Video News

We’ve often talked about documentary video on this site and the one thing that we’ve stressed time and again is that a documentary topic does not need to be “big” to be good. Many readers look at documentaries like Ken Burns’ Civil War and assume that all documentaries need to be similarly epic sagas. But sometimes smaller stories have even more potential to really speak to people.

For example, take Cassi Glisper’s Next Tooth One Mile, a documentary about what it’s like to live with a gap between your front teeth. Cassi, an independent filmmaker with a decade of experience in short films, hit on the idea when she started doing research into dental options for her own gap. She’d lived her whole life hating her gap, but it was only when she decided to fix it that she really started thinking about what a gap represented.

It’s an intriguing idea for a movie. And one that could grab the interest of any viewer — I don’t have a gap myself, but, having some crooked snaggleteeth, I was immediately eager to hear what people would say to Cassi. In some ways, it’s a perfect documentary subject because it’s something you hardly even think about until someone pointed it out. Audiences have agreed, and the film took home honors at the 2009 International Film Festival Ireland and the 2010 Swansea Bay Film Festival in Wales.

“I planned interview sessions in public areas around the country with the intention to get as many perspectives and insight into the world of gappers,” said Cassi. “I knew that meeting real people and hearing of their human experience would shape the outline for the film,” said Cassi. “On weekends, I would hit the street with my video camera, a friend, and a small sign that read, ‘Got a gap, I want talk to you.’ While out, I looked at the mouths of those passing by. If they had a gap, I would ask if I could interview them for my documentary. Ninety-eight percent of those I asked agreed to be interviewed. I confess that New Yorkers were my toughest audience.”

Cassi’s interviews turned up some surprising results. While she had assumed that most people would hate their gaps, she found that about half of her respondents actually enjoyed having gap teeth. Most people would laugh at first when she explained her project, but quickly became excited at the chance to She interviewed gappers across the United States in California, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and Georgia, as well as overseas while on vacation in France and Kenya.

“Gappers in the United Stated had varying opinions about their gaps,” said Cassi. “Some felt that society thought they were from a poorer class because they didn’t get their gap closed. Others felt that their gap gave them a unique look, and they liked looking different – not like everyone else. But in Africa, having a gap is a BEAUTIFUL thing. Those with gaps are considered lucky. There are some people who try to drill a space between their teeth so that they can join this lucky group of gappers.”

One of the trickiest aspects of a documentary is always the man-on-the-street interview. It’s relatively easy to get a person to speak with you when you’ve arranged an interview in advance — they know who you are, what you’re doing, have reviewed your credentials and generally know what to expect. Not so when you’re approaching a random stranger! Cassi took a unique approach to set her subjects at ease. She would show them a picture of herself before she had her own gap fixed. This made them more comfortable with me. Most gap-toothed Americans could relate to her ambivalent feelings about her own gap, but the reaction was very different when she showed her old photos to people in Kenya.

“They couldn’t believe that I closed it,” said Cassi. “I remember one guy in particular saying, ‘Cassi, why did you do it? Why did you close the gap? It was beautiful! You could marry a great guy here.’ ”

After completing Next Tooth One Mile, Cassi is working on a feature script, entitled Rice & Gravy, about a friendship between two 13-year-old loners — a third generation Japanese American girl who moves to the deep south from California after her grandparents’ experience in a WWII Japanese interment camp and an African American girl from a long line of southerners.

You can learn more about Producer/Director/Writer/DP Cassi Glisper and her movies at her website.

We’re getting ready for some summertime fun with features to inspire video producers to get outdoors and shoot.  I thought you might like a look behind the scenes at our car mounts photo shoot.

From car mounts to citizen journalists, shooting video is becoming more mobile and easier to share. This summer Videomaker has several features showing you how to take action and get in the video producing game.

This is our Art Director, Susan Schmierer taking a picture of the Matthews PRO Car Mount System that we’re reviewing for the July issue.

Assisting Susan with reflectors and scrims is our Associate Tech Editor, Jackson Wong, and local reviewer Adam Vesely.

Usually we just shoot a picture of the product we review with a neutral white background, but for this review we thought it would be fun to show it in action.

So of course we had to get a cool car to shoot it with and there’s few cooler than a red Mini Cooper Countryman, courtesy of Adam Vesley.

The June issue is already finding it’s way into subscribers’ mailboxes and will be on sale at bookstores across the U.S. next week. We’re shipping the July issue, with the Matthews PRO Mount System reviewed, to the printer’s today… and it should be making it’s way to you by the end of June.

What else is in store for the summer time issues?

June has a 2-part series on your rights in public as a videographer – the first is on Citizen Journalism and how you can get your video on the news, and a second feature is on Copyright Registration, how to protect your copyrighted video once it’s “out there” in the Wild World of Web chaos.

We continue the look at your rights in public in the July issue with a continuing look at the very current actions in courts of ordinary citizens being arrested for recording public officials with our feature: Filming Police and Your First Amendment Rights. Are you protected?

