DV 101: A Hands-On Guide for Business, Government & Educators

DV 101: A Hands-On Guide for Business, Government & Educators

by Jan Ozer
Released February 2005
Publisher(s): Peachpit Press
ISBN: 9780321348975

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Book description

Corporations, government offices, and academic institutions have long used video to educate and inform. The only thing that's changed is the people who are producing them: With low-priced equipment and easy-to-use software flooding the market, now you're the person behind the camera, not some high-priced video specialist! This is the guide for you, then-and all of the other nonprofessionals who've been called upon to produce top-quality videos. Long on essentials-like where to place the camera, how to connect microphones, and which font to use in titles-and short on theory, this guide focuses instead on the simple steps and best practices needed to produce great videos. Veteran author Jan Ozer gives you the lowdown on shooting, audio, and lighting before describing the workflow and procedures involved in converting raw DV footage to streaming video and DVDs, and distributing the final product. For software-specific guidance, you can purchase downloadable PDF workbooks that use the book's projects to walk you through the production process.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
    1. Dedication
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. Introduction
    1. About This Book
  4. 1. Mastering the Video Shoot
    1. Assumptions
    2. Three Scenarios
      1. 1. Executive Briefing
      2. 2. Interview
      3. 3. Discussion/Training
    3. Creating Your Shot List
      1. Telling Your Story—Visually
      2. Visual Continuity—Outside/Inside
      3. Establishing/Re-Establishing
      4. Two-Shot/One-Shot
      5. Getting the Noddies
      6. Audio Continuity
    4. Setting the Scene—Executive Briefing
      1. Locating the Subject
      2. Dressing the Subject
      3. Managing the Background
      4. Camera Height
      5. Camera Placement
      6. Framing
      7. Interview
      8. Discussion
      9. Multiple-Camera Shoots
    5. In the Workbook
  5. 2. Capturing High-Quality Audio
    1. Identifying Your Connection Options
    2. Choosing Your Microphone
    3. Questions Before Buying
      1. 1. What is the Pickup Pattern?
      2. 2. Should I go Powered or Unpowered?
      3. 3. What’s the Connector Type?
    4. Fitting a Square Peg into a Round Hole
    5. Performance Comparisons
    6. Real-World Sound Choices
      1. Scenario 1. Executive Briefing (CEO Broadcast)
      2. Scenario 2: Formal Interview
      3. Scenario 3: Group Discussion (interview, training)
      4. Scenario 4: Wedding
      5. Scenario 5: Connecting to a Sound System
    7. Cleaning Your Noisy Audio
      1. Jan’s Rules
    8. In the Workbook
  6. 3. Guerilla Lighting
    1. Three-Point Lighting—The Art of Lighting
      1. The Key Light
      2. The Fill Light
      3. The Back Light
    2. Flat Lighting—The Reality of Lighting
    3. Lighting Fundamentals
      1. Your Camera Doesn’t “See” As Well As Your Eyes
        1. Application
      2. All Lights Have a Different Color Temperature
        1. Application
      3. The Color Rendering Index (CRI)
      4. Hard Versus Soft Lighting
        1. Application
      5. Defining “Good Lighting”
    4. The Lighting Toolset
      1. Sources of Light
        1. Incandescent Bulbs
        2. Benefits and Effects
        3. Halogen Bulbs
        4. Benefits and Effects
        5. Fluorescent Bulbs
        6. Benefits and Effects
        7. Camera-Mounted Lights
        8. Benefits and Effects
        9. Bounce Cards (Reflector Boards)
        10. Diffusion Kits
        11. Gels (Filters)
        12. Lenses
        13. Zebra Pattern
    5. User Scenarios
      1. Professional Versus Homegrown Lighting
  7. 4. Digital Production Workflows
    1. DV Production Workflow—Definitions
    2. DV—Our Starting Point
      1. Formats and Codecs
      2. About Compression
      3. It’s All About the Bandwidth
      4. About Bits and Bytes
      5. Choosing Your Delivery Codec
  8. 5. Editing Techniques
    1. 1. Getting Started
    2. 2. Capture Your Video
    3. 3. Finalize Your Audio Track
    4. 4. Add Cutaways, Noddies, and Establishing Shots
      1. Avoid Jump Cuts
      2. Producing Split Edits
      3. Using Transitions
    5. 5. Create Titles and Credits
      1. Title and Action Safe Regions
      2. Broadcast Safe
      3. Choosing a Font—Background
      4. Choosing a Font—Recommendations
      5. Opening Title
      6. Name/Title or Affiliation
      7. Information Screen
      8. Bullet Points
      9. Closing Credits
      10. Copyright Notice
      11. Customizing Titles for Streaming
    6. 6. Add Logos and Still Images
