YTC027 - iWork.com Update

Just some thoughts about the recent changes to iWork.Com and just what are Apple up to building that humongous $1 billion datacentre

Preparing for the Live Show...

As you may already be aware (or not as I haven't announced it on the show yet), I'll be giving away a brand new iPad 16GB WiFi model on Friday 9th April to one lucky ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member. If everything goes to plan, I should be bringing back a spare iPad from the US following the launch day event on 3rd April.

I had a hare-brained idea to actually do a live show on the 9th April to cover some of the aspects of the iPad, perhaps answer some pre-recorded questions, and of course do a live unboxing of the prize and do prize draw live on the show. I'll record the live show and send it out as that weeks episode of ScreenCastsOnline

Yeah, great idea!!!

So I've been looking at what would be required...

I've now had some experience of talking to camera doing my YouTube video comments (although I have the luxury of doing retakes) so I may be able to muddle through for 20 minutes or so.

I've got a couple of cameras and of course, recently acquired some decent lighting. As well as the cameras I have a Matrox MX02 video capture unit which I'm hoping will enable me to capture the output of the iPad, but I can always fall back to using a video camera in close up.

Rather than just sitting at my desk, after all why make things easy, I'm going to experiment with some green screen and re-arranging the camera angles.

As far as streaming live to the internet, I'll be using Ustream - I've set up a channel called ScreenCastsOnline Live

There are two applications I'm testing to actually create the show. Both allow you to do a live TV show, with inserts, lower thirds, switch camera angles, etc. and both are extremely powerful. The two apps are BoinxTV and Wirecast.

I've already got a licence for BoinxTV from a recent Macheist and it's certainly a powerful and feature rich application. The only downside is that it won't allow me to publish to Ustream without some third party software and even then, is restricted as fair as encoding and resolution is concerned. IT still looks OK and seems to be the easiest to use.

The other application, Wirecast, would cost me $548 once I include the HDV component and seems a bit more complex to use. However, Wirecast has built in support for Ustream and appears to encode and transmit at much higher resolution. I'm not too concerned about the price, for me the end game is always about getting the best quality,

It looks like it may be possible to get BoinxTV to use the Adobe Flash Media Encoder (FMLE) to bring it up to the same quality as Wirecast, but FMLE for Mac is a closed beta and although I've applied, I've not heard back from Adobe yet.

So I'll need to make the final decision next week and do some proper testing.

By the way, if you're a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member and want to take part in the prize draw to win the iPad, check out the members only landing page over at:

ScreenCastsOnline iPad Prize Draw

All new members and renewing members will be added into the draw automatically but existing members need to register their entry on that page. Information on how to become a member is available here.

I'll keep you posted on the blog with how things are progressing. If i'm doing any test transmissions where I need some feedback, I'll post to Twitter so feel free to follow me over there.

Just don't expect it to be as polished as Leo!

YTC026 - iPad Members Prize Draw

Details of the upcoming iPad prize draw for ScreenCastsOnline members

Somethings gotta change...

Thursday morning and not a minute of the show is recorded. Slightly worrying in that it's due to be published tomorrow!

Now seeing as I'm a fairly laid back guy, I'm not panicking too much, besides which, I've been in this situation before and I always pull something out of the bag. Just means a long two days of recording and editing but I should be able to pull it off. I could really do without the added stress though.

Taking a step back, I need to see how I got into this position, as originally, I had planned on recording and editing two shows this week. I need to create some shows in advance to cover for an upcoming trip. On reflection, it's the usual story of overcommitting and underestimating the effort required.

The early part of the week was taken up with some commissioned work I'd promised many months ago and I thought I'd have completed over last weekend. Didn't happen, so that was Monday and Tuesday gone. Yesterday was catch up along with some other work connected with the membership, as well as some prep for this weeks show. Topic selection and some setting up. If I'm honest, I probably could have done some recording yesterday afternoon, but I wasn't in the zone, besides, I had a ton of other stuff to do.

Next to me on the desk is two months worth of paperwork to go through and I still haven't got around to updating the web site and forums.

So I can't work any harder, or any longer hours, so something has to change.

I think I'm going to have to start outsourcing some of my work.

I've already got help with membership and emails, it's the production side of stuff I probably need more help with, although it's something I've always wanted to retain and have complete control of.

As far as I'm concerned, the planning, preparation and recording is a minor part of the overall production process (with respect to time) but the bit with the most value. This is the bit that would be impossible to outsource.

