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Ask Mr Video Weekly Newsletter Click Here for Membership Information! January 29th, 2008 Dear Videographer, By the time you get this I will be traveling via Desert Race Car north from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico along the fabled course of the Baja 1000. I'm filming the adventure for Yanik Silver. The Baja Adventures is the inaugural trip for Yanik's Maverick Business Adventures. I'm so pumped to be going on this trip let alone capturing it for posterity! You can read more details online under Maverick Adventure as I document the entire process. I've been busy preparing for the trip and have found a ton of great resources along the way. I have included some of the best tips in this newsletter! I hope to send back some footage along the way so look for a special email from the road! Announcement: I have made available to members a 30 track album of Royalty Free Soundtracks (VideoTracks Volume 1). These are great for adding to your productions without licensing worries. See the link below. Found Video of the Week Every week I bring you a new video that illustrates great video, great marketing or both. Enjoy! ASUS Eee PC with built in Camera Mr Video says "I am simply amazed by the affordability of the Asus Eee PC! I can even edit video using Windows Movie Maker - not that I'd ever want to but I did!" "16:9 HDV to DVD" by Perry Lawrence I recently produces a DVD that I had shot some of the footage in HDV, mastered in 16:9 (1440x1080) and I wanted to make sure that the DVD played back in widescreen mode if the monitor was wide screen and in letterbox mode if the monitor was 4:3 I initially had problems due to the fact that I was trying to get my huge 1440x1080 show into my SD DVD. Once I realized my mistake (needs to be an SD format) things sailed along nicely. It is easy if you follow these steps. Edit your HDV footage any way you like. I have a fast computer so I stay in HDV. You can choose to edit using an intermediate codec if your computer renders the HDV file too slowly. Output the file "same as source". This will give you a master file without recompressing. Same as source means if you are working in one codec, save to that codec. This is your master file. Compress this master file to Mpeg-2, 720x404, 6.2 Mbps, 2 pass VBR. The 720x404 makes the file Anamorphic. This means it takes your movie and squeezes it into a 4:3 size. Output the audio as normal, AC3. Import these files into your DVD authoring Program. In DVD Architect, that's all you do! If you play back your DVD in a widescreen monitor it will fill the screen. If you play back on a standard TV (4:3) it will play back letterboxed. In DVD Studio (Mac) set display mode to 16:9 Letterbox in Display Mode under General Tab in the inspector. I love 16:9 and now I can insure that the people who have widescreen TVs will see my production in all it's 16:9 full screen glory. 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! Great Tools in a Pinch When you are in the middle of a production, the last thing you need is to hunt for things. This slows the process WAY DOWN. So here is my list of AT HAND web sites that helps me keep things moving forward. http://www.snapsound.com (Sound Effects) http://www.sounddogs.com (Sound Effects) http://www.stockmucic.net (Music) http://www.istockphoto.com (Stills) http://www.istockvideo.com (Video) http://www.revostock.com (Video) http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/ (Font Matching) http://www.transferbigfiles.com (transfer big video files) http://www.vimeo.com (HD Web Delivery for client approvals and final embeds) If you have a 10th one for the list, sent it to me and I'll include it in next week's newsletter. It must be a web based resource that helps you keep your productions moving and gives you access to things you need to make the production awesome! sent it to webmaster at askmrvideo.com   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 thread on the forums: Posted Jan 24,2008 7:02 PM mlahtinen Perry, I have been comparing my video (spokesperson) quality to that of others. Many sites offer pretty bad quality and at this point I consider myself somewhere in the middle. How do I increase the quality of my video. Here's mine > http://www.e-image.net/iperson/index-1.html Here's what I am aiming for > http://www.amberdowney.com/ This seems to sharper, is this a lighting issue or something else. I am using a Sony HD camcorder, for lighting I have the Breitek Cool lights purchased from you. I have two aimed at the background/green screen and one at the subject. Also I have tried to delay the starting of the video through Advanced DHTML put can not do this as in IE there is a black border/shadow behind the subject. Is there an other way to delay/preload the video? Thanks Matti Posted Jan 24,2008 10:09 PM Perry Matti, I must say that the quality of the flash compression is very nice. Also, the delivery is great. The MAIN think that you need to do is get the mic closer and/or deaden the room some. There is a lot of "room noise" ie: sound reflections off the walls, that make the audio less than perfect. Mic-ing closer will give you a huge percieved boost in quality. That said, you can do a few things to help via lighting. The main thing you notice in the amberdowney example is that her eyes sparkle. This is not a genetic trait, it is a lighting trick. To get sparkling eyes, get the light on the talent down to eye level at 45 degrees, say 8 o'clock on the dial. Now look at the talent's eyes. You should see a reflection of the lightbox in her eyes. If not, readjust the lightbox until you see a clear reflection. I've been filming people with two lights and trying to get two reflections and this yields even more sparkly eyes! All in all - VERY nice video, key and execution. Perry Posted Jan 24,2008 10:57 PM mlahtinen Thanks for the tip and encouragement! Should I be using maybe a halogen light instead of the fluorescent? Also, if you could answer the second question, that would be helpful :) Reply Delete Edit message Posted By Posted Jan 25,2008 10:15 AM bbrjeff Hi Matti, Would you mind telling me what camera you are using - what model of HD Sony? Your walk on looked great. However, I am only able to view it once...is this a setting you wanted? Thanks, Jeff Posted Jan 25,2008 10:25 AM mlahtinen I use the Sony HDR-HC1 The walk-on is set to appear once per visit. I feel it would become nuisance if it kept popping up every time the same visitor got back to the same page. There might be a setting to make it appear but not play automatically, however, I am not aware of this. If anyone knows please fill me in. Many of the settings in Advanced DHTML Popup do not work right in IE. Posted Jan 25,2008 1:33 PM Perry Either light system will give you similar results. An easy solution to a delayed start, create your video with nothing in the front for a few seconds and then fade in or cut on the video. Perry Join the discussion today! CLICK HERE TO JOIN NOW! Members Articles: Here are some of the latest articles on AskMrVideo: Maverick Business Adventure: Las Vegas Trailer Maverick Video #1 Filming at Yanik's House Royalty Free Video Tracks Volume 1 Click Here for Membership Information! ------ That's for all your support and your help in making this a fantastic video year. See you online! 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.