Whenever you shoot video footage—with your cell phone, your iPad, or a professional video camera—the result is saved in a specific file format (the three-letter tag after the period in a filename). Confusingly, there are a multiple video formats available, including .MOV, .FLV, and .MP4. This is analogous to the situation with digital pictures where two of the most popular file formats are .JPG and .GIF, and there are dozens of lesser-known tags.
Many lawyers dipping their toes into video production are understandably confused by these different file formats—and even more so when they learn that different video platforms (the iPad, YouTube, your law firm's website) may require different coding formats. What's more, you may want to incorporate various video sources into a single video clip on your law firm's website (for example, video you shot with a handheld camera as well as a clip provided by your local news station). In this case, you will have to convert one or both of the sources into a single video encoding format, since a given video can only be saved in one format.
If you're daunted by the prospect of juggling .WMVs, .MOVs and .MP4s, call the experts at Gearshift for a free consultation. We'll make sure your law firm's videos are properly encoded, so they can be enjoyed by the widest audience possible.