DV filmakers network
 

Any DV filmakers interested in forming a shooters network to help each other or volunteer on projects, get in touch. Im interested in networking with shooters around the world who may be interested in trade outs, screen credits, even some pay, for shooting in their local areas and trading info , services, etc with others. I live on the Gulf Coast of Florida, USA. I'm working on a low budget sci-fi short. I could use background shots of New York icons like the Statue of Liberty, U.N. etc. or even shots of Hong Kong, Egyptian Pyramids, Sphynx, Etc. Foreign Formats can be converted. Getting shots via a network of shooters is cheaper than traveling to get shots and eventually your credits might wind up on someone's project that becomes a hit. Interested?

Walt

how about shots of mountains? I live in Portland Oregon and I would love to join in on what ever you're starting

I'm in Europe and it sounds interesting, count me in!

I would love to expand the "Network" area of dvinfo.net, so it's available to use for this purpose. I'm all for it!

Shooter Net
 

Count me in....
I've got Baltimore and DC covered!

OJ

Hi,

I'm in your backyard in Palm Harbor. I've a steadicam, full blown FCP3 edit suite and lots of lenses. If I can ever help just let me know.

Jeff

John Locke and myself are here in Tokyo and between us we have a wide range of gear including both NTSC and PAL XL1's, lenses, lights, as well as Mac and PC NLE systems. So if you need anything from our side of the pond drop one of us a line.

Here is your NY connect!! Give me a hit to let me know what You need.

Some of the posts responding to this have no listed email address. I tried to get the server to list mine would not post it, so I just posted it below the text of the original post... if you don't hear from me its because I dont have an email address for you. You can avoid this glitch by putting your e-address in your posting text.

Thanks for the replies, Looks like were growing a network here of shooters around the globe. Chris if you read this, can you put a section up for online listings by geographical location with emails? This site is a great resource thanks for creating it.

Thanks for the interest and responses.

Walt

My email is cyberstreme@msn.com

web site is cyberstreme.com

Hi Walt,

We've thought about categorizing this Neighborhood forum by geographic location, so it is under consideration.

The e-mail listing thing is a slight system glitch we've had to live with. Our server king, Jeff, is going to upgrade our forum software soon and that should solve the problem. Thanks for bearing with it in the meantime.

Hi Walt. Im here in Northern VA. if i can be of any help
Jim

DV Co-Op
 

Another way to do what Walt is suggesting (which I think is a great idea) would be to develop a "DV Cooperative" to which people could submit interesting stock-like footage for membership.

Members of the coop would then be allowed to use any contributed footage (provided they had submitted something themselves that met minimum standards and agreed to some general provisions for usage).

I, for one, could use some good stock footage of Washington D.C. (the White House esp. West Wing, the Old Executive Office Building, the Capitol from various angles, the Mall, Lincoln, Jefferson etc.)

Hey peter thats a good idea. I second the motion. But the library & storage requirements might get rather large treal fast and we'd have to figure a way to store access and catalogue. I thihink that would be a full time job very soon. Maybe we could tie into an existing stock business and get shareware free access as contributing mermbers in exchange they get lots of footage to resell. The contributor might get some $ from that too. It could work. Any ideas?

wj

cyberstreme@msn.com

I am interested as well.
I'm from Malaysia, just let me know what you want and if I could get them for you I'll gladly help.

The footage trading thing is a nice thought, but I see some
problems there:

1. TV standards. PAL & NTSC
2. You want to use the original DV stream for best quality,
this produces huge files which must be stored and
uploaded / downloaded (think about this one!)
3. quality should be an important thing, who checks this?

Just some things I thought about...

footage sharing
 

There are some technical issues, but it would be awesome if there were a communal stock footage library. I'm in NY and want to be involved

Ive been thinkin about the storage file sizes of stock footage. One idea I came up with was to convert samples to an agreed upon streaming format with some approx file size limits. Sort of video thumbnails that would run if an image icon ( representative of the clip ) were clicked. File sizes could be kept small and we could all see what we have to select from. Then once you see something you want , the original shooter could be contacted thru this site and arrangements mad for desired format and mailing a DV tape copy. If anyone does not have a digitizer that compresses real time to streaming formats, look at www.adstech.com they have some inexpensive solutions that plug into USB ports, ALso very handy for DVD mpeg2 file creation in real time from DV via analogue ports. Any more other ideas out there would be appreciated. Walt

Well, nothing is ever easy, right?

