Cross & Crescent

Cancel your cable and stop your audio Podcasting…Internet video is the way of the future.

Why Internet Video?

Seasoned web users and newbies alike may be puzzled at my opening comments about ditching their most prized forms of entertainment; the fact is that online video is the way of the future. But what makes online video so fab?

1) Easy to create

Long gone are the days of Dad cranking the 8 millimeter camera or even toting around that gigantic VHS camcorder on his shoulder. Creating video and posting it online takes only moments. Most digital cameras now come standard with video mode. Shoot a video of your chapter’s float rolling down the street in the Homecoming Parade, connect the camera to a computer and upload the video file to a video sharing site, and you are done. This level of simplicity has given everyday people the ability to create their own television shows to share online (see Current/Neuman article).

2) Portability

We can access Internet video ANYWHERE we have a connection via a computer or cell phone. Modern technology has placed live news broadcasts and our favorite movies in the palms of our hands as we travel across the world. Better yet, we can download these videos and watch them on iPods, PSPs, cell phones, and many other devices, to watch and share later.

3) Quality

Scratchy or grainy films are a thing of the past. Digital technology ensures that video quality won’t decay with time. Of course files can be lost, but there will be no fading of colors or tearing of film as we watch the video over and over. It doesn’t end with our personal videos. Major television networks are now posting their hottest television shows online for fans to watch. With only minor commercial interruptions, watching online is a great alternative. The picture quality of network TV shows is wonderful. Most shows are now shot in high definition and then converted to a file that is of the highest quality and streamed online. If you haven’t watched a television show online, you are missing out on its best feature: on demand viewing.

Still not convinced that people are willing to watch video online? On January 20, 2009, when President Barack Obama was sworn into office, CNN streamed live video of the day’s events. As of 3:30 p.m. ET that day, CNN had served more than 21.3 million live video streams (since 6 a.m. ET that day). The video sharing site YouTube.com serves more than 100 million videos each day and over 10 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute. Finally, it was reported by Comscore.com that Americans watched 558 million hours of video online during the month of July 2008.

What It Means for You and Your Chapter?

People want to see what you are doing, in addition to sending out a newsletter, running a basic website or hosting a blog. It means that video is a viable way to engage our brothers, peers and others. Writing up an article about how your chapter hosted a Watermelon Bash is great. Including a video showing highlights from the day’s events is even better! It’s the next best thing to actually being there. Creating and sharing interesting and relevant video shows that we are actively involved in improving the collegiate and life experiences of our brothers and friends.

How to Create Online Video

There are plenty of great resources online that can help you create great video -— follow this link to an article at Mashable.com which gives over 150 Online Video Tools and Resources.

Before you get started recording and uploading, here are a few of my suggestions to get you thinking about the planning process.

1) Be relevant

If it isn’t interesting to your audience, they will tune out faster than you can recite the Greek alphabet.

2) Be engaging

Just because you have a video clip of your chapter playing softball doesn’t mean that everyone will want to watch. Make it entertaining by including some audio in the background. Perhaps place titles at the beginning and end so that if someone stumbles onto your video they can easily understand who it’s about and what is going on. The idea is to keep your viewer entertained while you are delivering your message.

3) Keep it short

While you may be proud that your chapter won the Greek Games Tug-O-War, showing the entire five minutes of the tug is not interesting to most viewers. Instead, assemble a video of the highlights of the event to share your achievement.

4) Share

Embedding video directly onto your website is great. But giving others the ability to share the video on their sites gives your video portability. By sharing your video on sites like YouTube, Viddler and others —- you are giving universal access to your chapter that allows others to see the quality of your brotherhood. If I can watch your video on Viddler.com and then embed that video into my blog, I have just pushed your message out to a bigger audience (and so on).

Now that you know what you should be doing to keep your audience interested, it’s time to shoot that video. I won’t bore you with suggestions about lighting and audio. I do recommend being real when making your video. People don’t want over-the-top nonsense. Be yourself and your message will be well received.

If you would like to take a little extra time to produce a polished video, you can use video editing software like Apple’s iMovie. Import the video from your camera into a video editing program, and clip off the beginning and end portions that are not relevant. Mix video clips together and add music to your video if there is no audio or if the audio is not important to your video. Include titles at the beginning and end of your video. Include the name of your chapter and contact information such as an email address or website if the video will be used for public relations purposes.

Once you have finished your edits, save the file and publish it into a variety of formats that will be acceptable to your video sharing site. Quite often, sites like YouTube, Viddler, and Vimeo will allow for the upload of a certain file size/type and then convert it into Adobe Flash format for you. Remember to produce your video on your computer to match their upload specifications.

Today and Tomorrow

Online video provides us an opportunity to share our achievements and life events with our brothers and peers, to recruit new members and to show our neighbors the positive impacts we have on our local communities. It provides us a way to archive our successes and create new memories for the future.