Makes a
Great Gift!

Award-winning videographer, Victor Rook, discusses his experience in making, promoting, and selling his Telly Award winning nature video, "Beyond the Garden Gate." Order this top-selling video at www.gatevideo.com.

Part I: The Goods, The Gear

For many years I have kept up with the ever-changing technology trends in the video industry, hoping to someday produce a video of my own that I could be proud of. Finally, I made the commitment and set out to produce my video masterpiece, "Beyond the Garden Gate." The video won the 2000 Telly Award for Best Nature video, and quickly became a Best Seller on Amazon.com. I hope that my story will inspire those of you out there that wish to produce videos that are dear to your heart, and profit from them as well. If you are interested in seeing what you can do with today's prosumer gear and a little ingenuity, you can order the video directly from me here. Thank you for your support.

In the Beginning
I started producing videos back in college as a "fun" side hobby while pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I'd spend my non-study time making MTV-style music videos of students in my residence hall using the University's free camera rental and the local cable access station to edit. After college, I saved up enough money ($4000) to buy an industrial quality Hi-Band Beta (that's Beta, not Betacam) editing system. For eight years I would shoot on S-VHS and then copy and edit on Beta, mostly side jobs of computer training tapes for the companies that I worked for. Through this time I learned to produce and edit on my own, pushing the "cuts only" editing style to the limit. But I always had the urge to produce and market a high-quality video of my own. So began the evolution of "Beyond the Garden Gate."

A New Era
In 1998, I decided that I wanted to capture "a year in the life of a garden" with all of the subtle nuances of nature and the seasons caught on tape. That was my project scenario. Now that high-quality, affordable video production was possible on the home computer, and I found that my existing S-VHS camcorder would be too bulky for what I wanted to do, it was time to reinvest in new equipment. I have one word for getting rid of outdated equipment—Ebay. I was able to sell my 10-year old S-VHS camera and Beta editing system for over $2000. There were people online actually looking for the model numbers of my old equipment to buy! It’s a good feeling to know that you are recycling your existing equipment purchases instead of starting completely over again and shelling out hard-earned cash.

My Requirements
My requirements were that I wanted to edit the video on the computer, since creative juices can flow much faster than a tape editing system will allow. I wanted to feature scenes where the camera appeared to float through the garden. Therefore, I needed an affordable camera stabilizer. I also wanted to be confident that what went into the computer would look as good coming out to tape.

I decided to go digital and purchased a Mini-DV camera. If you are considering a new camera purchase, Mini-DV is the way to go (my opinion). The quality is excellent, and dropouts are extremely rare. I opted for Sony's 3-chip TRV-900 after a brief stint with the TRV-9 that had an extremely poor audio hiss problem. The TRV-900 features time-lapse capabilities so I could capture flowers opening, ponds thawing, and other great shots for the video. The camera also featured manual overrides to the automatic capabilities, which I found extremely useful when capturing high-speed shutter shots of a hummingbird feeding, and dandelion "parachutes" floating in the air.

After further research, I purchased an external 40 Gig MedeaRaid Drive to store the raw footage for editing. Since the newer DV capture cards were not available, I opted for Pinnacle's MiroDC30 plus system. Though I transferred the digital footage to the hard drive through the S-Video connector, the picture was exceedingly clear and absolutely beautiful. I also discovered one great advantage over direct DV transfer; I was able to capture some scenes slowed down with the camera's crystal clear slow-motion playback. You can't do that with direct DV transfer, and I found it to look MUCH better than applying slow-motion filters available with Adobe Premiere, the software that I chose to edit the video with.

My need to have the camera float through the garden at times was met with the Glidecam 1000 Pro camera stabilizer. For about $150, much cheaper than a Steadicam, it worked perfectly. I spent an entire day walking through a predetermined path of the large garden using the Glidecam, at times angling the rod for effect as the camera swerved under arbors and in and around plants. Finally, I purchased the MediaMotion 3.1 capture software and cable to make transferring footage to computer much easier.

I don't want to advocate which equipment out there is better, but I do want to say that once you find a combination that works well for you, stick with it for awhile. Also, do your research beforehand. I spent many hours searching through Deja.com's Usenet search engine to see what other users were saying about a particular camera or software product. As far as upgrades, software bug fixes, software patches, the same rule applies—if it works, don't fix it! I remember making one software patch that caused other programs that were supposedly compatible to fail. It's always a good rule to wait six months to a year after a product appears before trying it out. That way most of the bugs will be fixed or addressed. It took two months before I was able to iron out most of the "wrinkles" that were part of my system, so be patient when working with new technology.

My total investment for equipment, including the computer, camera, hard drive, camera stabilizer, and software was approximately $6500. At today's prices, you could purchase the same equipment for under $4000. Some things never change.

Coming Up Next
Next, in Part II, I will share all of the secrets I learned in the production of "Beyond the Garden Gate". You'd be surprised at what great things you can accomplish with today's equipment and your own ingenuity. In Part III, I'll share how I was able to get the video into several stores, market it through the Internet on my own, and have it become one of Amazon.com's Best Selling videos. Ì

Order this top-selling video at www.gatevideo.com.