If you have not read my three previous posts (if you have not, go and do it now, please….pretty please) you know I have forsaken my low budget video production methods for a Canon 550D and a bad hunger for L lenses.

I’ve been happily riding the tiger of HDSLR production for several weeks now, and as I predicted, the learning curve has a pronounced tilt. Triumphs over the limitations have been frequent however, and the light at the end of the tunnel may not be a train. Perhaps a Yugo with a headlight out, but not a train.

How I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb: Cineform & Transcoding

What if I told you that you could improve the speed of your NLE by at least 8x and up to 16x for only $129. Think about what an 8x speed improvement in your post workflow would mean to your income. You’re going to save hours a week – gain back weeks every year.The enemy is AVCHD (and .h264 in general). It’s a wonderful codec for what it can stuff into a tiny container. The deal with the devil comes when your NLE has to decode it on the fly for post. It’s really CPU intensive and a huge choke point for your system’s abilities.

Along comes Windows 7, multiple updates for Quicktime and AVCHD all in a short period. Now, Vegas 9 handles all of these well, but that means a very expensive upgrade.

I’ve decided to move to Premiere and the CS5 platform (more on that soon) but while waiting for that to actually ship to this end of the earth, I’m S.O.L. And I’m not paying to upgrade Vegas in the interim.

Playback of the files from my 550D on Vegas8 is hit or miss. It seems that every other week something gets lost and I get audio playback but no picture. Ahhhggg.

The solution – an intermediate codec. Or, for the rest of us, get my movies out of AVCHD and into something that works better for editing.

If you use FCP, you have ProRes (and Cineform’s Neo Scene outputs that with some advantages, so read on).

This leads me to trying the CineformHD codec.

My original intent was to get over the spotty support for AVCHD on my now aged NLE – and CineForm did that wonderfully. What I did not expect was just how FAST…I mean NASA test flight fast…the codec runs under Vegas like a V12 runs under the hood of an excessive German motor car. You don’t see it, but the performance is worthy of a Greek legend.

From Cineform.com:

“…camera formats are designed for recording, not editing. With Neo Scene you will convert your difficult-to-edit HDV, AVCHD, Canon 5D Mk II / 7D or T2i camera footage to CineForm AVI or MOV files and then benefit from the same theatrical quality and real-time editing performance as professionals.”

http://www.cineform.com/neoscene/features.php for the tech stuff

So how it works is you download their encoder  (the cheapest being NeoScene @US$129.00)  import a list of your footage, the encoder ‘transcodes’ or rewrites your footage into the Cineform codec, saving it to your hard drive as a new file. Your originals remain untouched for archive if you want.

What you get is file birthed for editing, color correction and compatibility among many programs.

The pioneering desktop HD production of “Dust To Glory” was cut several years ago on Adobe Premier Pro using this codec – before Dual Core chips! And it’s After Effects friendly (the kind of friendly I don’t want the kids to know about).

You get a jump from 4:2:0 to 10bit 4:2:2 in color space. This means way more room to move for color correction. And Magic Bullet thrives in this environment. The reduced load on the computer working with CineformHD means all my color correction is done in 32bit as well!

Before Cineform, my PC with Black Edition Quad Core AMD struggled to render in 32bit mode – basically incapable with AVCHD. Let’s be blunt, it crashed 99% of the time. With Cineform, no problems.

The real kicker is it runs so much faster I can preview Magic Bullet cc’d footage at 4-12 fps. What’s remarkable about that is we are talking about Magic Bullet Editors (the less efficient older version) with only a Nvidia9500 GPU in the box. Before Cineform I was getting 1 frame per 4-6 seconds. That’s right, it took 4-6 seconds to render a single frame for preview at full quality. Do the math!

All my effects run in real time on multiple layers at full quality in real time – something I had not seen since the last project I cut in DV (standard def).

If you cut on a laptop, you need Cineform. If you want stupidly fast renders of anything in any format, I think you owe it to yourself to try the demo.

And while we are on the demo subject, be very careful to install the version you want to tryl – NOT the player. The player is great for making sure you can play your newly transcoded files on any computer for free! And it means your friends don’t have to pay for NeoScene or any of the Cineform products to edit it. They can download the player for free, though I understand Premiere natively supports the format (others may too).

What you pay for is the encoder – the ability to get your footage out of the Hatchback and into the Nascar and run it round your hard drives.

Also, be sure to uninstall any other version before installing a new one. I tried to use Cineform last year and it never worked on my 64bit XP box – probably because I installed the player then the encoder, and I could never get it to work.

Even if you plan on getting hooked up with the Mercury Engine and you have a quad i7 mobo and a raid that would scare ILM, getting 10bit 4:2:2 files out of your HDSLR will make the vital task of color correction far more powerful. And, anything that gives me an average 8x jump in speed (and a peak of 16x) for less than the price of a 2 year old video card…

Your caffeine intake will cut down, saving you another coupl of years before the bypass, your clients will think you have a super computer, and your pics will have a new color depth that even youTubers might notice. If they weren’t waiting for someone to get hit in the man bag. (Brad, you can substitute something less offensive there…like hackey sacks, ‘nards, wedding tackle…)

It’s all good.

