These videos are graphic, please watch with caution

On June 16 Charlie Fulton posted a very thought provoking blog. After discovering the new video of Iranian Protestor Neda Soltan’s death that is quickly reaching alarming views on Youtube I decided to give my thoughts on the same issue. Today we live in an age where technology rules, with the click of a button and audience awaits all of us and what we choose to show that audience. The idea that in a place where the media does not have access, the people are using social networks and privately shot video to bring the news to the media is a powerful example of how times have changed since the birth of Youtube & social networks.  It is also alarming and at the same time refreshing to think that people are turning to themselves that there own abilities to bring each other into the know, rather than a tv with a rather one sided point of view. Here are a few more links and media outlets on the story:

click here

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Two years ago, Donald Tayloe came to a Videomaker workshop to learn some producing skills because he wanted to make a documentary about a subject he felt passionate about: the vanishing Asian elephants. A lofty goal, and one might think out of reach, but Tayloe persevered, learning what he needed to tell his story, and we just received an early release of his DVD: the last elephants in thailand. 

This DVD is well produced, and follows the trials of two Thai elephants, showing the sad truth of abuse of these magnificent animals and telling the story of hope through the voice of elephant rescuers.

The internet recently has been inundated with video showing elephants painting lovely images of flowers, and Oprah herself even had a special issue all about the painting elephants featured in her magazine “O“. However what you don’t see in the online video is how the elephants are abused, coerced, and stabbed to create these paintings.

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The analog switch is done. Like the Y2K scare, the sky did not fall and the machines did not take over. We’ve said all we’re going to say about it. It is History.  However, it IS a big moment in history, as video has been around for 6 decades, most of us are acutely connected to television transmission. As video creators, we producers are even more connected. So in honor of this historic day, We’d like to invite our video producing community to share a few tidbits about themselves.

I would like to ask you who you are, why you’re producing video, when did you get started, and what you’re doing now.

Videomaker is beginning a new series called Reader Profiles that is a short snapshot of selected Videomaker readers. We want to know what your equipment looks like, what type of videos you produce and how you got into the video creation business. Are you happy? Do you have any goals or ideals you’d like to share?

Our readers often express their curiosity about other readers, but many of us tend to be singular in our lone-wolf producing techniques. Sharing our skills and ideas helps all of us become stronger producers.

To participate in our reader profile series, email us at editor@videomaker.com, and use Reader Profile in the subject line. Are you a hobbyist? Event producer? Do you make training videos? Wedding videos? Family Fun videos? Tell us in a 500-700 word essay about you and your video production work. Along with your profile, send a printable photo of you and another one of your rig… the entire setup! Tell us what each piece of gear is, so we can show other readers what you use, including camcorder, tripod, lights, computer, editing software and any other equipment you use for producing videos.

The photos must be at least 300DPI, and we prefer them in JPEG format. If you have a website, please supply the link, or, if you can link us to videos you’ve produced elsewhere, you can supply that, too, but it’s not necessary.

Here is a link to our first submission, aviation enthusiast Henry Tenby.

Ok. Gear up… it’s time for readers to confess their errors in a public arena - the annals of Videomaker magazine and website for possible entry in our annual “Video Horror Stories”. The rules are simple: tell us in 500 words or less about that time when, as a video producer, things that could go wrong, did go wrong… and how you remedied it, (if the footage was salvageable that is!) Did you show up to the chapel without fresh videotape? How ’bout that time you dropped the camera and broke the viewfinder, but still had to shoot the interview with the CEO of the company that hired you? Don’t forget that time you were stuck in the rain at a high school football game, how did you protect the camera? Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve often been asked what my opinion is on the best material to look at critically when learning about video. So I thought that I’d pose the question to all of you out there & see what you guys think? For myself, the best possible video to learn from are commercials. They are direct, tell the story in a very short amount of time and are the best example of the “shoot to edit” technique. Of course thats just my opinion, but commercials are out there to capture every type of audience. So there are many different types of ads that are done in so many different ways that it’s impossible not to find the answers to at least some of your video questions by watching them critically.  What do you guys think? What has helped you learn the most about video?

I just returned from a whirlwind adventure in Disneyland, also known as the happiest place on earth.  It’s also one of the most photographed places on earth.

Disneyland Logo

But for me, for the first time in my life, I did not take a video camera on the trip.  Not because I didn’t want to lug the cam around, but because I forgot to grab it as I rushed out the door.  So, I was stuck watching other people shooting video, and in the three days there, I learned a few things about how the average person captures their vacation memories.

I wasn’t surprised to see that nearly every family there had at least one member shooting video. What I was surprised by, however, was the number of older Hi8 and Super8 video cameras still in use. There were also a lot of the very tiny camcorders like the Flip, which are easy to carry and flip out anytime. Most of the camcorders I saw, however, were the mid-sized cams like my son’s Canon Vixia HD cam. He daringly shot video onto this small palm-size camcorder while soaring down the Matterhorn. Something I’d never have attempted with my larger Sony VX2100.

The most amazing thing I saw, though, was even with all the knowledge about shooting techniques on the internet, in books, magazines, and DVDs, people still can’t compose interesting shots.

Fireworks over the Mark Twain Riverboat

I stood in line for a ride behind a woman trying to capture a shot of the Small World façade in the distance. Most of her video had the back of the heads of the people in front of her. While on a raft crossing the river to Tom Sawyer’s Island, one man kept panning from his kids to the left to the Island to the right; back and forth… back and forth… And another clueless guy was trying to shoot and walk down the middle of Mainstreet, narrating his footage as he stumbled and trip over pedestrians, baby strollers, and garbage cans.

It was hard not to tell these people, “here, let me help, I’m a pro.” Or hand out my business card telling them, “Subscribe to Videomaker… please”.

While trying to compose a night-time shot of my grand-daughter in front of Cinderella’s castle in Fantasyland, the brightness of the castle’s lights kept dimming the light level on the auto iris on my daughter-in-law’s point-n-shoot still camera, throwing my grand-daughter into darkness.

I told her to step back about twelve feet from the castle, bring my grand-daughter closer to the camera, which would allow more light on the child and more darkness around the castle to enter the camera’s iris. My daughter-in-law marveled at how well it worked.

As we were leaving, I saw another woman move into the same stance, and move her child into the spot my grand-daughter just vacated. Ah… teaching shooting techniques, one convert at a time.