Production companies who make videos that are specifically intended for web distribution vary in size from one-man shops to major production studios. DotLot™ (and parent company The Buddy Group) is a mid-sized agency with clients from a lot of different verticals. We do projects for large, national brands on a regular basis. Where we have run into problems in the past is during the production of short videos for local and corporate clients. Just as we have learned over the years that web videos depend as much on story as feature films, we also know that all projects demand the same level of management and attention, regardless of size or budget.

At DotLot™ and The Buddy Group, we assign an account manager to every project, regardless of the actual logistics involved. The creative team on a project should be free to concentrate on making their project sizzle without having to worry about managing the budget and the overall production schedule. Often times, though, when a video needs to be shot or edited on a very quick timeline, it’s tempting to want to skip over the work required to plan and organize a project; but it’s these situations where that type of planning can be the most important.

We assign one person to every project who is ultimately responsible for keeping it on schedule. To aid in this process, we use a checklist that at a bare minimum answers the following questions:

1) What are the key elements of the project?

a. How long must it be?

b. What are the audio & video requirements?

c. Do we need to make fancy titles or other motion graphics?

2) How many hours are allotted in the budget and how does that work with the rest of our production schedule?

3) When does the client need to see a rough cut?

4) When does the client need the final video delivered?

5) Where and how will the video be delivered?

a. Hard copy?

b. Online distribution?

These may seem like obvious questions, but web video is usually ordered and executed quickly. Big projects carry a certain weight that demands careful planning. Small projects, however, can really put a kink in the overall production schedule if they are not planned just as carefully. The internet is still seen as a new world by a lot of clients, big and small, which is why we must continue to educate them (and ourselves) that production is production, no matter where your audience watches the final product.

I was working at hanging some lights in our green screen studio when I walked out and saw Jonathan, Brad and Michael gathered around two of our edit stations. They had split an After Effects project into three separate projects.


Michael is working from the top down.

Jonathan is working from the bottom up.

Brad is busy adding panache.

I decided I could be of the most help by walking away.

What a team!

We now live in a world where video on the web is as common as the delivery of the daily newspaper used to be. Many people spend a little time during their day, others a lot more, looking at different online videos for enjoyment, education or global information. As video producers we want to get our message out and our story told to anyone and everyone.  That’s why it’s important that we look into some of the major online video websites and discover their features and any drawbacks.

Online video publishers are looking for many different options when choosing a distribution website: number of potential viewers, video quality, searchability, community interaction, and monetization. I decided to compare some of the most popular and unique online video websites you can publish to, such as YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo, Viddler, and Revver to get a clearer “picture” of what to expect.

When it comes to viewers, YouTube attracted the most viewers with 81.1 million unique viewers watching 3.25 billion videos in February of 2008. Each viewer spent an average of 109 minutes of viewing. Fox Interactive, which includes MySpaceTV, attracted 55.7 million unique viewers who watched 586 million videos, averaging 10.9 minutes of viewing each. The third most popular site was Yahoo, which attracted 37 million unique viewers who watched 315 million videos while averaging 18.0 minutes of viewing each. The viewing percentages drop off enough not to reflect the viewership of sites like Viddler and Revver, which are newer to the online video market.

Quality! We all put time and effort into creating great video and want to see the final version reflect the amount of detail that we put into it. When uploading to these online video websites, it’s important to keep in mind the clarity, color and smoothness each site will provide you. Although YouTube makes it fairly simple to upload, it can be challenging to make sure your high-quality original still looks good once they reencode it. Videos on YouTube can be a bit blurry, as if YouTube is reencoding them at a higher compression rate. Another issue I’ve noticed is that the blacks get crushed, which makes the video quite dark, so be aware of your settings. It’s not impossible to get decent quality video on YouTube, but it’s not simple either, and I hope it’s something they are working to improve upon.

MySpaceTV and Yahoo Video seem to provide a similar experience, but many of the videos are from professional production houses, which makes them look pretty good. The downside is you’re limited to the content in their libraries. However, Yahoo Video does offer 16:9 aspect ratios. Good for the growing production format. As for Revver, I’ve been told that you can custom-set your aspect ratio to your liking, but I could not find examples to examine online. Viddler offers 4:3 aspect ratios as well. When it’s all said and done we come back to the age old saying, “Garbage in, garbage out”. Check your encoding settings. Shoot appropriately.

Site community. Most all of these online video sites include a rating system with the ability to share and space for making comments. I’m most familiar with YouTube’s layout and use it as a comparison point for other sites. On YouTube you can see how many viewers there are immediately, notice the rating of the video, (1-5 stars, although not enough people use the rating system), and just below this the viewer has the ability to share the video and add it to their favorite videos or playlist. Right below all this information is the ability to comment and discuss. Video comments are possible. It’s a relatively good layout for engaging other viewers and getting feedback on your content.