PS – on my system, the transcoding process was so stupidly fast that I forget to mention it earlier.

What needs to be backed up? What constitutes a real backup solution to protect your assets?

What to backup:

1. Main internal hard-drive – OS, apps, configurations, and typically your contacts and email.

2. Media assets – raw recordings, effects, plug-ins, project files, fully rendered video, etc. If you feel its important enough to keep on your external “media” hard drive, its important enough to backup.

The common rule of thumb is if you don’t have three copies, you don’t have a backup.

The first of the three copies of your data, of course, is your main hard drive(s) including external hard drives used for mass storage of media files used in projects and that must be readily available for those projects.

The second of the three copies is usually on site and can consist of either a separate external hard drive or DVD data discs and is used strictly for the purposes of backup storage. If you are a Mac user and you don’t have a 1 Tb external drive setup as your “Time Machine”, it’s time to drop $99 on the 1 Tb drive and turn on the Time Machine software included with Mac OS X. Within the first few months of owning my Macbook, due to some faulty non-Apple RAM, I crashed my internal hard drive. I literally purchased a 1 Tb hard drive and made a Time Machine backup the day before the crash. It saved my business from total failure. I got lucky. Don’t wait for some day. Do it today. This will allow you to put the OS, apps, configurations, etc. back into place as if nothing happened within hours or less of the crash and replacing or formatting your internal hard drive. Cheap hardware + free software = saved business. Don’t learn this lesson the hard way. Wisdom is learning from other people’s failures without having to experience the failure yourself.

To make a backup of your external drive(s) to your on site backup drive for Mac OS X, you can use software such as Carbon Copy Cloner . It is “free to use until you trust them” (a.k.a. freeware, please donate). For Windows users, try HDClone. The key to choosing a software package is to ensure that you can backup from one external drive to another, and have the ability to schedule those backups to run automatically. If you depend on your memory to manually backup your data, it won’t be done effectively if at all. Don’t trust yourself as part of your backup solution.

Having a second external copy (hard drive or DVD data disc) of your data on site will give you the ability to recover data back to your main hard drive(s) and restore your work environment to full functionality quickly.

The third of the three copies needs to be off site. In the old days, that meant backing up to a tape drive and shipping the tapes off site to a climate controlled media storage facility equipped with fire suppression. But things have changed for the better in this wonderful age of technology in which we live. Thanks to the Internet, the age of “Cloud Computing” and readily available high-speed Internet connections, meeting the requirement for off site storage of one of your copies has become much easier than the older method of shipping tapes off site. Online backup comes in many flavors. Do a Google search for online backup and you’ll find plenty to choose from. The most commonly advertised online backup company is Carbonite. I personally tried them first because it was the first one I’d heard of due to the advertising. However, I chose not to go with their online backup service based on one major lack of a feature. Carbonite, although its not obvious on their website, does not backup external drives (hard drives, CD/DVD, USB “thumb” drives, etc.) This is huge requirement for implementing this backup solution. You must be able to backup all of your important data to an off site (online) storage regardless of whether its an internal hard drive or one of the many flavors of external storage as mentioned above. This led me to iDrive. This service allows you to back up any drive attached to your computer including mapped network drives and USB “thumb” drives. They have a “basic” free service plan that gives you up to 2GB of storage. This is obviously for trying out the service. You may be able to store your important internal hard drive information with 2GB, but it’s obviously not enough to backup your media assets. You can purchase 150Gb of storage for $49.50 per YEAR, or 500GB of storage for $149.50 per year. The iDrive software allows you to choose what specific folders or files you wish to backup and has a scheduler for automatic backups. It also can run in “incremental backup” mode which is constantly monitoring your drive(s) for files that change, and immediately sends the changed file(s) to the online backup servers. The iDrive service is available for Windows and Mac OS X.

Having an offsite backup gives you the ability to recover data back to your work environment after a catastrophic event such as a fire, flood, or hurricane.

Although not officially part of a backup plan, two solutions for keeping a quick copy of fairly small amounts of data that you may need to quickly retrieve from virtually any location is Dropbox and Evernote. Both are Internet based systems and allow you to quickly store and retrieve data from multiple devices.

Dropbox is for storing files (or sharing files with others) using simple drag and drop within the Finder (or Windows Explorer). Dropbox apps are also available for iPhone, iPad, Anroid, and soon on BlackBerry devices. See www.dropbox.com for details.

Evernote is for storing information (i.e. text, audio notes, small video notes, and photographs such as a business card). The text that you type as well as the text on photos is indexed and easily searchable at a later date. Notes within your Evernote account are accessible via the Evernote.com website or apps running on your Windows or Mac computer, iPhone, iPad, or other mobile devices. See www.Evernote.com for details.

If you ride a tiger, you had better have a good reason for going to all the trouble.

Do NOT confuse ‘the film-look’ with making an actual film.

I’m gonna puke the next time I see duck ponds at dawn and cloud montages that clog the interweb listed as “Test Footage” or “Just bought 78 Mega Pixel camera, check out my tiny depth of field”.

Playing with yourself is called…uh, er…playing with yourself. No one wants to see that in public. It’s up there with slide shows. Remember slide shows in the 70s and 80s? I do, and I want those hours of my life back.

