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I'm trying to come up with a few pieces of equipment to request in a grant that would aide in shooting a 30 minute film or documentary. Aside from cameras, I have one boom mic, a couple of wireless mics, a dolly and a light kit. Can you suggest some other things that I would be glad I had on a location? Tracks, steady cam, other mics, larger on cam monitor, teleprompter? I sure would like to have a couple of DTEs. Oh, and I'd really like the kids to shoot this in HD.

Pam Dixon Gayle
pam.dixon-gayle@cpsb.org


We shot our entire documentary "We Must Remember" (over 2 terabytes of HD 720p footage) using two DTEs. They were invaluable. Much of our film was shot on location in Germany and Poland and our system would involve backing up the day's footage in the evening onto an external hard drive in the hotel room.

Essentially this gave us two back-ups since we also shot onto tape and of course the footage remained on the DTE until we returned to California.

When we look back now at all of the hours (dozens and dozens) that would have been required to capture all of this footage, the DTEs were worth every penny.

We purchased two (this is a similar model)
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/489546-REG/JVC_DRHD100GB60_DR_HD100GB60_60GB_Portable_DTE.html

Sincerely,
Doug Green
www.chstvfilms.com
www.chstv.com

I recommend THE ACCADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY, has created THE SCHOOL OF MULTIMEADIA COMMUNICATIONS under the guidance of Director Jan Yanehiro and Associate Director Steve Cotton. The school below includes in the; curriculum visual communications, short form production, editing, sports reporting, fashion journalism, video journalism, multimedia production, multimedia writing, multimedia broadcasting, etc. www.adademyart.edu

"I am half-way through my MFA in Computer Arts/New Media at AAU, doing all my graduate course work online. The classes have been very rewarding and challenging. Several have been the most difficult and cutting-edge courses I have ever taken at the graduate level and as a consequence I have taken those great experiences back into the classroom. I recommend that you look into the programs if you wish to pursue graduate studies in the multimedia. You may find media courses that are not offered in your surrounding area."

Ray Lund

ray.lund@thorntonacademy.org

September 2008

Do any of y’all have any assignments (written work / research / projects) that are good for copyright? My students are fully aware of copyright, but I would like to get them to do more work to reinforce what I am telling them about copyright. Right now it feels like “we can’t play music / use pictures that we want to use because MR. HOLMES won’t let us”, and not “we can’t play music / use pictures that we want to use because THE LAW won’t let us”. I want them to understand the process of how different groups GET permission to use copyright material.

Anybody got anything I could look at?

Christian Holmes
christian.holmes@springbranchisd.com

September 21, 2010






Several of the teachers in our school district use the Digital Citizenship and Creative Content Curriculum available at http://digitalcitizenshiped.com/. It's free, just register.

Susan Smith
s.smith@ecisd.us

My students have done some excellent work that I want to put on SchoolTube; however our local cable company takes care of the copyright for the music we use. They have four schools that broadcast and they are ultimately liable, so they foot the bill. Can I still put the pieces on SchoolTube if the copyright is covered by my cable provider?

Alisa Crandall

Your cable provider pays for the copyright for cable casting your videos. It does not cover webcasting of videos. That"s an entirely different copyright license. If SchoolTube covers the license for anything that they make available on the web, then you would be ok. Just make sure SchoolTube agrees to cover your videos.

Phil Harris

SchoolTube does not cover any copyrighted content, sorry. If you are interested in learning where to get some royalty free music to use in place of the copyrighted content, check out services like Soundzabound.com and sites with royalty free licensing. If you have more questions about copyright and SchoolTube, check out http://www.schooltube.com/Help/CopyrightQuestions.aspz

Erin Tierney

October 2008

Occasionally the topic of editing video over an ethernet network comes up, or trying to edit video on your Apple Xserve. Every time I see this discussion, I've wanted to jump in and comment.

Many say it can't be done without an expensive fibre RAID system. But, we are doing it, without such an expensive system. I've waited mainly because I wanted to "try and test" it. Second, well, I hate bragging, it just makes people hate.

But now I'm not holding back. No, you can't edit video on the Xserve. For one thing, Mac OS Server can't do it by itself. Too many bottle-necks. But, YES, you CAN edit from a network location, if the configuration and hardware is right.

You CAN edit footage from a central location (notice I did not say Server), without a FiberRAID system. It's called "Video-Over-Gig-E" on the street.
We are doing it. Have been for a year. Our main goal was to allow a
student to sit down at any station and edit their project, no matter where the project was started, no matter where it was captured/transferred. So, we did some research.

First roadblock; your ethernet port is typically TOO SLOW.

Second roadblock; your ethernet switch is TOO SLOW.

Third roadblock; the ethernet path to the "Shared Storage" machine is only one path, (obviously you will want more than one Mac station able to access the video files simultaneously), therefore TOO SLOW. .

Fourth roadblock; the "Shared Storage" hard drive is only fast enough for one machine. For multiple stations, it would be TOO SLOW.

Listen. We have overcome these roadblocks! Did you catch that? These roadblocks can be cleared! AT A MUCH MUCH LOWER COST than installing a fibreRAID!

No, this is not a sales pitch. I'm just sharing with you my experiences on this "phenomenon", because, now as I look back, our past year on this "Poor Mans Video Sans" system that we did in-house, has really been great!

Here's a link to an article I just wrote on this. I hope you find it helpful or interesting.

www.tinyurl.com/svnaldridge <http://www.tinyurl.com/svnaldridge>

Charles Aldridge
charlesa@txkisd.net

We just got three of the Panasonic AG-HMC 40 camcorders. Now we need to accessorize.

Any suggestions on specific boom mics and an XLR adaptor that work great with the AG-HMC 40s would be appreciated.

Also, where do we go to download a file converter for use with Final Cut Pro? I think I read that Panasonic has a free plug-in for this?
Not too sure about anything right now. We got one of the cameras out of the box yesterday after it arrived, but about the only thing we've done is pass it around. I think it's going to be a nice camera to take us away from tape (at last).

