SkillCasting

I get lots of questions regarding which camcorders I recommend. I’ve found that for the money, the Kodak Zi8 [aff link] can’t be beat.

In this video I share with you the 3 reasons I give to my clients on why I prefer the Kodak–even over the more popular Flip Mino HD.

And by the way, this video was shot in front of a green screen using the Zi8. The audio sounds good because I use a lav microphone. That leads us into reason number one but watch the video for the other two reasons too.

[View iPhone version]

If you’re looking to create customer testimonials, interview people, or create your own how-to videos, I can’t recommend the Kodak Zi8 highly enough.

I was reading an article over at CNet on how Tiffen was introducing a “steadicam” for the iPhone. If you’re not familiar with steadicams, they’re camera mounts that are typically counter-balanced to smooth out the camera movement. If you’ve ever watched a video shot with a handheld camcorder, you’ll immediately understand the benefit of a steadicam. They remove all the camera shaking.

But this post isn’t about steadicams. I wanted to watch the video to learn more but what really caught my eye is that I think this entire video was produced with Apple’s Keynote presentation tool. This is important because the average user can create a video just like this. Where something like this used to cost thousands of dollars, we’re now able to produce this at home.

I see transitions & effects that are native to Keynote here. QuickTime video is easily embedded into Keynote and adding a soundtrack is easy too. What do you think? Was this created entirely in Keynote?

So here we have a decent size company producing videos with Keynote. It makes me wonder what individuals and small businesses can produce. Do you have any examples of professional “down & dirty” videos you’ve produced? Let me know in the comments.

Nancy Duarte from Duarte Design produced a very polished presentation with their 5 rules for effective presentations. If you’re not familiar with Nancy, she wrote the book Slide:ology – The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. This books is so good, I ordered copies of it for my contractors in 2008. Nancy knows how to develop a great presentation.

Now what I’ve found interesting with this is that she did it entirely in PowerPoint 2010. I know most of her presentations have been done in Keynote. In addition to great presentation tips, this video makes me want to at least look at the new PowerPoint.

Does this mean Microsoft may actually be getting hip?