JamesDuisenberg's blog

Hi CMAP'ers !
So, Summer is coming around the corner, and its the best time to go shoot videos, and films with all the great weather.

Here are some links to some practical tips for creating better productions:

Camera Mike:
http://www.cameratim.com/video-production/tips

Lorraine Grula: ( one sassy video producer )
http://videoproductiontips.com/

Monkeysee.com: ( Basic Video Tutorials )
http://www.monkeysee.com/play/10762-basic-video-production-lighting-tips

Slide Share: ( short powerpoint segments on video tips )
http://www.slideshare.net/klessblog/video-production-tips-for-interviews


These sites give some great basic and advanced tips to make your videos much better, and to simplify your video shoots.
That's it for today! Come out and volunteer for our many CMAP productions, and the Garlic Festival at the end of the Summer in July and show us your brand-new skills :)

Happy Shooting!
James

Free Music for Videos:

At CMAP we encourage you to use, original music, Final Cut Loop Tracks, royalty free, or public domain music.
We know that you all want your videos to be super cool, and hip. So here is a link to a great blog I found about where you can find free, and royalty free music.

http://canonxf.blogspot.com/2011/11/free-music-for-your-videos.html

When you are using this music you should always put in your credits the name of the song, when it was written, where you found it, and who wrote it if you have the information.

Often when you download music they will be in MP3 format, and most MP3 files have a slight tinny sound, because the file format takes out a good portion of the bass and mid levels. If you want to make them feel more rich, you may want to add and Effects EQ filter to your song and bring up the bass levels slightly in the Filters Tab in FCP.

Over the last year, many CMAP staff members have been enjoying the music stylings of Kevin MacLeod that can be found at:
http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/
Kevin has a wide range of fun, energetic, and mostly cheesy tracks that will add great new flair to your videos.
His website give you the option to search by genre, feel, and descriptive words.

If you do wish to buy the rights to a popular song, you will first need to contact the Harry Fox Agency.
http://www.harryfox.com/index.jsp
At the Harry Fox Agency you can find out who owns the song, and how to contact them to buy the rights to the song.
You will want to buy two separate licenses: first the Rerecording/Duplication license, and second a Syncing License.
The Rerecording/Duplication License is for making multiple copies of the music on DVDs of CDs. The Syncing License is for connecting the music to video, and syncing it with the music.
Video production can be full of many legal issues, and paperwork, so when all else fails , just use a royalty free song, and always get your appearance, and voice release forms signed.

Have a great time finding new fun music for your videos, and feel free to ask me, or a CMAP staff member to help you out.

James Duisenberg

      Todays Blog is about a local High School Dancer, CMAP Member, and the 2010 Youth Producer of the Year, Tommy Rodriguez.

Tommy has produced a feature film, Forgotten Hip-Hop, documentary about his world of B-Boy/Break Dancing in the South Silicon Valley. His film is premiering on June 3rd here at the CMAP Studio at 5pm. Some food and snacks will be served, and the movie will start at 5:45pm. See Tommy on our May Arts 101 TV Show.

      Tommy was inspired by the movie You Got Served, five years ago, and he has not stopped dancing since. His mentor is a local, original Break Dancer from the 80’s named David Gracia. David's dance crew, the Original Street Rockers, was the best of Northern California. Tommy says that ”[he’s] one of the guys, even though he is twice [his] age".

      Tommy has been at the CMAP editing lab every week working 3-5 hours each day on his video, and when he is not editing, he is out

shooting dance competitions on the weekend and lining up

interviews.  Tommy says that the hardest part of making this film

has been “having to get everywhere with all of [his] equipment, with out a license, and some times [he gets] to his location to shoot and it doesn’t even happen”. Video production is a hard game sometimes and it’s never the same think twice.

      We congratulate Tommy for his accomplishment, and we look forward to seeing his next production.  We know it will be twice as good.  Tommy says he wants to go out to the East Coast  “ cuz [he’s] seen all that the West Coast can offer [him]”.

Go, Tommy, Go !

Video production is a whole new world with its own vocabulary and tricks
of the trade.
At CMAP, we start you off easy at getting into the world of video  
production.
If you are a beginner wanting to take your skills to the next level and
better understand the smaller details and how to make your production
higher quality, here are some great links to websites for expanding  
your education.

Media College:
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/
This website is jam-packed with information from audio, lighting
and basic camera work, to video editing tricks and information.

ReelSeo.com
http://www.reelseo.com/online-video-production-training/
This website has a great list of resources for the beginner who wants  
more
information about how to improve your marketing with videos.

Videoproductiontips.com
http://videoproductiontips.com/video-production-tips/lighting-for-video-lesson-one/
Here you will be able to find video tutorials about basic
lighting information and tips.

School Tube
http://www2.schooltube.com/Educators/videoproduction.aspx
School tube is a large resource of video tutorials full of the dos and
don’t from experts from Video Maker Magazine.

WikiPedia University:
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Topic:Narrative_Film_Production
This is a fun resource and lays it all out in a very plain and simple  
format.
They say that being a film and video maker is easy but you need to learn
20 different jobs but this task takes a lot of time to do.
I would say that this is true, and there is always 5 other ways
you can do it.

Let me know which site you really enjoyed and which ones really let  
you down.

Happy Shooting !

James

Today I just received word that the Flip Camera is going the way of the DoDo Bird.

Joanna of CMAP sent me a great article from the New York Times

telling the brief story of how the Flip Camera , in 2007, started up in SF and then was bought up by

Cisco Systems for roughly $590 Million - Cha Ching !

How did you like the Flip camera ?

Were they just too cute?

Did Cisco make a big error to buy a small company and not know how to take it to the next level?

What alternatives have worked well for you? JVC, Kodak, Panasonic, Canon . . . ?

Let me know your thoughts. 

James