Please Share: What do you do?

Tim L wrote on 2/27/2006, 7:57 PM
I find it interesting that so many people here seem to have a lot of projects going on, and I'm curious about the kinds of projects people work on, whether its fan films, or family vacations, or film school, etc.

How about posting what kinds of things you shoot video of, and what kind of projects you do? Fan films or music videos? Anybody making money with VMS as a hobby? Maybe making big money and selling DVD's? And what kind of fancy or not-so-fancy equipment do you have?

I'll start out with a b-o-r-i-n-g first post... Hopefully, the rest of you will have more interesting things to say.

I'm basically a 46-year-old Dad-with-a-camcorder. I have lots of Hi-8 tapes of kids birthdays, family vacations, etc. One of these days, I'll get them on the computer and then copy them onto DVD's right? (yeah, right...)

I got my first DV camcorder (a Sony HC85) about last March or April?, and got Sony VMS 4.0 a couple weeks later. And then, maybe a month or two after that, I finally got a computer that I could load VMS onto. (My old PC is still running Win98SE.) I upgraded to VMS 6.0 soon after it came out. I would really like to upgrade my camcorder, but VX2100's are still pretty expensive, so not likely.

I really haven't done very many projects yet. But I seem to spend an awful lot of time on this message board, and on the www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs message board.

In the past 9 months or so, I've recorded four Eagle Scout ceremonies for boys in our troop, and made DVD's for the families. These were good projects to learn on, because there isn't a whole lot of "editing" to do. I added a "credits" segment at the end, with music (www.freeplaymusic.com), and freeze frames from the ceremony that had overlayed titles identifying the various speakers, etc. Most of the time was spent tweeking the audio-envelope to boost and even out the sound of the various people in the ceremony. Still, good learning experience.

For Christmas, I made a DVD for my family (parents, brothers, and sisters). I took a day off work in October, and went back to the town where I grew up, where my mom and dad still live in the same house I grew up in. I filmed the house, neighborhood, church, school, etc., the park where we played baseball, the place where we got ice cream. All the places from when I was a kid growing up in the 1960's. I spent a *lot* of time on this project. Surprisingly, I ended up using more still photos than live video (all set to music).

My parents and siblings were all *thrilled* with the DVD -- didn't know you could do that sort of thing on a home computer. (Or maybe they were just surprised that *I* could do that sort of thing on a home computer.) I have nice, photo glossy DVD covers, and have a cheap Epson R200 printer that can print right on the DVD, so the DVD's come out looking pretty professional.

I also made a DVD of the kid's Christmas program at church. Again, pretty much just taping the whole thing, playing (a lot) with audio, and adding credits at the end.

(Oh, and I helped a friend with an audition tape she sent in to Survivor. She had the stuff taped already, and I edited it for her, added "survivor-like" titles, music, etc.)

I think my main project this year will be interviewing my parents -- getting stories from what things were like when they were kids (in the 1930's), stories about their families, etc.

At times I wish I was 15 years old. It seems like it would be a lot of fun to be able to make movies with your friends, or music videos, etc. I might try to make some fun little movies with my kids this year. Finding the time is tough. (But maybe if I spent less time on the computer...)

Okay, there you have it. My mind-numbingly boring story. So let's hear from the rest of you. What do you video? What kind of projects do you do? Hobby? Business? A little of both? Please share...

Tim L

Comments

Paul Mead wrote on 2/27/2006, 9:56 PM
OK, I'll bite. Don't snore too loudly.

I kind of meandered into this. I had bought a (Sony) DVD writer so that I could get more stuff onto a single backup disk. The kit came with Nero. I was intrigued, so I tinkered a bit. "Hmm," I thought "this would be a good way to get my Hi8 videos onto DVD". So I started tinkering with video capture. "This sucks!" was my first impression. So I started researching. Skipping over more boring details, I decided to get an analog to digital converter (Canopus ADVC110) and Sony VMS. I start chopping up home video into collections. Pretty pedestrian stuff, then...

I have two kids doing competitive cheerleading. Every year a video is made to capture the highlights of the previous year. The guy who was going to do it got shipped off to Iraq. They needed somebody to fill in. "Gee," I thought, "I have the software, this should be easy." So I volunteered. Whoa! I had no idea what a chore this is.

