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| DVD-ROM
101 |
| Making
a Promotional DVD Video |
Every
multimedia developer knows the rush that comes with handling impossible
deadlines on critical projects. Don Scioli, one of the principals
at Zan Media in Novato, California, faced the reverse of this problem:
a video project that by its nature stretched out over many months.
Hired to document a series of events held by a colorful San Francisco
entrepreneur, Riccardo Benavides of a company called Ideas, Don paced
himself and staff members while capturing miniDV content covering
the twelve events, including a ballet, an opera auction, a worldwide
gathering of event planners, and so on. At the end of event's season,
the digital video content was edited in Edit DV 2.0 on the Macintosh.
The authored content then became a promotional DVD-Video release chronicling
the year's activities.
"We knew from the beginning that we were going to go to DVD,"
Don said, "so that's why we shot in miniDV format. When we gave
Riccardo the rough cuts on VHS, rather than DVD (because of the cost
factor), he kept saying, 'this doesn't look that great on VHS', and
I kept telling him 'wait till you see it on DVD.' When we did the
master, he saw it and went nuts. The difference is considerable."
Production was simplified by staying in the digital realm, Don explained.
"We stayed digital throughout the entire video editing process,
so there's no loss in quality. We shot using Canon XL1 cameras. They
were great, not only because of the quality, but the portability dragging
these things around to some of these events that might run from 4
in the afternoon to 10 or 11 at night. Lugging a big BetaSP camera
for 4 or 5 hours at a time can be tough, but the lightweight XL1 is
great. We also were able to shoot at night without any additional
lighting."
Towards the end of the DVD, one of the corporate affairs covered was
for Alico, a big international insurance company. "We did it
at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium here in San Francisco," Don
said. "After a gala dinner for 3,000 or 4,000 people, all of
a sudden the lights go down and Cirque du Soleil – the guys
from Vegas – come out and entertained for an hour. Shooting
the dinner in the immense structure of the civic auditorium in low
light was a challenge but we included it in the video. With the low
light quality of these Canon cameras, it looks great it doesn't look
green at all. Also, going to DVD, you can translate those colors in
low light very well – you couldn't do that in conventional video,
it would be very difficult. You'd get grain and the images would be
very murky. In DVD, it comes out very nice." 
"Another evening event we shot," Don said, "was at
the San Francisco City Hall. City Hall closes at 6:00 p.m. The Ideas
staff had one-half hour to turn the whole thing from a typical governmental
place to match the theme, A Thousand and One Arabian Nights. They're
running in silk and palm leaves and all these tables for the people
in the rotunda. That was pretty amazing to capture on video."
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