You may have noticed over the past few weeks that things have taken a turn towards video (specifically FruityGamer) on Freyburg.com. The reason for that is twofold. Most of the links and quick thoughts I used to jot on the site have moved to Twitter, where it’s easier to carry on an online conversation and I can quickly and efficiently fire off thoughts and whimsy. The second reason is that I’m becoming more focused on video generally, and I’d like to showcase that on the site as well as make it a compliment to Freyburg Media.

The end result is that you’ll probably see less updates but richer content on this site once I start ramping up the video production. I’ve wrapped my head around BoinxTV so it’s pretty easy to create “live switched” content fairly regularly. I’m also looking at creating regular segments involving me mocking some aspect of pop culture, media or the internet, though it’ll take me a while to come up with the segment structure and a decent workflow.

Besides that, I’m also trying to ramp up my After Effects knowledge and wrap my head around some other higher-end creation tools, so expect to see some experiments in that regard in the next few months as well. And of course I’ll continue to showcase the work projects I’m tackling on Freyburg Media.

Precisely none of you may be wondering how we make FruityGamer here at Freyburg Media. Well, I’m here to tell you the thinking, process and methodology I used. My methods and tools may differ from what’s available to you, but you’ll at least get a general idea as to how to pull of your own video podcasts.

When myself and my business partner made “This is Yaletown” we did so thinking the internet would soon push up its production values to the levels of television, and that we’d better be ahead of the curve. But in fact this has not proven to be the case. People watch internet shows for many reasons, but slick production values (to a point) doesn’t seem to be a necessary part of the equation.

I figured that given my experience creating Radio Free Skaro there was no reason I couldn’t create similar podcasts on video and in audio form, and do so in such a way that they’re quick and easy to make.

But in order to do so, I had to work past a few mental hurdles of my own. Through much effort I’ve taught myself Final Cut and quite a few other high-end post production programs, and I didn’t really want to leave my comfort zone to create video podcasts. So for Fruitygamer 11, I actually recorded my video, Todd’s video and our audio sperately, then after converting the video into DV files used the multiclip tool in Final Cut Pro. That approach worked, but it chewed up hard drive space and meant doing the show once then doing it again, and slower.

So for episode 12 I decided to once and for all tame BoinxTV and make it do my bidding. BoinxTV turns your Mac into a powerful video switcher, but it has a really unfortunate interface that is at once confusing, overwhelming and obtuse. However it’s a better set up than Wirecast, Ustream Producer Pro or Procaster, with much more flexibility.

The biggest challenge was to get individual lower thirds underneath different camera shots.I managed to do so by assigning the same keyboard shortcut to the lower third and a camera angle in the Interview layer, which lets you go to Camera A, Camera B and a “two shot”. I also piped the Skype audio for Todd in through Soundflower and my own audio came from a cheap USB headset I picked up at Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara. Normally the iSight camera on my Macbook Pro doesn’t like to share its image across applications, but by using the excellent and free Manycam application I was able to get both my sot and Todd into the interview layer.

From there it was a simple matter of hitting “record”. I save the file using Apple Intermediate Codec and then throw it into Final Cut Pro, where I add pre built opening and closing credits and b-roll where appropriate. I master the file at its native resolution (640 X 480) then convert that file into an .mp4. I strip the audio to an AIFF file, convert it in iTunes to mp3 and upload and post the audio podcast via the Powerpress plugin on Fruitygamer.com. I upoad the video to Blip.TV, though I will in future expand the reach of the podcast by putting it on as many video sites as possible. As of right now it isn’t possible to put the video podcast on Youtube because the site has a strict 15 minute limit which I regularly break.

So that’s it! Hope that’s of some help to those of you out there looking to create your own video shows on the cheap, and don’t hesitate to ask me questions or add comments if you want more information.

Games are the main thing being downloaded on the iPad, but you won’t be able to grab iDOS and play old DOS classics anymore on your iPad. Movie games, Batman, Trainyard and Todd rides Bane (in his mind). And for the second week in a row, video!

