How to Make a Homemade Green Screen

So, you wanna add some special effects to your awesome instructional video on how to fly like superman? You could go all out and create your own self-standing back drop with PVC piping and muslin fabric that will set you back fifty bucks, still a far-cry from the industry standard. But in this article, we are doing it up college-style, a.k.a. with a budget under five dollars, and the only materials we need are green poster board, duct tape, and a light source, all found in your local drug store.

BACKDROP SETUP

1. First, how big is your subject’s action? Are you walking, standing or sitting? Is it a full-body action or just a shot from the waist up? Once you know your subject’s actions you can fill the background with the necessary amount of green poster to match.

2. Set up your poster board against a wall. Place duct tape behind the poster to keep it in place. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Green Screen, Homemade | Posted in Video Production and Publishing | No Comments »

Integrating Vegetables into your Diet: Quick and Easy Recipes

I have a close personal friend who is very much into his body image. He lifts weights at least two hours each day, is extremely lean and has very large, defined muscles. To maintain this shape, he consumes 200 grams of protein each day (1 gram per pound of body weight). This is a combination of animal protein and soy protein found in protein shakes. He eats a small amount of fruit (in his protein shake) and typically has a starch like pasta with each meal. He does not eat vegetables, except salad every once in a while.

Recently, Mr. Lean Body took a blood test for a life insurance exam, and his blood results came back all out of whack. His bad cholesterol was too high, his good cholesterol was too low, and a few of his other panels were out of range. He took his results to his physician, and she directly told him that he needs to reduce his protein intake and up his vegetable intake for the rest of his life. It was then that I received an email asking for help with easy, delicious vegetable recipes. This is what I told him:

1. Baked Sweet Potato with salt/pepper, butter, and a little bit of sour cream. You can bake them in the microwave, one at a time until soft, or all together in the oven, wrapped in foil. Poke holes in it with a fork before cooking.

2. Cut sweet potato into thin slices, toss the slices in a bowl with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Arrange on a baking pan with foil and broil. Turn them over with a fork when the slices get brown and crispy. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Diet, Health | Posted in Life and Learning | No Comments »

The RODE Scholar (A Microphone Review)

Mazal Tov! We at MindBites are proud to announce that we have a wonderful new addition to our ever-expanding equipment family. It just arrived a few days ago in a cocoon of shrink wrap and packaging tape, and we couldn’t be more pleased. I can hardly put the little bugger down.

The RODE Videomic is one heck of a toy. It’s a unidirectional, condenser microphone that packs quite a punch for it’s going price. You’ll find it at most places for just under $150, though discount sites like B&H Photo and Video may have some killer deals that out-do the suggested retail value. Now obviously, it’s not the best microphone I’ve ever used, but I’ve had my lucky little appendages on some honkers in my day, most of which go for thousands of dollars, easy. Since the RODE costs less than a night out at the opera, you can bet that it is top in its class.

The fact that the Videomic is unidirectional means that it silences unwanted noises that approach from the sides, generally picking up only sound sources directly in front of the receiver and, to a lesser extent, those behind it as well (this allows for the operator’s voice to be heard on tape in interview type scenarios). This is important for clear and focused sound, as opposed to what one might obtain with an omnidirectional mic.

It requires a single 9-volt battery which provides over 100 hours of operation. It’s a large beast, the microphone itself being just over 8 inches without the mounting system. As you may have noticed from the accompanying pics, it more or less dwarfs the camera it’s attached to. However, though it’s size is somewhat daunting when compared with other on-camera microphones, it’s very light and doesn’t impede or even much effect handheld recording.

Its sound quality is very good, obtaining an even vocal equalization that is neither too high nor too low. The OFF/ON switch can be pushed to a third position that engages the bass roll-off feature, which will quiet and even mute certain low frequency drone ambiance like refrigerator hum and nearby freeway noise. It connects to the camera via a 1/4″ jack, similar to what you will see on headphones. This will be an issue if your camera has only XLR inputs, but for most consumer and prosumer camcorders, this connection will work fine for on-camera microphone mounting (if the mic was further away, say twenty feet or more, than a 1/4″ cable connection would begin to produce an unpleasant hum noticeable on tape).

