Thanks for the feedback.

Not sure what you mean "video levels must be normalized to REC 601/709", is there a feature in Vegas to help do that?

The dialog isn't really "scripted", I mean they have a topic they are familiar with, they discuss key points they're going to talk about before the recording, but it's pretty much ad-lib. (I think them memorizing a script would be worse)

Another thing I wasn't sure about was where exactly the speakers should look. They are talking to each other, but also the camera, but it looks odd if they both stare at the camera while talking to each other. Suggestions for where their eyes should be?

Another thing I meant to ask was the videos are done in one take. It may take several takes to get it "right", most of the first takes they are laughing or really mess up what they were saying.

With a typical video you'd have cut shots and it almost makes it easier to edit mistakes out, but with a single camera and filming from start to end it's hard to talk for more than a few minutes without a mistake. (for non-pros anyway)

I'll look into some better mics too, thanks.

"is there a feature in Vegas to help do that?"
Yes, the video scopes and Levels filter. 0-235 is the rule.

"The dialog isn't really "scripted"
It's not working.

"Suggestions for where their eyes should be?"
They should look and speak to 11:30 o'clock, just off camera, and turn to each other to acknowledge and interact.
Often the camera operator stands with his face at just the right spot, and they look and speak to him.
Instead, they keep looking at their own bodies, self-consciously.

With only one camera, one take is best. That means everyone must be on task, not inside their heads. Talent must serve the task, not themselves. They are representing the company and the product, at all times. Have someone else step in if this is not working.

A typical histogram of properly corrected 16-235 levels in Vegas.

The thing that got me the most was the dark shadows on the eyes.
A bounce board (a largish piece of foamcore) or a soft on camera light to fill the shadows would help.
Aside from that, it is what it is, an unscripted talk about what they do by the people who do it. I think that's more likely to attract clients to the business than using professional actors or worrying too much about scripts and makeup and hairdressers etc.

Bob.

I see an opportunity for a new cottage industry here -- teaching public speaking to speech therapists.

I'm all over it! Great idea.

G

Hi,
This is actually not that bad, i have seen a lot worse!.
Here are few pointers i could make, however, i am learning too so these are not sure-fire fixes by any means.

Audio: You mentioned already the room is too ambient sounding. Thats true, and it can be fixed by getting microphones as close to the talent as possible. I would not bother using a shot gun mic on camera. If you can use radio lavalier mics, placed on the talent, you will get a much better, clearer, non-reverby sound. If you dont have radios, you can still use wired lapel mics just remember to hide all the wires in the shot. Aim to not see any wires in the shot of course.

Shadow: yes as mentioned, some dark eye areas and under neck. You have options. white foamboard as a reflector, or an LED panel light placed to fill in the shadows. But you dont want to kill everything with too much light either, just enough fill so they look healthy especially in the eye area.

Script: you dont need one. Its actually refreshing to hear people talking about what they know and to have a simple back and forth conversation about the subject. With some light hearted gestures in there too. The little laugh at the very end is nice for example. Humans dont talk like they are reading scripts. Scripts are for actors [who can make scripts sound believable]. But simple bullet points, question and answer points for the interviewer are helpful! Just have a cue card somewhere in eye shot for the interviewer to read. Keep it real and human and maybe just a little fun.

Colour temperature:
You mentioned the use of outside light and florescent internals. Thats not great. If you white balance for outside sunlight, you florescent will look green. Im not really seeing any major colour casts in this video but it could easily happen. Again, if you either bounce more light using a reflector (from the sunlight outside) or use an LED panel with a similar temperature to daylight 5600k, this will help keep colours balanced. You could i suppose also place gels over the fluorescent lights to compensate more to daylight. Or turn them off and stick with the sunlight and LEDs only.

Background:
looks ok, its relevant. Children's play toys. Just remember to keep a little distance from the wall to the talent - avoid body or head shadows.

Vegas Levels:
As stated, get your output to fall between 16 and 235 in Vegas scopes, then you're good for render.

and thats it.

good luck,
Paul.

For the foam board, would it be just a large (2' x 4' or what size?) piece of foam board like you'd find at an office supply store? Or should I get a reflector from a place like B&H?

And would it basically be on the floor angled up at the speakers?

"You can use a foamcore presentation board off camera (low downstage left) to fill the facial shadows."

