My second podcast experience was nearly as painful as the first. I was so optimistic, but I was definitely disappointed. I had a lot of fun shooting the video. I made dinner and invited several of my friends over. They did not all realize that they had been recruited to star in my podcast. We actually had a very interesting conversation that went on way longer than I expected. That's what I get for inviting over a bunch of graduate students.
The experience of editing was the major problem. I still was having issues with my hard drive, so that was a key factor. Also, we went to the library to edit. We learned at our cost that the library's version is much older than what we use in our lab. We asked so many questions of the help desk that one of their staffers nearly had to pull up a chair! Other problems we faced: the camera we had was incompatible, we had issues logging in, the headphones I had on loan from the library didn't work, etc. To top that off, I had an hour and a half of footage to sort through. It took that long to import! Around 1 a.m., I was finishing up my editing and I still couldn't save to my hard drive. I tried to export the finished video as an MPEG-4, but that wasn't possible. I saved it for web, which compressed the video as a Quicktime file. Apparently, that was not a good idea, because as you can see, the quality of the video was severely hampered.
Podcasting is evidently not for the faint of heart! I'm going to hang in there; I have high hopes that my next experience will be better.
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4 comments:
Jannibah—
I liked your use of music throughout the podcast. It matched the mood you created with the video. You used several shots at the beginning of the podcast that helped to orient the audience. For example, you used shots of your front porch and the food to let the viewers know where they were and what was going to be going on in the coming scenes. I also really liked the shots of your friend uncorking the wine and when you were bringing the food into the dining room. That, once again, let the viewers know exactly what was happening.
I do have a couple suggestions that I think might help you with your next podcasts. First, I thought the scenes in your kitchen and living room were a little dark. I realize it was dark outside, so there was no way to get natural light from the windows. So may you can bring in extra lighting. Second, I thought it was difficult to determine who was talking and what they were talking about in the living room. You might make this better by bringing the camera in closer and having someone operate the camera to focus into the person that is talking. I also think extra lighting would have helped viewers with seeing the individual talking.
I liked the relaxed atmosphere of the video, however, sometimes it was difficult to tell what was being discussed and how everything connected. You might consider including a bring summary of what will be discussed at the beginning of the video. This will help the viewer understand the topics being discussed in the rest of the podcast.
It sounds as if you had an interesting time trying to get this cast up and going. I will make sure to never go to the library and try to edit my podcasts. Like Liz, I especially enjoyed the music at the beginning and the end. It tied in nicely with the 'party' setting in which you created. Your b-roll at the beginning was nicely executed. You really made me feel as if I were at the gathering myself.
Some of the scenes, especially in the living room, were a little dark. I ran into this same problem myself with shooting a scene at night. It looked like you tried to add lighting with the lamp in the corner, but the lamp ended up putting a large glare across the shot. You might think about leaving the light out of view.
The sound was a little hard to understand, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt due to your problems uploading. Like Liz said, you might think of placing the camera closer to the action so the viewers will be able tell which person is speaking. This might also improve the sound quality. I do, however, understand that you wanted to include yourself in the conversation rather than hiding behind the camera.
I thought you did really good though. I think you had a good idea with the dinner gathering; it seemed like you got a lot of useful information. I am looking forward to watching your next podcast. Good job.
I liked thejazz intro at the beginning and the end. The opening sequence was nicely executed and helped set us up for what was to come next. I was already salivating by the time I got to seeing the good food and the delicious wines. I know I was invited and I missed out big time! Anyway, getting back to the podcast. The concept was good, get people talk about ethnic media in a casual setting. In a relaxed environment, people seemed to share their views quite frankly, so your plan definitely worked.
I saw that most of your guests shared their views almost equally and you did a good job moderating the discussion while keeping it light hearted as well. I had a problem catching some of the audio, as the cutlery was a bit loud. Also, it was a bit dark. I feel the camera if a bit closer would have been better able to catch some of the body language and gestures than your guests made while making their points. Some of the comments you and your guests made were cut off in editing. I liked how you ended the podcast keeping the same consistent music. It was interesting to hear some of the views of your guests about using ethnic oriented media in America. It was a novel experience watching this podcast. Good job!
Jannibah, hopefully the last post will help a bit on the editing issues. This is a great idea for an educational podcast. You need to introduce the video subject in the dialogue leading up to the meal in addition to/instead of using a title. You may want to come out and say you are running an informal focus group. Make sure the viewer knows what to expect. You seem to be breaking the video up into sections, consider putting some titles up to let the viewer know what the topics are. This is particularly important as the dialogue gets to be a bit difficult to hear on occasion—the viewer has to decide what is being talked about rather than being able to focus on the information. You need to add some discussion at the end to let the viewer know what they are supposed to have learned.
I like the opening sequence. The music and transitions work well. You might let the music run a bit longer and fade it out as you start talking Keep in mind the idea of using thirds when framing your shots. The second shot of you on camera was better framed than the first, though you may have wanted to cut to some b-roll (maybe the pasta in the pot or something like that) rather than use the flash frame—there’s a bit of extra audio at the end of the first clip as well. This is challenging to shoot with one camera, particularly and have it remain what appears to be a relatively spontaneous conversation. I’m not sure how this would have worked layout wise, but one option might be to have shot from a lower location so that the people took up more of the screen.
Again, nice concept. I hope the editing process is easier next time around.
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