Hard drive space

Megabytes....gigabytes....terrabytes. If there's one thing you have to know about desktop video editing...VIDEOS TAKE UP A LOT OF HARD DRIVE SPACE.

I remember the days when 20GB hard drives were considered huuuuuuuge. Yes of course, there are a few of you I'm sure that can remember the megabyte hard drive days. If you haven't noticed at your local Best Buy or CompUSA, the norm these days are 200GB.....320GB.....500GB...and now 1TERRABYTE hard drives!!!

And it's not hard to figure out why we need such massive hard drives these days. In addition to videos, there are a few other things we hoard that require all this space.. music and pictures to name a few.

Music file sizes have remained the same for the most part. But the space sucking issue is due to people having massive music collections. We've been enjoying the digital music revelation now for at least 10years now, so you can imagine the size of some of the collections out there (does anybody remember napster?).

Picture file sizes have seriously grown in the last 3-5yrs. I remember my first digital camera being 2mp, and the highest resolution picture would produce a 600kb file. Now I have a 10mp camera and the hi res photos (RAW) are somewhere in the neighborhood of 7MB.

Now videos on the other hand, can eat up hard drive space like there's no tomorrow. The breakdown for mini dv uploads is about 13 gigabytes for every hour of uncompressed video.

That's huge!!

Now if you're recording video from your webcam, chances are your videos are going to be a lot smaller. But for professionals like myself (did I mention I do wedding videography??), we eat hard drives for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Presently I have....give me a second.....80...80..200....250....250..250 500...500.....over 2 terrabytes of hard drive space. And I still don't think I have enough space.

Although most of it's archive wedding videos, I do have a bunch of crap that I know with a little bit of housecleaning, I could clean out a few gigabytes.

I'm what you call a digital pack rat.

All I'm going to say about hard drives is, if you need more space....think real hard about how much space you'll need.....then double that : )


Like the old saying goes..."its better to have more, than not enough".

Wedding Video Business - How To Get Started.

From time to time I get people asking me "how'd you get started in the wedding video business?"

In the beginning, I wasn't sure how to answer that...

"Well, I saw an ad on a website one day that read.."make a $1000 over the weekend"...so I clicked"

It was basically a link to a blog, which in turn led me to Hal Linden's Video University (great site by the way).

But getting back to answering that question. It's not so much the question, but rather how it was asked and the expression on the people's faces when they're asking me.

It's almost as if they're saying "Really, how'd you get started....Why wedding videos? How did you learn the software? How'd you get your first customer(s)..And, how'd you get started?"

And all I could say to that is "I'm not quite sure".

All I know is that I did it. I was pretty oblivious to all the details and kind of went at with a gung ho attitude. I think with any business venture you have to have some "sack" and just go for it.

If you're thinking about getting into the biz, here's what I recommend...

1) Write a business plan - You need to know right out of the gate what you're going for. In a nutshell, have goals....and have a plan to achieve them. You don't need to draw up a 200 page plan, but you need to write something down.

As you grow, you'll need to really hammer the details down, but for now, writing something as simple as "Make extra $1000 a month in 3 months". Post this somewhere where you can see it, and you're good to go.

2) Buy/Rent equipment - This all depends on your funds, but I highly suggest owning your equipment outright. You don't have to buy new either. I picked up my VX2000 on Craigslist. A great resource for stuff, just be careful when dealing with people. CL is the home of the Nigerian scammers.

If you're that tight on cash, then renting will work for now. There are a few places where I live (SF) that rent out decent cameras for about $150/day.

You figure you charge someone even $1000, you could still profit...even with 2 cameras rented.

If you already have a computer, then you might be good there. It all depends on the processor and the amount of memory you have (cheapest way to up the power of your pc). I'd also suggest to have at least 2 hard drives in your machine; one for the system (Windows) and one for your video projects. And on the side, have an external hard drive to backup your video projects.

3) Pick your editing software - This is huge. Ask 10 videographers what they prefer to use to edit, and you're likely to receive 10 different answers. It's all preference. The great thing about most editing software is you can try before you buy.

I've tried a few out (Vegas, Pinnacle), but I settled with Adobe Premiere. It works well with the other Adobe apps I use (Photoshop, After Effects, Encore) and I find the interface pretty straightforward (after a while they all look the same).

Again, this is all about preference. So test'em all out and see which one you like. If budget is an issue -along with simplicity- then there are a ton of off the shelf applications to pick from - Pinnacle Studio Plus, Adobe Premiere Elements, Sony Vegas Studio. The all do a great job and do more than enough to put together a video.

4) Study and practice your craft - This is in the beginning...in the middle...and for always. To this day I'm still learning about camera angles.....audio editing....and even video editing in general.

But in the beginning you want to focus on the basics; camera shooting (i.e. camera angles, variety of shots), editing footage, authoring a DVD. Go to Barnes and Noble and pick your topic of the day and go at it. You can just surf the net for stuff, but I think it's more involved and fun actually going to a bookstore to read stuff.

A great way to get some inspiration is to hang out at forums and watch other people's videos. I highly recommend videouniversity.com for this. There are a ton of great contributors there that are always willing to give a helping hand.

5) Marketing - This in and of itself is an area you could spend a lifetime learning about. But to keep things simple for this blog, all I'm gonna say is "spread the word". Tell your friends and family what you do and to keep you mind anytime they hear the word "wedding". Call local vendors (photographers, florists, wedding planners) and have them put you on their short list of preferred vendors they refer.

It's not rocket science, but you have to get started (the hardest step). You can worry about refining your business once you get things moving. But the key is to get started!!

How to Start a Successful Home-Based Video Business

Here's a great article on how to get started in the video business...


by Hal Landen

If you like producing videos as much as I do, I'm sure you'll agree that video is just too expensive as a hobby. No matter how much gear you have, there's always something else to buy. It's a never ending cycle.

