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A videographer prepares to shoot while a park ranger practices her lines.

Online Roving Ranger Videos

In February of 2007, Yellowstone National Park launched their initial online video & podcast series. One of those features, Inside Yellowstone, is a series of short talks that were written and presented by Interpretive Park Rangers. If you are intested in producing similar videos for your park, this site will tell you how to do it.

QUICKLINKS:

iTunes Icon for Inside Yellowstone Videos
The Online Roving Ranger Video Series

NEW - Recommended Equipment for ORR Video Production (39K pdf)

NPS CMS Manual with Audio, Video, & Podcasting Instructions

8 - 15 Post Production

Your ability to follow through on the post production portion of this manual will depend greatly on your understanding of the Adobe Premiere video editing program. While I used Apple’s Final Cut Pro (FCP) to do my editing, the NPS decision to support only PC systems and programs makes FCP an impractical solution for most NPS units. Therefore, I recommend studying Adobe Premiere and I will do the same. If we meet in class, I hope you know more than me about the program.

The best way to learn the functions of a wide variety of programs is through the Lynda.com series of online software training videos. You can learn a great deal about all the programs that will make your life easier in video production. If you plan to follow through with NPS ORR video training that may be offered in the future, prepare yourself by learning the basics of these programs, in this order.

Adobe Premiere - video editing
Adobe After Effects - video special effects
Adobe Photoshop - still image editing
Adobe Illustrator - vector art creation and editing (for adapting maps)

You can look at training programs samples at Lynda.com free of charge. If you decide to join for one month, to use the all of their training programs, you can buy it for merely $25. Once you see how valuable it is, you will very likely decide to join for a year at a very reasonable rate of only $250. Buying the higher priced offering with extra training materials is usually not necessary. At least it hasn’t been for me. If I am successful in setting up service-wide training in ORR video production, this Lynda.com training series will be available to one user in each NPS unit free of charge. Whether I am successful or not, Lynda.com is a great way to learn a wide variety of programs.

When you get to the Lynda.com web page, click on Free Sample Training in the left column. Then after reviewing a couple training sessions, you can decide if you will be able to learn well through that type of training. If so, give it a try for a month.

I am not affiliated with Lynda.com in any way. My unsolicited endorsement comes from the value I have personally gained by attending their online training sessions.

THERE’S A LOT MORE COMING, STAY TUNED!!

This web site is being created in my off-duty hours so I can't promise regular updates but I will do my best to keep the ball rolling.

Tom Cawley
Online Roving Ranger Video Production
tom@rovingranger.com

© 2007 Tom Cawley