Videoblogging Journal

Reuters, a renowned news service provider, has made a videoblog for discussing and for news in the current worldwide soccer scene. This vlog is particularly useful for people who missed viewing the games, because they can still watch some segments of it in the videoblogs. In addition, the videoblog also features discussion and commentary by the hosts, Owen Wyatt and Jon Bramley. Actually, this vlog is located in the same site as the Reuters Soccer Blog.

The latest videoblog post is about the Champions League final, between Manchester United and Chelsea. As you might know, Manchester United won in a penalty round. Chelsea loses because John Terry failed to make a goal in the penalty round. The Vlog on the Pitch hosts compared this to the failure of the English football team in the Euro 2004 final match between England and Portugal, where England loses because of a missed penalty. They noted that both match losses are caused by English footballers (John Terry in Champions League, and David Beckham in Euro 2004). This issue is discussed in the videoblog. Other interesting posts include predictions about player transfer in the new season and outlooks on future matches.

In addition, the vlog also allows us to post our comments regarding the current soccer affairs. You can view the whole blog in here, but if you only want to see the vlogs, click here. The vlog is a must for soccer fans to see and contribute to.

Videoblogging is a fun and useful thing to make and experiment with. If you would like to start your own videoblog, this site is very useful. This site, hosted in PBwiki, tells about the most important things in a videoblog, such as the equipments that you need and ways to update your videoblog. There are also some useful tips on managing your own videoblog. According to the site, these things are vital for a videoblog:

• Pick a topic and have a plan. You don’t have to plot out everything you’ll do or write out a script, but having a bunch of points to bring up or goals to accomplish will help focus your shoot.
• Bring fully charged batteries, tripod, maybe lights, enough tapes….it’s completely common sense but people, including pros, always forget. Remove the lens cover…another one people forget.
• Make sure you get good sound..sound often gets glossed over and it shouldn’t. There are plenty of options other than the microphone on the camcorder, from shotgun mics (I’ll bring in my R0DE) to wireless (I can probably bring that too) to a $25 mic from Radio Shack that gets the job done (again, I have one kicking around.)
• Locations……pick them ahead of time and don’t go to that many. You ideally want your video podcast to be pretty short, so just like in indy filmmaking, minimalism is a virtue. No-one expects you to recreate Lawrence of Arabia.
• When shooting, don’t shoot a pile of footage you don’t need….that will just mean more stuff to plow through in the editing room. Shoot it with an eye as to what you’ll need in the final edit. Make sure if you’re white balancing outside not to take the camera inside without white balancing again, and vice versa.
• If you have the option, go for manual controls over automatic. If you have more control, the image will look better.
• Make sure you’re shooting in a format you can edit later. HDV and DV can be edited..new AVCHD cameras can do it, but it’s sometimes dicey and needs a powerful computer, even though AVCHD cameras are aimed at consumers who may not have a good enough setup.
• On the internet, close ups are good, not so much motion is good, long shots lose meaning, and lots of movement still deteriorates into artifacts.

An older site, posted in December 2006, focused on the best types of cameras for use in the videoblog. Since what makes a videoblog stands out is its videos, it is a useful site to see. However, because the website is already over one year old, some of the facts may be outdated.

Nevertheless, if you are planning to start your own videoblog, both websites are very useful.