go shoot everything I need all by my lonesome.

So, I often rely on stock footage.  Problem is, that gets expensive and most stock footage agencies have limited licensing.  That means I can not turn around and sell whatever video I have edited.  Bummer.

What to do?

Well, at first I thought working 36 hours a day was the answer.  I'll get out there and shoot all that footage myself even if it kills me!  No doubt it would have too.

A much better answer appeared to me this morning.

StockFootageForFree.com offers lots of great footage.  The price is unbeatable and the licensing is looser so I can sell what I edit.  The only restriction is that I can not turn around and sell it as stock footage, which I would never do anyway.   I use the stock footage within a larger video production.

I could NOT believe what I was seeing so I picked up the phone and called their toll free number.

"OK, what's the catch?"  Ms. Skeptic here asked.

"No catch," the gentleman said.   Turns out, stock footage for free dot com is a spin off effort for a much larger stock footage company, Footage Firm.  Footage Firm has been around for about seven years and they sell stock footage to the big boys, TV networks and the like.

With the rise of online video creating more and more independent video producers, Footage Firm saw that a need.  Most independent video producers don't have the budget of a TV network.  (Wow, is that ever an understatement!)

So they decided to offer a sizeable amount of stock for free; not just to be magnanimous but in order to build a base of customers who just might eventually be able to purchase some stock.

The gamble paid off and the website they started in March, stock footage for free.com now has 35,000 registered users.  Footage Firm has seen both increased traffic to their main site and more sales.

So this is a win-win-win.

The library at stockfootageforfree.com is not humongous, but it is sizable.  And the quality of the video is fantastic!

All you have to do is register, download, and go edit!

You can order larger quantities of footage on DVD; all you have to pay is shipping and handling.   Is that great, or what?  Thousands of dollars worth of stock footage for the price of mailing.

I don't know about you, but I see lots of editing in my future using the free footage off stockfootageforfree.com

Go check it out!

Thanks for being a subscriber

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

Technorati Tags: Footage Firm, Internet Video Gal, online video creating, stock footage, video producers, video production

I have lots of articles and videos on this blog with tips on how to green screen.

Here is a free video tutorial on green screen

Here is an in-depth article on green screen

In this blog post, I want to alert you to an outstanding resource I found that can provide you with the raw materials you need to add green screen to your video production.

The website RibbitFilms.com sells professionally shot green screen footage that you can buy in individual clips. This saves you from having to shoot them yourself.

Ribbit films offers downloadable, high definition video clips shot in a high-dollar studio with a green screen background.  They have hundred of clips to choose from in the categories of:

• Sports
• Business
• Lifestyle
• Dance

The quality is extremely high and Ribbit will sell you exclusive rights if you wish.

The clips on ribbit are a bit expensive, about $200 and up.  But, that is A LOT LESS than you would pay if you shot similar clips yourself.  To do so, you would have to rent a studio, hire a crew and actors and know how it all works.  With ribbit, you just download it and slide it into your video editing software.

COST CUTTING SPECIAL FOR VPT READERS

Since Video Production Tips readers are special, you get a discount.  Just tell 'em Lorraine sent you!

If you buy anything from ribbit, type the code FBFL3 into the shopping cart.  This will automatically give you a 20% discount. Now unfortunately for little ole me, they do not have an affiliate program so I do not get a commission off your purchase.  But what a great deal for my readers!  Who loves ya baby?

So now it's all up to you.  Get out there and make a green screen video with professionally shot video clips from ribbit films.

Thanks for being a subscriber.

Lorraine Grula

Technorati Tags: green screen, RibbitFilms.com, USD, video editing software, video production

If you are trying to produce videos for the web, you need a good source of raw footage.   It is difficult, if not impossible, to create all the raw materials for your video production yourself, so people usually turn to stock photo agencies.

A stock agency will sell you video clips or still images which you can then edit into your own video production.   You pay a one-time fee and then you can use the clip as much as you want.  Not all uses are permitted though.  Generally, you can only use the clips in videos you make for educational or self-promotional use.  You can not turn the clips into a video product and then sell that product.

iStock photo is one of the largest sources of stock images, but there are many more.  Some of them have big advantages over iStock.

I ran across anistock.com the other day and was very impressed with it.  Anistock.com specializes in animated clips and they have thousands to choose from.

The animations were all very nicely done and most of them ran about 10 to 15 seconds.  You can download them in several different file formats depending on how you are going to use them.  Since I wanted to edit them into a longer video production using Final Cut editing software, I downloaded them in QuickTime format.  (That's indicated by a .mov extension.)

