On-Line Web Site Production Workshop

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On-Line Web Site Production Workshop > Basic Digital Video

Digital Video Shooting and Production

With the availability of affordable, and high quality digital video cameras and related computer hardware, and the “firewire” or iLink cable interface, video production for the web is now available to anyone who is interested. The costs for equipment and editing software is many times less than it was a few years ago for equal performance. Plus, the hardware and software is infinitely easier to use for the beginner and for everyone who has ever had even a casual interest in video production or film making.

Discussions and demonstrations were provided during the on-site workshops about various types of digital video cameras, their relative qualities and costs. For those who already own analog video cameras a brief discussion provided information about how they can prepare their video for digital use.

VHS or 8MM and higher quality S-VHS and Hi 8MM camcorders have been available for many years. People who have accumulated footage with these cameras can easily transfer the older material to a digital format tape such as Mini-DV. Many of the digital cameras have an input capability which allows a person to connect the two camcorders together and record on the new digital tape. It is also possible to purchase pass through adapters and video capture boards to allow the old footage to be captured directly to a computer hard drive. This does not increase the quality of the original footage, but it is protected in the new digital format. Theoretically, the new digital tape or a computer hard drive will not deteriorate as quickly as older consumer video formats.

Probably all camcorders available have a microphone to capture sound at the same time that the video is being shot. It is important to realize that lower cost camcorders especially, do not have very high quality microphones. In addition, sometimes they pick up the motor hum of camcorder as it is operating. External microphones may provide much better quality. Wired microphones have to connect to the mic input of the camcorder and this can restrict the distance where good sound quality can be captured. Mountain Visions has been using wireless microphones for field recording of people’s voices in the field. Attached to the camera mic input is a line coming from a wireless receiver located on the camera operator. The person speaking can be out at some distance, even as far away as 100 feet. He or she speaks into a small microphone that is attached to a small transmitter. This sends a signal back to the camera receiver and into the camera while the camera is operating. When the microphone is protected adequately from the wind the sound quality can be very good. It is important to note that there is a wide range in the quality and cost of microphones available. In addition, wireless microphones are susceptible to interference from other radio and television signals nearby. The better wireless microphones will allow the operator to choose among many different frequencies if interference is a problem in any particular location.

Ranch Creek.
Ranch Creek

Falls at outlet of Panguitch Lake.

A demonstration of audio and video use of a digital camera camcorder in the field was given during the on-site workshop. Considerations for composition, exposure, and lighting are similar to the issues in Basic Photography.

The advantages of the use of a tripod and video pan head, attached to the camera are important to understand. Unless a person is very steady, hand holding a camcorder while recording can result in “shaky” video. A good tripod will make the video much more useable. In addition, a video pan head allows the camera to be moved from side to side and up and down with a much smoother movement. Hand holding can be effective, but it is a good idea to have a tripod when you need it. It should be noted that many of the new consumer camcorders have good “image stabilization” features built in. It is still possible, however, to shoot “shaky” video even when this is turned on.

As a kind of middle ground there is also camera stabilization hardware available for use when the cameraperson is moving around and cannot use a tripod. The low cost “Glidecam” gyro-stabilizer hardware is an example of an affordable system that works well.

Firewire or iLink is a name for a new cable connection between computers and digital devices, such as a camcorder. Hard drives, printers and other devices may also use the firewire interface. The relationship of how this cable transfers a 30 frame per second video stream from the camcorder to a firewire-equipped computer allows a low cost, but high quality video capture. Most current Sony and Apple computers provide this as a standard component. It can also be added to other computers for a low cost. In addition to capturing video, the same firewire cable can transfer a video stream back to the camcorder. Theoretically no signal or quality loss is encountered during this process, or during the editing of the material while the digital data is in the computer.

Powerful, free or low cost, editing software is readily available for Sony, Apple ,and other computer platforms. Microsoft also provides similar programs for Windows users. These programs are very easy to learn, and have proven powerful enough to prepare many different “television commercial” and “documentary” video projects for broadcast use.

It is also possible today for anyone with a digital camcorder, and a firewire computer with a DVD recorder to edit and transfer their video creations to DVD disks. Both DVD video and DVD-ROM data can be written this way. This disc format can contain many times the storage data than a CD-ROM and is an efficient way to distribute videos. Most of the DVD players that people use in their homes with their television sets will play the video contained on these discs. The visual quality can be significantly higher than VHS or S-VHS ever was.

More expensive and powerful digital editing programs also exist for those who want even more ability to be creative with their video efforts. A brief discussion was held regarding the fact that small hand held video cameras and consumer video editing software has even been used to create films that have been shown in movie theaters. These tools allow anyone of any age, with a relatively low budget to create multimedia end products that would not have been possible a few years ago.

Note that there is more detailed information about how digital video was used in the Interactive Watershed web site projects in the Detailed Overview section of this on-line workshop. This can be found where the Resource Issues pages are analyzed.

Reference links to information on other web sites:

Storm over Panguitch Lake.

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