Movie tips

[Super Cameraman]

Yeah, he probably means like Hi8 or something. Those are cheap and not too bad either.

-Super

[bicostp]

Hints for movie making/publishing:

1. Get an analog tape camcorder; such as one that uses compact VHS tapes. You will get good recording quality with it.

2. I have to disagree with Super Cameraman regarding DVD camcorders. I helped my neighbors set up an external DVD burner. I showed him how to use Nero to copy the video from the camera's mini DVD-RW to an MPEG-4 file. It worked. Now before you get any ideas, this won't work on copy protected DVDs . If you have a DVD drive, but don't want to shell out for Nero or a burner, you can rip the video off the disc using VLC Media Player. However, you won't get the extremely shiny, friendly interface Nero gives you. Instead you get the array of check boxes, drop menus, and typed commands that typically comes with VLC. The program's worth it, though. It can play almost anything right out of the ZIP file.

3. AVOID WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER! It will be obvious that you used it; no matter how hard you try your video will feel like those million and one silly videos of some guy doing something stupid on MySpace. It is also very limited when it comes to video formats. Get Adobe Premiere Elements, preferably in the Photoshop Elements bundle. Premiere is very powerful, and Elements has most of its features. You should get QuickTime Pro 7, too. The H.264 codec it comes with gives high quality output with relatively small file sizes.

4. Don't upload to YouTube. Upload to Google Video or your personal website instead. That way people can download the video if they want to.

5. Use umbrellas and tightly-strung sheets on frames spray-painted silver as reflecters to get better light. They're cheap and effective.

[atari2600a]

I'd have to strongly go against using a VHS camera (or any other analog format besides film), as VHS quality is VERY poor, & deteriorates over time.

[slimjimmy]

1. Get an analog tape camcorder; such as one that uses compact VHS tapes. You will get good recording quality with it.

I'd go with a digital8 camcorder even though you guys don't recommend a digital camcorder. sony's comes with a firewire port, and it works with any 8mm anyway (why wouldn't it, i dunno) so you can put your family's library of Hi8/Super8/Whatever8 home movies (my dad's got a box stuffed with them) onto something digital or whatnot. I haven't really seen no artifacts while playing, just a good quality image.

4. Don't upload to YouTube. Upload to Google Video or your personal website instead. That way people can download the video if they want to.

The only bad thing I've found with uploading to Google Video is that it took a week for them to finally put it up on their site (at least for me). YouTube puts it up as soon as it's done uploading.

Don't you have to download their player anyway to watch your downloaded video?

[Sparkfist]

Like I said before get a DV camcorder with firewire output. I've done the VHS/Beta/Hi-8 through a capture card, it's not fun getting all the settings right and then keeping an eye on the video for how ever long it is so that it doesn't have any static or whatnot.

I can understand that an analoge recorder would be useful, but with it being 2006 and not 2000, some digital camcorders will cost about the same as a Hi-8 or SVHS and still have superiour resolution to the analoge formats.

If you really need some true experianced answer email Ben and I'm sure he could give you one with a done of reasons.

[bicostp]

The only bad thing I've found with uploading to Google Video is that it took a week for them to finally put it up on their site (at least for me). YouTube puts it up as soon as it's done uploading.

Don't you have to download their player anyway to watch your downloaded video?

When was the last time you uploaded to Google Video? I think they changed this policy recently.

And no, you don't need their player to play the videos. There are 3 ways you can download the video:

1. Download for Windows/Mac : Downloads a 1 or 2 kilobyte .gvp file. This is essentially a hyperlink. If you open it with Notepad you can get an http link to the video as an .AVI file. (I'm working on a tutorial)

2. Download for iPod : This downloads an iPod .m4v file, which you can play in QuickTime 7 or VLC (maybe Media Player Classic, too).

3. Download for PSP : This is just a regular MPEG 4 file. Lots of things can open it (but not WiMP).

[Super Cameraman]

So either MiniDV or Hi8. I have both. I have Hi8 tapes from like '89, and they're still fine.

-Super

[vb_master]

So either MiniDV or Hi8. I have both. I have Hi8 tapes from like '89, and they're still fine.

-Super

Yeah, Hi8 is amazing.

[Super Cameraman]

Is it really that great though? What makes it so much better than MiniDV?

-Super Cameraman, who needs to go out and get some Hi8 tapes if he ever wants to finish his movie....

[Sparkfist]

Is it really that great though? What makes it so much better than MiniDV?

Nothing. But if you compare Hi-8 to say SVHS, it really is a superior video format. As far as MiniDV is conserned I don't know if they did any improvements over standard DV, but I can say that DV is higher quality then Hi-8.

On other note, if you do go out to buy a camcorder be sure to check on the Image Stabilizer. Too many cameras today use a digital one and this degrades the image quality. My dad's camera which is a Hi-8 has an optical stablizer, uses a gyroscope. Look for something of that nature as it will keep your video looking professional.

[vb_master]

Only thing that MiniDV has over Hi8 is that you can transfer directly to a computer, you can do it with some but not all Hi8 camcorders.