Trainers Talk Tech

I am finishing up a series of web based eLearning projects where video segments play a major role in the delivery of the content. My client did not invest in a super expensive video camera, lights or sound system, but the video elements look good and the content more than makes up for the lower production quality. The challenge has been that each elearning project uses 6-8 video segments and I received 30 .MOD files all at the same time. How can I rapidly develop this eLearning with so much video to edit?

The .MOD files are the pure video files that get downloaded from the video camera's hard drive to your local computer. They are huge based on the amount of video recorded. My workflow for the conversion process is this:

1) Convert the MOD to MOV
2) Put into iMovie to edit out start and end content, and add fade to black at the start and finish
3) Convert the MOV to FLV

On my Mac, I convert the .MOD file to the .MOV file using an incredible piece of freeware software called FFMPEGX. It does a great job of converting the files and has a huge set of preset conversion settings. It reads a ton of formats and exports to a ton of formats. Its truly amazing bit of software for the Mac.

Why convert the .MOD to .MOV? Because I want to do some quick and dirty video editing and on my Mac, iMovie won't bring in the .MOD files. If I had the camera, I could download direct, but I don't so I have to convert. Also, the .MOD to .MOV conversion takes the file size down by 50%! A 30MB .MOD file is a 14MB .MOV file. For web distribution, the smaller the better.

In iMovie, I upload all my .MOV files and then do the simple cuts and video fades. iMovie is great - it allows me to tweak color, brightness and other simple settings without cracking open the serious video editors. When I am done, I export out of iMovie using Quicktime and reduce the overall screen pixel size. My client sends me large video segments and I have to reduce them down to a more web friendly size. Doing it out of iMovie using Quicktime allows me to have yet another file size reduction. The 14MB video file is only 4.8MB now!

Then, I open up Quicktime Pro on its own to convert to .FLV. For some reason, a straight export to .FLV out of iMovie doesn't work for me, so I open up Quicktime directly to convert to the Flash video file. Converting from the .MOV to the .FLV is also yet a fourth reduction in overall file size. The 4.8MB .MOV file is now a 3.1MB Flash video file. WOW! From 30MB .MOD to 3.1MB .FLV in about 20 minutes.

Why don't I use the Adobe FLV Video Converter instead of Quicktime Pro? For me and my system, it takes twice as long to convert using the Adobe product than Quicktime Pro. When I am on a deadline, an extra 5 minutes per conversion can save me hours. As someone who stays up until the job is done, that can mean the difference between going to bed at 11 and going to be at 2:00 am!

This video process is quick and dirty and inexpensive. This "mini studio" I have on my Mac costs less than $150. iMovie comes with my iLife on my Mac, but I upgraded to iLife for $79, Quicktime Pro is $29.99 and FFMPEGX is FREE! That's a ton of video editing power for a little bit of money. Does it look professional? You bet! Is it the best solution for all situations? Nope. For longer video segments (these project segments are 2-3 min in length) then the big boy applications will be the ticket. But, for these quick video jobs, the "mini studio" is all I need.