I meant the trifold boards from office depot, the kind used for school projects. They're handy because you have a makeshift set of barndoors.

And sorry if I came across too strong about your talent. I'm sure they are trying their best.

Just to add, yes, pretty much any reflector you like. But keep it portable enough to not get in the way when you don't need it. White foam boards from craft and office shops are great. They weigh very little and you can cut them up easily with a stanley blade.
Lots of ways to go with this, another way is a fold up circular reflector like Lastolite. Those are great because they fold up very compact in a bag and expand to massive!. In your case, probably something no bigger than 3-4 feet should be enough. For placement, try on the floor to start, between camera and talent, let it reflect upwards to fill in the darks. Then its up to you to move it around and find the best position. You may end up at one side pointing upwards. Keep an eye on eye shadows as you go.

Paul.

Remember the first rule of fill lighting:
"Your job is to illuminate the shadows, not eliminate them.
IOW, if it looks great to you on set, it is probably too much.

"if it looks great to you on set, it is probably too much. "

Amen, perhaps more so when outdoors and we all know there's only one big light source in the sky. Indoors I think you can push it a bit more but then you risk casting shadows on wall.
One comment for the OP, it doesn't have to be a reflector, at a pinch any source of light will do e.g. a desk or table lamp. If it's too bright and if it's distracting the talent then it is too bright, adds some diffusion. A sheet of paper stolen from the office photocopier will do. Just be on guard for the smell of cooking paper :)

Not only will some light to fill the eyes and get away from the "walking dead" look it will help the camera considerably. Budget priced cameras need plenty of light and the footage looked to me like the camera was having a hard time of it.

Bob.

Actually I don't think it's so bad for what it is, not that some of the criticisms are without merit but for a podcast I've seen SOO much worse. In my humble opinion many of the faults that are being articulated would be of less importance to the viewers if the topics themselves had any relevance to those of us watching. Of course there are a few simple things with lighting and whatnot that can give it a bit more punch and clean it up a little, but I also believe there are some benefit's to this more simple and less scripted approach when making video's for the web.

Podcasts are not TV, YouTube is not TV, I personally think that when making videos like this that are more along the lines of a video blog, if over produced, run the risk of loosing their sense of authenticity and often along with it their credibility. I'm sure we've all seen the late night infomercials that are slickly produced with so called experts being interviewed at a desk about getting out of debt or frikkin colen health where these well coached, well dressed, well rehearsed productions come off as nothing but smarmy snake oil salesman.

As for the talent I think they were fine and came off as sincere. One note, I might be misunderstanding musicvid's suggestion "They should look and speak to 11:30 o'clock, just off camera, and turn to each other to acknowledge and interact." I agree with the last part but don't understand why they would be looking at 11:30 in this format. For an off camera interview, a doc, or something along the style of "Locked Up Abroad" I'd agree but for this I'd have them doing what their doing, looking at the camera and each other.

All that said there have been some great tips in here, lighting and sound alone will go far in cleaning it up. You certainly got the feedback you were looking for and I'm sure it'll show in your next installment =)

- Ray
Underground Planet

As was previously stated, it sounds like a camera mounted microphone ... Get a couple of decent quality lavalier mics. If the talent needs to walk around.. wireless lav systems. A decent quality wireless system will cost a minimum of $500 each. IMHO, spending anything less... would be more trouble than worth.. See http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?240037-The-500-Wireless-Question-or-quot-What-cheap-system-should-I-get-quot
A decent quality hard-wired lav, should cost $80 and up, depending on your camera, recorder or wireless system..

It’s ok
It looks and sounds real which is the most important bit, you got that 100s.

Choose you back grounds more carefully the tone wall back is the same as talent skin tone and the plastic props are an issue = glossy orange ball bang in the middle with a rubber black tube leading eye all wrong places = distracting cluttered. You were filming higher than your talent the result Kelly has dark rings around her eyes like she has shades on and she is looking slightly up to camera. = VOX POPS = EYE LEVEL.
I would liked to have seen hand gestures = important part of communication. Maybe less head room
Chill a bit on the lower third action = easy in easy out = logo action more suited for cage fight clip

I don’t have any issues with audio and levels, I receive lots of EPK’s from all over the globe yours is not better not worse.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will get some reflectors for the next shoot at the end of the week.

