Monthly Archives: June 2011

Transcript of Interview with Corel.com’s Greg Wood about what Corel is doing with their new software in the video editing space for novices through professionals.

Craig Peterson:  Welcome back to Tech Talk with Craig Peterson. We’re talking about some of the new technology out there, some stuff that’s really been improving over the years. And we’re joined right now by Greg Wood. He’s a senior product manager over at Corel, corel.com.

Now you’ve probably heard of them before. These guys were absolutely around at the beginning of some of the picture editing software. A lot of people used it and continue to use it to this day, very, very strong. Now Corel has also moved into the video editing field and has been setting some real, really setting the pace in some of these areas.

So that’s what we’re going to be talking about here, how can you as a consumer and even as a professional use some of this software to really make a big difference in your video. And by the way, as a consumer, video editing and taking videos and making good stuff is now easily within your reach.

Greg, welcome to Tech Talk with Craig Peterson.

Greg Wood:  Hi, Craig. Thanks very much.

Craig: Now let’s talk a little bit about what you guys are doing out there. Video editing has been something that’s been difficult for many people to do for a lot of years. Expensive software, you have to have those expensive cameras in order to be able to take those video pictures. Where are we at today?

Greg: And you know, the other thing is you need to have sort of some specialized knowledge release the will to go out and learn how to work with video. And that’s where things have really changed in the past year or so. And this week, we’ve really seen some really great news coming out around new chip sets.

So AMD and Intel, for example, have rolled out new chips that are really going to deliver some exceptional performance on some very moderately priced PCs. And the result of that is that all of these barriers that have held video back and maybe kept it only for those people who are really enthusiasts in video, those barriers are falling all over the place.

A couple of years ago, you know, you needed to have a camcorder. Well, now we’ve got phones in our pocket that take HD video. We’ve got PCs that are inexpensive and powerful enough to handle HD video. And finally, you don’t need to worry about burning discs anymore, and how do I make a menu or author a disc? You can easily just upload it to the web, whether that’s YouTube or Vimeo or other sites, and you can share your memories really easily.

So all of these things that held back video are gone, and that’s really cool. And I think that where Corel can add a lot of help for the consumer is that we are really focused on taking those advancements and making them simple, and making it fast and simple to make movies.

Craig: Right. And real movies, too. You can do amazing things now. This isn’t like the old eight millimeter where you might be able to splice a little bit together. Obviously what we’re talking about now, you can do all of your fades, you can put the titles on there, you can make a very professional looking movie or video with, as you pointed out, just your cell phone, with the HD video. You’ve got the flip camera…

Greg: Oh, yeah.

Craig: Very inexpensive, very easy to use HD video. But again now, what’s been missing is a lot of the software to be able to do it. So now with this new hardware at an inexpensive price that can do video, it makes it much easier to do the editing. Is that what makes a difference?

Greg: Well, I think what it does is it removes the barriers to getting in and working with video. I think video editing software has heretofore been quite difficult to use, because it hasn’t had to be easy. We knew that if you were savvy enough to get in and take video and get it captured onto your computer, then maybe you could deal with sophisticated software.

But today, because everyone can do it, there’s no excuses anymore. You have to, as a software company, address the needs of, hey, maybe my dad, who’s a senior, doesn’t want to learn how to edit video. He just wants to get in, make some cuts, remove the bad parts and then post it or something like that. We can do that now.

Video Studio’s cool because we’ve got this one-two-three interface where you go and you capture in the first phase, and then in the second phase you edit, you basically select an effect or some kind of filter and drag it over your movie clip, and then you share. And so it’s that easy. You can be as sophisticated as you want, because we’ve got a very deep feature set, but we’re really keen on, hey, let’s make it fast to crank out something that looks really good.

And then we’ll get people excited, because really at the end of the day, it’s all about your audience and that thrill or the emotion that you share when you make a movie. Because I mean, I don’t know about you, but I can’t go to a wedding these days without seeing a slideshow.

Craig: Right.

Greg: And that’s a great example of where Video Studio can be really handy. You don’t need to be an expert or a pro videographer. You can just be anybody. Bring your video in and make something that looks good.

Craig: And that’s real video, too, not just like a PowerPoint presentation that we see so often with the basic slideshows. Where are you seeing the biggest increase in your market here? Are we seeing kids, teenagers, adults, mom, dad?

