web 2.0

I have been working with mind mapping apps recently. Here's a map of many of the web 2.0 apps I use. I haven't added all the notes to explain each entry but I guess you can figure it out. There's a mac bias. Sorry. I try to pick cross platform and free apps and services where possible. This was made with Xminds free application. It was neat and quick to use. You can figure it out quite easily. The export options are limited on the free version. Here's the result.



There's a lot of stuff here! Enjoy, see you next year.

Mike J

(I've had to correct the embed code and still can't get the bottom of the player to show. Click bottom right to enlarge the viewer. Mmmm the hyperlinks don't work. I am not impressed.)

pps. OK perhaps this will be better. I have uploaded the file produced by Xmind in mm format to Mind42 and published it. Here's it embedded.



That looks slightly better and the links seem to work.

With web 2.0 there are a huge range of tool to help you work. I have been investigating some recently to help creative collaboration. Here are a few ideas:

Brainstorming -

1. Mind42 (mind maps)
2. Mindmeister (mind maps - incl iApp (£))
3. Xmind (downloadable app for mind maps)
   
4. Prezi This is a web app designed as an alternative to Powerpoints and the domination of bulleted lists. Might be good for outlining ideas, pitching stories etc.
   

Collaboration -
(real time)

1. Etherpad (Google has recently acquired this technology and the future of the free service is not clear).
2. Google Docs, either presentations or documents.
   
3. Facebook, for groups and communication
   
4. Celtx studio. I have a test account.
   
5. Acrobat.com has 'buzzword' for documents and presentations too. Slicker than Google Presentations. But only embeds pdfs like Google (so not documents).
6. iPaper embeddable documents!! Really aiming as a way of publishing. Works in VLE like Blackboard/Minerva.
   
7. Evernote Its possible to share research through their note sharing facility. iPhone app, Firefox add-on, downloadable application. Here is a shared notebook. I can add research so all can see. But others can only read it. It is an easy and very quick way of gathering and sharing material. But its one sided. Creating a generic account might be one way around this. But you could share a 'look book' or scrap book for filmmaking etc
   

Distribution (cross platform)

Dropbox (Docs and PDFs work well but text files don't on my iPhone) Optional download App that lives in the Mac Finder window. Really neat idea. You can share items from your dropbox. Last year this seemed very slow, but it seems to work better now.

box.net - free 1GB up to 25MB file size.

The future will be strongly influenced by Google Wave. Its buggy and in beta now. I've messed around with it alittle. One to watch next year.

regards, Mike J

Re cycling HDV tapes - Don't

Last year we decided to switch from SD DV to HDV. (How much do I regret that decision?)

I have already blogged about the issues we had with just playing the material in QuickTime outside of Final Cut. In view of the problems we had we decided to switch back. We recycled the tapes and even took the precaution of pre striping them in SD DV. Then we sent the teams out to shoot. When they returned, we started the capture and logging. that's when the timecode issues started. OK, its one of the 3 Sony Z1's. Nope they all had the same problems. Its due to the deck we striped with being faulty. Possibly but unlikely. We guess its the original HDV timecode. Wouldn't you assume that recording over timecode would have erased the previous?

The advantages of HDV over Standard Definition 16:9 video are clearly outweighed because of the disadvantages. In fact if the time spent trying to get the stuff into the edit then out of the machines were spent on planning, shooting and editing the quality of the film would be more significantly benefited. ( Have I calmed down yet?) Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Researching and web 2.0

The web is an amazing place to research but you need to be organised. Since you have to blog as well, but not combine the two?

If you set up iGoogle and Firefox carefully they can help you do this. I use both quite a lot. I have added 'extensions' that add functionality to the browser. For example Delicious bookmarks, add to netvibes, Evernote web clipper, Screenshot pimp, Zotero and Xmarks. I also use a portable version of Firefox so that these are configured and present when I use my browser. With your home page set for something you use all the time - set several - and they'll open when you launch the application.

Searching the web.

Searching with Google using + and - and "" to refine your search.
The advantages of using tabbed browsing should be obvious. Its also worth learning a few keyboard short cuts:

• CMD + T opens a new tab
• CMD + L highlights the current URL
• CMD + C copies
• CMD + V pastes
• CMD + X cuts ( and places on the clipboard)
• TAB key shifts to the next field or box

Don't just use Google. Find other ways of accessing the web's store of information. Delicious is a store of peoples bookmarks. It makes a good place to search. Search blogs. You can take even fuller advantage of web 2.0 by using the power of RSS with Google alerts, yahoo searches or even Yahoo Pipes. This way the information is filtered by choices you have indicated. I find Twitter increasingly useful - its often a case of finding a good person to follow. Here's a good introductory guide written by my Colleague Katherine Reeves.

