Here is a 6:17 review of My Video Talk, an online video platform for video email, video conferencing and more.

The services offered by My Video Talk are EXACTLY what many readers of this blog are looking for.

My Video Talk is booming and being talked about a lot in internet marketing and online video circles, for very good reason. First, it’s a very innovative service whose time has come PLUS it’s business model is MLM, so many people are attracted to it as a business opportunity, not just for the video services it provides.

Now as a business opportunity, I personally do not yet have experience with it as I’m just now getting involved but it looks good in that My Video Talk has an 8 year track record, a good reputation and a debt free bottom line. I’m generally not a fan of MLM marketing but it seems to be working well here.

The My Video Talk company is based in California but started its service in smaller, international markets. They did this in order to work out all the bugs both technically and from a marketing standpoint. Now that they’re well established internationally, they’ve got their sights set on the American and Canadian markets and it’s full speed ahead.

My expertise of course is as a video producer, not MLM, so looking at it from that perspective, my video talk is indeed an incredible, well-rounded service that is very affordable, easy to use and delivers a whole lot. There are a million ways to use it, both personal and business uses.

Their service is broken down into five different products that all fall under the umbrella of online video. Which ones you get depends on which package you signup for. The least expensive option is just $14.95 a month with no joining fee and the most expensive is still very affordable at $49.90 a month. Now compared to other online video services, that is a really low fee given what you get in return. Even when you tack on the starter fees, which apply only to the 2 highest two levels of service, My Video Talk is still a BARGAIN.  ($199 and $299 are the start-up fees for the highest two levels.  )

Here is a list of the five different products offered by My Video Talk.

• My Video Designer
• My Video Broadcaster
• My Video Channel
• My Video Web Show
• My Video Boardroom

My Video Designer is what they call their video email platform. Now video email can be used to great benefit by almost everybody. All you need are simple talking head videos done with a webcam. The video you send in the email is seen inside a brandable template. In addition to using them as video emails, you can also turn them into easy video landing pages.

My Video Broadcaster is the name they gave to their video webinar platform. Here again, the system is brandable with your own images and logos. Inside their conference room, you can show power points, images or use a white board. Now you can hold even bigger online video meetings with up to 16 webcam inputs using the service they call My Video Boardroom. Between the two products, you can get every type of online video meeting technology in existence.

My Video Channel is a product that allows you to easily build a video-oriented website all your own. Your own private, brandable video channel online with no other ads popping up anywhere. My Video Talk covers all the video hosting, and gives you all the templates for easy website channel creation.

Top all these online video services off with the live video streaming service they call My Video Web Show. Not only can you stream live video, but you can also store video content so you can have viewers 24-7 for your own personal web shows. There’s a programming guide and the ability to link up with all your social networking sites with too.

All five of these products added together give you just about all the online video services you could ever use. They’ve been tested by the markets the company started in. They’ve designed to be really easy to use. My Video Talk is all in the cloud, there’s never anything you have to download or install.

My Video Talk is absolutely one of the most successful companies offering these kinds of services. As an observer of the online video world, there’s a lot of competition in this space and I’ve seen several companies come and go. I think the fact that My Video Talk perfected its technology before hitting the US market, and because they’ve made it so far being debt free with a good customer service reputation, all that bodes real well for their continued success.

If you are interested in signing up for My Video Talk either as a customer or a distributor or both, please contact me for more information. I can get you in touch with representatives of the company if necessary.

For Video Production Tips, I’m Lorraine Grula.

This is the squeeze page video I created for a client in the Cash for Gold business.  Two other versions of this squeeze page video are down closer to the bottom of this post.  It is one part of the huge video marketing campaign I am working on right now.  Although the campaign so far features about 15 videos, this squeeze page video is probably the single most important.

Of course we all know that the money is in the list, and a squeeze page video is the list entry point.  So obviously a squeeze page video can make  or break your list building efforts.

This particular video marketing campaign is so large that it is giving me the opportunity to do some experimentation and I plan on passing the results on to my readers. We’re just beginning so this is my first post on it.

