CATEGORY: Video Production

Two Useful Formulas for Non-Engineers

OK, you are producing a shoot in an office where you are conducting an interview with a high-ranking official of an organization.  She has just exited the office for a bit to allow you and your crew time to set up.

She has left her computer on, and you actually want it to stay on and have it seen in the background of the shot.

As the crew sets up, you overhear that they want to plug in two 600 watt lamps and one 400 watt lamps.  And the question arises, ”Are we going to blow a circuit?”

Uh, a voice goes off in your head crying, “Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!,” as you  recognize, perhaps more than anyone else in the crew (since it was you who spent days setting this shoot up), that being responsible for a black-out in this interviewee’s office  would not be a good thing . . . AT ALL!

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What is meant by 24P and 23.98?

1080i, 720p, 24P . . . oh my!

30 frames, 60i, 25 frames, 50i, 29.97, 23.98.  Somebody help!

Here are links to two in-depth articles on the web that I found that does an excellent job in explaining what all these terms all mean: http://tinyurl.com/ysxs4h   http://www.answers.com/topic/24p

But if you want a quick-read summary, I’ll give it try.  Please read on:

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Effective Writing: Think Like the Fox

The fox turned and stared straight at the camera for several long seconds. Then, apparently judging that we were not a threat, she continued with her main business of hunting food. We kept rolling.

I’ve been filming – or attempting to film – red foxes in my neighborhood for one of my new independently-produced segments for Maryland Public Television’s weekly series, Outdoors Maryland. It occurred to me during my stalking endeavors that pursuing foxes is not unlike pursuing viewers of a media production, whether documentary or corporate, video or website.

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Kaye Lavine, Multi-Camera Directing & the “6 P’s”

March 22, 2008:  Two years ago today one of my mentors, Kaye Lavine, passed away.  I wrote about her at the end of an earlier blog, http://davidryanmediasolutions.com/2007/10/19/the-rocky-mountain-way-an-extra-5-or-10/, and I want expound further on something she espoused.

Kaye was an Executive Producer at Denver’s PBS station, KRMA-TV.  She hired me back early in my career to be Cultural Affairs Producer for the station.  Soon after arriving,  she enlightened me with one her work slogans, otherwise known as the “6 P’s:”  “Proper Planning Prevents Pi**-Poor Production.”  I laughed.  I knew I had found a kindred spirit.

(photo of Kaye Lavine from a feature article ca. 1984)

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