Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie discussion

Hi, has anyone made a video to post on Facebook and/or website, and if so, did you make it without a smartphoone (which I don't have)? What equipment do you need, and what is the most economical way to do it? thank you, Judy

Hi Judy.

I have created several videos on different topics and I've used a few different methods.

Smartphone - The easiest way to grab a simple video of something, ie just capturing video of something happening in front of you. I can then upload it straight from my phone (to facebook, twitter etc). These tend to be short (approx 15-20 seconds) and have no editing. (I see you haven't got a smartphone but wanted to mention it for completeness).

Microsoft powerpoint - If I have fairly static content that I want to make into a video, I sometimes use powerpoint. For example: https://www.facebook.com/jonstubbingt...

This was created by making individual slides for each of the bits of the video, then adding transitions between them (just as you would do for a normal slide show - just make sure to set them to automatic on a timed basis, rather than manual). It's then possible to save the slideshow as a video, which essentially just runs through your slideshow, automatically changing from one slide to another after the time interval you've set has elapsed.

Powerpoint is generally included with a lot of computers, so this might be a no-cost option.

Photoshop - My usual video tool. It's not a sophisticated video program but it allows me to do more interesting things, layer an audio track over the top, combine filmed video with static "slides" etc. An example is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gLE3... I already pay for Photoshop for my art, so it doesn't cost me anything extra. I wouldn't recommend buying it just to make a video though.

In terms of filming the content, I use a digital SLR. I use this in two ways. I either use the video function and record video, or I connect it to a timer and shoot timed photos over an extended period (eg 1 photo every 15 seconds). That gives me the timelapse effect seen in the above video. That's useful for me as an artist, but may not be relevant for what you're looking for. I also have a free screencapture program that does the same for artwork I create digitally.

Music - I use the excellent Free Music Archive (http://freemusicarchive.org/). There are loads of free-to-use tracks on there and you can choose to search by genre and by type of licence etc. It's really important to read the Creative Commons terms and to make sure you give appropriate attribution if using music from there.

Uploading - I upload my videos separately to facebook and to You Tube. I then click on the Share > Embed link in You Tube to get the code I can paste into my website. This creates an iframe on my website that displays the video. The video itself is not held on my site - it plays the You Tube version - but it is displayed on my site. An example would be: https://www.jonstubbington.com/portfo...

That's how I do it but I'm sure there are many other options as well. Please let me know if you need any more info on any of this.

Jon.

Jon, thank you so much for taking the time to explain all these methods. I do have photoshop and powerpoint. Is there a video option on photoshop???
What is a digital SLR,..is that a camera? And which of these methods would you use for a demonstration with audio?
Best wishes,
Judy

Judy wrote: "Jon, thank you so much for taking the time to explain all these methods. I do have photoshop and powerpoint. Is there a video option on photoshop???
What is a digital SLR,..is that a camera..."

Hi. Yes, an SLR is a camera. Sorry for the jargon! It just means it's a digital camera with interchangeable lenses. I use one for my photography work and it has a video function so I also use it when I need to film something.

However, you don't need to have an SLR. Anything that records video and sound would be good for creating video footage. Most compact cameras have a video function these days, if you have one of those.

It would be worth checking the quality you get in terms of picture and audio clarity. Making it as good quality as possible will help create a decent end product.

Photoshop - Yep, it has a video editing feature. I didn't know either!

If you're starting a new document from the template menu, click on "Film and video" at the top for their standard templates. Or, just open a blank document at the correct ratio and go to Window > Timeline to open the video timeline panel at the bottom of the screen. Click to create a new video timeline and you should have two horizontal tracks open.

You can then drag and drop your video, images, audio etc into those tracks. The top one is for imagery, videos etc and the bottom one is for audio.

Reorder them by dragging them around. Trim the video by moving the time marker thingy (technical term!) to where you want to trim and then clicking on the scissors to create a cut. Just delete the bit you don't want. The two-tone square thing allows you to drop in transitions (fade in/out, cross fade etc).

It's all pretty basic video editing, but it does the trick for what I need.

If you had a load of demonstration footage you had shot, you could drop the raw video files into there, then cut them up as needed, and add in static pictures, title cards etc as you needed.

I'm sure there are lots of tutorials on You Tube if you would like to see this in action. I'm probably not using it to its full potential either, as I've only learned to use it by playing around with different bits of video.

Hope that helps. Feel free to drop me any questions if you need help with anything and I'll try and help.

Would love to see how it all turns out.

thanks, Jon, for all this info, and again for taking the time to explain all this.
I'm going to check out the photoshop video. Yes, I really need to see a youtube demo, I'm using a hotspot now, but when we return home, I'll check out your video and look for a demo.