In addition to this squeeze page video, I am going to make at least two other squeeze page videos that use different tactics.

This one is quite dramatic with an ominous feel.  I achieved that feel by using very dramatic music along with a dramatic read.  Honestly, a different voice (deep, male) might achieve this better than mine, but the client likes my voice so who am I to argue? 

The script was also designed and written to be a bit fear-inducing.  The free product being offered is, of course, going to alleviate the fear of the consumer.  The script makes clear that without the free product, they are throwing themselves to the sharks.

The two other squeeze page videos I am planning for the campaign will not be so dramatic in nature.  One will still be sales oriented but  simply be less dramatic.  That means I’ll write the script with less dire overtones and give it a softer read as well as more light-hearted music.

The third squeeze page video will be formatted more like a news story.  In other words, an informational video that is not so heavy on the sales language.

Over time, we will see which video gets the best conversions.

At this point, I kind of hate to even make any predictions because I am so unsure of the outcome.  I know enough to realize that one method will work better on some people than others but which one will appeal to the majority is just a guess.

I personally do not respond well to overly dramatic videos.  I actually laugh at them which is NOT the reaction we’re going for of course.  But my 30 plus years in the TV business has proven to me time and time again that  I am a weird-o!  I guess you could say I am the “PBS type” and like stuff most people consider boring!  In my observation, scaring the bejeezes out of people is a very effective strategy.  That’s why the first one out of the shoot is this one!

I promise to expand on this post as time goes by and let readers know which strategies work best.  We’re all learning here.  Online video marketing is a relatively new thing so I hope my efforts can add to the body of knowledge that will propel the industry forward.

In the meantime, let’s hope my client, who indeed offers the best place to sell jewelry, sees his list grow by leaps and bounds!

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips!

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

UPDATE WITH TWO OTHER VERSIONS OF THE VIDEO

As I said, I wanted to make a version of the squeeze page video that was not so dramatic. Some people might use the word hokey, or corny, or silly and not dramatic! But whatever your adjective preference, the two videos below are significantly different in tone than the first video above. We’re going to split test to see which does better. The only real difference between the two below is one is shorter than the other. The shorter is :57 and the longer is 1:24. I’m thinking the shorter one will do better but we shall see!

These are “less dramatic” mostly because I read the narration completely differently. I also used less dramatic music and took out the slow motion flame.

3:43 video on Dano Songs, a GREAT source for high quality Royalty Free Music on a budget.  All of us interested in creating online videos are looking for good sources of royalty free music. Of course music is one of the best and easiest storytelling elements at any video makers disposal.

Royalty free music is a type created specifically for people doing lower-budget video productions and other multimedia projects that benefit from the addition of music.  Music you hear on the radio can’t be used unless you pay licensing fees which can be huge, especially if the song is popular.  Cadillac can afford to license Led Zeppelin for their commercials but most of us can’t!  Royalty Free music is what’s used.  Royalty free doesn’t mean fee free though, some R.F tunes can run 60 bucks or so for a basic track.

Today’s blog post shares a wonderful royalty free music resource online that comes to us from a gentleman named Dan O’Conner who lives in New York.  He’s dedicated to helping online video producers with their music needs for much less than the standard prices.

Dan O'Conner of Dano Songs

A multi-talented musician and composer, Dan has about one hundred royalty free songs he’s composed on his blog right now that you can download. He tells me he’s adding more every day! Now, Dan offers them with a very liberal, user-friendly license. Basically, to use his songs in any video, podcast, game or whatever, commercial or personal, all you need to do is either give him credit in your production plus a link back to his site, or if you want to use it without doing that, pay just 10 bucks per track. Either way, it’s a great deal!

I must confess that I had a great time making this video today about Dano Songs because it was so much fun listening to the music. If you watch the video, you’ll get to hear about twenty examples of Dan’s fine work.

I’m sure this awesome resources will help you make better videos.

I asked Dan in an email  interview what motivates him to do this.

