We got an early release of Motorola’s new Droid phone and took it for a quick test drive to see if it’s got what it takes to be a competitive camcorder.

Charlie Fulton, our Tech Guru had the chance to play with the phone and was surprisingly pleased with the quality of the video it recorded.  The Droid can upload video directly to YouTube, so when you shoot it now, you can share it with the world in only seconds, a cool feature if you’re the first one to catch the return of Elvis from an extraterrestrial spaces-ship. Now that’s a video the world will want to engage in! Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, Videomaker completed its first-ever Basic Production Techniques webinar and we couldn’t be more pleased with the turn-out. There were so many good questions, but, unfortunately, not enough time to answer them all. Here, at Videomaker, we value every question presented and aim to answer each one of them. One question we were unable to answer within the allotted time was regarding basic tips for composing, lighting, and shooting a talking-head corporate video.

Great composition is vital to any video production. Generally, you always want to observe the rule of thirds. If you divide your frame into three equal parts, both vertically and horizontally, you’ll end up with a basic guideline for good composition. The goal here is to place your subject, or points of interest, on one of the intersections within your imaginary grid. In the case of shooting a “talking-head,” you will want to place the subjects eyes on an intersection located in the upper-third of the grid. If you can’t fit your entire subject into the frame, be sure to crop the top of the head and not the chin.

Since corporate videos are pretty straightforward, you don’t need to create an extravagant lighting scheme. A basic 3-point lighting setup – a key light, fill light, and hair light – should do the trick.

Read the rest of this entry »

We just got out of our Videomaker Lounge and conference room feeling the glow of our first webinar with our partnership with YouTube. We’ve watched webinars, but have never conducted one ourselves, so this was a new learning experience for us here at Videomaker. We feel everything went well, the only hitch was not enough time for the live Q&A session at the end of our seminar. But isn’t that always the case?!? Read the rest of this entry »

All of us have memories that will stick with us for the rest of our lives. Some are more powerful than others. For me, a lot of those memories have come behind the viewfinder of a camera. When I first started shooting videos, I was just a wee lad of about 7 or 8 years of age. I remember playing with the camera and being so confused and amazed with how the technology actually works. The same type of confusion that a dog feels when it looks in a mirror. Yup, I just compared myself to a dog… That is confused.

“Time to turn off the camera because this shoot is over.”

Once I hit high school, I developed a passion for loud aggressive music which would lead me to shooting music videos. This must have been my first true crazy experience shooting video.

I remember that this particular video was set to a post-Nirvana era noise jam and the scene called for shots of junkyards, and someone jumping trains. Read the rest of this entry »

It might be full-on winter right now, but if you have visions of shooting underwater videography of sharks or just the kids in the backyard pool this summer, check out the latest gadget from Canon.

Canon just announced a new WP-V1 Waterproof Case for the VIXIA HF20 and VIXIA HF200 Flash Memory Camcorders. You can dive up to depths of 130 feet to capture exciting underwater adventures. The compact and light-weight housing hugs the camcorder like a wet suit, enabling easy on-camera operation and control.

Checking in at $600, the housing isn’t cheap, but none of the true underwater housings are. The VIXIA HF200, pictured here, has an MSRP of $750 and the VIXIA HF20 runs about $900. Both will be on the market this coming April.

A rule of thumb for anyone wishing to do any underwater shooting, do your research on the housing first, then decide on the camera. In most cases, one size does NOT fit all.

Read our underwater shooting tips here: In Depth Video Tips and Dive in! The Water’s Fine.

Find our more about the Vixia HF-20/200 AVCHD camcorders on our blog here: http://videomaker.com/community/blogs/videonews/tag/vixia/

And more on Canon’s underwater housing from this press release issued Feb. 18th, 2009: Read the rest of this entry »