Oh . . . so that's where my tax dollars are going!

By-the-way, how can you tell which NLE was used for editing?

J--

Oh that barny!!!! What a scamp!

That is just tooo cute. Loved it. According to the video... BARNEY did it

I haven't been able to find out which NLE was used but there are pictures (stills) on the web site in the Barney II area of the filming. Can't tell for sure but it may be a Canon GL2 being used. The pictures show the camera work and some of the rigs involved. Chasing around behind Barney was a little challenging according to the picture subtitles. Will continue to try and get the particulars.
Randy

For a fantasy video, not bad. I laughed out loud at the part where Bush said he had to get back to the oval office to "work", yea right, that would be a first. I didn't know they installed a jogging track in the oval office.

Bush has time to play in the snow with his dog, appear in a video, but no time to pay his respects to the dead servicemen who's bodies are arriving at Dover AFB in increasing numbers from Iraq. Typical Bush, screwed up priorities, all show no substance.

Make silly video, got time. Go pay respects to fallen US troops as every commander-in-chief before him did, no time.

Bah humbug.

Barney is cute. I like dogs, not the bushie.

Now tell me, how much is some Haliburton division going to rip off the taxpayers for producing the video? Got to be worth at least a half a mil.

Let's please keep politics off of this site. Thank You.

Sounds good to me.

I’m a soldier assigned to the Army’s television production facility at the Pentagon. While we deal mainly with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Army, we do work from time to time that involves the President, and work closely with the folks at White House Communications. I spoke to one of them this evening regarding the Barney tape, here’s the Skinny:

The outdoor and ‘chase’ scenes were shot on mini-DV. He can’t recall call which camera specifically, but it wasn’t the GL2 or XL-1 series. The more static shots, including the Laura Bush section, were shot on DigiBeta.

All the graphics were done in Photoshop, and though it pains me to say it, the piece was edited on an Avid eXpress. Like all of you, I was hoping for V4, but I don’t know of any gov’t office that uses it.

Now, that being said, the following is the one and only time I will speak about politics in this forum. BillyBoy knows Vegas much better than I could ever hope to, and I have great respect for not only his talent, but also his willingness to share his knowledge with the rest of us. However, he is spewing disinformation about my commander-in-chief, and I will sit not idly by and say nothing. To keep the forum from turning into political rant fest, I ask that any comments you may have about what I'm saying here (whether you agree with me or not) be sent to me at admin@heritagemultimedia.net.

First off, let me remind you that Haliburton has been bilking, er, contracting with the Government for a long, long time. They were doing it when Clinton was in office, they did it when Regan was in office and they did it when Carter was in office.They've been doing it since at least the days of Johnson. This administration however, seems to be the first to actually hold them accountable (at least financially).
Second, it would be neither fitting nor proper for the President to attend the funerals of servicemembers for many reasons, the following two being the most obvious:
1. His presence would turn the funeral(s) into a media circus, destroying the honor and dignity of the ceremony.
2. He couldn't attend one funeral without attending them all, which would be impossible to do and still execute the duties of the Presidency.

And by the way, FDR didn't visit the grave of every service member killed during WW2, Truman didn't do it during the Korean Conflict, JFK and Johnson didn't do it during Vietnam, and G.H.W. Bush didn't do it during the Gulf War.
Speaking as someone who's been wearing the uniform for 10 years, I can tell you that no President in recent history has been more respected by the troops than George W Bush. When Clinton would visit troops in the hospital or at military installations, soldiers actually had to be ordered to stand in line and shake his hand because there weren’t enough volunteers. (The same thing happened during Hilary’s recent visit to the mid east). When the President is scheduled to appear in our auditorium at the Pentagon, we have Soldiers in line hours before hand for a chance to simply say they were in the same room with him. Soldiers know a phony when they see one, and as far as the camouflaged crowd is concerned, this President is as far from phony as you get. He inspires the soldiers by words and by example. He has been honest about the war in Iraq when speaking to us, and when speaking to the American people (e-mail me with proof to the contrary and I will gladly admit I’m wrong) and while the truth is often not pretty, there isn’t much more troops ask of their leaders than honesty. I could continue but this post is now WAY off topic. As a closing note, you can rest easy knowing that Haliburton didn’t overcharge the taxpayers for the production of “Barney: Reloaded”. Most of the work was completed by some of the lowest paid videographers in America – U.S. Army Soldiers. What wasn’t done by the Soldiers was done by civilians working for the White House whose salaryruns about $17 an hour, which in DC ain’t that much.

A few "Republicans" are obviously over reacting. To begin with the very act of offering a link to the whitehouse site for purposes of showing Bush in a good light if that's even possbile, was political. If the video only had Barney playing int the snow and "helping" decorate the white house again fine. Injecting Bush, his political adviser and his past press secretary among others is pushing it on a taxpayer funded site.

And if Bush had to be in the video you think he at least would have wished us citizens happy holidays. What was the purpose of the video? What I suggested, to show Bush in a good light. Sorry, no sale.

We're at "war" according to him. Yet he doesn't pay his respects to fallen servicemen, not at funerals, but if he can fly to Iraq to hold up a phony turkey in a photo-op, he could take a much shorter trip to Dover AFB and pay some respect to the men he ordered into Iraq that came back home in a casket. Its the least a president can do in a war he wanted, got and lied about the reasons for starting. Where are those WMD's that was suppose to be the main reason for going to Iraq?

I just evened the playing field by bringing up the realities of what Bush does and doesn't do. Of course someone couldn't resist dragging Clinton into it. Anyway that's all I'm saying on the topic.

And you weren't overreacting? Now that is funny.

And by the way... do not EVER presume to claim that you know MY politics... for gods sake we have never met.

Is there ANY chance you can just keep your thoughts and opinions to youself for once? Is there not a single mote of understanding in you that can allow you to control your desire to initiate such obviously derisive and inflammatory posts in a forum where such posts are frankly totally inappropriate?

I don't give a dam what politics are for anyones who comes to this forum. I come here to support my desire to learn the art and science of working in this video world. That's it.

Very interesting post ArmyVideo - thanks for the insight ! Great to hear from an insider. :-)

ArmyVideo,
Hooyaa! Thanks for saving me the research. If you are by PACAF/XPPB, look me up. I'm buying. Let's close this one out now. Back to the technical stuff.
Randy

Rodger, Out.

ArmyVideo:

With you 100%.

That was fabulous, fun and heartwarming! And the important thing is, Vegas could have done the job with finesse, even if it wasn't used in this case. I loved the Ari Fleisher cameo!

Army Video,

The issue is not that Halliburton is working for the government. The issues are that the contract was awarded to Halliburton without competitive bidding and the contract is written is such a way that Halliburton has no virtually no incentive to keep costs down. The contract is risk-free, open-ended and has no cost limit. and Halliburton actually has incentive to spend as much money as possible since they all their costs will be paid back plus up to 7percent profit.

This administration however, seems to be the first to actually hold them accountable (at least financially).
Bush and the Pentagon did not initiate this investigation. Opposition members of Congress have been requesting this investigation for a while.
http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2003/11/25/rtr1160415.html