Help with making a Video/DVD

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Cutting Crew

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Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Hello All,

I would like to make a video showing how I turn my thin walled vessels, starting with selecting and cutting the wet log through to turning and finally airbrushing and finishing the piece.

I would like to use this during exhibitions to give people more of an idea of what is involved in the process, perhaps I could show it through a small tv combo.

I don't have any equipment at all and I'm unsure of the difference in the video and DVD formats as regards filming. I would be pleased to hear from anyone who can advise on the purchase of equipment and with the making of this project.

Regards....Mike
 
I can't offer help with this one, but perhaps there is a camera club in your area where you could make general enquiries? Or perhaps a local college where they teach media studies would jump at the chance of getting some real life examples for their students?

It might be cheaper to hire someone with all the bits and pieces than it would be to buy the kit, however I don't know about that. Getting a pro in is likely to be expensive - but an enthusiastic amateur who is looking to fill out his portfolio might charge something reasonable.

Andrew
 
a reasonably good reular digital camcorder will suffice. Use atripod for stability where possible or better enlist the help of another pair of hands.
Plan each sequence and have your dialogue scripted.
The camera can be downloaded to your PC and then onto DVD.
14" tv/dvd combis are available for around £200 now or a regular 14" tv plus a separate dvd which are very cheap now can be bought for around £120-£150. Make sure the dvd is multi region otherwise the dvd from trhe pc wont playback.
beejay
 
The essence of any video/film/TV production of any size or complexity is summed up in one word - PLANNING.
Work out your script in advance and compose a shot list that will cover as simply as possible what you need to get across to your audience.
I work with film production for a living and if you need a bit of help please feel free to PM me.
One major point - tape up the zoom control on whatever you are using!
The most irritating thing in any video is overuse of the zoom.
Good luck and Regards
Martin
 
Mike,

FWIW, I would certainly be interested in purchasing a copy of that DVD / Video if you ever get around to making it.

Might be a way of helping to offset the cost a bit.......

Cheers,
Gary
 
I'm an amateur, and all I know about is the digital/DVD route, but somebody else can probably chip in.

Step 1, buy a Mac... :D

Sorry. But seriously, to get you started, maybe get a 3CCD consumer grade DV camera - they're not crippling expensive these days, and the quality is pretty good. Add an external microphone for preference. Then you'll need some kind of computer, a way of getting the footage off your camera onto the computer, some software to edit your movie, and some software to burn a DVD. There are companies that will dupe your finished DVD for you, or you can spin them yourself if the volume's very low.

As to computer, yes, a Mac will probably be the easiest, and it'll come bundled with the iLife package to get you started at least. Both Macs and (usually) PCs have Firewire connectors for attaching your DV camera (IEEE1394 is another name for this). You need a fast DVD burner, as waiting is boring - 8x is pretty standard. Digital video takes up a ton of disk space and crunching it takes decently fast machine, but for low volume you can suffer a little.

A toe in the water might be the new Mac Mini - spec it with a DVD burner, and upgrade the memory to at least 512MB, ideally 1GB. As I said, it'll get you started.

If you want to do this seriously you need to spend some real money. I mean, a lot.
 
Mike
I've only recently got into this (purely for hobby). I bought a cheap but very good miniDV camcorder - Sony HC18 (only costs £290). If you're not worried about digital camera capabilities or DV-IN (which if you're outputting to DVD isn't really important) - these things are very cheap nowadays. And the quality should be easily good enough for your intended purposes in my view.
All of the cameras have DV-out - just connect to a PC with a firewire cable (£5 from mrusb.co.uk), and copy over the video with lots of "spare footage".
I bought Pinnacle Studio 9 Plus from Amazon for £40 - I've found it to be excellent if a little buggy. It'll do all your capturing, editing and DVD authoring and is actually very powerful. If you plan to do mainly cutting and adding too many transitions etc, most newer PC's should be OK - but you will need about 15GB of HDD space for a one hour miniDV tape.
Oh and if you don't have a PC - you can get a DVD recorder with DV-IN for about £200 which you could do some basic editing with.
Cheers
Gidon
 
Mike

If you can borrow a digital camcorder (DV) and get the footage shot, ill happily edit it for you, since you have helped so often with my woodturning questions, im no expert but i have all the kit at home to transfer design and produce DVD's and web streamed films in a number of formats alternatively it might be worth getting a price from a local "wedding" type video guy who would have all the kit rather than going to the expense of buying kit yourself

Tony
 
It was already mentioned earlier, but try the college,

My son is doing media studies and are now for the last month on route with a group of 4 students to do a 10 min movie. they have to shoot about 20 hours of video that has to be edited back to 10 min, the college provides them with very very very very good professional stuff. and I have seen work of previous years and its mind blowing what these kids can do, there definately some new Steven Spielbergs arround. :lol:
 
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