What Will Play On What? And What Will Not??

by Leonard Aaron Caplan

Too often we find that people are confused about Blu-Ray, HD and what can or cannot be played on a DVD or Blu-Ray player. For those of you also wondering, here’s the scoop. Blu-Ray is the current standard format for high-definition video. HD-DVD, the competing high defintion format put out by Toshiba, was soundly defeated in the market some time ago and Toshiba stopped making those player entirely.

So what we have left today are Blu-Ray and regular DVD. A regular DVD can be played on a DVD player as well as a Blu-Ray player. BUT…..a Blu-Ray disc will not play on a regular DVD player. If you by any chance have one of those left-over HD-DVDs, they may or may not play on a Blu-Ray player and they too will definitely not play on a regular DVD player.

Hope that clears things up for you all out there!

Read More

What About Editing?..............Editing? By Leonard Aaron Caplan

POTENTIAL CUSTOMER-"Hey, will you tape my (fill in the blank....................{

wedding, birthday party, anniversary, quincenearo,etc."

ME-"Sure, when is it?"

POTENTIAL CUSTOMER- (gives date) "How much?"

ME-Oh,,,about (I give the price)

POTENTIAL CUSTOMER-"What? I can get my nephew for free! Why is shooting a ______________so expensive? It's only a few hours!"

ME- "What about editing"?

POTENTIAL (confused) CUSTOMER-"Editing??"

This little fictional dramatic exchange is an example of something very common in the world of videography. The potential customer forgets or doesn't realize that a video needs editing to look and sound good!

In 2009, we've all grown up and are used to video images telling a story, having a main character or characters to identify with, camera angle changes, music as a theme or in the background, etc. But some people don't realize how a video gets that way!

The customer sees the videographer videotaping an event, but doesn't see what happens afterward!

The point is, what goes by on the screen in the blink of an eye and possibly not even noticed on a conscious level, takes hours and hours of decision making and concentration! A minute of an edited video, say a little musical montage of how a couple met for example, can take many hours! Getting the images to change at just the right second to go with the music, even PICKING the music itself is challenging! Did you know that putting together a 30 second commercial or Public Service Announcement can take between 15 to 40 hours, depending on required effects?

Ok, now that you know that, how long would you estimate producing a polished wedding or quincenearo would take?

Now that you get the idea, please don't forget that producing a high quality, watchable video of any type requires a lot more that what is visible to the person doing the hiring.

Read More