There's a TV Studio sitting on your desk
Make a TV show or just bump up your video conferencing game
A friend of mine is a talented wood carver. He wanted to share his passion with his grandchildren but they live far away and he sees them only a few times a year.
He’s taken to talking to them over Zoom and showing them how he carves. Everyone seems to be enjoying it. I call it his “Carving with Grandpa” TV show.
Its a little awkward. With one camera he has to constantly change whether it is aiming at him, or a closeup of the carving.
Since he already has one webcam and his computer I’ve been telling him how he can up his game for very little money. And the suggestions I’ve made to him work for all of us wanting to upgrade our video game for Zoom conferences.
The first thing is a second webcam for closeups of the actual carving. Or he could use a document camera. They start at about $50 on Amazon. He could carve under that, while his regular webcam is a wider shot of him from the front.
He could even use his phone as a webcam. Check your app store for apps that allow that. I’ve had hit or miss success with those, so you might have to test several to find the one that works best on your phone.
Many conference tools like Zoom support multiple cameras. Zoom for example lets you switch between your two cameras with Alt-N.
That’s all he would need. And the same tools would bump up your Zoom conferences for work. While many have returned to the office, online conferences with those working from home, or those in other offices, or even just down the hall, are a part of our work environment now. We can make the experience better.
Ring Lights are simple lights. Being seen better starts with lighting. And they can be found for less than $50.
Most conferencing tools now support green screens. Place one of these behind you andyou can appear to be sitting on your deck overlooking Bora Bora instead of your messy home office. Or, an office, if you do not want your clients to know you work from home.
You might think the title of this post “There's a TV Studio sitting on your desk” is a bit of hyperbole. In fact with a couple of cameras, a light, and a program called OBS I can do pretty much the same than I could with a fully equipped TV station at my disposal in the mid 1970s (admittedly using mid 1960s technology).
OBS or Open Broadcaster Software’s OBS Studio that lets you do the most important task from a TV studio on your PC. It lets you switch from several video inputs like cameras, incoming streams say from a guest or co-host, recorded videos, titles, screen sharing, etc. You can combine several elements on the same screen if you want. It acts as a video switcher, a piece of hardware that cost $100K back when I was in college.
OBS was created to assist gamers to share their playing online, while also talking about it, showing themselves in the corner of the screen, putting text on the screen encouraging you to subscribe to their YouTube channel. It continues to evolve into a tool useful for much more.
It outputs its signal as a virtual camera that tools like Zoom see as just another camera on your PC.
Don’t let its interface overwhelm you. It is easily mastered.
Maybe you don’t want to create a video live, like OBS is setup to do. You can record using your conference tool or OBS and the edit it in a video editor.
There are edit videos using the free Photo app that comes with Windows. Or there are light weight and affordable video editing software out there.
Or, you could go with a powerful video editing software used by TV stations and movie studios, and it is absolutely free.
Davinci Resolve 18 is not for the faint at heart; it has a steep learning curve. Like most pieces of software, there are many YouTube videos to teach you how to use it. And it is absolutely free.
You could actually shoot a movie with your phone, then edit it, and color correct it all in Resolve.
I’m pretty sure right now some future Best Director winner is making a film with their phone and editing it in Resolve.
Your conferencing software, OBS and Resolve all have a lot of menu choices. If you remember a little bit ago we talked about a device to make all those simple pushbuttons on your desk using Elgato’s Stream Deck.
During quarantine, most teachers taught virtually using the cameras on their laptops and did fine. A producer for a streaming site I follow, made a two camera operation for his teacher wife in a spare bedroom, and only spent a couple thousand on it. He even found a used Smart Board.
I’ve had fun imagining what I might build out if quarantine were to happen again. That research is where I learned much of what I’m writing about here.
Assuming an existing computer and webcam, adding a light, a second webcam, OBS, and maybe a stand for the other webcam, you can put something together for maybe $250.
And of course, you can always spend more. Lots more.
Webcams and your phone are good cameras, but not anything near professional grade.
One of the reasons Davinci can give away Resolve is they have a robust business in hardware they hope to sell Resolve users.
Their Pocket Cinema cameras are 4K high resolution cameras that can be used in studio or on the go. Their $1,200+ price is affordable relatively.
Red Digital Cameras set the world of movie production it is ear several years ago by producing digital video cameras whose output rivaled those of film production cameras. Movies like Aquaman, and series like the Queen’s Gambit were shot on Red cameras. They are expensive at $5,000 to $40,000 depending on model so only for those who are somewhat professional. I only mention them as an aside; none of us are likely to ever need, or be able to afford them.
If you want to jump off the deep end and learn more about building serious in home studios and editing suites, watch some YouTube videos from Alex Lindsay. Alex worked for Industrial Light & Magic and has taught video production. He and friends meet daily to discuss this topic and answer questions. They have covered subjects like building a $5,000 studio and a $20,000 studio. As they say, their studios are their high tech version of other men’s Bass fishing boats.
Notes :
Evernote. I have recommended it highly in the past. I have to amend that recommendation. Following Evernote’s purchase by an Italian software company, they have raised the price 80%. While it is their first price increase in seven years, it required re-calculating then value calculus.
I looked at alternatives like Joplin, Notion, and Nimbus. They did not work out well, so I am remaining with Evernote, for now.
Also, I mentioned the Bounty in the last newsletter. I’d taken a cruise on the replica built for the Mel Gibson version of Mutiny on the Bounty when I visited Sydney in 1996. A few years later, I Googled and found out it had moved to Hong Kong to do cruises there.
A few years later I found out the company that owned it had announced on their website the ship was no longer available for cruising, and they wouldn’t say what had become of her.
It appeared she’d been broken up or sunk. I just learned a kayaker reported seeing her in the city of Phra Samut Chedi, at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River in Thailand. It appears she survives and is open to the public there.
And finally, today, June 5th, is the anniversary of the release of the movie War Games, in 1982. Not only was it a fun look at computers as they stood then (dial up modems) but the geek got the girl. Something that gave this then 20 something geek hope.