Twitter has introduced Periscope, a new app that lets you share and experience live video from your mobile phone.

The brief blurb on the Periscope website reads…

“Just over a year ago, we became fascinated by the idea of discovering the world through someone else’s eyes. What if you could see through the eyes of a protester in Ukraine? Or watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon in Cappadocia? It may sound crazy, but we wanted to build the closest thing to teleportation. While there are many ways to discover events and places, we realised there is no better way to experience a place right now than through live video. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around.”

Simple enough? Sure!

But it appears that battle lines have being drawn in the fight for market dominance of video live-streaming on smartphones.

Fast-rising rival Meerkat, was hit earlier this month when Twitter cut their access to some features which could limit its ability to grow.

The same day Twitter announced the new app, Meerkat announced it had raised $US14 million in venture funding, and founder Ben Rubin was unfazed by the Twitter announcement describing Periscope as “a very slick product, a very beautiful product” and expressing his view that there is room for multiple players in live video.

“If you have a good idea and you don’t think there’s 10 other smart teams working on it already, then you don’t have a good idea,” he says.

Meerkat announced in a blog post recently that the funding round participants included Greylock Partners, Comcast Ventures, Entree Capital, Raine Ventures, Sherpa, Slow Ventures, Universal Music Group, “and many awesome friends like (actor) Jared Leto, (investor) David Tisch and (YouTube co-founder) Chad Hurley”.

The funding certainly has star power as well with participation from the United Talent Agency (UTA) which represents Hollywood actors and Sound Ventures, which includes the actor Ashton Kutcher.

“We aspire to become the most comprehensive and most impactful participatory live streaming community,” Meerkat’s blog says.

Meerkat has certainly become a key political tool in recent weeks, with Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush “meerkatting” his speech last week before Georgia’s state legislature.

“Every minute — literally every minute — of every day of the campaign will be available live to anyone who wants it, no matter where they are,” Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, wrote in a column.

The Meerkat numbers are quite astounding with the app surpassing the 300,000 user mark a couple of weeks after launching with around 230 per cent daily growth.

Commercial uses for Meerkat-like apps are also likely. Because video has a stronger impact than other content, apps like Periscope and Meerkat have an opportunity to change social media forever and make a big impact on digital marketing.

Meerkat community director, Ryan Cooley believes the tech company intends to be increasingly responsive to brand marketers’ needs as time progresses, but for now, it doesn’t want to lose its democratic appeal to consumers.

“It’s only 30-days old, so we don’t want to create a premature hierarchy within the platform,” he says.

“We want to make sure the core experience is the best we can make it for everyone. It’s going to be a product for the people, whether you have 40 Twitter followers or 18 million followers.”

Wow what a ride in just a few weeks, and with the arrival of Periscope it promises to be even more eventful.

The post Up Periscope – the epic battle between Meerkat and Twitter’s newest app. appeared first on Stories Well Told.

Here’s a guide to finding sound effects online – and how to create your own.

So, you’ve shot some great images for your video. Fantastic! How’s the sound?

It’s easy to forget about sound when you’re filming, and some locations make it very tricky to get good sound, even if you’re a gun filmmaker. But it’s worth taking a little time to think about what sound can add to your film, and how you can improve the sound during your shoot and edit.

Why?

Good sound design will make your audience connect with your film in a more visceral, emotional way. Try watching an action film or horror movie with the sound turned down. Or watch this video, which demonstrates how the mood and meaning of the same video image is totally transformed by the choice of sound.

The sound of a great movie

Music is a great way to pull your shots together, and give your video the right feeling and energy.  Our article on how to source music shows you how to find out where to find music that you can use for free. But before you throw out all the natural sounds and turn your video into a music montage, consider adding just a few sound effects or ambient sounds and mixing them in with music.

To help get you thinking, watch these films from ABC Open, and think about how sound makes them stronger:

• The sounds of the road house, edited in a jump-cut style in this video, make you feel like you’re right there, soaking up the early morning energy.
• Both the music and the natural sounds get their own chance to take the lead in this story set in a boxing gym.
• Listen for the subtle use of sound in this story – the sound of paper rustling in the time lapse, and passing traffic later on – work together with the music to give a sense of the languid energy of a book exchange in a small town.

Record your own sounds

Even if most of the sound on your video is pretty ordinary, see if there are any good sounds in there. Close-up shots are more likely to have good sound, as the mic was closer to the subject. Remember, you don’t always have to use the sync sound that goes with the image.

While you’re shooting, think about a few simple sounds that might add to the story (eg footsteps, the sound of your car horn or the doors slamming, the rustle of your road map (if you still use a paper map!) or your potato chips. You can record these on your video camera (make sure you get the mic nice and close), but you may find you get a better result with an audio app on your smart phone.

