AI can upscale footage from the old SD standard to 4k footage with remarkable effectiveness. It can sharpen blurry, distort of undistort images, create graphics and animations, and even tell stories. Our industry will never be the same. It’s capacity to clean up poor audio is remarkable as well.

That said, AI cannot light and shoot interviews or generate (real) comments from actual humans. There is still a future for talented shooters to create content that can’t be duplicated using AI. Panoptic Media understands this quite well, and is committed to using AI as is appropriate and knowing when it is not the best option.

An exciting and terrifying new age is upon us!

https://www.designrush.com/agency/video-production/trends/cost-of-video-production

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All this came along nicely with better cameras and recording mechanisms until around 1990, when HD televisions was introduced. This ‘High Definition’ video is a great improvement over the old ‘NTSC’ standard used by the US. Around the same time, digital storage mechanisms began to come into their own. At first these were digital cassettes – still using videotape but recording a digital, as opposed to the former analog recording. But from there is was only a matter of time before digital storage left the tape behind, going fist to CD/DVD type discs and finally to fancy flash cards, the most popular being Sony’s SxS and Panasonic’s P2 cards.

Hence, we’ve come to the end of an era. No longer is videotape being used as a recording medium.

THE TRANSITION

What we have now, whether with home movies or in corporate studios, is a plethora of old tapes and films that rely on old machines to be viewed, if the tape isn’t completely corroded or the equipment isn’t functional.

The way forward involves digitizing these old tapes where the material is of value, and letting go of old tapes that have little relevance today. In the corporate world, so much of what old footage contains is of little value – old training tapes, announcements from 20 years ago, etc. At the same time, landmark moments and iconic figures are best preserved. Similarly, your old, worn copy of Star Wars is not worth preserving, as LucasFilms will have it available forever. Now that birthday party when your little girl turned 4? Of course that’s worth saving.

A RESPONSIBLE ENDING

Now, videotape is not Earth-friendly. The mylar plastic base of most tape can be recycled, but only after the rather nasty concoction of particulate that makes magnetic tape do what is does is removed. This is not a do-it-yourself project.

Indeed, there are only a few responsible options for recycling videotapes. The one we chose is Green Disk, located in Washington D.C. They first separate the the tape from the cassette cases, and then process the actual tape to remove the toxic chemicals and then recycle the mylar and process the toxic chemicals. This is really the only responsible way to address video, audio and data (magnetic) tape.

The less responsible option is dumping your tapes into a landfill, or perhaps taking it to a potentially bogus recycling center, where they will still end up in a landfill, if first shredded. Not a big deal for a few tapes, but kind of a bid deal when we’re looking at hundreds or thousands of pounds, as we were here at Panoptic. This picture shows the four pallets we sent to Green Disk for processing and recycling. We’ll soon get a Certificate showing we’re good stewards of the Earth  – to us a far better measure than quarterly earnings.

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They initially wanted a full year commitment, which I refused, and we finally agreed to a 3 month commitment. I was led to expect that touches and leads would show up ‘on a regular’, several per week. Well, if that were anywhere close to the case I wouldn’t be blogging about how they suck.

So, after three months and no leads, I went out of my way to make them aware that I didn’t want to continue with them, and to please remove me from any further advertising. Well, that didn’t work either. Ads started running on 1/9/17, and now they tell me the ‘contract’ ends on 5/12/17 and that they’ll still have to bill me some more…

Your request to stop advertising has been processed. We’ll be sorry to see you go! Your ads will be stopped on 5/12. If you’ve changed your mind about canceling your advertising, please contact Yelp Account Management: (888) 966-9357 or AMSupport@yelp.com Please note that this email does not represent your final statement. Most of our programs are billed in arrears (after services are rendered), depending on your program type there may be final payments still due after your program ends. Original Agreement Terms: Original Term Length: 3 months Monthly Fixed Profile Fee: $125 Total Monthly Click Budget: $475

So they’re turning my 3 month commitment into five months, won’t stop charging my card. If the funds are unavailable they’re right back the next day or two aggressively trying to pull funds. You can bet I’ll never use Yelp again for any reason, and I highly encourage you to do the same.

https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.yelp.com#569

http://www.39celsius.com/advertising-on-yelp-what-you-should-consider/

Yelp Sucks… (image from Brian Reich)

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The content of a video communication is the story or big idea that we wish to communicate. It may be something like ‘my company is wonderful’ or ‘my life sucks’ or of course anything at all. This central idea is the heart of the content. As we develop our story, we’re still mostly thinking in terms of content.