On MySpaceTV the viewer needs to look in two different places to find pertinent information about the popularity of the clip. On the right side it lists the number of viewers and below the video viewers can find the rating system, a thumbs up / down approach. It’s an interesting method but doesn’t allow viewers to easily know just how good or bad the video is. It’s ability to share begins with MySpace and only extends to blogs. I understand MySpace wants all the viewers but it very much limits the ability to share your content. The commenting section on MySpace adds user’s pictures or their icons to posted comment. This gives more personalize feel to the comments but also limits the number of comments visible on one page. Yahoo Video focuses more on providing content verses having community interaction. Most of the page is covered with other related videos or videos that are hot today. There isn’t a rating system in place and the comments section is very primitive.

Viddler does not offer a rating system but what they do offer  makes this site very interesting. Viddler has the ability to make comments on the video timeline. These comments appear while the video is playing, adding another dimension to community comments. Revver has your basic setup with nothing overly outstanding: a rating system, email a clip, add it to your FaceBook page, and comment on it. One great option that Revver and Viddler do add is the ability to download the clip. Good news for the viewer but possibly bad for creators.

Monetization. YouTube now offers a partnership where you can share in the revenue your uploaded content makes. The drawback for aspiring producers is that you need to have several thousand viewers each month to qualify for the partnership. Great if you can get there. MySpaceTV and Yahoo Video do not have a monetization model at this time. Viddler has lower-third advertising but you as the content producer do not share in the revenue. Revver is new and different. On Revver they will place adds on your video (lower thirds) and will split the revenue generated with you 50/50. It’s a great idea to get content producers to place their videos online with them. 

There are so many new and interesting online video website emerging all the time, but for content producers like DotLot, going to YouTube is a must as the viewers are already there. The ability to share in multiple ways exist, and if you become a partner with Google / YouTube you’ll be able to share in the advertising rewards. It’s great that new sites are appearing because it brings competition and advances in online video. There is much more to come and look forward to.

Using User Presets as an Efficient Workflow Tool:

One of the most common buzzwords in the industry is “workflow”. You will see this term used more often than any other whenever people are discussing post-production. What they are really talking about is efficiency. The faster and more effectively one is able to perform tasks, the more they can use their time to improve the final output through creativity and polishing. In other words, the less time wasted on menial details, the more time can be put towards creating better projects.

In that vein, I would like to share a useful tip I have been using in Adobe After Effects CS3 and Adobe Premiere that has saved more time than I can imagine. Most AE users are familiar with effect presets and the ability to create user presets. What I am going to demonstrate is very fundamental, but is scaleable and applicable to numerous uses. I am going to demonstrate how to use user presets in conjunction with an organizational process to streamline tasks such as keying.

For this process to work best it actually starts before the camera rolls. The first step is to have a shotlist, with shots labeled in a standard numbering and lettering format. Obviously, you may not have control over this, but if you do, make sure that you stick to this list. During the shoot, make sure to slate every shot clearly and correctly. Once the footage is brought into Premiere, label it accordingly. This is common practice, and should be a part of any post-production process. If there wasn’t a shotlist, create one at this point, making sure to use a numeric system (see below).

EDIT

You’ll have a timeline that looks something like this:

Notice that all the clips were labeled accurately and the same shot was used multiple times while cutting together this dialogue scene between two characters. Fine-tune your edit until you are completely satisfied and ready to move onto the VFX/Motions Graphix.

Import the premiere project into AE. When this is done, all the data from Premiere is brought in, including the sequences, clips, and naming conventions. You might have to do a little organization, depending on how your tracks were setup in Premiere, and how you want your AE project layed out. In a future article I will discuss some practices and methods for streamling AE projects. But for now, let’s assume we’re neat and tidy and ready to key. Start at the beginning and move forward. Everyone has their own keying process, so do what works best for you. Once again, in the future I will discuss my methods a little more in depth. However, almost all techniques require the use of multiple effects.

Once you have your key set up, highlight all your effects and select the make new preset icon in the bottom right corner of Effects and Presets box. It will open a dialogue box to save the preset. Here is where the system kicks into high gear. At this point, what you are doing is creating a database of effects (in this case, keys). Since the same shot is used multiple times in this project, the effect will need to be used multiple times, with little to no changes. One might ask, “How does one keep track of all these effects?” It’s easy. Your naming convention has already been set up; it’s your shotlist. As long as you labeled your clips correctly in Premiere, each instance of a shot will be its labeled accordingly as well.

When you go to save, create a folder structure in your preset library, preferably numeric and labels. Create a folder for keys, and save the preset in the folder labeled by the following three things: Folder number (100 in my case), shot, and description. By using all three, it will be much easier to search for the desired preset quickly by simply typing in the keywords or a shot label in the search box.

As you move through your project, you will be able to quickly locate the correct key and efficiently. By using the shot label to search, a few keystrokes will bring up the correct key. This is much easier than any ctl C/V method I have ever used previously. The purpose of the numeric labeling is more clearly seen when working with artistic effects that may be used in any number of shots or projects. By creating preset animations/effects, and labeling them by number, you can quickly pull up any effect quickly and effectively, without a lot of time spent searching or recreating. For instance, all lens flares animations can be labeled 51* so by simply typing 51 in the search box, all presets will be at your fingertips instantly.

(footage courtesy of iTwinkle.tv)

Special thanks goes out to The Buddy Group for giving us some love on their blog. Thanks for noticing.

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