Audio killed the video

I'm not going to talk about the Buggles here, and how their video was the first ever to hit MTV.  So if you thought that's what this article was about, move along, slick!

It surprises people when I explain how audio may be more important than the quality of their video.  But it's painfully obvious when we sit together and watch a barely discernable presentation.

Watching a poorly lit video, or even one with harsh backlighting, is doable if the audio is outstanding.

Try it some time.  Watch a few tutorial videos where the presenter obviously has some sort of headset where he or she is practically spitting into the mic.  You hear every bad breath sound and can practically smell what was for lunch.  Or one where the presenter is talking from across the room.  The viewer turns up the volume only to hear a toilet flushing in the background.

The thing about video with horrible audio is that you can look away or become distracted from the visual cues, but the crappy noises permeate the air.

One super-easy fix is to treat your camcorder like a mic.  Hold it close -- within 2-3 feet from your mouth.  I know it sounds counter productive, but you have to stop treating your consumer-grade gear like it's top-of-the-line TV news gear.  You probably don't have a shotgun mic or lav mic, right?

Believe me, ENG gear takes a lot of practice to tune and adjust -- and it really is quite expensive to own and maintain.  Photojournalists have to work in some of the most challenging situations.  And that is the key.  If you don't present a challenge to your cheap gear, you'll have much better luck.  Try to create ideal situations for your video shoots, where audio is clear and decisive.

One step back on this topic: shaky video is hard to handle too, but we've covered that topic thoroughly in previous posts.

The courageous among the 2012 GOP contenders

By some measures, the 2012 republican presidential line-up has been set, and but for the primaries have staked their claim on the White House.

Despite the media's bombardment of polling data, it's traditionally too early to tell who will lead the pack during the actual election year and some of today's shining stars are likely to be flushed after Iowa's Straw Pole next month.

This is my second season shooting (with a camcorder, mind you) interviews of right-leaning candidates at WHO Radio, arguably the most identifiable radio station in the largest population center of the first-in-the-nation state of Iowa. This is where the momentum begins for every President elected in modern times.

So it matters who shows up for the party. And while my list is growing almost by the day, a few high profile nomination seekers are conspicuously absent.

If history is the best predictor of the future, then establishing a good ground game here with a personable appearance on WHO's "Mickelson in the Morning" by this point in the season -- like John McCain did in 2008 and George W Bush did in 2000 -- is the key to the convention floor.

To date I've met Rick Santorum, Tim Pawlenty, Roy Moore, Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and, as of yesterday, George Pataki. Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have bypassed the show altogether. The foregone conclusion for the latter frontrunners is failure.

UPDATE -- (Aug. 11, 2011) Former Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared with Simon Conway at the Iowa State Fair Wednesday.

Sarah Palin has become the Lady Gaga of politics; a professional celebrity with decent fundraising appeal. She would only hurt her credibility by having an authentic conversation with the Midwest's influential GOP leadership listening.

Mitt Romney is still licking wounds received in the 2008 wringer and isn't even bothering bringing his marbles to Iowa this time. His political baggage is heavy and his slick persona is not well received.

Newt Gingrich is seen as someone whose only aim is to burnish his brand, and thereby bolstering negotiating position, for better consulting gigs.

Pataki in Iowa

Former New York Governor George Pataki has been spending some time in Iowa and some are wondering if he's running for President.  WHO Radio's Jan Mickelson is one of them.

Microblogging for business - keep it about customers

If all you do is tell followers what you're selling, then customers stop paying attention.  You can always improve your tweets & status updates by changing the focus from today's special on the menu to a special moment with customers, like photos from an event (preferably one that's related to your business over your nephew's ballgame).

Burying the coupon code and saying something about a recent winner up front is more interesting.  Get the pitch in, but compelling or interesting factoids make you more of a friend than a "pitch person".