Form is vehicle for delivering our content. There are innumerable ways to tell your story, and the decisions we make about the form will have a huge impact on how well your story is received. Content and form are the two sides of the video production coin.

I want to focus here on the how content and form are inter-connected, and how changes to either one can impact the other, along with the overall effectiveness of what you’re trying to do.

Let’s assume a scene of high drama where a character is facing ruin or death. That’s our content. But what forms will we use to communicate that content? Will we used dramatic music and sound effects, anguished facial expressions, harsh, ‘spooky’ lighting, severe angles? These decisions, all effective and hence well worn, are a director’s ‘form toolkit’.

The point here is that the form has to ‘honor’ the content, for your production to be effective. When the form doesn’t honor the content, we get bad tv. The loud, wildly dressed car salesperson believes that being more animated means selling more cars – and there’s some truth to it, as there are sadly a lot of suckers out there who believe most anything they see.

But if you’re selling a service or a more product, it’s easy to see how the form must honor the content to be effective. Indeed, among the more artistic they see content and form as being inseparable. I ‘honor’ that position, but as a video designer we have to start somewhere, and that is with the story – the content.

The lesson here is that appreciating which aspect is more in play for a given video or scene, the better equipped we are to make that scene or vid as memorable as possible.

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So then why is it that some folks are able to be thoroughly convincing in their role as an actor, and others seemingly ‘fall on their face’?

Great question, I’m glad I asked. As usual, it’s not just one thing. A good actor will have several techniques they can use to sell their performance. It might be a small hesitation here and there. Perhaps something a bit different in how they deliver their lines. But at the heart of a good performance is a ‘sense of the genuine’. Whether selling cars or performing in the next Star Wars film, it is this sense of genuiness that gets us to ‘buy’ the actor’s performance. And that used car salesman doesn’t ‘read’ well because he likely hasn’t been genuine in so long he doesn’t even know how to pretend to be.

We’ve all heard stories about Hollywood actors who will stay in character all day, from the moment they arrive on set or on location. We’ve heard about weeks or months spent learning skills or affectations to better play a role. Good actors are primarily consummate artists, convincing us that they are whom they’re supposed to be, causing us to suspend our disbelief.

Here in the more mundane world of video production with limited budgets, we still need to get the best performances possible, whether for spokespersons, role plays or dramatic scenes. It’s just that instead of trying to land Morgan Freeman for a small role, we’re wondering whether cousin Bob can handle a walk-thru without looking at the camera. It’s all relative.

So what can we do to get the best performances?

1] Choose your talent wisely. There are an awful lot of folks who want the attention, and perhaps are even willing to work hard, but just do not have the skill set or presence to be effective. This is actually far and away the most important task of the director/producer, since the project won’t recover from a poor performance by a lead character. There may well be hurt feelings and a bit of drama surrounding the development of roles, but a wise director will be able to choose well and act with grace in dealing with those in front of the camera.

2] As noted above, be genuine! When the character is a narrator or spokesperson, practicing the art of appearing genuine is critical. How does one appear genuine when the topic or program effort is not? (Imagine that used car guy again.) Well, gee, that’s what acting is about, isn’t it. Making the false seem real. The best technique I know of is to literally ‘become’ the character. See yourself, feel yourself, hear yourself as genuinely this person. Use a mirror to check out your expressions as you deliver lines. Pretend to have the same likes and dislikes as the person you’ll be representing. All of these things together will help you pull off your acting job, and additionally they’ll help give you that wonderful on-camera ‘presence’, a quiet assuredness in what you are about.

3] Work within your limitations. Most of us do not have the luxury of spending weeks to develop a role. In most markets, you show up for a day shoot and only then learn what you’ll be doing. At best you may get a script to review ahead of time. Feel out the director as best you can to learn what she/he is after, and of course do your best to give them what they want.

