Video editing and production just took a huge leap forward thanks to a company called Kaltura. How?

Imagine 100’s of people being able to upload a video through this page and then being able to edit the ‘finished’ video to produce a derivative video.

Well imagine no more. It’s now a reality.

I’m not 100% sure how it all works (or even if it will work on this page) but I’m giving it a try. Why?

Because the uses and potential are … huge.  Here’s the first video I’ve uploaded.  You should be able to edit it and add to it - if I’ve got it right.

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Producing screen capture videos used to be quite expensive with Camtasia being the software of choice for many PC users. At over $300 it was not affordable for some. Well that’s all changed.

Watching video online has become as normal as watching TV and for some , watching video online is even more popular than TV. Let’s face it, your choice is vast. This shift in perceptions is one of the reasons a few software developers started to come up with free and low cost screen capture alternatives.

Camstudio is probably one of the better known free offerings in this software sector but as you would expect it has a few weaknesses compared to paid for products. Well Dave Guindon has now improved some of them making it a good place for marketers to start producing training or marketing videos of their own.

From the marketers perspective two of the main flaws of CamStudio were Read the rest of this entry »

Ever wondered how Amazon process so many orders?

Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of one of the world’s best known online retailers?

Here is a link to a great video from the BBC where Alan Lyall from Amazon.co.uk gives an exclusive look at what happens inside one of the etailer’s huge warehouses. A video tour of Amazon’s distribution centre.

I was really impressed at seeing the high level overview of how the pieces fit together. The investment in technology is plainly there to see. It made me remember that even with the best online or digital sales & ordering systems, it stills boils down to human interaction to make it work.

Something about the video made it flow and easy to understand. Its a really informative and worth watching for anyone involved in selling online. The overall order to delivery process for most businesses won’t be too dis-similar and if you are just starting out you could do worse than see how it works in practice and scale down.

For all of that, personally I won’t be ordering anything fragile from Amazon - watch the last five seconds to see what I mean ….

The script is the effectively the engine that drives your video production and should be considered the most important part of any video.

The script tells the story or message you want to get across and pulls together the pictures of the overall image you want to create for your viewers. When it comes to video marketing tactics get your script right will make the biggest difference to your profitability.

One thing not to forget is that a scriptwriter writes the way he envisages his words will be spoken. This means that when you see your script for the first time don’t think that you’ve got to correct bad grammar. In a script “that’s it” will have more flow and rhythm that “that is it” - Can you feel the difference? If not just try reading those two things out loud.

If you are writing your script yourself some essential things to remember are; Read the rest of this entry »

This list of free video editing software tools makes it easy and cheap for anyone to edit and produce video to the highest quality that is ready for business or personal use.

Video has become almost a default in today’s blogs and websites. Without them a site can look almost naked. The fact is that NLE’s (non linear editors) need not cost the earth. In fact you can get some excellent video editing tools for free and I’ve put together a list of some of them here for you. This is by no means a complete list but having said that it is fairly comprehensive and as always if you think I should include another program or service let me know.

If you want to spend your cash on ‘industry standard’ applications like Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas, feel free. There are pros and cons against this thought process and the biggest pro I can think of is the sheer number of people using them makes getting help and manuals easier.

Having said that … things are changing and all of the sites and programmes listed below have very active support and development teams as well as thriving user communities. Lets just put it like this…

It could be that the big names will soon start to lose market share, I mean, why would you want to spend £300 - £600 ($500 - $1100) on a branded product when you can find free video editing programs that do virtually the same thing.

Lets look at the free video editing software available … Read the rest of this entry »

Internet video advertising and promotions pre-production software.

The emergence of web video as a viable medium for advertisers and promoters over the last two years has been astounding. Advancements in compression technology and the growth in broadband usage has made high quality video streaming a reality that we dreamed of five years ago.

The available technology has led to a massive rise in the number of sites like YouTube and Daily Motion (to name just two) that have emerged. No-one can deny the popularity of user generated content, you’ve just got to think back to how much Google paid for You Tube.

Uploading your videos to these social network video sites will help begin the process of getting air play or views for your videos. There are a number of guides available that will help teach you ways of monetizing your videos or how to use them to generate a contestant stream of new and unique visitors to your business website. But before you can do that you have to create and produce your video. Let’s look at pre production planning Read the rest of this entry »

There are quite a few different types of video programmes that today’s businesses may need or want to shoot.

In general videos can be used as marketing or sales tools as well as for product or service promotion. You can also produce Video for public awareness films, to help improve safety issues or highlight features and improvements. There is also a significant growing trend for training videos as part of an educational programme and infomercials.

In this article we look at some of the costs and resources involved in any video production. Read the rest of this entry »