>> CUTTS: Okay, so some folks have asked, "Hey, how do you make these videos? Is it
a really big production? Does it cost a lot of money? And the answer is that it really
doesn't cost a lot of money at all. So in order to show you a little bit behind the
scenes, I thought we take our flip camera and sort of say hello to Wysz. So why don't
I come around and tell us a little bit about what's going on here, you know? First, introduce
yourself, Wysz. >> WYSZOMIERSKI: Oh, yeah. I'm Michael Wyszomierski.
I post as Wysz in the help forum, and also write for the blog and do these videos. And
it's pretty much what I do. >> CUTTS: Fantastic. Very cool.
>> WYSZOMIERSKI: Yeah, this equipment--it's, you know, is a very low, low budget production
here. This is just a canon HD camera. >> CUTTS: Cool.
>> WYSZOMIERSKI: I was actually on vacation the other month, and my mother's friend pulled
out her video camera. It was the same exact model.
>> CUTTS: Excellent. >> WYSZOMIERSKI: And she was saying, "Do you
think this is a good camera?" And I was like, "Well, we, you know, use it to make these
YouTube videos that get, you know, thousands of views from webmasters all over the world,
so I think it's all right. >> CUTTS: So it's not too expensive. How much
would you say it cost? >> WYSZOMIERSKI: It's in, like, the thousand
dollar range. >> CUTTS: Okay.
>> WYSZOMIERSKI: And we bought this, you know, more--maybe about a year ago. And so, I'm
sure you can find something cheaper now. This one runs on tape. They have ones that record
on hard drives now. >> CUTTS: Cool.
>> WYSZOMIERSKI: Which make the process even faster, and you don't need to pay for tapes.
>> CUTTS: Uh-huh. Well, it looks like you got something on top of this.
>> WYSZOMIERSKI: Yes, this is our wireless microphone receiver.
>> CUTTS: Oh. >> WYSZOMIERSKI: This is actually a dual receiver,
so we can do interviews with two different microphones and then separate the audio later.
But the whole audio setup is only probably a couple of hundred bucks. We just got the
cheapest ones available. Always good with the resources at Google.
>> CUTTS: Now, you've got some headphones here too, are these expensive fancy schmancy
headphones? >> WYSZOMIERSKI: Yeah, these are just the
headphones I use with of my computer. I just grabbed one before I come into the room.
>> CUTTS: Okay. >> WYSZOMIERSKI: And, yeah, I picked these
up at like at BestBuy one day. >> CUTTS: Uh-huh.
>> WYSZOMIERSKI: And, yeah, that's pretty much it for the, for the hardware.
>> CUTTS: So now, how do you actually edit these videos together? What's the software
look like? >> WYSZOMIERSKI: I use Final Cut Pro. It's
a Mac-only-program, but--and they have, it's kind of, first, kind of expensive. It's in
like thousand dollar range again. But they do have an express version which is, you know,
more in the couple of hundred dollar range. >> CUTTS: Okay.
>> WYSZOMIERSKI: I think every Mac comes with iMovie which is completely free.
>> CUTTS: Right, right. >> WYSZOMIERSKI: Where you can actually do,
you know, videos like we do, you can probably do most of that for free. And I think Microsoft
has its equivalents. There's, like, Windows Movie Maker and things like that. And, you
know, just search online, you can probably find some good stuff too.
>> CUTTS: Very cool. >> WYSZOMIERSKI: Yeah.
>> CUTTS: Now, a few people have commented about on the quality of the videos on YouTube
like they are in High-def, right? >> WYSZOMIERSKI: They are. They--we're actually
recording in full HD. >> CUTTS: How you get the high quality on
YouTube? >> WYSZOMIERSKI: So we don't have to actually
do anything. Actually that's kind of a key to it is when you upload to YouTube; don't
try to do any compression yourself or anything like that. Just upload the highest quality
you can, and then, you know, let Google servers take care all of the compression and transcoding
and all of that. >> CUTTS: Yeah.
>> WYSZOMIERSKI: And it'll generate a mobile version, a low bandwidth version. And then
for people who have the bandwidth, they can watch it in HD. We actually started uploading
an HD before YouTube even launched that feature. And then one day, they just kind of turned
it on, and then there's an HD version available. >> CUTTS: So you got it for free whenever
they upgrade it. >> WYSZOMIERSKI: Yeah. Yeah.
>> CUTTS: Excellent. Well, it doesn't look like it's that hard. You basically got it
all set up. How long does it take you to make a given video like cut it together and all
that sort of stuff. >> WYSZOMIERSKI: Just a few hours, you know.
I'm editing in slides, but if it's just somebody sitting down and talking, it pretty much happens
in real time. >> CUTTS: Excellent. Very cool. Well, thanks
for the tour behind the scenes and showing us what--what happens to make a video at Google.
>> WYSZOMIERSKI: Yeah, sure. >> CUTTS: Great.
>> WYSZOMIERSKI: Thanks, Matt.