Zooming and Screen Resolution

[johnneumann]

The standard definition on YouTube is 480.

I don't know what definition my old Sony PD-150 gives ... I'm just a hobbyist, so I don't go too deep into that stuff.

I want to create some talking head videos of myself to put on YouTube. I thought I would shoot the whole talk from the waist up, then during editing I could create some visual variety by cutting back and forth between the full screen (waist up) and a close-up at about chest-up.

On a DVD, I know that would be horribly unacceptable. You don't have to zoom too much before an image breaks apart on a TV. But on YouTube ... would the viewer be able to tell it wasn't a two-camera shoot?

Again, I have an old PD-150, not an HD camera. I imagine with an 1080 HD camera, edited in HD, I would have resolution to spare. I don't have that luxury.

Does anyone know what I can expect?

-JOHN

[TimKennelly]

John,

That significant a zoom will look really bad shot with a standard definition cam like the PD-150 and I wouldn't recommend it.

I'd just get a little creative in the shoot rather than trying to electronically hack some fake changes in post.

You want to variety shots do some b-roll of tight shots of objects of interest in the setting, some charts or pictures that correspond to the topic of discussion, shoot some over the shoulder shots just before and/or after your talking time that won't show your mouth so you can insert them without concern of lipsync, shoot some staged tight shots of some of your natural hand/arm gestures that you can again insert at the point you do them in the real talk at wide angle.

Same if you are using any props like a book or something, shoot the action of picking it up or pointing to it real tight in pre or post for lip sync free insert use.

If this is just you talking, just stop, zoom in or reposition the cam between natural stopping points and you can eliminate the down time of you getting up and getting back into the scene and no one will no there was any breaks in the action.

[johnneumann]

Thank you, Tim. You saved me a bunch of time figuring this out with trial and error.

I appreciate the reply.

-JOHN