That's why I decided long ago to let other people buy my equipment. For me this meant producing corporate videos which I've been doing for the last 12 years (I've been in the film and video business for over 20 years). Here are the FOUR THINGS I LOVE about this work:

1. Variety

Since I started producing corporate videos, I've been paid to learn about and produce videos on subjects ranging from dock building, lipstick manufacturing, electronic surveying, furniture sales training, computer programs, architecture, nursing, interstate highway building, waterfront reconstruction, book printing, food preparation and many more.

"My work has taken me behind the scenes at places like Tiffany's Panavision, AT&T, and the DEA. " - Hal Landen

My video work has taken me behind the scenes at places like Tiffany's, Panavision International, AT&T, the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, and hundreds of local businesses and agencies. It would take several pages just to list them all. I've learned about things I never knew existed.

While most of the videos I produce are within an hour's drive of my home in the country, I'm also asked to produce videos in other areas of the country. These invitations come from my clients and from their referrals. I've travelled in style across most of these United States (all expenses paid, naturally) thanks to my video business. If you like variety, you will like corporate video.

"Hal, I just wanted to say that this amazing course is going to change the way we all look at video production here at Cas Videos " - Alex M United Kingdom

2. The Pay

Many of my projects start at about $5000 and go up to $25,000 or more. Now, of course, that's not all profit, but even when I chose to hire outside freelancers and rent high-end equipment, the lion's share of the budget still goes to paying for MY services. And I'm usually producing several corporate videos at the same time.

3. Repeat and Referral Business

Producing a video for these clients is just beginning of a profitable business relationship. Most of my clients later hire me to update their videos when products, people or technologies change. Since my videos are successful at helping these companies, many of my clients order a hundred or so copies every few months. That's a great income in itself and you don't even have to own duplication gear to make a nice and easy profit on every order. Since a fair number of my clients do business overseas, they also need standards conversions and more dubs for use overseas. All of this extra business income comes from producing one good video.

One of the nicest things about it is these happy clients refer me to others. It's a good feeling and just one more income stream.

"I couldn't recommend Landen more highly " - Joe Illiagash CBS 60 Minutes

4. Satisfaction and Respect

A lot of people see my videos. Even in my own small town, neighbors often ask in surprise, "YOU produced that video?" I am always pleased to say I did. For me it's a lot of fun helping small businesses, corporations, and non-profits use video in positive ways and I've built a good reputation by doing so. After all these years I still get a kick out of producing a video that helps other people.

See what I like about the work? But I haven't even mentioned the creative side of the work. And if you don't think corporate videos are creative, think again. Many of these corporate productions rival network TV commercials. If you're creative, nothing beats the work of an independent corporate producer.

Video Can Be an Expensive Hobby...

Or a Lucrative, Satisfying Business

After Effects - Camera Layer Effect

Straight up.

After Effects used to scare me.

I was always intrigued by what this application could do, but after watching a few video tutorials online I was like "uhhh, that's hard".

It's one thing to look at Adobe Premiere and dive right in (still scares the pants off of most of friends.."movie maker works for me Al"), but After Effects is a different animal...we're talking serious 3D compositing, particle generating, motion tracking, and my favorite, text animation.


It wasn't until I saw a 3D montage created in After Effects that I decided to roll up my sleeves, dive in and learn it.

Here's a great example....




Within After Effects you can create your own 3D space and use a camera to navigate through this space and give a cool perspective on your composite - in my case, pictures.

For the record, pictures are 2d, but by using a camera layer in After Effects, it gives the illusion that the pics are indeed 3D.

HD DVD burning made easy!

Hey hey! It's been awhile eh! Ahh, this Labor Day weekend has got me doing a whole lot of....well, nothing...haha...


Ok, so recently I had a client ask me about shooting their wedding video in HD.


I thought for a second "YES!" (I charge a premium of about $1000), but then I realized "wait a minute, how am I going to deliver that?".

And the two options are Blue Ray and HD DVD (yes, those two formats again).

Simple, right?

NOT!

The breakdown:

Blue Ray - Blue Ray writers will set you back about $500 and the blank Blue Ray Disks run about $20. Although I did see a few for $15 (each) at Frys yesterday.

HD DVD - Presently there are no HD DVD writers out to be had. I've read about Toshiba coming out with one, but as of yet, they have yet to release it. So that's that.

So you can either go with Blue Ray or......well, just Blue Ray.

But there is a another option.

HD DVD on DVD!

What?

Yup, HD DVD on DVD.


The long and short of it is, HD DVDs use the same underlying technology as DVDs.



Pinnacle's lastest video editing suite (Media Studio Plus and Ultimate) allow you to edit and burn HD content onto DVDs. You can get about 23 minutes on a single layer (4.7gb) DVD and approx. 45 minutes on a dual layer DVD.

Now you still need an HD DVD player to play it. At this time, HD DVD players are the cheapest of the two formats (HD DVD and Blue Ray). HD DVD players range from the mid to high $200s. On the other hand, Blue Ray players will run you about $500.

Of course there's the option of picking up either the Playstation 3 or XBOX 360 (their HD DVD drive is sold separately..presently for about $179 and it comes with 5 FREE HD DVDs). In which case you play games in hi def as well. I'm a 360 owner, so I'm sort of biased when it comes to recommending a system.

But both systems are awesome in terms of hi def output. Gears of War (XBOX 360), IMO, best demonstrates what HD gaming is all about...over the top stunning visuals...great game play...and incredible audio effects.


Going the HD DVD route is a feasible route for those you considering burning HD content. It's definitely the cost effective route of going HD - Media Studio is about $100 and blank DVDs are dirt cheap nowadays.