Dave Davis
Hillcrest HS
Springfield, MO

May 31, 2011

We got these cameras this year. For Final Cut, use log and transfer and your clips will go right in as HD files (FCP 7). USB right out of the camera to your Mac. Use Apple Pro Res codec. Panasonic has an XLR adapter made specifically for this model, so I would go with that. Hope those little bits help.

May 30, 2011


Sam Morris
Wolf TV
Timber Creek High School
www.mywolftv.com

Hey Dave, I have 3 of these cameras. We love them. I took the XLR adapters off my old Sonys and use them. I spoke to the Panasonic rep at STN. There is supposed to be a plug in coming out this summer for FCP. We do a log and transfer and use ProRes 422. I just bought 32 GB class 10 cards at CompUSA for $29 each. I think the cards need to be Class 6 or higher. I am thinking about having each kid buy their own card next year. An 8-16GB card.


Debbie Rein
O-Town Live/Video Production Teacher
Osceola Fundamental High School
9751 98th Street North
Seminole, FL 33777
reind@pcsb.org

May 29, 2011

Good news for you about the Panasonic. You don't need a file converter. Just plug that SD card in, file and transfer, then when you drag your clip to the timeline, click yes - you want to match the clip settings. Easy (choose SDHC cards, class 4 or higher - the higher the class-the faster the transer -read/write time)

As far as accessories: We use a Beach-Tek unit for audio. But I would look into the Panasonic version. The Beach-tek attaches to the bottom of the camera - makes it a little funky on the tripod. It works fine - but I'd prefer it on the top of the camera. I should have done better research before I bought it.

The camera allows loads of manual overrides - we are enjoying this camera.


Linda Yunker
Broadcast Video Instructor
Etowah High School
6565 Putnam Ford Road
Woodstock, GA 30189
Linda.Yunker@cherokee.k12.ga.us>

This is the first year we have made it mandatory that our academy students purchase external FW400, FW00, USB or combo bus powered drives.

However, when using a mac you can only format the drives as Fat32 in Snow Leopard. This is a problem for quicktime since Fat32 will only allow a certain file size. If a student formats their drive at home on Win XP in the NTFS format, will it mount in Snow Leopard and can large QT files be saved to it? If not, is there a free plugin, apple script or something that will allow kids to be able to go from Mac to PC with their external drives?

Ted.Irving@fortbend.k12.tx.us
HHS Academy

September 2008

Affiliates Digest, Vol 20, Issue 18

The way each of our student's portable harddrives are formatted is for Mac.
This is becuase only the Mac formatting permits such huge files as required by QT or FCP, etc.

Each Windows workstation has a copy of MacDrive installed, which permits the Windows machine to read the mac-formatted drives and correspondingly use and transfer files in excess of the limits imposed by FAT32.

Available here: http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

To my knowledge, there is no stable way to do the process in reverse; hence the reason we stick with the paradigm above. Even if you were to format to NTSC in WXP, I believe the file size limit still exists.

Ryan Carlson
SHERRARD TV
Sherrard High School
Mediacom Cable, Ch. 150
Independent Cable, Ch. 150
www.SHERRARDTV.com
STV@sherrard.us


September 2010

I don't know if anyone is trying them, but there are "hybrid" drives that can work on pc/mac together apparently.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1973122,00.asp

I need help with setting up my Tricaster.

Sandy Beeson

October 2008

I just bought a Tricaster myself, but have been in the business for a while. My friends are big into wiring buildings and stuff.. I can ask them what kind of cables to do this with, but with the Tricaster, I would set yourself up as a portable unit to just take it to or near the room you are shooting in and then put the cameras up there. You should get a hard plastic rolling box with foam to transport the Tricaster and monitor etc.

My school was wired, but it is with big $30,000 cameras and camera control units and everything was set up SDI and that is crazy if you are going to be doing Tricaster. Feel free to e-mail me direct at; mrsfrederick@yahoo.com"

I am going to a new school next year and have a few questions about setting up
a new b'cast studio. Any info. you can throw my way would be great.

I do have three specific questions:
1. I need to know about setting up a professional lighting system for my
studio. Track lighting? Lighting kits? Prices?
2. I need to know what switcher to buy. What different things do "they" offer?
Prices? Where's a good place to get them?
3. What are the still cameras that can shoot video? Quality? Resolution? Dpi?
Price?

Matthew R. Deabler
MDeabler@goddardusd.com


September 21, 2010


1. If you use CCD cameras or older cameras, lighting is probably mandatory.
If you are using newer camcorders (like pro-sumer grade stuff), you probably
don't need any more lighting than already present with the ceiling or
overhead lights. Otherwise, I'd contact a vendor and ask for lighting -- it
is really dependent on the cameras present. For example, I just installed
roughly $2,500 of lighting that was designed specifically for our studio and
cameras.

I would suggest contacting a lighting vendor and telling them what cameras
you plan on getting, etc., and they can get you the correct lights and email
you a specific diagram as to where to properly place lights.

Suggested Vendor: ECS Davenport (Attn: Tom Perdan), 563-322-1525

2. The NewTek VideoToaster is absolutely recommended is all possible ways.
Other people try to use a hardware-only switcher, audio board, graphics
person, etc., and are really just wasting their time. The VT takes care of
all switching, audio, titling, graphics, transitions, capture chroma key,
etc., all while producing smoother switches and I would argue much better
quality productions than a control room setup that thrives on separate
hardware-only stations. And, it serves as an awesome editing station too.
I would highly, highly recommend a VT over any other switching hardware.