I want to help people, organizations and businesses who are doing YouTube videos, apps, indie films, self-producing games, etc. and can’t afford the very high prices of stock music.

I started this site several years ago as a place to post a few tracks I recorded as a singer/songwriter. Then one day I added some instrumentals I created for fun. Since then the requests from visitors for music for YouTube videos, games, indie films, and slideshows has been non-stop.

Now I post new MP3s on my blog every day. Since I was a Music Business major in college I knew just what to do to set up a very user friendly license. If you have questions about using the music you can read the License FAQ on my blog.

Dan is a graduate with a Bachelor of Music, Music Business, from the Hartt School of Music, Professional Degree, Jazz Guitar and Vocals, Hartford Conservatory of Music.

I appreciate Dan letting me review his site.   I truly had fun listening to all the great music.  I am glad to be able to pass excellent resources  on to my readers so please enjoy!

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

Telling a great story with video in under 1:30 is always a challenge. EVIL WOMAN is the theme of this video.

Using just a few shots, video creator Craig B. told a very distinct story about this very evil woman he met!  Craig’s video was created for the WeVideo and Video Production Tips contest to win a free video camera.  Craig is the current leader in the contest so I thought readers  would find his storytelling adventures interesting.  (Scroll down for a video analysis with different info than this text post.)

First, let me say that Craig is pretty much a novice at digital video editing.  He has some experience with the old-style analogue video editing but of course that is radically different.

Even so, Craig says he was able to navigate through the WeVideo editing platform quite easily.   From start to finish, it took him about two hours to edit the video you see above.  That includes the time it took to upload all his video clips, arrange them in the timeline, pick out his royalty free music, place it and then edit in the graphics and export to You Tube.

The most time consuming thing was uploading his clips.  They are all royalty free clips he had previously downloaded from the free video clips download service called Bottled Video.     Like any good video producer, Craig had his clips all picked  out before he began editing.  To make the selection and upload process easier, Craig moved the clips he wanted to use to a new folder.  That way, once he got inside WeVideo, all he had to do was go to that one folder, select all, and do a batch upload.  Then  he took a dinner break.  When he was done chowing down, all the clips were in his free WeVideo account.

Then it was just a matter of putting everything in order and mixing it together.  Craig says he was not sure if the close-up shot of the door locking was telling enough for the story.  He actually wanted a shot of the couple walking into a room and closing the door behind him but he could not find one.  So he settled for the close-up of the door locking, then cut to the fireworks.

As a viewer, do you think that is enough?  This is one of those instances where it pays to be a critical viewer so you can have a better feel for what works and what doesn’t.  Then, if you find yourself in a similar situation editing, you can make the best decision.  Visual storytelling hinges on whether the shots you select are understood by the viewer.

Craig says he came up with his storyline based on the video he saw from Bottled Video.  He was glad the woman in the gym shot and the woman in the bathtub shot were both blondes!  I guess this guy has had a few bad experiences with women, but often the best art imitates life!

I thought the fireworks shot was a GREAT example of a visual analogy.   Coming after the “flirting” shot inside the gym, then the locked door, it is obvious what is happening.  No one will think they are attending a 4th of July event!   When he then immediately cuts to the shot of the guy getting busted, I personally burst out a good belly laugh.  I guess I have a sick sense of humor, but it was just so unexpected.  I never in a million  years was expecting THAT shot!  Like I said, I guess the guy has a sad history with women!  (We’re  not ALL like that!)

Using the bath tub shot with the music Evil Woman by Electric Light Orchestra after the arrest shot leaves no doubt in the viewer’s mind what has happened!

Overall, I think this is pretty good visual storytelling! What do you think? 

The video analysis I made for this page covers different stuff from this text post and shows you the inside of Craig’s WeVideo account and how he put the video together.

I appreciate Craig taking the time to make this video and enter it in the contest.  Now, can YOU make a better video and beat him out for the prize of a free Sony Bloggie Video camera?

HELP!

But it’s not really.

Video conversion is fairly easy if you have the right software.  This post will tell you about two different software packages that you can download for free over the internet.

