Cable Rolling

If you ever shoot any events with a big-time crew for a company like ESPN, one of the most important things to know is how to roll cables using the "over-and-under" method. This helps avoid the cable getting tangled up and makes the next set-up easier. It's not easy to learn without seeing it, but here are two articles that may help.
This one is about audio cables, but the same principles apply.
This one is from Pro Lights and Staging News, which is a little off topic, but it looks like it could have some other interesting articles. I'll check it out further when I have more time. Here's the gist of the article:

How you take it up is important too, for your sanity and the life of the cable. Learn how to over and under cable. It’s really easy. Create a loop a foot and a half to two feet or more. Keep looping the cable again and again, letting it roll underneath itself when it wants to, usually every other loop. To most people this sounds incredibly elementary, but most stagehands around the world don’t do it, either because of ignorance or apathy. That’s why I also suggest that you wrap your own cable. Don’t let a stagehand do it unless you know him or have seen him do it. Usually a quick lesson won’t help either. You can, however, let a hand help you pull or untangle wire. Wrap you own stuff and it’ll last a lot longer. You’ll also keep your sanity the next day when it just flows off the roll as you load in. My experience with triax and BNC cable is that if you wrap them in a larger three-foot or so loom, they last longer and roll out better.

Proper cable rolling might seem like a minor thing, but if you work with a crew that loads and unloads equipment every day, at best, you'll look like an amateur if you don't do it right, and at worst, you'll really piss some people off if they have to re-do all your cables at one in the morning when they're trying to pack up.

AIVF

The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers has a pretty good site with a lot of resources (mostly for docs or feature films, rather than shorter projects like commercials or music videos). There's some good fundraising info there and if you join, you're eligible for discounts on important stuff like health insurance. I'm not a member, but it might be worth joining if you're a freelancer.

Disposable Video Camera

CVS pharmacy will start selling the world's first disposable video camera at the end of the month. It will shoot 20 minutes of video and cost about 30 bucks. But it has no outputs or tape, so if you want to actually do something with the video, it will cost another $13 to burn it to a DVD.

The new camera from San Francisco-based start-up Pure Digital Technologies, doesn't use videotape. Instead, it saves images to internal memory -- like the video mode of a digital camera.

Using just three buttons, consumers can capture up to 20 minutes of digital quality video and sound in either separate segments or clips, CVS (Research) have said.

The video camcorder's 1.4-inch color playback screen lets users watch their home videos and delete unwanted segments. Once they finished shooting, consumers will have to pay an additional $12.99 (£7) for processing the footage onto DVDs at their local CVS store since there's no other way to watch the footage recorded.

It could be handy for emergencies, I guess. I don't think too many consumers will be using these for almost fifty bucks a pop, though. It might be cool for some sort of community video project - give a bunch of kids cameras and let them shoot their own stories, but with only 20 minutes of footage, they'd have to be selective with their shooting.

Home-Made Equipment

Here are a few links with plans for equipment of various sorts:

Do It Yourself Video

Stick to What you Know
go to the "Behind the Scenes" page for some interesting stuff

HomeBuiltStabilizers.com
A bunch of different stabilizers, jibs, and dolly plans

Ron Dexter

I came across Ron Dexter's site today. Wow! There's something for everyone- shooting tips, how to build equipment, even tips on using drywall screws. There's probably 200 film and video related articles here, and all the ones I read were interesting, even if not immediately useful. There are a few typos here and there that caused me to re-read a line or two, but that's a small price for this much info. Check it out.

Free stock photography

Morguefile has a decent selection of free stock photography available for download. The images I checked out are just as good as the stuff you'd pay for.
From their "About" page:

1. Are the images really free?
Yes, all images are really free and they can be used in your commercial projects without permission or credit from the photographer. Although selling prints, selling the images directly or claiming the photo is yours is prohibited.
Note: You are responsible for the content of the photos you use. It is very much the same as if you had taken the photograph yourself, you must still obtain proper permission for property or people depicted in the photos if any.

Copyright issues

DV Info Net has a good 5-part article on copyright law by Douglas Spotted Eagle.

As a reasonably successful artist, I’m constantly walking a tightrope because as an artist I wish protection for my musical works. As a videographer/editor I often want to have access to musical works that are not affordable, accessible, or sometimes even possible. I do know that it’s the single biggest issue to face the video and audio world in the coming years. I usually express the meaning of copyright with the phrase “My Voice, My Choice” in that the author, composer, creator of the copyrighted work is expressing their artistic voice in the process, and should always have the choice as to where that work is displayed or heard.

Lighting article

Still photography sites are a great resource for lighting tips. Here's a portrait lighting article from Popular Photography that shows how to create different looks with just one light.

Before signing on with MGM in 1930, Hurrell worked out of a humble studio near Los Angeles and owned very little lighting gear. Most of the Novarro portraits are lit by a single light plus reflector. By changing relative positions of subject, background, and light, and by altering the light’s character with diffusers and reflectors, Hurrell transformed his subject into a glamorous icon. You could do it for your subjects, too.

The full article is a downloadable PDF file.

Video/Film Dictionary

Here's a pretty comprehensive dictionary of film and video terms. They also have a pretty long links page.

Great links page

Ned Miller, a Chicago videographer, has a great links page on his site with all kinds of resources for video people.

Online Television Course

Cybercollege has a pretty comprehensive on-line course for television production, and it's all free. It's written for beginners, but there's useful technical info there for everyone-
http://www.cybercollege.com/tvp_ind.htm

Cool After Effects tutorials

Here are two tutorials by Bill O'Neil on Creative Cow. They involve using AE to create convincing 3D camera movements on a low budget.
Depth of Field
Shooting for 3D Post

Video hosting on Google?

I haven't bothered to read all the fine print, but this sounds interesting:

We're accepting digital video files of any length and size. Simply sign up for an account and upload your videos using our Video Uploader (please be sure you own the rights to the works you upload), and, pending our approval process and the launch of this new service, we'll include your video in Google Video, where users will be able to search, preview, purchase and play it.

https://upload.video.google.com

Good camera setting overview

This video tutorial from DV.com requires free registration, but there's some good basic knowledge here that every shooter should know.

Maximizing Success with DV Cameras, Part 1
Adam Wilt, Video Systems Engineer
Length - 42:26

Learn how to get the most out of DV cameras. This half-day session offers tips and tricks for using prosumer cameras like the Canon XL1S, Sony DSR-PD150, and Panasonic AG-DVX100, as well as high-end cameras like the Panasonic AJ-SDX900 and Sony DSR-500WS. Through real world examples and live demos, you'll learn how to achieve high-end results by using custom settings and filters, and tricking preprogrammed settings to allow for better-looking images. Other topics include how (and when) to use slow shutters, fast shutters, sharpness controls, skin detail, gamma adjustments, zebra settings, and setup levels; when(and how) to shoot 60i, 30p, or 24p. In addition, you'll learn how to record better pictures and cleaner sound.

Adam Wilt has his own site that's a great source of DV info: www.adamwilt.com

Welcome

I'm new to blogging and web design, so this will be a work-in-progress. Hopefully it will soon morph into a useful resource for video producers, shooters and editors.