Hello from the south shore of Lake Superior.
 

Hi,
This is a pretty cool site. The information on display is enormous, interesting, and a bit overwhelming. More important is the active good spirited membership. I've come here to learn about making quality, engaging and entertaining videos. I work for a state governmental agency, and one of my duties is to train local government (city & county) highway departments. My supervisor asked me if it wouldn't be more effective to put the training on video. So here I am. Due to cost constraints I can't go out and buy the latest and greatest equipment and will start by filming with my Olympus E-PL2 camera. I need to research editing software, so that will be the primary purchase. If I can produce a decent product, I may be able to ask management to include video gear in the budget. So, I will be reading as much as I can, and hopefully you will forgive my novice questions as there will be many....
Hope to get to know you folks and this site as time goes on.....
Regards,
John

Re: Hello from the south shore of Lake Superior.
 

Welcome John

I, too, work for a Government department and have just renegotiated my contract. One thing I found out during these negotiations is that anything I produce while in their employ belongs to them. By that I mean that they claim ownership to the copyright. It seems it does not matter whether I do my shooting/producing/editing outside of working hours, the copyright is theirs. This may also apply to you. You may be OK with this, I don't know but I'm a tad angry about my situation because I like to make short travel documentaries and use all of my own equipment to do so. My employer supplies nothing, has no input, couldn't care less, but own the copyright anyway! (Well, under the strict interpretation of the contract they do.)

Just something to think about in case you decide to use your E-PL2 for something outside of work time.

Cheers

Russ

Re: Hello from the south shore of Lake Superior.
 

Hi Russell,
Thanks for the welcome & advice. I checked on copyright information and creative rights, and there is established policy that protects both the state & the employee in these matters. Creative works such as videos are state property when the work was created while on the clock, and or, state owned equipment is used to produce such work. So if I make a training video during normal work hours, it is the property of the state even if I use my camera. I maintain full rights and ownership for anything done on my own time, and with my property. So all is good, but thanks again for the heads up.......
John

Re: Hello from the south shore of Lake Superior.
 

Well things have sorted out a bit since my first howdy doo... I aquired a GH1 with the intent of using that as my video camera, but last weekend I got some hands on time with my brothers Canon Vixia HF M41. What a sweet machine. So now my GH1 kit is up for sale and when it goes I'll pick up a M40 or M400, Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 Production Suite, and a G-Tech 1TB external hard drive for video editing and storage. I have a Lenovo T61p laptop with Intel duo cpu T7500 at 2.20Ghz and 2 GB RAM. So I should be set and good to go soon. Now don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with the GH1 it's just the simplicity of the M41 that got to me. I will keep you all informed of my progress, and am sure to have many, many questions. Like I said before, I'm new to getting the most out of video as my back ground is still photography. Looking forward to getting to know you folks........

John

Re: Hello from the south shore of Lake Superior.
 

Hey John, sorry to say I didn't notice this thread earlier, so a belated welcome. I grew up in Northern Minnesota so feel like we are neighbors.

Sounds like the video bug bit you hard. Enjoy the trip down Empty Wallet Lane as you keep finding more cool video and audio gear to buy!

Re: Hello from the south shore of Lake Superior.
 

Hi John and Hi Pete,
I moved from Houston to Superior Wisconsin.
Definitely no plans on going back.
I'm retired but am having fun designing things like automatic levelers and automatic balancing pan/tilt heads,etc.

Frank