Info: http://www.digarts.com/vt5_live_bundle?category_id=5

Vendor: Digital Arts (Attn: Kris), 800-692-6442

3. This would be dependent on your lighting. If you needn't have
professional-grade cameras, I would advise a pro-sumer grade camera. If
you're looking to go tape-based full-HD, I would recommend the Canon CH-A1s.
If you're looking to go tapeless full-HD, I would highly recommend the JVC
GY-HM100. If you go with a consumer or pro-sumer grade that doesn't have
auto-white balance or those type of settings, existing lighting may work
well. Otherwise, the pro-grade cameras would be dependent on lighting.
This type of question would be budget dependent; if you have enough, I would
probably be apt to advise full professional-grade 3CCD studio cameras.
Those are very expensive, however. The point is, for the most part, I have
found, most new video cameras can shoot still pictures; and I have had
better luck shooting still pictures with video cameras than I have shooting
video with still cameras; hence the recommendations given above.

If you do seriously want a "still" camera that "can shoot video," I would
recommend the Canon 5D Mark II. It is a professional-grade still camera
that can shoot video very well in native HD. For example, the most recent
season finale of House, MD, was shot with this still camera using the video
function -- interesting side note. The Mark II runs around $2600 I think.

Another option if you're planning on installing an entire new system,
consider having a vendor complete the setup entirely for you. Often times,
they'll do all the planning, ordering, installation, etc. I can recommend
the company that designed our studio from scratch back in the 90s and still
continues to be our key vendor today. I think for an entirely new studio,
this would be the absolute best bet.

Ryan Carlson
STV@sherrard.us

September 21, 2010


I have a NewTek TriCaster Studio, and I recommend it as a good compromise between the two viewpoints expressed below. For me to teach kids, I need as many of them as possible to have a different job in the studio. If everyone's clogged up at one station, it's going to take me forever to train them. However, a stand-alone system is awfully nice to have, too, for various productions. The TriCaster works pretty well for both - I have a separate sound board, and NewTek sells their Livetext graphics software as a pull-out feature, so I have that on a separate computer as well. As long as it's not also your primary editing station, The TriCaster seems to work well for instructional purposes. In a pinch we can pack the thing up and use it in the field as an all-in-one system, although I don't enjoy dis-unintangling the thing from everything in the studio to get it out.

Re: shopping for equipment

People on here have differing opinions about B&H Photo/Video, but when I started out I got some good advice from them, and I still call them when I need an expert. You can talk to specialists in different areas - lighting, sound, etc., and they really know their stuff.

To deal successfully with B&H, though, you have to be prepared going in. Some of the guys (and it's all male up there) are just plain rude. They have that abrupt, busy, disinterested... whatever you want to call it, major attitude. I have made many, many calls to them, though, and I can say for every rude guy, there are at least five extremely kind, helpful ones. I just thank the rude guy, hang up, and call back and talk to someone nice. To me, it's worth it because they know an awful lot, and they have some of the best prices in the country. They will also deal with POs. They've helped me solve some difficult issues, and they generally think in terms of the cheapest good solution.

Louise Harrell Grant
LGrant@lex5.k12.sc.us

I have a NewTek TriCaster Studio, and I recommend it as a good compromise between the two viewpoints expressed below. For me to teach kids, I need as many of them as possible to have a different job in the studio. If everyone's clogged up at one station, it's going to take me forever to train them. However, a stand-alone system is awfully nice to have, too, for various productions. The TriCaster works pretty well for both - I have a separate sound board, and NewTek sells their Livetext graphics software as a pull-out feature, so I have that on a separate computer as well. As long as it's not also your primary editing station, The TriCaster seems to work well for instructional purposes. In a pinch we can pack the thing up and use it in the field as an all-in-one system, although I don't enjoy dis-unintangling the thing from everything in the studio to get it out.


Re: shopping for equipment

People on here have differing opinions about B&H Photo/Video, but when I started out I got some good advice from them, and I still call them when I need an expert. You can talk to specialists in different areas - lighting, sound, etc., and they really know their stuff.

To deal successfully with B&H, though, you have to be prepared going in. Some of the guys (and it's all male up there) are just plain rude. They have that abrupt, busy, disinterested... whatever you want to call it, major attitude. I have made many, many calls to them, though, and I can say for every rude guy, there are at least five extremely kind, helpful ones. I just thank the rude guy, hang up, and call back and talk to someone nice. To me, it's worth it because they know an awful lot, and they have some of the best prices in the country. They will also deal with POs. They've helped me solve some difficult issues, and they generally think in terms of the cheapest good solution.

Louise Harrell Grant
Broadcasting, CJE
E-mail: LGrant@lex5.k12.sc.us


Democracy Depends on Journalism.

NewTek can keep one person very busy, but I'll take my 10 year old switcher any day. I have a Switcher, a CG person, an Audio person, a lighting person, and a tape/computer clip person, and an archivalist who captures it on FCP3 on a Mac G4 for web publishing along with the Teleprompter person. You may look like the Big Boys, but we have to act like them. Teamwork! They live and die on the weakest link EVERYDAY-LIVE!

Mark Morris
Veterans Memorial High School
memorris@mcisd.org

Sell commercials. We've sold one. This hasn't been a money-maker. But, I think my students are a bit intimidated going up to a business and trying to sell commercials. We are doing this for "free" (no price plan) and accepting donations. As we approach the end of September, it doesn't look like we'll make much money.

October: News-a-thon. Students get people to donate money for every hour they work on a Saturday. We do our own version of a Sweet-16. We come in on Saturday, produce a show in 9 hours, and for every hour a student works, they get a donation. We get both practice for the convention and raise some money. We did this 2 years ago (our last Florida trip) and we raised about $7000. Let's see how this year turns out.

November/December: Apple Fundraiser. Raffle off an iMac, iPad and iPhone. Anyone know how to get these items donated? I'm guessing we will have to spend money, in order to make money...but, I think they could sell lots of tickets. We've never done this before, but it might work.

Rene Vela
www.livefrom205.com


My students are sending out sponsorship letters. Last year all of them received some sponsorship money with a few raising enough to get their entire trip paid for.

We charge five dollars for each birthday shout-out on our weekly show.

Restaurant Nights: Each organization on campus is allowed two a month.

