An informal blog for talking about media production – from technology to story – as well as developing brand identity through creation and distribution of digital content.
The short videos circulating on the MCN Twitter feed were produced using the following remote capture method. We're sharing this tutorial and tips to encourage more presenters to take on creating self produced videos telling us about your session at MCN in November. If you do, be sure to tweet it to @museumcn!
Remote interview capture for Mac users
1. Smartphone/iPhone capture. Built-in video recording software is great, to improve quality look at the lighting and sound tips.
2. Recording with a Mac with iSight:
Open Quicktime Player
File > New Movie Recording
To select external camera or
microphone click arrow next to record
button to change settings
When ready click record in Quicktime
Once the file opens make sure to save it!
3. There some good free software and tutorials for PC recording out there as well, just not tried and tested by us so not sure which are the best. If you know one, please share in the comments!
Lighting tips
Set up so that you are not in front of a window, instead face the window for full, even lighting.
Turn down brightness on laptop and turn on a desk lamp to avoid the blue glow of the screen.
If there is a little bit of a color cast over the image, this can be fixed by working with more even colored lighting; using just daylight, or just incandescent artificial light.
Sound tips
Use external microphone: An external mic is always better, if you can borrow one, even a low-end microphone will help reduce ambient sound. If you have a newer laptop with one “headphone jack” for sound you can use an iphone style headset with a speaker to get more isolated sound.
Sound Check: Test out your set up first by doing a test recording, make sure your setting is to “Built-in input.” If your clip doesn’t have any sound proceed with using the built in mic on the computer.
Reduce ambient Sound: It is important is to record in a quiet place, so close the windows, turn off fans, children and refridgerators. Play back your test recording at high volume and listen closely for background noises that you can fix.
If you want to buy a microphone because you have now become obsessed with making your own
vlogs these are all going to be a step up from a built in laptop mic:
Cheap ($16):Cyber Acoustics CVL-1084 USB Desktop Microphone
Better ($40):Samson Go Mic - USB Microphone for Mac and PC Computers (Silver)
Way better ($55): Blue Snowball USB Condenser Microphone with Accessory Pack (White)
