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!

Video production is such a wide and varied field, from hobbyist and amateur producers, to Lone Wolf business people and full-fledged production facilities. Is your interest in editing video production or video production service? Are you a wedding video producer or a newbie looking for advice? Are you making online video or educational video? Video producers come in all flavors and inquiring minds want to know: who ARE you? What kind of video work do you do? Let us know, we’re curious about what type of video you make, and for what purpose.

Recently, EarlC, one of Videomaker‘s moderators, posted a Videomaker Forums Survey looking to answer some questions about the type of video producer who reads Videomaker, either online or in a paper edition, and who reads our forums and who is active on them.

As many of you might know, Videomaker forums are chock full of advice from real video professionals working in the trenches – and best of all, they’re FREE! How many places can you get service for free, huh?!?! Read the rest of this entry »

What’s Your Video Style? Take this quiz for fun and see what style of video best suits your personality. Agree or disagree with your results? Tell us why below!

1) What’s your Favorite thing about putting together a video?

A) I like working in a nice quiet studio, where I can devote all my attention to my work.

B) I like working with video tools and equipment. I’m a real hardware fanatic!

C) I like working with people. They fascinate me!

D) I like creating an ambiance, something that will really draw the audience into the movie!

E) I like the action. I’m not happy unless I’m in the center of the storm!

F) I like the chance to be creative, to experiment with new ideas!

2) What’s the most important thing you look for when you watch a video?

A) I look to see how well it’s technically put together. I appreciate good craftsmanship.

B) It has to look good! People aren’t going to watch it if it looks like it was made by amateurs.

C) I like a good story, something to really make me care about the people on the screen.

D) A good soundtrack! A movie is boring if it doesn’t have a some tunes!

E) I want to see real people in real situations! I want to see how things really happened.

F) Did it teach me something new? I always want to add to my knowledge!

3) If you could pick anyplace in the world to shoot a video, would you choose to shoot:

A) The Great Barrier Reef in Australia?

B) The Roman Catacombs in Italy?

C) The Great Pyramids of Egypt?

D) The Oktoberfest Celebration in Germany?

E) The Running of the Bulls in Spain?
F) Bodie Ghost Town in California?

4) How would you describe yourself?

A) Meticulous and Logical!

B) Dark and Mysterious!

C) An Avid Story-teller!

D) Epic, Bigger than Life!

E) A Romantic at Heart!
F) Curious and Restless!

5) What’s your Biggest Reward in Making Video?

A) The Satisfaction of a Job Well Done.

B) The Appreciation of an Audience

C) Making a difference in the way people see the world.

D) The Chance to do Something Challenging and Creative

E) Seeing People’s Faces when they see themselves in your video

F) Seeing your Work on the Big Screen.

If you answered mostly A, you are an EDITOR. Shooting video is fun, but you have a real appreciation for the craft and artistry that comes afterward. You know that every snip and splice has the potential to make a story come to life, and there’s nothing you like better than turning that raw footage into something compelling.

If you answered mostly B, you are a LIGHTING FANATIC. You know that a video isn’t worth anything if you can’t tell what’s going on in it. Your standards for lighting are strict and your videos benefit from your attention to detail. Whether it’s creating a noir atmosphere with shadows or illuminating an interview subject, you know that lighting is key to interesting, engrossing videos. You’re always up to meet the challenges that other videographers forget to prepare for.

If you answered mostly C, you are a DOCUMENTARIAN. You love story telling and you can find the story in anything. Whether it’s something as small and silly as a nature film about salamanders or as heart-felt and personal as a family biography, you’re aces at finding those telling moments that illustrate the big picture. You love exploring human drama and you’re not shy about capturing the best – and worst– with your camera.

If you answered mostly D, you are a SOUND FANATIC. You’re the person people turn to when they need to capture the soft sounds of birdsong or muffle out the interrupting din from the nearby highway, because you understand how important sound is. When you do your job right, the results are practically invisible. Audiences may not realize why they like your videos, that your perfectly-synced sound effects and carefully selected music are what’s pulling them in, but you know the secret. You’re always up to meet the challenges that other videographers forget to prepare for.

If you answered mostly E, you are an EVENT VIDEOGRAPHER. You’re a daredevil; you like being right in the middle of the action. You don’t shirk from a challenge and you’re not afraid to take on assignments where you only have one shot to get it right – weddings, celebrations, speeches, anything where there’s a vortex of activity, you’ll be there with your camera in hand. Action is your watchword!

If you answered mostly F, you are a JACK OF ALL TRADES. You’re always exploring, always searching for something new. You never accept that you’ve learned enough, and you’re always striving to improve your video-making skills. Your creativity and inquisitiveness show through in your videos, which are continuously changing and maturing.

For tips and tricks with all sorts of video, join Videomaker‘s  eNews electronic newsletter, chock full of the info and advice you crave, it’s just what you need to satisfy that nagging curiosity.

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 producers in the film industry.  Still others are educators utilizing video in the classroom to enhance student learning and to get kids jazzed about the topic at hand.  The bottom line for everyone in the video production world is to reach as large an audience as possible.