I had 630 still photos submitted. Many of them were prints that I first had to scan. In the end I have incorporated probably about half of them. Each one cropped, level adjusted, color corrected, brightness and contrast fixed, if necessary, by me. Most have some kind of pan and/or zoom. Some have additional effects added. The slide show segments introducing the team and coaches are all titled.

Same thing with video segments. I try to capture the essence of the moment and leave out the boring stuff. The only event that I won't edit down is the state competition (tied for 2nd!). We had lots of parents videoing, and I may have enough decent quality clips that I can do multiple angles layered over a single sound track (my old Hi8 camcorder has excellent sound).

I'm still working on the music. Can't put much old stuff in there; it has to be current. Editing down the music they want to a PG rating is a chore.

I expect the end product will be close to an hour long. It will be shown at the end-of-the-year banquet. Funny thing is I will be out of town on business the night of the banquet so I won't get to see the reaction of the crowd.

So, I'm just another family guy, enjoying a creative outlet.
mlines wrote on 2/28/2006, 12:17 AM
Rather than post a long description - here is a link.

http://www.lines-family.com/videos/MainFrameSet.htm

These are all set to music, although in the Internet versions this is removed for copyright reasons.

(And the current set are created with Pinnacle Studio as I have only recently defected to Vegas Movie Studio following the major failure of the latest Pinnacle release)
dendence wrote on 2/28/2006, 5:02 AM
mlines, your videos are awesome.
I have 2 kids that play High School sports. The oldest is on the varsity football team. So what I did over the Christmas vacation was to look at all the game films, capture the highlights onto the pc.Many of them.Unfortunatly I have a pinnacle capture card which probably added many hours due to freezing up the pc.I captured in avi format and used VMS.Today i am getting ADS Tech API-555 PYRO AV LINK so next year it will go quicker.I am hoping that VMS recognizes this device.It was a lengthy process and my wife was getting tired of looking at the back of my head for a month. I had over 45 minutes of all the good plays, digital pictures ( I took over a thousand throughout the season ) and added music. The music was fun , there was a lot of fast stuff that went with the videos and some transitions and NFL theme songs like what they use on those NFL highlight shows.At the end there was cheerleader pictures and a tribute to the graduating seniors. I made 60 copies for all the kids and families.I got a projector and they showed at at the banquet . It went over well and I was thanked by many of the speakers and was presented with a gift. I am now making individual highlight films for some of the kids to send to colleges. I like doing it so I am not charging anyone. Needless to say I have just signed up for this job until my freshman graduates.
Shaz wrote on 2/28/2006, 8:39 AM
I use VMS6Pl for home movie DVDs and for music videos.
weaver wrote on 2/28/2006, 9:51 AM
church music videos - for church and teenage youth groups too.

30 sec basketball highlights of games and practice drills for parents and teens (I coach basketball). This is very well received.

home videos. This past week I did shorts (1 or 2 minutes max) of a betamax format tape from over 20 years ago. I email these to family members.

This is real fun: "scene it" games. I play these at family gatherings and birthday parties. The scene it game consists of a video clip (what was the color of the shirt?), identify a word or phrase as the word of phrase slowly reveals itself, identify some weird object as it slowly comes into focus, etc. The possibilities are endless. I slap some aggressive music to it and the crowd goes wild.

IW
s k r o o t a y p wrote on 2/28/2006, 9:13 PM
i'm 36. my wife and i got a dcr-trv 320 hi8 camera about 5 years ago when it first came out. i wanted one that could do alot of effects. i wasn't even thinking about editing. we got it mainly because we had a baby and wanted to start getting the memories. which is what we did for a couple years.

i was in a band and electric guitar was my first love. as my band soured i began to take an interest in some of my other friends' band. one night i decided incidentally to grab the camera and record the show. it was some what of a timid outing as i filmed afraid of blocking peoples views and not moving too much. i played back the footage trying the camera's different onboard effects as i recorded to vcr. i thought "man next time i'm not going to be so shy."

so the next time i studied all the camera could do on the fly. i set it to vertical stretch for a real sort of gothic spooky feel and let loose with adding intermitent slow-shutter for all kinds of blurred images as i shot. i was less timid and was moving all around the stage and even on it for wild angles and such. then i went home and after rehearsing where i wanted to add certain effects, recorded it to vcr with adding more trail and flash effects over top of the slow-shutter stuff. i soon began to see the limitations of the vcr as my vision expanded. i began to follow the band everywhere: onstage, backstage, in the studio, practices, doing interviews -- all from as many angles as possible, anything i could think of.

