Like blogging, vlogging (video blogging) is a way to share your insights on a subject with an online audience. However, vlogging goes beyond the text of a blog post, transforming your content into an audio-visual broadcast. If you’re interested in vlogging, but don’t know how to start, here are some tips:

The first thing you’ll need is the right equipment, and the good news is you don’t need much, just a camcorder or a web camera and a good microphone. Also, for a vlog that has a more polished look, you’ll want to learn how to use video-editing software. This will enable you to add music, subtitles, etc. to your vlog. There are numerous online programs like Wax or Zwei-Stein Video Editor that you can download for free. Also, Apple iMovie and Windows Movie Maker are both easy to use and come pre-installed on Macs and PCs.

Once you’ve assembled your equipment, I recommend experimenting. Test the sound quality of your microphone; make sure there is sufficient lighting where you’re recording your vlog and figure out how you want to look on camera. Remember that vlogging is a form of communication, so you want to not only be visible (no low lighting), but also intelligible. Most vlog “episodes” should be one to three minutes, keeping the amount of bandwidth needed to host them to a minimum. Therefore it’s a good idea to rehearse your content. At the very least, I recommend preparing a script or some type of plan before each video so that you can deliver concise, focused content. Finally, don’t be afraid to have fun with your vlog. Depending on your audience, you’ll want to be more than just informative; you’ll also want to be candid and entertaining. Like blogging, it’s important to pick subjects you love and can explore in a series of posts. One episode doth not a vlog make.

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Have you ever been somewhere and wanted to know what the name of a song was but could not figure out the name of it. Or maybe you wanted to record an interview or joke but did not have a digital recorder. Well Audiofile Engineering has released a iPhone and iTouch application that allows you to record at any moment.  I consider this phone application solution a comparison to what the Flip Camera did to the camcorder.  Providing Pure Technologies a commanding 23% of the video camera market in less than two years.

This new application has many things to brag about making it the first application broadcast WAVE data, and instant downloading formats in multiple files.  At $5.99 this application offers Sound Cloud integration so that users can upload audio files directly online and “share” them instantly.

If you have used the Fire application send us your personal feedbacks.

Today, music-nerd bible Pitchfork Media launched a newly redesigned site. The first thing most readers probably noticed as they rolled out of bed or sat down at their desks was the really cool looking yet highly intrusive iPod Touch banner at the top of the page. This Flash monster not only shows the iPod Touch in action, but the device itself smacks around the menu buttons located along the top. Wait, what? Pitchfork doesn’t have menu buttons there, and everything isn’t all white, and hmm, that font looks familiar. Not only was an Apple ad featured prominently, but the site design itself seemed to be taking a lot of cues from Apple, too. If it’s permanent, it will take some getting used to. If it’s some sort of sarcastic jab at the indie love affair with Apple products, well played Pitchfork. And if it’s one of those “so ironic, it’s not” moments, then well played again. I think.

Today we talk about foley. Your film creation cannot live on music alone, unless you are making a silent movie, or you make sure you record every footstep sound carefully, you will need some sounds effects to enhance the action on the screen.  Most professional editing suites come packaged with all sorts bits and bites that you can use. If you do not have those, there is hope on the internet for non-commercial use: basically for free for students and filmmakers for online distribution and film festivals, with possibility of licensing for commercial when (more realistically, if) needed.

The resource I want to share with you today is The Freesound Project. Freesound makes available an ever-growing database of sound effect licensed under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 license. This means you can use and abuse the samples for non-commercial purposes including remixing, file sharing and webcasting.

You may search the site using freeform text, tags, descriptions, usernames, or geotags.  There is also a “sounds-like” type of browsing available on the site. An account is required, but sign-up is free.

This was going to be the exception to creative commons music and a post about licensing from small recording houses. But in the past two days while talking to musician and studio manager Robby Baier at SoulTube, Robby just went ahead and posted a Non-Commercial, Attribution, Limited Use notice to the site. I verified this with the studio, and indeed, licenses to students are free (yay)-festival licenses included. When the money comes (keep believing), they would want to talk to you some more about commercial distribution and offer to even help you pick the right song for a scene. Either way, always give credit where its due.

SoulTube is home to a small, but a unqiue and beautifully-produced collection of artists. They have licensed music to commercials, TV, and films before so they are not new to the game. Check out their site, go to the “Songs For Film” section and choose the advanced search feature. You can explore from their list of artists, pick a mood, or search for specific words in the lyrics database (kudos!).

If this does not sound too good already, most of the tracks are also available in instrumental versions and you can hear the music and download it from the site directly.  Again, the only drawback is that it is a small collection, but the experience of dealing with people passionate about their music is vastly superior to any of the stock music houses or large labels.

You have labored over your film concept (the one you just came up with an hour before you had to pitch it), you have poured every emotion in your soul into the storyboards (mostly fear), and now you scurry about in the last two weeks of Winter quarter, squeezing whatever creative juices (and hard-earned cash) left in you to put out a story you can call your own into this cyberworld.

Visually, things seem to be falling into place (historically known as the crapper), and now it is time to find that perfect minor chord to send your audience weeping after they view your piece.

The musicscapes are vast and this post (in three parts) will only attempt to provide some guidance for those creating audio-visual projects to navigating the creative commons music territories (or swamps).

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I just ran across a new slideshare app that makes it really easy to add sound or music to your slide shows. John Boutelle, Slideshare founder, gives a cool tutorial – with his voice recorded – maybe he’s not really there? Maybe you could dial it in!

Slidecasting 101
View more presentations from Jonathan Boutelle. (tags: propaganda slideshare)