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Chapter 8 Shooting Webcam Videos 81

With that said, the lower-quality picture and sound inherent in webcam capture
lends your webcam videos a sense of immediacy; the effect is one of raw, “you are
there,” citizen journalism. The effect is also one of directness, a one-on-one com-
munication between the speaker and the viewer, with little in the way of fancy pro-
duction in between.

Figure 8.2 shows a screenshot from a webcam video I shot in my local coffeehouse.
As you can see, the raw nature of the webcam makes for a very personal effect. As
you can also see, shooting with a webcam puts you at the mercy of your environ-
ment; in this instance, a bright side light coming from a nearby window. You might
not have this problem when you’re shooting in your office, but it is something to
watch out for when shooting on the go.

Figure 8.2 A webcam video shot “in the field” at a local coffeehouse.

Webcams can capture video and audio to your hard drive, typically in AVI (Audio
Video Interleave) file format, using the software that comes with most webcam
packages. Webcams can also stream live video over the Internet, which is common
when using the webcam to chat via instant messaging or in chat rooms—but is also
useful when you want to upload videos directly from your webcam to YouTube, a
process we discuss later in this chapter.

When a Webcam Makes Sense

So, when might you want to shoot your business videos with a webcam? Let’s look
at some of the different types of videos that benefit from webcam capture.