Report for Class - May 26, 2010
This week I created a short video for my website. Since the subject matter of the video needed to be relevant to the topic of my website, I recorded my boyfriend talking about interest and how it can either work for or against you. Before I set up the camera, Paul and I discussed what the topic of the video would be and what he would say. Interest is something that most people deal with, yet many people don't understand how it works. I wanted Paul to use examples that others could relate to, so we decided on the example of purchasing a new television with a credit card and then making the minimum payments each month until it was paid off. With this example, Paul was able to demonstrate how much extra money you would end up paying if interest was working against you. Then he turned the example around and discussed how much you could make if you invested the same amount of money that you would otherwise be using to make payments towards the TV. I think that that it is an example that everyone can understand.
Based on available time and resources, I decided to film this project using my DSLR camera that has HD Video capabilities. However, I do not have any additional audio equipment and the sound was recorded using the camera as well. (I also did not have any special lighting equipment to do color correction.) I would have fixed the audio in Soundtrack Pro by using the noise reduction feature, but I did not have access to the software program this past week. Also, I typically edit on Final Cut Pro, but I used iMovie for this project since it was a very simple video and I didn't have a lot to edit. iMovie is a great tool for anyone who would like to do simple video editing because it is part of the iLife software that comes preloaded onto every Apple computer and it is fairly user friendly. Most people do not have access to editing software programs such as Final Cut Pro and Avid, nor do they have any training on how to use those programs. Thus, iMovie is a good alternative that allows users to upload video and photos, make cuts, and add transitions, subtitles and other effects to their project. For this video project, I did a little cutting at the beginning and end of my recorded footage and I added titles that reiterate what Paul is discussing.
I have a Bachelors degree in Film and Video Production, so I am familiar with the idea of being able to create my own videos. However, most of the world does not have the same background as I do and having the resources to create home videos and easily broadcast them on the web is still a novelty. The most popular video site, YouTube, first went online in 2005 according to Burgess and Green. At that time, many users did not have access to a video recording device or editing software, which made it more difficult for users to upload their own content. However, now many computers have built-in webcams and preloaded video editing software, and a lot of cell phones and digital cameras are capable of recording video as well. This makes it possible for almost anyone to create a video about anything that they want and broadcast it to the world. My video about compounding interest took around twenty minutes to film and thirty minutes to edit. Since my digital camera is able to record video and my MacBook Pro has iMovie installed, I was able to use technology that I already owned to create and edit my video in a short amount of time.
YouTube is the most popular video sharing website online, but other websites such as Yahoo Video, Bing Video, Vimeo, MotionBox.com and Viddler.com use the same concept. There are an unlimited number of reasons for why people create and watch user generated videos online. I created my video to use as a visual aid on my website and I chose to record my 24 year old boyfriend, Paul, because he represents the twenty-something demographic that my website is meant to reach. I did not want to record myself in this video because I am trying to remain somewhat anonymous on this website. However, having my boyfriend talk to my audience was a way that I could still make the video more personal. I could easily record a video like this one each week and have Paul discuss a different financial topic. If I were to do that, the series of videos would be similar to a podcast or a video blog. My audience could expect new content every week or so, which would hopefully keep them coming back. In my opinion, adding new content on a regular basis is a very important part of a websites growth. It is for the same reason that I added a blog to the website a few weeks ago.
I decided to upload my video to YouTube for a few reasons. First, because it easy. I used iMovie to edit the video before posting it and the editing program has an option that allows you to automatically upload your video to YouTube with a click of button. I didn’t even have to go to youtube.com to upload a video. Second, because YouTube makes it easy to embed a video into your own website. Right underneath the video there is an html code that can be copied and pasted onto your website without having to understand any html. In addition to this, my blog on weebly.com allows me to embed a YouTube video into a post just by adding the video’s web address. Finally, YouTube allows you to tag a video with relevant keywords so that it is easy to find in a search and so that it can recommend similar videos to watch. I like this feature because after someone views my video on YouTube, it will automatically recommend other videos that are likely about finance. It is almost like I am linking to other content from my website without having to actually find it.
In 2006, Carol Stack of EZine Articles discussed the online video craze and why adding video to your website is so advantageous. “Video is the newest craze in internet marketing and online publishing,” she wrote. “Let's face it, most people would rather watch something than read or listen to anything.” Not everyone prefers video over reading, but many people do. Stack claims that people enjoy being able to see videos on a website and it doesn’t matter if the video is for pure entertainment, a demonstration on how to use a product, or a testimony, people love to see moving pictures. Considering the explosion of YouTube and other video sharing websites in the past five years, there must be some truth in Stack's claim. According to YouTube Fact Sheet, people are watching hundreds of millions of videos and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos each day. “Every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.” YouTube and other video sharing websites are being used by many different demographics. “Our user base is broad in age range, 18-55, evenly divided between males and females. Fifty-one percent of our users go to YouTube weekly or more often, and 52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues.”
By adding a video to my website, I hope to capture the attention of more people in their twenties who want or need to learn a little more about personal finance. For those who’d rather watch a video than read a blog post or article, this is a way that I can speak to them. I will probably need to create more videos for my website to give my visitors a reason to come back. I may ask my audience what topics they’d like Paul to discuss in the future. I can also wait and see if my video gets any comments on YouTube to get an idea of what I would need to do differently next time. Interest rates are important, but there are so many topics in finance that people in their twenties do not know anything about. Since I posted my video on my blog and also tweeted the link out to my followers, I am utilizing the other types of media that are on my website in order to get more viewers and make my website even more interactive. For those who think reading about finance is boring, a video may be the perfect way to capture their attention.
SOURCES
Burgess, Jean, Joshua Green, Henry Jenkins, and John Hartley. YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. Cambridge: Polity, 2009. Print.
Stack, Carol. "Benefits of Using Videos Online." EzineArticles. 19 Dec. 2006. Web. 26 May 2010.
<http://ezinearticles.com/?Benefits-of-Using-Videos-Online&id=391489>.
"YouTube Fact Sheet." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 26 May 2010.
<http://www.youtube.com/t/fact_sheet>.
