Tutorial 5

Tutorial 5 (Week6, from Text Book Pg.195)

3) Discuss several considerations is shooting and editing video for multimedia. What techniques would you use to produce the best possible video, at a reasonable cost? Which of these techniques apply to all video, and which apply specifically to multimedia?

There are several considerations when shooting and editing video for multimedia are:

When Shooting a video:
1) Use a steady platform: Use a steady platform to avoid shaky camera work. We can use tripod to stabilize the camera or put the camera on a steady platform.

2) External Microphone: External microphone allows us to get a clearer and better quality of sounds. Also, an external microphone with cover can reduce the noise while recording. 

3) Know the features of camera and software: Know the features of camera is important because it we must know what kind of the video format (such as avi, wmv, flv, mpg, 3gp, mp4, mov) and the frame rate while recording and whether the camera support HD video or not. For the software part, we can use pre-compression clean-up software for old/noisy video.

4) Aspect ratio: It is important to decide what aspect ratio to be used for recording with two or more camera. It would be difficult to combine video with different aspect ratio such as 16:9 and 4:3 due to the width and height are totally different. And also we have to convert it to same the same ratio before we combine the video together, but this may make the video being stretched (if convert 4:3 to 16:9), some corner part of the video will missing (if convert 16:9 to 4:3) and the video quality may reduce. Therefore, it is important to standardize the aspect ratio up front. 

5) Light: Avoid shooting video in a dark environment because most camera become noisier at a lower light level environment. 

6) Avoid Zooming: Zooming affects the quality of the video especially zoom to high level such as x8 x16. Use close-up and medium shots when possible. 

7) Beware of backlighting: Backlighting causes the edges of the subject become glow, while the other areas become very dark.

8) Adjust the white balance: The problem is camera is far less accurate then on own amazing eyes, so making these fine adjustments helps your camera to better approximate the color your camera sees to the color we see with our eyes.

When editing video:

1) Hardware: A high speed computer is highly recommended when doing editing because it affect the processing and rendering speed. High speed computer takes shorter time.

2) Software: Video editing software (such as Sony Movie Studio Premiere, Adobe Premiere Elements) is important because it allows us to add special effect, texting, sound, adjust the contrast and brightness of the video and many more. 

3) Codec: A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. Because there is not standardization in Codec, therefore some of the editing software may not support all the features available in the codec. However, we can install the codec by ourselves. In addition, video codecs are lossy thus we must avoid re-editing.

4) Titles and Text: Use plain, sans serif fonts that are easy to read; choose colors wisely avoiding using same color with background; provide ample space for adding subtitles; leave titles on screen long enough so that the audiences have enough time to read.

What techniques would you use to produce the best possible video, at a reasonable cost?

The techniques that use to produce best possible video is using a video camera with Full HD supported. Definitely, video camera that support Full HD would be expensive for us. As a student, we do not need a very expensive and powerful camera due to lack of money. We can use Sony NEX-5R camera to capture full HD video and the price is RM2,699. For the editing software, I will use Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 Production Site due to the price is reasonable for a student. I will make sure I use a steady platform and setup the aspect ratio up front. 

For the sound recording, I will use external microphone with muff cover to reduce the noise. In addition, I will avoid zooming, backlighting and make sure I record the video in a light adequate environment. Adjust white balance if necessary. For titles and text, I will use  plain, sans serif fonts that are easy to read; choose colors wisely avoiding using same color with background; provide ample space for adding subtitles; leave titles on screen long enough so that the audiences have enough time to read.

Which of these techniques apply to all video, and which apply specifically to multimedia?

Techniques apply to all video: Use a steady platform, external microphone, aspect ratio, lighting, backlighting, avoid zooming, adjust white balance, titles and text.

Techniques apply to multimedia: Use a steady platform, aspect ratio, titles and text, lighting