This is not really going to be a teaching post. I just wanted to check in and give a little glimpse into something I have on "the drawing board." I've been thinking lately about videos that our VBloggers group is creating. You know we are learning lots from each other there! Some in the group are frequent video bloggers, take Nyssa or Steve as just two examples. What I find interesting foremost is of course their content, it is interesting and relevant to the consumer and their market. Each of these vloggers has used an intro clip before the main video. This is NOT required of course, but I REALLY LIKE it... I think it is very cool.
Nyssa uses iMovie and Steve uses Cyberlink PowerDirector - certain apps have different features which lets you do semi-professional looking things to create a higher quality presentation. It got me thinking, if I was to create an intro with what tools are available to me... what would I do?
What came to mind is a free web app called Prezi which does animated presentations, it is quite cool and is quickly becoming popular in convention presentations. Ok, I can do that. Next I need to record the presentation to video format, ok I can do that. Next, let's add a soundtrack, ok I can do that! Seems like I have all the pieces to go!
I spent about an hour learning Prezi today. It is very nice. I think I have a good grasp of the tools that you need in that app now. Prezi by the way offers free edition hoping to get you hooked and you need to buy the paid edition.
There are several free ways to record your screen. I happen to like a free app called Debut Video Capture. So I fired that up and recorded my test Prezi presentation with it. Now I should mention, videos that we create should generally be three to five minutes TOTAL target length. So you don't want your intro to eat too much into this. The body of your video is the main reason they are there. 15-20 seconds max should be allotted for an intro.
I added a soundtrack from danosongs.com which is royalty free, free to use music with attribution (which I just did for you). This is one site example of persons who give music away because it helps to get their name known.
Well here's my test intro - and remember it's not the real thing. It was just for me to complete my "test" that I could actually do it. I see a few things I will change when I do the real cut later.
Below, let me embed videos from others in VBloggers that have created some cool looking intros to their video series productions, first Steve Bachman
next Nyssa Smith
next Margie Kopp did this video for the recent Kodak Video challenge. She used a google app called SketchUp to create a very cool animated intro... the intro starts at the 35 second marker (Margie is fairly new to ActiveRain, head on over if you get a second and say hello!)
So VBloggers remember you do NOT need to do one of these fancy intros like you see here... however, if I have got your creative juices flowing (you know who you are), then here are some ideas for you to PONDER.
Happy Saturday!
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