I looked at the artbeats web site (http://www.artbeats.com/prod/formats.php and http://www.artbeats.com/info/quality.php) to see how they solve some of the problems mentioned above. They deliver all their footage in the form of QuickTime files on CD-ROMs. These would not be too expensive to produce, at least in terms of materials (time, of course, is another matter). What would be needed? At minimum, a deck or decks that could play the agreed formats and computer(s) to covert to QuickTime.

I think the bigger issues would be logistical more than technical. What would be needed?

1. Technical standards about the quality and formats of tapes to be accepted. One could just use the PBS standards.

2. Legal standards for the footage. Proper clearances would be required and these would have to be kept track of. Also, user would have to agree, I think, to certian usage rules.

3. Rules about how contributors would be "paid." I was thinking that anyone who contributes so many minutes footage might be entitled to draw the same number of minutes out of the co-op library. An alternative would be to allow usage of library footage in proportion to how often the footage one submits is actually used. This would favor people who live nearby interesting/high demand locations. The problem is that one couldn't allow people to submit footage of traffic, or their cat, or their kids, and then allow them to use exsclusive footage of say, a space shuttle launch. In other words, there would probably have to be non-technical content standards for footage.

4. Someone would have to receive the tapes, log submissions, play the tapes check quality and then make the CDs, and provide information abot what's availabe. This would be very costly in terms of time, so the co-op would probably have to pay someone to do this. If the footage were sold to non-members of the co-op, it might not be so hard to generate cash. Because a co-op is generally non-profit, any cash in excess of operating costs could be paid to the contributors whose footage is selling which would be an additional benefit of membership. There might need to be a small members fee at first to help with cash-flow as the co-op got started up.

5. Much of the book-keeping/submissions could be kept track of via a web site.

Just thinking this through . . .

dv network
 

Hello. I, too, think this is a GREAT idea! I'm based in New Orleans so I could absolutely add some interesting video to the collection! And I'm always looking for quality stock footage to use in my projects, so definately COUNT ME IN!!

Sounds very interesting Peter, you do make some very good
points. I do want to include PAL/NTSC into the mix. If someone
where to send me an NTSC tape (I live in a PAL world) I cannot
read it I think. Then ofcourse there are framerate conversions
and what not......

interesting though!

This sounds like a terrific way of getting DV footage from areas afar.

I'm in NYC and have alot of "misc" footage- from cars driving by in the busy NYC atmosphere to animals running around (even insects)...whatever you guys want- I can contribute.

Chris here's an idea: maybe you can setup a board that allows user's to submit profiles and available footage they'd share (by Location)- along with all the other misc info- such as email address, postal address etc...

Have fun guys,

Count me in. I live in New Mexico and I have access to many Southwestern US sites...historic ruins, rocky mountains, etc., etc.

Count me in Southern California.

Big James,

jrulison@hotmail.com

yeah I think Rob is right about problems arising with PAL/NTSC and vice versa conversion of material. DV NTSC and PAL have different frame rates and different compression scheme (4:1:1 vs 4:2:0) so converting from one to another can be disastorous.
But anyway if somebody needs "3rd dimension" in video I have a lot of footage about skydiving and a lot of friends who have even more. All material is originated in PAL DV format.

I'm in!
margus@vid-doc.ee

Gee, I wish I had thought of that! (April 30, 2002)

DV Network
 

Great concept. I'm in Phily where there are plenty of historical sites and things like the steps Rocky ran up. Count me in.

Count me in Also.. I am In Miami, Florida (Near you)..

Sounds like a great idea to me!
Kyoto is where I live for the moment.

Would love to participate. Canon XL1S with a FCP system up here in Toronto Canada. jdynes@sympatico.ca

Cheers
JD

co-op
 

Count me in......

Alaska's wild country (with rivers attached).

I have some decent footage of Mt. McKinley, bears, moose, etc that comes to mind.

artbeats
 

speaking of stock footage.
anyone needing artbeats among us, for those that have the libraries, i would be willing to help others. i have alot of it and there are some libraries i dont have that i am trying to find without having to spend 500.00.
anyone interested email me.