18th Annual Pro Video Show
February 14, 2008
The 18th Annual Pro Video Show (hosted by the Camera Company with the participation of the Boston FCP User Group, SMPTE/NE, and NPVA/NE) will be held Friday and Saturday, March 7-8, 2008 at Stonehill College (Sally Blair Ames Sports Complex) in Easton, Massachusetts. This popular annual event provides two days of informative workshops, seminars, and equipment demonstrations, with lots of opportunities to check out the latest gear. I will be presenting three seminars at the show you might be interested in attending:
- Web Video 2.0: Delivering Your Video Online (Friday, March 07, 1:00PM - 3:00PM, $25.00)
- Art of the Interview: Strategies and Techniques for Better Video Interviews (Saturday, March 08, 9:00AM - 11:00AM, $25.00)
- Interview Lighting: Professional Results On A Tight Budget (Saturday, March 08, 1:00PM - 3:00PM, $25.00
Join me at the Web Video Summit in New York, Dec. 10-11, 2007
November 29, 2007
I’ll be participating in the Web Video Summit to be held at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York on December 10-11, 2007. Check out the conference schedule, the event will provides a balance of technology and business topics. If your a web video practitioner or enthusiast and live in the Northeast, this is the not-to-be-missed end-of-year event. I’ll be participating on the Lights, Cameras, Sound: How to Get Great Results panel (1:00pm-1:50pm on Monday) where we’ll be discuss stratagies, tactics, and techniques for better video and sound that will not break your production budget. The session will be moderated by Asa Aarons (Columnist, NY Daily News) and my fellow panelists are Alex Lindsay (Producer, Pixelcorps) and Josh Wolf (Independent Journalist, The Rise Up Network, peralta.TV, Free The Media). Hope to see you there.
Interview Lighting (handout)
September 9, 2007
Here’s a handout I cobbled together from various sources while on the train ride back to Boston after attending and presenting at Podcamp Philly. It reviews the examples I discussed in the session and goes into more detail on some of the specific issues.
Download Slidshow (PDF, 8 MB), also check out my Reference Pages index.
Comparison of Camera vs. Boom Microphone
September 8, 2007
Here’s a quick comparison I did of recording dialog with an MKH60 Shotgun Microphone mounted on a camera vs. mounted on a boom.
Kino-Flo DIVA and Kobold 400W HMI PAR
September 8, 2007
Here’s a little video I made with Steve Garfield to demonstrate the use of daylight balanced lighting in an outdoor interview situation, using the lighting to help create a better balance between subject and background. The instruments used in the video are the Kobold 400W HMI PAR and the Kino-Flo DIVA 400.
Canon TX1 Movie Test
May 8, 2007
OK, so the big question is, what’s the tiny Canon TX1 like as a video camera? To answer the question, I made a short video this weekend. I’m not much for testing with charts and side by side comparisons these days, image quality is only part of the camera equation, so instead I do some shooting and from the results, I ask the question, is the image quality reasonable given all the other aspects of the camera that come into play when making the decision of what camera to purchase or use, for example, handling, form-factor, weight, cost, features, image processing, media formats, lens, ease-of use, etc.?
Canon TX1 First Impressions
May 6, 2007
I’ve been shooting with a Canon S100 Digital Elph since 2000, and after seven years the camera was looking very long in the tooth, with dead pixels and starting to fall apart, it was time for an equally tiny replacement. For serious still shooting I’ve got a Canon 10D w/ an EF 24mm-70mm f/2.8 lens, and for video, a Sony HVR-A1U HDV camcorder, and even though the images from both of these puppies are spectacular, I don’t always want to deal with the weight and bulk of these cameras. I like having a small digital camera I can take with me wherever I go, that I can wear on my belt and forget it’s there. But I also would like to shoot short movie segments, so I’ve been waiting for something with at least 1280 x 720 (720p) video capability in the Digital Elph form factor. Finally Canon introduced the TX1 that fits the bill, so after years waiting and considering, yet not purchasing, many alternatives, I settled on the TX1.
Reel Now Online
May 1, 2007
I finally got around to moving my reel from DVD-R to the web. Of course, the DVD is still available, and the images look much better played off the DVD on a good 16:9 television, but the web is where it’s at these days. Special thanks to Colin Owens for the use of his music in several of the reel clips. The page was built using Jeroen Wijering’s Flash Media Player. I highly recommend this player for embedding video into web pages.
Do production values matter?
March 8, 2007
We had an interesting discussion at the last Boston Media Makers meeting on the topic “Do Production Values Matter?” We set aside 30 minutes for the discussion, and a lively discussion ensued that went on for over an hour. Here’s a little video excerpt from the discussion:
17th Annual Pro Video Show to be held March 9-10, 2007 at Stonehill College in Easton, Ma
February 3, 2007
If you live in the Boston area you will not want to miss the 17th Annual Pro Video Show sponsored by The Camera Company to be held Friday and Saturday, March 9-10, 2007 at Stonehill College, in Easton, Massachussetts (Exit 17B off Route 24). This annual event provides local media makers with the opportunity to check out new equipment, talk with fellow media makers, and attend a wide range of workshops and seminars. Yours truly will be presenting two of the seminars, “Delivering Video on the Web” and “Champagne Production Values on a Beer Production Budget.”
