This page explains how we made the video featured on the K-12 Instructional Media Center Helps Stanford page.

We had been working with Margaret Krebs, Jennifer Wolf, and Charla Rolland at Stanford, and so getting the appointments to shoot the video was no problem. To give them a starting point, we worked up a list of three questions they could answer...

• What do you do?
• How do you use the IMC?
• What suggestions would you offer new teachers?

On the days we did the video taping, we came in about 20 minutes ahead of time and set up the equipment. For Margaret and Jennifer, we taped them in the S.T.E.P. library. Charla was video taped in her office (at one point, you can hear people talking in the background on the video).

Each person went thru their "talk" twice. When done, we ended up with about 13.5 minutes of usable video footage. That was edited down to the 5 minute video you can find on the K-12 Instructional Media Center Helps Stanford page.

Creating video media today is much easier than it was just a few years ago. With the advent of DV (digital video) camcorders and multimedia read PC's, the average person could do today for a few thousand dollars what would have taken large rooms of equipment and tens of thousands of dollars just a few years ago.

We used the following equipment to shoot the videos...

• DV Camcorder -- Canon's Elura 2
• the 120v power supply -- the batteries never last long enough
• the external microphone adapter
• Microphone -- Shure SM58
• Tripod for camcorder
• Boom mic stand
• Cable from the mic to camcorder
• Headphones (borrowed from a CD player)
• 25' power extension cord -- a couple short extension cords are better then one long 100' cable.
• DV video cassettes -- get a couple. A $15 cassette is cheaper than reshooting a day's video.

No additional lights were used. We did position the speakers (and re-positioned them and re-positioned them) under the existing office lights until the lighting was acceptable as viewed thru the camcorder's view screen.

To transport the equipment, we used a gym bag for the small stuff (camcorder, cassettes, cables, etc.) and set the tripod and mic stand on top as shown.

As noted above, on the day of the shoot, we got there about 20 minutes early to set up the equipment. Setup went quickly and there were no problems (that's not always the case). We set up the equipment as shown. The external microphone will pick things up much better than the camcorder's internal mic. The mic was positioned within 20 inches of the speakers and was adjusted so that it was not viewable by the camera.

The interviewees joined us and we positioned them using the best available lighting. Make sure you look at the video screen when setting up! At one point, it looked like a bookcase growing out of Margaret's head. Moving the camera a few inches quickly solved the problem.

We started camcorder recording and let it record thru both takes. This is much less distracting and intimidating than constantly starting and stopping the camera. At this point, the final adjustments were made to the picture and we started talking with the speakers, getting them to relax and forget the camera was there.

Margaret and Jennifer had worked out what they wanted to say and just went thru their talk -- two times each. There were slight differences each time and the best shots were chosen for the final video. Charla requested that we ask her the questions and she would answer them. In the final video, we selected the best parts of her answers, editing out sections where we're asking the questions.

In addition to the "formal" interview, by leaving the camera on, we got a lot of candid footage of the speakers. Short sections were used in the introduction to the video. Having the extra video made editing much easier and was defiantly not a "waste of video tape". If you were doing less formal project, the extra footage would make a great start for a bloopers (outtakes) tape.

Shooting the video tape is only half the battle. Putting together the finished video after the shooting is done will take as long or longer. The good news is that with current generation PC's and the new, easy-to-use video editing software, it's no longer rocket science.

We used the following hardware and software to finish the video....

• H-P Pavilion 750c Desktop PC, with an internal IEEE 1394 port
• Pinnacle Studio 7-SE -- video editing software
• Cool Edit 2000 -- for audio cleanup & recording the introduction
• Quick Time Pro -- to create the QuickTime files
• Paint Shop Pro -- to capture and crop the graphic files

We identified the sections of the cassettes that were of interest and copied them from the DV (digital video) camcorder into the computer. DV camcorders and the new new IEEE 1394 port make it easy. Simply connect a cable between the camcorder and the PC, open up your video editing software and click on a few buttons to copy the video from the camcorder tape to the hard drive. We also recorded an audio introduction and selected a picture of Stanford University and the IMC home page for use in the video.

Our original plan was to use the three questions as a "script" for the video -- maybe creating three separate videos using a minimum of editing. Once we reviewed the video clips, we realized we needed a much more focused presentation, and started selecting portions of each interview to include in the final video.

In deciding what to include, we reviewed each take for each speaker and identified the segments (or talking points) that we wanted to include in the final video. For each segment, a start and end point was identified, giving us a list on paper of about 20 short video segments. It was then a matter of selecting an order for these segments and deleting the ones that wouldn't fit or that were redundant. We then went back thru the original videos one more time to see if there was anything we had missed.

With our plan for the final video on paper, we used the video editing software to slice and dice the videos into the segments we would use, then arranged the segments into the correct order. After a review of the "rough cut" and some minor changes, we added the transitions between speakers and created an opening introduction sequence.

In reviewing the video, we found that it was hard to hear the speakers -- the sound levels were too low. If we were doing a class production, we could have just re-shot those segments. In this case, the audio was exported into Cool Edit 2000 and "fixed". The corrected audio track was merged back with the existing video track and the video was now ready to go.

The "master" video ended up as a 113 MB file -- way too big for delivery over the Internet. We had to compress the master video into smaller files that would "fit" over the Internet. We used the tools that came with the video editing software to create the Windows Media and Real Player files and used Quick Time Pro to create the Quick Time files. There was a lot of trial-and-error to select the best compression settings for each clip.

Once the Internet video files were created, they were uploaded to the IMC server and the Stanford School of Education Video web page was created.

There are a few things we would do differently next time...

• Because we were plugging our microphones directly into the camcorder, the audio levels were low and we had to clean up the audio. Next time, we would add a simple audio mixer, a mic preamp, or (best option) a compressor/limiter to ensure good audio levels.

• Small camcorders are easy to carry, but usually have tiny batteries that last less than an hour. If I were buying equipment, I would get a slightly larger camcorder with the biggest (longest lasting) batteries available.

• Editing the raw video and creating the final product is 50+% of the entire project. For anything more complex than what we did here, we would get a copy of Adobe Premiere (or it's equivalent). Premiere, while more complex to use, makes editing videos much easier and includes easy-to-use, smart file compression software, saving hours of trial-and-error at the end of the project.

• While not needed for this project, some lighting equipment would make it easter to shoot in less than ideal locations. Rather than having to move the speakers around until the lighting looked OK, you could move or add some lighting instead. Check out photographic magazines for articles on how to create inexpensive lighting solutions.

Since 2002, things have changed immensely. With the advent of inexpensive hardware (think web cams) and YouTube and other video sharing sites, it is now easier than ever to get your message out in an entertaining format.

While the original video files were "long gone", we were able to get a good version up on YouTube by uploading the high bandwidth Windows Media file.

The Stanford Video on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS9w6DI7GD8

Canon Elura DV Camcorder

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer
/controller?act=ProductCatIndex1Act&fcategoryid=102

Pinnacle Studio Video Editing Software

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Home/

Cool Edit 2000

http://www.adobe.com/special/products/audition
/syntrillium.html

Paint Shop Pro

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product
/1155872554948

Adobe Premiere

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/

Alesis Compressor/Limiter

http://www.harmony-central.com/Events/SNAMM96/Alesis
/nanocomp.html