My favorite feature of the mic is that it comes with an accompanying shock mount. The whole set-up fits snugly onto the camera’s hot-shoe and employs little elastic bands that diffuse motion waves from small impacts and unsteady hand operation, all of which can negatively affect the recorded audio. This makes handheld recording much more effective as the operator can focus less on disturbing the mic and more on recording quality images.

All in all, I enjoy this mic very much. It wipes the floor with the other microphones in our MindBites arsenal, and I had been fairly happy with those prior to the arrival of the RODE. I recommend it to anyone who is looking to up the ante on their video productions without splurging for the truly professional and grotesquely exorbitant microphones.

Tags: Mics, Product Review, Rode | Posted in Video Production and Publishing | No Comments »

I <3 the Internet

I love live music shows – the music, the energy, and the people. Usually after I watch a band live, I start to obsess over them, and I watch and listen to every video or sound clip I can find of them. I pretty much go through phases and listen to only that one band’s CD for weeks at a time, and then I find a new obsession. Ever since the SXSW music festival, I’ve been obsessing over bands, trying to figure out when they would return to Austin on tour (maybe at ACL). I’ve been listening to all my favorites over and over – Spoon, Vampire Weekend, Sara Bareilles, and Ingrid Michaelson, to name a few. After every music show I go to, it makes me realize how much I love the Internet! There aren’t many things that you can’t find online. It pretty much meets my every want, need, and desire. Okay, I’m kidding, but really, I love it, because I can go to various websites to listen to my favorite artists for free! It’s easy and convenient to use the Internet to listen or watch my favorite artist at my ease and desire.

I’m pretty sure that I’ve kept MySpace/YouTube pages open for about a week straight now. It sounds cheesy, but I like to use YouTube to watch the videos of live performances to relive the moment. Haven’t you ever been to a show that you can’t stop thinking about? Eventually, the high wears off, but when you’re still riding it, it’s nice to be able to reference the Internet for a little help. I know it’s not the same, but it’s the closest thing I can get until the next time the artist rolls back into Austin for a live show.

Usability and flexibility of the Internet just makes it that much more appealing; think of how you are able to use and view MindBites video lessons on your own and at your ease. I have realized how, through the Internet, MindBites can bring people together to one central location but at the same time, can be reached from all over the world, like MySpace and YouTube.

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Tags: Internet, MySpace, youtube | Posted in Life and Learning, MindBites News and Notes | No Comments »

Building Your Own Inexpensive Home Editing Suite

As a beginning video editor just learning the ropes, it may seem impractical to build up your own editing suite in your home or apartment. I agree if you are comfortable doing your limited-scale editing on your home PC or Mac. However, if you decide to get more advanced and find yourself limited by the hardware you have, it might be time to upgrade to a home editing system that can cater to your more professional needs.

I would like to share with the reader some tips for creating a home editing suite, as I have done in my apartment, and hopefully show that for not a lot of money and time you can increase efficiency of your editing system.

First off, the obvious question: Mac or PC? The obvious answer: If you have a solid chunk of change you are going to put into your system and are comfortable with Final Cut Studio and other Mac software, by all means go for Mac. The new Mac desktops have super fast Intel processors in dual-core and quad-core arrangements. Splurge on the system, buy two 17’’ or 19’’ monitors, and you are set. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: dual-monitors, DV deck, Editing suite, MAC, Mini DV, PC, RAM | Posted in Life and Learning, Video Production and Publishing | No Comments »

Sharing is Caring

Let me take you back to kindergarten, when crayons and coloring books were your life. I remember being the girl with the 8 pack of colors because my mom was too cheap, always envious of the kids with the 64 pack of colors. Think of all the choices and possibilities! Fortunately, Matty kindly offered to share his 64 pack of crayons with me which began our beautiful friendship. Whether it is sharing crayons, a new toy or gadget, or an intriguing idea, sharing spreads the wealth. Sharing is caring. That’s what I like to think about with MindBites. I like to view it as a place where people can share their knowledge about what they specialize in or their expertise of their favorite hobby.

