Hello,
I have been a member of this forum for over a year now, and I really love the great people here and the wonderful advice. I also love the video presentations that I see on the main page. In addition, the videos I see on You Tube are great, and offer a lot of useful information. I would really love to produce my own video for the WEB. My question is; What type of video equipment is necessary for making a short WEB video such as those seen on FWW or You Tube? Are the publishers of FWW interested in video submissions from members? I feel that there are a number of forum members who could produce some cool videos to share.
Bob, Tupper Lake, NY
Replies
You can make video using even a cell phone these days. Many digital cameras will also record short video segments. I'd recommend any name brand digital video camera, and more importantly a good set of lights to brighten up whatever you are going to videotape. Digital video is easily imported onto a computer. Windows XP and VISTA have simple video editing "Movie Maker" software on them, but there are many other video editing programs out there.
I made a few shows for a local public cable access channel several years ago. I used halogen work lights, sony 8mm video cameras (that worked with a remote control) on tripods. Get someone to work the camera if you're gonna be in front of it. Take alot of video, and don't be afraid to edit it all down to a quick statement. Most of what I see on YouTube suffers from poor lighting. Video gets sharper as the light available increases.
Hi Bob,
I like your enthusiasm. As I've stated in a few other Knots discussions, we encourage readers to take to their shops with video cameras.
We publish community-submitted video clips in two forms on our Web site. One is our community video blog GlueTube, where we feature woodworking videos that are posted on file-sharing sites like YouTube, GoogleVideo, and Vimeo. These sites make it easy for users to upload and share free video clips so we take advantage of that technology.
We also purchase the rights to video content in the same way that we buy articles for the magazine. However, we are a little picky about the video we buy. It has to be a subject that isn't already covered on our site, and one that we stand behind in terms of quality, safety, and technique. So far we have only purchased videos from The Wood Whisperer and some independently produced woodworking DVDs.
To submit ideas or videos please contact me by email at [email protected]. I look forward to seeing something.
Matt Berger
Fine Woodworking
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