CREATIVE VIDEO PRODUCTION WITH MY COUSIN CAMERON

So Cameron… you want to start learning about creative video editing and production? I’ve got a lot of information for you. First, you can go download a pretty decent video capture & editing software program called Video Spin by Pinnacle. That will give you a nice start. I am using Pinnacle Studio 12 Pro, which allows me to do chroma key background effects and also picture-in-picture videos. I’ve been using Pinnacle since version 7. I used it to produce all of my television show episodes when I was on JCTV-3, our local access television station. When I started, I was shooting live in the studio with the big fat old cameras and the VHS analog equipment. They had a control room with tons of equipment in it, including a video mixer that would allow us to move between 3 floor cameras. The sound had to be piped in live, same with the transitions. If we wanted to have a 3 minute break to put in a PSA, we had to fade to black, and wait exactly 3 minutes, then come back on live. I had about 5 people on my make-shift crew when the show started. One was a floor director, 2 ran cameras, one ran the sound and background music, and one ran the video mixer and controller. Funny thing, when people are volunteering, they disappear really quick! By the 3rd shooting, I was down to my Dad and my wife. Then they even got sick of showing up! It’s pretty sad! After shooting about 6 shows in the studio, I decided to buy a video camera and use my computer to compile the footage and do my editing. It was so much easier. I had a VHS-C camera, and later got a HI-8 camera (which I am still using to this day). Now I have the HI-8 camera connected to the computer via a FIreWire card (because Windows 7 does not have driver support for my old camera on USB 2.0). Funny how that control room at the JCTV-3 Studio is replaced by one little software program. The technology we had back then, only 6 years ago, is ancient. The stuff you can do now on a computer is crazy. So anyhoo, that’s a little background on my video production and editing. It’s a blast. We can use this blog page to post ideas, trade stories, post videos, answer questions, and whatever else. It should be fun! We’ll be talking!

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