colinbarrett.com

Helping Baddiel & Skinner to get animated about the World Cup

blogmeister@colinbarrett.com — 2010-07-08T10:30:00+01:00

The HD video podcasts are based on a topical discussion between David Baddiel and Frank Skinner and are recorded in the studio as an audio chat between the comic pair prior to submission for animation on a very fast turnaround basis. The animation, which was undertaken each week for the four weeks of Baddiel & Skinner's World Cup 2010 Podcast series, was created in Adobe Flash by Debra Danu-Matthews of Artistic Navigator in record time - often in less than a day - in order to maintain the topicality in relation to England's progress (or not) through the competition. Here's number two in the series (of four): For my part, I took each of the four 1920x1080/24p Flash animations and then converted them to a similar-spec HD video whilst also synching Baddiel & Skinner's supplied studio audio recording to the master video track. Once this was done, I then created a 1920x1080/24p and 1280x720/24p HD video sub-master in MPEG-4/H.264 format ready to upload to YouTube and also to Absolute's own servers. Often, the whole process was undertaken within the same day of the recording being made! It's a pity that England were knocked of the competition - because there would have more commissions had they made it to the final!

33 Web Screencast Videos in the can for the Open University and the EU

blogmeister@colinbarrett.com — 2010-05-07T12:36:25+01:00

Above: Image showing embedded plugin tutorial movie playback on NeOn website My job was to write the specification for the technical formats to be adopted, and then to ensure that all submissions were made consistent with that spec. From then onwards, it was my job to piece together a large number of screen recordings (movies made of everything they do on their computer screens during their demos using special screen-recording software) and prepare final edited movie tutorials complete with titles and professional voice-over commentaries in each case. A total of 33 tutorial movies were produced, with variants for desktop playback, video podcasting and DVD-ROM distribution too. It's been very hard work but a very worthwhile undertaking, not least because I've developed workflows for the incorporation of Windows and Apple Mac assets using a wide range of state-of-the-art digital video and audio software applications. The NeOn Project consists of an open source Toolkit, which developers can freely download from the project's website, along with a wide range of third-party plugins. The opportunity exists for other individuals and orgnisations to develop their own variants and plugins to suit the needs of their particular organisations and markets. Are you or your organisation interested in developing online screencasts for training or promotion purposes? Are you interested in commissioning video or audio podcasts to support your work? ...http://www.neon-project.org/nw/NeOn_Movies

Busy building websites.... and stuff!

blogmeister@colinbarrett.com — 2010-01-11T18:38:52+00:00

The SimplyDV website that I founded in 2002 to help people considering buying and using a new or upgraded camcorder has been in need of a complete facelift for some time now. The big problem with camcorder news and reviews is that each new model becomes obsolete in a blink of an eyelid. Technology is moving way too quickly and it's very difficult to keep up. Coupled with that is the fact that a website that provides a means for me to publish my product reviews and news needs to be structured in such a way that I can submit material very quickly from wherever I am - provided that I have access to the web. For that reason, I decided to drop Rapidweaver for Mac, the authoring program I'd been using (and developed by a great bunch of guys in Brighton, UK, called Realmac Software, in favour of a more dynamic and open platform. I chose Wordpress - and I'm very glad I did. Installing another layer (called a "theme template") which gives it its own look and feel and which I can tweak to my heart's content and setting it up in a way that fits the needs of the site for the medium-to-long term, I'll now be able to get more information and how-to tips online in much less time. The next task is to produce a lot more Screencast Tutorials to help people to get to know items of video-making and other related software. ...(Oh, and a belated Happy New Year to you all as well!). Checkout the SimplyDV website for yourself