Stop posting your ‘film-look’ and make an actual film. You know, with actors, dialog, a score. Even if everyone dies in the end (like every blasted student movie I ever worked on).

Now that I’m shooting DSLR, I want an Epic or and Alexa (I’m not proud, give me either one) because I’m on that image quality kick.

So, some of the things that bother me are not going to get fixed without spending a LOT more money and time perfecting the rig and my skills.

But none of that matters a flying heap of if you don’t actually use your gear to make a film. Tell a story, or work with those who can, and make something. And make YouTube a better place for all of us. It’s too late for Vimeo, there are already too many out of focus trees in the wind cluttering up the server.

Review

When I was approached by Scott Cantrell of Tapeworks Texas to review and assess the aspherical lens for the Sony PMW EX3 by Zunow, I was pleased to assist.  Scott and indeed all the personnel at Tapeworks, offer a higher level of customer attention than any of our other vendors.  This combined with their competitive pricing has made Tapeworks our first point of contact for equipment acquisition.

Now to the lens itself:

Basis of the test

As we have also been using the Fujinon XS8-4AS-XB8 wide-angle lens specifically designed for the EX3, it seemed this was the best comparison.  If it were to compare favourably to a task-specific design then this would give video professionals the best assessment.  The images were assembled on to a DVD, which is available at Tapeworks.

The images acquired were fractal for the most part with complex and varied texture and were shot in varying lighting conditions.  In addition, the test sequences chosen varied from close (1 meter) to mountainous areas at a range of a mile or two.  The full range of field of view and focus were captured.

Physical build

When I first opened the box for the Zunow I was struck by the fact that this is a very substantial piece of glass.  It is well made and possesses a simple and robust bayonet locking method for direct connection to the standard 1/2” Fujinon lens for the PMW EX3.  This is true example of the benefits of “keeping it simple”.   Mounting did require the removal of the protective UV filter that was installed on the Fujinon lens. There is little doubt that this adapter would provide a long period of service.

Due to the fact that it is aspherical and is meant to cover such a wide range, it is comparatively heavy.  The Fujinon XS8-4AS-XB8 is lighter than the WEX-075a Fujinon XS8-4AS-XB8 combination, however this does not preclude its use as a field adapter.   If it would be used for prolonged periods one may become a bit concerned about stresses to the lens mount on the camera.  This is most likely not an issue as the most likely use of this adapter, and indeed its benefit, is that it can be mounted only when required.  For those who feel the PMW-EX3 is too light and should feel more substantial, attach this adapter and you will have the weight your desire.  As an aside, as we will frequently trek into very remote areas carrying significant amounts of gear (often in hostile circumstances) the light and agile capability of the EX3 is welcome.  The WEX-075a is of course lighter than the Fujinon XS8-4AS-XB8 and much easier to place in backpacks, etc.

There is a distinct advantage to the approach of using a wide-angle adapter, as it does not involve the removal of the lens and therefore exposure to dust and the elements.  There are several times in the past when this would have been a most welcome part of the kit.  To prove the point, during the tests a few particles of dust inadvertently found their way on to the lens mount and are visible in shots of the sky.  We left these particles in the final images to make the point.

The lens hood that comes with the WEX-075a is roughly the same size as the Fujinon XS8-4AS-XB8 as would be expected.  Here again design simplicity was key with a straightforward slip on and tighten method of attachment being used.  The lens caps are of the slip-on type but are adequately snug.

Considering the value and price point of this lens and its greatest potential use for the field, I would like to have seen a more protective case rather than the nylon pouch that is provided.  For our purposes it will require more protection.

Image performance

A series of four tests were conducted to test the characteristics of the Zunow adapter against the Fujinon wide angle.  Each test was conducted with no Neutral Density on the first test during which the full range of the zoom function would be employed and then a subsequent identical test with a neutral density of 2 set on the PMW-EX3.

A variety of image surfaces were chosen in four separate lighting conditions.  Test Number Four was conducted with a strong backlit situation to attempt to force Chromatic aberration to be apparent.

In all tests the following characteristics were consistently observed:

The Zunow adapter provided a surprisingly sharp image especially when considering the large amount of glass being introduced into the image stream.  In some cases it would rival the purpose-built Fujinon lens.  On some images of relatively small objects in motion, the difference in clarity between the two lenses was difficult to distinguish (if at all).

Of course with a large aspherical adapter there is a tendency for distortion to form in the corners and depending on the degree of magnification, along the outer edges as well.  While the Fujinon lens held the clear advantage in this regard, the images made with the Zunow were still useful and the distortion hardly noticeable when the images were not being “zoomed”.  Corner distortion was also most apparent on those sections of the image, which were highly fractal.

As regards the equivalent focal lengths are concerned, the Fujinon actually allowed a wider angle of view whereas the Zunow enabled a closer focus when fully zoomed in to the subject.

A remarkable and distinct difference between the two lens arrangements was the narrower depth of field achieved by the Zunow adapter.  It was in fact a most pleasant surprise, which yielded some above average images.  This characteristic was naturally most noticeable when a narrow field of view was used and the Neutral density on the camera was set to 2.  The bokeh is acceptable and perfectly usable for a video lens.  It was certainly more dramatic than the Fujinon lens.  Therefore this could be used in certain circumstances when the use of a 35mm adapter is not available.