Last week the Federal Communications Commission announced a program that will help, on multiple fronts: the “Connect to Compete” initiative.

Expected to hit the ground in the spring of 2012, this private and public partnership, coordinated by the FCC, will bring affordable broadband internet service to millions of households where there is none today.  As described on the Connect2compete.org website, “Connect to Compete is a national private and nonprofit sector partnership created to increase broadband adoption and digital literacy training in disadvantaged communities throughout the United States. The initiative is designed to help residents improve outcomes in education, health, and employment through broadband opportunities and technology solutions.”

In a world of hyper-connectivity and ever-faster devices providing instant access to information and near instant recording and sharing of the events of our lives through video, it’s startling to realize how many people are being left out. According to the Pew Research Center, fully a third of all Americans are currently without broadband internet service.  Of course, some of these households are opting out as conscientious objectors to the ubiquity of communications channels.  Clearly for many, many others, though, it’s a simple matter of economics.  Hard choices are being made about what to put in the shopping cart and broadband Internet connectivity just isn’t always at the top of the list, or on the list at all.  And when these households include school-age children eligible for free school lunch programs, for instance, or the poorer elderly, it means that the lack of affordable Internet access is just one more way in which many people are being left behind.  What used to be a non-essential luxury, a fast Internet connection at home, is increasingly an integral tool for education, employment, community action, and political engagement.

Connect to Compete, with the full participation and support of the cable industry, computer suppliers like Microsoft and Redemtech, and finance institutions like Morgan Stanley, will make broadband internet connections available to any household with a student currently eligible for free school lunches for about $10 per month.

And why should we in the video technology world be paying attention?  It goes back to who’s making and sharing video and, importantly, who’s watching.  We all benefit from a broader and more diverse audience for the work of videographers, short film producers, and those exploring the capabilities of the expanding field of video.  Connect to Compete will help to enable more and more of us to participate in the coming years.

(For another take on the importance of high-speed internet connectivity for sharing video, see Daniel Bruns’ “Internet at the Speed of Light: How Faster Connections Affect the Video World.”)

Will Work for Free: Shooting Charity Video

Every once in a while a charity video shooting project comes along that piques my interest, even though I know I won’t get a dime out of the job.

Most video producers, at some time in their career, are approached by someone looking to get free services from them ‘out of the goodness of their heart’ or ‘for the love of the project’. Many times, this person who approached the video producer is completely clueless to how much time is involved in making even a simple 2-minute video. Shooting charity video is usually one of these causes.

Recently, a non-video producer contacted one of my compadres to edit 9 hours of stage performances down to a 5 minute promotional piece. My associate was wary of what he would be expected to deliver and most of the reluctance was the ‘nine hours of footage’… anything over an hour is a nightmare if it’s not well-shot or well-logged. We’re talking about possibly a couple 40-hour work weeks just cutting it down.

The standard “rate” one edits is roughly based on a time-conversion-by-edited-footage ratio.

1 minute of edited footage = 1 hour of editing time – minimum. Based on that, the performance footage would yield a minimum of a 5-7 hour project, but the added amount of footage translates to a 540:7 ratio – that is, 540 minutes of raw footage to a 7 minute edited piece, which might end up making the work involved to be roughly 9 hours per edited minute,  which factors to 63 hours of work!

Unless the contractor has full blocks of footage he already knows will be cut out and depending on how well organized he is, this is still quite a time-consuming project. I wonder if he is a aware and willing to pay the price for this work? People don’t value the time it takes for editors to do their magic!

What Price Pro for Hire?

Some time back, I blogged about a couple situations when twice I was hired to do a video, then the contractor balked at a ‘below minimum wage’ quote. In each incident, the people had lots of money at their disposal, they just didn’t want to spend it on my work. My blog,  What Price Pro for Hire? got a number of people responding, and I suspect it was because they, too, have been treated unfairly by contractors.

Forums member robGRAUERT summed it up well when he wrote: “Video is a powerful tool that requires skill if it’s to be effective. People need to respect it.” While forums member jusbe said he was a professional who had “developed and paid for skills with blood, sweat, tears, time and cash.” He added, “Tough luck if a multi-national electronics company sold them the idea that all you need to be a skilled videographer is a fancy amateur camera.”

When I was approached two years ago, I was given the standard “it can help me break in the business and open doors… earn my dues…” lines, when, of course, I paid my dues 30+ years ago when I first started working in TV.

For the Love of the Project

Which, actually, brings me to my original point. Last weekend I DID do a charity shoot – for free – because I felt good about the cause and I went into it knowing I wasn’t going to be paid – but… I stuck to my guns about several points: “I will shoot the event only, but I won’t edit it. I will hand the tape over to whomever you get to edit it and will be done with it. I ask for my full name and title to be acknowledged on the credits, and I do not want the tape back or any other associations with the project.”

The shoot was planned to be a one-hour event, but ended up costing me four hours of my time; but I didn’t regret it because I went into it with full knowledge of was expected of me. And I enjoyed the work.

