Technology and Innovation

Video distribution was a grim prospect ten years ago. Today there almost seem to be too many choices. As long as you know your limitations and you have the patience for some experimentation, you should be able to get pleasing results. The following question remains, though: where will video be viewed ten years from now? We really wish we could answer that, but, sadly, we left our crystal ball out in the rain

Shrinking your video resoluNext check your data rate options. With video, you will most notice the lowering of the data rate with fast movement. The more motion you have, the less you’ll want to drop the video data rate. If the program you are using has the ability to use 2-pass VBR (variable bit rate) encoding, you will benefit from the compressor’s ability to scan the media twice for better compression.

Try your best to stay detached from the story and its characters, so that you can be an objective observer. Break the video down into its essential elements and enjoy the discoveries you will make as you enter the video classroom. If you or I made a video ten years ago. we would be extremely lucky if anyone other than our family and friends saw it. Television or a movie screen was the only outlet, and it would have cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars to get your work there.

Church members could tape a service and show it to shut-ins who have difficulty leaving their home. Instead of putting on a play for Sunday school, you can produce a video with the kids. For artsy people in the “scene.” create a video montage of the hottest works in your city and put it up on the Web. Airplane enthusiasts can produce a training video for their aeronautics club.

We’re 100% democratic, 100% unrigged and 100% dedicated to overthrowing the entertainment mediocracy. We give monthly Best Video prizes of $5k, exposure to industry trailblazers, plus many other useful goodies.

The landscape of “How To” video sharing is growing, and we’ve been telling you about it from the beginning on Videomaker Presents. Now we’ll be bringing you more video-sharing news right here in the magazine. Learn to become an expert in your field, or just share something you know how to do. We’ll be finding and reporting on ways you can hook up with video-sharing sites that revolve around the idea of sharing a hobby or passion.
There are more and more Web sites being created every day on video sharing and the community that the sharing creates.

Hi, I have been a subscriber to your magazine for a long time and it has been a great experience all these years. I would like to see articles about people who are doing business using consumer camcorders: cameras than don’t cost more than $600.00 at least. I know that today’s equipment has been lowered in terms of costs, and you can practically have your own production studio with a good computer and a good camera, but what about people who can’t afford more than a regular camcorder and a turnkey computer system?

I have been a filmmaker since the late ’60s and am now working in the video field. I now shoot almost exclusively on videotape. I entered some films in the Academy Awards competition back in the late ’70s and remember that we all had to adhere to a strict set of rules, one of which was that my production had to be originated on film and projected in a theatre in Los Angeles County for seven consecutive paid play dates, on film, not videotape. This was no easy task if you could not afford a 16mm to 35mm blowup.
At the risk of appearing a bit uninformed, I must ask if you could tell me when these rules changed and to what extent they have changed. Obviously. I can originate on tape now, but can I also project from tape or DVD?

The perception of natural speech is a combination of pacing and inflection. In some cases, pacing can be accomplished by tight editing of the dialog. But if you study the flow of the talent’s speech patterns, you’ll find some words are slurred together, and sometimes certain vowels and consonants are glossed over. Simulating these patterns requires some work. In a multitrack audio environment, you can put each word on its own track, shifting them until they flow properly. Inflection is tougher. To create the proper rise and fall of a person’s voice, you can apply some pitch shifting to words. Audition offers both static and progressive pitch shifting, allowing you to set start and end pitches. Another alternative is a pitch correction plugin. These beauties let you draw the desired pitch changes over time. In any case, it’s a challenge and the results may not be perfect, but it’s cheaper and easier than a reshoot.
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After a little time and practice, these techniques will become standard tools in your box. Just keep telling yourself, “this was impossible ten years ago,” and now you can easily do it in your living room