Lunch food sales: Every Tuesday CMStv students can sell one food item such as burritos or ice cream sandwiches for Food Services. We get a percentage of what they sell.

Sell tickets for the Santa Clarita Valley Heritage Haunt in October. It's a local haunted park attraction. We get half of every ten dollar ticket sold and we don't get charged for unsold tickets. My students have sold about 250 tickets - we get $1250.

Sell candy bars. We buy the candy at Smart and Final for about 50 cents and sell them for a dollar. We made over $1000 last year

In October/November we'll sell different types of wrist bands/bracelets including "silly bands." Middle schoolers go crazy over them.

In November we plan on selling Marie Callendars pie certificates. This is a big moneymaker because people like to give the certificates away for the holidays. We get a couple of dollars for each certificate sold and the they don't expire.

Our CMStv parents are in the process of starting a Booster Club. A Booster Club can conduct a wider variety of fundraisers. ASB limits what we can do.

Ro Osano
rosano@castaic.k12.ca.us


We are going to try the Silly Bandz. I have 1400 packages on order. At an average cost of just over $0.70 a pack, we will make approximately $1.30 profit for each pack sold, or just over$1800.00. That will be the beginning, I may reorder more of them.

We will be teaming up with the Lions Club to do videos with Santa this year.

Sharlo Rogers
srogers@goddardusd.com

We have been asked to do some videos for a company. How can we film a computer screen without the "lines" running through it?

Terry Thoelke
thoelket@usd231.com


Refresh rate and shutter. Go to your computers display properties/settings/advanced (if PC) and find the section called Screen Reresh rate under Monitor. If the refresh rate is 60 Hertz, then go into your camera shutter settings and set the shutter to 60. If the refresh rate was 75, you would set your camera shutter to 75 to match, if you have a large selection of shutter speeds available.

Ted Irving
www.schooltube.com/user/htv

I have some students who want to pixilate some writing on a paper for a clip on their video. How do I accomplish this without purchasing another piece of software" We are using Final Cut Pro 6

Alisa Crandall

October 2008

I know thee is a filter that can do this that is free, but cannot recall it at the moment, so let"s try the fun way. Create a document in Photoshop 800X600. Then use the paint bucket to make the document white. Next, go to Filter>pixilate>and pick your favorite pixilization. After you get the look you want, File>Save and export as a PNG file. Then you import that into Final Cut. Drop it onto the layer/video track above your video of the paper. Double click on the picture and resize it in the clip editor to fit your needs and then reposition it. Finally, either change the opacity of the picture track down or set the track to screen mode. If the paper moves, you may have to keyframe the move and the center point of the picture.

Brian Turner

October 2008

Which editing platform should we use: AVID or Final Cut?

Ted and Paul have some excellent points and I agree with all of it. In general the more skilled our students are, the more marketable they will be. Knowing multiple editing platforms is nothing other than an advantage. In addition to knowing what buttons a student should push, it is imperative to know WHY the students should make any particular edit. Editing is the “grammar” of television and film production and without it story arcs would fail, messages would be lost, and characters would be unmotivated and unbelievable.

In terms of Avid and FCP, here are my 2 cents. Maybe when we are finished we’ll have enough to split a pack of gum.

I teach Avid to my kids simply because it is harder for them to learn, and it forces them to tap into their work ethics, creativity, individuality, and self-reliance. FCP offers MANY templates which allow students to make very cool looking videos very quickly and easily. Avid in contrast offers very few templates so the student’s are forced to essentially build everything from scratch. Yes this takes longer, yes this is more difficult, and yes I think the end result is that they actually learn more in the process.

Not to take anything away from Professional FCP editors but beginner and amateur FCP editors seem to constantly make use of these simplified templates and editing techniques to create very flashy and cool looking videos, that unfortunately look very similar to all the other amateur FCP projects that incorporate the same unaltered templates. Professionals may use these templates as well, but they know enough to heavily alter or build upon the template to create a unique look. I’m not talking about the nuts and bolts of editing as much as I’m talking about all the peripherals. The lower thirds, titles, graphics, animated transitions, effects and DVD authoring. iDVD makes some very flashy and cool looking DVDs but they stopped impressing me years ago when I realized that they are all cool and flashy looking in exactly the same way, and that very little work may have actually gone into it.

In contrast Avid offers very few bells and whistles. It takes students much longer to get a cool and flashy looking video, but because they were forced to build it from scratch they have actually done all the work themselves, and learned many more actual skills along the way. Most of them will create their own templates so that next time they can move along the process faster.

I’ve seen students and professionals transition easily from Avid to FCP because the foundation that they’ve created is already so strong. Usually they say something like, “Wow, this is a great piece of software, I can see why it’s so popular… and look at all these great templates I can build off of!” I’ve also seen plenty of FCP uses struggle with the transition to Avid. Usually they say something like, “Hey…where are all my cheats?”

A master chef will never get to their position by following somebody else’s recipes. They must work from scratch and develop their own recipes and style through trial and error. Only in this way will they gain respect in their industry and become a master chef instead of an assistant chef.

Oh, and while we are on the topic of editing, EVERYONE, students and teachers alike should read In The Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch.

Dave Ruby
Television Production Instructor
The Fairfax Academy
Digital Wave Productions

Good stuff. Definitely agree with your points.


Ted Irving

HHS Media Fort Bend ISD

(281)634-5362

I personally feel that AVID and Final Cut should be known by all editors. Not getting a job just because a shop or station is AVID would be a big disappointment. In our program we teach both. We teach Final Cut to the starting students and by the third year they can get their hands dirty on the AVID. I find that the AVID was pretty easy for me to pick up, but the students have a difficult time. The in-point/out-point method in AVID meshed well with my mind due to my learning editing on linear systems. However, my students come from a drag and drop technical culture and Final Cut’s drag and drop system fits their mindset. Ultimately, the students should know both. Just knowing Final Cut is like only knowing how to drive a car with an automatic transmission. If some one gives you a manual you are lost. It is best to know both and it makes the operator more versitle. As far as Premire Pro goes, it is good to teach the basics and is the most economical, but it isn’t going to get our students jobs. A friend of mine who hires a lot of editors just throws applications in the trash that only show Premiere Pro experience.

On a completely separate note, I have seen that a lot of programs focus on HOW to operate various software. (I.E. what buttons to push to do what) but a lot of them don’t focus on the art of editing. Some editing techniques have been around since silent film and the days of splice editing, and very few programs focus on techniques like J and L cuts, beat matching, pacing etc. I understand that a basic understanding of the software must be met before these techniques are taught, but I feel it is those techniques that make a good editor. Editing is a specific way of thinking and being able to see a final product as you work, not just software operation.


October 2009

My two cents, garnered from talking to others and my students' college experiences (we use the Avid):

The Avid is harder to learn than FCP, so if they learn the Avid first, it's relatively easy for them to pick up other NLEs when they encounter them later.


Paul Bancroft
RHAM Media Productions

Hebron, CT

http://sites.google.com/site/rhamproductions/

http://rhamnews.blogspot.com

For those caught into the Avid vs. Final Cut vs. Premiere Pro debate,
below is some info from one of the instructors with Genius DV in Dallas.
They provide certifications and professional training in After Effects,
Non-Linear Editing, Photoshop and other media related programs. Keep in
mind, it is just an opinion, but one that is close to standard across
the industry. Students should always be exposed to more than one
platform.


I have many friends in the movie business who live in LA, and by far Avid
dominates the high-end motion picture business. The Media Management
capabilities and the way it handles film is superior to Final Cut Pro.

Although, looking down the road, Apple definitely has the edge when it
comes to dealing with Red Camera footage.

Apple puts on a great advertising campaign and wants consumer's to think
ALL Hollywood movies are edited on Final Cut Pro. My guess is less than 10%
of them are edited on Final Cut Pro.

Outside of multi-million dollar Hollywood movies, the trend has been to
edit on Final Cut Pro. This includes short-films, commercials, training
videos, etc. I believe this is primarily because of Price. $1000.00 for the
entire Final Cut Studio. Avid's Studio bundle is poor compared to Final Cut
Studio, and the cost is $2300.00.

Premiere Pro (zilch - not a factor)

Look at it this way:

Television (news automation) and Major Motion Picture Films - Mostly
Avid Everything else - I give the edge to Final Cut Pro

However, at this point in time, most of the established post production
places have both Final Cut Pro and Avid. If you are a freelancer in
this business you really need to know both systems. There's no way around
it. Otherwise you're cutting off as your revenue stream.

John Lynn
GeniusDV

I just wanted to pass a tip along to you regarding the use of Mpegstreamclip. When using MpegStreamclip to convert .mod files for Final Cut Pro, many of you get a message something like "you do not have MPEG 2 playback component installed...you must purchase..."I have seen questions about this posted on the STN Listserv many times. I never had this issue until recently. I did some research, and have found the cause and the solution. First of all, if you have Final Cut Studio, you DO have MPEG 2 playback because it is included with QuickTime Pro. What happens is the mpeg2 component in the system file folder gets DELETED on software upgrades such as moving to Snow Leopard (that is what happened in my case). Why? I don't know. To fix the problem do this: copy the
QuickTimeMPEG2.component file in the following location:

/System/Library/QuickTime
(not to be confused with /Library/QuickTime or ~/Library/QuickTime)

To check your re-installation, just open up the System folder in the root of your hard drive and navigate to the QuickTime folder in the Library folder.
Hope this helps many of you.

Chuck Massey
www.cabottv.com
September 2010

In doing some research for an upcoming lesson (storyboarding), I found this:


http://www.unitedstreaming.com/videos/42845/D2B15956-1279-3B00-CD01B9EA8FD93
498.pdf

Pages 50 - 62 give a nice overview of storyboarding and a variety of shots.

Rene Vela
ruebenvela@aol.com

I am in an active search for some "stuff" to use for our Sept 11th, tribute. I decided one of you might already have some inside track on that.
Please share - as I am sure many of us will honor this 10th anniversary.

Peggy R. James, M.Ed
Fayetteville High School
peggy.james@fayar.net

For the 5th anniversary, one of my students did a piece with perspective. She looked at the "Where were you" moments from different generations:
December 7 & 8, 1942, November 22, 1963, January 28th, 1986, April 19th, 1995, and finally, September 11, 2001. She used radio and television press recordings from each president: "December 7th, 1941, a day which shall live in infamy...", "...reached out to touch the face of God", "Their legacy must be our lives." Then, she interviewed people who remembered those days and how it affected their lives. We were fortunate to have a custodian who was a freshman in high school in 1941. We had an English Teacher who was a 4th grader when Kennedy was assassinated, the same age as some of our students in 2001. There was a science teacher who was a sophomore in high school in 1986. Eventually, we began interviewing our students about their experiences on September 11. The piece was somber, but it spanned the generations. It was about 20 minutes long.

Those tragedies, as well as September 11, should be a part of the Presidential Libraries. You can probably find photos online at the library sites. There would be government owned photos of the event.

Sharlo Rogers
Goddard High School, Goddard, Kansas
srogers@goddardusd.com

Does anyone have a study guide for the Television Video Production work force ready assessment? I have the blueprint but it doesn’t match up with the standards for my class.

Chris Holcomb
Broadcasting Instructor
Henry County Schools
Chris.Holcomb@henry.k12.ga.us

April 25, 2011


Go to the GA Dept. of Education website. Click on "curriculum" in the upper right corner, then Career Technical Education. Then click on "Georgia Assessments". This takes you to the page that has all the pathways. Click on Broadcast/Video Production Pathway and it then shows you the "Assessment Information Sheet". There is a link you can click for the "Exam Blueprint". These tell you all the standards that the kids will be tested on.

