If you watch some of the clips on youtube.com you will see black bars on either side of the video.
In my opinion it’s not a great look to see these massive black bars on the sides. I prefer to see the video content in full across the whole screen. Unless your trying to go for that epic film look, you will want the black bars going across the top and bottom of the video. Like this:-
So what can we do about? and why is this happening to me?
OK so, in standard video we have 5 common aspect ratios. 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 1:85:1 and 2.39:1. The TV standard is broadcasted in 4:3 which gives this look in the first video. The other popular standard is 16:9. Which gives a much wider screen and to me it’s much more pleasing on the eye!
The problem arises when a camera shoots footage in 4:3 and then the footage is imported into a 16:9 timeline. A video timeline, allows your video clips to play in a sequence editing application like Final Cut Pro or Premier. Once it’s encoded into a web format like quicktimes .mov or Adobe’s flash you get that lovely black bars look in your video.
To stop it, either film in 16:9 and make sure your timeline is in 16:9 or film 4:3 and again the timeline in 4:3.
It’s not a new technology by any means, but I was looking for a service that can deliver the Youtube.com type service (transcoding) for one of my clients on their site. By this I mean upload videos, in any format. quicktimes .mov, MPEG4, AVi, flv (flash), windows media, wmv or Real media and transcode them into Adobes flash .ftv format. They wanted a browser based solution so they could see the ingest of videos and managed what files go onto the network for delivery. This works with a CDN or content Delivery Services. I came across a company called Origin Digital. They are calling themselves a video Application Services Provider. It’s fairly well priced and if your a high traffic site, I highly recommend them!
Sorry to get so techie on you guys, but it’s quite an important part of the whole social network aspect of a video publishing websites. It makes your website much more interactive if the user can upload content to your site and then share that video within the networks.
There are quite a few transcoding services on the market, like rip code. Ripcode have produced a serious video introducing the service. I’m actually a little scared of him, Still he talks about the market in great detail and it really helps you to get a good understanding of this growth market. Check it out below.
It’s cheep, It’s quick and it’s especially for film, sports and home movies! There called hotcakes! This company is giving away some really good quality free video background loops. As a video editor, custom made motion graphic loops are perfect to cut editing time down. If you have a deadline and you are getting really rushed by the client!! (come on editors, you know this is going to happen!) Using a motion graphic free loop is just a god send in helping you deliver your project on time! Some of these are easy to use with Chroma key and others take for ever to render in Final Cut Pro!
Film and TV broadcasters have enjoyed a lot of control over the last century in the way we watch our content… There was no way anybody could produce content and then submit it to the B.B.C. and have it aired within minutes or even years for this matter. Actually, now I think about it, your submission in most cases would have been looked at, at once, if youwere lucky! and then screwed up and chucked in the trash can!
Now with the rise of the broadband, this has opened up the channels for content producers to have a platform for one global audience. We love the ease of which you can create, encode and upload content on to the internet for everybody to see. This is great for the bedroom producer or maybe semi pro.. who wants to create an audience.. But we want to see the good stuff!
Here is where a major problem pops up and smacks the industry in the face. This is affecting our audiences and we are having to suffer billions of very poor quality content as a result…. Yep you guessed it “Rights issues”.. This means Hollywood and other major players around the world who produce the quality stuff, are only giving access to programs and films to internet companies that can pay for it and protect it. Most companies can’t protect the content yet, there are very few solutions which are good enough for Hollywood to let get of their content. Hulu.com is a major force and one that has done really well in the US, and we are about to see it come to the UK very shortly. The Kangoroo project that the UK broadcasters have been struggling to get off the ground, failed for these reason, rights! I believe anyway and not competitive clauses that the press fed us! (maybe I’m wrong, but it stands up)
How does a company solve these issues?, if they want their content to be seen over the web in particular territories, for example, Hollywood want French broadcasters to have the rights to show the content in France and not in Germany. So far the major players in the market are Flash & Microsoft. Lets face it, the flash player wins hands down, although Microsoft has a brilliant solution, but it does not look as pretty as flash. The problem with flash so far is that there has been no DRM standard for Flash and trust me Adobe is pushing for a DRM solution. Check out this article Adobe pushes DRM
This is a massive subject and there are two different sides to DRM, 1, which is protecting your video delivery over the internet via streaming or HTTP download. 2, Stopping people use your content without a license. We hear about Warner Brothers and other majors deleting videos off youtube.com. I hope to go into more detail in another blog..
I’m more concerned with the content and the production of it, but in this changing market you can’t help but get swallowed up in Digital delivery of video…
Now, I love “how to videos”, I also love filming, content creation and video editing. So I’m asking you, do I make “how too video tips” on production”? and then stick them on youtube.com? Well I could and I’m more than capable of doing that. But here is the thing, youtube.com, rever video , livevideo.com , google video and all the video channels are packed with people telling us about video production tips. Now that’s not including the videojug.com, 5mins.com & www.howto.tv sites of this world, which are dedicated to producing short form “how to” video. Don’t get me wrong; they provide an amazing service and I feel that if this is the way culture is going, and we turn to video sites like these to educate ourselves and not through books, then as a video expert in the field and an internet enthusiast I’m all for it. I think it’s an amazing niche in the market, and getting experts in each field to represent and produce videos rocks!
So, I started out with a question: do I make these kind of videos? is it worth it? does my niche have a big enough pull to make it worth while?? ahhhh I hear you say, yes let me say it again….”Do making these kind of videos make ME the content producer PROFIT??? Isn’t this what we work for? Well I personally would say NO it’s not worth it. As it’s a very crowded market and people out there have been doing it for a long time now. If I had a whole catalogue of videos in every niche like videojug.com then yes, it’s a great business model and welcome to profitability in the long term.
So firstly I want to thank everybody for teaching me how to learn Final Cut Pro and giving me tips on my cannon XH A1 as over the last few years, I have become a prolific video editor and director. ) Secondly I want make a PROFIT from online video!
To make a profit you have to get it from Advertising, cost per click, overlays, pay per click advertising and all that good stuff. It’s funny how similar online video is starting to become like the broadcast model, “Selling advertising.” The most hit sites get the best revenue and this is all based around good old fashioned story telling. So its all in the idea and in the content that makes that hit online video channel. It needs to be a channel and not just a hit video, something that people can follow, engage or subscribe to.
Who has seen lonely girl15 or LisaNova or even communitychannel? She has 114 Videos online and 1,327,498 million views this week on youtube.com and 138,546 subscribers. All these channels have a few common threads, they are all female, reality based and in their 20′s.. Does this tell you something about our audience?
OK I’m not going to give too much away, but I think I have given you some good ideas. Right!… now I’m off to the storyboard and produce my hit online video channel..
This is one sure way to make money and earn a pay per click revenue stream from your wonderful online video channel.
The world of online advertising just got easier through the medium of video! HAAAA We all know the power of video and i think we all really understand that we can’t broadcast online content, the same way as we do in the broadcast world. They use phrases such as scheduling and transmission. The online video world uses terms such as playlists, upload, download, UGC and content delivery. So now we have a company called magnify.net
It gives you a player to add to your site and it helps add new videos to your website by searching the web video channels for similar videos that you have put up on your own site so you can included them on your video playlist. Its so simple!
This builds a channel and with content that is very similar to your own, keeping the viewer interested in that topic area.
OK now whilst that is cool and easy to achieve, here is the fun part.. monitising your website, The advertising revenue from your channel will be split 50/50.
Yep! 50/50 ad inventory share, hmmm I know what i’m going to do now..
) Secondly I want make a PROFIT from online video! 
