Battlefield 2142 Tournament Podcast

Hi KGC,

Excellent vodcast! Great content, good length with excellent interview focusing on the human element. Considering the difficult conditions, the audio quality was very good (nice mic technique - obviously well trained). The camera work worked well, particularly in the first half setting the stage. Very nice editing and the multitude of video formats show you really care about your audience. My only constructive feedback would be the lighting - while the green colors were fine for the environment in the first half, the shadows on the faces and excessive green in the last 3 minutes could use some work to meet production standards. While bringing in lighting might not be appropriate on site, simply bringing a gold reflector would really make a difference on the talent's faces.

I'll give you a two thumbs way up for the vidcast. And if you want to take your website to the next level, add a one-click newletter signup via EMAIL on your home page. After all, that's the *most important* asset you can own. Sure, the RSS feed is nice but if you look at your logs, you'll find much more traffic originates from your webpage video than the RSS iTunes feed. Give your users some nice content on your newsletters and EMAIL them whenever you upload a new vodcast (aka the "push" model) - when you see the traffic increase, you'll be glad you did... provided you can afford the bandwidth!

Congratulations, Michael
 
I really appreciate your comments, they're valued.
I lack training in the lighting area and i'm struggeling to light inside the game center. It's all full of green and blue lights that keep the place to dark to get a good shot.
Since it's just me and a reporter, im not sure how well a gold reflrector would work unless i had an assistant.
Currently im using a Vidpro CX-40U that came with my camera package. The reason it wasn't used in the last 3 minutes of interviews was because it doesn't always want to work thus i tend not to use it. I'm thinking about purchasing a Frezzolini 50-watt Mini-Fill, got any suggestions on a good light?

Thanks for the compliments on mic technique, i've spent a pretty penny on multiple wireless mics and a shotgun to obtain high sound quality.

My iTunes subscribers make up only a few percent of the total views. I get most of my views from people watching it on the page. We do currently have a newsletter system setup, i'll see if i can build a system for the podcast area of the site.
 
Sure, my pleasure - always enjoyable to give positive feedback that's well deserved. Regarding your questions, here's the gear I bought from B&H Photo-Video for everyday use:
WEAIR $58.35 ea Illuminator Arm
WEIR6142 $99.95 Illuminator Reflector Kit 6-in-1 - 42"

Simply screw in the fully adjustable/articulated illuminator arm to your standard tripod light stand and clip on the reflectors. I have three, so I can use two diffusion panels and one reflector (especially for outdoor use); of course you might use other combo's and key and fill lighting, etc. Perhaps you'll want to start with just one reflector, although it's clear your video and audio gear far exceed your lighting limitations. Anyway, using the tripods you don't need extra help and gear like this is portable and durable for your use.

Rather than make suggestions on a specific lighting kit that might side-track your thread, I suggest you check out our Lighting Forum. And rather than be seduced by anyone's strong assertion to buy this or that, I suggest you consider purchasing the DVD DV Enlightenment (click the "natural light" icon in upper right for a Quicktime sample) - very good to appreciate lighting and wet your appetite for gear you will be ready to enjoy.

Good luck, Michael
 
Still using our old Intro Kyle!
Psh! Just kidding, Looking good as usual.
 
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BTW, in reference to starting up a eMag Newsletter, I like Constant Contact to automatically manage all the client's subscription activities, bounces, etc. Even better, you get terrific reports detailing EMAILs received, opened, and comprehensive analysis of links clicked (even by EMAIL name, date/time, frequency) for each EMAIL campaign sent - awesome analysis. They have over 100 templates. Here's a nice Flash/Articulate demo of how Constant Contact service works.

Or you can check out our BridgeHands newsletter signup here (don't worry about hurting anything, it's easy enough to signup and unsubscribe) - We also archive past newsletters (on our own) here.

And as long as I've already sidetracked your original thread, I recommend that you also include PodZinger do a search index of your vodcasts. They'll scan your vodcasts within a week and give you the two line HTML script to add a search widget at your site (you can try ours at BridgeHands home page in the middle of the page above the audiocast players). It's a nice feature to allow your visitors to type in a unique word and have PodZinger search through the audio stream (within video, too). The resulting page hit will key-up a Flash player at the instances within the audio/video that match the search text - pretty cool. Let's say for some reason you wanted to quickly search my audiocasts for the distinctive words "parents" or "Minnesota" - enter the keyword and watch it key in the word, then click the highlighted word to play the audio/video at that point. Anyway, it's nice to see technology associated with DARPA grants for the government "TLAs" are making their way to our private sector. Bottom line - grab the low hanging fruit to drive traffic and customers to your site.

So much to do - so little time... Michael

 
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