Personal Video Isn’t Just About Documentaries…
When consumers realized how much they enjoyed watching rented or purchased movies on their TVs, they wanted to create their own videos of family milestones as well as church and school events. Unfortunately, the early adopters only had two choices: resign themselves to watching long, boring videos in order to see a few, really great segments; or become technical experts in linear tape editing.
Since few people want to become technical experts, the family videotapes sat, gathering dust and deteriorating on shelves or in closets.
When DVD videos emerged, consumers liked the higher quality and having the ability to jump from scene to scene. Just as consumers determined that the time was right to make their own custom audio CDs of their favorite music, they began exploring ways to go beyond Hollywood offerings and make their own custom digital videos. The uncertainties of the past few years and the desire to hang onto their past moved millions of people to find ways of preserving and enhancing years of VHS memories that were hidden in closets.
It has only been within the recent past that digital cameras and camcorders, DVD burners and high-powered PCs have become fast enough and cheap enough to make consumer digital video editing/production feasible. Advancement by video editing software developers also brought video editing within the reach of both novices and experienced users.
This year, the worldwide installed base of DVD players will reach over 700 million units. In two years, it could exceed one billion units. Industry analysts estimate that nearly 80 percent of U.S. homes will have DVD capability by the end of the year. In July of this year, the DVD Entertainment Group (DEG) announced that the two-billionth DVD was shipped to retail since the format began shipping in 1997.
Solution Demands Grow
While computer sales have been relatively flat, the bright spot in the industry has been the increase in sales of “video-ready” and home entertainment systems computers with high-speed processors, large memory capacity and combination DVD/CD writers. The unprecedented growth of DVD and the digital video market is also having a tremendous impact on sales of digital camcorders, video editing software, DVD players, accessories and quality DVD media. Jon Peddie Research reports that digital photographic and video systems increased more than 30 percent last year and should grow nearly 40 percent this year.
The Computer Electronics Association (CEA) predicts that camcorder sales for the year 2005 alone will total more than 7.5 million units and will bring the household penetration to over 50 percent. While sales of digital cameras continue at a record pace, they are just one of the products in the $32-billion-a-year digital market.
Low-cost, easy-to-use video hardware/software production tools like the ADS Tech Instant DVD family (www.adstech.com) are becoming mainstream products. People are finding personal satisfaction in being able to quickly edit out unwanted scenes, and add titles, effects and background music to their videos. But what really drives them back to the video production solution night after night are the oohhs, aahhs, laughter and tears of the friends and family who watch their movies…again and again.
Let’s look at some real examples:
Recipes of Yesterday
Vito Barrina, of Toronto, Ontario, is determined to preserve his family’s heritage for future generations. “Ask my lovely Italian mother for a copy of the recipe to her neighborhood-famous Christmas cookies; the Barrina family Salami or her thick, rich tomato sauce and she’d look at you like you were crazy,” Vito said with a wave of his hand. “These and hundreds of other recipes were handed down from mother to daughter in the old country. To her, cooking is an art, not a science.”
Vito knows that the only way he could preserve his heritage and keep it alive was to produce a continuing series of well-edited video documentaries that he puts on Verbatim DVDR media.
Today, he is busy archiving his family traditions and his Italian ancestral events. He has documented his mother’s Christmas cookie recipe and has a year-long set of projects, including the annual planting of the garden, Salami-making, tomato sauce and lasagna-making, canning Italian preserves and wine-making in the tradition of the old country.
“My mother is proud of her ‘movie career’ to date,” he said jokingly. “She’s a slight ham. But more importantly, she knows her essence, spirit and vitality will still be alive and with her family 20, 30, 40, even 50 years from now. The recipes and traditions she brought from Italy will be enjoyed and carried on for generations to come.”
“Think about it,” he explains. “A few years from now, one of my nephews or nieces could be living a long way from Toronto maybe even back in Italy and wish they could remember how to Mum’s Christmas cookies. They can pop a disc into their player and instantly, she’ll be with them. Her essence, spirit, beauty and vitality will be telling them step-by-step how to make them. Makes your mouth water and gives you a lump in the throat just thinking about it.”
For Vito Barrina, digital video production is all about capturing his heritage and preserving it for future generations.
Personalized Church Service
Or, did you ever walk into a church expecting to hear just hymns and a sermon, but end up starting off with a spoof of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” If you go to Foxworthy Baptist Church in San Jose, CA, you probably have. That’s because John Flowers has an active imagination, a video camera and video production software on his home PC.
A few years ago, John bravely put his video skills to work for his discerning audience the 400 youth who spend six days attending High Sierra Awana Scholarship Camp. He used to videotape the day’s events and play them every evening for the kids and counselors. Last year, he started using Studio for the job by running his camera into his laptop through an external FireWire drive. Every day, he edited all of the footage he had taken of the activities, ran the final cut back to his camcorder, and played straight from the camera each night.
“When you have 400 screaming kids reacting to your video, that’s pretty good feedback,” said John. “I could figure out what made them laugh and what didn’t and change the way I did things for the next night. It’s really good for me to have that kind of instant feedback.”
Family Documentaries
There’s nothing more enjoyable than watching videos of the grandkids. Especially when the videos are feature-film quality. Just ask Susanne Zumbro of Virginia. But it can also be a little challenging when the self-appointed family videographer, her husband Rob, is an admitted perfectionist.
With five children and 12 grandchildren living in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Michigan as well as siblings in Texas, North Carolina and New Jersey, the retired Navy captain has always felt that close family ties were important. “Our family is spread across much of the country, so video is the only way to draw them closer and allow them to share important memories,” Rod explained. “But I can’t bring myself to send them run-of-the-mill, unedited ‘home movies.’ Many of our grandkids are used to watching television and commercial videos, and I want my videos to look just as professional, with tightly edited clips, eye-catching transitions and catchy music so everyone in the family will enjoy watching them.”
From his first video shoot of Melissa, grandchild number one, Rod has barely put the camcorder down. He’s capturing family memories every time he and Susanne visit the homes of their five children. After initially making movies of each grandchild’s arrival and first year, he switched to making ‘Babies of the Year’ movies as the grandchildren kept arriving … so fast that during one three-month period, four babies were born. He has captured the grandchildren at play, in school, doing art projects, and enjoying birthday parties as well as celebrating holidays and special events.
“It’s all about leaving them with a solid foundation of memories they can take with them wherever they go, whatever they do,” he emphasized.
These consumers are part of the growing number of home video enthusiasts who are not satisfied with just plugging their camcorder into the back of a TV and watching unedited video. They're proving that even busy people who aren't technically savy can quickly create entertaining videos that can be shared and played back on a TV with a DVD player. Some of these consumers have found that the prices for DVD burner are so low that they can produce theater quality movies for almost nothing. They're saving short (20 minute) DVD-quality videos of family milestones to CDs that can be played on virtually any DVD-ROM drive or DVD player as well as computer-based CD-ROM drives. For longer segments they use brand name DVD media like Verbatim to produce multiple copies for family members.
Regardless of the final format, they have the satisfaction of knowing that they can connect their yesterdays with tomorrow.
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