Greg: Two places. I mean, there’s always been a long… There’s a long history of the video enthusiasts, your people who love making movies. They know who they are. They have a grasp of storytelling and they want to capture life in motion.

That’s an established group for us.

Multimedia Enthusiasts

But the two customers that we really get excited about is, I mean, this is really… We call them the technical name, multimedia enthusiasts. But the reality is, all those families out there, and I include myself in this group who’ve picked up a DSLR in the past few years and have been using that, they’re also using video and they have the tools to take it. And they just need the software to help them unlock that video they’ve got sitting on their camera.

Craig: Right.

Greg: We don’t want it to sit there anymore. We want to put it to work. So that’s one.

The second one, and I’m super excited about this, is kids. And kids today, video is their language. And they use YouTube, they use Skype to communicate. They’re used to texting and they’ve got the phones in their pockets to take the media.

And video, they may be familiar with from doing school projects, where video can be an amazing learning tool because it teaches everything from literacy to storytelling to critical thought and orderly thought, because you’ve got to plan out how this project’s going to come together.

Craig: Sure.

Greg: And also though, it’s just pure fun to put these projects together. So a good example is you could make a stop-motion movie by taking a bunch of pictures with maybe LEGO characters or clay toys or whatever, and you can spend a rainy afternoon making a movie rather than sitting in front of the TV or gaming the whole time. And it’s a really productive way to spend your time, too, as a parent. My kids, I’m like I’d much rather have them doing that than blowing something up on a video game.

Craig: Right.

Greg: And they don’t… I don’t think they realize they’re having fun. So that’s pretty cool.

Craig: Now Greg, we’re looking out here on the floor and there’s dozens and dozens of small companies out here. Many of them have displays here in their booth. They’re displaying some sort of a video, and some of them are better than some of the others. Is this something that the small business community could use in order to start making some of this video? I know that Google, for instance, ranks sites higher that have video content on them. Is this something that we’re starting to see small business use?

Using Video for Small Business

Greg: Oh, 100 percent, Craig. You know, video is extremely powerful for small business because it’s such a great way to explain your product and the value of your product to customers.

So for example, if I owned a toy store or something like that, I could easily show you a toy of the week video rather than saying, “Here, here’s our specials,” you know what I mean? All of a sudden it’s interactive and you can put a RSS feed on the video so when someone updates the video, you’ll let all your subscribers know.

Also it’s an exceptional tool for product support. So if you’ve got a product that needs some explanation or you’re getting calls because your product, you know, “Well, hey…” You have a commonly asked question. Yeah, an FAQ is always great on the website.

Craig: Right.

Greg: You’ve got a video about how to use your product or how, you know, the key problems with it or whatever. That’s a great way of explaining it, and you don’t need to take calls anymore. It’s right there on the web. And then, of course, you can answer people on Facebook or YouTube.

Craig: Sure, and you can push these videos right up as you mentioned earlier.

Greg: Yeah.

Craig: Right onto YouTube, I should say onto Vimeo, or even on your own corporate website.

Greg: Oh, absolutely, very powerful. And the cool thing about Video Studio is that focus on sharing, because really it is all about your audience when you’re making these projects. And we make it very easy to go to different sites. It’s just like, hey, shoot. You just go under the share tab and then choose where you want to send it. And if there’s no preset there or you want to do it in a specific format, you have tons of customizability there that you can just crank out your video whenever you want.

So that’s what excites me. And I mean, seeing all these hurdles to video falling and seeing people use video in exciting ways, I mean everyone’s seen the “Will It Blend?” viral videos and so forth. And even if you don’t make something that gets as broadly disseminated as that, it’s still a great, fun way to portray your business or just your own experiences.

Craig: Absolutely. Very good. We’re talking right now about Corel. You can find it online, of course, at corel.com. And more specifically, we’ve been talking about their Corel Video Studio Pro, which is the highest end product that they have. And it’s an excellent product, very easy to use. It’s designed for mom and dad or that budding Steven Spielberg who might be there in your family. Thanks for being with us today, Greg.

Greg: Thank you very much, Craig.

Craig: When we come back, we’re going to be talking more about some of the products that really are going to be changing your lives, right here on Tech Talk with Craig Peterson.