Making Great Web Video (Chapter 1)

Web video is different.
Attention is the most important commodity on the Web. You have to quickly capture your viewer’s imagination or she will click away in seconds. You have to start with a great idea. define the project well, and plan it carefully. Always keep your viewers in mind. Everything changes quickly on the web, including expectations. You need far better production skills to succeed today.

Chapter 1 features an interview with radio deejay J Smooth, who quickly learned the tools and now has a professionally supported web site, IllDoctrine.com.

Project: 15 Minutes to Your Video Online

Shooting for the web (Chapter 2)

Improved camera work, lighting, sound, and the other details are the first step. We'll help you choose the best camera, tripod and microphone for your budget, whether that's a consumer model or pro gear, explaining what you'll get for your money. Shooting for the web has different priorities. You frame shots for small screens, often as small as an iPhone. Because compression suffers from motion, you must take extra care if you must shoot handheld. "Motion pictures are supposed to move," they taught me in film school, but compression issues mean you must avoid unnecessary zooms and pans. You'll lose subtle details, so you must keep backgrounds simple. Shadow details are lost and your camera is not as sensitive, so you need even more light. Good sound is even more crucial on the web, with an audience so easily distracted.

We cover tools that will yield better results: white balance, camera angles, framing, zebra stripe and peaking indicators. You'll need to learn how (and when) to use manual focus and exposure. So that you can sleep the night before a location shoot, we've provided a checklist for what you'll want to bring.

Interview: Barry Braverman, veteran Director of Photography and author of Video Shooter: Storytelling with DV, HD, and HDV, urges you to "Tell Stories with Images" and suggests a dozen techniques to make your work visually exciting.

Project: Shoot an Interview with B-roll

Shooting Events and Interviews (Chapter 3)

A few times a year, you might interview someone so articulate you can just light them, point a camera and shoot. When you don't have a Maya Angelou across from you, you need to find a creative approach. Although footage of people talking will seldom be the most interesting thing you shoot, it’s a necessity. Keep it visually interesting. Get an angle that offers a new perspective and even says something about the person talking by including something in the background. Use dramatic lighting, or include a graphic or a sign in the shot. Consider starting with a wide shot to show the size of the stage and shoot reaction shots of the audience. Find visuals in the shooting environment that underscore her points. Make sure to shoot b-roll of the room, the event, the venue, and sometimes the town, and cutaway during editing. If you're not an expert, find a knowledgeable participant to narrate and look through her eyes.

You always want to find the drama in an event you cover. If participants are passionate about what they’re doing, show people standing and cheering to share the excitement. If there is a competition involved, show the audience what it means to win, not just the Oscar statue, but the admiring crowd and the press attention that follows. Small details help viewers to feel like they’re part of the experience. Shoot details you might notice as an informed observer: the quality of a musician’s fingering or an executive who bounds on stage before a talk. The response of individual audience members tells more than a wide shot of a clapping crowd.

Shooting for the web, you rarely have the luxury of a skilled professional lighting the scene and capturing the sound. Light and sound are the crucial difference between professional and indifferent work. You need to listen through your headphones, watch your meters, and make fast adjustments to get the sound right. Lavaliere, handhelds, and stage microphones all require different techniques. Lighting is an art form and the essence of cinematography, but a knowledge of the basics can go a long way. Your camera can shoot in low light, but the results will be flat and without color. In a studio, start with the simple three point light and work from there. In the field you need to be far more creative and adaptable. The key to to learn how to look at the scene and realize what you need. Simply turning your hand in different directions toward the sun or light source sometimes is all you need to position your subject, and sometimes you'll use sophisticated tools. The key is to look at the scene the way the camera sees, not with the adjusted view of the human brain and eye.

Videoblogs, how-to videos, and news (Chapter 4)

Web video is a great way to demonstrate techniques and how-to, present news in a different way or specialized focus, and put forth your opinions in a video blog.

Video blogs are primarily opinion and observation. Ze Frank created a cult following by engaging the audience by staring right at them in closeup through the camera. A strong point of view almost always communicates more effectively. You leave a much stronger impression when you engage your viewer's visual cortex. Think of how crucial the images are to in a music video or a commercial. Create visual metaphors to help viewers understand your ideas, and juxtapose the image with your discussion. Take a little extra time to find the best camera angle and lighting when you’re shooting talent (even if that talent is you). You may find you need a little translucent ace powder to tone down a shiny forehead or nonreflective eyeglasses on camera. Test everything on camera before the shoot—particularly if you’re shooting in HD or HDV, which can be unforgiving.
This is no time to feign modesty; looking good is part of the job. Develop a visual style. Use expressions, thumbs up and down, graphics, props—whatever it takes. Create a signature style, a standard greeting, a way of dressing, or an approach to your work and adhere to it consistently. It will help your audience focus on your message rather than thinking, “Now what’s she doing?”