@Rory Cooper - I thought I had it pretty much at eye level with the speakers, but will lower it a bit more and see if that helps too.

As far as the framing of the shot, I wasn't sure about how much headroom to use, if you scroll down on that page you'll see some others where I was zoomed out a bit more.

@MUTTLEY - what you said was pretty much how I was thinking when doing these. It's not TV and I'm not looking for TV quality, but I would like the quality as best I can without spending lot of time/money on them.

@musicvid - I have 30+ therapist (SLP, PT, OT, CBRS) who are obviously not professional actors or speakers, who I will get most of them to do at least 1 video. But think of it this way. Many of you on this forum are excellent videographers and Vegas users, imagine if you were doing a weekly YouTube podcast with tips and techniques of video stuff. I'd wager that most of us here wouldn't do an "excellent" job at speaking, but the content would still be "good enough" for people to enjoy and learn from. I can't tell you how many podcasts I watched to learn something random like fixing a lawnmower, repairing a toilet, figuring out a Windows PC tip where the speaker wasn't "great", but it was still helpful to me.

That's kind of what I'm looking to do with my videos, and just looking for tips to make them better.

@farss & @paul_w - I'll look at those reflectors and other light sources too, thanks for that tip and the other suggestions you mentioned. Very helpful.

@everyone else - I did read all the comments and suggestions, thanks everyone for feedback and welcome more!

"I'd wager that most of us here wouldn't do an "excellent" job at speaking,"

I don't narrate or present dialog on my own informational or instructional videos, with very rare exceptions. If you've ever heard my annoying prairie twang you'd know why. That's why I consider myself fortunate to know some real pros like Alistair and local talent who can read a script as if they had written it. It's also a bit of a paradox that I'm college trained as a vocal director and coach.

I'm really touchy about in-house marketing and advertising in general, and have seen companies, some of whom I was working for at the time, hurt their image disastrously through well-intentioned Youtube pieces and television ads that simply do not measure up. It's a different arena than when anyone with a vhs camcorder and a dc10+ could shoot and edit their own tv spot or infomercial.

That's where I was coming from, not anything personal about your service or staff. My comments were insensitive. I hope you and the two presenters will accept my regrets and apology for making light of their inexperience when they were obviously doing there best.

@musicvid - I see your point about how it could be better to hire voice actors for some videos, I don't think that is the direction we're headed with ours. Apologies not necessary, really. Doesn't hurt my feelings, I ask for feedback and got it, I knew the videos were far from perfect which is why I ask in the first place.

And I wasn't planning on showing this feedback to the presenters, they'd probably cry. :)

But at the next video I'll say something like "hey, we're going to adjust the lighting, move the camera down, change the angle, and if you have too many goof ups in your talk we'll reshoot!"

So seriously, I can take negative feedback, even if it's rough around the edges!

@kevin "I have 30+ therapist (SLP, PT, OT, CBRS) who are obviously not professional actors or speakers, who I will get most of them to do at least 1 video. But think of it this way. Many of you on this forum are excellent videographers and Vegas users, imagine if you were doing a weekly YouTube podcast with tips and techniques of video stuff. I'd wager that most of us here wouldn't do an "excellent" job at speaking, but the content would still be "good enough" for people to enjoy and learn from. I can't tell you how many podcasts I watched to learn something random like fixing a lawnmower, repairing a toilet, figuring out a Windows PC tip where the speaker wasn't "great", but it was still helpful to me"

I looked at your video and my thinking is if I were a parent of a child needing therapy services, the quality of the information is what matters most. I think you are on the right track with that. Still, the audio/lighting suggestions from here are good. One thought about the mixed flourescent/natural lighting coment - Since I don't see any real color cast in your video I suspect your flourescents are daylight. I've shot rooms with daylight flous and natural lighting without problem.

/jerry

Glad we found some middle ground.

That brings me back to my original suggestion, one that is not frivolous.
Hire a vocal coach for one hour the morning of the shoot. A good coach will also work on body language. Scripted or not, you (and the talent) will be astounded at the difference, especially in self-confidence!
In my area, you can get a professional hour for around $100, probably less than you charge for an hour of therapy.

It's been said that you'll never get the best from an actor until you've made them cry, or they've stormed out of rehearsal cursing.
So much for rough edges (I realize you won't be pushing them "that" far).
;?)