This is how we make the videos for Mexico Movies. On this page, we’re going to describe the equipment we use, in case you are wondering. I’ve often wondered what other cameras, programs, etc, other videobloggers use, so I decided to let you know what I use to make the videos we put up on Mexico Movies.

The Cameras

The main camcorder that I like to use is the Canon ZR85 mini DV camcorder. It takes the best video out of the two cameras we have, and we use a firewire input to put the video on the computer to edit or upload. I’m still learning a lot of the features of the camera, but generally it’s easy to use. I also bought a camera light for it because indoor shots are usually very dark.

The second camera I use is the Kodak EasyShare DX7630. It takes unlimited Quicktime video directly to the SD card (based on the size of the card). I use this camera when I need to upload something fast or when I don’t feel like lugging the camcorder. It works okay for quick, lower quality videos that I can just compress and then upload to the internet. I can’t zoom when recording (unless I physically move closer to the subject).

Editing
Once the video is on the computer, I will generally do a little bit of editing on it. Sometimes, I don’t edit it at all. It depends on what I’m trying to do. If you don’t have a videoblog because you think you don’t know how to edit video, don’t let that stop you. You don’t even have to edit the video in order to have a good vlog. I do edit most of the time. I will at least put a tag line at the end of the video so if someone sees it using an aggregator they will know where it came from and hopefully visit the site.

The editing program that I mainly use is Windows Movie Maker. I only use this program because it was free on my computer and I don’t have the money to buy what I really want to use: Sony Movie Studio. Movie Maker is simple and easy to use. Anyone could learn it just by messing around a little. I generally save the videos I will put on the web as a “High Quality Video.” Large or small depends on how big I want the file to be. Usually, I save it as a high quality large file. This makes it a .wmv file that is easily playable on Windows based computers.

Music
If I am going to include music in my videos as I am editing, I try to find some good music from ccmixter.org, a great Creative Commons website full of searchable music. There are other places to get music that is usable. I can’t list them all here, but you should always try to give credit to the artist for their work.

More to come soon…