4] Understated performances may be better than overstated ones. So if you’re playing someone on drugs, or wildly upset, you probably won’t overstate the acting. High drama often involves ‘big’ performances. What many actors fail to understand, however, is how effective it can be to be more understated in a performance. Big Voice – “It slices, it dices, it cleans itself and makes anything you throw in there taste better.” When you hear over the top copy delivered in an over the top fashion, you know the vid is appealing to an unsophisticated audience, and even so that spot is likely ineffective. Small Voice – “You know, I’ve never seen anything quite like this. I saw it actually slicing and dicing, and when I took the food out, it cleaned itself (with a shoulder shrug like I have no idea how that happened.) Big Voice is obviously a bull-shitter trying to get in your pocket. Small Voice is just a curious person, and you’re a curious person too, so maybe he’s onto something.

This is a topic with no bottom, if you will. Like so many artforms, acting is ultimately a creative act, and there is no right way to do it. There are just ways that feel good and true and others that feel less so. Following the points above may not have you rival a Hugh Jackman or Meryl Streep, but it will add to your project’s ability to create the ‘suspension of disbelief’ which is what we are usually attempting with our video and film productions.

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The digital part refers to the imaging system. No longer do you have a chemical imprint on a piece of film. Now we have digital sensors tied in with digital storage systems, dramatically reducing the costs and the effort to shoot a picture.

Another thing that was never going to happen with old SLR cameras is using it to shoot motion pictures. Even flashing pictures with all of one’s might, there no way to create the 24 to 30 frames a second of images that together create a video or more generically, a motion picture.

DSLR cameras have become fast enough with there imaging and storage that they can indeed shoot video. With CMOS imaging sensors, they can get very nice looks from a relatively inexpensive tool. There are drawbacks, which we’ll discuss in a moment. But for now, let’s appreciate what these little buggers can do. Many versions are available for under $1,000.

Because they’re relatively lightweight, they can be used with small jibs, various versions of a steadycam, sliders and the like. This offers a great deal of creativity in finding interesting angles and perspectives unlikely with a full-size rig. Many of these DSLRs have image stabilization technology built in as well, so if you can’t manage quite a steady a shot as you would like, this feature can be helpful.

And to those of you thinking, “Why not just use a GoPro?” there’s a simple answer. Glass. Most DLSR cameras come with a zoom lens, that allows you to capture a pretty wide shot (24mm) to a fairly tight shot (135mm). When we shoot with a ‘short’ lens most everything is in pretty good focus. When we shoot with a ‘long’ lens, we may have a narrow depth of field in focus and lots of soft background stuff. Can’t do that with a GoPro.

Now, with all those fun things you can do with a DSLR, there are two very notable exceptions to calling these tools ‘video cameras’. Both are fairly critical. First, their audio capturing generally sucks. They usually only have mini-plug inputs, and the pre-amps are crappy. If it’s the fam singing ‘Happy Birthday’ or something, you’re probably ok. But if you’re conducting and interview or in other situations where pristine sound is critical, don’t use a DSLR. At the least buy an outboard pre-amp (like Beachtek) which will do a much better job than the camera’s audio in.

The other drawback is that these cameras usually don’t have the electronic potentiometer (zoom control) rocker that ‘real’ video cameras have. Some purists don’t like using on-camera zooms anyway, as it’s a movement that isn’t replicable by the human eye. But for most of us, they can be damn handy. You establish a scene on a wide, and can push in to areas of interest. Which is why video cameras have them. With a DSLR, you’re turning the lens barrel to change the length of the lens, and this almost always results in jerky zooms.

So, the concusion is…

Depends on what you’re doing. Knowing the shortcomings and work arounds for these cameras can allow you to shoot some beautiful stuff. Imagine. Invent. Just know the limitations of the tool you’re using.

Jim Prues
Director

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A host of apps are available – games, directions, lights, compasses and calculators – and they come standard. No wonder so many folks seem addicted to them.

That’s still not all. Your smart phone these days likely has a pretty good camera, usable for video or stills, and an adequate, if not splendid, mic built right in.

Even though now common-place, an appropriate response might be ‘Holy Shit’, since it is truly remarkable. And works in real-time, with apps like skype and facetime for one on one visual communications.

Ah, good questions. Yes it is possible. No it is not stupid. And yes, some understanding of the tool and process is highly beneficial to creating ‘visual assets’ that you’ll be happy with. So let’s hit on some dos and don’ts…

‘Steady as she goes’. The old sailor’s term is an apt one. Unless we’re going for some mad shaky-cam footage like used in Blair Witch Project, keep the camera steady. Yes, it has some software inside to help stabilize the shot, but your hands or whatever’s holding the phone/cam is the bigger deal.

