"Perhaps because of the noisy and chaotic nature of the production process, these tools are located
in the south side of the encircling ring architecture." (Bakersmith Report, 2015, p.37)

Video: The Leading Edge of Multimedia

 
Selected Video Tools
Title Access Online Tutorials Reviews Examples Publications Company Costs
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Concepts

Polished up with heavy amounts of technique and money, the term for motion pictures is cinematography. At its core is a quirk of human perception. If a slide show of images arrives faster than the human brain can perceive the end of one image and the start of the next, the brain shifts to a "higher gear". It synthesizes this information into a seamless flow of motion that can mimic reality. The clearest defining label is the "motion picture show" and watching film or movies is a staple of global culture. On "the street" the term is video, and this more distilled term will be used liberally in this chapter to represent all of the other handles. Using video for live communication, videoconferencing, instead of movie compositions is also an increasingly important role for this medium, even when used over public Internet lines. The chapter also addresses video's relationships with other media. On the electronic slideshow and web display screens, what is the nature of the emerging relationship between text, still image and video? How does this relationship impact the learning, teaching and thinking process?

As with all of the multimedia topics covered, video information spans multiple careers. The role of this chapter however is not to promise a quick injection of all video knowledge. Along with reviewing many basic ideas, it also considers a set of larger questions. Is there another gestalt beyond video and within multimedia? That is, how much video knowledge does one need to shift to another higher gear? What does it take to be able to place video in the larger context of linking, to be able to invent and refine new levels of composition in a computer-based multimedia environment in which video shares the same display space as text and still imagery?

One by one these chapters add new elements of communication to the mix of what we can link. Do new levels of perception flicker and almost ignite just beyond our standard forms of communication? From where we now stand we only see flickering shadows of possibility. Is there a bonfire over the hill?

To better understand video's place at the electronic table, one needs deeper levels of experience with video usage. After this exploration, the chapter returns to the issue of integrating video with previously considered elements of communication, text and still images. Three stages of video composition are considered: input, manipulation, and output.

These cannot be considered totally distinct stages however, for input and manipulation are controlled by the purposes of output, by knowledge of audience. Further, certain tools can be used in sufficiently different ways to also be used across more than one stage. That is, a camera is an input device, but when in-camera editing is carried out it also becomes a more formal editor. When the video is re-played and observed through the camera eye piece or TV screen or in-camera display screen, it can be also thought of as an output device. The camera however is primarily used as an input device and for that reason is placed in the category of input device.

Input

Concepts

Two aspects of video input needs consideration. One issue is getting video into the camera. The second video is getting the video into the computer for further composition and communication.

If you use a camera, you are a shooter. It is one of the implications of picking up a camcorder. We say that we shoot video. To shoot has historically been a means of capture, possession and control used both by forces on the defense and forces on the attack. This would seem an inversion of reality for cameras only capture in-coming light waves and sound waves. A camera appears to be a passive device. How innocent can one get? Where is the projection? In fact, the camera is an extension of human will power. To shoot video is to be engaged in a form of projection and force, not of the force of a heavy metal object that disintegrates its target, but a projectile of personality, intellect, imagination and will.

Perhaps one of the reasons that people become nervous when they see cameras is that they fear a challenge to their perception of reality brought about by the shooter's work. What does the camera in the shooter's hands see that you cannot see? Not a thing perhaps, unless you can mindfully see what not to see so that others things can come into focus. The real work begins with the shooter's use of the frame and focus which clarifies by excluding. The power of video comes from the acts of imagination and invention on the shooter's part to be able to see what has been obscured and overlooked and get the camera to record it. In still image work we have tools that cut, copy, or crop. They allow the still image composer to pull a tighter focus or special emphasis out of a larger image. Though a video shooter must be conscious of what fills the frame, it is equally important to understand that the edge of the video frame is a cropping tool that cuts away just like still image tools. This video cropping is the result of where the camera is pointed, when it is turned off and on, and when the camera's zoom-in feature is used. In other words, the very acting of shooting or recording is a process of active editing. Shooting video is not a passive sport.

The reinterpretation of reality continues as the different pieces or cuts of the observable world are re-sequenced in a video editor. This is an act that again excludes much more than it includes. Perhaps the real shooting begins when we play the video sequences back in their new order. Now you ARE projecting light waves and sounds waves. As shooter and post-shooting composer you must also be able to defend your composition from the challenge that your exclusions form a distortion, not a clarification.