There was a difference between the two lenses in regards to contrast and colour representation.  The colour presented on the Fujinon was more vivid and the contrast more in keeping with the camera settings.  The characteristics of the Zunow however were well within adjustment tolerances both on the camera settings as well as in post-production.

Chromatic aberration was only apparent in several conditions and only in the outer extremes of the image, as one would expect.  It was however far better than was expected.

Summary

Some may feel that putting an adapter up against a dedicated design lens to be a bit unfair, however I would assume that at the price point, that would be the consideration most videographers would be making.   Therefore I felt it was important to see if such an adapter could serve the professional to an acceptable standard.  To me the answer is yes, under certain circumstances.  Indeed as previously mentioned, it would be extremely handy in the field and can be quickly applied when needed.  Certainly the unexpected benefit of a narrow depth of field provides a creative solution to many situations.

If one is aware of the potential shortfalls of using an adapter of this size, it can be of significant value.  In our case it will not replace the Fujinon lens but is being seriously considered for inclusion in our field kit.

Well done Zunow.

Review Provided By:
Philip E Hewitt
Seventh Victory
P O Box 1123
Qunicy, CA 95971

(( Disclaimer – Powered Production was not paid to post this review nor did we conduct the tests of the equipment, TapeWorksTexas is a friend of ours, and is who we choose as our vendor in the Houston, Texas area.))

Editing (in terms of media production) is the juxtaposition of time and events (the rearranging of events in time to tell a different or more compelling story).

What does that mean?

Have you ever seen or heard the old adage, “Commas save lives!”  We here it is…

Let’s eat Grandpa!

Let’s eat, Grandpa!

Both have the same exact text – but without a pause in the right place you say something all together different! The same is true with media production (audio and video) you place, or remove a pause at the right place, remove the audio with a bleep sound and you can have a totally different video.

The other day I found this post on TheNextWeb.com – this shows a video posted my microsoft to show the public how easy it is to host a house party for the upcoming Windows 7 Launch.  First off, why is it that it is way too much fun, and way to easy to make fun of microsoft!? Not that I’m a PC guy, have been for year – I don’t own a Mac (but would love to).

Here’s the orginal video:

Here’s the edited version
Note that nothing is said, but may not be safe for work – as a lot can be implied!

This is how editing can portray a negative image of the original message (that’s easy) as any one can take things out of context and make them say anything! People have been doing that for years – what can you do as a producer, video blogger or business owner to make better media with the the help of editing?  When you realize that you don’t just have to shoot a video and post it in it entirety you will see video in a completely different way! Some vloggers will hate me because of that last statement – but I’m okay with that.  ^~~^

My challenge to you – find a video that due to editing has a deeper impact, or more compelling message.  Use the feature in the commenting tool to embed a Youtube video, and tells us all why it is this video has merit, or re-cut it and show us the before and after!

Photo credits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kichigai/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Is it just about being at the right place at the right time?

Recall the downed plane in New York (US Airways 1549). The TwitPic that were sent from the ferry, crashed the website – when 7,000 people tried to view the photo at the same time – I didn’t take a screen shot of the views at the time, but I recall it had more than 100k with-in one week for the event happening. I wonder how much they made from adverts on the page…

Now, Imagine if there was live video from the scene and how that would have changed the news coverage of the event online. I think that this will be more than being at the right place at the right time, and to be willing to put yourself out there to capture the event.

Live Video Via Facebook or Qik or where ever…

Regardless of where it’s from or what service it’s deployed with – these video devices are a game changer, their are here to stay, and they are changing the face of video production as we know it!  If you don’t believe me, and you’re holding to your hard and fast rules of what a real camera is (like I have been) then you have to see what the guys over a Pixel Corp (link to article about the rig) have cooked up using a RedRock Micro shoulder rails kit and some other accessories.  Camera Rig maker Zacuto is also getting in to the game with their new hand grip for the 3Gs.  And a new player – Owly, turns that shinny new phone into a mobile media work horse!

What will Live Video do to the way that news and events are covered, how long before we all see a shift social news?

“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.”

Ansel Adams

When you are Directing, your show will only be as good as you prepare!

1. Show prep One of the critical things that I learned during my career in radio broadcasting, the more show prep that I did, the better the broadcast went.  The more prepared you are going into a show the less that can go wrong that you’re not already going to be ready for. You cannot prepare for everything, but for most things. At the height of my radio career I was the executive producer of my own two hour prime-time Saturday night show, “Binary Radio” was a live DJ mixed radio program there was no safety net, no live delay, my one and only line of defense was a prerecorded mix CD only to be used if I needed to re-boot Final Scratch.  Because of this there were times which  it was like juggling five chain saws and 3 bowling pins, and on rare occasion it was like watching a train wreak in revers and in slow motion.  The weeks that I would afford myself a 4 hour session of practice and programing my show it would go so nearly flawlessly  that it was scary.
2. Pre-Flight Checklist
   

   “I’ve got a checklist with 3,200 items on it. At any time, 150 of them are burning.”