Lisa Watson
South Cobb High School
Teacher, Broadcast & Video Production, Eagle TV
Lisa.Watson@cobbk12.org

Video 101 - "Pay for use" Minimal cost
http://www.video101course.com

Cybercollege - Free online course. Suggest you pick the units you need most and ignore the rest. http://www.cybercollege.com

I know this is such a nerdy thing to do, but I am trying to finish a research paper and I found this article that I thought you would find VERY interesting. The link is www.nctp.com/john.see.html. Look at the section that begins with "Effective technolgy plans define technology as more than computers." He speaks, specifically, about TV Production.

Bridgette Culpepper
CDA/ STAR Instructor
Lake Charles Boston Academy of Learning

May 12, 2011

If anyone needs more ammunition to justify the existence of a video related class, there are a few paragraphs in the middle of this article that do a great job of explaining the benefits and why video knowledge is necessary these days. www.nctp.com/john.see.html

Pam Dixon Gayle
Academy TV
Lake Charles-Boston Academy of Learning
pam.dixon-gayle@cpsb.org

Controversial/Political News Stories - What makes a good story what constitutes a "real" story? Sensationalism? (Janet Kerby)

9/26/08 "A student getting hit at a bus stop is not a story. People who speed through school zones or students who horse-around the street near a bus stop are possible stories, but the simple fact that he got hit is not. Now this particular incident could be used as the backdrop to tell a story like speeding through schools zones, but this type of story will take a fair bit of leg work to produce. This is a good thing because it won't be ready to air until things have probably blown over. So if you simply want to announce this incident on your show to be the first to "break" the story, then you're teaching them what's exactly wrong with the local news casts these days. If you make them do a real story, as above mentioned, everyone wins. Your students learn how to tackle a serious subject; your school officials get a heightened sense of awareness about safety, and you get a sense of accomplishment because you didn?t contribute to another generation of MOSTLY ineffective journalists." (Jeb Brunt)

9/26/08 "Of course it's a story. If your broadcasts are LIVE and is responsible for "breaking news" it is most definitely a story. If your program is more the type of "feature" shows most schools do, then it would require follow ups on the safety and prevention type stories. But it's still a story." (Charles Aldridge)

9/26/08 "One of my journalism students e-mailed me from his cell before school to tell me that one of our students had been hit by a car at a bus stop. I confirmed this with the administration, who told me to hold off publishing the info on our blog. This I understand because the situation was still fluid and parents hadn't been notified, etc. Now that the rest of the bus is in school and the parents are with the injured child in the hospital, word is spreading fast among the students and will not doubt reach other parents via cell phone soon. No word yet from admin about allowing us to publish something. No doubt local TV will be here very soon to run the story.

So, the questions: what's appropriate here? How long to wait. Do we wait until the mainstream media has already run it? Do we wait for an official statement from admin? Needless to say, I will do what admin orders me to do but what would your program do in this situation (Paul Bancroft)

9/27/08 "I think this is a great opportunity to teach students the reality of journalism. As a former reporter, I had to come to the conclusion that the First Amendment only prevents the government from censorship. Editors and publishers (in this case school administrator) perform censorship everyday.

However, I don't think covering this is body-bag journalism. It was something that happened to someone who people know at the school. If you are able to stabilize the situation and give information, it may help the spread of rumors, which we all know are rampant in a school setting.

The best example I can give is that in a small town if a person is killed in a car accident, which is news. If a person is killed in a big town in the same situation I have to agree that it is probably lazy journalism. In the same vain if a child from an elementary school is hit by a car at a bus stop, I don't think it is necessary for the high school to cover it, but this was a person from a small community." (Glen Nienaber)

9/27/08 "Maybe all teachers on here who are teaching students about news are on the same playbook, but I don't claim to be a news teacher. I teach students about video productions and editing, news is a very small part of what we do."

"After reading the various opinions on here about how to handle this I would say that maybe my productions staff is more of an information service to the school. We do two shows per day, only one is live. The live show is all the administrative stuff, my kids just do the behind the scenes production work. The script is straight off the e-mails and other announcements we are given. Our afternoon show is recorded in the morning is more of a "news" magazine format. Maybe news is not the right term compared to what many have said on here. We cover club activities, sports, and items of interest to the market we play to " the teens in our school. We don't claim to be a news service or investigative reporters. I know some journalism teachers probably think we are not doing much, but we are proud of what we do. Our school newspaper takes a totally different approach and has poked fun at us as the 'sunshine Daily News", it's OK with us. Students watch our show and love it - the papers with their negative journalism, get tossed in the trash."

"So how would we have handled this issue" First, we don't have a blog so really would not have been an issue. On the morning show the principal would have very delicately told the students what happened, he is good at that. On the afternoon show we would do a short appropriate memorial, talked with about who he was, announced funeral arrangements as they were known, and closed with a moment of silence for the student. It's appropriate for us but I know every school is different."

"We are the Student Television Network, not a news/journalism teachers association." (Ray Wishart)

9/26/08 " Funny, but I was hoping folks teaching students about news all had the same playbook so we could better prepare them for what was expected in the world beyond the classroom. I don't have a problem debating this issue because it is the basis of what we teach and hope the students will learn. This is a teachable moment for students in our programs " ask them what they think." (Deborah Barnes)

Can we possibly explore what our students are doing for their tv shows?

Toss back and forth some ideas on topics?

Angles? etc?
Let's share some content! :-)

For example...

Right now my staff is YOUNG and new with only four returners... so they're exploring topics we've covered before a few years back, but with fresh eyes...

One story I find interesting to see where it goes is this one:

Two of my students are exploring divorce and how that's impacted (the teen voice) teens and their family trees... between the steps, halfs, wholes, this and that... kids get confused about their place in the families. I find some of their interviews they've gotten very candid and refreshing. I love the raw material they have an am very excited to see where it goes...

