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Magnus · 8th August 2007, 17:45

Podcasting 101
by Graham Day

The first thing you need to know about Podcasting is nothing! Well actually If you have never seen or heard a Podcast what I would recommend is you go and either watch one or listen to one before attempting this tutorial. Right, once that’s done then your well on the way to making your first Podcast. I recommend for the complete newbie that you first try making a simple Podcast using iPhoto & iMovie, before going onto Final Cut Pro Studio 2 with motion & soundtrack etc. I think it is always best to walk before we run.

I would also suggest that first you master importing stills/Photos or AVI’s from your camera into iPhoto. Now as reference will use the Podcast from this tutorial Surfs Up! St Ives 2006, this was edited entirely on iMovie with stills/photos from an IXUS 50 Canon camera and the music was composed in Garageband. So it is a combination of stills and graphics. (N.B. for the sake of this tutorial I will use the word “stills” to mean photos.)

From the Podcast you can see that I used a lot of Ken Burns effects from iMovie with the stills, especially the panoramic still as this gives the effect of motion. (I’ll cover photo stitching another day.) In TV we used to call this technique ’action stills’, because it gave life to the still picture/photo. We would rig a video camera up and point it at the photo and then Pan & Zoom the camera. Now you just need a Mac.

So lets start as I said by importing some stills into iPhoto. First step is to create an album and call it “PodCast 101”.Then drag and drop your stills/photos into the the Album “PodCast 101” we do this so it makes the searching for the stills easier when we are in iMovie rather than having to trawl through the whole of you iPhoto library. Now once they are in the Album if you haven’t already done this name the stills. So we have in iPhoto a series of named stills like shown. Okay now it’s time to open iMovie, one of the most under rated applications in iLife ever, in my opinion. The way this handles media files is quite impressive, and before you all run off to buy Final Cut Express try getting your head around this first. I assure you, as an FCP user and trainer, if I want to cut something quickly in DV or HDV I will use this first. It is a nice and simple application with good integration with the other iLife apps.
Okay first thing you need to do is create a New Project and choose a resolution.
Seeing as we are making a Podcast which will end up as MPEG-4 lets go for MPEG-4 as our resolution and name our Project PodCast 101. You’ll notice by default that iMovie wants to save it’s Projects in to the Movies folder, so let it. Click on “Create”.

Now a Project is really just like a blank document in word or pages. Your creating a place where all your resources and settings will be stored. (N.B. iMovie is based around Quicktime the same as FCP.)

So quickly to get you familiar with the iMovie interface you should have a window that looks like this: On the Left Hand Side is a large viewing window, that looks a little like QT Player, and to the RHS is a series of blank squares. In the centre below the large viewing window is what is known as your transport keys (Go To Beginning, Play & Play Full Screen).
And below that your Clip Viewer/Timeline.

To the left of the transport keys are two icons the camera & scissor Icon make sure the slider is over to the right next to the scissors. (It should be by default.) To the left of them is an icon like a piece of film and a clock, make sure the piece of film icon is active (blue). Now to the RHS below the squares should be a series of buttons called “Clips, Themes, Media, Editing, & Chapters”. If you are seeing the squares then you will have the “Clips” menu active. Okay, now select the menu button Media. You will notice that the squares have disappeared and in it’s place is a window showing folders of either Audio or Photos. Select Photos, this should take you directly to iPhoto.
Scroll down the folder structure till you see the Album/Folder PodCast 101 and select it, the window below the folders should now show you your selected stills/photos.

Now click on a photo and it will appear in the big window to the LHS. Make sure you have Show Photo Settings active in the lower part of the window on the RHS, and make sure you tick the Ken Burns Effect box. At this point save your project (Command + S or from the file menu). Now get used to doing this as it will save a lot of tantrums and tears later. Be creative explore the effect of the Ken Burns plugin, you can zoom in, you position the photo, you can adjust the speed of the zoom.

You use a Mac so let the creative juices flow. When your happy with the effect then in the Ken Burns box hit apply. You should see your first photo drop to the beginning of the Timeline. You’ll also notice a little red line on the clip slowly move across the frame in the timeline, this is creating the rendered file of your picture and the Ken Burns effect. Now once your happy with your first clip hit save. Now select your second photo and do the same. Once you have hit save, select the icon that looks like a clock and it will transform the Timeline from a frame based view to a time based view. Now press Goto beginning in the transport keys and then press play, you should see all you clips play back with the Ken Burns effect on them.
To adjust a clips effect just switch the timeline back to frame view select the frame you want to adjust and hit Show Photo Settings.