   Fred Reid

   When you work from a checklist – it’s like having a silent assistant that keeps you on task, reinforcing your preparation.  (Provided that you make the time to make a worth while checklist that is.) What are things that you need on your checklist? During the course of your show prep you will run into areas that need work – marking a note of things that could go wrong, and what you can do to get around it.

3. Limited Stimulus before, during, and after the show This, honestly is just a personal thing that I’ve done dating back to my live theater experience.  I try to lay low before an event, to reflect and rehearse what’s necessary to execute the show as best I can.  Also during a show – I don’t want any kind of stimulus, and once I even had to spit out my gum as I ran out of things that I could do at one time (which at that time was seven.)
4. Post show exit meeting After you wrap a show, it’s a good practice to strike while the iron is hot and capture as much feedback about the show / event as you can – going over every triumph and tragedy that occurred.  The process of debriefing is critical to growth as a director, if you want to grow you’ll have to learn to take the good with bad.  This often is not a very comfortable meetings (when things go very wrong), and things can get heated – the important thing is to not take it personal, and not to make it personal!

So, What’s the “One” thing that makes for great live production?

Prep, prep, and more prep!

Your show will only be as good as you prepare for it to be.

]]> http://poweredproduction.com/production/what-makes-for-great-live-production/feed/ 0 http://poweredproduction.com/production/the-rule-of-thirds-a-cheap-knockoff/ http://poweredproduction.com/production/the-rule-of-thirds-a-cheap-knockoff/#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 17:08:33 +0000 Brad http://poweredproduction.com/?p=536 Most people have no idea what the “Rule of Thirds” are, nor can they look at an image and tell you why the love it, or why it has striking composition if it was using the “Rule of Thirds”. I saw a post today (found here) that called the Rule of Thirds both lazy and a sham…
While I agree that all rules are made to be bent and at times even broken, you can only do so – when you fully can understand the rules that are in play!

I was first introduced to the Rules of Thirds for the first time in a Nikon Manual that my Grand Father (Popo) gave me when I inherited his Nikon FE (manual 35mm camera and lens kit – Thank God for Popo!) I later studied these rules via an Eastman Kodak VHS that we watched over and over again in High School (Thanks to my photo teacher Mr. Charles Scherbel – where ever you are.)

I’m not really sure if it’s just because the word rule is in name, which is causing the author of the post to question its validity.  I’d have to agree that the Golden Mean is mathematical at its core and therefore for the faint of heart easily avoided and I agree that the Golden Ratio while found in nearly every thing in existence (wonder who put that there -  well that might be a topic of conversation sometime other than now.) Does it negate the simplicity of breaking things up in thirds?

I have to say that this has really opened up some areas of thought and will cause me to question the composition of my shots next time I do a set up, but to say that the Rule of Thirds is a sham – come on, really? I’ll concede the point that the rule of thirds is a much more simple means of looking at it, and it’s not exact science as the Golden Ratio.

Is Not being Exact all the time – lazy?

Also super huge thank you to @TGaul – I had no idea that was in there!!!

Photos used in post:

golden spiral 2 by Shannon Henry

As most of you know I was extremely blessed to have a computer at a very young age – this allowed me to experiment and become very engaged with electronics, and it didn’t hurt that my Father was a taught electronics at a local trade school.  Because I was always around this world – and had the great fortune of having teachers that would urge me to explore and learn all that I can in every field I came away with a very broad understanding of how everything fit together, rather than being very focused on just one part of the equation.

I really don’t think that our education system will catch up with this until it’s too late.

What is one to do?  How do we educate others in ways of media production?

Photos used in post:

june 28th 280c by striatic

Through lower cost cameras that now out perform what was more than double the cost, and new tool sets that are becoming available – you can now not only own your own space for distribution, but produce Live Programming that uses the same tools of Fox, NBA, and many other top level broadcasters! (Awesome video after the jump)

I’ve been in the process of perfecting live production with single camera setups coupled with a laptop to services like Ustream.com or using Procaster (which I’ve yet to get to work – think it’s been a hardware thing), and I truly see tool kits like this bring the ability to do live production to way more people than ever before!

Is the Tri-Caster the next magic bullet for LIVE Production?

There are many different paths to getting clean signal to the next, but none like the Tricaster – that I’m aware of!

Photos used in post:

PCR (Fischgibts 11. Mai 2007, h1-Studio Hannover) by schoschie

I’m the king of doing this – I’ve sat on my hands waiting until I can afford HD production, Real Time post, the list really has been endless – and at the end of the day, I was no closer to “shipping” than any other time.  But how much value can you afford to loose?  I feel in the are of marketers that are using video as a means of marketing or brand reinforcement — you really cannot afford to loose much.

I’ve grown so weary of seeing videos that I know have come from Move Maker (vomit!)  You know that I’m a PC guy (or you do now) and at least the Mac iMovie product gives you a few more options over White Arial Font on a Boring Blue Background…  Yet, I digress…

Branding goes beyond your logo that you use.  Your logo is a really important part as it’s the iconic image that people will associate with your brand, but your brand should dictate what type face you use, the master color pallet you operate with in, so on.  And when it comes time to produce a video – it’s a really simple task of having a motion designer (like myself) to prepare Book-Ends for you to wrap around your video (at the top & tail), and a graphic package that will match the look of your brand.

