How to Make a Holiday Christmas Card Video
Create a Holiday Video Card
Ah, the holidays ! With all the craziness it is a miracle that anything gets finished around the workplace . The holidays are also a time that we reach out to individuals and clients and thank them for their patronage during the year .
Usually, this is done through a card or gift, but why not make lasting impression this year and produce a short Christmas greeting card thanking your clients for their business! With today’s video editing software, it is very easy and affordable
STEP 1 – MAKE A PLAN
Depending on your business, you may want to think about the personality of your video card. Do your clients expect you to be traditional and professional , or would your audience appreciate something a little more unique ? You may want to come up with a few ideas of what to do for your card. It can be as simple as a static shot of all your employees saying Happy New Year or singing a Auld Lang Syne or it could be more complex with scenes, a script and animations. It’s really up to you, but the best advice is to make a plan before you execute. Develop an idea of what you want to capture in the video before you wrangle everyone together to make it happen.
STEP 2 – MAKE IT HAPPEN
After you plan , you are ready to execute on the idea. First , you will need a camera to record the action . You can go easy and simple by using a Flip Cam or you can use a more professional camcorder. Also, many digital SLR still cameras can record footage now, so you may have the option to use that.
Record your scene with your camera and use multiple takes until you get it right. If you are recording audio or voices, it helps to have an external microphone which is usually better than the built in mic on most camera systems. Also, if you need to be in the action as well, a good tripod will allow you to record the whole group as well as yourself.
Once you have recorded all your footage, you are ready to put it together.
STEP 3 – EDITING
There are many options when it comes to editing , iMovie or Windows Movie Maker are good options for beginners since they allow for easy editing of footage. If your project is a little more advanced , Final Cut Pro and Premiere Elements are great stepping stones that can handle more difficult editing jobs and cost in the $100 range. If you have a really complex project, you can spring for Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro which cost about $500 – $1000. For most businesses, this is beyond what they need to create their holiday video card
If you want to add a touch of animation to your card , there are online stock video websites that sell holiday themed animations that you can incorporate into your project. They are usually inexpensive, simple and can really add that final touch that will set your video apart. You can find christmas background videos, halloween animations, new years fireworks as well as many other themes. Also, if you have an editor that uses After Effects, they would have the ability to work a Christmas After Effects template into your video project, which would add even more uniqueness to your project.
If you get stuck and need some help with editing your project , there are some great tutorials and information online for just about any editing software available. An additional resource is youtube where many experts have created tutorials for the major editing platforms.
Once you have finished your project, it’s time to package the video for delivery . Read on for some ideas on how to deliver your final edited holiday video card.
STEP 4 – DELIVERING YOUR VIDEO E-CARD
There are a number of options that you can use to get your edited holiday card to your clients and friends. Here are a few of the most popular:
DVD & Mini DVD
- If you are also sending your clients a traditional holiday card , you could include your movie on dvd or mini dvd as well. iMovie can make DVD’s and there are a number of other programs available to author DVD’s as well.
Youtube & Vimeo
- Another great way to publish your video is to upload it to a video service and send the link to your clients and friends. This can also help drive traffic back to your main business site . Most of these services also allow you to mark a video as private, in case you don’t want the world to see your masterpiece. A number of programs also feature an auto upload feature to youtube and vimeo, which makes the process even easier
Self Hosted
- If you have a web designer on staff or regularly update your website with your web designer, you can host and insert the video right on your own website . You can either embed it using HTML 5 (which is iPhone and iPad compatible) or you can use flash video which should play on nearly all computers. This can be a great idea since it allows you to reach everyone who visits your main website
Any way you choose to spread your holiday cheer , your clients and customers are sure to appreciate it. Creating a video greeting will leave a lasting impression as well as be a fun activity to do inside the office
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Ideas for Green Screen Video Producers
Utilizing green or blue screen (chroma key) in your video projects is a great way to introduce a professional and stylish look to your video productions. Since you will have the ability to alter the background of your production at any time in post production, there are no limits to the creative direction of your final composition. There are a wide variety of chroma key backgrounds to choose from that will give your video production a polished look similar to larger video productions.
The basic idea of green screen production is simple: setup a green screen, shoot your talent in front of it, then remove the green in your video editing software and replace it with your chosen background in post production. However, getting a precisekey from your video can be a trial and error process that could cause frustration if the original footage is not shot correctly.
Here are a few simple tips you can use to help make your green screen background production as troublefree as possible:
- Choosing your backdrop
a. A chroma key background can be any color as long as it is not contained within the foreground elements you would like to keep in the scene. Most video productions utilize either a green or blue screen. A clean key can be achieved with either color, but you will want to take into account the color of clothing your talent will be wearing and also make sure nothing in your scene closely matches the color of the background color you are trying to remove.
b. Use paint or a drop cloth and try to remove as many wrinkles or variations in the color of your background as you can. The more consistent your background color, the easier time you will have removing it in post production.
