Creating Video for Your Training Events

Posted on by

Why should I create video?

Before I start showing you “how” to create great video, let me share with you why you ought to be doing this.

Firstly I believe that all trainers, be they corporate or self-employed, should be technically capable of using the internet to aid learning and development. I’m not saying you need to be a coder or flash programmer, but you do need to be able to find your way around web based applications and software and have a solid appreciation of the cloud and Learning Management Systems.

This leads onto video. Video is not new. Many of us use DVDs on our courses, YouTube clips and online video to present ideas and concepts. But how many of us actually create video and use these clips on our courses or in our blended learning delivery.

Learners consume video every day. The ubiquitous use of Smartphones and Tablets mean that everyone has the capability to devour video. People now prefer to watch a video than read a web page, YouTube is the second most popular search engine, after Google, and is particularly popular with the Generation Y. And video can paint a thousand words.

More importantly video can capture a presentation and can be consumed by thousands of people simultaneously. Can be paused, re-wound, replayed. Can you do that with a live trainer?

Video is great for eLearning, can be delivered via your LMS, is engaging and expected by the tech savvy learner. If we don’t provide video, we’re falling behind the curve.

Let’s take a look at how. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how easily it can be learnt.

How do I Create Video?

There are essentially two ways of creating video. Outsourcing the whole project to a dedicated production firm or DIY – do it yourself. Outsourcing is where most firms go but this option is hugely expensive and will only allow you to produce limited footage but the output is always first class.

DIY is less expensive and gives you far more control. There are three ways you can do this. Equip a studio with all the equipment you need, use your Smartphone or use your laptop or PC webcam.

Smartphones

Your Smartphone will produce decent video which can be edited using software to produce a reasonable final result. Do get yourself some sort of tripod. For a couple of pounds you can buy a tripod that’s specifically designed for Smartphones. I picked one up this year from eBay and use it for learners to record their own videos on my courses. The tripod stops the jerkiness that will occur without.

Smartphones can be used “selfie” style to record you talking about your topic on location if you wish. I’m often seen walking my dogs self-recording myself sharing a selling tip or idea. It adds realism to the footage, integrity that studio video doesn’t have. The major downfall is sound, it’s just second rate. You can buy lavaliere microphones for £50 that solve the problem and give your video professional sound. But these are fiddly and remove the portability advantage of the phone.

The other problem is transferring the video onto your PC or laptop for editing. Many Smartphones upload videos to cloud storage and since video sizes are enormous, this process can be very cumbersome. It’s best to tether your Smartphone to your PC and transfer the footage by cable.

Webcams

These come installed in tablets, laptops and can be purchased for a few pounds for PCs. They produce good quality footage and are easily edited because the files reside on your PC after recording. But the outputs just look like webcam videos. People don’t look at the camera when they record themselves, preferring to look at the screen and the output looks stilted, just a trainer talking to the computer.

Backgrounds generally are poor, maybe a bookshelf or a blank wall.

You can record your Skype output easily enough. For £20 you can buy software that will capture your Skype video conversation with someone and output it as a movie file.

I’ve done this very successfully when interviewing experts or SMEs. Recently I interviewed on Skype, for an hour, the UK’s most successful protection salesperson. I used the software to capture the interview and created a series of clips which had both of our images side by side. The audio was OK and it had a sense of excitement and edginess which made it very engaging.

Studio

If you want to be able to produce a wide variety of videos, then you really want to invest in a studio with the capability to record video at will. Later I’ll show you six types of video which will add variety to the mix and you can only do all of these if you have a fully kitted out studio.

Ideally your studio should be large enough to house all the kit, should have the ability to control outside lighting and should have an element of sound proofing as well. Corporate trainers will be thinking of a spare room, self-employed cousins will be thinking of a spare bedroom, garage or study.

Depending on your budget you can sound proof the walls with carpets or specialised wall coverings and buy blackout blinds to obscure all outside lighting. Or you can just close the windows and ask everyone nearby to keep quiet.