  • Everyone read.
  • Ten Minute Film School
  • There is no one required reading in this next set of ideas. Each reader needs something different. Find forty minutes worth of reading among these web sites and move on.
  • Start with this site:  Hollywood Film Institute
  • Film-making, about.com
  • The composition of film and video can be divided into a seemingly endless number of steps and stages. The web sites above explore many of the facets of video composition. The grammar for the composition of video was formed through experimentation. You do not have to have memorized all the possibilities. You do need to bring to the scene a sense of willingness to try to change the view of the scene and to change elements within the scene. You do not want change for the sake of change, but for variation to keep interest, to keep the eye engaged, and to learn the impact of many possibilities.

    Stage It

    Even the "spontaneous interview" benefits from advance thinking about setting. Whether a street corner filming or an office videoconference, the background of a scene can and does become part of the story. It is the shooter's responsibility the plan for and use this background to help.

    Camera Variation

    Know your camera. What kind of expressions can be made with the camera? That is, how many different angles and actions can be represented by the use of the camera? Some would include: camera on and off; zoom in and out; pan (e.g., left to right); tilt (e.g., up and down); fade in and fade out; tight and wide (panorama); medium; dolly (e.g., shooting out the car window); macro (very close) and so forth. Invent or look up more. Review your work and constantly ask yourself if a shot worked.

    Use Lighting

    Use lighting purposely.  Bank it. Reflect it. Increase it. Darken it. When shooting outside, waiting for the right time of day and the right weather represent another way to use light purposely. Though these images were used in the chapter on still images, the issues they raise still apply to camera work. Determine what the shooters in the link below did right and wrong and use that knowledge in your work. Shooting outside on a sunny day provides excellent contrast and color to your video. Whatever the source a bright light or lights requires special camera positioning. Position yourself so that the sun or brightest room lights are in your face or coming at the target of your shoot from the front. You do not want the sun or very bright lights behind the speaker so that the camera looks into bright lights. If your background or scene behind you is better lit than you are, then you become a darker silhouette or even a black outline. If you are shooting inside, make sure that every light in the room or classroom is turned on. If you are shooting during daylight hours, make sure that any shades on the window are pulled back to allow in the maximum amount of light.

    It is possible however to have too much light. Too much can wash out the colors and cause other problems. One such problem is with auto-focus. The auto-focus feature of a camera will automatically adjust to different light levels if it is set to the on position.

    As the camera pans to the right the auto-focus system in the camera was on and it closed down the lens when it encountered the very bright white shirt. This brought the shirt into focus, but made the beautiful green background so dark that it can barely be recognized. Simply changing the shirt our blouse to a more muted or darker color would have solved the problem.

    Audio

    If there is anything about video that most concerns its "readers" or viewers, it is not the video at all, it is the audio. When using a video camera, your brain naturally focuses on the visual because the eyepiece provides constant feedback as to what the camera is receiving. However, most beginning shooters ignore the feedback the camera provides about the part that is at least as important as the video. Look closely at most cameras and a headphone jack can be found. Good shooting means listening with headphones to determine if the sound pickup is adequate. This does not mean that they must be worn throughout an interview, but they should be used for a sound check at least at the beginning. Where possible, the headphones should be worn throughout the shoot, and preferably by someone other than the camera operator. It also means that the headphones need to travel in the same bag as the camcorder.

    Much of the time, the built-in camera microphones are not adequate. This is especially so for voice and music. Email from an Internet conference on the question of what to use provides some examples of working setups. One user picked up a couple of wireless mikes (Sony  WCS-999, $200) and a portable mixer ($30). He set one mike to Channel 1 and one to channel 3 and reported that this arrangement worked very well. Another recommendation was for the Azden WMS-PRO System. This kit includes both a wireless lapel microphone and a wired handheld microphone. The WMS-PRO is priced at $179 (http://www.azdencorp.com/video3.html).
     

    Numerous music and camera stores will provide not only advice about appropriate choices, but a range of equipment that should be personally handled for size, durability and weight issues.

    Time It

    Keep it short. Multimedia producers do not have to say it all with full-motion video. Consequently, they do not need 1 or 2 or 3 hours of 30 frames per second of video to say it. As has been shown in the previous chapter, you can also use stills and text. Further, other elements will be added to this mix with future chapters. The multimedia composer is seeking interaction between numerous communication elements. If a video piece must be longer than a few minutes, the video piece probably deserves a more complete treatment than fits with the multiple personality of web and computer multimedia. The more knowledge gained about longer piece video production the better, for all of the techniques are just as useful in shorter duration compositions. However, the multimedia producer knows that other techniques can be used to make up for the shortcomings of moving images. I suspect that multimedia video pieces will range from the standard 30 second commercial to just a few minutes, which will probably standardize to around two minutes on average. There is much to explore. How short can you make a video piece that is educationally relevant? How frequently will you need such short pieces?
     