Google docs give me a suite of applications - online versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I can access these anywhere and share the documents created there too.

When you embed a Google Presentation it's worth noting that this is a feed. Any changes made to the file will be updated in the embedded version too. You need to make it 342 x 410 to fit the Blogger template.

Lastly, it's good and fair practice to credit and link back to your sources. Derek Pierce, as Beatsystem, kindly allowed me to use his music with students. Where you have uploaded your edits with his music you should credit him and link to his website. This way if someone wants to know more about the music he gets the click through. I should have reminded you at the time. Sorry Derek.

Solutions to recent transcoding problems

Transcoding is the process of changing a file from one format to another. Last week having edited as aif students needed to convert to a Wav file. Its common to have to do this converted from one to another and back again. The conversion to MP3 is also very common. These are all different CODECs.

Here is a post I wrote earlier this year about Switch - a free Mac app that makes it easy to convert from one audio format to another.

The file conversion site Zamzar is another favorite of mine. This works on all sort of file types - image, document, media.

The producers of Switch also make a free - multi platform audio editor called Wavepad Sound Editor, it looks good and will do the conversion to multiple formats too. The open source fav is Audacity - which I have found to be good. for simple stereo editing Sound Studio is neat and very mac-like. It only runs of Mac and doesn't convert to MP3 sadly, oh yes and costs $80.

You have to get used to understanding formats and develop your own toolbox and workarounds. There isn't an easy cheap one stop shop. Or maybe there is? Let me know.

The Art of Blogging 2.2

This post carries on from part 1 and details the practical aspects of writing your blog. I also cover assessing reflective writing and list some blogs you might like to subscribe to.
How do you blog (using Blogger.com)?
Here is a quick introduction from Blogger.



You might prefer to use WordPress.com. Here's this post using that blogging engine.

Layout. The great thing about about Blogs is that they allow you to present your ideas and writing without worrying about the HTML code that underlies the blog - which is really a website. But you still need to think about how you make the limited number of choices about layout. Its easy to post your first blog and then experiment with different styles and looks - called templates. These will alter the form but not the content of the blog. Make sure your blog is readable. Grey text against black is not a good idea. Some of your selections can affect how they read when the blog is accessed by a Reader. Check! Here are some ideas, from the web usability expert Jake Nielson, about positioning pictures and information - the F-shaped pattern.

Widgets. These can add great content to your blog and are quite easy to set up. Add, check and remove if they detract. See cliches below!
About you. Include some information about yourself - who you are, why you are blogging, what you hope to achieve, what someone might learn from your blog. You are more likely to get people subscribing if they have these information.
(Post) Title. This is what as known in web design as 'microcontent'. Choose the title for your post very carefully. It needs to be simple and informative. Again Readers display the title. Subscribers might scan just the titles while deciding what to read. Then mark as read anything that doesn't appeal - missing your beautifully crafted post.
Structure. The opening paragraph needs to summarise the post, but in a way to raise interest. I often write this last - before publishing online. Its easier once you can see what you have said, to craft the introduction. There is a difference between academic writing and writing for the web. The structure is closer to the journalistic 'inverted pyramid'.
Links. Without any links the posting has no context. In an academic essay you are required to include quotes that support the ideas you are discussing. Then at the end of the essay there is a bibliography that relates to the reference. The idea being that interested parties can trace the reference back to the original source. How much easier is it to do this on a blog! If you find a useful site and use it, link to it. If there is more information that relates to your post, link again. Be aware that if you want to link to a blog post make sure you use that postings url (permalink) and not the blog's home page. (Whats displayed on the homepage will change.)
Multimedia. Not using images, video and audio is to criminally under use the blogging medium. As they say a picture can say a 1000 words. Not only that but this is a media course. So include media, both yours and others (its about context again). You can upload video and images to Blogger. They get stored on your account - Picasa. You can download Picasa as an application and use it instead of iPhoto (I think its better). The free storage for Picasa is actually quite modest.
You are better uploading to your YouTube or Vimeo account and embedding the video into the blog. Still images could be embedded from Flickr or Photobucket. (Keep track of your accounts and passwords). There are uploaders for iPhoto that will help you manage uploads. iPhoto will upload to Facebook and Picasa. Videonic will upload from your mac to Youtube.
Here are 13 blog cliches from Jeff Atwood's blog that are worth thinking about.
Writing. Just because its not an essay doesn't mean that you don't have to spell, capitalise, punctuate, and paragraph. I expect to see all of these displayed to degree level. There's a spellchecker in Blogger. Use it , then check it - its US English. We require UK English! Its normal to have 2 spaces at the end of a sentence - it makes the piece easier to read. Use one space after a comma. If you cut and paste from WORD you will get problems with your blog. Use a plan text editor instead, like TextEdit on the Mac, NotePad on a PC.
Organisation. Labelling (or tagging). You have the option to tag/label your posts. This is basic metatagging. It makes your blog easier to navigate. It makes sense for you, your readers and its good media practice. Things need to be organised so that you can store, search and find things. The labels allow you to catagorise your posts. If you are interested in the ideas of organisation - and they are relevant to you and your studies, watch this presentation by David Weinberger (or read his book - its an easy read!)



