If I have everything set up correctly (cross-fingers!) you can now follow this blog on Facebook.

Go to our NetworkedBlogs page and click on Follow or use the Coldstreams Facebook Fans page.

Here is a video I shot in September – this is video focuses on the sounds coming from the thermal features in Yellowstone.

Photographed with an Canon XH-A1 and an Audio-Technica AT-835b long shot gun mic, and some segments shot using a Panasonic Lumix GH-2.

Me, shooting the Artist’s Paint Pots.

The idea – up to 4 iPhones can transmit digital video imagery simultaneously using WiFi.

Another unit – an iPhone or iPad – can be the Director and select video streams, in almost real time. Very clever.

There is one problem with how it handles audio, as made clear in this review

Back in July of 2008, students at Hochschule Furtwangen University created a video they called “University LipDub #1“. Go watch it – its fun! Created as a single long moving camera shot, the video features numerous students collectively lip synching to a piece of music.

They created a web site, universitylipdub.com to encourage other campuses to create similar videos – they even included some tips on how to make your own. And they encouraged other universities to create their own. (They were not the first with this idea – for example, a group of Microsoft employees made their own lip dub back in December 2007. The founder of Vimeo first suggested the idea and coined the term “lip dub”.)

The idea for these may have originated, in part, from the incredible Russian Ark – the only feature film produced with a single take. Over 2,000 actors and 3 live orchestras – 300 years of Russian history come to life in this spectacular motion pictured filmed in a single day in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia. (I was mesmerized by the spectacle of this amazing movie. This is a six star movie.)

It took until the 2nd half of 2009 for the lip dub phenomena to begin to take off. We are in only the earliest stage of this – these videos are likely to sweep the online world within the next few months.

• Le lipdub HEC – Montreal, Dec 2, 2008
• HEC Montreal Promotional Video – Apr 29, 2009
• Triple ZUT Tourné sur le campus de l’Essec à Cergy, Jun 9, 2009
• PixMania (commercial), Jun 26, 2009
  
• EMLYON International School of Business – France – July 9, 2009
• l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) – Sep 11, 2009
• Cirque du Soleil Artists Singing Mamy Blue – Oct 6, 2009
• l’Université de Montréal – Nov 13, 2009
• Boston University, Dec 14, 2009
• Shorewood High School – Dec 17, 2009. This amazing lip dub was filmed entirely in reverse with the students lip synching the song played backwards. The final video is then reversed for an amazing effect. Shorewood’s video was in response to a challenge from their rival high school Shorecrest, whose lip dub video is here.

Today, many video cameras provide a “24p” mode for recording video at 24 frames per second.

The default or normal mode of most video cameras is “60i” which is 60 half frames per second. Many cameras also now feature a “30p” mode or 30 frames per second.

Why all these choices?

See below – 60i is an old technology that we still use for historical reasons.

If you are making your video for online distribution, you definitely want to choose 30p or 24p mode. These record in “progressive” (like a digital still camera rather than the funky interlaced 60i mode) which is also compatible with computer displays.

Consequently, if you want to output to the web or to a computer, you will want to use 30p or 24p “progressive” modes to avoid the “interlace jagged edges” of 60i. (It is possible to de-interlace video too – but that is for another day.)

So why 24p?

Some people like that it looks like 24 fps film. I like it for a much different reason: better low light performance and better compressibility for the online world.

When you shoot at 60i, you’ll typically use a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second. When you shoot at 30p, you’ll likely use either 1/60th or 1/30th of a second.

At 24p, you’ll likely use either 1/48th or 1/24th of a second.

1/24th of a second lets in 20% more light than 1/30th of a second and more than twice as much light as 1/60th of a second.

Consequently, 24p has some what better low light performance – that is, the camera will add less video amplification, which adds a bit of noise or graininess to the images. Shooting in 24p means cleaner, less grainy images – compared to higher shutter speeds.

Another advantage is editing and compressing for the web.  A video clip recorded at 24p has 20% fewer frames than one recorded at 30p – so it takes less time. And there are situations where I’ve recorded a live event that I turn around and post online as fast as possible.

Another issue is compression. For a given video streaming data rate, say 1 Mbps, 24 fps will will compress a bit better than 30 fps. But do realize it is not a straight forward “definitely better” as MPEG4 compression depends heavily on the nature of the content of the frame.

Editing 24p

Unfortunately, this may require an advanced or professional editing package. I can’t help you there very much, but I did write some info about doing this on a Mac. (I also do some editing on Windows but have not tried this there.) Some additional information is also here.

In response to a question from someone I ended up digging up this old video. Shot in 8mm or Hi8 analog back in 1999. Its since been “virtual” stolen by some other web sites without even bothering to give credit to me.

This web site is in development and will feature:

• How-to information on creating the best quality online video
• Including production and editing tricks
• Encoding methods
• Best quality video upload sites
• A lot of “how to” information for getting the best quality video from various types of cameras ranging from consumer video to professional video (including HD), and ultra low cost methods too
• Online video tutorials will show how to get it done

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This web site start up has been momentarily delayed due to 5 feet of snow falling in less than 2 weeks time and the need to spend 3 to 4 hours every day in “snow management”. Real Soon this site will get underway!