Website Video Presenter

Matthew Stokes · September 3rd, 2009, 06:23 PM

Hello! I would like to include a "web presenter" on my website, as seen on this webpage:

Web Videos | Website Video | VideoTile

My question is, how do I go about doing this myself? I obviously have the tools and skills for filming, chromakey etc, but I've searched everywhere and can't see how to go about it myself technically. Any pointers? It would also be a great service to provide my clients, so if it worked out, it could be a new part of my company.

Hope you can advise. Thanks!

Randal Clark · September 3rd, 2009, 08:57 PM

This got me going and better than expected results. don't know if it's exactly what you
wanted but its chromakeying on a budget.

White screen is doable and really works.
Tour of My DIY Low Budget Video Studio Setup

Blue or Green works too and he has some good tips.
Mark Apsolon online videos

Matthew Stokes · September 4th, 2009, 02:26 AM

Thanks for the reply, but the question isnt about achieving the Chromakey effect, but how to technically achieive the results shown on the webpage. eg clear background, flash file that can be placed onto a webpage, with controls etc.

Can anyone else help? Thanks

Gary Nattrass · September 4th, 2009, 03:01 AM

Have you seen the two other sites already established?

My Web Presenters - Get a Live Website Presenter to Bring Your Site to Life
Addpeople: Website Presenter, Website Actors, Virtual Presenter - Personalised Video Marketing for your Site

Might help you out with how to do this.

Mike Demmers · September 4th, 2009, 03:09 AM

Read the source code for the page. The rest is set in the application you use to create the flash file, you can find out the details in the manual.

This is a question more suited to a web designer forum.

You might also want to first read:

Most Hated Advertising Techniques (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) - Most Hated Advertising Techniques

Flash: 99% Bad (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) - Flash: 99% Bad

Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) - Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings

Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) - Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored

...and consider if you want to seriously get into a business that is mostly ineffective, and annoys people, causing them to leave sites, possibly including your own. ;-)

-MD

Matthew Stokes · September 4th, 2009, 03:16 AM

Thanks Mike, useful info!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Demmers

This is a question more suited to a web designer forum.

Sure, but as its very video based, it kinda spans both topics...was hoping someone here might have some experience/knowledge. Interesting that is has such a negative response in the above links.

Matthew Stokes · September 4th, 2009, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Demmers

...and consider if you want to seriously get into a business that is mostly ineffective, and annoys people, causing them to leave sites, possibly including your own. ;-)

Having scanned the articles, they look a little outdated, and are talking about banners and advertising mostly. Pop ups are a definite no-no, and fortunately most of these seem to have vanished from the web over recent years.

Web video is undeniably a great tool for most websites and businesses, and I think used correctly, online "web presenters" are a good extension of this. But thanks for hew feedback.

Gary Nattrass · September 4th, 2009, 04:16 AM

I am not so sure about the pop up presenters they look very americanised (no offence intended) and I actually find them very annoying there was one on the 2-pop FCP pro site and it has now been removed.

It just all seems a bit in your face and to have some actor or presenter talking to you when you dont want it is in my opinion not good for sales.

Its like the typical salesman syndrome you want to look at something but may not want to talk or listen to them yet.

Mike Demmers · September 4th, 2009, 05:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matthew Stokes

Having scanned the articles, they look a little outdated, and are talking about banners and advertising mostly.

They are not outdated, take a close look at who the writer is (one of, if not the, top experts in the world in this area) and how he comes to his conclusions (peer reviewed research, which he regularly rechecks).

Banner blindness applies to anything that even LOOKS like an ad.

Anyway, the real point is this: if you do this sort of advertising work as a business, it is not like making a movie - you don't always get to pick your customers, and some may want to carry this further than you may be comfortable with.

It's kind of on the edge. I couldn't personally sell this, but each to his own. ;-)

-Mike

Mike Demmers · September 4th, 2009, 05:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary Nattrass

I am not so sure about the pop up presenters they look very americanised (no offence intended) and I actually find them very annoying there was one on the 2-pop FCP pro site and it has now been removed.

Yes, we Americans do everything to excess.

Here is my reaction to such ads, NOT stated in your polite British way:

I take it as an insult to my intelligence, figure the site is run by morons, and leave immediately. I try not to buy products made by morons. ;-)

Actually, I normally run with both javascript and flash turned off, specifically so I do not see that sort of overused ignorant junk. And to keep from getting the viruses and spyware a significant number of them contain.

The main reason the pop-ups are declining in use is that 60 percent of users now use pop-up blockers.

September 29th, 2009, 07:05 AM

Hi gents,

Just seen this post, sorry I'm a bit late to the party.