Supporting Product Knowledge Training at Panasonic

blogmeister@colinbarrett.com — 2009-10-16T11:46:52+01:00

The three-day event was held between Monday 12th October to Wednesday 14th Octber inclusive at Donington Park raceway in the UK's East Midlands. Now, F1 Racing fans will know that this is the planned venue for the British F1 Grand Prix from 2010 onwards (although that's still up in the air), and Panasonic thought it would make an ideal location for the training event that would mix training sessions with product "hands-on" sessions orientated around a number of motoring experiences. My contribution was to present two one-hour sessions to the delegates - The Camcorder: A Brief History and Why Choose Panasonic? With my being completely independent of the company, Panasonic training and marketing staff thought that it would be a good idea to have someone who could look at the brand and the product offer from a detached position; not only did it make it more objective but it also added a degree of credibility to the sessions. In other words, it wasn't just another internal sales pitch of the kind we all-too-often see at company sales and training events. In the first session, entitled The Camcorder : A Brief History, I took delegates on a whistle-stop tour of the technology of video recording from its roots in 1952 with the introduction of the BBC's VERA videotape recorder to Ampex's revolutionary VR-1000 4 years later and right through early portable video camera systems, early VCRs and on to camcorders from Betamax and VHS to present-day AVCHD high definition models. ..., wasn't a selling job as you might expect; instead, what I did is to share my thoughts and processes when considering a new camcorder fore review. ...If the Panasonic people themselves are anything to go by, it was a hugely successful three days, and my own contributions seemed to play a positive role in helping the retail staff - who came from stores all over the UK - to gain a better understanding of not only the history of the humble camcorder but also of the huge technological advances that have been achieved in such a relatively short space of time. I took along several examples of ye olde worlde video tape recording formats - such as Philips 1500, 3/4" U-Matic, Betacam and even 1" C-format broadcast videotape - which attracted a lot of interest. ...I look forward to doing more as it was great fun, even if my voice was a bit hoarse after talking non-stop for two hours!

A very early morning at QVC!

blogmeister@colinbarrett.com — 2009-09-13T09:00:00+01:00

Camcorders and (before them) video cameras and recorders have been my lifeblood for over 3 decades, and if the truth be known I don't know much about anything else! Anyway, because of my activity in this field, by way of the many magazine articles and reviews I've written about not only camcorders but also digital video in general, plus the work I do in keeping the SimplyDV website up to date, I have quite a few good contacts in the industry here in the UK. It's thanks to such contacts that I was asked by QVC to consider coming in to their Battersea studios to be what they call a guest presenter. ...It's a very odd experience; you're there to provide contextual information about the product which is, in turn, designed to show off its positive features. QVC is there to sell product, after all, so it's not like I'm being asked to tell viewers about the negative points. ...I've come to realise that the presenters - especially those who have worked at the station for many years - are extremely good at their jobs and have a really impressive product knowledge about just about everything, too! I was asked to contribute to the Hi Tech Toys & Electronics show; this goes out at midnight on Friday (the first hour of Saturday, in other words) and at a time when I'd normally be tucked up in my bed back home 65 miles away I was giving viewers the low-down on what's good about the JVC AVCHD camcorder. By the time I made it on-air in the last 20-minute segment of the show, I'd been at the studios for 3 hours. ...Anyhow, when it came to my bit it was over as soon as it started; I was chatting about all the stuff that has been embedded in my brain for years so it wasn't exactly difficult! The director's talkback in my left ear was my guide to topics, timings etc., and before we knew we were out of the studio and on the road home.

Has YouTube changed the face of business video?

