As for external audio… I purchased a ($90) MP3 recorder and a clip mic. I record the audio from both the camera and the MP3 recorder. Once in the video suite (MAC or PC) you can select which soundtrack you like, or pan between them. I only recently started doing this… so many older videos still have the wind noise, etc.

Thanks for the tips!
Askjerry – http://askjerry.info

If you guys know of some inexpensive HD camcorders with external mic inputs please let me know below in the comments.

But why are you looking for such a thing? As a replacement for your iPhone video camera?

Till very recently, theaters only showed film running at 24 fps — and so raw footage is captured at 24 fps. Pretty soon, theaters will go digital; if 24 fps does indeed afford a good viewer experience, then these digital theaters would support it; but I doubt it. When theaters go digital, they will offer better 3-D because of the better sync between the left and right eyes. The first digital 3-D, if not for regular release then at least for experimental release was about a year or so ago — I got to see parts of it at an event hosted by Intel (we saw it at least 6 months before they were to be released to the public). We were two movies, both animations; one involved some kung-foo creature (panda?) and the other was about some president.

NixiePixel’s twitter profile picture prompts the following:

Question: What is a phillips screw?

Answer: It’s a screw with a cross.

Answer continues: Think about the double meaning in the answer! NixiePixel’s profile shows the best use for a cross that I know of!

History: This Q/A was part of the hazing at the college I went to. I don’t approve of the practice of hazing.

For my channel, there is only one lesson for which I have a very good script (the script involves a tiger, snake, elephant, and buffalo, with associated sound effects — and will take me ages to make. Although the components of the script seem silly, the video won’t be; and the idea to be communicated is fundamental/abstract, is of wide applicability, is something people can easily understand — but often attempt to contradict the fact involved!). I thought if I made a few lesson any-which-way, I would begin to get better script ideas, but that did not happen. So now I am going to make that one lesson (how ever long it will take) in the hope that the process of making that lesson will give me some insights into communicating my ideas with better scripts.

So I would like to know about how you translate the “text-book” word origins into scripts.

When I watch movies or other visual material, it is just for the story/content/message and not for observing how the content is being communicated. What do you consider when you watch visual material?

My criteria were:

(1) Capture to memory (not tape or drive).

(2) External mic.

(3) Manual over-ride of any features such as auto-focus etc. (Not having this is like not being able to turn of auto-spell-correction!)

(4) Should be able to capture in low-light conditions. Cameras have a feature called something like night-light (exact name depends on the manufacturer) — this is not good because the movie will look like it has been taken by an infra-red camera or will look greenish. They may also have a feature called something like back-light — this is good because it somehow results in the effect of the scene being brightly lit from the back!

(5) Hardware support to capture with enhanced contrast (I think that “Michael-amanda” guy uses this feature).

(6) 16 bit audio

(7) Easy means to get captured movie into the computer.

I found out about 1080i vs 1080p while examining cameras at the stores (Frys and Video Only).

Two other things I found out at the store was the number of sensors in the professional vs in the pro-sumer (and consumer) models; and that connector at the top of the camera. I am unclear about that connector at the top.

My thoughts on Professional vs Pro-sumer: If I were to buy a camera, I did rather buy the top of the line pro-sumer rather than the bottom-of-the line professional. I have a similar view for cars too, here’s what I mean: Car manufacturers have a regular line and a luxury line (Honda-Accura, Toyota-Lexus, Ford-Lincoln, GM has several lines from Chevy to Cadillac); I would prefer to buy the top of the line mid-size Honda rather than the bottom of the line mid-size Accura. I believe the same-sized cars in each line are essentially the same, with the luxury line having some tweaks; so a top-of-the line regular car would be better than the bottom of the line luxury car of the same size; and the luxury one would cost more because of the brand-name.

Surprise: As of early September 2009, Canon is the only manufacturer who meets both criteria (1 and 2)! (And Canon’s VIXIA S10 meets the other criteria too!)

Part Two, (Standard quality from WMV upload)

(to really see the difference, hit the “HQ” button on Youtube and you’ll see how the in-house Youtube compression turns the WMV into a really blocky compressed image.

To avoid copyright infringement, I broke the song I used in the two videos apart and made them incomplete and I credited both the artist and Sony at the end of each video. Youtube’s system spotted the copyrighted song’s data structure and is selling advertising to the song with my video, which is very cool. I hope the video will sell some albums for Sony and Eros Ramazotti.