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How to Become a Frustrated Artist, With Little or No Investment

In the age of Youtube, everybody wants to make a video. People are using webcams, cellphones, and really cheap camcorders to capture concerts, public celebrations, and protests. It's cheap, quick, and it's making people famous overnight.

All this is fine, provided you aren't trying to produce a semi-professional product for your business, or school project. That's where you run into costs. So-called pro-sumer camcorders start near $2000. Decent editing software can cost upwards of $250. Add effects, animation software and the like, and your price tag could spiral out of control, to $5000 or more. That's without adding the cost of a computer to the mix. Then there are those fancy lighting rigs with the filters, and the need for greenscreening. These ain't cheap.

So what is a fledgling director, videographer, or editor to do? You find free or low cost solutions to your problem. I'm going to tell you how to do it cheaply, or without any cost at all. There are some things that you shouldn't skimp on, but I'll show you how to pay a lower price for a good setup.

What do you need for starters? A decent camera. There are plenty of them that you can get, but I'll tell you one that has a factory flaw that could save you hundreds of dollars. The Canon XGL2 is a great camera, with good optics, and a universal flaw: the tape carriage breaks after a year or two of use. Because this thing is so expensive to fix, most people stick them up on ebay for $6-700 broken. There is a way to actually improve the performance of this camera, by adding a $400 solution.

All you have to do is get a Firestore Hard Drive, which takes video directly through the Firewire/IEEE 1394 out. For $400 bucks, you have solved 2 problems: 1. No need to fix the tape carriage 2. No need to convert the video to .dv in order to edit it. This saves you time, and $7-800.

Now that you have your pro/cheap camera, it's time to make sure this thing is stable. You can't just hold it in your hand the whole time. I recommend a monopod. You might say "Why not a tripod?". A tripod is fine if you have more than one camera, but since this is the only camera you have, you need to be able to move quickly. I lost mine recently, and boy, did it have an effect on the weekly episode we were shooting. Anyhow, don't buy it from Best Buy, if you have a choice. They want to charge you upwards of $100 for a graphite one. IF you have to buy it at Best Buy, go to the camera section, where you can pick up a perfectly serviceable one for $29.95.

What about lighting? Well, light is pretty much all the same, and there are plenty of ways to make a cheap lighting setup on Google. I will say, you can get a pretty bright light for nearly $50 at your local hardware store. Then, just diffuse it with a sheet, plastic, or reflect it with a hard, white surface. You can get pretty much any effect you want with cheap plastic. Just make sure you don't get it too close to a hot light. It's best to have two or three. Most of the time, I am shooting outside so this is not so much of an issue for me, I just have to redirect sunlight onto the subject so there is no shadow.

Now to editing software. Vista has some ok video software that ships with it, and iMovie for the Mac is alright. If you want a more professional solution, complete with projector automation and effects, then you're looking at shelling out $200-250 for Final Cut Express or Pinnacle. Even then, you aren't getting support for things like render farms, or advanced color depth editing. For that, you're going to have to go open-source, with a linux based solution, to free software known as Cinelerra.

In the past, you had to wipe your entire hard drive to install Linux, or install it as a dual-boot option. Now, you can boot a media distribution, like Ubuntu Studio directly from DVD or CD-ROM, and never touch your hard-drive, except for the storage of your video. I use it for everything, from titling, to editing, to reformatting in virtually unlimited formats. It even includes moderate sound editing tools.

What about pro audio? For someone looking for a simple audio editor with advanced features, I recommend Audacity. It's available for Linux or Windows, and runs great, even on slow computer systems. It's noise removal tool is top notch.

What if you need realistic 3D graphics and animations? Well, that's where Blender comes in. It's a free alternative to Maya that is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. People can and have created animated shorts on the level of Shrek and Wall-e on a suite that is absolutely free. This is the kind of software that Hollywood studios have paid millions of dollars for in the past.

How can you distribute your film? With YouTube raising their upload limit to 1 GB, and new sites like Vimeo offering no limits on runtime, you can allow people around the world to view your film at no cost, to you or them.

If you learn how to use these tools, you will have little more invested than time in your film. The barriers for entry into the film industry have been lowered, or done away with entirely. No begging for financing. You will now be able to join the ranks of the otherwise frustrated group of artists that are trying to get their art recognized.

Good luck in your quest.

About the Author

Kurt Hartman produces
tire videos
for his company, Mobile Fleet Service, Inc. He's deeply committed to the cause of open-source software, and empowering artists through the use of technology.

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