Content. Your content needs to be legal, fair and decent.  You must avoid libel, slander and deformation of character.  Your blog is public not private.

As students this is where the bulk of the marks will be given. It would help to start by thinking about what use blogs actually serve. Whom are they aimed at? Here are some broad descriptions:

1. A diary/daily journal - what you did, what you think,
2. Commercial support - development and problem solving with users
3. Interest groups - sharing information with like minded people on one subject, area or topic
4. Personal thoughts and ideas - reflecting on topics and subject(s) that interest you

Your blog may need to have some journal type of writing (1). As well as your thoughts and ideas (4).
Description. What of what happened,what didn't happen, and what were the consequences etc.
Reflection. Detail the logic of decisions and choices. You should comment on alternatives you might have taken and whether that might have been better/worse for whatever reasons.
Context. You also need to contextualise your work and thoughts - that is relate them to other examples, current practice etc. A lot of student writing tends to cover descriptive writing quite well and be less effective in reflecting on and contextualising their work.
Lessons learnt. You should also comment on what you feel you learnt, what you feel you need to learn, illustrating it by explaining how you might perform the task/exercise if you were to do it again.
How do we judge 'reflective writing'? Broadly we might define reflective writing like this:

Excellent reflective writing has these qualities: Reflective language that describes, analyses and plans subsequent actions as a result of reviewing processes and events.

Good reflective writing has these qualities: Use of vocabulary, writing style and expression indicate engagement with the reflective process. Evidence of self-evaluation and awareness of the wider context.

Poor reflective writing has these qualities: Writing style mainly descriptive but some engagement with the reflective process. Reflection largely confined to the personal, with little attempt to connect to the wider context.

Very poor reflective writing has these qualities: Use of vocabulary, writing style and expression entirely descriptive, showing very little engagement with the reflective process.

As with all things you get better with practice, but you can also learn a lot from just reading a range of blogs. Here are some you might like to read and subscribe to in your Reader (they may also provide context for some of your studies):
Phil Bloom Freelance Director of Photography and exponent of cinematic style video shooting. (Often on DSLRs).
Powertothepixel Great site that attempts to gather news and information about transmedia developments.

Wired magazine UK based version of the US techie site. Good for tech news with UK slant.

Readwrite More tech news this time based in the States, but very comprehensive and up to date.
Smashing Magazine Highlights design issues. Often something of interest.

Stu Maschwitz Stu wrote the DV rebel handbook and is a post production guru. Interesting and thought provoking. Some of his stuff on colour grading etc is very informative. (His books worth a read too. Check out the library.)
The Guardian (Media section) classic resource on the Media (Monday's paper issue - but there's more online)
Good luck with your blogging. If this has helped you, or you think it can be improved - leave a comment. That's also very much part of the art of blogging.
Mike J

The Art of student blogging 2.1

This post carries on from part 1 and details the practical aspects of writing your blog. I will also cover assessing reflective writing and list some blogs you might like to subscribe to.

How do you blog (using Blogger.com)? Here is a quick introduction from Blogger.

How do you actually blog?

Layout. The great thing about about Blogs is that they allow you to present your ideas and writing without worrying about the HTML code that underlies the blog - which is really a website. But you still need to think about how you make the limited number of choices about layout. Its easy to post your first blog and then experiment with different styles and looks - called templates. These will alter the form but not the content of the blog. Make sure your blog is readable. Grey text against black is not a good idea. Some of your selections can affect how they read when the blog is accessed by a Reader. Check!

Widgets. These can add great content to your blog and are quite easy to set up. Add, check and remove if they detract.

About you. Include some information about yourself - who you are, why you are blogging, what you hope to achieve, what someone might learn from your blog. You are more likely to get people subscribing if they have these information.

