Introduction

Over the years I have created some short videos, to bring to life some of the content that I have been creating for presentations and conferences.  It has taken a while, but I have finally settled on a set of equipment and software that helps ease this process which I thought I would share. The selection will continue evolve over time, I am sure.

Slide Creation

PowerPoint is an excellent tool to create slides for the videos. I then tend to export the slides as PNG and then import them into the video editor. The video editor allows the slides to be copied over a given time so that you can then apply the appropriate voice over and mix with video.

Backgrounds

For backgrounds you can use a live scene that is appropriate, for example office, room, wall. But when you want to do more complex things then you can use a background e.g. green screen or wall with a single colour.  

With a single colour, the video editing software allows you to use Chroma Key to substitute that colour for a different background or video footage. This means that you can appear in different background scenes without moving from your location. The way to do this varies between editors.

Microphones and Pre-amplifier

Over the years I have collected a varied assortment of microphones, from E-bay. For outside recording I use the Rhode Pro-Video (https://www.rode.com/) which can be mounted on the flash adapter and plugged into the D5100 microphone port. The microphone has an in-built pre-amplifier with a several gain settings, which allows even the quietest voices to be heard as you are recording the live video.

If I am in the office, I use a Rhode NT-1A (https://www.rode.com/ ) Cardiod Condenser microphone which is connected via XLR to an Audient ID-14 pre-amplifier (https://audient.com/). The Rhode is a studio microphone and requires 48V which is powered by the audient pre-amplifier, with Burr-Brown analogue to digital converter. The Audient pre-amplifier is extremely low noise (built using FETs) and provides a digital output which can be captured by the Sound Forge recording software.

The Rhode-NT-1A is supported by its own shock mount and pop filter. The microphone is very directional so that that the speaker is heard and background noise is excluded.

Prior to using the Rhode, I used a Seinheiser MD421, which was really excellent for audio and music recording. But there is a big difference between the two microphones and while excellent, the noise generated by the Rhode is significantly less which really does help with the quality of the recordings.

Camera Equipment

I have inherited a Nikon D5100 with a good range of lenses. The Nikon allows the capture of video on the camera which can then be downloaded to the Video Editing software for a final edit into the video. 

It unfortunately as with many DSLR cameras the video recorded to 15 minutes and does not support live video through HDMI or an option to use it as a web-cam. When funds permit it would be a good move to upgrade to a camera that does support these fixtures, but I suspect it will be some while.

I have upgraded the software using the patches from Nikon Hackers which gave HDMI output from the camera. Using an Elgato 4K CamLink HDMI to USB converter, I can capture the live video stream with software like OBS (Open Broadcaster Software®️ | OBS (obsproject.com)), but found that it direct recording of video was better and re-patched with the Nikon firmware.

Audio Recording Software

For audio recording I use SoundForge Pro (https://www.magix.com/) recording software. This is an excellent piece of software that allows editing down to the minutest feature on the audio track. It also comes with a range of plugins, equalizers that allow clean up of noise within the recording should it occur.

SoundForge will also record audio directly from the Audient-ID14 using the ASIO software driver interface which provides extremely high quality recordings.

Audio Tracks

There are a very large number of music libraries online that will provide music tracks which are free to use after a single payment. These provide excellent sources of music for your videos and can add an extra dimension to your work.

Video Editing Software

I have used for many years the Vegas Studio software (https://www.magix.com/ ) which is a Windows based video editing platform. I have found it extremely good an intuitive with lots of plugins and features that will create simple are more complex videos.

More recently I have upgraded and use DaVinci Resolve (https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/) which again is extremely intuitive to use and is more widely used in film creation.  Although, the software it is still quite new for me, it is providing a great basis for video editing.

Vegas video can run without GPU cards and performs well on a decent PC, whereas DaVinci Resolve requires a GPU to work.

Both video editing software tools will render to a wide range of video formats and resolutions which means that they are suitable for mobile, TV and web.

Approach to Video Creation

Although I am purely creating the videos for fun and to tell a story, or present a particular message or point of view, I follow the simple steps below.

1. Create an outline of what you want to say.
2. Populate the outline with the key content for each section to create the script
3. Number each section of the script, this indicates the start of a new slide, video or paragraph.
4. Write the narrative for each section.
5. Create any visual material e.g. Video, Slides, pictures etc. for each section. To ensure good quality, make sure that the visual content is as close to the resolution that the output will be generated, otherwise blurring may occur.
6. Using the script record the voiceover for each section. With tools like SoundForge you can easily re-edit, re-record until you get it the way you want.
7. Once all the recording has been complete, break it into sections and save as individual files.
8. Using the video editors you can then import the visual and audio content, and bring together with the appropriate transitions or audio fades so that the end to affect is a good quality video.
9. Once you are happy with the preview, the video can be rendered and tested on the target devices. It is a good idea to check the video on different devices as sometimes the playback can yield unexpected features that may need to be corrected.