Veteran Internet marketer and video blogger Jim Kukral has produced a series of educational videos he calls the Online Video Toolkit, which he says is, "a free guide that will tell you everything you need to do to make high-quality web videos... without having to spend a fortune to get it done! The best part is... it's totally free!" He covers all the bases for you to get your video blogging studio up and running on a shoe string budget, like choosing a camera, lighting tips, set design, indoor and outdoor shooting, editing, attire, audio and more. He's used the Flip Video camera, but now recommends that Kodak Zi8 HD pocket video camera for its external microphone input)

In his recent email newsletter, Kukral shared how he has produced a series of videos using his brand new Kodak Zi8 HD pocket video camera and iMovie to promote his new book. His straight forward approach to the video production process can be applied to any business that wants to get involved in online video for Internet marketing, e-Commerce social networking or any application.

The following is republished with his permission:

"Today I made a bunch of videos to promote my new book with my brand new Kodak Zi8 camera. Want to see one of the videos? Here you go. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_bfS9UmwX0"






"Pretty simple, yet somewhat complex. Here's how I made this video."

1. Get a Kodak Zi8, link here: http://www.buytheflip.com $150 or so.
2. Get a lavalier lapel mic. http://bit.ly/9qEuXW This is only $22.39 on Amazon now.
3. Get a tripod. Preferably one that can adjust height.
4. Find a room with windows that have blinds. Put the light to your back when filming. Adjust blinds to let in just enough light.
5. You can also mess around with the lights in the room. The point is to get a good balance of light on the person being recorded.
6. Mount the camera on the tripod. Plug the mic into the camera.
7. Pull the mic and clip up inside your shirt/jacket/blouse so the cord can't be seen. Clip it on.
8. Hit record on the camera, go sit down. I taped my video in 1080p which is HD.
9. Now, on my video, I'm pretending that there's a person in the room with me interviewing me. There wasn't. I picked a spot on the wall behind and off to the right of the camera and talked to it as if it were a person. That gives the video a nice look.
10. I had 7 questions and answers prepared ahead of time. I would review each question briefly, then record an answer. Without stopping the recording. You can edit it apart later. Get through all your points.
11. When done, I stood up and stopped the recording.
12. I took the camera and plugged the USB into my Macbook Pro and copied the one large file to my hard drive. It will be big in HD.
13. I opened iMovie and imported the video.
14. I edited the part of the video I wanted and saved it.
15. I then exported the movie in iMovie via Quicktime.
16. That was it. I could have added a bunch of text or music or titles but I wanted to keep this one simple.

"Now, I know that looks like a lot of steps, and it was, kind of. But in reality, it was really cheap, and easy to do. There's no reason you can't do it yourself. Give it a go!"

Jim Kukral.
Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 8:45 PM