Ron Paul says US should declare bankruptcy

Last month Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) told Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson that the fix for the US debt crisis is to default on its debts as a way to save $1.7 trillion in interest payments -- effectively filing for bankruptcy -- and advance bond investments. Of course he also mentioned that we, like Greece, could see rioting in the streets by people losing their federal entitlements. "We're not immune from that," the 2012 GOP Presidential Candidate told Mickelson.

Does Romney have the integrity to be President?

By August of '07, Former Massachusetts Governor W. Mitt Romney had attended more than 200 campaign events in Iowa as he appeared to lead the pack in the '08 GOP run-up, according to a statement during an interview with a radio host in Des Moines.

"As you know, I enjoy getting together with Iowans all across the state." the candidate said in response to Jan Mickelson's final on-air question.  But the answer didn't fit Mickelson's query at all, which was actually an invitation to join him on the radio again, but for more than the eight minute heated discussion that ensued over whether Romney could reconcile his stance on abortion with his religion.

All about being a Mormon
"I'm happy to talk about my faith," says Gov. Romney multiple times while on the campaign trail.  But that doesn't square with his repeated theme in this interview, which is, "I'm not here to talk about Mormonism."  "No, I'm not running as a Mormon and I get a little tire of coming on a show like yours and having it be all about Mormonism..."

When former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee surged in the polls, many felt it was because of concerns over Romney's mormonism.  So Romney rethought whether he needed to address religion, and subsequently made a high profile Kennedy-esque speech on the matter.

The "hidden camera"
"I get intense," the presidential hopeful told then CBS anchor Katie Couric when asked whether there was a time when the governor got angry.  Romney went on to give an example of the recent radio interview where the host had hidden a camera in the console.  You'll have to evaluate that for yourself.

Mitt Romney has shown he can play facts rather loosely at times, such as when he told us his father had walked with Rev. Martin Luther King, which, of course, was demonstrated to be untrue.  That claim was later characterized as a figure of speech.

Are Podcasts bad for Radio?

WTEM announced it would begin embargoing their Podcasts for 24-hours after the corresponding shows air -- essentially erecting a pay wall, according to the story on NTS. If you follow this thread, you begin to realize there's a huge under-appreciation for compelling local digital content amid fears of a declining traditional audience.

And that seems to be the mentality.  Indy radio notable Jerry Lee ended WBEB's streaming because he sees it as a bad business model.  While I agree with the revenue challenges in digital, I think Lee misses the boat and is doing a disservice to his industry by rationalizing an inability to articulate a successful sales pitch to sell a valuable product.   My response:

Jerry presumes it's not possible to sell enough advertising to support the platform, and I would have to ask, "why not?"

There's a real and growing audience in streaming, so to feign failure in digital is to fail in sales. Radio is a culture that refuses to graduate to modern CRM facilities, so with virtually no order automation, $10 spots carry hefty cost of sales; our sale-by-appointment mentality cannot sustain digital.

In fact, many successful broadcasters are commanding $35 CPM for online video, says Brian Benedik, president of Katz 360, in a conversation he had recently with media consultant Mark Ramsey. The advertising agency predicts the real growth area will be on the local level where traditional media really needs to communicate the value of the digital audience.  Benedik sees the trends first hand, so his vantage point should be something direct marketers should appreciate.

It's easy to find stories of account executives coming back from client meetings and reporting buyers still don't understand the cost-benefits of partnering in the digital spaces.  Those clients and prospects see themselves as media savvy, many having a keen understanding of audience measurements and targeting.  They are paying attention, but are they provided valid data?  They aren't if they're not discussing Podcasting and online video that's significant and growing fast -- and available to advertisers right now.

Ironically, Iowa has seen amazing success stories within the radio sphere, regularly producing digital CPM rates of $10 and often as high as $50.  That's what happens when you have personal relationships with the buyers that runs deeper than the rhetoric we're reading in ad pubs.

Building and growing those trust relationships with local direct customers, educating them, making sure they understand the weaknesses of old-fashioned ratings models so that they don't step over customers in pursuit of archaic ratings, seems like a pretty important thing to be talking about in sales meetings in every market.