Also, to continue look at protecting your assets, our August issue will have a feature on Watermarking your Video so you know when someone is using it online without your consent. Still shooters use watermarking tricks all the time, but how do video shooters do it? With metadata – we’ll show you how.

Finally, we’re looking at many ways you can profit with your video production, whether you are already in the video business or are a weekend hobbyist with our popular Profit Making column. June features profiting through the largely expanding Action and Extreme Video market, July takes a look at How to Find Clients and August examines the Real Estate Video Market – while the Real Estate market is dismal, marketing videos to the RE market is finally getting some acceptance, now is the time to jump into the game!

All that and more, stay tuned – it’s all inside!

I did not see this coming. Rather, I didn’t see this coming so quickly. OmniVision has announced a 16-Megapixel sensors that they claim are capable of capturing 4608 x 3456 at 30 fps or 4K2K (3840 x 2160) at 60 fps (!) for use in still and video cameras as well as high end mobile phones. So far, we haven’t heard any news of the chip being incorporated into any specific device, but the fact that it’s possible is staggering. This means that in the very near future, the average person can shoot video from their phone that will have enough resolution to be projected onto the big screen without up-scaling! Read the rest of this entry »

PENTAX K-30 is a camera that can allow you shooting independence. This DSLR joins a special class of cameras that are capable of both recording quality stills and video and withstanding water and dust. The weather sealing and rubber grip will let you operate the K-30 in the fog of a mountain and down in a dusty desert – both locations would be great for capturing 1080p video and photos. Composing landscape and establishing shots will be most effective with the full frame view coming from the K-30′s APS-C CMOS image sensor. The Prime M image processor is optimized for video and should present you with smooth monitoring.

Two more great features found in the body of the K-30 are image stabilizing via the sensor – so no need to have a lens that is stabilized, and an Advanced SAFOX IXi+ autofocusing system good for different lighting situations. If the auto focus weren’t enough there, try the 77-increment light metering with a respectable 100-25,600 ISO range.

Shooting with the K-30 can really be tailored to your style with two programmable dials and live view focus peaking. These two features should allow you to take control of your image without pulling away from the viewfinder. If you really can’t keep your eye on the viewfinder, the 3-inch 921,000 dot LCD should be ample. In either event, having power options is always nice, PENTAX offers an optional battery pack that will accept AA batteries to more than double (that’s more than 10 hours of playback) the standard battery’s life.

The full compliment of KAF K-mount lenses (PENTAX’s lenses) should be applicable with the K-30, as will be your stash of SD/SDHC/SDXC cards. If for some reason you’re interested in capturing audio while trekking the mountains or the desert, be advised that there’s no mic input. By the way, if you’re tired of having a black camera, the K-30 can also come in blue or white.

PENTAX’s K-30 makes a great bid to become your mid-range DSLR by coming with a 18-55mm lens for $900.

Our editing tools keep getting smaller and smaller! Trust us, we’re not complaining. That’s why we were so impressed with Western Digital’s new 7mm thin hard drive for Ultrabooks and other super-slim mobile workstations. This HDD comes in 320GB and 500GB varieties, meaning video producers will have tons of space to work on the road before they have to reach for  external drives. While solid state drives are preferred for speed, they still have yet to rival HDDs for sheer quantity of storage. We hope to see more of these types of ultra slim, high capacity drives.

When you’re working with lots video, one of the major roadblock can be how much storage you have access to. This problem is compounded when working with mobile devices that often have only a few gigabytes with which to store your data. Enter the Kingston Wi-Drive 64GB. This device feels like it’s tailor made for us. It’s extremely simple. Just save and access files directly to the Wi-Drive from any wi-fi enable device. It’s small, portable, and can be charged via USB, which means you’ll likely be able to use it with the charger you’re already lugging around for your phone. The battery will last for four to six hours, so if you’re out and about, you’ll want to make sure you keep that charger handy. Kingston hasn’t announced a release date or price, but if you absolutely need this type of storage solution and can’t wait, you can get the 32GB version for $89.99.

In video production, knowing how to use a green screen is an essential skill for any producer. It is an irreplaceable tool and can give you a lot of creative freedom in post-production. But in my book, knowing when to use a green screen is just as important as knowing how.

There are so many resources on how to shoot green screen for your project. Forums and blogs are filled with tips and tricks and best practices. In my experience, clients and producers seem to view green screen as a magic tool that makes a shoot easy, and avoid the hassle of being on location. However,  if you’ve had some experience trying to achieve high-end results with green screen, you’ve no doubt been frustrated with the process.

If you find yourself needing a shot of an actor hanging off the edge of a skyscraper, then green screen is probably going to be the most economical, and safest option. Often times, however, I’ve been asked to shoot green screen for scenes when a park, a news set, or a nondescript background was needed.

While green screen may appear to be a simpler option, often times I find that by the time I set up all the lighting properly, and spent the time in post-production to get the key and background correct, my time would have been much better spent researching and securing the right location. Good green screen work takes a lot of forethought and post-production time, and if not done properly, can easily bring down the production value of your entire project.

