Richard Ober

With entries in the categories of Short Film, Documentary, Commercial, Music Video, Nature & Wildlife, and Student Film, Panasonic’s “Shoot It/Share It” video contest has something for everyone.  At Videomaker we are always eager to share ways for both beginner and expert video producers to get their work acknowledged. This year’s “Shoot It/Share It” contest invited videographers from around the [...]

Storyboarding is an often overlooked component of making great video. The best directors around will tell you that whether you’re making a feature length film or aiming to create the latest YouTube video sensation, a good storyboard will both ease you through the production and shooting process and make your post-production work easier. But not every [...]

We all know the important place that DSLRs now have in the world of video production. The versatility of these cameras, the ability to alternate between still photography and video at a shoot, the interchangeable lenses, large processors, and more, have all meant that DSLRs are an attractive option for shooting video. At Videomaker we’ve written about a [...]

At CES last last month, Videomaker awarded Nikon’s D4 DSLR “Best of Show” for it’s impressive array of features like an ISO range of 50 to 204,800, 1080p video with an uncompressed HDMI output, and an FX-format (36mm x 23.9mm) sensor. Like so many videographers and still shooters alike, we can’t wait to start shooting with this [...]

“Today, everybody’s a filmmaker.”  That’s the message of director Wim Wenders (“Paris, Texas” and “Wings of Desire” among many other films, as well as music videos for U2 and The Talking Heads) as he introduces a new innovative video competition in partnership with the pen and watchmaker, MontBlanc. Launched in September, the competition, titled “The Beauty [...]

In Michel Gondry’s 2008 film Be Kind Rewind, Jack Black’s character (“Jerry”) explains what it means to “swede” in this way: “You take what you like and you mix it with some other things you like and make a new thing.” Neither the filmmaker, Gondry, nor the actor, Black, likely predicted that sweding would take off [...]

Video shooters of all expertise levels, from novice to pro, are always looking for the fastest way to get big chunks of data off the camera and into their editing programs.  For the majority of us, that now means pulling images and video off an SD card and onto our computer’s hard drive.  In managing this [...]

Videographers are in the business of creating artistic, instructional, or archival moving images. Creating and sharing original work is what it’s all about. But what if you don’t have the perfect sequence to tell your story? Or what about the times when in order to tell your story effectively you need historic or iconic footage from [...]

Videomaker is a great place to work for many reasons. Not the least of which is that our attention is frequently called to some pretty cool videos; videos shot by both novices and pros, and videos shot on everything from a smartphone and consumer cameras to professional and prosumer level camcorders. So it’s no wonder our [...]

People in the video production world have a variety of motivations for making video.  Some are striving for a unique voice or to explore a particular facet of an artistic vision.  Others are in the video production business, recording events for paying customers.  Others are just starting out with ambitions to become accomplished directors, videographers, and [...]

It’s award season. A little while back we wrote about the upcoming Webby Awards, which provide both Web designers and video producers the opportunity to have their online work recognized. Next up is the Telly Awards , which is self-described as “honoring the very best in Film and Video Production, Online Videos, programs and commercials, and local, regional [...]

How have other videographers made use of green screens for special effects?  What one “trick” in pre-production planning do others find most important?  What’s the coolest music video ever made and what lighting techniques can be gleaned from it?  You have questions and Videomaker.com has answers. Well, Videomaker.com and Videomaker readers. The editors and experts at Videomaker field questions [...]

The art of the long continuous shot has always been rooted in exhaustive pre-production planning, precision timing, disciplined talent, and more than just a little bit of luck. To shoot a video in one continuous take means getting the ball rolling (sometimes literally) and then following the action, hitting one’s marks along the way, until the climactic end. [...]

As the standard for smartphone cameras reaches 8MP, and is soon to go on up from there, the phenomenon of videos shot entirely on smartphones like the new iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S II is only going to expand in the coming years. The consumer and the prosumer market for full-featured camcorders and HDSLRs [...]

2011 marks the 16thyear for the Webby Awards and the this year’s entry deadline is October 28 th. There are many good reasons for making short films, music videos, documentary shorts, animated movies, etc: love of the craft, fascination with the ever-evolving technology, professional endeavors, and “having something to do on the weekends” are among the many motivating factors [...]

My son took the GoPro HD out the other day, mounted it under his bike seat just above the rear tire, and pointed it backward.  And off he went for a quick spin around our city’s park and along it’s miles of bike paths and single track trails. The video he shot was pretty cool; nice views [...]

For many of you, this will be a familiar story: In 1965 Gordon Moore published a paper in which he observed that the number of transistors that can be packed into an integrated circuit had been doubling every two years since the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958. He predicted that this phenomenon would continue [...]

On-line sources fo r video content of all sorts, from artistic to instructional to experimental, are multiplying at a dizzying pace. Video collaboration, particularly collaboration “in the cloud,” is a quickly maturing concept.  And behind these sites for online video collaboration is the basic motivation for film makers and graphic artists to find new muses and wider audiences. Clearly there is no shortage of inspiration [...]