Buy a mic. You’ll be pleasantly surprised, if not amazed, at the better quality audio you get if you spend some money on a decent mic. This is a classic area where ‘you get what you pay for’, so don’t think that $15 puppy will sound as good as one that costs $150.

Because your phone doesn’t have a ‘zoom lens’ or even a focusable lens, you have to first, understand the limitations of your phone’s ‘glass’, and second you have to be use broad motions to go from a wide shot to a close up. And don’t imagine you’re going to get the lovely ‘long lens’ look that’s so rich with a short depth of field. Again, understand the limitations.

Beware of bright backgrounds. If you shoot someone, particularly if they’re dark complected, they turn into a silhouette in your shot. That’s because phone cams have an ‘auto-iris’ which measures the light coming into the lens, and adjusts the camera’s exposure based on that light level. So, bright sun outside a window means the person in the room in front of the window will look dark, maybe even unusably so.

Okay, you understand a few basics and dammit, you want to make a short film with your phone!

Go for it. What we humans find most compelling in videos and film are pretty simple to achieve. We love movement, going back to Neolithic times and hunting for food or danger, our brains engage in a more focused way with a bit of movement. Lazy, slow camera movements are usually best, unless you’re trying to depict danger, death, hyper-stress, etc.

We humans also find human emotion compelling, which is why really good actors get paid the way they do. Few visuals feel more flat than someone trying to act. We’ve all seen it, and we know it’s painful. Your talent, to create emotion in the viewer, must have a genuine emotional experience for the camera/phone to capture. Otherwise, well, it’s a bad film.

And finally, your video/film needs a good story. Hollywood movies are meticulous in mapping out every single edit and special effect that shows up on screen. There are hundreds of folks making a living just producing the storyboards, animatronics and other pre-production techniques to help imagine a scene/film.

We don’t need to be about all that, but you better have your story, with all it’s twists and turns, and your visual content in pretty good order before starting production.

All in all, there are obviously better tools for making videos and films than with your phone. The world of DLSR cameras is a good place to step up to. But for a little ‘immersion therapy’ for a budding film maker, that smart phone will work just fine.

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That said, we can look just a little at target audiences to get a better sense of what kinds of images, style and pacing. Most of this is just good common sense

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As one might expect, the complexity a script requires varies greatly pending the nature of the production and the budget available. If we’re putting together a local commercial or short video with a simple message, say an on camera spokesperson and little else for the visual content, your script can simply be the words to be narrated, ideally on a teleprompter so your talent can easily impart the message.

On the other hand, if you’re looking at a dramatic film, corporate identity program or a high-end music video, every shot must be mapped out and considered in relationship to all the other scenes. This requires the meticulous process of establishing the look, feel, foreground and background elements, how the talent will play the scene, lighting, special effects (SFX), audio capture, and so forth. Meticulous indeed.

But consider how much more efficient and effective it is to have a detailed script as opposed to ‘shooting on the fly’ and in the edit ramming together your ‘coolest’ shots to create your piece. Again, there are situations where this will work. A music video for a local band that is more montage than story might be just fine with that sort of a production. But there aren’t many types of productions where one can get away with that type of production methodology.

Even a short dramatic film that you’ve been dreaming of producing so long you feel you know every scene in your head will benefit from a script/storyboard. (The words script and storyboard are not quite interchangeable, as the storyboard offers visual representations of what you intend, while a script is usually considered as just words. Still, both are design tools.) It’s too easy to forget nuance, quick pickup shots or other elements that will enhance your final product.

And if you’re producing the next Star Wars film, just imagine what those script/boards must look like.

Of course just having a script is no guarantee of a successful project, but the chances go way up since we have a much better sense of what we’re about. There are plenty of terrible ideas that can find their way into scripts. Often times it’s not the scene itself, but the way it’s interpreted that can be disastrous.

Which brings me to the last point. Imagination. Even with a tidy script and meticulous storyboards, the project director has to ‘see’ (and hear) the film in their head to create the compelling stories and visuals we’re after. But talking about directors and direction is another topic!

<a href=“https://panopticmedia.com”>Cincinnati video production</a>

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