i also began to take the camera everywhere the family went and be ready for spontaneous memory catching to the point where my wife calls it my "appendage". the main use still is family (2 more babies have come) and i have stepped out to try and document certain events like my daughters Vacation Bible School at my church.
like others here, i hope to be able to use whatever i've learned to serve the church. our church is pretty cutting edge and there is even a multi-media team with several video editing gurus i glean from.

on black friday of 2004, after several months of researching i stood in line at best buy before opening to get a computer i could dedicate fully to video (because of the turn of events with my band, this beat out buying a dedicated digital recording unit which i also really wanted.) i researched software tirelessly and basically being not a computer natural, i asked for the VMS for Christmas because it was it was reported most stable.

and there it all sat for about 7 months. then i finally vowed to crack it all open and dig in. i've done 2 family related projects, one being a wedding. but i'm still learning and practicing for my big project which is the band documentary for which i must sift through some 30 - 40 hours of footage. along the way many different documentary ideas have sprung to mind like interviewing my folks (as tim has) and such to hand down to my kids. i've always dug watching documentaries but now i study them and try to figure out why the good ones grab me and what can be evoked through the video aspect of it. i want to explore and see where it will go. that is, like many of us, with what time i can spare.

i've been pleased with VMS. it's pretty fun. and the forum here is a real bonus. chalk up another family guy videographer.
rustier wrote on 2/28/2006, 9:41 PM
I happen to be a professional melon thumper. I have used VMS to produce melon thumping training videos as well as some dramatic cinematography some of you may have heard of:

the melon and the tramp
12 angry melons
a melon named desire
a clockwork melon
field of melons
the melons or wrath
in cold fruit juice
a melon for all seasons
one flew over the melon patch
seven melons for seven brothers
wuthering melons

I recently decide to plot a new creative course. I am presently working on my latest project due out later this fall -

Invasion of the pumpkin snatchers. I'll be sure to announce its release.
Javaholics wrote on 3/1/2006, 7:49 AM
Converting VHS tapes, both home movies and taped TV shows/concerts, to DVD is my primary interest in VMS. This conversion process is my latest new learning experience. The journey which lead me to this latest venture, started by researching various sources to convert some very old 8mm reel films to DVD. Long learning story short, I found a gentleman residing in Virginia that performed this service. Perhaps typical of several members of this and other Forums, what started out as a hobby for him has now turned into a very busy part-time business. Here is his contact info for anyone seeking similar services;

Ralph Morris
Images Past & Present
Chantilly, VA
rmorris21942@yahoo.com

Being very new to this conversion process, I picked Ralph's brain every chance I got. I found him very receptive to all my newbie questions which I can't say the same for many of the other slick-looking web site companies out there offering similar services. Ralph utilizes the full version of Vegas and IMHO, does an outstanding job at very competitive prices.

Personally, I started down the VHS to DVD conversion road trying to utilize free bundled software (InterVideo WinDVD) that came loaded on my PC but found this application to be buggy and unstable. Feeling like I was ready to take the next step towards creating good conversion results, my lengthy research into software of this nature combined with Ralph's suggestion that I give VMS a try, I took the plunge and purchased the Platinum version of VMS. Having also recently experienced an 'Out-of-Sync' issue resulting from my analog to digital capture process, I purchased a Canopus ADVC110 Digital Converter.

While I've only been using VMS for a few short months now, I'm very happy with the results of my efforts. Each new conversion I do, I learn something new. I find VMS fun to use and am eager to learn more. As was mentioned by TimL in his initial message starting this string, I too find myself spending a great deal of time scouring this and other Forums trying to learn from others' experiences.
ADinelt wrote on 3/1/2006, 8:29 AM
I actually use VMS for many different things.

I have a small side business called Sentimental Journeys. I do VHS and Video 8 transfers to DVDs along with scanning pictures and slides and put them into video presentations. You can see some samples under Gift Ideas.

I am also using VMS for a fan film that I am working on. It is going to be a completely CG film created in Anim8or and put together in VMS. Below are some proof of concept tests to make sure that I can actually do this thing.

Survival Of The Rebels Opening
Landing Test

My son has also used VMS for some of his school projects.