    Software and Hardware Tools

    Having built up some conceptual ideas about getting video into the camera, the software and hardware tools for input into the computer need examination.

    Desktop video has been going through a revolution as the result of changes in camera formats. Until very recently, video cameras produced analog video that had to be converted to digital data through a video graphics card that could scan the images on the video at thirty frames per second and convert that to a digital video format. Many computers that are available are designed with the video graphics card to carry out this conversion. All of the computers in Killian 268 and every public facility that you have access to on campus have this arrangement. Which graphic card to buy used to be a major issue in the development of a video editing workstation. With the coming of digital camcorders, the issue of which graphic card has become a legacy issue for older computer equipment. On this campus our windows stations use the ATI card. Our older Mac stations use the video card that comes with the computer from Apple Computer.

    Other computers have no video card at all. Instead they have a high-speed data port that expects the video to be digitized in the camera at the time you are shooting it and merely quickly transferred to the computer. For now, the Mac G3 computers have a firewire card which can take digital video input directly from the digital camera. Eventually, every system in the CATA Lab will have a firewire card for input. Further, each of the workstations in the CATA Lab has available a Sony digital video converter which is mounted on the rolling carts that can help you convert analog from older cameras to digital video. Digital cameras are extremely rare and are not available for student checkout at the Faculty Center. However, the represent the clear future of video capture.

    Select the equipment you need and if you cannot borrow it from your institution then buy it or rent it. When using a camera for video input, have a tripod available and use it. This does not mean that it should be used for every shot. The use of the tripod is just one more element that has an impact on how your video will look. If viewing the videotape makes you and the viewers of your work seasick, use the tripod more until you become better at holding the camera steady.

    Before you include a person in the scene, remember that you need a video release form. More importantly, volunteers need full disclosure about your intentions. Paid actors and actresses will need a contract and that contract spells out the nature of your use of the video. This video release form that is used by this University could also serve as a model for other variations in such statements.

    Do not overlook other sources of video. Click the header in the table above to see the tutorials and examples for a range of video input.

    Cameras and camcorders are not the only source of input for video. If your institution uses videoconferencing rooms, ask that the video be saved to a VCR and then send out video release forms depending on which people appear during the portion you wish to use. Further, Internet videoconferencing is supported with several applications on multiple platforms. Saving this video provides you with an very interesting look as well as providing video that is already in digital format.

    The same cameras used for Internet video conferencing are also used to create webcam sites, though different software is generally used. This represents one more source for video input even. The frame rate is sometimes extremely slow with updates occurring only every 60 seconds or so while other webcam sites can be as high as 30 frames per second.

    Live webcams are available by the thousands from all around the world, from video views into zoos and their animal behavior to street scenes. Permission would have to be granted by the camera owner but most owners leave an email address with their web site. Setting up your own webcam is also well supported on numerous web sites. Different solutions are recommended for different situations from education to security to weather.

    Since the use of a computer screen itself is a display in motion pictures, the computer screen itself can be a source of video input. Your changes of the screen through use of a computer application provide a dynamic sequence of changes that themselves can be turned into video. Again click the header in the table above to see the tutorials and examples for this kind of video. A long list of examples can be found in the Example section after the Cameraman application.

    Manipulation

     
    Selected Professional Video Editing Tools.
    Title Access Online Tutorials Reviews Examples Publications Company Costs
    . . . . . . . .
    . . . . . . . .

    The simplest form of editing is an in-camera edit. This does not require a computer or any editing decks. It is all done with the camera. Turning off the camera allows the scene to be changed or adjusted. The change could be from one side of the room to another or from one country to another. This requires some planning or scripting so that all the video is shot in the right order. When this is done, the video is ready for re-play without any further editing. Unfortunately, when a camera or camcorder is stopped, it sometimes backs up just slightly before starting again, erasing the last seconds of what was just recorded. Further, if you rewind the tape to see how the last recording look, it is often very hard to rewind the tape to the exact location that you need in order to continue recording.

    There are also a number of fine computer software tools for the further manipulation of video once it is captured by the camera, a process sometimes referred to as desktop video. Click the header in the table above to see the tutorials and examples for this kind of video. Either download and use the demonstration versions of the programs or come into the campus labs and work with a full version of the program. Specialize in one that is at the easiest level to use and one intended for professional use.

    At the most basic level is use of the video players such as Media Player and Quicktime Player Pro. At the next level of difficulty are video editors designed for home and public school use: Avid Cinema, Apple's iMovie and Windows Movie Maker. It is important to have experience with one of these easier to use applications for capturing video.