WHAT IS VIDEO CONVERSION SOFTWARE?

There are thousands of different video file formats.  Incompatible files are indeed a royal pain in the wazoo.  It’s the reason why that Flash video won’t play on your iPad.  It’s also the reason that video disc burned by your friend won’t play on your DVD player.

Just like an 8-track audio tape won’t play in an audio cassette player, a .wmv video file won’t play on the DVD player designed for MPEG2 video files.

But lucky us, video conversion software will chew on that video file and pop out a brand new file in the format of your choice!

Although there are plenty of paid choices with video conversion software, there are also some good free ones and they might be all you need.

FREE!!!

One freebie that I use all the time is MPEG Streamclip by Squared 5.  It comes in versions for both Windows and Mac.  It functions with all formats that are Quick Time compatible.

By using any Quick-Time compatible codec, MPEG Streamclip can convert from:

• MOV, DV, MP4, AVI, DIVX, MPG, MPEG, VOB, PS, MOD, M2P, VRO, TS, DAT, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AVR, M2V

to

• MOV, DV, MP4, AVI, DIVX

For full compatibility with MPEG2, (the format used in home DVD players and the main format of commercial DVDs) Mac users need to buy an MPEG playback component from Apple  and PC users need to install the Quick-Time Alternative.

SQUARED 5 is a small group out of Italy who are generous enough to keep MPEG Streamclip as a freebie!  I use it all the time.

OPEN SOURCE CONVERSION SOFTWARE

Another, even more versatile choice is HandBrake.  HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed (General Public License), multi-platform, multi-threaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.

Supported Sources for HandBrake:

• Most common multimedia files that libavformat and libavcodec support.  This is a huge list of formats.
• Any DVD or Bluray-like source which is NOT copy-protected. (removal of copy protection is not supported)

Outputs in HandBrake:

• File format: MP4(M4V) and MKV
• Video: MPEG-4(ffmpeg), H.264(x264), or Theora(libtheora)
• Audio: AAC, CoreAudio AAC (OS X Only), MP3, or Vorbis. AC-3 pass-through, DTS pass-thorugh (MKV only)

Between these two free choices, you can probably do just about all the video file converting  you’d ever need to!

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips!

Lorraine Grula

A documentary producer named Andre Campbell wrote to me the other day in the hopes that I could share his eBook about documentary making with my readers.  Of course!   Especially since Andre is generous enough to give three of my readers a FREE copy.  They were grabbed  up quickly, and I actually gave away five,  not three!

Here is the link to buy a copy:

Documentary eBook by Andre Campbell

Andre found making docs quite exhilarating.  His shows were all done on a shoestring budget with no formal training.  Now, that describes LOTS of the budding documentary film makers that I know!

Money?  Training?  Gosh, what are THEY?

Money and training obviously help, but lack of either probably won’t deter you if you really have the passion.  Andre hopes his experiences will help the passionate shorten their learning curve.  His eBook is aimed at beginners who quite likely are still not quite sure what they are getting themselves into!  Andre went through the process himself, learning from scratch.  Coming from that perspective, he recounts the information he himself would have found most valuable when he was starting out.

As a special treat for readers of Video Production Tips, the first three people who email a request to me will get the eBook for free!  Andre  himself is a Video Production Tips reader and I am grateful that he wants to give a little bit back to the community.  They were snatched up quickly, but you can purchase the book at this link: (NOT an affiliate link)

DOCUMENTARY eBOOK

So if you are interested in a free copy of his eBook, please email me at videoproductiontips@gmail.com.  The first three people to do so will get theirs FREE!  (Done, all three  have been given away)

We’ll call it an early Christmas present!

Thanks Andre, and thanks to you all for reading Video Production Tips!

Lorraine Grula

This 3:46 video shows you where to get FREE Royalty Free Video Clips.

In order to edit together a compelling video, you need to have quality video clips to use.  Shooting them yourself is not always an option due to budget, time and travel constraints.  In those cases, Royalty Free video clips are the answer.

