In box

We received and reported incomplete information regarding the names of the winners of the 2007 Videomaker Short Video Contest's Best Animation prize. Bacon Samurai was created by Wright Rickman and produced by Chris Davidson. We congratulate everyone involved with all of the winning videos.

Your contributions to the field have been outstanding and are greatly appreciated, for personal as well as business reasons. What better way is there to interest a younger audience (my 20 grandchildren, for example) in the traditions and heritage of their family than to augment our printed family book of remembrance with vignettes on DVD video of their forebears? Videomaker's up-to-date introductions to technology and technique have been tremendously valuable iEditorsn helping us "tell our story" in more interesting and engaging ways than would have been possible otherwise.
Rob Dunford

This is to say thanks to you and your team for the priceless work shown in every issue of Videomaker. It is very educational for us. We keep duly updated in this fascinating world.

This year in Colombia, the Minister of Culture started a program named PNA (National Audiovisual Plan) in Cali City and Buenaventura (Main Port in Colombia) with hopes of going countrywide soon. Our Company "Dogg Fat Pro," includes four members and our aim is to produce high quality movies, and we use Videomaker for our referencing.

One link to our last Musical video.

All the best to you and the staff.
Gilberto Lopez
Buenaventura - Colombia- South America

I very much enjoyed your article on creating believable characters, and I found it very informative. I will definitely be doing character analysis and answering the "who, what, when, where, how" questions when I create my next storytelling film. I very much enjoy both your magazine and the website. Keep up the good work.
Dominic Hasbrouck
Hasbrouck Entertainment (HE)

Good article on Public Access Television in your May issue. I would like to see an up-to-date article on Leased Access Television. The availability of use, the legal aspects, and what you need to get started. I have heard that each cable TV channel has an x amount of channels dedicated to Leased Access, but I personally see no mention of it to outside producers. I commend Videomaker magazine for bringing a myriad of subjects in an easy-reading manner to its subscribers.
DOC

This is aimed at the message, not the messenger...

I've never taken the time to respond to any of the articles in Videomaker Magazine, and I have been reading through its pages for 10 years. But I did feel compelled to add these comments concerning your reporting on Documentarian in All of Us (Videomaker, May 2008).

Michael Moore is a very talented, creative and funny film maker, but he does not produce documentaries. His productions fall more under the title of mockumentaries, or just plain propaganda films. My dictionary defines a documentary as follows: depicting an actual event, era, life story, etc., accurately (my emphasis) and without fictional elements. Mr. Moore still proves you can fool some of the people some of the time. And by including him (IDA honors) in with many others that have labored behind a camera for years to produce a true documentary that is factual, without deception, misleading scenarios or outright falsehoods, is a slap in the face.

I labored for three full years, capturing the demolition of The Buick Motor Division auto plant here in Flint, Michigan. (The Buick employed 22,000 people in the 60s). And when Mr. Moore's production company (West Side Productions) called wanting to use some of my video, I was very happy to tell them... NO!

It would appear that as more and more documentaries are produced, more of them end up having a political agenda (usually to the left), and end up being just mere propaganda. This is really sad for the video/film industry, especially for the viewers of these projects.

Thank you for your contribution to Videomaker Magazine.
Leonard Thygesen, producer of The Buick
36 years service