randallCbennett[dot]com

Email interview

Apparently someone actually reads what I do, and Kelly emailed me with a few questions about how to get into “pro blogging” and some misc questions about video production. I think it’s kind of weird to answer questions about stuff I do, since when i create content I do it basically for myself and figure no one else is watching / reading. It’s comforting to know someone likes what I do.

Here’s some questions Kelly asked:

1. How did you get into the blogging gig and what is the best way to start? (I’m interesting in writing)

I started working at Engadget as a podcast producer, and from there kind of branched out to the rest of Weblogs, Inc. It’ll be a little bit harder to get into a “pro” blogging gig, since it’s a completely different space than when I started in early 2005.

The best way to start blogging is to just do it. Start writing about things you find interesting, and then submit your stuff to Digg, and other blogs in your genre. Sign up for google adsense, and put some banners on your site. If you’re committed to blogging, you can get a lot out of it. DV Guru wasn’t exactly what I wanted, believe it or not. We had a really great environment, but we couldn’t cover trade shows etc. If you want to start, just start doing it. Buy a domain name for $8, a hosting package for $8/month (but you should wait till my sponsorship with GoDaddy goes through… then use promocode techcheck, and get your hosting through dreamhost with promocode techcheck ;) and get your own blog running with wordpress.

If you want to expand your video productions kills, think about getting a job on an assignment desk at a TV station. I’d bet it’d be easy to go from police to assignment desk, and many TV stations would appreciate your knowledge of police inner workings.

2. What do you use to produce your Tech Check Daily show? Camera & software. Did you also create the opening (it’s awesome)?

The camera is my fav, the HDR-HC1 from Sony. My studio is pretty hillarious, as it’s just me sitting on my bed with some green poster paper taped to the wall. Serious. I’m moving into an office over the next week, as a partnership with wikireview.com and overstock.com is starting to pan out. I did buy some senheiser mics that frickin’ rule.

Software wise, I edit with FCP, but i’m going to start capturing with a program called wirecast. It works like a traditional TV switcher, but I can encode video for streaming, and record video straight to my hard drive in realitime. It’s a pretty interesting concept, and I’ll start using it within the next few weeks on Tech Check.

We’re going to have some even more awesome features coming out starting march 5th.

As for the intro, I used Adobe’s After Effects, the best software for motion graphics creation. My day job is at a TV station as a graphic artist, so that’s why I kind of cheated and made my graphics pretty cool. =)

3. How do you encode/compress the show?

See above for the future, but for this moment I use VisualHub. It’s a great, quick and versatile. I record the show, edit it, and then export a DV copy, and encode from that an H.264 and an FLV.

VisualHub, it’s amazing.

4. Do you upload to Revvr (or Blip.tv) and then link that to your site for playback?

Yup! I don’t serve any of my own video for a few reasons. First and foremost is potential bandwidth costs, but secondly I’ve found my videos get more views when they’re searchable on YouTube, Google, Blip.Tv and Revver.

I’m working on creating a how-to create a videoblog feature, and it’ll end up on tech check daily.com too.

Hopefully that inside baseball doesn’t bore you too much.