      1. Adding Full-Screen Images to Video
      2. Using 2D Controls to Scan Around the Image
    7. 7. Fading In and Out
    8. In the Workbook
  9. 6. Shooting for Compositing & Streaming
    1. Shooting for Compositing
      1. The Background
      2. Background Size
      3. Lighting
      4. Camera
    2. The Software Side
      1. Choosing the Color
      2. Smoothing Controls
      3. Garbage Mattes
      4. A Caveat
    3. Shooting for Streaming Video
      1. The Black Screen
    4. In the Workbook
  10. 7. Rendering Your Projects
    1. Video Compression Basics
      1. Advanced Encoding Parameters
      2. The Many Flavors of VBR
      3. Square-Pixel Output
      4. Progressive Display and Deinterlacing
      5. Keyframes
    2. Choosing Audio Encoding Parameters
      1. Subsampling for Quality
      2. Allocating Between Audio and Video
    3. Output to DV Tape
    4. Producing Streaming Files
      1. Apple QuickTime
      2. Windows Media
      3. Real
    5. Producing MPEG-2 Files
    6. Producing MPEG-1 Files
    7. Output to DV Format
    8. In The Workbook
  11. 8. Producing DVDs
    1. About DVD-Recordable Technology
      1. How Much Video Can I Fit on My DVD?
      2. What’s the Storage Capacity of DVD-Recordable Discs?
      3. Industry Improvements
      4. Is There a Difference Between DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW?
      5. Will Discs Produced by My DVD Recorder Play on All DVD Players?
    2. Putting Content on Your Disc
      1. What Audio and Video Formats Can I Use?
      2. Why Should I Care About Dolby Digital Audio?
      3. Can I Insert Slideshows?
      4. What About Text Subtitles?
      5. What About Multiple Audio Tracks?
      6. By the Way, What’s a VOB File?
    3. How Do I Build My Menus?
      1. What are the Basic Design Components of a Menu?
      2. How Do Navigational Options Vary By Program?
      3. How Do I Allow the User to Jump to a Random Point in the Video File (What Are Chapter Points)?
      4. What’s a Playlist?
    4. How Do I Control Viewer Navigation?
      1. What Happens When the Viewer Inserts the Disc (First Play Video)?
      2. What Happens if No One Clicks Anything (Menu Timeout)?
      3. What Happens Next (End Action)?
      4. What About Menu-to-Menu Links?
    5. How Do I Fit All This on Disc?
      1. What About Bit Budgeting?
      2. Sounds Too Complex; How About Some Examples?
    6. Back on the Farm, How Do I Build This Thing?
      1. Linking Your Content and Menus
      2. How do I Preview my DVD?
    7. Time to Burn
      1. Finishing Touches
    8. In the Workbook
  12. 9. Using Video in Presentations
    1. Inserting Video into PowerPoint For Windows
      1. Insert Action Button (All Video Types)
      2. Insert Movie (MPEG, Windows Media, AVI Files)
      3. Object Linking (MPEG, Windows Media, AVI Files)
      4. Creating Links in Your Video
    2. Inserting Video into PowerPoint:Mac
      1. Insert Movies and Sounds
      2. Insert Hyperlink
    3. Apple Keynote
  13. 10. Streaming with Producer for PowerPoint
    1. Where to Get Producer for PowerPoint
    2. Creating Your Presentation
      1. Choosing a Template
      2. Loading Your Content
      3. Capturing
      4. Synchronizing Your Content
      5. Working in the Producer Timeline
      6. Polishing Your Text
      7. Inserting Web Links
      8. Preview and Adjust Synchronization
    3. Publishing Your Presentation
      1. Choosing Encoding Parameters
    4. Final Tips
  14. 11. Producing and Deploying Closed Captions
    1. Preliminary Issues
    2. Creating Your Captioning Standard
      1. Step 1: How Many Lines
      2. Step 2: Which Captioning Technique?
      3. Step 3: Tips on Text Segmentation
      4. Step 4: Choose Your Font and Case
      5. Step 5: Choose Your Font Size
      6. Step 6: Define Text Placement and Speaker Identification
      7. Step 7: Define Rules for Noises and Other Points of Emphasis
      8. Step 8: Choose Your Music Treatment
      9. Step 9: Editing the Text
      10. Step 10: Other Issues
    3. Creating Your Closed-Captioned Text
      1. Manual Conversion
      2. Speech Recognition
      3. Converting Broadcast Closed Captions
    4. Converting Your Text to Closed Captions
    5. Creating Closed Captions with MAGpie
      1. Synchronizing Captions and Audio
      2. Exporting the Captioned Stream
    6. Closed Captioning and Windows Media Files
    7. Closed Captioning and Real Video Files
    8. Closed Captioning and QuickTime Files
    9. Converting Closed Captions to Subtitles
    10. In the Workbook

Product information

  • Title: DV 101: A Hands-On Guide for Business, Government & Educators
  • Author(s): Jan Ozer
  • Release date: February 2005
  • Publisher(s): Peachpit Press
  • ISBN: 9780321348975