Other formats offered are used for mobile devices or if you are going to keep the clip as a singular entity.   They also have HD format.

One of the biggest advantages Anistock has over a larger service like iStock is price.  Depending on which package you choose, you can get a clip off anistock for one or two bucks instead of the twenty or thirty dollars it will cost on iStock.   That's a HUGE cost difference and the quality is essentially the same.   Anistock animations tend to be a little more cartoonish, but I think they look great.

With every animated clip I downloaded, I got a free matching jpeg.

The selection at Anistock is huge and they are continually adding hundreds of new images.

For the price, you can not beat anistock. Before computers became so common, animations like this would have cost you about $1,000.  Seriously.  The standard fee back in the 80's was $100 a finished second.  The fact that you can get them today for just a few bucks is unbelievable.

Too bad the price of bread and clothes haven't done the same thing!

So if you are in need of quality raw footage for your video productions, check out anistock.com. You will find cute, professional animated clips of all kinds.

Thanks for being a subscriber,

Lorraine Grula

Technorati Tags: anistock, stock footage, Video Editing, video production

Good question.  Unfortunately, there is no magic answer.

Shorter is almost always better, but honestly, your video should be as long as it takes to adequately get your point across. No longer and no shorter.

I know answers like that frustrate people but it is the only honest answer I can give. Read on for details to help you make a good decision about how long your video production should be. 

Some videos are best if kept at 30 seconds or under.  Some videos contain enough meat to be an hour.

It totally depends on your subject matter and how much you have to say.

Now, having said that, I'll also tell you that SHORTER IS ALMOST ALWAYS BETTER.

Video time and "real time" are entirely two different things.  Ten minutes on video is an eternity, no matter the subject.  Ten minutes in real life usually flashes by like a nano-second.

A good video is CONCISE, no doubt about it.  You might THINK you have thirty minutes worth of information but chances are you really only have five minutes worth.  In my experience, virtually everyone assumes their information is so compelling that the audience wants to hear every little detail.  Highly unlikely.

About 99% of all the clients I worked with as a freelance video producer started out requesting a thirty minute video. That time frame is common for TV shows so they assumed that was a good length.  We'd usually end up with something six or seven minutes long and that was plenty.  Thirty minutes would have been a total snoozer.

Video viewers have incredibly short attention spans.  That means you should only put TRULY COMPELLING information in your video.  Stay laser focused.  Do not wander off on tangents.

If anything, leave the audience wanting more.

Fancy video production techniques can help your video avoid being labeled as boring.  Music, great videography, fast-paced editing, all of these things can help your video production keep the audience's attention.

If I had to give a STANDARD LENGTH for your AVERAGE VIDEO PRODUCTION, I would say two or three minutes.  That's all.  That might seem short, but go to You Tube and check out lengths.  Do you enjoy watching a ten minute video about knitting?  Probably not, unless you are an avid knitter.  But I'd bet you would enjoy a one-minute video on knitting, especially if it had awesome music and interesting shots editing together in a whiz-bang fashion.

So keep it short, that's the best generalized advice.

Thanks for listening!

Lorraine Grula

Technorati Tags: Internet Video Production, laser, Lorraine Grula, Video Editing, video production

One of the biggest complaints you hear about TV news is that it is overly pessimistic and negative.  TV news is depressing!  Stress relief gurus actually tell their followers to turn off the TV news because it just leads to negative emotional energy.

TV Newscasters claim EVERYTHING is a crisis.  They love to point out how wicked and deadly the word is.  BE AFRAID!!!! BE VERY AFRAID!!!!! always seems to be the underlying message.

Having worked in the field of TV news for a quarter of a century, I have tons of opinions on this subject.  TV News sucks for a lot of different reasons.  I got so tired of the garbage I got out of the business entirely.  It wasn't just that so many stories were hyped to the point of absurdity, but also because show biz considerations completely ruled.  No one cared about journalism, especially top management.  All that mattered was how fancy, spectacular and entertaining we presented our "news."

There's a great thread about this very subject going on right now at The Friday Traffic Report, Jack Humphrey's blog about all things traffic.  Jack is one of my main mentors on the Internet and the Friday Traffic Report contains tons of incredible information, all for free.

Since debating the quality of TV news is one of my personal favorite subjects, I thought I'd do this quick blog post in order to expand the debate over at the Friday Traffic Report.  Here's the link.  Go put your two cents in!

TV News Debate at the Friday Traffic Report

Technorati Tags: tv news sucks, video production