(Post)Title. Choose the title for your post very carefully. It needs to be simple and informative. Again Readers display the title. Subscribers might scan just the titles while deciding what to read. Then mark as read anything that doesn't appeal - missing your beautifully crafted post.

Structure. The opening paragraph needs to summarise the post, but in a way to raise interest. I often write this last - before publishing online. Its easier once you can see what you have said, to craft the introduction.

Links. Without any links the posting has no context. In an academic essay you are required to include quotes that support the ideas you are discussing. Then at the end of the essay there is a bibliography that relates to the reference. The idea being that interested readers can trace the reference back to the original source. How much easier is this on a blog! If you find a useful site and use it, link to it. If there is more information that relates to your post, link again. Be aware that if you want to link to a blog post make sure you use that posting's url (permalink) and not the blog's home page. (Whats displayed on the homepage will change.)

Multimedia. Not using images, video and audio is to criminally under use the blogging medium. A picture can say a 1000 words. Especially so if you are blogging for a media course. So include media, both yours and others (it's about context again). You can upload video and images to Blogger. They get stored on your account - Picasa. You can download Picasa as an application and use it instead of iPhoto (I think its better). However the free storage for Picasa is actually quite modest. You are better uploading to your YouTube or Vimeo account and embedding the video into the blog. Still images could be embedded from Flickr or Photobucket. (Keep track of your accounts and passwords). There are uploaders for iPhoto that will help you manage uploads. iPhoto will upload to Facebook and Picasa. Videonic will upload from your mac to Youtube. There is also Divshare - this will allow you to embed and stream audio and video from your Blog.

Writing. Just because its not an essay doesn't mean that you don't have to spell, Capitalise, punctuate, and paragraph. I expect to see all of these displayed to degree level. There's a spellchecker in Blogger. Use it , then check it - its US English. We require UK English! It's normal practice to have 2 spaces at the end of a sentence - it makes the piece easier to read. Use one space after a comma.

Organisation. Labelling (or tagging). You have the option to tag/label your posts. This is basic metatagging. It makes your blog easier to navigate. It makes sense for you, your readers and it's good media management. Things need to be organised so that you can store, search and find things. The labels allow you to catagorise your posts. If you are interested in the ideas of organisation - and they are relevant to you and your studies, watch this presentation by David Weinberger (or read his book - its an easy read!)


Content. Remember that your content needs to be legal, fair and decent.  You must avoid libel, slander and deformation of character.  Your blog is public and not private.

From a student point of view, this is where the bulk of the marks are likely to be given. It would help to start by thinking about what uses blogs actually serve. Whom are they aimed at? Here are some broad descriptions:

1. A diary/daily journal - what you did, what you think,
2. Commercial support - development and problem solving with users
3. Interest groups - sharing information with like minded people on one subject, area or topic
4. Personal thoughts and ideas - reflecting on topics and subject(s) that interest you

Your blog may need to have some journal type of writing (1). As well as your thoughts and ideas (4).

Description. What of what happened,what didn't happen, and what were the consequences etc.

Reflection. Detail the logic of decisions and choices. You should comment on alternatives you might have taken and whether that might have been better/worse for whatever reasons.

Context. You also need to contextualise your work and thoughts - relate them to other examples, current practice etc. A lot of student writing tends to cover descriptive writing quite well and be less effective in reflecting on and contextualising their work.

Lessons learnt. You should also comment on what you feel you learnt, what you feel you need to learn, illustrating it by explaining how you might perform the task/exercise if you were to do it again.

How do we judge 'reflective writing'? Broadly we might define reflective writing like this:

Excellent reflective writing has these qualities: Reflective language that describes, analyses and plans subsequent actions as a result of reviewing processes and events.

Good reflective writing has these qualities: Use of vocabulary, writing style and expression indicate engagement with the reflective process. Evidence of self-evaluation and awareness of the wider context.

Poor reflective writing has these qualities: Writing style mainly descriptive but some engagement with the reflective process. Reflection largely confined to the personal, with little attempt to connect to the wider context.

Very poor reflective writing has these qualities: Use of vocabulary, writing style and expression entirely descriptive, showing very little engagement with the reflective process.

As with all things you get better with practice, but you can also learn a lot from just reading a range of blogs. Here are some you might like to read and subscribe to in your Reader (they may also provide context for some of your studies):

Phil Bloom Freelance Director of Photography and exponent of cinematic style video shooting. (Often on DSLRs).

Powertothepixel Great site that attempts to gather news and information about transmedia developments.

Wired magazine UK based version of the US techie site. Good for tech news with UK slant.

Readwrite More tech news this time based in the States, but very comprehensive and up to date.

