Wireless lavalier microphones are a fundamental tool when you shoot video, but for someone new to this kind of gear, they can be challenging to use. This members-only installment of Izzy Video will help you get set up correctly.

Also, in the video I make several announcements regarding events where I’ll be speaking live…

This Saturday on Sept. 19th, I’ll be speaking at the Chandler, AZ Apple Store from 4-6pm. It’s free, and there should be room for 30 people or so. For the first hour, I’ll talk about operating a video camera, lighting for video indoors, lighting for video outdoors, and audio for video. For the second hour, I’ll do “questions and answers.” If you have video questions, you might want to come join us. (And sorry, but the event won’t be captured on video, so I won’t be able to release something later if you miss it.) Here is the location info.

Did I mention the event is free?

Also, on Oct. 16th, I’ll be speaking about audio for video at Blogworld Expo (not a free event). If you’re going to be at Blogworld Expo, come check out my session.

And then on Nov. 14th and 15th, we’ll be doing Podcamp AZ again, and I’ll speak there as well. I’m planning to do a lighting workshop of some kind. This event will be free as always, and we’ll have a lot of fun there.

Why am I doing these live events? Partially because people asked me to speak, but also because as much as I love training on video through these tutorials, there’s something fun and dynamic about the live environment. I’m really looking forward to these events, and I hope to see you there!

Oh, and here’s the Quicktime version of the trailer for the above video tutorial.

If you want access to the full version of this video along with more than 100 other video tutorials, you should become an Izzy Video Member.

I receive a lot of emails. Thank you all very much for the kind words you continue to send me, and I wish I had time to respond to all of them. Last night I received one of my favorite emails so far. Here it is:

Hi Izzy,

My name is Timothy McKean. I am a longtime member and subscriber. I
teach video production classes at the High school and Graduate levels
and often use your materials as part of my curriculum. For my
graduate classes this coming term I am going to have my students buy a
membership to izzyvideo.com in lieu of purchasing a textbook.

I was wondering if you offer an educational rate, or would consider
creating a special offer for my students. Your $69 rate is not bad,
but a $39 or $49 coupon code (like your current promotion) is more
comparable to a textbook that I might require.

Thanks again for all the work that you put in to helping me, and my
students, produce better video.

Timothy McKean
Oak Hills High School, Video Production
Azusa Pacific University, MA in Edtech and Learning

I responded to Timothy, and we worked out a nice discount for his graduate students. (By the way, if any of you would like to try something similar with a group of students, I’d be happy to do something like that with you as well. Just send me an email at izzy (at) izzyvideo (dot) com.)

Many of you know that I’ve been producing the Izzy Video Tutorial series for several years, and the memberships are currently my main source of income. When I receive emails like this, I can’t tell you how great it feels. Thank you so much for the support and encouragement, and for helping me spread the word about Izzy Video.

If you want to learn the fundamentals of video, now is your chance to spend a day with me live. In connection with PubFilms, I’m holding a one-day workshop on April 17th, 2009 in Gilbert, AZ (suburb of Phoenix).

It’s a packed day, starting at 8:30am and ending at 4:30pm. These are some of the broad topics I’ll be covering:

• Operating a Video Camera
• Lighting for Video
• Audio for Video
• Shooting Video Indoors
• Shooting Video Outdoors
• Posting Video on the Web

I want to keep the group small, so I have time to answer questions. I’m limiting the workshop to 20 people. You can see more details and register here for the event.

Don’t know who I am? Check out my About Page.

At long last, I’m excited to announce the release of my first DVD. It’s a collection of 13 of the best Izzy Video episodes on the subject of lighting, and you can check it out here:

https://www.createspace.com/258849

Since you’re all video producers yourselves, I thought I’d share a few insights about the whole making-a-DVD process.

** The top five things I learned by making this DVD **

1) I love Final Cut Studio. (Okay, I knew this already, but making the DVD reminded me.) The whole process was much easier than I thought it was going to be. Having the right tools certainly helps. I used Final Cut Pro for editing the video, Color for color-grading, Soundtrack Pro for audio sweetening, Compressor to transcode, and DVD Studio Pro to assemble the DVD. These tools worked very well together and ultimately allowed me to assemble the DVD in a fairly short period of time.

2) I’m very critical of my work. Every time I watched the Izzy Video episodes included on this DVD, I found additional things I *wished* I would have said or shown. I’m my own biggest critic, but I noted several very important items for future DVD’s. For example, when I shoot Izzy Video episodes moving forward, it’s going to be with a possible DVD in mind. I’ll change the structure of them slightly, so they’ll work for both individual episodes as well as chapters on a DVD.

3) CreateSpace provides an excellent service for producing and distributing DVD’s. For a long time, many of my viewers have been requesting that I release a DVD, and the main reason I avoided it was because I didn’t want to deal with orders, inventory, and shipping. CreateSpace.com takes care of all of that for me. They take a large chunk of the revenue for their service, but I’m absolutely convinced that it’s worth it. If I’m not having to worry about shipping DVD’s, that frees me up to do what I like to do which is develop more educational video content.

4) I developed ideas for several more DVD’s. This is just the first one. You’ll see more in the future. I don’t want to set any expectations right now regarding specific topics, but I’ll just say this — I have some good stuff coming.

5) Anybody can make a DVD — especially you folks who watch my videos. You already know about video. If you have an expertise in something, or if you know someone who has some expertise, I highly, highly recommend you create a DVD yourself, using that video skill set you’ve developed. It’s much easier than you’d think, and the feeling you get when it’s all done is incredible.

Just some insights. Hopefully at least one or two are helpful to you.

And if you dig video lighting, check out the DVD. As I mentioned, it has 13 of my best Izzy Video lighting episodes on it. And lighting makes a huge difference in the quality of your footage.