    The other video applications in this chart are more complex in design. They were created with the needs of a video production professional in mind. Ease of use gives way to the complexity of a very wide range of powerful features. To learn them, use the introductory chapters in the manuals and computer based tutorials that ship with the programs to gain some initial experience. Other online tutorials are referenced in the chart above.

    Output


    Systems with 256 colors or less will be able to see video, but the quality of the color image will be greatly reduced.
     

    Video Broker Service

    Video clips and stills taken from video have commercial value in addition to educational application. However, it is difficult to find agents to broker your image work, in addition to sending your work to those willing to buy. The Internet once again changes how this will be done:

    Convergence

    Because the key digital trends (e.g., Moore's Law) lead to ever smaller, more powerful and cheaper devices, there is an increasing convergence of features. Hybrid devices can have video, audio, photographic, telephone, wireless, hard drive and memory chip technology in the same device. At the moment, special purposes devices produce better results than all-in-one systems. That is, a dedicated digital still camera produces better still images than the still image feature of a digital camcorder and has been easier to use. It would appear though that trends may create hybrid devices that are as good. This often creates one device whose price is significantly lower than buying a set of dedicated systems that provide the same features.  Any details written here will have evolved and changed within weeks of its writing, but a review of developments and selected current systems will give some depth and flesh to the idea of convergence.

    Increasingly, the video is going directly from a mobile device to web posting, instead of through a computer for further digital video editing. Of course these postings can also include text and other media. The blogging phenomena which greatly simplified web publishing has led the online video posting effort. Video inclusive sites are also called also called moblogs. One of the early leaders in promoting video blogs is http://videoblogging.info/. A representative example is Steve Garfield's Videoblog. There are also focused blogs dealing with video only. Perhaps the best current example is  ANT, a feed-reader, which uses RSS or syndication service to find and download video directly to your hard drive.

    Digital Still camera makers have been adding media formats. The Canon PowerShot S1 IS is a 3-megapixel camera, that also can record up to 60 minutes of high-quality VGA video with sound ( review). The Pentax Optio MX4 includes a 4 megapixel camera that also can record up to 2 hours of 640x480 video at 30 frames per second in MPEG-4 format and store the data on Secure Digital cards or MultiMediaCards (review). About the size of a deck of cards or cell phone, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M1 is a 5.1 megapixel camera that can record up to 27 minutes of VGA-quality MPEG-4 recording at 30 frames per second (review). Whether the camera comes with wireless technology or not, Concord Camera has created WIT (Wireless Image Transfer), a 2 x 2-inch Wi-Fi device which plugs into any camera’s USB port and transmit images wirelessly over the Internet.

    Not to be outdone, digital video camcorder makers have also been adding media formats. The JVC GZ-MC500 Everio is a 5 megapixel camera, that can record MPEG-2 video onto a 4 gigabyte microdrive, a tiny hard drive that can be removed and replaced by other such drives as the drive size increases and can also record to an SD memory card. It records video in four levels of quality ranging from 60 minutes of 720x480 pixels with dolby /digital Audio at 30 frames per second, down to 300 minutes of 352x240 pixels and 30 frames per second (review). As flash and other component prices continue to drop, a flood of cheap and poor quality hybrid camcorders is also appearing. Hopefully their quality will improve, but check for reviews of such products before committing real money.

    Cell phone makers also have been building hybrid models, but battery power has hindered the development of more powerful features. The LG VX8000 is a WI-FI cell phone with a 1.3 megapixel camera, and records up to 15 seconds of video; it also handles streaming audio, video and video games. Samsung has announced 2005 plans for cell phones with 3-5 megapixels recording up to 30 minutes of video to a 1.5 gigabyte hard drive. Because the world-wide cell phone market with embedded cameras is so large, the cell phone giant Nokia has become the world's largest maker of digital cameras. What is emerging is that the casual market has become larger and more profitable than the market for more serious higher quality still and video shooting. To keep these products advancing, the company Broadcom has created a multimedia processor chip that will enable digital video into the midrange $100 to $200 cell phones.

    The handheld computer makers are also expanding the features of their systems. Because of the small screen display size, the video players and the videoclips themselves need to be programmed and managed to fit into a PDA's color screen. Several resources for PDA video including software programs and web sites that format video are commonly available. Due to the unique operating systems of PDAs, video will need to be converted to a format that the handheld can process; one such application for the Palm OS is gMaker. Many of the camcorders fit into a CF (Compact Flash) slot within the PDA. Other PDAs are morphing into smart phones, such as the T-Mobile MDA IV and the still image and video cameras come built-in to the base unit. Motorola has come out with the Motorola MPx which is similar to the MDA IV, but minus the video camera. Use Pocket PC City and Palm Boulevard to keep up with new developments in the handheld market.