Smashing Magazine Highlights design issues. Often something of interest.

Stu Maschwitz Stu wrote the DV rebel handbook and is a post production guru. Interesting and thought provoking. Some of his stuff on colour grading etc is very informative. (His books worth a read too. Check out the library.)

The Guardian (Media section) classic resource on the Media (Monday's paper issue - but there's more online)

Good luck with your blogging. If this has helped you, or you think it can be improved - leave a comment. That's also very much part of the art of blogging.
Mike J
--
Posted By Mike Johnston to Mike j's Blog on 9/03/2009 01:12:00 PM

Blogging for students part 1.

As part of the Foundation Degree in Media Production we require students to blog as part of their course work. This post explains what blogs are, how they work, and why you have to blog. There is a second post that covers the practicalities of student blogging.

It's important that you know:

1. What a blog is
2. Why you are blogging
3. How to blog
4. What they need to blog
5. How the blog will be assessed

What is a blog?

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.

taken from wikipedia.

Commoncraft have produced an excellent guide to blogging.



But blogging is only half the story. It's the filtering and finding of information - the 'broadcasting' or distribution of your blog, that makes up the other half. This is achieved using RSS. Or Really Simple Syndication. Lee Lefever (sounding rather tinny) explains again.



How can I use RSS? There are several ways. The first is by using a 'Reader'. Since we will be using Blogger.com which is owned by Google, its easiest to use the Google Reader since you'll already have a Google ID or email address. Once more (and I tried to find someone else to explain this, but Lee's version was way better an the others.)



Or you can create a web page that updates with the blogs or 'feeds' that you subscribe to. Examples of this are Netvibes, Pageflakes or My Yahoo. Google also offers the Google page. I like Netvibes - here is one I use to share FD Media Production blog feeds. The choice is really yours. Experiment, it's all free!

I favour using the Google Reader. Since I have a Gmail account, I use iGoogle and have set up my iGoogle desk top with the Google Reader widget. That way when I open my browser (its my browser's Home page) and I can see my Google desktop with all recent posts from feeds I follow. I can also see activity on my Facebook account, Gmail account, Twitter etc etc.

(Here's more about iGoogle, using a portable version of Firefox installed on a USB stick, and getting the most from Firefox. OK its geeky but its useful I think. The only way to 'get' this technology is to use it. Take it bit by bit. You don't have to get it all immediately!



Why blog? The best way to answer this is to think of the short term and the longer term. Here's the short term logic to using blogs rather than essays.

Traditionally students write to show that they have understood what they have been taught. It's also part of the way we assess and qualify the student. As part of the course we could ask you to write an essay. However with the Internet we have (arguably) a better way of you presenting your work and ideas, since you can embed media and link to items that have informed, inspired you or support your ideas. These elements are drawn together by your reflection on them. A key part of that is to show your work as part of similar work that has or is being done (placing your work in the context of others). Reflective writing, and practice, is necessary in order to develop 'learning autonomy'. This is where you take responsibility for your learning and development. Students usually find reflective writing difficult if you need extra help, learning support is provided at university and colleges.

Since we are working in an area (the Media), that's currently undergoing radical and constant change, you need to be part of that! Utilising the web, like this, is the most effective way of being up to date and part of the zeitgeist. There is an employability issue underlying this too - you need to understand the theory and practice of this way of working - Web 2.0. It's likely to play a large part in the way you consume and create media now and in the future. Your blog might well morph into your online portfolio and therefore become part of the supporting material for a job/freelance application. It might say more about you than a traditional CV. Here are some interesting comments, taken from the Film and Digital Exchange website, about creating an online portfolios from Chris Martin an animator and motion graphics artist.

Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.


The history of Web 2.0




Some interesting thoughts on Web 2.0 and where it might take us...



In part 2 I cover the practical aspects of writing your blog as well as explaining what good reflective writing (blogging) entails.

Mike J

31 outlines in 31 days

The aim was to write the outline for a short film each day of the month - for the whole of July. I got the idea from doing the Bath Photomarathon. A sort of writing challenge - a' writeathon'. I wanted the outlines to be for a short film of 5 - 8 minutes in duration that would be easily producible. I largely stuck to these criteria.