You can see the DVD here:

https://www.createspace.com/258849

Oh, and all of the Izzy Video members received a coupon code in their email tonight which gives them $10 off the price. There are so many reasons to be a member!

Are you interested in winning a trip to Arizona to attend an Izzy Video workshop where you can learn LIVE techniques to shoot better video? If you are, then read on…

IzzyVideo and PubFilms Invite You To Compete In Our FREE Short Film Competition!

Your audience decides who wins!
The short film with the most votes will win the grand prize!

Grand Prize Winner Will Receive:
2 Plane Tickets To Sunny Arizona
3 Days And 2 Nights Paid Hotel Stay In Arizona
Free Admission To Izzy Video Workshop
1 Year Subscription To IZZY VIDEO
1 Year Subscription To American Cinematographer
1 I-POD Touch

Runner Up Will Receive:
1 Year Subscription To IZZY VIDEO
1 Year Subscription To American Cinematographer
1 I-POD Nano

To learn more, please visit:

http://www.pubfilms.com/competitions/izzy

* PubFilms is kind enough to sponsor this competition. They’re doing some pretty interesting stuff. I highly recommend you check them out.

P.S. If you have a short film already in the can, you might as well enter it here. If you don’t have one done, maybe this can help give you sufficient incentive to get going on it.

* Grand Prize is available to US residents only. There are other rules like this, so please read closely when you register.

Click here to watch the video.

Noell and I have never been this excited. In two weeks we’re going to be full time producers of online video. Izzy Video has consistently grown over the years, but I’ve only been able to work on it in my spare time. I believe that by pursuing it full time, I should be able to develop it into what I really envision it to be: a rich resource for beginning and intermediate video makers (Experts hang around too, but they usually already know everything I do).

Is it nerve-wracking? Of course it is, because it’s such a huge risk. I’m the sole provider for a family of five, so there’s certainly a lot of risk. But we’re both still fairly young. If we’re going to take some risk, now is the time to do it. Besides, it’s what we really WANT to do, so why not see if it’s possible?

And this brings me to how you benefit from the risk I’m taking. Because I need to maximize cash flow to help ease the transition from my day job’s steady weekly paycheck — to zero guarantee, I’m
posting a coupon code for 20% off an Izzy Video Premium Subscription. If you’re not currently a Premium Subscriber, you can use this coupon code to get a nice discount. If you are already a premium subscriber, then you have a couple options: You can use it to get a discount off a renewal, or you can forward this information to a friend with an interest in video, and they’ll immediately have an
additional way in which they will benefit from knowing you.

Here’s the coupon code for 20% off an Izzy Video Premium Subscription:

20B42

New Subscribers: Here’s where you go to use it, http://www.izzyvideo.com/membership

Current Premium Subscribers: Renew with a discount here, http://members.izzyvideo.com

Thanks for the support as always, and please wish us good luck as we pursue this exciting direction!

All the best,
Izzy

*By the way, the coupon is only good for six more days (through the 28th), so please act fast if you’re interested!

** Update **

Several people have asked me about renewing. If you’re already a premium subscriber, and you decide to renew to take advantage of the discount, then I will manually extend your subscription. So if you’ve only been subscribed for two weeks, and you want to extend a year, then I will extend your subscription by an additional year.

Also, you’re free to spread the coupon code to anyone you would like! It only helps us spread the word, and it gets your friends a nice discount!

Also, thank you everyone for the awesome support! It’s been a very exciting day seeing all the emails, new subscribers, and comments. I can’t tell you how much your support means to me (and us).

After struggling through many hours of technical difficulties caused by a conflict between Wordpress and Amember (the software that we use to manage the subscriptions), we finally moved all the files. This should prevent further conflicts in the future. The downside was that we had to move the subscription feed for the premium subscribers.

This is an easy enough thing to fix though. Simply log into the membership area and follow the instructions to subscribe (in iTunes preferably).

Thanks again for watching!

I changed my mind on increasing the price for an Izzy Video Premium Subscription. Because of this decision, I spent the evening last night issuing partial refunds to everyone who had subscribed at the increased price. Thanks for the support everyone, and I hope to continue receiving the great feedback regarding the premium subscriptions.

Also, you’ll notice that I have installed a new commenting system which is powered by Disqus (pronounced ‘discuss’). What does it do? From their website:

Disqus makes your comments more interactive for readers and easier to manage for you all while connecting your community with other blogs.

Personally, I like Disqus because it connects all your comments between all the different websites where you left them. It’s fun to discover new blogs by seeing where you left other comments. There are little arrows that allow you to vote comments up or down, and it creates threaded comments, almost like a forum, where you can comment on someone else’s comments.

Both of these items make Izzy Video a better resource for you. And that’s my goal! As always, I’m anxious to hear your feedback and suggestions.

Update: I removed the new commenting system.

I’m going to do a free session called “Improve Your Online Video” on November 3rd at Podcamp AZ. The Podcamp is free. My session is free. You can follow this link to register. If you can make it to Phoenix on November 3rd, please join us. I’m hoping to see as many of you there as possible.

Following is the description for my session:

Aesthetically, most web video is pretty horrible. Because folks don’t know how easy it is to create good video, they make major blunders. They shoot up their own nostrils; they distort their faces with incorrect lens settings; they ignore audio quality. Avoid these pitfalls! Beginner or pro? Come join the discussion.

Oh, and by the way, I believe Podcamp AZ is going to be streamed live over the internet using Ustream.tv, so if you can’t make it to Phoenix on November 3rd, you can still enjoy much of the event.

Finally, my friend, Justine Ezarik (yes, the iPhone “Bill in a Box Video” Justine), is having a Photoshop contest to help promote Podcamp AZ. Maybe you’d like to participate?