Carvin would like you to be a part of Carvin Channel. In order to ensure the highest quality video, we are providing a few helpful guidelines.
Lighting
Most consumer video cameras can have trouble with accurate color and focus in low light. Do not judge the amount of light by your eyes. Most of the time, the amount of light indoors from either sunlight or bulb may not be enough for video. It is strongly recommended that you use extra lights when shooting your video. Video will look best when you use an abundance of light provided they are of similar types of bulbs. Do not mix fluorescent light with regular bulb lights. A couple of 100w lamps can make a big improvement vs. your normal room light.
Never point your camera at a subject standing in-doors against a window or glass door with daylight. Your subject will be backlit and be in shadows. Even if your camera has a back lit setting to overcome this, do not shoot this way intentionally. Any video with poor lighting that doesn't allow the product to be seen will not be allowed on Carvin Channel.
See Fig1 for ideal lighting conditions.
If pointing a light directly at the subject is too harsh, try bouncing the light off of white walls or large white cards.
Audio
Many consumer video cameras have an 1/8" jack for an external microphone. If you are demonstrating your guitar/bass or amp, it is best to use a microphone placed close to the amplifier. If your camera is 5 ft away from the amp, your video will be picking up room reflections and improper frequency response. At a distance, your on-camera microphone may be bombarded with low frequencies. It is recommended that ALL videos submitted to Carvin Channel make an effort to use more than the on-camera microphone.
If your camera does not have an input jack for an external microphone, you may use another recording device to record your audio. Some suggestions are: tape recorder, digital recorder, computer, or any means of recording that will give you the ability to import and synchronize the audio with your video during editing.
Final Notes on shooting
Use a stand or tri-pod. If your camera has the ability to set the exposure and focus manually, please use these settings. Auto focus can look poor if the camera is struggling to focus on the subject as it moves. Get someone to help. Your videos will come out much better if you have a friend help run the camera so your focus can remain on playing your instrument.
Video Formatting
The Carvin Channel can accept most of the popular video file formats. We recommend limiting your clips to 5 mins or less. Your file size is limited to 150MB.
Here are a few encoding tips that can help optimize your video. Carvin Channel uses the Adobe Flash video player standard. Your video will look better if you upload a Flash Video File (FLV). It will remain as you encoded it and not be compressed again. We recommend the following for FLV encoding.
Bit Rate: 1500kbps video, Audio 128k. Size 347px high. Your width may vary depending on the type of video camera used.
The Widescreen Player
Carvin Channel utilizes the PHPmotion script which offers a pseudo widescreen player. Video that is formatted at 590px x 347px will display properly on Carvin Channel. Video that is not widescreen will be stretched to fill the video player. If you would like your video to display properly, you must add to the sides of your video. Set your video editing software to a widescreen 16x9 workflow and import your finished video. Your video should be centered with blank bars on the left and right. Then export your video and size it to 590px x 347px for Carvin Channel.
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