I know that I keep going back to this, but we live in a Broadcasting Era – where people have been trained as to what video is supposed to look like.  Regardless if it’s on the Internet you should strive to maintain the excellence and standards of Prime Time TV.  What does this mean for the beginner – don’t worry too much if you’re not quite there yet – but grow to get there quick.

What is Production Value?

Production Value: method, material, or stagecraft skill used in the production of a motion picture or artistic performance; the technical quality of such a method, material, or skill.  The greatest thing about production value is that the more you put into your production the more perceived value your final product will have.

In my book, “Production Value = Trust” the more you put into your final product the more the viewer will respect it because they will read the value that it holds.  So how are you adding trust via building in production value?

Photos:

DIGITAL by Hamed Saber

- – - > Disclaimer < – - -
The kit that we are talking about will not result in media that would become the next blockbuster, or what would be air able on (most) cable access channels.  What I’m talking about here will be enough to get you started with Online Video.
< – - – End Disclaimer – - – >

The Three Vital parts of this $30 Kit

1.) Web Cam

You can find web camera’s starting at $10 – chances are that you already have one built into your laptop (if it was purchased in 2008 — or is a Mac, remember I’m a PC Guy!) You’re not looking for much here – just something to give you a clean video feed via USB.  Something like this would be perfect!
Great list of web cameras under $25 rated 4 stars or better!

2.) Lamp

Yes, a lamp – and chances are good that you have a few in your home or office.  You want one that has a normal bulb in it – not a CF or a halogen!  Also a lower wattage lamp that’s closer to will make it look much more intimate.   Lighting is a critical item so if you need to purchase something that will work then this is a place to do so!  Something as simple as a White Round Rice Paper Lantern will get you out of a lot of trouble!

3.) Backdrop

Simple Black fabric that you can get any fabric store will serve the purpose of giving you a consistent backdrop and take that out of the equalization meaning you have one less thing to worry about!  If you have a well decorated / clean office – don’t worry about this item.  If you have a white wall that you can shoot to then, I’d consider skipping this step too…  The other consideration is that if you are using a backdrop you need to steam / iron it!  There’s nothing worse than a backdrop that  gets more attention than the talent!

The important thing here is that you not use the lack of equipment to detour you to from starting.  In all transparency and honesty – I’ve let that keep me back for far too long, it’s time to started, Get Going with What You’ve Got!!!  The important thing is forward movement and consistency (I’m working on that too!)

Photos Used in Post:
Money! by Tracy O // Web Camera by Terinea // The Leg Lamp by kevindooley // Picture Time by Orin Optiglot

We live in a broadcast rich era, video screens are all around us we are exposed to more video now than ever before and because of this over saturation of media when it comes time to add video to your site, people often skip it cause it looks “so different” than what you are accustom to.  Because of this saturation of media around us, when someone sees video that has little / no production value – it really stands out!  The good thing is that when video with production value is used it will exponentially add to the perceived value of your brand and the product that you’re presenting!

Here are three things you must know when starting to use video:

1.) A Hammer is a Hammer…
(Don’t put off doing something until you get the right tools – use what you have!)

As an editor / director I’m often pulled in to the Mac / PC debate – and among PC guys (which I’m one of) I get pulled in to the Adobe, Avid, or Sony Vegas debate too.  Once we hash out this debate and we have all unloaded all of the points of the platform the debate rolls over to what format to shoot etc.  Guys, when you’re getting started – a hammer is a hammer!  My father had an old beat up hammer that I think that he’s had as long as I’ve been around (29 years) and it’s still serving it’s purpose – if he wanted to he could take that “tool” and build anything he wanted to.  He could even take it and frame a house.  The argument with the last statement is that – there are more effective tools that he could use to frame a house and in the end, he’d more tools to finish it – but the tools is not relevant to the project (cause it can be done).

When you are getting started, don’t talk yourself out of doing something with the excuse of not having the ideal tool to use!  One other thing that my Dad taught me as a kid, that’s stuck with me as an adult was the phrase, “I’ve done so much with so little, I can do anything – with nothing!” Let this phrase frame you mind that you have to start somewhere! So use what you’ve got until you can do better.

2.)  Content is king!

When doing video, the impact needs to be quick and to the point! One of the greatest examples of this are the use of shorter videos that are released more often.  But there’s another side to this – videos that are too short, and especially ones that AUTO PLAY will annoy your viewer 7 out of 10 times! Every audience is going to be a bit different – so keep pushing the time limit with them to figure out how long they will stay.

—  Bonus Tip —

Video players that tell your viewer how much longer this will last – can make or break you!  With the above in mind, if you’re five minutes in to your video and you’re not telling them what they were waiting to hear – you’ve just lost a viewer!

3.) Composition & Framing makes a HUGE difference

As soon as I launch a video and see a tiny head in the center of the frame – 9 time out of 10 I just leave the page!  I don’t just turn off the video – I freaking run for the hills and rarely do I come back…  You might think that’s a bit of a stretch, but it’s not. People just won’t take it seriously, because they are programmed by the networks what video is supposed to look like, and that ain’t it!

