Friday, July 9th, 2010
playing around with BoinxTV
by Warren
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.