You do need a minimum of equipment to be able to produce video and here’s your shopping list in no particular order:

  • A giant whiteboard to produce whiteboard style videos
  • A green screen background to produce Chroma Key or green screen video
  • A camera. Spend well here, opt for a prosumer model, but most modern camcorders will produce really good HD video. Make sure it records to an SD card so you can conveniently transfer the final footage to the PC. Don’t use the on camera editing tools, use software on your PC.
  • Tripods for the camera.
  • Autocue device such as a tablet. You position this using a gadget that attaches itself to the tripod so the autocue is just below camera level. Autocues are useful if you haven’t memorised the presentation or talk that you’re videoing.
  • Lavaliere microphones wirelessly connected to your camera. Sound taken from the camera is second rate. Your learners will forgive you for second rate footage but will be less forgiving with lousy sound. You can buy a directional external microphone that sits on top of the camera but a lapel microphone allows you to move around and still pick up excellent sound.
  • Lighting. This is the most important aspect in creating truly professional video. As a minimum you’ll need two or three hard “barn door” style lights that can illuminate your green screen and whiteboard plus softer lighting to illuminate your subjects face and body. Google lighting and you’ll find dozens of companies that’ll advise you. I spent around £300 on lighting.
  • Editing software for your PC. These are not expensive, around £100. Don’t rely on your PC’s free offering, these don’t have the features you need. More on this later.
  • A very powerful PC that can cope

What kind of videos should I create?

I’m going to share with you six varieties of video that you can produce in your studio. Remember variety is key to learner engagement.

Expert Interviews

Everyone likes an expert and you can very easily interview an expert and record the footage. I mentioned using Skype earlier but an alternative is to studio record the interview. You can fix up the camera with a directional microphone and just interview your expert with both of you in front of the camera.

A more engaging way is to video your head asking the questions and then switch the camera and video your expert’s head providing the answers to the questions. Ensure you position the camera so it stays to the left or right of the eye line of the two people talking, giving the impression of a seamless interview.

With your editing software you can cut the clips and sequence them in the correct order.

Green Screen

My favourite and very professional. I’m sure you’ve seen these. A trainer appears to the left of the video screen with an ever changing background. Backgrounds can be movie clips, photos, descriptive words or animations and these all add to the message and provide a visual aid to the learner.

Essentially you create a green backdrop to the trainer speaking to the camera. Cover the back wall with a green cloth or buy a stand that’ll allow you to drape a green cloth behind you. When you edit the clip on your PC, you remove the green image which makes the clip transparent. You then add your new background to suit. Render the whole thing to a finished video and you have green screen video.

Whiteboard video

Here you present to the camera using the whiteboard behind you to illustrate your topic. Very engaging and can be used to present complex topics in the same way as you would present in the classroom.

It’s best if the whiteboard occupies the whole video screen to give the impression of a whiteboard studio and the trainer stands to one side, not the middle. There’s a rule of thirds in video and the presenter should occupy the left or right side of the picture.

Use a lavaliere or lapel microphone so that sound is picked up even when the trainer has her back to the camera.

PowerPoint video

Very similar but you use a TV to your side with a PowerPoint presentation. The downfall is that you need to cart a TV into the studio. I find it a whole lot easier and more engaging to put the PowerPoint presentation as the background on a green screen video.

However, if you’re bringing in other trainers to be recorded, many are only comfortable if they can use their PowerPoint deck as part of their presentation and that’s totally fine if it helps them present well.

Cartoons and animations

These are fun to produce and even more engaging to watch. You can present something complex in a cartoon storyline and your learners will love it.

Many think you need to be a cartoonist or a flash programmer to encode cartoon videos but you don’t. You do need software but you only need to spend around £75 to buy software capable of having moving cartoon characters, backgrounds and words whizzing around the screen. Add a music track and you have a very appealing piece of video.

PowerPoint will do this for you if you know about animation movements and rendering a deck to video.

I particularly like the hand-drawn videos you see on YouTube. These involve a hand mysteriously drawing and writing words narrated in the background or left with music for the learner to read. Again you can buy inexpensive software to do this for you.

Prezi videos

A Prezi presentation narrated and captured to video can be extremely attractive way of sharing information with learners.

Software is needed to screen capture and to turn the finished result into video. Set up the pathways in your Prezi and literally present it on the computer talking to the microphone as you would an audience.

The final result is very effective.

How do I edit the video?

As I mentioned earlier you need to purchase software to render the video and take an online class on how to use it well. Many blemishes can be cleaned up with the software, bad sounds and noises can be removed. You can increase the volume, cut sections out, tidy up the beginning and end, add music for the introduction.

You can’t create green screen video without software. Here you add backgrounds of your choosing to spice up the final edit.

The final role of the software is to render the finished item into a file type that can be viewed by the learner. There are a huge variety of file types to use. High Definition, wide screen, these are all choices. You can also shrink the file size which is the honourable thing to do if your learner is going to stream the video over the internet.