So what do you do?  Read as much as you can about photography!  (It’s all the same!!!)  Learn composition rules like, “The Rule of Thirds” from Eastman Kodak (and many others).  You have to understand the rules before you’re ready to know when to break them!  More importantly than anything else – get started soon! One of the things that students of Film Schools are told is that they will hate their first, second, and third film (some say that you’ll bomb at the first 10!) but everyone you do will be a little less bad as the one before!  You have to get started, and be willing to fail – heck, fail fast – and learn from it so don’t do it again!

Next time we’ll talk about how “You can get started for $30 “

Photos used in post:

Time Square by Daniele Pesaresi // Hammer by Jolien Vallins // King Richard by aliwest44 //
10photo27 (composition) by PhotopediaPhotos

I just wrapped up a new project with recording artist John Garrett (front man for 24HR Watch).  John made this project such a joy to work on – he was so awesome to work with, flexible, and was able to re-take a line near verbatim.  But I don’t know that it would have gone down so easy if I was a bloated media company! (If you own a bloated media company – I’m kind of sorry, but not really!)

I received a call from John (who’s an old friend of mine – he was on a lighting crew that I was the LD for the ballet company.)  We met there and then he started to attend the same church that I was very active at.  When I received the call I could immediately scene the urgency in his voice asking if I’d be able to shoot his EPK, but it needed to be done – yesterday.  I think that most clients face projects like this (in a crisis mode) but in John’s case – it really was a genuine deal.  He’s needed to have one done, and a new opportunity opened and he needed it in hand ASAP!

Being a One-Man-Band, often means that you have to bring in the help necessary to complete tasks – but in some cases, you can pull together everything on your own (especially if budget doesn’t allow for hiring extra hands) and work as nimble and be as flexible as possible! I’m most often inspired to do this when I read the DV Rebel guide – this DIY, lean and mean style of production, and the “Get it done” mindset is an awesome inspiration to a client! You don’t need 8 bodies on set, if you know how to “Get it Done!”  Do you??!

You can check out the EPK video on, you guessed it – my “Videos” page above, or hit my Vimeo profile.  We’ll be launching a small site for John in a few days as well, so stay tuned!

Also – in other news, and kind of related – the B-roll that was shot on John’s video was done w/ my trusty old stand by (and Edit Deck until I get a HV30) Sony TRV-8, but now modified it with a handle from one of my 8mm film camera – I was looking at it before I packed down for the shoot, and realized it used a standard thread screw at the bottom!  I’ll post some pics of it very soon – the next step with this mod is to find a way to make the trigger to start the record! I’m thinking of hacking a Lan-C controller to make this happen – anyone have any thoughts????

Keep Creating!

PS – I’d also like to extend a very special THANK YOU to Main Street Crossing in Tomball, Texas for allowing us to shoot there on such short notice – see if you can spot the BG noise, there was one plate I could not tame!

I’ve come across another community of people in an open round table discussion around “The Art of the Edit.”  This open dialogue among three people really is eye opening to the process and methods that editors take to present a visual dialogue.  Hosted by John Flowers ( @lifezero on twitter ) and with guests Paul Del Vecchio ( @pauldv on twitter) and guest Mike J Nichols (@TheEditDoctor on twitter).  This is going to be a show to keep tabs on as it develops, so be sure to subscribe to their mp3 rss feed in your respective application!!! 

One of the things that I hope to emphsise here is technique – and not just technology.  All of the technology in the world won’t make your film / project any better if you don’t have the technique down!  One of the things that I realized today was, looking at my lack of blogging over the past week – was it’s all been all tech all the time here – which was not what I wanted this site to become.  With some inspiration from Paul I’ve restarted work on my web series “Life In Drive” (btw – I’ll just go ahead and get it out of the way…  I’m a huge fan of Paul Del Vecchio, his “go and do it” attitude and DV Rebel style has been such an inspiration – and I feel that he’s of of the upcoming directors of my generation!).

If I could pull one thing from all of our conversations, don’t wait to start your project – don’t wait for a camera to ship to shoot your film (all of Paul’s stuff is done on a DVX100a – but you’d never know it because of his post-production and color grading done in After Effects.) and don’t use technology as a crutch!  It’s not going to make a good film-maker better but can make a great film-maker worse!  

As visual storytellers we have to know what kind of edit to use, and when to make the cut – how to set a pace, and some of the other rules of film-making.  Editing it’s self would have to be defined as the juxtaposition of time and events to suit a story.  But as Paul said in part one of this conversation – some rules have to be broken, and you as an artist will have to make that call!  Part one of this series has many “ear worms” that will be going through my head all week – or until part two!  Hope that you all enjoy!

>>> edit – after posting this Paul DM’d me on twitter with a link to Mike’s twitter profile…

My journey began when I saw a post on twitter by Trent Armstrong (the founder of the Dallas AEUG) that he was headed out to talk at the DFW AEUG.  To be quite honest I was rather jealous that I couldn’t be there (being 280 miles away in North West Houston.)  My response to this was proactive googling and scouring all over the web to find something like that here in my neck of the woods.  Toiling over old post of people looking for the same sort of group here in town I made two discoveries:

1. There is no Group of After Effects Users meeting in Houston
2. There is really NO Central Hub for AEUG’s to standardize and share information.

