M-Audio steps into the portable recorder space, going toe-to-toe with the Edirol R-1 and Marantz PMD660. With a similar price point to Edirol and Marantz units, the Marantz MicroTrack looks like a Dell DJ with different controls. This small size is the only improvement over either alternative. The device offers two 1/4 jacks, SPDIF, and a 1/8-inch microphone line in for recording, making it versatile and keeping the size small. Outputs are stereo RCA, which doesn't jive with the digital input. There 1/8-inch microphone-in jack is powered for use with a bundled mic. The bundle includes a 64MB CompactFlash card comparable to Marantz and Edirol. Two places MicroTrack beats the competition: Rechargeable battery and 96kHz recording. You can find the Microtrack on the street for about $450, which puts it inline with pricing from Marantz and Edirol. My biggest gripe with the MicroTrack is no visual indicator when charging for the first time. When I plugged mine in, it appeared DOA for about the first 15 minutes of charging.
My personal take on the entire direct to DVD camcorder business is to steer clear. Unless you never want to edit your footage, these camcorders are more hassle than they are worth. The data output isn't supported by most of the major video editors, which means you have to rip your DVD before you can edit. Canon's DC10 is no different than the many DVD offerings Sony is shoving down our throats. Still, you shouldn't take my word for it. Camcorderinfo.com offers an indepth look at Canon's first foray into DVD camcorders.
Dreamworks is sponsoring a contest. The rules, submit a 64 second movie in Windows Media, Nero Digital or QuickTime format no bigger than 320x240 and 4MB. The subject is the concept of Waitlessness. I didn't no it was a word either, but I recently discovered the joy of waitlessness when arriving at the coffee shop and finding no one in line. No line, I'm waitless, what'd'ya know. All the details are available from The 64 Second Film Contest
Robert Rodriguez recently talked to Digital Producer about his philosophy on shooting movies with a small crew, shooting digital and how he got his start as a one man production house. There's not a ton of ground breaking stuff here, but it's inspirational for the DIY ethic of independent production.
When Samsung first announced their dual cameras with a lens for video and a lens for still images it seemed like a dream come true. We all know just how lousy the still photos on a DV cam can be. Still cameras generally take decent videos, but the file size limitation of SD and CompactFlash makes them slightly prohibitive. Samsung aimed to solve this problem by mounting two separate lenses on a DV cam body, with tape for video and SD for still images. Like many things Samsung does in the early rounds, this is a good idea with really poor execution. According to Camcorderinfo.com, the white balance on the SC-D6550 is absolutely lousy. Be sure to check out their review for all the gory details.
From the Camcorderinfo.com review: "If anything about the SC-D6550 Duocam seemed like a good idea, I’d be the first to admit it."
Windows Movie Maker includes subtitles as an option in the built in title tool. The disadvantage is the software only allows you to add on title per clip, so a dialogue intense movie needs to be broken into many small clips in order to get subtitles matched up with every verbal exchange. The other disadvantage is very little control over where the subtitles appear on screen. The only option is at the bottom of the screen with either one or two lines of text.
To create a subtitle in Windows Movie Maker, select the movie clip on the timeline by clicking on it and choose Tools > Titles and Credits from the menu. Choose the option to Add title on the selected clip in the timeline.
Type in your title text in the empty box provided and click Change the title animation. Find the Subtitle option in the list of choices. The last thing to do is adjust the color (and possibly the font) of your subtitle. The default color for titles in Windows Movie Maker is white, which is almost impossible to read in light colored sections of your movie sequence. As someone who watches many films from Korea and China, I know reading subtitles on screen is much easier is the color is a shade of yellow. Click on Change the font text and color and make selections to fit your needs.
Repeat these steps for each of the clips in your movie.
Apple's iMovie is more versatile in it's subtitling options, although still not perfect. When working with iMovie, you have the limitation of titles appearing in overlay on the video. iMovie supports two subtitle options, not counting the Stripe Subtitle, which is more like the marquee you see appearing at the bottom of a screen to identify the current person speaking. Option one is a two line subtitle for adding text detail on a per clip basis. A more versatile option for adding subtitles to a dialog intensive movie is the Subtitle Multiple Option.
With the Titles button selected in your workspace, expand Subtitle in the titles menu and choose Subtitle Multiple. Type in your title information and click the plus (+) button until you get all of the subtitles added for the clip.
By default iMovie uses television margins for positioning the subtitles, which means the text is bumped up higher in the picture to prevent cutting it off on your screen. If your movie is for the online distribution, check the box next to QT Margins to neatly adjust the subtitles closer to the bottom of the frame. If you have a light colored background, be sure to change the text color from the default white to something easily readable.
With the announcement of Canon's new XL H1 at Canon Expo 2005, the world of pro-quality HD recording is starting to get interesting. Camcorderinfo.com has an early comparison of features side-by-side with the Sony HDR-FX1 and Panasonic's AG-HVX200. No indication as to which cam is the best, but it seems Canon is leading the way in a number of important optics categories like Optical zoom and megapixels per CCD, although it lacks a 24fps progressive mode.
After posting links to Creative Cow's coverage of Copyright and Fair Use, one of the active participants in a discussion group I'm part of posted anther great series of articles on copyright issues faced by those of us making media. The DV Info Net community is known for great material and this five part series is no exception. It answers questions about all the headaches faced when recording material in public places, like what the potential consequences are for background music getting picked up by your DV cams microphone (you won't like the answer). Like the articles from Creative Cow, the DV Info series is not written by a lawyer. However, the topics are covered in a balanced fashion and make for good guidelines in proceeding to make recordings for either audio or video.
Intellectual property is a frequent topic of conversation for me, especially as it relates to publishing podcasts and video online. There's a great deal of misunderstanding about what constitutes fair use, what constitutes a copyright violation and where the lines are drawn for using any content from music or movies purchased on DVD and CD. Just because you can do something doesn't mean it's legal. Conversely, just because a copyright holder doesn't want you to do something doesn't mean you can't. Creative Cow offers a two-part article series on copyright, fair use and how using other people's intellectual property is done within the confines of the law, relating to creating your own creative works. The first article defines intellectual property rights. The second article goes on to cover some of the finer points of fair use. While these articles are not written by a lawyer and shouldn't be substituted for seeking an official legal opinion, they do cover the topic effectively, providing guidance that may steer you clear of pursing potentially infringing actions.