How did I do? Well if I'm honest, I didn't manage 31 out of 31. Life got in the way several times. The 10th to the 15th in particular - as I tried to clear the decks before my leave!) But looking at the 21 outlines I did write, I notice several things:

1. I never failed to write one when I started
2. Sometimes they came easily but mostly they didn't
3. I never spent more than 45 mins writing any of them
4. I wrote several a day at times to 'get back on track'
   
5. Some are boring, some are obvious, and some might have potential (in that proportion)
   
6. I got better at it and worked out ways of doing it more easily
   
7. The repetition and process helped. Sometimes 2 different ideas ended up in one outline
8. I enjoyed it and laughed a lot
   
9. I was pleased with some of my ideas
10. I was pleased to get to the 31st

I found a number of ways of getting going:

• save up ideas during the day (this felt like cheating)
  
• taking any idea and thinking it out. Any idea will do...and like waiting for a bus, a whole bunch tend to arrive at once
• sitting somewhere different
• listening to music
• pretending to be someone else
• start with an object, image, character, a story, a line of dialogue
• taking something that already exists and re imagineering it
• doodling
• what ifs...
• moving around
  

Was it worth doing? Yes I think it was. Leaving aside some of the ideas that are worth developing, there is definitely something to be gained from really immersing yourself in an activity. It focused my mind on lots of issues around storytelling. There are some re occurring themes - the film-making process (constructed reality if you want to be fancy), mundane things behaving oddly, and strange romances. In the future I would like to write some outlines that are more associational than linear. I think that the time constraint defines the type of film. The short film is almost a genre of its own. (One of the outlines is about this.)

Would I do it again? Yes, but not for a while. I think that I might apply the idea to photography or songwriting. I intend to develop some of the outlines too. Again I think that applying a pattern to their development might be interesting. Do 1 a week? Pick 4 for a month? I might try that next. First comes a weeks holiday.

Using Youtube or Vimeo?

YouTube is a great service and I use it alot. But there are some advantage of using another service called Vimeo. The main one is that you can upload videos and control the people who have access to it. So that rough cuts and work and progress can be shared or collaboratively worked on , privately. As far as quality goes I thinks its about even. YouTube has improved recently with the addition of HD and more importantly support for 16:9 playback. I, personally, find YouTube to stream more consistently. But then I think my home ISP (Tiscali) is to blame for this!

The basic account at Vimeo is free with limits on the number of HD files you can upload a week and the max weekly data upload. Thats 1 HD video and 500 mb respectively. Plenty for normal use. The video that you upload is converted by Vimeo and then the orginal is deleted after a week, leaving the compressed version to view and download. So its NOT a storage service for your videos!

You need to compress the video, initially. This is to maximise your data useage, mimimise the upload time and create the best looking online video. There are a number of ways of doing this. Here are the vimeo guidelines:

Codec - Choose H.264 for the video codec. Choose AAC for the audio codec.

Frame rate – 25 per sec. If there is an option that says "current" just go with that.

Keyframes - Every 25 frames. This is basically how often the compressor references your uncompressed video.

Data rate - 1800 kbits/sec for standard definition 4:3 video , 2500 kbits/sec for widescreen DV, or 5000 kbits/sec for high definition. Making these numbers higher will increase both quality and size.

Size - 720 x576 for standard definition 4:3 video, 1024 x 576 for widescreen DV, or 1280x720 for high definition. It is also best to export 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 video as 1280x720 too.

Deinterlace - Yes. If you do not deinterlace, you will often get weird-looking horizontal lines in your video.

Sound sample rate - 44.100 kHz

Audio quality - 128 kbps.

To convert SD DV use the free handbrake application. Instructions here. If you have FCP here are instructions. If you want to use Compressor (from the FCP studio bundle) instructions are here with a downloadable 'droplet' for you desktop to make it even easier.

I have also been trying QuickTime Pro and MPEG streamclip as ways of compressing the footage. I'll post about these soon.

Good luck.

Mike J

Bit torrent - all piracy?

We are all aware that people are using the Internet for the illegal distribution of music, films. software and documents. The Bit torrent technique has added greatly to this activity. What is it and is there a legitimate use for it?

Bit torrent is a way of overcoming the problem of asymmetrical connections to the Internet. It is a communication protocol invented by Bram Cohen in 2001. We all talk about 'broadband' as being a download speed of 1 megabits per sec or more. ( I'm with Tiscali and the service stinks. Speeds vary, often stopping for short periods.)

In order to cut costs the ISPs have reduced the upload speeds, prioritising the download speeds. So uploading a film takes ages. What bit torrent does, is share the upload of a file by co ordiating its upload and download from a number of people who have the same file. This is called 'seeding'. Once you have downloaded a file, its etiquette to let it seed to others. By using your limited upload bandwidth and that of other peers, the downloads can be (for a very popular file) extremely quick.