Charity work CAN get you great recognition, there are hundreds of YouTube videos being made every year to help support some cause from traditional well-known charity organizations like the Red Cross to small local fund-raisers to help a family that’s recently lost their home to fire. There are even video production houses, now, that specialize in producing charity video for a discount, and many contests that can get you started.  To stand out from the crowd, you need to deliver a clean product, regardless of how you are compensated.

What price should you place on doing charity work? You really need to consider the organization and your skill level, and also what they expect to do with the video. If it is going to be a series, then you might bid lower for the first one, if they like your work you might convince them to compensate you for more later on.

Shooting charity video can be rewarding, as long as you go in with an open mind and know you might gain nothing but a pat on the back. Charity video shooting isn’t for everyone and I wouldn’t do it too often myself, but I did experience a nice Autumn day in the park, and feel honored to help the cause.

To find out more about getting paid for your video work, check out these stories from Videomaker: From Pay to Profit, and 5 Steps to More Profit From Video.

Your First Amendment Rights – New rulings states you can’t get arrested for videotaping police, politicians, and other government officials.

You’ve read many stories right here in Videomaker and other publications about someone with a camcorder witnessing a confrontation with police and these witnesses holding that camcorder do what anyone would – they record the act. They might not know what or why the confrontation is about, but by recording the action, in some cities or states, they were considered accessories to a crime or participating in criminal activity. Some states, such as Massachusetts, would use a wire-tapping ruling against the camcorder user as an excuse to confiscate the camcorder and arrest the user. Not anymore. A Federal court has ruled in favor of videographers. Americans with recording devices are now protected under the First Amendment to record public officials doing their jobs in a public arena.

Whether it’s a cop getting aggressive during an arrest or a congressman entering a bordello, if the act is in a public area – they might not like it – but they’re fair game to cameras rolling.

You may recall the story of Simon Glik in Boston, who stumbled across an arrest in progress in a public park. He videotaped the officers as they were arresting a man, but as soon as one of the officers noticed that Glik was recording the process, Glik was arrested. Not for shooting video, but for recording audio, because he was in violation of Massachusetts’ wiretap law. Glik was charged with wiretapping. But he was later found not guilty by the Boston Municipal Court, because his recording device wasn’t concealed. So he filed a civil rights violation suit. The police claimed he was in violation of something called qualified immunity, which is supposed to protect them from being harassed while doing their job. The U.S. District denied their claim and the police filed an appeal, which lead to the important ruling.

An excerpt from the August 26, 2011 Appeal From the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruling,  states:

“In this interlocutory appeal, the defendant police officers challenge an order of the district court denying them qualified immunity on Glik’s constitutional claims. We conclude, based on the facts alleged, that Glik was exercising clearly established First Amendment rights in filming the officers in a public space, and that his clearly-established Fourth Amendment rights were violated by his arrest without probable cause. We therefore affirm.”

This is fascinating text; you should read the entire ruling. It spells out how Glik heard what he thought was excessive behavior from the police so he started recording the action, how – when challenged – he responded that he was concerned for the man’s well-being. And when he was arrested, and then cleared, he tried to file a complaint with Boston’s internal affairs and was ignored.

What we’ve gained here is that public officials can’t “bully” us into not recording what we see. For instance an innocent bystander doesn’t have to make the decision to “not get involved” when he stumbles upon an action that appears someone’s rights are being violated or a public official is breaking the law.

What this gives videographers – and ordinary citizens with a cell phone alike – is protection against being considered a criminal for being a witness to an event – good or bad – that takes place on public property or while the witness is on public property.

One might argue that the problem with a confrontation being recorded by the witness who stumbles upon the event is that it could be similar to walking into a movie already in progress. The recorded images don’t show what led up to the event, only that frozen moment in time. But then again, an eyewitness without a recording device might be in the same situation. “I saw a man running; I saw other men in uniform take him down…” however, “recorded witness” is usually more accurate than an “eye witness”, who could be confused by what’s going on at the time, and his/her brain might not assemble all points to the puzzle immediately. An eyewitness, though, isn’t (usually) arrested for what he might have seen.

The camera is a non-participatory, unemotional documentarian in the purest form – it sees – without prejudice – what it is focused and framed to see. Events occurring outside its “screen” are not considered. Who’s to say that right next to that confrontation, something bigger is going on, something that could explain the scene that is being captured at the moment? Ah… but that’s a different idea for another time.

In the United States, public officials – sort of like “public domain footage”- are “owned” by the citizens of this country. We pay their salaries through our taxes, and so some of their own personal space rights are given up when they take public office. They know this, but as many a politician who’s gotten his fingers caught in the cookie jar know, in this new world of the ubiquitous camera, if you’re not doing anything wrong, you shouldn’t have to worry, right?

Least anyone thinks they can now record events without worry, they are wrong. There are lots of rules about public access and intent that can still land you in jail, if you’re not careful. Our “What’s Legal” columns by patent attorney Mark Levy explain a lot of the rules in easy-to-follow layman’s terms. Check it out. And remember, you should always try to stay on the legal side of the law when you’re recording in public places or anywhere, for that matter. The Center for Social Media has a great listing of code of practices in Fair Use, check it out.