Pick of the Bunch

 

Making Your Video Look Like Film

http://members.shaw.ca/victorfilmgroup/

"How can I make my video look more like film?" - doesn't this seems to be THE TOPIC of half the conversations on DV. Victor Khong (left) shows you how to get it right from the beginning - that is, how to shoot it right before you get lost twiddling & rendering with FCP's filters. Invaluable.

Make sure you explore all of his site -- he's also got a wealth of information:

• the Creativity section for the "Filmmaker's Previsualization Worksheet"
• the Cinematography for his pages on "Film and video's motion clarity signatures" and "Lighting tips on a penny budget"
• the Cameras, Accessories & Techniques section for "Do It Yourself Steady Device" and his "Digital Video Cinematography" guide

Mr Khong is inspirational and practical!

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All about DV

Adam Wilt

http://www.adamwilt.com/
In the beginning was Adam... Adam Wilt has a first class site on the DV format.

He's a video engineer and his beat is Digital Video. He has stacks of info on DV cassettes, formats, sampling, compression, audio, FireWire, linear & nonlinear editing, transcoding, 16:9; film-style; frame mode; slow shutters; image stabilization, DV sampling, artifacts, tape dropout, generation loss, codecs.

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Mini-DV Label Word Template

http://home.carolina.rr.com/davidanna/
newsite/free/index.html
Word template for DV cassettes. Available in US Letter & A4 sizes. Labelling will save you.

Free | download

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DV Codecs

http://codecs.onerivermedia.com/
The river has motion artifacts? Want to know about codecs - get down and dirty on jaggies and artifacts with One River Media's excellent & comprehensive article on DV codecs.

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Light work

 

DV Enlightenment

By DVcreators.net (Date, 2004)

DV Enlightenment, an instructional DVD containing a complete lighting course for people shooting video footage.

The DVD covers essential lighting theory, DVcreators.net's Four Point Lighting Method, how to get the best results shooting daylight exteriors or interiors with natural light, lighting a greenscreen, lighting for black limbo, white limbo, and a series of lighting tips and tricks for a range of situations.

 

Amazon Purchase | See also FCP planet

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Pixelmonger

http://www.pixelmonger.com/home.html
PixelMonger isn't the name of the latest Bond villain, it is in fact the web home of Scott Billups. Billups is a professional cinematographer, author of "Digital Moviemaking" and the man who turned David Lynch on to digital video.

“...This site is entirely created and funded out of pocket. Just for the record, with well over 2,000,000 visits and literally gigabytes of data downloaded monthly, this site costs me far more than I'll ever make from the book.

What you will find here is an environment that is committed to fostering independent moviemaking of all budgets without any hidden agendas...”

IMDB Scott Billups | See also his book Digital Moviemaking

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Warm Cards

http://www.warmcards.com/
In-camera color correction on location... this a very simple idea for cheating your DV camera into giving you a consistent colour balance...

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Studio 1 Productions

http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/FL-Lights.htm
Thes guys sell hardware & accessories for DV cameras. There site has this excellent article: Creating a Low Cost Fluorescent Lighting System.

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Camera Gear

 

Century Optics

www.centuryoptics.com
Century Optics make filters, lens adapters - such as wide angle adapters, diopters, fisheyes and matteboxes.

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Sound Gear

 

One Take Audio Mixer

www.audiodirector.com
Audio Director's One Take Audio Mixer is a portable stereo mixer tha runs on two regular 9v. batteries and can accommadate up to 4 microphones at one time - that’s two minis and two 1/4” plugged into the back panel (at the same time) each with up to 15 foot cables (unbalanced). Or use any two microphones both unbalanced (up to 15’) or balanced (up to 100’). You can choose, either XLR, 1/4”, or 3.5mm minis.

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Beachtek

http://www.beachtek.com/

Make camcorder XLR audio adapters, phantom power adapters, and portable VU meters.

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Studio 1's XLR-BP

http://www.studio1productions.com/xlr-bp.htm

From the same people who brought you the flourescent lighting tutorial...

“...The XLR-BP™ audio adapter was specifically designed for those videographers who are using wireless microphone systems, dynamic microphones and battery power mics, such as shotgun microphones or lavalier mics.  The XLR-BP™ will clip onto you belt and comes with a 4 ft cable with a stereo mini-plug so it can plug into you camera's mic jack...”