In order to use a bit torrent you need to download a small bit torrent file and open in an application (Bit torrent client) that will handle the upload/download. There are a number of freely available ones. I have used Transmission (Mac only) in the past. It works well and is simple to operate.


There have been 2 occasions when I have used it.

Last summer Director Bruce McDonald released all the rushes for his latest film - Tracey Fragments . He made 36 gigs of data (Quicktime) files available for an edit-yourself- competition. It took me 4 days to download the lot! More recently I wanted to download the film, Good copy- bad copy, a documentary about the current state of copyright and culture. Its a quicktime file of about 700mb. I found this is a film from the Open Source Cinema movement's website.

Students work for semester 2 2009

Here is a short collection of students work from 2 modules that I teach, Introduction to video (first year Broadcast Media) and Making a film (second year Creative Studies). There are more examples on the Broadcastlab's YouTube channel.

I hope that you enjoy them.

Useful and free!

There are such a large number of applications that are available to try, use and sometimes buy. Here is one that I have been using for over a year now. I find it very useful and beautifully designed. Its called "SKITCH". (Mac only) Its currently in Beta so I expect that at some time it will cost to download it. But at the moment its free, and I've had no bugs with it. Its developed by the same poeple who did the excellent Comiclife. Have fun.

transcoding to MP3

I hate it when Apple remove a function or facility from some software. We get so used to companies adding utility. I recently wanted to create some MP3 files from .aiff files. Easy, I used to use iTunes. Possibily the only thing its useful for. Except the newest version I have doesn't seem to allow you to do this anymore. 

The solution was to use a free application called 'Switch'. This worked like a dream and with much more control and features than iTunes.  Great.

When working with FCP, its easiest to disarm iTunes. I hate the way it hijacks audio CDs and automatically opens them in iTunes. I turn this off, and re set the default application.   (Select the file in the finder, then click command (apple) + i.)

Now when I load an audio disc , I preview it in the Finder and when I open it , it opens in QuickTime. If I want to use the track in FCP then I save it to the media assets file of the project, and transcode it to 48K at the same time. No iTunes, no glitchy playback, all the assets in the right place.

The offical Apple way of bringing audio into FCP with Batch export is DAFT.

cheers, Mike J

Photomarathon Bath

This was the second time the photomarathon had run in Bath. Both times as part of the Bath fringe arts festival. I entered it with my daughter but I plugged it several time to the media students at BSU.

To be honest I hadn't quite understood the idea or exactly what it entailed. However I showed up at the Circus - under the trees in the centre - at 9.50 as requested. I paid £6 and received a 24 exposure neg film and a card. On the card were 22 themes. The idea was that I would find a suitable image for each of the themes. I needed to take the pictures the in order listed. I had just one frame per theme. If I failed to find a suitable image I was to snap my feet. It seemed very straightforward. Stevie decided to go shopping mid morning so the team got halved. At 3.30 we would all meet again at the Green Park Brasserie for card 2. This would have the final 11 themes. It was expected that we'd finish at 8pm at The Bell in Walcot St. Nice.

The weather was good and I set off with Stevie to take the first picture. I have to admit it took me half the roll to remember how the camera worked. I just use my digital compact or mobile phone all the time now. It was wuite a challenge and having to take them in order was very frustrating. You could take a picture and then around the corner would be an even better one for the same theme.

I was looking for something abstract. When I came across a 1950's cadillac in immaculate condition. I got the shot using the chromed bumper. The I chatted to the owner. he then drocve away as I looked down at the next theme...iconic. Oh shit..... I walked off kicking myself for missing a great shot. On the opposite side of the road I watched an old biker put his helmet, throw his leg over a harley davison and roar off. Double shit I'd done it again!

I walked alot but picked up all the necessary shots. Some better than others. The break, beer and chat with the other marathon photographers at Green Park was nice. I took the next lost quickly. I went home to sort out tea for the family. Later Mary and I popped down to The Bell (Great pub) and I submitted the film and the second card. There were a small band of finishers still there and we swapped stories of the marathon. We'd all had the same issues. Now we await the exhibition in the Octagon on May 22nd.

I learnt quite abit. I know now why I love my digital - its quick i can shoot plenty of images and I can see and re take when I need to. The whole thing opened my eyes - so that alone made it worthwhile. Thanks to Arran for organising it.

More issues with HDV and FCP

As we move through the production workflow with the students doing 'making a film' at BSU, more problems with FCP and HDV are emerging. There is a little trick to get FCP to recognise the capture deck that's not obvious.

