WJ Visual Groups

Camcorder Equipment, Help Needed.

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:13 GMT

Hey Everyone,

I'm a student that works part time as a videographer for my local newspaper, The North County Times. After hours wasted working with MiniDV tapes I've decided that it was due time to replace my old Elura 100 for a newer, HD camcorder. Here is the new eqipment I was thinking of getting:

Camera: Canon Vixio HG 20

Tripod: Velbon DF-60 Tripod

Mic: Canon DM 100

Any thoughts, I wanted a camcorder with a decent lens so I could fit a standup as well as record good B-roll. Does anyone know anything about Tripods?

Also, what do you recommend for external microphones? What is the best way to do it? One clip on and one directional?

Thanks so much for taking your time to answer this it will hell help me so much,

Hunter

Video-capable DSLRs and news shooting

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:31 GMT

After months of drooling over the visual possibilities, I finally cracked and bought myself a Canon 7D (the "cheapest" of Canon's video-capable DSLRs). The decision was motivated almost purely by greed--I just HAD to have that gorgeous detail, that shallow depth of field--but now I'm left wondering how to make it work for news gathering.

Has anyone out there tried this? What worked? What didn't?

There are, I realize, dozens of forums dedicated to VDSLRs (God, what an unfortunate acronym), but they're all very thin on using the cameras specifically for NEWS video.

I'll be taking my camera back to China, where I plan to put it to use on a couple short feature pieces, and will post my impressions here. In the meantime, if anyone else wants to jump in with advice, questions or other thoughts, I'm eager to hear it.

Here's a little sample of what these cameras can do (shot the day I pulled mine out of the box).

Free coupons, a how to video

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:50 GMT

Whatcha think? See more like it here

Another video - "Anne Frank and Me"

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:57 GMT

I tried to implement some of the suggestions from this thread in this video -- using a tripod, identifying people with lower thirds, avoiding pans and tilts. It was a very different situation, which was interesting. The video runs long -- 4 minutes, 20 seconds -- which worried me a little bit, but I tried to keep the pacing pretty rapid nonetheless.

I spend a little more time with people talking and no B-roll than I usually would, but my two main interview subjects are both theater people with very expressive faces who I think are interesting to watch even when all they're doing is talking.

Any thoughts? Does it work? Anything that could have been better?

Anne Frank and Me from Erik Gable on Vimeo.

Multilingual slideshows - comments, critique please

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:50 GMT

At swissinfo.ch, we have begun producing audio slideshows in the four main languages of our website: english, German, French and Italian. The English slideshow page is here: http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/multimedia/slideshows/index.html?siteSect=15060. Production usually involves our photo editors, journalists and audio technicians. The idea is to produce a slideshow in one language and adapt it to the others. Do you think this can work? One example is this slideshow about Ramadan http://bit.ly/pVCVE (originally in Arabic), another about the construction of the Gotthard tunnel (only in German so far) http://bit.ly/uBRQ2. Thanks for your feedback. Scott

Multiple tools for video

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:39 GMT

I tried combining three different tools for this project, a hi-end vid cam, still camera and my iPhone. What do you think? Does it work?

Anybody up for a critique?

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:41 GMT

I wasn't sure whether to post this here or in the regular Video group -- the discussions in both seem pretty similar -- but this group seemed slightly more appropriate.

My organization has only been getting into video for about six months, and while we're trying to get more sophisticated with things like production values and good pacing, we're still on the steep part of the learning curve.

This is a tw0-minute presentation from the first day of a local art festival, intended partly to report on the event and partly as a preview for the second day. If you have a few minutes to watch it and offer feedback, I'd appreciate any suggestions of things we should work on. Production values, composition, editing, pacing -- anything. The video was shot with a Fuji FinePix camera -- no tripod, unfortunately, and I think I need to start using one -- and edited in iMovie.

Combining stills, video

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:12 GMT

I was inspired after our Digital Developer David Farre showed me an intervolumeter video from Brandon Riza of the California wildfires. This was made in Final Cut Express, combined stills from a Nikon D3 intervolumeter using Quicktime Pro to create the video clips, one frame every 2 seconds for about 1000 frames, and video feed from a Canon 1200 is Digial Elph...that's right, a point-and-shoot consumer camera. What's great about the intervolumeter is that you get a full frame wide view of the balloon's motion, something that a video camera would have a hard time capturing. And the stills we later used in print to promote the project.

Syncing two video cameras

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:14 GMT

We're starting our great video experiment at The Eagle-Tribune shooting daily "in studio" videos. Yes, it's been done and abandoned many other places and now we're taking our shot. So, in most cases, this will be two or three people in a 5 to 10 min. format show or interview. Where I'm hitting a wall is in how to effectively edit two cameras.

Ideally we'll have two cameras set up to alternate between the folks on our stage. When we shoot live video and broadcast on livestream, it's relatively easy to switch back and forth between camera views. However, if we're recording, I'm going to wind up with two tapes. Is this difficult to try to sync in FinalCut Express later on? Should we be be investing in some sort of video editing board that will combine the two camera signals into one final recording I can then import into FinalCut and add the finishing touches? Does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about? Do I?

-Noah

Testing, 1, 2, 3....

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:06 GMT

Just for testing how to best upload and display files (audio/video/etc.) for sharing and embedding as a means to critique discussions.
Thanks!