Can’t believe I forgot to post this earlier, but I wrote an article for the Japan Times last week about Sharp’s Galapagos tablet, a pad device aimed straight at the Japanese market. Sharp claims otherwise, but “Galapagos” has become a term to define the uniqueness and weakness of the Japanese mobile phone market, which created some of the most advanced and esoteric phones on the market, in a sealed environment where innovation was allowed to flourish but never interact with the outside world.

With the onset of the iPhone, that market is crumbling. I personally see many, many iPhones everywhere in Tokyo, and that has to strike fear into the heart of every Japanese cell provider (other than Softbank, presumably making a killing by offering the iPhone exclusively in Japan.)

So I don’t hold out much hope for this Sharp tablet. They may know something I don’t, but I can’t see a device like this competing in any way with the iPad.

I’ve been working like a madman on various projects of late, so I haven’t had a chance to post much here. Two video projects, moving all our stuff out of our condo, going to Edmonton for a wedding, and an impending shift to Tokyo for a while have meant a dearth of bon mots on the site.

But rest assured I have some ideas waiting in the wings. Radio Free Skaro and Fruitygamer continue to crank out the content, and I have a few Japan related ideas I’d like to integrate into freyburg.com as well. So patience, gentle reader, and my apologies.

Recently I was contacted by StudioNow to create an author video for Random House about “The Tiger,” a new book by Vancouver author John Vaillant. It’s an interesting story about a poacher, a Russian game warden/badass and a very smart, very deadly tiger, and the violent maelstrom all three find themselves in while pursuing their own goals. Check out the video below.

Been busy this week, mostly with boring but necessary paperwork and moving concerns, but I’m still trying to hammer out exactly what I should do for online video regarding Freyburg.com. If I can come up with a way to do something quick, dirty, and simple, I will, and I suppose it should involve me blathering at the camera. But for some reason talking to the camera fills me with dread, unlike my Gen Y counterparts who seem to revel in the attention a webcam brings them.

So I’m asking you, dear readers…what do YOU want to see in a weekly or daily show centred around this site?

Check out the inaugural episode of the Fruitygamer Podcast over at fruitygamer.com. I’ve ben working for a while on the Fruitygamer website, and I think it’ll likely be a showcase for weekly audio podcasts, along with less frequent but higher-end video segments.

I’ve been working through various ways to create compelling internet content, and I’ve explored various options including scripted material and making elements for FInal Cut Pro so I can film, drag and drop. All off this comes from the idea of minimizing the inputs while maximizing outputs…but it would still involve a lot of work. Putting together the two Fruitygamer pilot episodes required about half a day of work for each segment, in addition to being down at E3 in the first place and filming the interviews.

That’s all well and good, and there’s no reason I can’t use that same methodology for special episodes. But if I want to create a lot of content quickly the way to do it is live and streamed. So I looked at BoinxTV as a viable option. I got Boinx when I bought one of the MacHeist offers for $40 a while back, and as the program is normally $299 I got a pretty decent bargain. But since I had no use for it at the time, Boinx sat on my computer unused, until now.

After studying the best way to create content efficiently, it seems the “Leo Laporte” model (for lack of a better term) works best. Leo records video of his podcasts, adding value by using the usual elements of live television such as lower thirds, graphics and other elements. He also streams live, allowing interaction with an audience. But while Leo spent upwards of $50,000 for his studio (which is really, really cheap, and also way more than I have at hand), I can do a small scale version of the same thing for next to nothing. I already have an older Macbook Pro, BoinxTV and an old HDV camera hooked up via Firewire. Add Skype videochat and stream to Ustream and I have a broadcast studio wherever I want to be. And I can ?strip out the audio and export it, creating both audio and video podcasts, all for next to no cost.

So in the next few weeks and months I’ll try to roll out some new shows for your enjoyment and edification. It’ll be a work in progress, but I’m confident I can pull this off pretty easily with practice and maybe even (given enough time and content) make a buck or two.

Haven’t given you an update on my professional work in a while, so here’s a sampler of what Freyburg Media has been up to: