We also go off on a rant about Thunderbolt, wax poetic about iMessage, and hail the return…of Clowntown.

Yahoo gets a new CEO
Why Google should buy Nook
LG Super OLED is super sexy
Cord cutters on the rise
iMessage decimates text messaging
Asinine PSA from ICE about piracy
Belkin’s Thunderbolt dock won’t be out until September 2012

Tweet This Post

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.

Andrew Warner runs Mixergy, a show consisting of Skype interviews with entrepreneurs building startups that are changing the way people do business. His latest show features Leo Laporte, who worked for Tech TV for years before being laid off. Rather than take that lying down, Leo moved right into podcasting and in a few short years has built up something of a new media empire starting with This Week In Tech, also known as TWIT. In this episode of Mixergy, Leo explains how he delivers well-produced niche content at a lower price than the networks are capable of, and what other new media producers can do to emulate his success.

Full disclosure: I worked with Leo on-air and behind the scenes last year on “The Lab with Leo Laporte,” and still maintain occasional contact with him. I also met and had a great conversation (and a few beers) with Dane Golden, Leo’s right-hand-man at TWIT, at Macworld 2008. But before any of that happened, Leo’s move into podcasting made me think that it was possible for myself and fellow nerd @legopolis (and later, @dubbayoo) to start Radio Free Skaro, my own podcast devoted to all things Doctor Who, as well as concentrate on web video as the dominant growth area for my own company, Freyburg Media.

In what has to be the most overwhelming of all weeks for Doctor Who in all recorded history, the RFS crew slogged mightily through tales of Comic Con, rumours confirmed, others dashed, and in the midst of our recording the release of a new trailer for “The Waters of Mars.” And that was BEFORE we got around commentating on “Planet of the Dead”, making this if not the longest Radio Free Skaro ever than certainly the densest, and not just because of PotD’s plodding, pedestrian poltroonery.

An exciting landmark in RFS history, as the Three Who Rule celebrate their Sasquatchicentennial, otherwise known as the 150th episode of their half-crazed (yet still consistently jaunty) blatherings. And what better way to mark the occassion than “The Parting of the Ways,” Eccleston’s final episode as the good Doctor and one of the many highlights of the 2005 return of the series. News, digressions and a visit from one of the Internet’s most pervasive memes round out this most 150-th of episodes.

In a stunning, nay flabbergasting turn of events, the Torchwood: Children of Earth miniseries turned out to be not only a fantastic five days of entertainment but possibly one of the best things on television thus far this year. A special 4 person quorum of the RFS council was called to deal with this turn of events, with special Torchwood representative Katrina joining the fun. But that’s not all! The Three Who Rule Plus One also threw in a “Bad Wolf” commentary…but of course such good fortune meant the beast Cracklor also paid a visit. Still, an epic-length RFS for an epic entry in the Doctor Who canon.

Things took a turn for both the obscene and obsequious and Pedantor proved he could crawl even lower into the gutter he calls home and Warren was bested by Cracklor, a skypeovore that feasts on distorted, craptacular VOIP. Oh, and somewhere in this menagerie of madness the sometimes forgotten but certainly notable “Boom Town” was commented on by the Three Who Rule.

Direct Download

With only Torchwood news to bandy about, the second part of Steven Moffat’s epic two-parter from Season 1 took center stage for this episode for a shorthanded RFS staff as they discussed the intricacies of one of the first series’ masterpieces while simultaneously avoiding any actual discussion of the episode at hand, as per usual.

It’s not often that the Three Who Rule spend more than a minute dismissing Torchwood out of hand, much less being interested in a new series of everyone’s tolerated younger, ganglier cousin to Doctor Who. But that strange event is precisely what happened (explained away with string theory and many a complicated equation, most likely), along with some pre Comic Con banter and oh yes, a commentary on The Empty Child.

Direct Download

Steven, one mighty pillar of the tripod that is the Three Who Rule, doesn’t often succumb to the base emotions. Indeed, compared to the gutter-dwelling antics of Pedantor and the frankly borderline illegal conduct of Warren, Steven’s unflappable facade is nigh-invulnerable. But when the fate of Pete Tyler in “Father’s Day” comes into play, all propriety goes out the window. Tune in and hear his descent into madness…if you dare.

Direct Download