Almost no Internet video news sites successfully compete directly with mainstream media like the BBC, CNN, or ESPN. Rocketboom has millions of viewers because the irreverent style is different. Host Joanne Colan reads the news and discusses the issues of the day with a wink, giving the show the personality and style of a video blog backed up with solid reporting and a keen eye for issues. Alive in Baghdad Iraqi reporters bring perspective that is rare in Western reporters' interpretation. Diggnation reports technology as participant/observers, which would be taboo at the older networks. Josh Wolfe documents political events fearlessly, and paid a high price for doing so.

A how-to video needs to make sense and depends heavily on continuity. The best start with carefully written scripts and storyboards. Many amateur efforts rely on memory or figuring it out as they go along, resulting in a more difficult shoot and a shopping-list structure that’s guaranteed to bore the audience. The result is like listening to a story told with breathless repetition: he reached down, and then he opened the drawer, and then he removed the gun, and then he held up the gun, and then she saw it, and then she screamed. No drama, no buildup, no anticipation. Even a simple script or shot list will help. You can record a narration after you finish shooting or while the camera focuses on the action. Record a little room tone—audio of the room with no one talking often useful in editing. Listen closely, and you’ll realize even quiet rooms have a background sound. Think about your target audience. If they are older or less experienced than your usual viewers, go slower, show more intermediary steps, and take time to explain.

Projects: Plan and Shoot a How-to Video; Record a Short Commentary; Shoot Visuals and Add Narration

Interview: Andrew Baron on building the team for Rocketboom

Interview: Josh Wolf on the responsibilities of online journalists. Josh spent 225 days in jail for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury.

TV techniques for better web video (Chapter 5)

Interview: Kathleen Grace, who had studio style support to shoot The Burg with more than a dozen crew.

Uploading video to the web (Chapter 7)

Interview: Ben Waggoner, Microsoft Technology Evangelist, about what's crucial in video encoding. Ben is one of the most frequent and articulate speakers at industry events.

Distribution and marketing (Chapter 8)

Hundreds of thousands viewed Diet Coke and Mentos during the first few days it appeared online. Within three days, David Letterman called. They performed on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and the Today Show. Now Diet Coke and Mentos has become a full-time job, with the two former circus performers touring the world. Miracles happen, but your far more likely to succeed if you understand good promotion and viral marketing. For YouTube, consider making it shocking. Give a viewer no choice but to investigate further. Your headline should scream "You must watch this." Appeal to sex. If all else fails, hire the most attractive women available. Keep it short. Design for remixing, don't make an obvious ad.

Do everything possible to connect with your viewers. Post on the blogs they read. Send notes and ideas - not press releases - to the best online sites. Make it easy to reach you. Loyal fans sell your work more effectively than anything else. Don't be afraid of contacting reporters, but understand what works. Press releases do almost nothing. Instead, decide on a dozen key reporters, whether they be at Earth Times, The New York Times, or the Gigaom blog. Then look closely at the kind of stories they publish, and decide how you can lead them to a story that includes you. Reporters all have beats and favored approaches. You'll be far more effective presenting something in their style than hoping to persuade them to see things your way. Make it easy for them to write a story by including all the information they need, including some contacts for independent comments. Don't try to include everything in one note. Pick one story appropriate for them and just pitch that.

More people will find websites via search engines than any other way. Getting top ranking in search engines is a skill in itself, but start with the basics. Nothing is more important than your title, description, metatags, and headlines. Your subject should stand out in all of them. Think hard about how people will search for you, and include those terms in your metatags. Take a look at your competition's metas; they may have thought of things you've missed. Enroll directly in programs like Google's site mapping and indexing services, many of which are free. Make a website that works well for the audience you want. Think what they are coming for: is it your video, information about you, or ... Make everything as simple as possible for your visitors, but no simpler. People on the web usualy move fast. The fancy graphics and especially the long-playing Flash introduction turn many away.

Always watch your stats to understand where people are coming from and what they do on your site. Google or your web host will produce an enormous amount of material. Careful analysis will show what is working and what isn't.Find and fix the problems.

Interviews: Aza Raskin, human interface expert at Mozilla/Firefox, on building your video web page. Aza was trained by his dad Jef, the inventor of the Macintosh, and is rapidly being recognized as one of the best in the world. Also Yaron Samid, co-founder of Pando,on how you can take charge of your distribution.

Making it pay (Chapter 9)

Millions of people make web video; only a very small fraction earn a living do so. Advertisers expect either hundreds of thousands of viewers, or a particularly desirable audience, and few are lucky enough to begin at that level. Many find other ways to make money from their web audience, from becoming lecturers to producing sales for their business. Others look for jobs in the field, and we cover the best places to network, find listing, and discover openings.

It's a wonderfully exciting field, with many different satisfactions and opportunities. Come have fun.

Interviews: Dina Kaplan, Chief Operations Officer Blip.tv, on finding a niche, a sponsor and a distributor. Dina says "It will continue to be tough in 2008. It will be easier in 2009, but we’re looking to 2010 for things to be a lot easier in terms of making serious amounts of money for shows."

Jen Grogano, Chief Content Officer On Networks, Creating a TV Network for the Web and Michael Szpakowski, video artist and co-curator of DVblog.com on the art of creating video for the web.