    Educational Relevance

    Video composition provides numerous opportunities for educational integration. Read more about educational relevance.

    Multimedia - Linking Video with Text and Image

    Precedence

    If the mind leaps to interpret the image before text, does video come before the image or does it make any difference? Which comes to mind first, the book, the image or motion pictures? Does the eye gravitate to the static or the dynamic image? Does it matter whether there is a precedence in perception?

    Through the use of web page frames, multiple files can appear at the same time in different places on the same screen. Consider the above questions in light of the example at the link below:

  • Analysis of Water variations - an introduction
  • Where did your eye go first? Does it matter? Further note the compound nature of this web page and its role in setting up further class activity such as use of the spreadsheet. It includes a video, a graph, data updated daily from regional stream sensors, and a text box that includes interactivity in switching between two sets of live stream data. The text box is purposely left gray so that they eye settles last on the text but keep in mind that the color of the text box can play a role in how soon the eye focuses on the text box.

    The prior chapter on still images discussed the classic example of image-text balance is in articles by National Geographic. How might a graph of of the balance of this compound page look?

    Copyright

    Video raises a number of copyright related issues. Unless the video you use is your own or you have specific written permission, the Fair Use provision does not allow the use of snippets of commercial video on a web site. Password protection to a web site would allow the Fair Use provision to apply but video producers often set very strict limits on the use of their video and continued use of commercial video might not be allowed.

    Video and the Internet

    Computer users should consider that they own a TV station if their computer is connected to the Internet. Further, it is a TV station with both a local and a global reach. Increasing bandwidth on the Internet will greatly increase the size of the video display and the length of the pieces offered.

    Summary

    This chapter has addressed conceptual as well as technical issues related to the use of video in the computer age. Video in general is recognized by many as the most powerful medium of our age. Better and regular instruction on the use of video across curriculum and levels of education is long overdue. Because of Internet use and personal computers, use of video by educators has reached a new level of functionality and it is time that this fact is better recognized. Especially for educators, this means that basic skills with video composition are just as important as skills with imagery and the reading and writing of text.

    Video Bibliography

    Bibliographies: Still - Audio - Video - 2D - 3D - Sensor - interact - MM

    Video Integration and Web Page Design Concepts

  • I have not found any web pages that address this issue. Please help research this.
  • College Videodisc Collection

    Instructional Technology Center videodisc holdings (Killian 268)
    Where text, still image and video work began their integration in the 1980's.

    Videotape Copying (Dubbing) Services

    Selected Books

    For quick reviews and ratings of the books, search for the book title at www.amazon.com and read the comments.

    Robert M. Goodman, Patrick McGrath (September, 2002). Editing Digital Video. McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics; ISBN: 0071406352; Bk&Cd-Rom edition.

    Michael Rubin (September, 2001). The Little Digital Video Book. Peachpit Press; ISBN: 0201758482.

    Dale Newton, John Gaspard (2001). Digital Filmmaking 101: An Essential Guide to Producing Low-Budget Movies. Edmond H. Weiss; ISBN: 0941188337

    Inside Windows Media : Learn to Combine Video, Audio, and Still Images to Create Streaming Media by Microsoft Windows Media Technologies Team, Microsoft Corporation $31.99 at Amazon.com. Paperback - 297 pages Bk&Cd Rom edition (November 19, 1999)  Que; ISBN: 0789722259.

    Realmedia Complete : Streaming Audio and Video over the Web (Complete Series) by Jonathan Angle, Jonathan Angel $49.95 at Amazon.com. Paperback - 600 pages Bk&Cd-Rom edition (March 1999) Computing McGraw-Hill; ISBN: 007913727X.

    The Little Web Cam Book by Elisabeth Parker, John Grimes (Illustrator) $15.19 at Amazon.com. Paperback - 380 pages 1 edition (January 1, 1999) Peachpit Press; ISBN: 0201354209.

    See also:
    Producing Great Sound for Digital Video by Jay Rose
    Nonlinear - A Field Guide to Digital Video and Film Editing by Michael Rubin
    The IFILM Digital Video Filmmaker's Handbook 2001 by Maxie D. Collier
    Making Documentary Films and Reality Videos: A Practical Guide to Planning, Filming, and Editing Documentaries of Real Events by Barry Hampe

    Hunter Library Books and Videotapes

    Subject search (Library of Congress) terms to use at Hunter.

    Web Sites