Another one I love they found was about a boy who died several years ago... and he could have had a chance of living if his school had a defibulator (sp?) so after his death his family made it a mission to put defibs in all our schools in the region, and they did it. Success! - Great story. We have defibs and they found out where they came from, how they were funded, etc. etc. and there was this great story there.

Michelle Hoch
michelleanne@charter.net



Right now, we have several good stories on the board, a few of my favorites are...

- "Go With the Flow" Found a place that has a "Flow Rider" standing wave, and a bunch of teens who compete in it. After a little digging my reporter found that one of the teens is top ranked nationally, but a serious heart condition might force him to give the sport up.

- "King of Kicks" Profile on a teenage Sneakerhead... what's a sneakerhead? Exactly.

- "TACO'bout a Good Taco" We're trying a new segment... a teen food segment. We're going to pick a food item for each show, teach about the origins and preparation, then tell you where you can eat.

- Every STUDENT Has A Story. We had the Principal choose a student randomly using student numbers from the Broward Virtual School. The random student was tennis phenom Alexandra Kick, daughter of Jim Kick, who was a running back for the undefeated '72 Dolphins.

These stories will be on the air in a few weeks.. I'll be sure to post a few on our website and on our facebook.

Jeb Brunt
www.browardteennews.org
www.becon.tv

Two of my students are working on an ACNE story. Causes, treatments, etc.
At first they were unsure about who to ask. I suggested picking students who didn't have BIG problems. If the students will big problems overheard and wanted to contribute, GREAT! However, we weren't going to single them out. We also wanted students who didn't have "perfect" skin. They have been amazed at how much people are willing to share. They made an appointment with a dermatologist for an interview (free advertising for him). I am interested in the outcome of the story. This is a completely new topic for us.

Sharlo Rogers
srogers@goddardusd.com

Anyone having to battle the county internet filter committee? Has anyone had to actually present their side to the committee or their principal? Any advice or documents you've already compiled for your defense?

Our filters are so strict I can't access sites that allow people to download royalty free music for free or a set price, we can't go to any sites with videos except for schooltube and teachertube, and we can't get on any blogging/page-hosting sites that would allow my class to create it's own site where it can upload recent videos and pictures and allow students to "join" the page. This is a major problem when you're trying to teach a video production class and trying to teach students how to use "popular"
technology in a way that is ethical, proper, and useful. For example, sites like myspace are only negative if used that way, but it can be a positive tool. But, when we as teachers can't even access the site homepage and create a "space" for our class, how are we supposed to show students how to use it positively and constructively?
Besides, we're always looking for ways to be timely and relevant and use things students are interested in to teach them. When most of my students have a myspace or facebook page, that's a tool I can use to get them interested and teach on their level. Students liking their classes--THE HORROR! (blatant sarcasm)

Has anyone had any luck overcoming this issue? HELP!

Jackie Chism

December 2008


Comcast/Charter all the major cable providers allow each school one internet access point with modem for free. I am sure this is not just our region but nation wide. The access they provide is of course through them and not the school so therefore it is free of any filter.

Jim Bauernfeind
http://www.mjhsbnn.com/wbnn/index.html

December 2008


Wow! I'm not alone. I can't even convince the Internet police to give me YouTube access on one computer that stays in a locked office. They tell me to upload and dub video off the Internet at home. I'm even willing to do that on my own time, but my poor little home computer is so jammed with my children's games, it can barely function. Not a solution.

Just today we were searching for images for a project and when students hit the "warning block" too many times, even on different sites, our system would "punish" us automatically by blocking ALL access to the Internet for 15 minutes.

Pam Dixon Gayle
pam.dixon-gayle@cpsb.org



We finally had the board approve opening up the filters in the coming
weeks for high school students to access YouTube, Facebook, and
Myspace. Long time coming...

Deborah Barnes
deborahbarnes@comcast.net



Yes, our school board did make the decision to use the technology the students are using at home. We are expected to teach the correct use of the sites. Facebook is the easiest way for students to make contact with professionals today. I have more contacts than ever thanks to Facebook...

As for the flickr block - bring your issue forward to your administrator and explain that it really is part of your need for students to access for curriculum. Good luck.

Funny that this is currently on here- We have had all the usual social
sites blocked forever, but we at least had the ability to share photos
through flickr (webshots, photobucket, etc. were blocked). Today
without any warning they blocked flickr. I have called and was told
it was due to content. The blocking software itself that we use rates
flickr as a "G" rating and suitable for education uses. Soon instead
of blocking sites they will have a short list of approved sites I bet.
It's really getting ridiculous.

They are also slowly blocking any sites that allow online sales such
as Amazon and even B&H. I'm surprised they even still allow STN mail
to come through!

Raymond Wishart
Wishard@bay.k12.fl.us

How do I use Dropbox?

I've been using Dropbox exclusively for 3 years for submissions of student work.

I've attached what the ChiefTV dropbox looks like on all 23 ChiefTV studio computers, as well as my work laptop at home.

I'm sure the folder structure makes sense as to how students "use it" in our studio. We buy the 50 gb a year and never look back. The things that dropbox kicks butt at:

1) It's always saved. as long as it made it's way to the dropbox, you CAN ALWAYS GET IT BACK. one scary thing about dropbox is that all computers have the ability to save to all computers AND DELETE from all computers. Files that were "there" a second a go can disappear just as quickly if students haven't been taught to never delete files from the dropbox. you do that. but, if they do defy the gods and delete, you guilt them, open up safari, log in to dropbox and search the file with "deleteds" active. Find the file (ITS ALWAYS THERE), replace the file, and guilt them again as you laugh in the face of computing mortals.

2) Letting students teach students. THEY WATCH EVERYTHING IN THE DROPBOX.
students watch first prints, broll clips, graphics, the open environment encourages creativity and at the same time challenges them to "do it better than ....". The young ones look at the senior projects, the seniors get baffled by the young projects, everyone watches everything turned in - good or bad. I'll put daily video clips for students to watch for inspiration or daily lessons, and will showcase projects i want them to learn from. As long as they know you are dropbox god, no problem.

