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Ask Mr Video Weekly Newsletter Click Here for Membership Information! September 25th, 2007 Dear Friend, Hey hey hey! We are officially in AUTUMN... no wait... it's 90 degrees today. OK, check that... Hey Hey Hey! I got my flip flops on and editing a commercial for British Telecom. I'm developing a "remote editing" process with my client - Ogilvy Worldwide - and I get to edit from my home. Only a few kinks so far but things are going smoothly. After getting the digitized footage duplicated to my own disk drive, we are swapping the project file between NYC and Philly. Today we're hoping to get a designer involved and that will add to the fun! Found Video of the Week Every week I bring you a new video that illustrates great video, great marketing or both. Enjoy! Learn how to romance a girl with one semester of spanish put to a catchy song. Mr Video says "Very funny video! Branding at the end is good and their URL prominent in the YouTube description. Not only that, the video is well lit and they advantage of their budget limitations - nice." "Single Light Source for Video - Like Nature" by Perry Lawrence Sept 25, 2007 Do you have trouble lighting a scene to make it look "professional?" You know, the eyes are bright and sparkly, the background is unobtrusive and the shadows - if any - are actually complimentary? That kind of lighting. Well "that kind of lighting" is not too difficult if you remember a few rules. By imitating nature you will get results that look, well, natural! Less is more I like to imitate the sun on an overcast day - single source, very diffused. More lights means more shadows. Try to imitate the sun - single source of light. Diffuse for soft even light I have a few soft boxes that I use on my lights. A softbox is a big enclosure you put on the front of your light. The end of the box has a diffusing material on it to soften the light's output - much like an overcast day. Do not mix light temperatures Lights have a "color temperature". Notice how the sun colors things differently in the morning, at noon, and at dusk. Just as the sun goes down, industry pros call this time the "golden hour" because everything gets washed in the olden glow of the setting sun. Electronic lighting has a range of "warm", "cool", and "daylight" color output. Since we will be "white balancing" it doesn't matter which color range you choose, however do not mix the lighting. In other words, do not use warm lighting on the talent and daylight on the background. But, since we are using single source - this shouldn't be an issue. White Balance your camera This tip is often overlooked by beginners and novices alike. By leaving your camera on "auto white" you are getting close - but not exact. A camera can only guess where the whites should be. Help it along by using manual WB. Light your scene, have your talent hold a white card or paper in front of themselves. Zoom into the paper and then white balance. You will be amazed at the results. Use Zebras Most semi-pro camcorders have what is called a zebra pattern available - Use It! The zebra pattern is displayed on your viewfinder and shows you where the "hot spots" are. Typical zebra patterns can be displayed at 70% or 100% of the brightness limit. Use 70% and adjust you iris on the camera, or light output, so that the zebra bars just show up on your talent's face, on the cheeks usually. Switch to 100% to adjust for a landscape scene making sure that the zebras are just beginning to appear. Background is important Don't shoot with your talent in front of a window (with back to the window) or outside with talent in shade and the background fully lit. These two "scenes" show up more than you would think! Ideally, you want your talent a bit brighter than the background. The Apple Mac/PC commercials go against this rule but it is not a beginners lighting situation! Care most be taken to get the balance just right. Most people advocate the three-point lighting approach - Key light, Fill light, and Rim or Hair light. And that's just for the foreground! Don't get me wrong. If you want to invest the time and money on learning three-point lighting, you will be well rewarded. However, by imitating nature and using one single light source, you will have professional results with little effort. Did you like this article? Emailing it to a friend is easy. Just click below! Video Gear Review Here we go! My favorite part of every "Tip of the Week". This is where we get to look at some neat toys tools! I came across this gem of a software tool the other day and it is amazing. Not only is it very useful - it's free! CELTX Script Writer works on Mac, PC, and Linux. It supports a wide range of scripting formats as well as story boards, production schedules and more. You start with celtx by choosing from one of five industry standard editors: Screenplays AV scripts, including Documentaries, Advertisements and Music Videos Audio Plays, including Radio Plays and Podcasts Theatre Plays (International and US standard) Plain Text Then, organize your draft using color-coded index cards. Rearrange scenes at a glance. Then, move to the coloration tool. That's right, you can share your script with your team. After you are satisfied with your script, you produce what is called a "breakdown". This is a listing of scenes, props, personnel, sounds, graphics, etc. For the artistic, there is a story board function. Create sketches in your favorite drawing program and import into celtx. Finally, schedule your production using the robust calendar feature. The calendar will help keep you on track and under budget! I have used scripting programs before. Nothing comes close to celtx and at this price - it's a no-brainer. Most people will only use the scripting feature. Some more ambition productions will find that the added features are a huge benefit. Check out celtx here.   Do you know somebody who would find this review useful? Email it right to them. AskMrVideo.com Forum Highlights Every member has complete access to the AMV discussion forum, which is constantly being accessed by members sharing information, knowledge, insight, and fun. With an active community that's growing daily, this is one heck of a valuable resource! Here is a recent post on the forums: Posted Sep 22,2007 4:24 AM Andrew Has anyone heard of or know anything about VivaViralVideo.com? It seems similar to Affiliate Video Brander, but I'm interested to know if anyone's has any experience with it, or knows the difference between the two products. Andrew Posted Sep 22,2007 2:35 PM jointventure Hi Andrew, Yes, I bought Viva from Dylan Jones. It is not quite ready to hit the market, because they are reworking it to run from their server instead of user's website. The difference between the two are many...but the most noticable is Viva is a viral machine! The viewer of a "viva" video will be redirected to salespage after video, but while watching, there is a bar that says "Make Money With This Video". You click that and are taken to a page that you use to instantly brand the video with YOUR affiliate link, no matter what product it is. Now the user has their video and can spread the word. Takes like 2 minutes. I'm highly impressed with what they're doing, I've not seen anything similar on the market. They should be roaring in a week or less, that's what he told me yesterday. Hope this helps! Ken Join the discussion today! CLICK HERE TO JOIN NOW! Closing Thoughts Member Feedback: Some of the best ideas, tips and thoughts come from other AMV members just like you! So if you have something you'd like to share with the rest of us, please don't hesitate to send me a message. Click Here for Membership Information! This note came from Mark Jennings - a new Infomercial Producer! --- Hi Perry! I wanted to send you a quick note to let you know that I produced my first infomercial this weekend, using many of the tips I learned from your site. I'm still very much a beginner, but I think this turned out pretty well. Your tips on Ultra were very helpful...they allowed me to "simulate" frameless flash...you'll see what I mean when you see it. Anyway, if you're interested, here's the link. It's about 3 minutes long. http://mynewspiritnaturals.com/nsgreenmagic2.htm (You'll need to scroll down a bit to find the video). Thanks again for the great site! Mark --- Great work Mark, keep 'em coming! Perry Lawrence "Mr Video" http://www.AskMrVideo.com Merchant Services The AskMrVideo.com Website uses 128-Bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption to transmit your personal information to our secure servers. Still not sure you want to do this over the internet? Well, just give me a call at 800-531-5718.