Find sounds online

If you type ‘free’ and ‘sound’ into a search engine, you’ll find there are plenty of sites with sound effects that you’re free to use. Lots of them have great sounds, but the best site by far is Freesound. The catalogue is vast and easy to search.

Get to know these symbols and organisations and what they mean….

If you are looking for music, video, writing, code, or other creative works you can search through sources like Google and Flickr through Creative Commons

Look out for the Share Alike license – you should only use this if you’re happy to share whatever you create under the same license.

No Derivatives means you can’t alter the original work, which won’t work if you want to edit the sound into your video.

Watch out for sounds that are clearly not from Australia. Birds can be a real giveaway – seagulls and crows sound completely different in the northern hemisphere. And make sure you can’t hear any background voices with foreign accents.

If you’ve used someone’s sound, send them a link to your finished video. They’ll get a kick out of seeing how their sound’s been used, and you’ve just found another viewer for your video as well.

Share your sounds

If you’ve found some great sounds online, and recorded a few of your own too, why not share the love?

Set yourself up with an account on Freesound and share any great sounds that you’ve recorded. Make sure to add plenty of tags, and a description of the sound to make it easy for other people to find.

Remember, if you’ve got great sound, you’re half way to a great film.

The post Bring your videos to life with sound appeared first on Stories Well Told.

You can record audio on your camera, your phone, or you may have a recorder that you’d like to use.

Whichever method you plan to use to record, test it out before you start.

Do a test recording and listen back to it. Is the recording level ok? If it’s too low, you’ll hear a hum when you boost it later; if it’s too high, it could distort. Adjust the recording level on your device if you can, or if not then adjust how close you are to your subject.

Wear headphones where possible (some recorders won’t let you monitor what you are recording, but if you can, you should). Your headphones will give you a better sense of what you are actually capturing through your microphone, not just what you are hearing with your ears. And even more importantly, you will know straight away if there is something wrong with your device – a loose cable, flat battery, or you forgot to hit record (it does happen).

TIP: To get the best sound possible, work out where the microphone is on your camera or phone and make sure it’s close to the sound you want to record.

Recording an interview

We are surrounded by sounds – passing cars, the hum of the fridge, the neighbour’s whipper snipper.

Whether you’re recording with your phone or with the best gear around, you’ll get a better result if you record in a quiet environment.

Make sure you have power. Have extra batteries or an adaptor on hand.

Think about a place where your interviewee will feel comfortable, where you won’t be interrupted and where there won’t be too much other sound.

If you’re recording outdoors, avoid windy areas. You can use your parked car as a mobile insulated audio booth if it’s too windy outside.

If you’re recording indoors, listen closely to the environment. A café is a bad place to record an interview (too much sound) and even parks can be noisier than you think. Make sure there’s no music playing in the background. Stay away from fridges and computers, and choose a space with lots of soft surfaces – carpeted floor, curtains on the windows – to reduce echo.

Importantly, if you are using your phone to record, set it to flight mode. There’s nothing worse than having a call come in mid-interview.

Before you start recording, think about the things you want to talk about, and the best way to start and finish the story.

You can record more than you plan to use, and edit the recording, but try to keep your interview focused – it’ll save you time later on.

You may want to have some notes beside you, but try not to over prepare or read your questions.

Look at the person you’re interviewing. Eye contact really helps your interviewee feel relaxed.

It’s ok to stop and start the recording if your interviewee loses track or wants to say something again. If they have missed something that you think is important or interesting, or if you’re not sure that they’ve said something clearly, don’t be afraid to ask your question again. Or if you feel like their answer is too long for you to be able to use it, ask them to answer the question again, more briefly.

TIP: When you’re filming an interview, it can be difficult to get close enough to hear the person clearly, without having the microphone in shot. If you can’t get good audio, you could try using the video portrait method.

Film 10-15 secs of the person looking at the camera, then record your audio interview separately and edit it together with your other footage later.

Recording additional sounds

Record some extra sounds to go with your story.

While your camera will record sound with your video images, often you’ll discover that the sound is poor quality – especially if you are a long way from the action or there is lots of other noise around you. You can record good quality sounds separately and add them in when you edit.

Get close: The goal is to capture the detail in a sound, distinct from all the other sounds that envelop it. And that means getting up close.

Get details: Take a moment to think about what elements of your story have interesting sounds, and try to capture as many small details as you can.

Record more than you think you need: You may feel silly poking your microphone into strange places, and your arm might be getting tired, but try to record at least a minute’s worth of each sound. Sounds shift and change over time, and recording a minute or more of each sound means you have more to choose from when you’re editing.

TIP: If you’re using a smartphone, close down all other apps on your phone. Because of radio waves the input might get noisy. Turn on airplane-mode before you start. See the Recording audio with a smartphone tip sheet for more.

The post How to make an audio recording appeared first on Stories Well Told.