3) We run a 24/7 live stream channel with a server computer attached to the dropbox. I can show a video through that computer within minutes of it being exported to the dropbox. I still insist on a 24 hour pre broadcast deadline, but man it's cool to print a video last minute, watch it auto sync on the server and auto start playing with no touching. Lots of geeky software tweaking to make all this touchless, of course, but what video teacher doesn't tweak....

4) I grade at home. All their videos are right there organized and ready to grade/watch/coach/cry over on the laptop - and I didn't touch a thing.

Things to watch out for:

1) You must teach students how FCP files work. They CANNOT import footage (Capture Scratch) into the dropbox. Repeat - don't share any videos but final prints in the dropbox.

If you use a dropbox folder as a capture scratch, It will overload you network to a crawl, and will probably explode any mac older than last year with all the constant bandwidth.
They must still capture to a scratch disk off dropbox and must know that just because they can "see" their FCP anywhere in the dropbox network, they are still LOCKED to their edit bay. They should not open said FCP file anywhere except the originating computer unless they want a "media offline"
fiesta.

As long as they "get" FCP files, no problem.

2) Insist on a strict file structure and file naming system. Doesn't really need an explanation once you consider the dozens of videos moving in the dropbox daily.

3) Don't use wireless connections with dropbox video files. LAN sync (read up on it, unique to dropbox) is awesome and fast using ethernet wired connections, but really stinks in wifi mode. What takes 3 minutes to transfer and sync with a cable takes 1 hour+ if using wireless.If you want videos to show up on everyones computer, it's gonna take at least a minute (even wired).


I'm sure there's more, but this'll getcha started. I'm writing my thesis on this very subject so hit me up with more questions and I'll help. I live to make things easier and dropbox helps me do it. and no, they don't pay me.

I'm still clueless as to how to reply to a Listserv, so feel free to post this response and or photo for the others to read if you think it would help.

Kyle Loudis
Kickapoo Broadcast Journalism - ChiefTV
www.khschieftv.com
Springfield, MO

One of our beloved PD170 cameras was sick recently. It was the students’ favorite named Billy. When set in manual white balance mode, or a manual preset, the tint would cycle from about 2000K to 6700K and back. It would do this continually and slowly. The students were going to start a “Save Billy” fund raiser to get the repair money. I emailed Sony broadcast tech support and they said it sounded like a trip to the hospital for Billy and surgery. They asked me to do one thing before sending it. Press the reset button with the camera turned on. I did and halleluiah, Billy was healed. The white balance held steady as a rock. (music) Rock of ages …



Even though I have to push the reset on the Panasonic AG-DVC7’s all the time, I have never had to do so with the PD170’s or PD150’s I have used. I forgot it was there. Just a tip, if your PD-170 does something odd and it will not behave. Remember that it has a reset button. Lay your hands upon it brother before you panic.



Keith S. Kolbo

TV Production

Oak Ridge High School

Orlando, Florida

407.852.3200 ext. 2233

Sony Vegas Certification Trainer

Apple Certified Professional

I am looking into adding a network attached storage device to our networked editing bays. This would be used as a place for students to save their final packages to with each student having their own folder. We are using FCP. Does anyone have a setup using one of these devices? Are the transfer speeds good? How long would it take to transfer a three minute project? What are the drawbacks to using this setup? Any other thoughts on the subject?

Louis DiLeonardo

September 2008

We use a Snap Server 520 from Overland Storage http://www.snapserver.com/products/hw/servers/ss520/

Our 14 edit and production computers all have a drive mapping to the snap server. The computers and the snap server are connected over a gigabit network. The transfer speeds are fast.

The Snap Server is a great addition to our work flow. We use it to transfer files from the edit computers to the production computers and with 2TB of space we keep our entire program archived on it.

Mike Murphy

Currently I have an Echolab MVS# switcher in our control room. I fear it's on its last legs as it tends to overheat and cause problems with colors and video quality after it's been on for more than an hour. I've been powering it up only when we're about to broadcast each morning and I'm hoping that it'll last us for this school year. It's about seven years old and I'm thinking it'll need to be replaced next year. I'm hoping to find a switcher that?s comparable to this one's capabilities and cost and wanted to see if there are any recommendations for me.

I contacted one of my vendors and he recommended this switcher for me. Broadcast Pix was founded by one of the creators of Echolab. http://www.broadcastpix.com/The-Switcher-Redefined/Slate-100.html

The quote he gave me with installation was over $20,000 - way more than I was looking to pitch to my administration.

Jeremy Brandt

September 2009

What does it mean when an icon with an explanation mark inside a yellow triangle shows up in the canvas and everything that was filed that is white has green and red lines going through it? No I'm not kidding about this. Weirdest thing I've seen in a while. It doesn't show when we watch the project when we stop or pause.

Sandy Beeson

September 2008

It means you have the excess luma turned on. Usually this happens when someone has hit the shortcut: control z. In technical terms, if you are broadcasting on air you (the FCC) say no video can be broadcast that has a level over 100 IRC. The yellow triangle tells you that the luma is over that limit and you would need to add the broadcast safe video filter.

Jacki Romey

You've got something checked to show you something like excess luma. Look in the drop-down box to the left of the time code box in the upper right of the canvas. See what's checked there and try un-checking.

Louise Harrell Grant

Tripods under $100:

My general day-to-day tripods are Slik U8000: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/73261-REG/Slik_617_800_U8000_Tripod.html . Good for intro classes/light cameras.

Next up the line are Pearstone VT2000: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/504402-REG/Pearstone_VT2000_VT_2000_Consumer_Tripod_System.html . (I see it has a VT2100 variant now with a full fluid head). These are my students' favorite light tripod.

After that are Velbon Videomate 607: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/146249-REG/Velbon_VMATE_607_F_VMATE607F_Videomate_607_Tripod.html . The fluid head has a bit more resistance than the Pearstone.