Video has always been a hobby for me. I enjoy shooting and editing (as much as taking photos) in my spare time.

At work, sometimes we hire freelancers, many times we use our institution’s video production team but more and more often we handle it ourselves.  Video has become as critical to our communication efforts as the written word.  I wonder why?

I started our youtube channel two years ago and we have been publishing a fairly steady stream of content, bringing FIU to more audiences than ever before. Technology has made it possible to produce great HD footage on a very tight budget.

My colleague, Karen Cochrane, a fantastic and experienced writer, has embraced this new format and produces nearly 2 videos a week now.  I mention this because she had no prior experience with video and sound equipment. If you are reading this and have no background and are feeling a bit overwhelmed, just keep her in mind.

I wanted to share with you how we do it and I would love to hear any tips or tricks from anyone managing the same kind of video production.  Keep in mind that our challenge is maintaining a balance between being agile, easy, professional and keeping it fun.

Equipment (If you decide to purchase any and want to support this site, use the links in the post or at the very end)

• We have three main cameras (Canon HF100, Canon HF200 and a Sanyo Xacti HD1000). If you were to purchase one today, I recommend the HF200.  For the price you would be hard pressed to find a better portable solution.
• We have four copies of Final Cut Express (Final Cut Pro is overkill, we focus on fast minimalist editing)
• One wireless lavalier mic (Sennheiser EW122PG2)
• Shotgun Microphone (Canon 2591B002 DM-100)
• Five Memory Cards (Transcend 16GB SDHC)
• Lights: We have not invested in this yet although we do have a small LED that we have yet to use effectively.  It seems this is another investment of about $500-1000 for some kind of LED setup.  Please post recommendations.
• Two Tripods (we purchased light consumer grade models)

People:

• Nearly everyone in our office (about seven people) is able to handle a camera and we all help each other cover as many events as possible.
• Writers and editors have all taken very quickly to the format of interviewing on camera and capturing b-roll.

Workflow:

• We record on SDHC memory cards.  We all have access to a shared Video Library drive.
• Once we get back with footage, we create a folder with a detailed name and we dump the entire contents of the memory card into that folder on the shared drive.  (THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: All folders must be copied, as Final Cut and iMovie require the file structure to be intact.  If you botch this up it will be very difficult to convert the video files later).  This is obviously for the camera’s we use and mainly the Canons which record in a format called AVCHD.
• Using Final Cut Express: We go to File/Log & Tranfer off the top menu and then click on the icon in the top left. ()  We then locate the folder with the files and it will read them as if a memory card or camera is connected to the computer.
• Using this method allows us to maintain a backup of what we recorded in its original compressed form.  When the video is imported into Final Cut or iMovie it creates large uncompressed files.
• Each individual computer does all the processing and manages it’s own scratch disk however a backup of the recording is always available by finding that original folder we saved.
• Once a video is complete, we keep a master file of it on the server.  That said, we could try to move all the project files to a server but the cost and maintenance of all that storage does not seem efficient.

I know there are some folks out there keeping all the files (including all the project files).  Our challenge is allowing everyone to be their own editor rather than forcing everyone on one or two workstations.  We explored working off a server but it only truly allowed one person to work efficiently at a time.  The bandwidth needed to work with HD files is immense.

I would love hear how others are doing it.  We could all learn from each other.

Here is the equipment I would recommend.  If you want to support my blog, please buy via these links unless you can find it cheaper elsewhere. Thanks.

canon, editing, equipment, final cut, fiu, hf200, merille, mts, recommendations, sdhc, video production, video workflow, workflow, youtube Hide