Newbie podcast question

[Luis Ortega]

I have looked around and can't find any guides for my particular needs, so maybe someone here can advise me.
I am a teacher and would like to make little instructional podcasts that include still images of a process and some narration over them.
I need to be able to control how long to make the still images last on screen so that they fit the narration.
I also want to know the best way to package it/export it so that it can be emailed or played on mobile phones.
Can I use something like Final Cut Pro to create a timeline?
If so, then what do I do to export it?
Should I prepare the still images first in Photoshop to reduce their file sizes and make the FCP timeline a smaller file size when rendered?
Can anyone please advise me on the best way to do this work as a podcast?
Thanks for any advice.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Garageband works fabulously for the purpose. It even allows you to import pictures like you mention.

 

[Luis Ortega]

Garageband works fabulously for the purpose. It even allows you to import pictures like you mention.

Thanks, I looked at Garageband but I don't see how to add pictures so that they are timed to show as long as I need. I also wanted to add some simple transitions, such as a dissolve, between images to make it flow a little smoother.

 

[Luis Ortega]

I read up on a lot of podcast stuff but it all seems geared toward music podcasts. I went ahead and edited my little movie on FCP so that I could put in some transitions between image clips. I got my narration and a second music track and my pictures with transitions and my titles all done the way I wanted and rendered it as a quicktime movie.

It all works fine, except that it's not really a podcast since it is an 80MB file.
It is currently at full size/resolution for PAL (720 x 576 at 72 dpi with sound at 44khz/16bit/stereo), all of which is obviously overkill for a podcast size production.
I still have my FCP timeline and my exported QT file, so I am interested to see if I can now do something to export my timeline or compress my QT file into something that could be called a podcast.

What the hell is a podcast anyway? Is it just a small file or is it something special that has to be uploaded somewhere different than emailing it to someone? How do you get it into someone's phone? I really have no idea what it all means. I am used to making video productions and trying to maintain the highest quality without worrying about the file sizes.

I would like to be able to send this little instructional movie to my students' cell phones or to their email accounts and have them be able to view it and hear it.

Can anyone please advise on what to do next to make my project into a format that can be distributed this way?

What sort of image size and resolution and audio quality should I be trying to aim for?
Is Compressor or Handbrake a good app to use to make my project into a podcast?
Thanks for any advice.

 

[Luis Ortega]

OK, I used QT pro to compress my movie for a podcast and it created a folder in my movie folder with a few files, two of which are smaller files that say 3gp and 4mv and mov and are my project, plus a poster frame file. I can play the tiny files on my computer and it's fairly good except that the transitions look a lot more crude, but it's acceptable.
Then I went back and followed the instructions for submitting podcasts to itunes but it seems to want a url for the podcast location.
I don't have a website that I can put it on, it's just siting on my hard drive.
Are there any websites that I can upload it to so that I can give itunes that url?
Can it be uploaded to youtube and then use that as the url for submitting it to itunes?
Are there other podcast uploading sites that I can use?