This time you will see that the Ken Burns now says update rather than apply.
Don’t forget to keep saving your project while you work. Now keep on adding your clips and reviewing the timeline sequence once your happy with the sequence try putting on some titles and effects by selecting the Editing Menu.

Right now you’ve completed your visual masterpiece it should look a little like mine. Now to add some audio go to the file menu and select share, and from the drop down menu select Garageband.
First thing you will notice it will import your iMovie sequence in to it’s timeline at the top, now you can start to rock & roll! Okay once you’ve done your Hip Hop or Artic Monkeys soundtrack you have two choices from here, as iLife is so well integrated, you can either select share from the file menu and save the finished Podcast straight in to iTunes.
Or you can save your work in Garageband step back into iMovie and open Audio in the Media Menu and drag your music straight to the timeline and re-sync it to your pictures, you might want to do this if you need to trim some of the pictures to hit beats on your newly composed music track.

Check your pictures & music then select share from the File Menu & choose iPod.
Your movie will be exported and compressed straight in to iTunes ready to sync with your iPod. Congratulations to your first Podcast!

Right how to get it out in the wild. When you hit the Share button in the File Menu you’ll notice the line “Share” right at the bottom of the pulldown select that and it will show you all the options you have for your movie. In our case we selected iPod, but we could have selected iWeb and created a Podcast to be uploaded to your iWeb site.

I will finish with some tips to remember when creating a Podcast, whether it’s video or audio. First, have a rough idea of a theme and perhaps even do a storyboard. When starting, check how much space you have on your had disk and make sure there’s plenty of room for your creation. Don’t waste too much time refining your edits and instead get a rough cut together first. Choose the MPEG-4 format as it takes up less disk space. And finally, and most importantly, remember to have fun!

SIDEBAR/BOX:
You can download Graham’s finished video podcast episode from EmiratesMac.com (http://www.emiratesmac.com/newslette...podcast101.m4v). See for yourself what the end result looks like.

SIDEBAR/BOX:
Graham Day, a Director at TriMedia Middle East (TriMedia Middle East) has previously worked at companies like Granada TV, Avid, and Abu Dhabi TV. TriMedia Middle East offers a comprehensive Broadcast Consultancy comprising Channel Management, Project Management, Training and Recruitment services. They are based in Dubai Media City with clients throughout the Gulf region.