- Illumination
a. This is probably THE most important aspect of a good green screen video production. Having a well lit, consistent background color is key (no pun intended) to being able to remove the background seamlessly from your shot.
b. Setup a series of lights that illuminate your backdrop consistently and try to reduce the number of hotspots on the backdrop. Outdoor or fluorescent lighting is a good option because it is a diffused light that spreads evenly across your backdrop.
c. Illuminate your subject fully with soft lighting. You may also want to try to add a spotlight pointing at the back of your subject. This will help to cleanly “cut” your subject from the background and will result in a cleaner key.
- Subject Placement
a. Make sure your talent is at least 4 steps in front of your chroma key backdrop. This will help minimize shadows falling onto the green screen and will minimize color spill. Color spill occurs when the reflected green from your backdrop “spills” onto your subject and causes the color of clothing or skin to change hue to match the backdrop . This can cause problems for your color key software and results in rough edges on the final production.
- Camera Setup
a. Try to shoot your video with the best HD camera you have available. If possible, use a camera that allows you to make manual adjustments to the ISO/Gain, shutter speed and white balance. The ISO/Gain controls should be set to a low setting. This will require more light, but will give you cleaner video with less noise and artifacts.
If you follow these few simple rules, you can create high quality green screen footage that will allow you to easily remove the background in your video editing software.Now you can replace the green screen with a virtual background or other video background. Have fun!
Using a virtual set in a video production
Virtual studios are useful in a variety of projects. By utilizing a virtual studio for your video production, you have the freedom to place your talent in any type of surrounding and to update your background with ease. Whether you are using your production for a tradeshow, podcast, product demonstration or news, a virtual set will allow you to create a quick and inexpensive video production.
Today, I will show you how to use a virtual studio with Adobe After Effects. The techniques we learn in this tutorial can also be applied to a number of other video editors that allow you to remove chroma screen from video footage (many do allow this). Everything about this tutorial should be the same in various other editors, the only difference is the sequence to apply the green/chroma key effect to remove green screen from your video footage.
STEP 1
First, open after effects and import your video files. You should have a video file that contains your talent shot on a green screen, the virtual set layer (this can be a still or animation), and a layer of video footage or animation to place in the virtual studio monitor (if your virtual studio has a spot for additional footage).
STEP 2
Now, create a composition (go to composition, new in the top menu) and drag the 3 files into your composition. Make sure your files are in the following order from the top. The first layer contains your talent footage shot on green screen. The next layer is your virtual set layer. The bottom layer will be the footage you would like displayed in the virtual studio.
STEP 3
Select layer 1 with your talent shot on a chroma background . Next, click effect in the toolbar, scroll down to keying, and select keylight. If you do not have keylight, you can select color key or color range to remove the green screen from your shot. Now, within the effect controls for keylight, select the eyedropper next to “screen color” and choose the green color behind your talent. This should remove the green color in the backdrop of your video footage. If needed, you can adjust the settings in keylight to remove any color spill or rough edges from your subject.
STEP 4
Next, lets remove the green from the news studio monitor (only needed if your studio has a monitor in it) . Select your set layer, and click effect, keying, keylight again to create another color key on the virtual studio layer. Now, select the eyedropper next to “screen color” (in the keylight effect controls window) and choose the green color in the monitor on your virtual set layer. This will knock out the green in the monitor allowing you to see the footage on the bottom layer.
Now, you can adjust the layer below the studio layer to scale it into place. You can also edit the footage on the bottom layer to change what appears on screen.
Now, simply render your video and you will have a video production with the background removed to reveal a virtual set underneath.
Virtual Set VS Real Stage Sets
A virtual studio is an animation of a real or computer generated scene that is displayed behind a presenter who has been filmed on a green or blue screen. By compositing the two layers together, the video producer makes it seem as if the person was truly in the scene displayed in the backdrop. Over the last few years, the Virtual Set has grown in popularity and is being used consistently in television, movies, news shows and talk shows. Many of the most popular news shows, talk shows and movies use virtual sets and stages and you never even notice it.
There are many benefits of using a virtual set background over a true physical set. For one, the cost of a virtual set is much less than what it costs to create a physical set on a stage. For instance, a blue screen kit can be purchased for under 100 dollars and a royalty free virtual studio can easily be used to create an impressive scene behind your onscreen talent. If you need a custom designed news background , there are also companies that specialize in this as well. Also, a virtual set allows you to change the background regularly and not be locked down to a physical set that is cumbersome and expensive to update. A virtual studio also allows for a quick production turnaround times since the video production variables are limited to lighting the talent and the green screen backdrop. A virtual set can even be captured live to tape if you have the right hardware and software to remove the green screen in your shot in real time and replace it with the virtual studio (similar to the way a weatherman works with weather animations ).
Another added benefit of virtual studio technology is that it is nearly universally compatible with any non-linear editing system on the market today. As long as your editor of choice allows for chromo or color keying (removal of a particular color from a video file, usually green or blue), you have the ability to use a virtual background. Some great editors with this capability are Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premier, Avid, Pinnacle and many others.
If you would like to save time and money on a background video, or if you just want to quickly turn around your video project, virtual sets may be just the thing. The number of tools and effects available to regular video producers is truly amazing.