blogmeister@colinbarrett.com — 2009-07-22T13:38:54+01:00

What's worse is that the cost of production was huge by today's standards. In the early/mid 80s we were looking at a ball-park commissioning cost of something in the region of £1,000 per minute of finished screen time for professional standard production. ...These days - thanks to unprecedented changes in technology and the rise of broadband internet as the primary distribution medium worldwide - we can shoot, edit and disseminate high definition video at extremely low cost and even share it with others on YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, Motion Box, Blip, et all., for next to nothing. In short, that means that anybody can do it for virtually nothing. ...The bad news (if we can put it in such dramatic terms) is that there's no automatic link between high technical and high creative quality. Look at the vast majority of home-made clips on YouTube and what you see is the same dreary quality made by people who haven't taken a second to consider what they're doing, why they're doing it and who their target market actually is. In contrast, if you're a small business owner or even someone working in a larger corporate body who's charged with improving communications through the use of both video and social networking sites in general, you can't afford to get it wrong. Any video you upload that's associated with your organisation (even if you're a self-employed one-person-band) is representative of you or your organisation. That's why you have to get it right. Acquiring the gear to shoot, edit and upload video of a high standard is now within everyone's grasp - but will its use be effective?

When is HD not HD? In Tesco!

blogmeister@colinbarrett.com — 2009-05-01T15:06:02+01:00

Earlier, I was in my local branch of Tesco - the large flagship store at Kingston in Milton Keynes (UK) - and I was looking around the very large and varied collection of HDTVs on display. I was particularly interested in checking out the LG32PG6000 for my son who was looking for a reasonable-sized display at a good price. The LG offers very good value for money and produces very good 1080P pictures when fed a decent input via HDMI. ...The pictures being fed to some very good displays was (and still is) absolutely dire. So how can consumers make proper choices if the HD screens aren't showing HD video but some truly dreadful, noisy, snowy analogue TV instead? ...Because I had a look around the back of several and saw that they were being given a rubbishy distributed analogue RF signal. ...So, if you're in the running for an HDTV display and you want to see a range of models being properly represented, then do what we did - go elsewhere to a retailer that is displaying proper HDTV inputs on their monitors. (We got a great deal at Curry's where they were prepared to display a run-out line LG32LG5700 32" HDTV working properly, in case you're interested). ...If you're considering any consumer electronics product, make sure you're able to evaluate it properly to the point where you're happy that it will suit your needs. If the reseller can't be bothered to invest a fraction of its huge profits on a better HDTV distribution system then take your business to another retailer that is!

Sounds about right

blogmeister@colinbarrett.com — 2009-04-28T08:30:30+01:00

As part of my new 5-DVD tutorial set entitled "Getting started with Premiere Elements 7" I talk you through the process of adding additional sound tracks to your video project and then mixing them in a way that's much like the process used by professional movie-makers. Thanks to huge developments in software design, good sound mixing isn't nearly as difficult as you might think. With a fabulous program like Premiere Elements 7 even a complete beginner can be dropping music, sound effects and even a spoken commentary into a project and mixing it together in much the same way as would a professional. To give you an idea of what I mean, have a look at this sample module, entitled "Adding music and mixing sound", from DVD Disc 4: Need to know more? Check out this SimplyDV website for information about all the tutorial DVDs - and how you can buy the 5-DVD set "Getting started with Premiere Elements 7" right now.

Elements of success?

blogmeister@colinbarrett.com — 2009-04-26T08:41:58+01:00

Thinking about editing your own digital video? My exclusive set of training DVDs called Getting started with Premiere Elements 7 is now available to purchase online. If you're the sort of person who not only likes to record video clips with a camcorder, digital stills camera or even mobile phone but you like the idea of smartening them up before uploading to YouTube or Facebook, then this 5-DVD set might well be just what you need. We're already four months into 2009, and it seems like forever that I've been working on my latest project to produce a series of tutorial DVDs designed to help digital video newbies to get started with Adobe Premiere Elements 7. If you don't know it, Premiere Elements is a fabulous piece of a video editing software that is not only pretty cheap to buy but it's also immensely powerful. What took a well-equipped and hugely expensive video editing suite to do 20 years ago can now be achieved with a software application costing £69.99 and a resonably high-powered PC. So, with all my work on the DVDs now complete and everything ready to go, perhaps you'd like to know that each of the five discs can be obtained right now! Check out one of these two main links: Learn Premiere Elements - a page designed to provide an overview of all the DVDs, including sample video sequences SimplyDV.TV - where you can buy the DVDs online