WHAT ARE ROYALTY FREE VIDEO CLIPS?

Royalty Free video clips are shots that you pay a one-time fee for in exchange for the right to use them in your projects.  Most royalty free video clips come with a limited license, you do not OWN the clips but you can use them in certain ways.  Contracts differ (so ALWAYS read them) but generally speaking, Royalty Free licensing lets you use the clips in any project that you do not then turn around and sell as a royalty free video for others to download and use.  In other words, I can not take royalty free shots, repackage them superficially, then sell it as my own product.  What the R.F. video companies are trying to avoid is someone using their own clips in a competitive way against them. Other than that, you can use the clips in any type of project.  Videos  you give away, and videos you sell.

Using Royalty Free video clips is usually much less expensive than shooting them yourself and it is certainly faster.  If I need a shot of an Egyptian pyramid, you can rest assured that paying $75 or $100 for a royalty free shot is faster and cheaper than me humping it over to Egypt with a video camera!  (Although no doubt the trip would be fun and I am sort of bummed that I can not go!)

Having said that, paying $75 or $100 bucks for every single shot of a 5 minute video is going to get expensive.  (If a shot lasts 10 seconds, you’d need thirty shots to fill five minutes.  30 x 75 = $2,250.)

Since I edit a lot, I am constantly on the look-out for quality royalty free video clips.  I have amassed a huge library of R.F. clips because I simply never know when I am going to need that pyramid shot.

I discovered an awesome resource the other day for FREE Royalty Free video clips that I wanted to pass on.   What is better than free? Free AND high quality with lots to choose from.

The clips at Bottled Video.com are professionally shot AND completely free.  As of this writing, they have a total of 10,604 clips to choose  from.  Not only are all the clips free, but you do not even have to sign up for an account.  There are no upsells and no obligations.  They do not even have your name and email address so they could not upsell you even if they wanted! 

HOW DID SUCH A GOOD DEAL COME ABOUT?

My first question was: “How can they do this?”  Being the cynical sort, I figured there had to be a catch somewhere.  So I asked David Schmerin, the owner to explain.  Turns out, he has been in the video business selling Royalty Free clips for a very long time.  He has been so successful at it that he now is in the enviable position of being able to turn his business into philanthropy.  Below, I have pasted his exact response to my email inquiry.

INTERVIEW WITH DAVID SCHMERIN, OWNER OF BOTTLED VIDEO.COM

Just about 20 years ago I started a web site called Wrightwood.com which is the oldest royalty free stock footage site on the internet. While
Wrightwood.com is still up and running, over the years we expanded into a site called GotFootage.com where instead of licensing royalty free stock footage collections we created the first site to allow individuals to license and download individual clips. From there we expanded to GotFootageHD.com which is the same as GotFootage.com but licenses only HD materials.

Here I am now some twenty years later… One day something happened to me. I received a call from a student looking for a deal on one clip because they just didn’t have any money and I sort of just snapped. Suddenly it seemed like every person over 20 years I had to say I could not help if they didn’t have any money was weighing in on my shoulders. I turned to my wife and partner and said that I have a lot of Karma to make up for. Since money was no longer an issue in my life, BottledVideo.com was born.

Right now we currently have just over 10,500 clips on BottledVideo. Every clip on BottledVideo is from our private library and more clips will be added from our pay sites to the free site every week until all 100k clips in my library are available for free.

So the short answer is no I do not make any money from BottledVideo.com nor is making money the goal of the site. The goal of the site is to give back to the next generation for everything those who came before have done for me, my family, and my life.

THANKS DAVID!

I personally applaud David and his team for being so generous.  They do not have to do this but I am glad they did.  I spent all afternoon yesterday downloading clips.  I like the fact that these clips are REAL, not staged.  Staged shots look staged and sometimes that is perfectly OK, but I am a reality lover so I prefer unstaged.   They have real doctors performing real surgeries.  Real soldiers.  Real cops.  Real chefs.  The list is very long and David promises it is destined to get even longer.

So head on over to Bottled Video.com and start downloading!

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips.

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal