How to Pull Video Clips of Raleigh Government Meetings

Since I’ve started following Raleigh City Council in 2016 I’ve seen enthusiastic community advocates trying all sorts of ways to make video clips from Raleigh City Council meetings. Some point a cell phone camera at a computer screen to record a clip, others have painstakingly set up a camera on a tripod to line up with their TV to capture the moment they wanted. I’m here to tell you, it doesn’t have to be that way.

This post will walk you through downloading a video copy of any government meeting recorded by Raleigh Television Network (RTN), fixing it so people’s mouths actually match the audio (video/audio sync issues), and generating clips from the corrected video file.

First, and most importantly, a plea for best practices and responsible stewardship of using video to inform the general public of local Raleigh government happenings. I’m a strong supporter of the digital age and the online platforms that have given everyone a voice to quickly share information. However, I’m not blind to the fact people misuse these platforms to bend, or twist the truth to suit their message (if not outright lie). Please, if these instructions help you, follow these best practices.

1. Don’t clip the video in such a way to miss-represent what was said or discussed.
2. When possible, always show the entire discussion on a given topic.
3. Somewhere in your post, link back to the original recording, or mention the meeting title and date so others can view the entire meeting if they so desire for more information.

TL;DR for the more technically inclined. Download Handbrake, find the video you want in Granicus, download from Granicus, open video in Handbrake and choose the conversion option for “Constant Framerate” (it will be set to “Peak Framerate (VFR)”). Rename the file, and tell Handbrake to start the conversion. Take the resulting file into the video editor of your choice, clip it, export it (I recommend an H.264 container), and upload it to the digital platform of your choice.

Initial Setup

For this section, you’ll only need to do this once. Once you have the software installed, you’ll be able to generate as many videos as you like following the below “Video Clipping Steps”.

You’ll need three things:

• A computer (PC or Mac) with an internet connection and a modern web browser (can’t do this on a tablet/cell-phone).
• The free software Handbrake
• Video Editing software (more on this later)

Handbrake Setup

I’m going to assume you have a computer with internet access and a browser since you’re on this blog. So the next step is to download “Handbrake“. Handbrake is video encoding software, and you’ll use it to re-encode the downloaded video from “Variable Framerate” (AKA Peak Framerate), to “Constant Framerate”. This fixes issues with audio/video sync.

Video Editing Software

I’ve been making videos for a very long time (15 years and counting), and there’s been a growing list of software available for video editors. I use Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite of software for video creation. However, if all you’re looking to do is make simple video clips there are simpler, cheaper (even free) programs you can use. A few suggestions below.

Two Free Options
For Mac – Apple iMovie
For Windows – Windows Photo app (Click website to see how to use app for video)

Basic Paid Video Editing Software
Mac or Windows – Adobe Premiere Elements
Mac of Windows – Cyberlink Power Director

Your download and install experience will vary depending on what software you use.

Video Clipping Steps

This will walk you through finding the video you want to clip on Raleigh’s Granicus server, downloading the video, correcting the video’s audio/video sync, and making it ready to clip in the video editing software of your choice.

Finding the Video to Clip

Locating the video you need to clip is a tricky process. For City Council regular meetings, the videos are indexed to their agenda topics so you can, somewhat, search for a topic in Granicus and have a chance to find the relevant video on the subject. For any other meeting such as Council work sessions, Council committee meetings, commission meetings, and other government meetings you’ll need to know the date of the meeting to find it in Granicus.

Also, keep in mind, not all local government meetings (at the time of this writing) are recorded and uploaded to Granicus. If the meeting you’re looking for was held in City Council chambers, there’s a good chance the video is in Granicus. However, if the meeting was held anywhere else, it’s highly unlikely there’s a video recording available.

Finally, the oldest meeting I’ve found on Granicus is the January 23rd, 2007 City Council meeting. If you’re looking for an older meeting, you won’t find it on Granicus.

• Navigate to Raleigh’s Granicus server here: http://raleigh.granicus.com/ViewSearchResults.php?view_id=2
• Two ways you can search
  • For City Council meetings enter the topic you want to find in the text box next to “Search Again” and then click “Search”
  • For any meeting hit CTRL+f on your keyboard (CMD+f on Mac) and type the date of the meeting you want to find in the format month day, year.
    1. An example, I’d search for “October 1, 2019” to find a meeting on October 1st, 2019.
• Once you’ve found the meeting, click the blue “Video” link

• Once the video opens, click the “download” button, the bottom display will change with a “Download Video” button.
• Click the “Download Video” button.
• While the video downloads, it’s recommended you play the video and find the part of the video you wish to generate your clip from
  • When you find the portion of the video you wish to use, mark down the time that part of the video begins, and the time it completes.

HandBrake Video Conversion

• Next open HandBrake
• When HandBrake opens it should ask you for a video file to use. Select the video file you downloaded from Granicus in the previous steps. Click the “Open” button.
  • If you don’t see the window to select a file, click the “Open Source” icon in HandBrake.

• Once the video is loaded, you should be taken to the main HandBrake app window
• Click the “Video” tab. You’ll be taken to the video encoding options.
• In the Video options, the option “Peak Framerate (VFR)” should be currently selected. YOU NEED TO CHANGE IT TO CONSTANT FRAMERATE.
  • This one change is the thing that fixes the issue with audio syncing with video
• In the “Save As” text box name the video whatever you’d like so, you can easily tell it’s the corrected converted video.
  • If you want to move the corrected video to a different folder, click the “Browse” button and choose the folder you wish for it to be placed in.
• Finally, click “Start” to start the conversion process. The amount of time it will take will depend on how large the original video file is, and the power of your computer’s hardware.

Creating the Video Clip

This last step will depend on what kind of video editing software you use. Generally, you simply need to open the video clip and use the software’s “cutting” or “trimming” tool to cut off the parts of the video you don’t need.

Once you’ve created the clip, export the video from your video editing software. I’d recommend exporting the video using an h.264 codec as an MP4 type file. Some video editors have built-in encoding software that has presets for online platforms like YouTube or Facebook. Feel free to experiment and find the settings that work best for you.