I shoot and edit corporate video for the web. That’s what people ask me to do. I film narrative, documentary and broadcast, of course, but most of the time, people think of me when they want nice cinematic corporate video for the web.
You can watch some of my publicly viewable work (a small subset alas) on my business website here, and a collection of examples on my ‘what I do’ page.
Generally, I’m working with a Producer or content owner. I also engage a number of associates (who are also dear friends) who also shoot and edit, though some specialise more in one discipline. We’ve worked together for a decade or more with a strong trust and an intimate understanding of what our type of filming requires.
As a group, our clients include agencies as well as end clients – frequently joining their larger team involved in event production. A sort of plug-in video production service working in close conjunction with their other departments.
You can find what amounts to an online CV through my Linked-In presence.
I frequent three main forums for support, advice and therapy. DVinfo.net, DVXuser.com and the Philip Bloom forum, where I’m also an administrator.
Travelling Matt 
Matt- love your blog and thanks for your last response to my question about encoding. Let me ask you this- to your knowledge does anyone still shoot in Standard Def and is there any reason at all to still be shooting in SD? One of my editors mentioned that it doesn’t matter if you’re shooting for web since you have to take out so much digital info anyway in the conversion… Thanks, Leigh
Well, YouTube HD is better than BBC’s FreeView, so we shouldn’t think of the web as being a ‘poor country-hick cousin’ to broadcast – quite the opposite, in fact.
Very few videographers I know have shot SD in the past twelve months.
All the event video teams I work with (who do stadium events, concerts and so on) are still doing SD at BetaSP quality (not DigiBeta), and that’s all they need and all they’re being paid for.
Shooting for the web should be done in HD, and I would personally recommend 720p for that. YouTube does it, Vimeo does it, it’s the top of the tree for web content, and better than broadcast Standard Def.
PAL can deliver 1024×576 in square pixel, which is the golden size for iPad, but really – not exactly a major market. Google TV deserves to be big – any YouTube content at proper HD. That’s where web video meets broadcast.
Broadcasters need such high quality because of the losses incurred in actually broadcasting a signal. I’ve seen Digibeta reduced to pea soup on the way from a full on 4:2:2 shoot to the little screen stuck to the back of a plane’s economy seat. I’ve seen DV reduced to pea soup by an uncomfortable path to broadcast on the ‘Freeview’ digital broadcast network in the UK. I’ve seen HDV look like digital video embroidery on the BBC’s test transmissions of HD. Broadcasting is bad for pictures.
It makes web delivery look so much better (when done correctly). Can’t wait to see it easily and quickly on my big home screen!
So shoot progressive, shoot 720p (the web HD standard), in my humble opinion. 4:3 is dead for the future, it’s been proven than downsampled HD looks better than SD in all but the most expensive of setups, and clever downsampling can only do good to formats like HDV and AVCHD and lesser lenses found on cheaper cameras.
Just as a follow-up:
We should all be shooting AT LEAST in 1080p HD, no interlace. Interlace is gone.
Even 720p is pretty much history.
As far as origination goes, we should be moving towards 4K. Not necessarily in 2013-2014, as we’re still in the ‘HDV’ phase. But if you’re shooting HD NOW, with an eye for the future, you must (MUST) shoot 10 bit, and at 4:2:2. We’re still delivering 8 bit 4:2:0 now, but that will change over the next 4-6 years.
Creating a show reel in 2014 is a sober reflection that all 720p stuff now looks soft. Creating a showreel in 2014 from 2009 cameras reminds you of the importance of having noise reduction plug-ins. The ‘video’ look has gone, the ‘DSLR’ look is going. We want clean, well exposed, noise free and now ‘Wide Dynamic Range’ compressed highlights and shadows.
Hey there matt my comment is different than the others I did not see a contact page so thought I would post it here,
I was thinking of buying the rode
procaster and that needs I guess a ton of gain in the 50-60 db of gain
people are saying. I would be using it for only voice-overs and have
been trying to figure out what audio interface usb pre-amp would go well
with it with no hiis or noise and have enough gain possibly. I was looking into the behrenger cm22 U-Phoria are they a good brand
usually? The guy said it goes up to 110 db of gain supposedly. One
reviewer on amazon though said the sound was not really the greatest,
so i am stumped of what to get. I am also looking for a good warrenty
as I do not want something to crap out in a year or 2 and sol. the
behringer has a 3 year warrenty does any pre-amp u know have something
like that possibly?
You were saying fro ma forum you had your plugged into a Edirol UA25? How does the sound qulaity sound from that external sound card pre-amp when monitoring it and such? Any latency hiss or noise from it? Everyone is telling me or from reviews to get a scarlett or the forte from focusrite but there products are expensive.
All of this is really new to me I have only recorded in usb mics not
really of the mxl mics.
Anyway maybe you could tell me of this it would help me out a lot it has been giving me a headache trying to figure this out.
Sean
Hey Matt,
I am still using my old 2011 MBP. I only use it on photography trips to transfer photos from Cf card to hard drive. As I only use it 4 or 5 times a year I am having a hard time justifying the cost of a new MBP only to use it a few weeks out if the year.
On my last trip to Africa I took 32,000 images over 9 days. I am sick of staying up all night losing sleep just to empty my CF cards to my MBP.
I am at a crossroad!! Either find a way to get working USB 3 on my current MB or buy a new one!! I have had it with USB2 and its slow speed!! I have to empty 3 or 4 – 64 GB cards each night and then when thats done copy all files to a external HD for backup while I am sleeping.
Wondering if your Caldigit is working with the newest version of yosemite and what kind if speeds your getting. 100 MBs would be great!!!