Take a look at the different MindBites lessons. There are authors anywhere from experts to people with hobbies, or those who just have something they want to share. People have shared things with the MindBites community such as guitar techniques, cooking instructions, and communicating with babies through sign language. When you think about it, anyone can be an author. You can turn anything into a lesson – your passions, your hobbies, or even your business. People like to learn new things, and you, or anyone else, can make an instructional video lesson to teach them something new.

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Tags: mindbites benefits, Sharing | Posted in Life and Learning | No Comments »

The MindBite Insight (Episode #7 - Spicing up your Video)

We’ve received several requests from anxious MindBiters recently, requesting an Insight that delves into adding add-ons to add additional adornments to make one’s video adequate. Yep, you heard me.

So this week’s Insight explores a range of topics: Titles, Transitions, and Sound Effects, to be specific. We gloss over some important rules you should be aware of as you go about sprucing up your video and give tips and tricks we use to make our projects look just that much more professional. We don’t suggest that you spend all of your precious time attempting to create CGI’s with artificial intelligence who will introduce your lesson, but a little decoration never hurt.

Tags: Sound Effects, Titles, Transitions, Webisode | Posted in MindBites News and Notes, Video Production and Publishing | No Comments »

The New Square Foot Garden

I participated in a gardening workshop recently at East Side Cafe in Austin, TX. East Side Cafe sits on an acre of beautiful land surrounded by dozens of pecan trees. A third of the acre is designated as a wonderful organic garden where organic herbs, vegetables, and flowers have been harvested for 15 years for use in the restaurant’s kitchen. Not only is the food wonderful, but the garden is a beautiful sight.

The subject of the workshop was based on a book by Mel Barthomew called The New Square Foot Garden. The premise of the book is that anyone can grow a garden with little effort in a 4 x 4 frame that will yield more harvest than an 8 x 10 garden bed. After testing this concept for more than 30 years, Mel continues to perfect this concept of gardening. My interest was peaked when I learned that in this 4 x 4 square, vegetables, herbs, and flowers all are mixed together. The idea is that the plants provide and share nutrients with one another, attract bees for pollination and repel insects.

Here are the steps that I learned in this workshop for easy, organic gardening:

1. Pick a spot in your garden that receives 6 to 8 hours of sunlight each day and in an area that does not puddle when it rains.

2. Make 4 x 4 squares built out of untreated wood. We used 1 x 6 untreated pine. It is best to use untreated wood so that chemicals do not leech out of the wood, into the soil and into your plants. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Gardening, New Square Foot Garden | Posted in Life and Learning | No Comments »

Win a New Mental Beefcake Workout Tee

Ever feel inferior next to those muscle-heads at the gym? Us too, so we created this geek’s workout T-shirt. Upload a new lesson before May 15th and win one! Not ready to create a lesson yet? Add 10 Wanted Listings to the site and we’ll throw your name in a hat to get one as well. Weenies of the world unite!

Tags: Beefcake T | Posted in MindBites News and Notes | No Comments »

Mic Check!

There’s nothing I enjoy more than the sound of my own voice. Ahh, the soothing baritone, the melodic timbre. And the love I hold for my seraphic vocalizations is only increased by one thing, amplification!

That’s right, we’re talking microphones today. You’ve all seen them. You are acquainted with their shape and function. You may have even mentally transformed the handle of your hairbrush into one for a brief, bathroom rendition of “I Will Survive”. But how well do you understand the complexity of the microphone’s inner-workings or, more importantly, the different makes and models? I’m going to go ahead and guess not well, so I’ll attempt to educate.

(**Note - This is a cursory explanation, the science of microphones is a detailed and complex discipline, of which I know only the superficial details.)

There are basically two different categories of mics: dynamic and condenser. The subcategories for these two branch off into several winding directions, but the main distinction between the classifications are that condenser mics require electronic power while dynamic mics do not. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Mics, Sound | Posted in Video Production and Publishing | No Comments »