I have a video presenter on every page of my website -

Leeds Computer Repairs - Home - Here to help the computer user.

I did the whole thing in house, and it's working very well.

Thanks,
Dave.

Jim Andrada · September 29th, 2009, 12:39 PM

Well, I have to admit that it isn't as bad as many I've seen. Actually even a bit engaging the first time I saw it, probably due to the low key style

At least it wasn't too bad until the second or third time. At which point I sort of wanted to throw up!

It violates the first, second, third, and maybe even fourth law of presentation technique, to wit:

1) Never just read the text.

2) NEVER just read the text.

3) ABSOLUTELY NEVER just read the text.

4) Just what part of "NEVER READ THE TEXT" don't you get, idiot!

A million years ago I worked at IBM marketing HQ and had the "opportunity" to go to NYC for a course in presentation technique where they taped the student presentations and then sliced and diced the presenters in front of the whole class. It was not a pleasant experience! Can you guess what they told us?

Seriously, people read faster than they talk so most people have finished reading the page before the presenter gets off the first line and if he's just reading what's written, he's adding no value and becomes irrelevant, and then annoying pretty quickly.

Having said all this, I don't necessarily think this kind of thing can't be done well, but it has to be done very very well indeed (= costly to produce)

And in fairness, the chap doing the talking does come across pretty well and is minimally annoying - until you realize he's just READING THE TEXT.

Giroud Francois · September 29th, 2009, 01:07 PM

the simple technique to do what you ask is:
1) shoot over uniform background
prefferably the same color as the webpage, so if keying is not perfect, color will not be too noticeable.
2) clean background using your nle, until you can key the subject properly.
3) cut video to the size of the subject , to make it smaller.
If the subject is walking, it is better for the cam to follow to get subject in the middle of the screen, it will be easier to cut.
4) encode with the On2 codec VP6 , the only one allowing flash movie with transparent background. On2 is selling a little utility to do that, you just need to activate the transparency feature and set the color.
5) edit your webapge to add a flash player without skin(interface). that is easy if you choose a customizable player like the FWplayer (flow player)

Paul Cook · September 29th, 2009, 03:33 PM

Yeah have to agree with Jim, while the video is well produced, well presented and looks good - you have ultimately overlooked the much important 'just because you can, doesn’t mean you should' rule.

Your presenter simply does not add anything of value to the site, reading text on the page word for word is a complete insult to your visitors intelligence. If that’s all the presenter is there for then seriously GET RID OF IT!

A much better idea would be to have a short, sharp, PUNCHY 30 second graphics / effects based intro and perhaps the presenter can come on at the end and deliver a closing line. But not on every page, less is more remember.

Jim Andrada · September 29th, 2009, 04:00 PM

Following up on what Paul said, I frankly wouldn't mind at all if the presenter showed up on the first page to say something like "Welcome to our web site- we're glad you could stop by. We offer lots of great services so please look around"

I think you could even go so far as to leave a little picture of the presenter on each page and let the viewer click it for a bit of a humorous (humourous???) low-key summary of or expansion on what the text said - ie added value.

By the way, we're definitely not trying to "pile on" here - just trying to offer comments and ideas that we think would improve the site.

September 3rd, 2009, 06:23 PM	#1
Matthew Stokes Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Fleet, England Posts: 63	Website Video Presenter - What do I do? Hello! I would like to include a "web presenter" on my website, as seen on this webpage: Web Videos \| Website Video \| VideoTile My question is, how do I go about doing this myself? I obviously have the tools and skills for filming, chromakey etc, but I've searched everywhere and can't see how to go about it myself technically. Any pointers? It would also be a great service to provide my clients, so if it worked out, it could be a new part of my company. Hope you can advise. Thanks!

September 4th, 2009, 03:01 AM	#4
Gary Nattrass Trustee Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Cornsay Durham UK Posts: 1,992	Have you seen the two other sites already established? My Web Presenters - Get a Live Website Presenter to Bring Your Site to Life Addpeople: Website Presenter, Website Actors, Virtual Presenter - Personalised Video Marketing for your Site Might help you out with how to do this. __________________ Over 15 minutes in Broadcast Film and TV production: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1044352/

September 4th, 2009, 04:16 AM	#8
Gary Nattrass Trustee Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Cornsay Durham UK Posts: 1,992	I am not so sure about the pop up presenters they look very americanised (no offence intended) and I actually find them very annoying there was one on the 2-pop FCP pro site and it has now been removed. It just all seems a bit in your face and to have some actor or presenter talking to you when you dont want it is in my opinion not good for sales. Its like the typical salesman syndrome you want to look at something but may not want to talk or listen to them yet. __________________ Over 15 minutes in Broadcast Film and TV production: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1044352/

