The Content isn't Just Gonna Create Itself People

Hi Matt, good to hear. Do you have any particular subject(s) you would like me to tackle or are you just gonna go with the wait and see?

I'm hoping that the readers will help guide where these articles go... not that I don't have a path planned out or anything... just that I'm ready to deviate if there is interest in a different path.

Hi Kroc,

Those talented and passionate people are the ones that I'm writing for.

I figured that there would be a raft of people misinterpreting what I'm saying here and I am expecting a lot more name calling. I've spent a lot of time searching through Youtube and Google Video, Blip.tv, Metacafe, Revver, Stage 6, Brightcove as well as skimming a few of the others.

There is original content (by no means a ton) out there and it is almost uniformly amateurish - and that isn't “tarring them” it is simply pointing out the fact that we don't start out knowing why crossing the line disrupts continuity and why Stanley Kubrick would often do it anyway, the differences between Soviet montage and the classical Hollywood montage and which one suits a particular editing goal, what high key lighting and low key lighting evokes in viewers after a hundred years of movie history, what a dissolve implies compared to a hard cut... those two year film courses aren't just sitting around arguing about who made the better Yakuza films in the seventies.

Most of these people haven't learned the myriad of skills needed to make the content look as good as it could and that doesn't mean that they aren't talented or that they aren't passionate - but passion alone doesn't make for good video... I have created my fair share of crap proving that very point.

If Robert Altman, Stanley Kubrick, John Ford and Sam Peckinpah were learning about film making right up to the day they died... what makes you think that these talented young people can stop learning after creating a few shorts for YouTube?

And I've seen Peter's videos before and Geriatric1927 is a prime example of video that doesn't shine on the quality of the production but despite the quality of the production.

Hi Maffu and James,

What I said was:
"go download the first webisode- it's free and pretty damn good!"

Note that I said "first" in there and although the website making it confusing for viewers... the first episode is free as in "costing nothing, nada, zip, nowt, naught and absolutely bugger all".

And James, rest assured that the point was advertent... vertent... intentional. Sanctuary was created independently by a group of people who are more experienced, have more time and have access to more money than the folks I'm aiming these articles at. They were the opposite extreme from the guy with no interests past uploading the football into the crotch clips.

Jay,

I'll be covering cameras ranging down to pocket digicams like my Panasonic point and shoot that can capture 30fps video with sound... both of them rather lousy but that camera is small enough it is with me almost everywhere I go. The thing to remember is that the camera you have with you is always better than the one gathering dust back home or in the store.

The step up cameras like the Canon 20D and the Digital Rebel are great for doing matte backgrounds for greenscreen work and higher quality (albeit more difficult) stop motion animation. There are even those who have made high definition movies with these cameras utilizing short takes of 3-5 frames per second. Not my cup of tea but interesting. Tom Waits has a very cool music video that looks to have been shot with a still camera or by pulling frames from a video camera for a twisted look.

I also have a Sony single chip miniDV camera as well as the Panasonic DVX100 which is a pretty decent prosumer miniDV camera. This fall will see me getting Red One #351 (I can't really afford the Red camera either but the lust for it short circuited my reasoning abilities) and while I will be touching on it, I realize that it isn't a viable option for most folks. I'll use it as a stand in for the HDV cameras like the Canon HV20... hey, the Red can be dialed all the way down to 720P in camera so I can pretend.

Hi Matt,

My feeling is that if the content isn't available then something like uploading the keynotes from CES 2007 and macworld 2007 falls into the realm of citizen journalism. The most hits my private website ever got was when posted some video clips of Tim Minear's “Breaking the Story” for an article reviewing the session at a Screenwritering Expo. Even though I shot the footage myself (on my little Panasonic digicam) I don't consider it something I created, just something that falls into the fair use doctrine for journalism.

I've got Adobe's Production Suite with all of their video creation software and I will be covering those. I'll also try and weave in the open source and low cost alternative programs where I can. I have some other programs such as Lightwave 3D, Bryce (switching to Vue 6), Corel Painter, Poser, Toon Boom Studio, Anime Studio Pro, Manga Studio EX and I'll be covering them as well. I'm beta testing Moviestorm and that is looking like it might end up being one of the best tools for the casual creator.

What I am really enjoying, is that on a daily basis the tools are coming down in price, increasing in power and becoming easier to use. It is possible right now for an individual to create Hollywood level effects on his or her home computer... that extra bit of quality polish can still take up a lot of time though.