Don’t under estimate the PC you need. Video rendering software is power and resource hungry. You need a massively fast processor, huge memory and an enormous hard-drive. A dedicated PC for video rendering is a must. You can’t do it on a sub powered PC or laptop.

How does my learner view the video?

Gone are the days of creating DVDs or cassettes for the learner to view your videos. That’s so last century. Nowadays your learner will want to stream the video over the internet. They will want to use their phone or tablet to watch the clips you produce or a laptop. This all depends on your IT set up in your company.

As a minimum you’ll want somewhere to store your videos in the cloud. You may wish to store them on the company’s servers and provide links so your learners can stream them over the intranet.

If you have a Learning Management System, links can be provided to learners through this medium.

YouTube is a popular cloud storage but it’s very public. You could open an account with Vimeo which allows unlimited storage and very powerful playback features and you can password protect them or only allow people with a link to see them.

YouTube and Vimeo give you code that you can put onto your website or blog so that people can view the videos from there, that way you can provide other media such as handouts or PDF documents to read or download to accompany the video.

Summary

This has been a whistle stop tour of how to create videos for the modern training professional. You don’t need an enormous budget, just some creativity some tech awareness and the motivation to want to learn and get better with time.

My advice is just to start and keep evolving. You’ll make mistakes but get better and better. I did.

The future of learning and development will move to a web based video based environment so we might as well get good at it now.

Parenting Dilemmas – A Few Quick Fixes To Make Shopping Fun

Posted on by

Shopping for some is just a ritual whereas others look at it as an indulging and exciting experience and still, a few others tag it as a taxing and tiring activity. The experience and expressions vary across age groups, genders and even geographies. Men more often than not plan to go shopping, if and only if there is an urgent need or at times, if it has to do with a special occasion or pleasing their spouse and winning over their girlfriends. Women on the other hand indulge in shopping more often and acclaim it as a stress buster, a fun activity and the best way, to kill any spare time at hand.

For most part, it tends to be exciting, except for when you go extravagant or end up getting stuck at a tatty and cramped store. Also, when you do not get to park your car close to the store, you have to get at. Reasons could also vary from not so supportive & welcoming store staff, lack of time, and store running sort of the stuff you are looking for and at times, even your poor memory. Nevertheless, shopping as an activity is unanimously supposed to give shoppers the much needed high, when feeling low and a surpassed sense of excitement when a kick is enough to let you switch your mood gears.

The modern lifestyle, lack of infrastructure, the social set up and demanding jobs have changed the way people shop. Over the last few years, shopping has evolved as an important chore that needs to be well planned and better managed. A few quick fixes could address the nuisance at hand and deliver one of the best shopping experiences to rejoice, with minimal efforts.

Plan Ahead: Sit down and think through, what is that you need? What is your shopping budget? Assign priorities to the items you need to purchase. Do not miss on deciding which stores to drop in at. Decide which items could be easily availed online if you wish to save on your valuable time, while shopping offline at the busy and crowded stores, malls, supermarkets or fashion streets. If time is a constraint, restrict offline shopping to items you can not settle for without having to view, check and deal with.

Shop Wisely: Knowing in advance what items to pick, in what measures & at what price helps with wise shopping decisions as you do not end up overspending. Use any coupons you have, to make purchases at your favorite or regular stores. Regularly check for the expiry dates of your coupons. Question yourself every time you wish to make a purchase, to know what matters the most? Is it the value for your money or pure indulgence? Believe it or not, they do reflect on the choice of stores, brands, the price you pay, the time you invest and your shopping plan, on the whole.

Do your Homework (For Special Occasions): You know, your spouse’s birthday is round the corner and you always wanted to surprise her with a birthday bash.

Well, a great idea if you plan ahead and implement it right! Simply, sit down and prepare a list of all the items you would need for the special day in right proportions and from the right stores. After all, you don’t want your spouse to be frowning at you after you have put in sooo much of efforts, planning and organizing the special day.

Manage Your Time: Decide beforehand, where to go and which stores to drop at rather than moving all around the malls and stores, which come on your way to the market. Also, take the directions or the map for the stores you will be shopping at. Good, if you have a GPS locator in your car! It would save you a lot of time, energy and even gas while hunting for items on your shopping list or going back and forth.