The processes after that are more easy to outsource but not without challenges.

ScreenFlow Exporting: I take the raw ScreenFlow files and export them to lossless format. I then convert the lossless format files into AIC format for editing in Final Cut Pro. I have my reasons!

Assembly Edit: This is the process where I take the recorded segments and assemble them into the basic framework of the show. 99% of the time, these segments are recorded sequentially so there's no problem there. The assembly edit is really just cutting out the fluffs, removing any bad takes, and basically laying out the show in it's final form. This can be time consuming.

Final Edit: This is where the creative part of the editing process occurs in that I make a second pass of the entire show and add in pans, zooms, redub vocals (if required), add lower thirds and graphics, etc. Basically, turn the rough show edit into the polished article.

Exporting: This is where I take the master edit and create a master file. This then gets encoded into 5 different versions and uploaded to the Libsyn servers. There's an element of automation but I'm sure this could be automated significantly. Not difficult but time consuming.

Publication: Shownotes to write and publish, members website to update and publish, newsletter to write and publish. Again, all taking some content and applying it to various systems. RSS feeds to update and test. All repetitive and easily turned into a simple work flow.

On reflection, I could fairly easily outsource:

ScreenFlow Exporting - Deliver the raw set of Screenflow files to someone (around 800MB - 1GB) usually and they can export and convert. If working with someone remotely, I could also export and convert locally so we would have two identical sets of intermediate files to work from

Assembly Edit: Pretty straight forward. Basic Final Cut Pro skills required. I could probably teach someone in a day or two to do the basic editing. With having two sets of intermediate files, we could just swap the FCP project file between us.

Final Edit: Initially, I would probably still need to do the bulk of this but over time some elements could be migrated into the basic edit.

Exporting: Easily replicated by someone else. This section is deceptively time-consuming and does require a lot of testing and checking. Easy to create the workflow steps though.

Publication: Again, once the content is written, the mechanics of publishing is fairly straightforward albeit convoluted. Just needs some one with methodical approach and attention to detail.

Finger in the air, I reckon that I could eventually save myself 60% - 70% of the effort I currently expend putting a show together, leaving myself some spare capacity to get on with either creating more content or spending some time tending to some of the other parts of the business.

Of course, initially it would have a negative effect due to the time I'd need to spend training someone or creating documentation/processes that are in my head. But, the benefits are plain to see.

So how to move forward?

Do I take on an intern?

Do I take on someone full time?

Do I find someone who can take on some of this work remotely on a contract basis?

Do I hire by the hour?

Do I split the editing tasks and the publishing tasks between two people. There's no real need for the same person to do both.

Eeek!

I appreciate that this blog may cause a mini avalanche of emails or responses from people offering their services. Some have even expressed an interest via a tweet I sent out earlier in the week.

Just to set expectations...

I may or may not move forward with this.
I may do something in the next few days or it may take me a month.
I don't expect anyone to do this for free or for experience, in fact I'd rather pay someone a fair price for a job well done.
I would expect someone to have some experience in video editing.
On the video side, I'd probably need someone with a Mac Pro
Any arrangement would be on a trial basis.
I may not get back to you straight away.
No promises.

What do you think?

PS If you'd rather contact me directly, email me at screencastsonline@gmail.com but as I say, I may not get back to you straight away.

Update on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 9:12AM by Don McAllister

Thanks for all the comments and the emails offering assistance. I've not responded to anyone as yet, so don't feel offended if you've not had a response. I need to spend some further thinking time before deciding how to progress, if I decide to go down that particular path.

Don

Arrggghhh!!!!

If I hear one more person say that "the iPad isn't for me but you know who it will good for... old people" I think I'll scream!

OK, so it may take a while before people open up to the realisation that the iPad isn't just a dumbed down computing platform for people who are technically challenged.

It may well not happen until people can hold one of these devices in their hands and fully understand that the iPad represents a major shift in how we interact with a computer.

It may take a few months for any supply chain issues to shake out and make the device readily available for immediate purchase.

It could well be that the iPad needs to cost a little less to give it the mass market appeal (but I don't think the price will be a barrier initially).

Either way, the bottom line is that the iPad has the potential to be a ground breaking device with more uses than we can possibly envisage and a potentially unlimited target audience.

It is not just for old people!

Just one example of how a single vendor (in this case Penguin books) is planning to move forward with the iPad.