I think it was Roy Williams who taught us that it's not the size of the audience that matters as much as super-selling the audience you can afford.  This is, I think, where partnering with local digital content can be a critical foothold for bourgeoning small businesses, the nation's economic engine.

CF City Council to residents: Hand over the keys!

The city council of Cefar Falls, Iowa is on its second of three readings before it casts a final vote on a law that requires commercial properties to supply keys to the city government.  It's my understanding that the revised ordinance may also require owners of residential rental property to also provide access.

Not having the ordinance in front of me and not being a constitutional scholar, it's hard for me to pass judgment, but I was stunned watching council meeting highlights.  It leaves me wondering from where they think they get the power to control the citizens, for whom it works.


Handing over your keys seems like giving wholesale compulsory consent, implied forfeiture of liberty.  It's CF residents'  & business owners' job to call BS on this.

One of the council members said, "The merits of an idea do not depend on the number of people who hold that idea".  I agree with this, which is why our founders decided against a democracy where we're all indentured to a misinformed majority and where mob rules apply.

I whole-heartedly disagree with the councilman who said "[the council has] the right..."  No.  The council has a responsibility to the people; in a constitutional republic the people have a right to have their interests represented by the elected body, and it shall consider and respect the reasonable will of the people.  The council's will, for the sake of convenience, should not trump the will of the people.

Maddow on Santorum on Weiner

I can appreciate MSNBC's Rachel Maddow when she articulates a subject and can call BS when it's due, but she loses me when she predicates an entire segment on a false premise.

Here she is telling us that Sen. Rick Santorum said Rep. Anthony Weiner should resign.


But that's not what the former PA Senator said -- if you can recognize the difference between saying what you would do and telling someone else what they should do. In fact, Mr. Santorum has been pretty explicit about the distinction -- and made it when he visited Des Moines Friday.

What's wrong with your video?

With so much video floating around, it's easy to be tempted to put some of your own out there. And a lot of business professionals have a pretty good reason to make video part of their marketing strategy. It can't be terribly complicated, right?

Somehow, $10,000 later, your videos aren't quite what you had invisioned. They sound terrible, the lighting isn't right and there's some jerking while panning and zooming.

Notice my first observation was bad sound. That seems to be the first thing we notice about bad video, which seems counter intuitive, but true. It's also the first thing the beginner shooter neglects. And unfortunately the fix often means a new camera or expensive audio recording gear (and an editing nightmare). The reason the audio isn't clear is because you're using the built-in microphone on the camcorder. So the camcorder becomes the mic, meaning for best results, you would have to hold the camera as if it were a mic. In that way, you capture the subject as the most prevelent source. But that makes for some extreme close-ups that would make even the most beautiful subject nervous.

The better solution is to start with a camcorder that has a microphone input. With that, you can choose a long wired mic or a wireless system for $20 to $200 (and up).

The next issue is lighting. The most common problem with poorly lit subjects is that the camcorder struggles with more light behind the object it's shooting than on the subject itself. For between $150 & $200 you can buy a professional softbox light that will give your star enough illumination to be clear and have nice color. Avoid shooting in front of windows indoors.

Finally, the jerky pans can be eliminated through creative technic and/or better stabilizing equipment. A handheld shooter should have a good grip on the camcorder, tuck in his or her elbows, find a shot and hold it as steady as possible. Operate with the zoom all the way out so you minimize the magnified motion. Try to reduce panning whenever possible. And the best answer here is to buy a professional tripod, like a Monfrotto, for $200 and up.

What you should walk away knowing about shooting good video is to create the ideal situation for your camacorder instead of settling on shooting in challenging situations. Given adequate sound, light and technique, even consumer camcorders can do a pretty amazing job.

With these tips, I can make a better video for $600 than others who have spent $10,000.

What's with my neighborhood?

Crime seems to love my neighborhood, especially police chases.  This is the second one that sped by my house in the past year, but the fourth that I know of to flee through my neighborhood.  There was also a wanted person being retrieved across the street and a murder six blocks away this month.