FALLOUT is the latest short of critically acclaimed director Paul Del Vecchio, and one of the best entries of the “Dare to Direct” Contest from Chiller TV.  (This link is direct to his short – please support Paul by adding your vote for him!

I first met Paul on Twitter when someone (think that it might have been Azy or maybe Stu mentioned him) posted on twitter about his winning the Dirary of the Dead DVD contest.  In my process of learning more about him we started to converse about work and web marketing and over the past few months have become friends.

Paul is a true DV Rebel in every scene of the term!  (Stu would be proud!!!) The most amazing thing about Paul is he’s very candid about his thought process and I feel that he really is earnest in his passion for others to be able to be a Rebel just like him!  Well I say all of this fluff to introduce his latest view from behind the scenes – a detailed view of just how he did what he did with FALLOUT!

It’s broken up into three ten minute segments for your viewing pleasure – and it can all be found on his blog!

Taken from the Workbookproject.com “DIY Days” this video shows an awesome pannel of DIY Filmmakers and their Self-Distribution process as they discuss the realities of DIY Filmmaking.  Take a moment to watch this – get past the crappy video coverage and really try to absorbe what it is that they are saying here!

Also – have I mentioned how much I love FilmmakerIQ.com?!!  Such an awesome resources!!

Required (Re)reading – Jay points out some seriously great information regarding sound for film! 
We see with our ears, just as much as we do with our eyes!  Because of this essay – I’m think of elements with in my projects much differently then before.  Check out this quote form Jays post…

““Designing a Movie for Sound” lives at FilmSound.org, and despite the title, it’s not about how to be a sound designer. If anything, it’s about how to be a screenwriter and director, and how tounderstand what sound can do for a film…”

Awesome information!

Well the RSS reminder bell went off and while looking at the four new posts I venture back to their home page.  (I love their layout – it makes me want to build a more magazine like structure for this site, but I like how it works now – and I’m not going to change it.)  Their first massive list of 202 DIY Resources for Filmmaking was is outstanding.  Their other featured post – “101 Essential Filmmaker Sites” really grabbed my attention.  So to the staff over at Filmmaker IQ – all I can say is that you are officially my new favorite blog!

Thanks for the awesome content and resources that have consumed my weekend!
Keep up the great work!

Here’s the original build video:

How to make a shoebox from Remyyy on Vimeo.

And here’s Jay Boy’s mods on the project:

Jay Boy’s No Budget Tutorials 01: Making Remyyy’s Shoebox Thing-A-Ma-Jig from Jay Boy’s Random Cutz on Vimeo.

I encourage you to go through the shoebox world channel and see the result that others are having, but here’s my thoughts.  I’m totally going to make the original project as described by Remyyy!  But I wonder how this could be taken to the next level!  I’m going to build a modular approach to the project.

Here’s my idea: (Please take this and try it!)  I’m going to try to gather my part this week, and will be toying with it next weekend.) I want to build an easy to alter more flexible approach to the project, so I’m going to not use a shoe box, but four stips of double cardboard put together wtih black duct tape.  This will allow me to claps the project down for storage and transport – I’m also think of trying a real 35mm lens instead of a magnifying glass.

I’ll be making a video of my build and will be posting it soon.
Until then, share your knowledge – and keep shooting!

I didn’t really realize what it was the had me glued to Abrams’ work – until I saw this piece of web history from TED.com!

It’s amazing to me the profound expressions of mystery – and if you’ve seen Lost then you understand that it’s an ever unfolding universe of questions some without obvious answers leaving the viewer to ponder and engage more and more. But the more amazing thing that I take away from this is the power of democratizing moving making! At one time I had started to collect videos on YouTube that I called “Any Kid with a Camcorder!” that I hoped to showcase the works of normal individuals making great work with off the shelf hardware. (I’m now inspired to re-start that again… So stay tuned for more info!)

We live in the most incredible time of media creation, it’s kind of like what the printing press did for books and the desktop publishing revolution did for computers. The down side of this is that the market will soon be flooded with mediocre videos (the vast majority of YouTube – come on, how many times if getting hit in the crotch funny?) but in the end the cream raises to the top!  There’s a vast landscape of top notch work hosted on vimeo.com (which is quickly becoming my favorite video site) that shows the skills of this upcoming generation of storytellers and media masters!

So here’s my new mission – or a sub-mission for this site: I’m not an expert in movie making, I’m not going to pretend to be one! I’m not a post-production guru, or a visual effects genius (don’t get me wrong, I’m good at what I do – but I’m no guru), but what I do believe in and what drives me to post more here, is an urgency to “Democratize Movie Making” so as I can I’m going to show you how and why I do the things that I do.

On the re-cut of the “I Won’t Mind” project I’m going to host screen casts live on Ustream.tv so you can watch me work and interact with me while I work on the project – so If you want to know when I’m doing those sessions Follow Me On Twitter.

I also would love your feedback on what I’m doing here!  If you have an idea – or if you have found a great video that you want to show me, just leave it here in the comments.
Until then, go out and create something!