IF the last project created was anything other than HDV, and you open your HDV project and try to continue logging and capturing - you can't. The deck (device control) will not link to the Mac. After trying 2 leads, 2 decks and 2 machines I found that if I changed the easy set up to HDV and created a new project. Then closed it. I could then, on returning to the original HDV project, connect the deck and log and capture. What a pain!

The pictures look nice though.

Troubles with wi-fi networks?

At home I had been noticing more and more difficulties using my laptop wirelessly. It would connect to the Internet via the wireless router but often failed to load a page etc. It was driving me mad. Depending on the time of day the connection was better, quicker and more reliable than at other times. I assumed that the router was at fault. My service provider (Tiscali) has been OK. However last week I finally figured it out. The problem was that my router uses the same wi-fi channel as several neighbours. When I changed the channel my router used, the problem disappeared.

In order to perform this useful feat you need to know what channels your neighbours are using. You need to know your router's login and password and about 10 minutes of time.

Since I use a Mac I used coconut wifi - a free application that gives you the info you need to select a channel. Pick one thats a couple of channels away from a neighbour's. Open the router settings (accessed via your browser) select a suitable channel.

Job done. Thanks to Macuser for that great tip.

Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express

Recently I have been helping students make short films.  Their first steps into filmmaking, and a steep learning curve.  We try, as much as possible, to remove some of the technical complexities.  Allowing the students to concentrate on the storytelling.  The last two weekends have seen 14 shorts in production.  They were all filmed over 2 days (a weekend). Now we're start the post production.  But first the logging and capturing.

One of the decisions we had taken fro the students was to shoot in HDV rather than our usual default, anamorphic DV.  We could see the advantage of the greater resolution - we might need to tweak some of the shots.  We'd project in 'high def' (HD) and drop the films down to standard def (SD) for the DVDs.  The data rate is, after all the same as SD, but with greater image size.  Great!  OK, we know that there's a slight lag from the time you press record to when the camera records.  But thats a small price to pay.  We thought.

If only things were as simple as they looked!  Some of the tapes we issued were pre-stripped. (We were keen to avoid timecode breaks - a perennial problem with novices).  Sadly these were stripped in SD DV.  We subsequently had worse timecode breaks than normal as the decks we were using for capture kept requesting we change format!  We worked around this problem, but there were more.

Some students, tempted by the keen pricing and educational discount, owned FCP Express and were keen to use their own machine to do their edit.  Usually we get the teams to create the master folder with a master FCP project and all the rushes.  Students can then copy this onto external drives or laptops to do their own individual edits.  It normally works fine.  On monday one keen and diligent student, having finished logging and capturing on one of the Uni's Macs, wanted help to transfer it to her own Macbook.  I was pleased to help her and we transferred the data using target disc mode.  We then opened the FCP Pro 6.0 project in FCP Express 4.0.  Problem - all the clips had audio but failed to display the video.  We investigated and discovered that there was a codec issue with FCP Express.  I suggested purchasing QuickTime Pro.  That'll sort it out.  Nope - at a cost of $30 (approx).  The next option was to delete the media and re capture from the master tapes.  That seemed a pity.  Why had this happened?

Its not clever but it would appear that FCP Express encodes HDV (Mpg 2) into Apple Intermediate codec.  FCP Pro allows you to natively edit HDV format.  To solve the problem therefore in FCP Pro we used media manager to 're-compress' the footage into the Apple format (the file size increased only slightly).  This, hopefully would work in FCP Express.  What a pain.  Next time we might set FCP Pro to capture all the films in Apple Intermediate Codec. But I suspect that there's another gotcha lurking in there somewhere!

Why take Black and White images?

Its easy to take colour pictures but black and white images are still very popular. They are often seen as more 'arty' than colour ones. The Magnum in Motion images are often in black and white. Photographer Harold Davis explains here why there is a case for still using black and white in the digital age. See his Flickr monochrome set here.

Here are a couple of ways of doing this in Photoshop. Importantly they allow you to manipulate the tonal values rather than just removing the colour uniformly from the image.

Posting 1 and some more techniques posting 2.

I have a further technique that has worked well for me but I might experiment with some of those too.

enjoy, Mike J

Composition and framing in photography

Over the past 4 weeks we have been refreshing camera skills before the start of semester 2 and starting to shoot and edit video.  We discussed framing and camera controls in a crash course single session.  There was alot to take in for those new to the subject.  today I found an interesting 'site' covering the basics of composition.  The author has a very useful photography website thats well worth a look.  The photos are technically really nice but very stylised.  While I'm on about photography here are some other sites worth checking out:

photoshop tutorials

lightwriting - virtual graffiti 

Magmun in motion - great photo essays 

photographing scenes with snow  

enjoy,

Mike J