I absolutely love this product for its ease of use, yet powerful features. The help and expertise that I have found on this forum has been invaluable.

Al
rondi wrote on 3/1/2006, 5:18 PM
Al, your last 2 links put me to a web page which has no video. it appears to be an upload page...

We use our Panny GS400 mostly for shooting Dog Agility Trials. These range in duration from 40 seconds to 2 mintues depending on the course. with 2 dogs and a 2 day weekend trial, that will be 8 runs. There are a few trials which go for 4 days---Scottsdale this coming weekend. we "capture" these to our laptop and then review them at the trial. At the end of the year, i put all the trials together on a DVD. my wife looks at the video, replays small time chunks to see what went wrong or right in a few cases :) it's fun to see trials 2 years ago and see what improvementa both dog and handler have made.

We use it for action shots on vacation too, waterfalls, birds of prey hunting, etc.

ron
ADinelt wrote on 3/1/2006, 7:32 PM
Hi Ron:

The last two links go to Rapid Share which allows me to post large files for people to download. When you are directed to that page, you will see two buttons at the bottom of a table. They are Premium (for paid membership) and Free (for non paying membership). Click on the Free button and you will go to another page where you will see a countdown to download (usually around 20 seconds or so). Paid membership bypasses this countdown. Once the countdown is complete, you will be asked to enter some characters into an edit field, then you click on the download button.

For those who would like to see the progression of the fan film, you can go here.

Oh, by the way. My name is Tralfaz on that forum. Tralfaz was the original name of Astro (the dog) on the Jetson's.

Al
Myles Strous wrote on 3/1/2006, 7:59 PM
I use VMS (6, Platinum) for splicing animation shots together, adding audio, titles, credits, and transitions.

I'm a hobbyist animator, using Moho from Lost Marble (http://www.lostmarble.com/moho/index.shtml)
Moho is a relatively inexpensive (US$99) 2D cartoon animation program, with an interesting approach of using bones to manipulate vector shapes or imported images. It's a little like a digital child of shadow puppets (or perhaps paper cut-out puppets) and clay animation with internal armatures (skeletons). Bones move or bend shapes or images, and you have the option to switch between alternative versions of a mouth, for example. Surprisingly easy and productive, but more for cut-out style animators than for those who want to do ink-and-paint-style traditional cartooning.

Each scene or shot is animated and rendered as a separate movie file, then I use VMS to add the shots and scenes together to form one continuous movie file, also adding in any desired transitions, special effects, a title sequence and/or a finishing credit roll.

Moho exports AVI and MOV files with an alpha channel, where supported by the codec, so I can use VMS (which has alpha support - yay!) to composite animation over a still image for the background (although I usually have to tell VMS what type of alpha channel is present, at least it's better than chromakeying).

Moho is a little limited when working with audio (it only supports a single-file soundtrack for each shot or scene), so I also use VMS to add in sound effects and manipulate separate pieces of dialogue or other sound, and fade background music in and out.

Before animating, I have used VMS to put together storyboard images with sound, creating an animatic (something like a slideshow with an audio track). VMS enables me to use this as a base track, gradually overlaying specific sections with fully animated and rendered sequences as they are created.

I haven't done a lot of animation so far, and what I have done is fairly amateurish, but I'm having fun playing with Moho and VMS - they make a good match.

Regards, Myles.
Pal wrote on 3/1/2006, 11:06 PM
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Tim and the rest of you guys for taking the time to answer as many questions as you do! I've been doing this for a few years but I never seem to have the time to just play and experiment and it just amazes me how often I pick up new tips from listening to you guys! Plus being just on the south side of 50 it reminds me of a lot of the things that I've forgotten :-( I started by purchasing a Sony digital 8 camcorder to tape my kids events because for health reasons my wife couldn't make it to a lot of them. Then I started doing a little editing. I made a highlight DVD of my youngest son's undefeated fourth-grade basketball season and gave one to each of the kids, they seemed impressed. I kept editing out highlights for the next few years and for my oldest son's graduation last year we replayed his career, zooming in and putting in slow motion some of his better ones, at his reception. That went over real big! I've made DVD's of my kids school plays using a couple of cameras, a lot of parents have wanted copies of those. My oldest son's high school baseball team made it to state last year so I taped the games and I'm dubbing the radio broadcasts onto the DVD's. That seems quite popular also. I didn't charge for any of these things because I was doing them anyway and I enjoy it. I also did a testimonial DVD for my Great Aunt who was 99 years old with over 100 pictures going back to the early 1900s played while family members played music and gave testimonials. I've also helped the kids do several school DVD projects and their instructors asked for their own copy so they could show it to future classes as examples. Obviously you can do impressive things with this program. I also do swing and pitching video analysis for baseball. I used to use VMS for that also but now I use a special sports motion program. I think the idea of taping your parents is a great one! I would encourage you to make it a high-priority though. I had the same plan. The homeplace has been in the family for well over 100 years and I thought the history narrative would be priceless. Suddenly last summer the opportunity was gone. So believe me when I say just do it!!! I guess after I read that, that's the main reason I made this, what turned out to be, long drawn out post. Sorry but thanks again and keep up the good work!
Tim L wrote on 3/4/2006, 2:14 PM
I've really enjoyed reading this thread -- I hope people continue to add to it. I tried to check out all the links you guys posted.