September 3rd, 2009, 08:57 PM	#2
Randal Clark New Boot Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 7	This got me going and better than expected results. don't know if it's exactly what you wanted but its chromakeying on a budget. White screen is doable and really works. Tour of My DIY Low Budget Video Studio Setup Blue or Green works too and he has some good tips. Mark Apsolon online videos

September 4th, 2009, 02:26 AM	#3
Matthew Stokes Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Fleet, England Posts: 63	Thanks for the reply, but the question isnt about achieving the Chromakey effect, but how to technically achieive the results shown on the webpage. eg clear background, flash file that can be placed onto a webpage, with controls etc. Can anyone else help? Thanks

September 4th, 2009, 03:09 AM	#5
Mike Demmers Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Portland OR Posts: 159	Read the source code for the page. The rest is set in the application you use to create the flash file, you can find out the details in the manual. This is a question more suited to a web designer forum. You might also want to first read: Most Hated Advertising Techniques (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) - Most Hated Advertising Techniques Flash: 99% Bad (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) - Flash: 99% Bad Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) - Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) - Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored ...and consider if you want to seriously get into a business that is mostly ineffective, and annoys people, causing them to leave sites, possibly including your own. ;-) -MD

September 29th, 2009, 07:05 AM	#11
Former Member #56430 Posts: n/a	Hi gents, Just seen this post, sorry I'm a bit late to the party. I have a video presenter on every page of my website - Leeds Computer Repairs - Home - Here to help the computer user. I did the whole thing in house, and it's working very well. Thanks, Dave.

September 29th, 2009, 12:39 PM	#12
Jim Andrada Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Tucson AZ Posts: 2,211	Well, I have to admit that it isn't as bad as many I've seen. Actually even a bit engaging the first time I saw it, probably due to the low key style At least it wasn't too bad until the second or third time. At which point I sort of wanted to throw up! It violates the first, second, third, and maybe even fourth law of presentation technique, to wit: 1) Never just read the text. 2) NEVER just read the text. 3) ABSOLUTELY NEVER just read the text. 4) Just what part of "NEVER READ THE TEXT" don't you get, idiot! A million years ago I worked at IBM marketing HQ and had the "opportunity" to go to NYC for a course in presentation technique where they taped the student presentations and then sliced and diced the presenters in front of the whole class. It was not a pleasant experience! Can you guess what they told us? Seriously, people read faster than they talk so most people have finished reading the page before the presenter gets off the first line and if he's just reading what's written, he's adding no value and becomes irrelevant, and then annoying pretty quickly. Having said all this, I don't necessarily think this kind of thing can't be done well, but it has to be done very very well indeed (= costly to produce) And in fairness, the chap doing the talking does come across pretty well and is minimally annoying - until you realize he's just READING THE TEXT.

September 29th, 2009, 01:07 PM	#13
Giroud Francois Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: switzerland Posts: 2,133	the simple technique to do what you ask is: 1) shoot over uniform background prefferably the same color as the webpage, so if keying is not perfect, color will not be too noticeable. 2) clean background using your nle, until you can key the subject properly. 3) cut video to the size of the subject , to make it smaller. If the subject is walking, it is better for the cam to follow to get subject in the middle of the screen, it will be easier to cut. 4) encode with the On2 codec VP6 , the only one allowing flash movie with transparent background. On2 is selling a little utility to do that, you just need to activate the transparency feature and set the color. 5) edit your webapge to add a flash player without skin(interface). that is easy if you choose a customizable player like the FWplayer (flow player)

September 29th, 2009, 03:33 PM	#14
Paul Cook Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 174	Yeah have to agree with Jim, while the video is well produced, well presented and looks good - you have ultimately overlooked the much important 'just because you can, doesn’t mean you should' rule. Your presenter simply does not add anything of value to the site, reading text on the page word for word is a complete insult to your visitors intelligence. If that’s all the presenter is there for then seriously GET RID OF IT! A much better idea would be to have a short, sharp, PUNCHY 30 second graphics / effects based intro and perhaps the presenter can come on at the end and deliver a closing line. But not on every page, less is more remember.

September 29th, 2009, 04:00 PM	#15
Jim Andrada Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Tucson AZ Posts: 2,211	Following up on what Paul said, I frankly wouldn't mind at all if the presenter showed up on the first page to say something like "Welcome to our web site- we're glad you could stop by. We offer lots of great services so please look around" I think you could even go so far as to leave a little picture of the presenter on each page and let the viewer click it for a bit of a humorous (humourous???) low-key summary of or expansion on what the text said - ie added value. By the way, we're definitely not trying to "pile on" here - just trying to offer comments and ideas that we think would improve the site.