Regarding the wedding article in the June 2008 issue of Videomaker . I felt it was a good article, as I shoot wed videos myself. Probably the most important point you missed, though, is, if you can get an invite to the wedding rehearsal, go. From that, you can figure out camera placement, audio problems, etc. I learned this from a wedding where the invite was available, but I didn't use it. After setup, the groomsmen lined up in front of my camera shot, and moving the tripod and cables at that moment was not fun, especially during a live ceremony.

Not only that, talk to the presiding person who is performing the wedding to get the rules of that church. If it's at a hall, talk to the manager about the rules of engagement... i.e., lighting, sound, etc. Some of the halls I have dealt with are somewhat, ahem... well, I can't use the language I want to, but, hard to work with.
Herb Brown

Thanks Herb, it's always a good idea to shoot the rehearsal if you can, even if you've shot at that location a number of times. Nowadays with the bride and groom wanting to personalize parts of the ceremony, they might come up with a different game plan than that which you've always depended on. And every serious wedding videographer should talk with the person in charge of the locale, and not just trust that the person who hired them knows the clearance rules. This also lets the hall director know you respect his business as well. You may need his assistance at a later date and it's always good to make a good impression the first time.
-The Editors

Hello Mr. York, I was happy that you wrote about the future of video production in your Viewfinder column in the June issue, and I thought I would share a few of my own ideas. I believe that in the near future, we will begin to use panoramic, OLED, multi-touch screens (flat, curved screens, intended to fill your field of view,) for editing and other computer tasks.

Someday, in the distant future, I think that all we will have to do is create a story and characters, then sit back and wait as the computer uses photo-realistic 3D animation and sets of movie and music creation rules to create our film. I don't think this is that far away - all we need is powerful computers (probably Quantum computers), powerful software and enough rules, written by experts, telling the computer how to create a good film. With all the coming automation, I fear that someday, the only jobs left for us content creators will be writing the software that will create the films.

I am only 14 years old, but I have been interested in content creation ever since my father allowed me to use his tape recorder many years ago. I am now doing video directing/editing, music creation, 3D animation, image editing and compositing (it's not impossible). I am also the owner and founder of a small media production startup, known as HE (Hasbrouck Entertainment). Thank you for such a great magazine; I find it very helpful.
Dominic Hasbrouck

I am dumbfounded at your approach to your Subscriber Alert that lists a couple of dozen companies that you tell me that I, as a subscriber to your magazine, should contact you "immediately" if they contact me about renewing my membership. You do not list an email address that I can let you know what is happening. Instead, it is a PO box. Great, I write a note immediately and spend 42 cents or whatever the cost of a stamp is, and you get it five days later. So much for immediate.

If this is such a problem that you put this notice in almost every issue, you should rethink the preferred method of immediate communication. I know you guys are better than this. Take a look at page 61 on the June issue and see if this is how you want to handle these situations.

Respectfully,
Michael Theis

Thank you, Michael, for pointing this out. Our customer service email is posted elsewhere in our magazine, but not on that subscriber alert. We are going to add the email to that alert beginning with this issue. For your future reference, here it is: customerservice@videomaker.com.

Yes, indeed, we DO print that ad in every issue because there are hundreds of people getting scammed every year from false agencies. We're doing everything we can to get the word out to our readers to trust our company and our advertisers. We wish our readers to contact us directly and not to send money to agencies trying to get your money.

So many people have so many subscriptions to so many different magazines that they often don't realize when their subscriptions are up or not and are easy prey to these rather aggressive advertisers. Especially when they offer a discount that's less than what we sell our subscriptions for. Unlike many other publication companies, we are not on lists of multiple packages. If you see us there, assume that the company is out to get your money without providing you the service you paid for. We can't refund money that was sent to another agency nor can we give "free" subscriptions to people who say they've paid and have been scammed. Their only recourse is to aggressively follow through and contact the agency they made the purchase from and perhaps contact a consumer rights group to help.

We are doing what we can to find them out, and we do follow through on our own to put these companies out of business, but, besides those we listed on our Customer Alert ad, there may be many others out there that we don't know about. They change their names and resurface often, and we can only ask our subscribers to help by providing us the names and circumstances when a scam does happen.

While we are at it, we should add that we also screen our advertisers, both in the magazine and on the web, so that our readers can trust what they read anywhere within our company.

Thank you for your comments. We hope all of our readers follow the alert.
-The Editors