Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Lez Zeppelin / Dread Zeppelin

Rueters talks about an all-women group Lez Zeppelin. Me, I'm into Dread Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin with a Raggae beat. I gotta include some Dread Zep songs in a future home DVD.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

More DIY Video

We rented "My Date with Drew" recently. It follows a guy in LA trying to get a date with Drew Barrymore. It was decent, but the coolest thing about it, in my opinion, was that the guy didn't have too much money. So he rented a video camera from Circuit City and had to return it within 30 days to get his money back. He's got a website too, if you want to check it out. The Beastie Boys did a similar thing when they bought 50 hi-end video cameras and gave them to fans to film their concert video (see previous post).

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Beastie Boys DIY Concert Video and MySpace

As seen on the New York Times via BoingBoing.net, the Beastie Boys are blowing away the norm again, this time for Concert Films. They gave 50 fans handheld video cameras to film a concert in Madison Square Garden last year and are showing the results at Sundance this year. Pretty cool, but the other cool thing is that they will be premiering and promoting the film in association with MySpace in order to celebrate the debut of their filmaker-community site. There's so much cool stuff between all this information that I could spend days on it (and probably will).

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

A great Camcorder Information Site

This is a great site that has alot of rich information on my recent purchase, Camcorderinfo.com, as well as reviews, information and tons of other stuff interesting to camcorder users and buyers.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Lacie 160 GB Hard Drive

I was having some problems with my Mac - due to lack of memory. It's pretty new so I was surprised until I looked in my movie folder and saw some really big 20 gig files. Undedited (still) video from vacations and birthdays. They really add up. My hard drive is 160G and they filled up most of it. So I got the Lacie external firewire hard drive - at 160 gig it should help manage those files. It was pretty much plug and play. Designed by FA Porsche too - for all of you who've always dreamed of getting a Porsche.

Now here's a question for you regarding your videos - what do you save and how? The rough (original) video? The edited stuff? The original tape or save off to DVD or external hard drive?

Saturday, January 14, 2006

VHS to DVD Conversion

I have many old home movies on VHS from my days prior to a computer with a DVD burner. I was going to buy a converter like the PYRO A/V Link but I sat on that idea for awhile. Luckily, at the same time, I was looking for a new digitial camcorder. A good thing - the one I bought, a Canon Elura 90, has this capability. Connect your VCR to the camcorder and the camcorder to the computer and set it running. I saved almost $200 with this combo. Justification for paying an extra $200 for the upper-end version I guess.

Friday, January 13, 2006

The Picture People Hints (Part II)

Our picture from the Picture People came out really nice and we were pretty happy with it and the overall experience, with a few caveats (based on my experience anyway).

1) You're not going to get the kind of attention to detail as with a more standard studio. Little things like a shirt riding up or a strange hand position, I don't think they're paying much attention to. The price probably reflects this. I'm sure you get what you pay for.

2) They don't perform digital photo editing. During that same visit, we had them take a picture of our 2 kids. In this case, the posing was a little more difficult - no older cousins to hold on to them - so we held them in the pose until the photographer gave the signal, then we stepped out of frame (almost). I say almost because he got the pose but also my wifes foot at the edge of the picture. It is in the picture enough that it is not easily crop-able. It would be easy enough to digitally edit her foot out, but when I asked them if they perform digital editing, the answer was no. We bought the picture anyway.

3) This is an obvious one - try to find a time when it will not be very busy. Our photographer was good, patient, but still obviously getting us 'in and out.'

Picture People Hints (Part I)

A few secrets I learned for taking pictures of kids from the Picture People:

1) Take alot of pictures (see previous post "delete, delete, delete"). This is a high-volume, high-output business but they still managed to take about 3-4 different poses and a few shots of each pose. So out of about 15-20 pictures we were able to pick one that looked good. Kids were all smiling, looking the same way, eyes all open.

2) Once everyone is posed, take the picture quickly - before anyone is distracted and runs off to chase some other kid running around (this was the night before Thanksgiving and the place was a madhouse).

3) Use a feather duster. Yes, a feather duster. This was great. They had the cameras polemounted, so you would want to use a tripod with a cable release or have an assistant help if you're doing this at home. But here's how it works: Get the kids in the pose. If any of them are looking the wrong way or not smiling, come out from behind the camera with the feather duster. Gently lean over and tickle them under the chin or side of the face towards where you want them to look. Jump back and quickly hit the shutter. This really worked great.

Photography Primer

Boing Boing, one of my favorite blogs, points us to a great Photography primer at Photonotes.org for someone trying to move on to the next steps from basic point and shoots. I haven't had time to check it out yet, but it looks thorough and informative. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

The Picture People

My opinion on 'mall' photo studios is not very good. I'd never been to one before but I've seen the kids in angel outfits and crazy backgrounds, lots of props, etc. - not really my style. So I when my brothers and sisters-in-law decided to get a family portrait of all the grandchildren from the Picture People, I wasn't going in with high expectations.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Its not easy wrangling 7 kids ranging in age from 16 months up to 15 years, together for a picture, but they did a decent job.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably go back. In terms of cost and results it fit just what we were looking for. But, if I wanted a truly unique, high-quality portrait I'd probably go more upscale.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Home Movie Music

In the few home movies I've made, one of my biggest challenges is picking the music. I have a big library of music from rock to jazz to metal to blues, country, punk whatever. I try to avoid too much of the obvious or already overplayed. At the same time, I try to really hear the lyrics. Does the song's title or refrain really reflect the song's meaning? Would you want your Mom (or your kids) to listen (really listen) to the song? I used "Let's Go", a Ventures track on one and really liked it: Let's Go. Cool surf vibe with no real lyrics but fit in well with the DVD.

I also really like this one from the Barenaked Ladies, maybe a little sappy but would probably fit in well in one of my videos - "When You Dream"

Favorite Photography Websites

I really like this website Usefilm.com. It allows people to post their own pictures, get critiques and ideas, etc. Best of all, it provide 'projects' - themes and suggestions around which to focus a shoot. I haven't tried one yet, but I think this would be a great way to really hone your skills. Let us know any others you like.

Great iMovie

This has to be one of the coolest examples of great stuff you can do with iMovie. I know it is old but I am still impressed. Anyone else know some cool links like this?

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Delete, Delete, Delete

The most important thing to taking good digital pictures is deleting bad ones. Try not to waste too much time looking at them in your camera's review pane, it's fun but a waste of time and batteries. Take lots of pictures, then go home and download them to your computer. Delete about 50% (or more?) of them and your resulting set will be better for it.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Video Taping Hints - Canon Elura 90 Dummy Timer

If you're like me, you took a 3 second look at that home video and closed the window. I felt carsick right away. When you're taking video, you have to remember to slow down. Take a deep breath. Appreciate the scene. And don't give yourself (or your future generations) whiplash jumping all around the house. You could just slowly count to 10 before panning over to something else or pausing the recording session. Or, if you're lucky, your Video Camera has a "dummy timer" like my Canon Elura 90. Once you start recording, the timer appears in the viewfinder and counts up from 1 to 10 for you - so you know that you've recorded the scene long enough.

Introduction

Do your home videos look like this? If so, then this blog's for you.

Have you taken some really bad pictures? If so, then this blog's for you.

Are you interested in learning tips and tricks to improve your videos and pictures?
Do you use video editing software to create home movies? Do you have favorite songs to use for your movies? What video/digital cameras do you like?

This blog is devoted to fun and interesting discussions on Vids, Pix, creating home movies, using your pictures (vs, just taking them storing them on your computer forever). Please join in!

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