Forge Relationships with Support staff: Relationships with the support staff at shopping malls or supermarket stores always helps! The reason being, if you manage to pull the right chord during a conversation, you strike a relationship and that follows in with added shopping convenience, which means informed buying decisions, volunteering, supportive and welcoming staff members. This is how it happens: The conversations you exchange let you generate awareness about your tastes and preferences. So, the next time you go shopping, you will be amazed to see the staff members offering to help you out picking up the items on your shopping list, with greater ease and in a relatively smaller time span.

Go Online with the Web! : Use web applications, technology and the shopping tools besides shopper reviews (on product and services) to decide what to pick, from where and when exactly. The reviews more often than not tend to be helpful in making right purchase decisions. You know what’s in and what’s not!

The available shopping tools and gadgets help you save a lot of time by helping with better management of your shopping. eBay Shopping Carts, Online Shopping lists, Store shopping tools and other such web or desktop applications make shopping more manageable and more fun.

Involve your Family: Get your family members, your spouse and your children assist you with the grocery shopping, if not shopping for special occasions. Seek their feedback on the shopping list you prepared and check with them, if you have missed on any of the required items. Make your shopping lists accessible to them so that they could be of help to you, with your shopping chores (when you happen to be too busy or pre-occupied with your workplace assignments).

Would that not be great, if your spouse and children could pick up grocery or other regular stuff on their way back home? All they would need is your shopping list stored online, available over the web and shared or else, just accessible at home.

Be Smart on Pocket: Be sure, you have checked out the options available comparing in line with the prices tags while making a purchase so that you do not feel stupid and duped when next morning, your colleague walks over to you just to let you know that he got the same stuff for a few less dollars.

Store Chores: Have you been to this store before? If not, have you checked out on concerns like parking space, support staff, payment counters, the ambience, the total area the store is built in, hygiene, availability of basic stocks et cetra. More often than not, shoppers loose their patience at the store if the parking space is too far or too over packed for them to park or if the store is running out of basic grocery items like Sugar, rice et cetra. Even if you have to wait in long queues to get to the payment counter. What if, you keep bumping against other shoppers while trying to pick up stuff? How would you feel at a store that is too cramped to even walk through different aisles?

Better, if you already researched or gathered such information if you are planning to visit or check out a new store! For the rest, you have experienced it over and again and you know well, if it’s worth another visit………

Look out for Bargains: Bargains have always been looked-for, extensively indulged in and widely enjoyed by shoppers across all age groups, genders, social status and geographical boundaries. Why to miss on those big bargains and great deals???

Enjoy your Shopping: Remember, you enjoy shopping the most when you have a partner or a shopping companion who could help you make right choices, does not loose patience every time you switch stores, question your purchase decisions on and off and offers you a hand, when you have to pick up all your shopping bags back to your car. Just make sure, you have called upon and asked out your friend to join you, when you go out shopping. It makes the whole experience fun and all the more exciting!

Self Employment Work at Home

Posted on by

Would you jump at the opportunity of self employment work at home and be able to set yourself up for early retirement?What if I told you a way you can start living the life you’ve always dreamed of, a life full of money and full of time. What if there was something that was easy to set up and could have you making money in a matter of days. Start living life and stop just going through life! Finally be able to make your work schedule revolve around your day instead of your day always revolving around your work schedule. Get rid of that impossible to please “boss” of yours and replace him with someone much more pleasant … yourself.If you are serious about self employment work at home to make money and to get out of the “rat race” once and for all, you need to read to the end of this article. It doesn’t get any easier than this. The strategies are incredibly easy to follow and WILL have you making money within just a few days or your money back. You have nothing to lose except your “boss” and the hassle of rush hour traffic as you travel to and from your job.What if you had access to a system where you could easily work just a few hours a week yet earn more money than you do now at your full time job?Would you let an opportunity to make boatloads of money working from the comfort of your own home just pass you by? Would you be happy with yourself going to work 5 days a week every week for the rest of you working years knowing that you passed up what could have been the best thing to ever happen to you?Because, you are reading this article you must already have a computer that is connected to the Internet. The only other thing you need is the information on how to set up a program that will start working for you on an automatic basis. There are many program out there just waiting for you to down load and start earning money.Just beware as you search that there is a lot of hype on the Internet. Many sites promise you more than they deliver. Remember this, instant success or becoming an overnight Millionaire is not a reality. But, dedication and perseverance to a program that is suitable and workable for your self employment work at home objective is attainable and can make you wealthy.