Ok, so I created another website for speech coaching (see other thread on this forum); I created an .mp3 file for an article associated with a new class (for now just a free one-shot because it’s on short notice, but soon to greatly expand); now I need to promote by other means. While the Google Site that I’m using might not even support embedding audio per se (I don’t recall), articles on EduFire, tutor pages, etc, can have YouTube video attached, but not .mp3 audio. So, I’ll have to turn my .mp3 audio (made with Audacity and filtered to minimize microphone background noise) into a YouTube video.

…The first time I made a video, it was using a narrated PowerPoint using Sound Recorder clips; the sound was much inferior (Audacity makes a big difference with that filtering). I see no reason I would change my audio now. I need a 30-sec teaser as well as a full version (bit over 4 minutes) but that’s not the point; I have zero, zip, zilch, nada experience in going from an .mp3 to a YouTube video, nor in adding appropriate kinds of visual presentation for the purpose.

So, I throw myself upon the mercy of Tutor Talk once more in the hope of assistance. Even if I’m not using a vidcam at this time, the more that people hear me, the more credible I will be, most particularly as a speech coach, of course.

If your only reason for moving to a video format is to provide embedded audio for your webpage, why not open a free account with a service such as PodBean. More specifically, take a look at the information regarding the embeddable player offered by podbean as is discussed in the following link!

http://www.podbean.com/podcast-quick-start-user-guide#Embeddable Player

Hope it helps, and the Podcasting Report will be released this week!
Ron

Oooh, that’s good info. This is just a result of my not having played with these things in the past and therefore not knowing the easiest stuff but, yes, I’ve badly needed access to a free podcasting service.

Having said that, no, it is not my only reason; YouTube advertising is a good in and of itself, and it’ll give me something new to embed onto my tutor profile page and so forth here on eduFire.

this utube video might be helpful ….

If you want to create a “video” consider using Windows Movie Maker or you can purchase one of several different low-cost movie editing software titles available. I personally use Sony Vegas software and have worked with Adobe Premiere and Pinnacle software as well. All of them have great strengths, however, I think Pinnacle has a faster learning curve and excellent features for learning the software. All of these have a 30-day free trial period that will give you an opportunity to learn the software before you buy.

When you make your video, it is a good idea to first record in Audacity (or similar audio platform) and use the track as the foundation for your video. Also, keep the narration and sound effects seperate if your video editing allows more than one audio channel. This will give you greater flexibility when you do your final edits.

The best thing about laying the audio tracks first is that it is much easier to time your visual transitions to the audio than it is to time your audio to video transitions as you would if you were conducting a voice over while viewing the video portion as you did when you narrated your power point slides. But you can still use your power point presentation slides for your video. Just take a screen shot of your slides during a presentation and then use these images as still shots in your video. Just be very careful of the screen aspect ratio and the frame rate required by sites such as YouTube when you produce your final video. YouTubes requirements can be viewed here. Try to produce your video in the same format required by the web service that will host your video. Although the website will reformat your video, it is much faster to have it in the format when you present it for uploading at the beginning. And if you have software that allows you to set the pixel aspect ratio it is best to use a square-pixel ratio in most situations.

Also, you will have a lot of fancy transitions to choose from in a video editing software. But if your intentions are to show your videos via online forgo the fancy transitions and stick with straight cuts and dissolves.

These are just a few of the things I will be covering in my upcoming class on producing audio and video blogs to support and market your online tutoring business. This class will be posted very shortly (as soon as I get better) and will cover some of these issues in great detail.

Hope it helps!
Ron

Ron, yes it does help and I hope you get better very soon.

I’ve been looking for a good piece of FOSS for editing video (I use OO for text, Audacity for audio, Gimp for stills, CAM studio for screencasts, etc). WMM is ok. But I find the clip editor to be very limited. It needs more granularity and blue screen effects. I would like to duplicate what I used to do with 3/4 tape for a talk show.

Thanks Ron, get well soon!

I definitely want to go audio → video because yes, it’s much easier to time that way. It’s just different for something that I never actually had created PowerPoint slides for to begin with (articles, not class content, for instance). The tip to avoid fancy transitions is something I’ll remember. I saw those features in PowerPoint and passed.

Ron! Hope you’re feeling better! Great to see you posts!

I checked out that YouTube video. Seems I’ll just have to be very careful about what images I might use and give proper attributions (although I never intended otherwise – I’m just new to balancing all this). Thanks.

This is the result: my YouTube video.

Well done Jeremiah!

Excellent vid, Jeremiah! You speak very clearly :).

Yes, well done.

Thank you very much for the kind replies. I’m going to try and spread this video widely and use it for things that don’t allow attaching of mp3’s (I’ve already done so with my tutor profile page).

Actually, it’s come to my attention that the video is too blurry, so I’m obviously not doing something right. It’s a start, but my greenness is showing. I’ll have to find out how to do this better and build from there. But, it is a start!

I have watched the videos and I think they are not blurry at all. The only thing I can see is, that they start up a bit blurry but become sharper after a few seconds. I think it’s nothing to worry too much about.

Marian

Thanks for the advice.

Incidentally, I’ve found another use for mp3’s. I’ve started podcasting: Japanese for Beginners

I spent a happy day yesterday working out how to capture video from a class I recorded recently and edit it to use on my profile (thanks for the hints Koichi).

This is the result of my labours: profile video

I used the open source CamStudio to capture the video and Windows Movie Maker to edit it and put on titles, images and extra audio. All suggestions for better software or ways to improve the video are welcome :-)

Mair That’s excellent!! very cool… I enjoy using IMovie a bit more intuitive i think….

Very cool, Mair!