MLines -- I watched several of your 4x4 videos -- very cool. How do you keep your equipment from getting covered in mud? (I'd be nervous as heck, and I don't even have very good of equipment.) I imagine seeing the videos with the music track would be even better.

Shaz / Eric -- I watched both of the videos you had posted. Nice work. In particular, I enjoyed the Elephant Song -- it kept me laughing throughout.

Weaver -- the Scene-it idea is fantastic! My kids have the Harry Potter one -- which they typically just watch and try to answer, without playing the real game or keeping score. It never would have ocurred to me to make my own, but that is a really interesting idea. I could see doing it for a kids birthday party, or a family get-together, etc. Maybe an end-of-year video at a Christmas or New Year's party.

Al Dinet -- I checked out your photo restoration site and your anim8tor videos. Pretty neat (but the 3d stuff especially looks like an awful lot of work!). What do you use for the photo restoration? PhotoShop? or something similar? By the way, your prices seemed really reasonable.

Well guys, like I said, I really enjoyed the replies and finding out a little bit more about the kinds of things people are doing.

Keep the replies coming!

Tim L
mlines wrote on 3/6/2006, 3:55 AM
Tim L

Its always a worry but I avoid opening any of the camera "doors" (ie. tape or connections) when out on site. Other than that it is just down to a wipe with a damp cloth. It actually stays very clean. And of course, the equipment is designed to be used rather than being sat in the cupboard and polished. I have a mint SLR and a good condition VHS-C camcorder that have no value (even on e-bay) so I now adopt the ethos of get out there and use it.

Martin
GaryJ wrote on 3/14/2006, 8:31 PM
It all started out with a Honey doo to get all the old video on DVD. The computer we bought was supposed to do all that. It had a conexant video card. (Piece of junk I later learned). After hours of trying to figure out why the video I loaded by USB from my sony dv was full of bars and light flashes and poor quality I got VMS thinking that would take care of it. After a few frustrating hours I learned I still couldn't capture anything worthwhile. If all else fails read the directions. I found out I needed firewire. I also found my computer already had a 1394 card in it. So now I am on my way. i also just got a Canopus ADVC 100 which works great.

The idea is to get all the old VHS stuff on disk. But my creative ideas have expanded way beyond that now. I see discussion about whether VMS is easy to learn or not. I think its easy to learn but for me I am learning all the concepts and jargon at the same time which slows down alot. Everytime I learn a new concept I get a new idea for creating some video. But stuff like rendering and post edit ripples are not in Websters dictionary. I would really like to find a class offered at a local community college on filming and editing. A chance to learn more and meet others doing this stuff.

I am growing my list of wacky offbeat ideas that I hope to put into a video. I have a nearby old house that has gone at least 30 or more years without being touched inside or out. I have some ideas for making that old house come alive with a sound track. Kinda like rebirthing the old Pink and white stucco house with a soundtrack of what it might have been like with a family there when it was brand new. As they say sound is 70% of what you see.

There are lots of trains around and have an idea it would be fun to film at night in different locations and make a short of that also. The ordinary can be extraordinary if its couched right. I recently saw a 98 second short of stills of the Panama Canal (can't recall author) that was inspiring. I will probably do something for my wifes business related to healthful living as well.

There are lots of local film fests around (SW Michigan) in Indy, Lansing, Saugatuck and so on that would be a blast someday if I had something worthy of entering.