SP Videography Club

The Videography Club has been tasked to make a video that consists of all the respective videos on the clubs in SP and WE ARE SHORT-HANDED

To date we still have 51 clubs to film and about 2 months to the next openhouse(+3 more months for the CCA showcase)…. thats not a lot of time considering everybody has their own commitments too….

Videography Club needs people… and we mean we need YOU!

Please email our secretary Kylie or tell us on facebook on the CCA that you want to cover and what you want to help as. (Production = Storyboarding, shooting. Post-production = video editting, music)

Currently we need people for:
1) MindSports chess club Post-production
2) (Priority) Karate Production or Post-pdtn
3) Astronomers Pdtn or Post-pdtn
4) Scuba-diving Pdtn or Post-pdtn
5) Bowling Pdtn or Post-pdtn

Those interested please come down next Wednesday 3 pm for the group discussions. For those who wish to help in Karate, please contact Kylie @ 8436 8846 by Tomorrow as shooting is on Saturday.

Xiang Ju and I attended today’s talk with Mr Ray Chua, a photojournalist with Singapore Press Holdings, which was organised by the SP Photographers.

I was awed by the beautiful images, as well as the careful thought process that went through Mr Chua’s mind as he was planning the various shots. That’s one major take-away I had from the event. When planning a shoot, be it a photography shoot, or filming, the stakeholders concerned need to be able to visualise the desired outcome, so that the results don’t look like random pot-shots.

That is where the similarities end. In the area of videography, I feel that short of a reality show, all other shots are planned shots. Whereas photography opts to capture a snapshot of reality in motion, what the process of film-making entails the precise planning of a desirable series of images, in order to bring the story to life.

All thanks to Singapore Polytechnic Photographers for the great opportunity to attend this event, and to Farhan, SPP’s president for inviting the SP Videography Club to attend the talk!

I’m sure that this is ground-breaking stuff:

Producers can improve the quality of videos by melding higher quality information from digital still photographs into videos. Hit the play button for a video demonstration. This is just awesome!

Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene via Engadget

I remember being fascinated by old television commercials when I was younger. Some of them were surreal; others were spooky, but I was amazed at how creative the ad agencies were with the limited effects and technology of the 1980s and 1990s. But why should I even be surprised? Although Star Wars was a landmark series that demarcated the start of an era of impressive visual effects, the technologies enabling that weren’t widely adopted, probably because of prohibitive costs, so companies had to crack their heads longer and harder to come up with something that’ll stick in people’s heads.

Ariston would be glad to hear that their commercials got stuck in my head, being the most memorable advertisement video I had ever saw. The catchy singing from stop-motion animated appliances spooked and fascinated me to no end. So isn’t there any wonder that 15 years into my life, I still find myself humming the tune? Watch the video and find out for yourself!

Now it’ll be really spooky if my underwear started talking like that!

In June 2008, we’ve submitted a proposal to the Student and Alumni Affairs for the purchase of our club cameras.

The decision to propose for camcorders wasn’t made lightly. The SPVC has been activated by SAA for a few video productions before, and for each of our production, we were only able to loan one Sony Handicam from ESD Media Production Centre for an extremely limited period of time. This has hampered our production capabilities. For example, we are unable to produce multi-camera productions (e.g. sports events, concerts). The standard equipment we’re requesting are usually unavailable, as our request for camcorders always clashes with ESD productions. Therefore, it would be better for SPVC to purchase and hold cameras for club activities and production.

Before we decided upon the camcorders, we had drafted up a list of capabilities and features that we needed in order to fulfil the club’s under-takings:

Handling Stability

We need a camera that is stable enough to minimise the effect of camera motion on the resulting video. A camcorder that is used for the coverage of events should have sufficient stability to dampen the cameraman’s movements.

Otherwise, you’ll get a really jerky video. Not professional at all.

Low-light capability

As the SPVC handles concerts and many activities that occur indoors, which can get very dim, we decided that the camera should be able to produce good quality video in low-light conditions. As the past experiences of some of our members go, the unanimous agreement is that the camera should, at minimum, contain 3 CCD sensors.

Sound Input

Another major consideration where coverage of concerts and events are concerned, is the quality of the audio. The camera should have a wide audio dynamic range, as well as be adapted to handle inputs from industry-standard equipment. The sound feeds at all SP venues, as well as many other places are generally based upon the XLR jacks. Therefore, it is important that the camera should support accepting these inputs natively.

Durability

SAA has called upon the SPVC to create video production, and from our experience thus far, durability is a major consideration: outdoor productions expose the camera to the elements, and the camera should be well-built to withstand these. To put it another way, the camera shouldn’t fail prematurely due to accidental bumps, or run into mechanical problems in the middle of an event.This is a crucial point, as for each camera that fail, we are one step closer to losing the video coverage of the event.

High-definition Resolution

The 1080p format is the preferred HD resolution, and the world is slowly moving towards 720p or 1080p broadcast. It is crucial that we give the students a chance to experiment with next-generation video formats to further prepare us for the future. Therefore, it is within our consideration to procure a HD-resolution capable camcorder.

So far, I’ve written about the camera types we need. In the follow-up to this series, I’ll post about the cameras that we have chosen, and the reasons why they were picked. You may want to speculate in the comments

Hey guys, this is the first time I’m blogging here. Hell, it’s the first time I’m blogging anywhere, so bear with my language.

Note: Only some of this information was taken from sources liek wikipeedia, so if you think I’m just bull-crapping at some points, I probably am.

Now, I’ll just skip on all the history crap, and get down to the one thing at hand:

What is “Stop-Motion”?

Well, to answer that question, let’s look at the definition of video in some random online dictionary:

• noun (pl. videos) 1 the system of recording, reproducing, or broadcasting moving visual images on or from magnetic tape. 2 a film or other recording on magnetic tape. 3 a video cassette. 4 Brit. a video recorder.

(Alright, it’s Oxford.)

Basically, a video is a series of still images put in order and played back at a rate fast enough for our brain to register as motion.
We call these still images in a video “frames”, but you probably know that already.

Now, say we actually take this a little more literally, the “still images” part to be exact. Yep, you got it, that’s where stop-motion began, especially when video was still “new” in the old, old days.

The following are classified in “real” stop-motion though(according to the weekee):

1. Animation of non-animated objects.
2. Animation of living things (using photos, duh)
3. Pinscreen animation (round and round it goes)

And etc. Gawd, I am lazy.

King Kong (The 1933 one) was a stop-motion. Quite famous in its time.

Model animation falls into stop-motion too.

And “claymation” too. Woo.

So, at this point you pretty much get the idea what it’s all about.

Feel like making a stop-motion too? Don’t worry, it’s pretty simple to do. You just need:

1. An actor/several actors (can be anything inanimate, even a 10-cents coin will suffice)
2. A decent camera. (and a decent tripod/stand)
3. A good sense of imagination.

I made a simple stop-motion video myself, using the very laptop I’m blogging on right now. Yes, I still believe it’s the epitome of (most) evil. Never trust it. >_>

Yes, it’s really basic, and the camera shots are a bit off (I used a point-and-shoot without a tripod, what’d you expect?!), but I was told it’s good. What has this world come to? :S

Of course, with a little bit more work, you’d prolly end up producing something like this:

That’s the advert for the new Nokia N-Gage application btw, whatever that is.

Yay, so that’s the end of my post. This is the Great Baka, signing off.