For interviews or a spokesperson, using a white or black background is a simple way to give you some of the options a green screen shot offers, without the time-consuming task of keying and precise lighting. Some simple editing can allow for graphics and other assets to be placed alongside your talent. I’ve always found white and black backgrounds to be easy to work with, while continuing to keep the production value high without a huge time investment.

So the next time you’re considering breaking out the green screen, consider your options carefully, and make the choice that will result in the highest production value you can achieve.

This neat little device is a no-brainer for iPhone using video enthusiasts. For $99 you get a pocket sized projector that fits snugly flush with your phone. The Pop Video Projector will give you a 50 inch projected display, or possibly larger in a dark room. It will send a 960×540 image, so better than SD. Considering the size and portability of the Pop Video Projector, we found this impressive. We wish it also included a speaker, as currently you’ll have to either listen using the iPhone’s speaker, or bring your own external ones, which would severely hurt the portability of the setup. The battery is an internal lithium -ion rechargeable, which provides up to two hours of use. If you ever had the urge to shoot video and share it on the fly, the Pop Video Projector may be your new best friend.

Let us first take the SLT-A37, this Translucent Mirror Technology camera is another first-step available for those that are curious about DSLRs.

Shooting will be a joy with the 1,440,000 dot resolution in the electronic viewfinder, and how would we maintain creativity without a tilting 2.7-inch LCD? As for the core of the SLT-A37, we’re looking at a 16MP Exmor APS CMOS sensor with a BIONZ image processor, this is going to be consistent with the strong points of other more expensive Sony cameras, so it becomes great news when we find that the price comes out at $600 with a 18-55mm lens.

The SteadyShot shake reducer is housed in the body of the SLT-A37 and that frees up the A-mount lenses to be constructed without stabilizing mechanisms. There are a couple auto functions to assist the user in some of the more tedious aspects of shooting, such as Auto Portrait Framing which employs the rule of thirds – before you say “there goes my creativity!” Know that the camera will save both the full image and the cropped image. Then there’s the 15-point auto focus and auto mode that will adjust settings according to your scene and subjects.

The SLT-A37 has Pixel Super Resolution Technology which should provide two times the focal length without changing lenses, it will require some trial here to see if there is any error, since we’re usually leery of digitally zoomed shots. Video capability is up to par with 1920×1080, 60i captured in MP4 on SD or Memory Stick PRO cards. So, ultimately, we definitely would love to see how the SLT-A37 feels to a camcorder convert, and at $600, this is quite attainable.

Now for the NEX-F3 we’re looking at the same sensor that’s found in the SLT-A37, so this is exceptional since the form factor with the lens detached will be suitable for your pocket. This time around, you may use E-mount lenses, and experiment with better battery stamina. This notion of powering electronics is certainly coming to the forefront with other devices, and likely since there’s much more power being utilized inside said electronics, and that’s really just a long way to say – we like more battery life.

Aside from form, the different set of available lenses and an optional OLED attachment, the NEX-F3 shares video and auto capabilities with the SLT-A37. Coincidentally, the price is a repeat here, $600 for the NEX-F3 with the 18-55mm lens.

Event videography can be a scary undertaking. Because, unlike almost any other sort of videography, you only have one shot to get it right. There’s no way that a couple is going to agree to restage their entire wedding just because you messed up a shot, and likewise no band is going to put on a repeat performance because you forgot to prepare right. Naturally, you need to be on your A-game for any event videography job, be it a birthday party, a sports game or even a political speech. One of the best ways to make sure that you’re catching all the action that you need is to use multiple cameras. And we’ve got just the tool to help you do that, a brand new free report titled Multi-Camera Shooting for Event Videography!

Using multiple cameras lets you make sure that you capture all the action. Even if you get distracted by one thing, your spare cameras will save your neck… if you set them up right to catch what you need! This latest free report from Videomaker explains what you need to do to make sure that you use multiple cameras effectively.

What can you do to make sure you don’t miss the most important parts of the event? Multiple cameras are a great way to get all the angles, but, remember, a camera is only a piece of equipment. That means it’s only as good as the person using it. What good are multiple expensive cameras if you don’t know the first thing about using them all at once? We’ll give you the skinny so that you can juggle two or even three cameras like a professional. This report includes:

Learn:

• Why Multi-Camera Shoots?
• Camera Placement in Multi-Cam Shooting
• Using Rehearsals for Perfect Placement
• Going To Multiple Performances
• The Blair Witch Effect
• The Camera: A Scene’s Invisible Player
• Using Three Cameras When You’re Alone

Download Videomaker’s latest free report, Multi-Camera Shooting for Event Videography, to get more helpful tips about juggling multiple cameras when you’re on a tight deadline. We asked a professional event videographer with extensive concert-shooting experience to share some of his expertise, including a look at the so-called “Blair Witch” effect of event videography.  We think you’ll find some new tricks here that will help you on your path to improved video. Check it out!