For this week's assignment, begin to shoot some video footage with a camcorder. You may videotape anything you like, but you may wish to try to find things to shoot that are related to the final semester project you are considering.
Then post a comment in which you describe what you chose to shoot with the camcorder, how you think it turned out and any additional information you feel would be of interest to the rest of the members of the class.
7 comments:
Hi Y’all. With the goal of just grabbing raw footage I headed to Galveston Island and sat out on Boddecker Road to catch big ships going into the Houston ship channel. First off, let me say to do so is an exercise in patience. Big ships aren’t just filing in one after the other. I tried the zoom features first because the ships looked like dark blobs inching across the LCD monitor. When zooming in, the details came into focus but I remembered that in class a close-up could mean a loss of quality image. Tried long shots, zoomed shots, and some in-between. Also learned panning smoothly is not as easy as one might think. I shot some footage of just me sitting on the seawall because I had this idea to use it with an old photo of a friend and me sitting in the same place. The camera was easy to use and when the battery was depleted I found it easy to charge. I took my laptop along hoping to transfer the footage directly onto the computer but discovered I did not have compatible cables. So, I haven’t seen the footage on a large screen yet but will stop by the CITE lab and check out cables to make the connection from cam to computer. I’ll know more about the quality of what was recorded when it’s all correctly connected. So far the camcorder is enjoyable—much more so than what I expected.
I have spent my time videoing my digital craft cutter and pop-up books. I have chosen to focus on experimenting with lighting because I always struggled with it in the past. (Video editing software doesn’t offer a quick “Auto Adjust” function like Photoshop does, you know?!) Jamie had suggested using utility lighting covered with used dryer sheets, which has worked well to get rid of the natural orange glow that is cast by ordinary interior bulbs. I also experimented with natural light from a large window in my dining room, which yielded surprisingly nice results…especially in early morning light. I have a lot of random raw video footage right now, so I won’t post it as it would not make sense and would be a huge file size. I do plan on using the footage in my final semester project and I am happy to have had the opportunity to experiment with lighting as it can definitely make or break the professionalism and aesthetics of a video project.
I've been using my Camcorders a bit more recently than in past months. Last weekend my daughter gave a talk on here recent experiences overseas. And on Friday I took all of my daughters to Seaworld where I did some recording of Shamu and other sea creatures. I am trying to transfer some of the video and then do some editing. In the past I have not had much success with transferring direct from the cameras and am eagerly awaiting some Premiere experience. I am also intending to do some test shots of myself introducing some of my on-line coursework for a class I will be teaching this summer.
MORE ON COPYRIGHT. This was the text of an email from Ed Fein, our NASA Legal Counsel who was also the
Texas intellectual property rights lead attorney for some time - he was responding to direction from a manager that I should remove my copyright from a piece of artwork if I intended to use it at a SMithsonian show in Washington last summer - the NASA management did not want me to use a piece of my artwork that I had my copyright on, so one suggestion was that I remove the copyright (that recommendation was from another lawyer):
All ... First of all, you don’t remove a proper copyright notice from a copyrighted work under any circumstances. And, Gary, your referencing a previous opinion of mine is grossly over simplified. You only cc’d me on this matter, and didn’t ask for an opinion on this situation. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to weigh in.
The Fair Use Doctrine of U.S. Copyright Law is a statutory equitable rule of reason. It’s set out in 17 U.S.C. Section 107. Since this section is relatively short, I'll reproduce it in its entirety. It states:
"Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."
None of the above criteria is singularly conclusive, but rather a factor to be weighed along with the others. It’s a balancing act. Because of the endless variety of situations and combinations of circumstances, the doctrine must be applied on a case-by-case basis. In other words, each situation must be decided on its own facts, and there is a lot of room for reasonable people to differ. It makes for a lot of litigation.
You are correct is stating that you need not be concerned on whether a particular use of a copyrighted work would qualify as a fair use IF you get from the copyright owner their express permission for that particular use. That’s the conservative, preferred approach. If permission is granted in such case, you do not remove the copyright notice from the work, but rather make certain to include it on the work, adding a statement that it’s use in the particular situation is with the express permission of the copyright owner. E.g.:
Reproduced with permission, © 2008 XYZ Corp.
Let me know if you have any questions or if I can be of additional assistance.
-Ed
Edward K. Fein
Intellectual Property Counsel
NASA Johnson Space Center
I painted outdoors with some friends on Sunday, so I attempted to film their painting process in addition to my own. I haven't decided yet about the subject for my final project, but another idea I had was to show how to paint outdoors all at once and why it's still important to learn about traditional media. The main difficulty I had was in getting a good shot of the canvas. When I filmed a friend, I noticed that there was a glare coming from the white paper which made her painting difficult to see. My canvas worked better as it had a layer of paint to begin with, but it was odd to have the film showing my back the entire time. Otherwise, I did get a few interesting shots of my friends interacting with each other, and the tripod did help (I tended to go too fast while panning). I think that filming went well considering that I have little experience.
I thought it would be a good idea for me to interview my coworkers and students at UH and also librarians, researchers for "Texas Reading First Project" and hopefully a comic book store rep.
I want to try to get different insights on using graphic novels and comic books in classrooms. I also want to find out from people who have watched "watchmen" if after watching the movie, they felt compelled to read the graphic novel.
For my first interview, I interviewed Greg, a coworker who never really read comics growing up, but watched "watchmen" and is now going to read the graphic novel.
For my assignment, I took a series of short videos while on our trip in Disney World. While there I only had my digital camera (Kodak Z612) with me so I used the video feature on it. The quality was okay (nothing wonderful but worked for what I was recording). The one thing that I did notice was that when I used the zoom on my camera the sound was muffled during those moments. When I returned I borrowed my dad's camcorder and shot some footage outside just to gain the experience of using one and found that I did not lose the sound when I used the zoom feature. While I feel that the video feature on my digital camera suffices for my purposes (I have used it in the past to record my students when they are doing reader's theater) it would not in most people's cases. The camcorder gave much better quality footage and the sound was much better. I did not use a microphone in either case.
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