8th August 2007, 17:45	#6 (permalink)
Magnus Administrator Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Dubai Posts: 8,328	Podcasting 101 Podcasting 101 by Graham Day The first thing you need to know about Podcasting is nothing! Well actually If you have never seen or heard a Podcast what I would recommend is you go and either watch one or listen to one before attempting this tutorial. Right, once that’s done then your well on the way to making your first Podcast. I recommend for the complete newbie that you first try making a simple Podcast using iPhoto & iMovie, before going onto Final Cut Pro Studio 2 with motion & soundtrack etc. I think it is always best to walk before we run. I would also suggest that first you master importing stills/Photos or AVI’s from your camera into iPhoto. Now as reference will use the Podcast from this tutorial Surfs Up! St Ives 2006, this was edited entirely on iMovie with stills/photos from an IXUS 50 Canon camera and the music was composed in Garageband. So it is a combination of stills and graphics. (N.B. for the sake of this tutorial I will use the word “stills” to mean photos.) From the Podcast you can see that I used a lot of Ken Burns effects from iMovie with the stills, especially the panoramic still as this gives the effect of motion. (I’ll cover photo stitching another day.) In TV we used to call this technique ’action stills’, because it gave life to the still picture/photo. We would rig a video camera up and point it at the photo and then Pan & Zoom the camera. Now you just need a Mac. So lets start as I said by importing some stills into iPhoto. First step is to create an album and call it “PodCast 101”.Then drag and drop your stills/photos into the the Album “PodCast 101” we do this so it makes the searching for the stills easier when we are in iMovie rather than having to trawl through the whole of you iPhoto library. Now once they are in the Album if you haven’t already done this name the stills. So we have in iPhoto a series of named stills like shown. Okay now it’s time to open iMovie, one of the most under rated applications in iLife ever, in my opinion. The way this handles media files is quite impressive, and before you all run off to buy Final Cut Express try getting your head around this first. I assure you, as an FCP user and trainer, if I want to cut something quickly in DV or HDV I will use this first. It is a nice and simple application with good integration with the other iLife apps. Okay first thing you need to do is create a New Project and choose a resolution. Seeing as we are making a Podcast which will end up as MPEG-4 lets go for MPEG-4 as our resolution and name our Project PodCast 101. You’ll notice by default that iMovie wants to save it’s Projects in to the Movies folder, so let it. Click on “Create”. Now a Project is really just like a blank document in word or pages. Your creating a place where all your resources and settings will be stored. (N.B. iMovie is based around Quicktime the same as FCP.) So quickly to get you familiar with the iMovie interface you should have a window that looks like this: On the Left Hand Side is a large viewing window, that looks a little like QT Player, and to the RHS is a series of blank squares. In the centre below the large viewing window is what is known as your transport keys (Go To Beginning, Play & Play Full Screen). And below that your Clip Viewer/Timeline. To the left of the transport keys are two icons the camera & scissor Icon make sure the slider is over to the right next to the scissors. (It should be by default.) To the left of them is an icon like a piece of film and a clock, make sure the piece of film icon is active (blue). Now to the RHS below the squares should be a series of buttons called “Clips, Themes, Media, Editing, & Chapters”. If you are seeing the squares then you will have the “Clips” menu active. Okay, now select the menu button Media. You will notice that the squares have disappeared and in it’s place is a window showing folders of either Audio or Photos. Select Photos, this should take you directly to iPhoto. Scroll down the folder structure till you see the Album/Folder PodCast 101 and select it, the window below the folders should now show you your selected stills/photos. Now click on a photo and it will appear in the big window to the LHS. Make sure you have Show Photo Settings active in the lower part of the window on the RHS, and make sure you tick the Ken Burns Effect box. At this point save your project (Command + S or from the file menu). Now get used to doing this as it will save a lot of tantrums and tears later. Be creative explore the effect of the Ken Burns plugin, you can zoom in, you position the photo, you can adjust the speed of the zoom. You use a Mac so let the creative juices flow. When your happy with the effect then in the Ken Burns box hit apply. You should see your first photo drop to the beginning of the Timeline. You’ll also notice a little red line on the clip slowly move across the frame in the timeline, this is creating the rendered file of your picture and the Ken Burns effect. Now once your happy with your first clip hit save. Now select your second photo and do the same. Once you have hit save, select the icon that looks like a clock and it will transform the Timeline from a frame based view to a time based view. Now press Goto beginning in the transport keys and then press play, you should see all you clips play back with the Ken Burns effect on them. To adjust a clips effect just switch the timeline back to frame view select the frame you want to adjust and hit Show Photo Settings. This time you will see that the Ken Burns now says update rather than apply. Don’t forget to keep saving your project while you work. Now keep on adding your clips and reviewing the timeline sequence once your happy with the sequence try putting on some titles and effects by selecting the Editing Menu. Right now you’ve completed your visual masterpiece it should look a little like mine. Now to add some audio go to the file menu and select share, and from the drop down menu select Garageband. First thing you will notice it will import your iMovie sequence in to it’s timeline at the top, now you can start to rock & roll! Okay once you’ve done your Hip Hop or Artic Monkeys soundtrack you have two choices from here, as iLife is so well integrated, you can either select share from the file menu and save the finished Podcast straight in to iTunes. Or you can save your work in Garageband step back into iMovie and open Audio in the Media Menu and drag your music straight to the timeline and re-sync it to your pictures, you might want to do this if you need to trim some of the pictures to hit beats on your newly composed music track. Check your pictures & music then select share from the File Menu & choose iPod. Your movie will be exported and compressed straight in to iTunes ready to sync with your iPod. Congratulations to your first Podcast! Right how to get it out in the wild. When you hit the Share button in the File Menu you’ll notice the line “Share” right at the bottom of the pulldown select that and it will show you all the options you have for your movie. In our case we selected iPod, but we could have selected iWeb and created a Podcast to be uploaded to your iWeb site. I will finish with some tips to remember when creating a Podcast, whether it’s video or audio. First, have a rough idea of a theme and perhaps even do a storyboard. When starting, check how much space you have on your had disk and make sure there’s plenty of room for your creation. Don’t waste too much time refining your edits and instead get a rough cut together first. Choose the MPEG-4 format as it takes up less disk space. And finally, and most importantly, remember to have fun! SIDEBAR/BOX: You can download Graham’s finished video podcast episode from EmiratesMac.com (http://www.emiratesmac.com/newslette...podcast101.m4v). See for yourself what the end result looks like. SIDEBAR/BOX: Graham Day, a Director at TriMedia Middle East (TriMedia Middle East) has previously worked at companies like Granada TV, Avid, and Abu Dhabi TV. TriMedia Middle East offers a comprehensive Broadcast Consultancy comprising Channel Management, Project Management, Training and Recruitment services. They are based in Dubai Media City with clients throughout the Gulf region.