Dialog

If YouTube were a stand-alone search engine, it would be the second largest search engine behind Google. That’s incredible when you think of it. It shows the saturation of Web video and illustrates how much video demand is exploding.

Video production is an art and a craft, and there’s no substitute for the proper training, equipment and execution, especially for broadcast quality work. But Web video is different. The demand requires fast turnaround. Writers and Web content contributors need to be able to capture audio and video. Journalism students are being trained to script, shoot, read and edit their own material, reflecting the requirement of multitasking and lean staffs in the traditional media. We have to be the same as Web communicators, otherwise we risk connecting with a significant segment of our audience.

So Flip cameras (and similar simple devices) are gaining popularity. Many departments around campus are using these devices. One might assume that the quality and value of video shot with these devices will suffer. In many cases, that happens as users new to video struggle with the medium. But quality doesn’t have to suffer. If shot properly, you might not even be able to tell the difference between video captured with an expensive camera and a Flip:

Here’s another tip on interviewing from Kirk Mastin:

And some pointers on capturing sound using a Flip:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 9:04 am and is filed under Multimedia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.