Video equipment

[jimcaher]

Any suggests for a video camera and related equipment for someone how knows less than nothing about making videos?

Thanks
Jim Caher

[Tim]

Any suggests for a video camera and related equipment for someone how knows less than nothing about making videos?

Thanks
Jim Caher

It's quite amazing what you can do with hand held digital cams these days. All my recent videos were done on a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS ($179), which can do 720p HD footage. I shoot on a small tripod from Best Buy ($20). Upload to my iMac ($$$$too much) and edit with iMovie HD (Comes with Mac OS X), which comes with all macs.

This video is an example of one I've done with it.

For serious video editing on the Mac I cannot recommend iMovie HD, it's got the bare bones of what is needed, but for real editing it would be better to move up to Final Cut Express ($199)



Here's a movie I did with this combination:

As you can see the frame rate and video quality are excellent (need lots of light!). The audio quality is good, but not perfect.

[Eighty-Eight]

Whoa, Tim. Great stuff. What is it that you did at 1:08? I don't think I've ever seen that before. It looks like the bag rebounded off your right elbow. Shortly after, you did it on the left side. It's going so fast that I couldn't quite make out what was going on.

[Tim]

Whoa, Tim. Great stuff. What is it that you did at 1:08? I don't think I've ever seen that before. It looks like the bag rebounded off your right elbow. Shortly after, you did it on the left side. It's going so fast that I couldn't quite make out what was going on.

It's an Inward Double Elbow strike (I-DES in bible terminology), however, I leave the elbow hanging out there for 1 or 2 extra rebounds off the elbow (Inward Single Elbow Strike), so in bible speak it's:

I-DES ' I-SES

Sometimes it's

I-DES ' I-SES ' I-SES

Another way to describe it would be an inward double elbow with a elbow "double bump" on the end.

The fist hits it, one rebound, elbow hits it, one rebound , same elbow hits it again, one rebound, etc.

And sometimes, I come out of it with an O-DES (outward double elbow strike). I think this is actually what's taking place at 1:08.

I-DES ' O-DES

fist , one rebound, elbow, one rebound, same elbow, one rebound, fist

[Clubber Lang]

Any suggests for a video camera and related equipment for someone how knows less than nothing about making videos?

Thanks
Jim Caher

I would recommend as a minimum the camera in the attached picture. You will also need a camera man, sound and lighting crew.

Then you will need to use a post production editing suite. Total outlay would be around $200,000 USD. Good value for money.

I think the latest craze is 3D now so might be worth looking in to that as well.

[Speedbag]

Whoa, Tim. Great stuff. What is it that you did at 1:08? I don't think I've ever seen that before. It looks like the bag rebounded off your right elbow. Shortly after, you did it on the left side. It's going so fast that I couldn't quite make out what was going on.

TIM'S explanation is correct, great use of SBB terminology, however the exact strike at 1:08 appears to be a double bump Outward-Elbow, creating a (O-SES ' O-DES) by the right arm.

TIM, your improvement, particularly the ownership of the repetitive O-I 4-way off one rebound is very impressive. Practice is definitely paying off.

[Mrs Mitts]

Hey Jim,

Just wondered whether you got yourself some video equipment and how you're getting on with it?

I'm also looking to buy something as borrowing off a friend at the moment, and it's a tape camcorder too so..... time consuming and a pain all round.

Does anyone out there know if 30 frames a second is good enough?

This is what I had a mind, so if anyone has this kit, comments appreciated, thanks.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flip-Video-Definition-Camcorder-Memory/dp/B0029U29A8/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IL2XI5M8U5FB2&colid=CUV2CWPW95SJ

[jimcaher]

Mrs. Mitts

I bought the little camera Tim suggested Canon Powershot SD 780, along with a 60 inch tripod. The little camera works fine and is a cool gadget. I wish I gotten a taller tripod.

Software has not been so simple. It seems that Apple (iTunes and Quick Time Player) and Windows (Windows Media Player and Windows Movie Maker) are constantly at war behind the scenes to establish dominance. Also, the version of WMM that came on my Vista machine has some kind of bug that prevents saving edited movies in a usable format. Not to mention YouTube also has ideas on formats.

After wasting way too much time trying to referee all this, the solution for me was to buy $59 the AVS Video Conversion Software that Alan suggested and use Adobe Elements (that luckily came bundled on this computer) to edit. I save or convert everything *.WMV format, which seems to make the files small and compatible with YouTube.

Others probably have a more elegant approach, but this one works for me, after hours of frustrating dinking.

Jim

[jimcaher]

follow up Windows Movie Maker

I tried Windows Movie Maker on a different computer, also running Vista, and it allowed me to save the editied version to a WMV file just fine. So, the problem maybe limited to that one computer. If it works, Windows Movie Maker is much, much easier to use. Still need the AVS converter, however to convert files imported from the camera to WMV format.

Jim

[jimcaher]

I've fixed Windows Movie Maker

If anyone is having trouble with Windows Movie Maker, the problem could be conflicting filters. Easy to fix. Let me know if anyone needs more information.

Once you get it working, WMM is much easier to work with than Adobe Elements.

Here's my latest attempt at video editing. Still crude, but more fun in WMM.

No punch drumming here just mindlessly enjoying the music.

Not happy with the quality of the vid, but hopefully it'll improve when YouTube fully processes it.

Jim

[Speedbag]

Looking Good, Jim! Nice flow to your combo's.