MIVA Online » Meeting Recaps

May Recap: Art of Posing

miva admin — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:53:25 +0000

Ann Arbor photographer Aruna B. was generous enough to spend a couple of days with MIVA. At the Wednesday night meeting she presented the Art of Posing to MIVA members. It was a great turnout. The event was sponsored by LCD 4 Video, who provided a 7″ HD LCD monitor to raffle.

If you missed the meeting check out photos on MIVA’s very own Facebook Page. If you haven’t already done so, make sure to click the like button to become a fan of MIVA. Joe Bauer won the 7″ monitor from LCD 4 Video. These monitors are amazing, and retail for only $499. Check them out here.

On Thursday, MIVA members were able to take what they learned to the streets during the sold out Art of Posing Workshop in Royal Oak, Michigan. The workshop provided 2 hours of intensive hands on training setting up poses, so that a filmmaker gets to use their time with the bride and groom to the fullest. Attendees were able to shadow Aruna to see how she goes about evaluating surroundings, including light and background elements, and setting up the shot. Anyone who wanted was welcome to jump in and try their own ideas and get a bit of coaching from Aruna.

Be sure to check out a little behind the scenes action from the workshop…

February Recap: Eliminate Your Backlog

miva admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:50:03 +0000

There have been a number of great speakers and events over the past year. There will be a whole lot more coming in 2010!

Talk about starting off 2010 with a bang, we had a ginormous turnout for Chris’ presentation and now have the most members MIVA has ever known! Thanks to all for making MIVA a great place to network, learn, and socialize among the professional video industry in Michigan.

A special thanks go out to Shelby and Aaron from Forever Cherished Productions for sharing a unique piece of art. The video began with the couple sharing portions of their love story and hanging out on the farm together. As the story progressed, shots from the ceremony were brought into the video as an added touch. By the end of the video, MIVA members had their first opportunity to witness a trash the dress on the farm. The bride walked through animal pens, smeared farm “stuff” on her dress, and milked a cow. This was a fun and truly unique video. Thanks Shelby and Aaron!

Chris Jones hails from Austin, Texas and is owner of Mason Jar Films and one of the co-founders of IN[FOCUS].

Here’s just a little of the outstanding info Chris gave to us throughout the evening (It felt like someone just gave you an Apple iPad or PS3, yeah, that’s pretty much how it felt, on Christmas morning even):

Chris shared some incredible suggestions on how to become more efficient during the editing process. One of his goals was to help us reduce our edit time by 5-20 hours per project so we can enjoy life and not be stuck behind the computer day in and day out. He encouraged us to ask the question, “what do I want to do with my life?”

One of the biggest pointers was to cut down on the distractions which includes Facebook, Twitter, email, and phone calls. He suggested setting aside 3-4 hours for some hard core, uninterrupted editing time. Before each editing hour begins, write down your goals for the hour, not only the things you know you can accomplish but also the things that may be a stretch to finish. He commented on Parkinson’s Law “work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” When the hour is complete, write down what you accomplished and your goals for the next hour then, take a short five minute break. By staying focused for a chunk of time, you can produce more product in a shorter amount of time.

Another suggestion was to “Unclog the Chi.” If your work space is messy, clean it up. If you are used to editing in your pajamas or sloppy clothes, shower and get dressed. Make sure you sit up straight during your edits and act as you would if you were an employee in the corporate world.

Lastly, Chris shared his method of organizing edits. If you are editing a wedding, lay all of your clips, except the ceremony, in a chronological timeline. Scrub through the clips to blade out good main action, people, details, and exterior which will then be moved into various tracks on the same timeline. This is an extremely helpful method for efficiency. If you would like more information about his time saving methods, you can visit IN[FOCUS].

Thanks again, Chris!

Check out a video Chris made. Actually, it’s real film that he shot with which looks really cool:

CeCe and Trevor, 4 of 10 from Chris P. Jones on Vimeo.

MIVA Recap – November 4th, 2009

miva admin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:13:28 +0000

Special Guest: Steve Zugelter of Studio+Z Films in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Thanks to the Epic Motion crew for taking some images to share from the meeting.

Once again, we started our meeting showing a couple of our members’ videos and giving some feedback on their work. Special thanks to David from Lightshine Productions who shared his very first wedding highlight, and Mel from Mel’s Wedding Videography who shared a photo and video montage of one of his couples. This time is very helpful for everyone as we can learn new techniques and methods as well as giving suggestions as to how we all might improve our work.

Steve Zugelter of Studio+Z Films in Cincinnati, Ohio shared his recipe for concept films on November 4th. We learned how Steve has used the concept film to create a whole new market to set himself apart in his hometown.

Some of the topics he covered were:

+ The basics– how to get started in concept films
+ Advanced Techniques– how to combine concept films
+ How to create your own unique concept film
+ Maximizing your resources
+ Effective marketing of your new film

Steve Zugelter shared a ton of information about getting into Concept Films which is the new rage in contemporary wedding films. He told us how he set himself apart from other companies in his area by being creative and offering something different to his clients. There are different types of concept films, from Trash the Dress to Save the Date to spoofs to surprises. Steve took these ideas even farther to provide suggestions on combining some of this work within Same Day Edits. If you want to learn more about his presentation, e-mail him at: studio@studiozfilms.com.

Steve is a 2009 recipient of a WEVA Creative Excellence Award for concept films and was featured in the September 2009 issue of EventDV Magazine for his Surprise Wedding Concept Film.

Coming Up Next Month!
MIVA presents “MIVA Holiday/Christmas Bash 2009 at the Greektown Casino”. In keeping with the new direction MIVA is moving in, what better than to celebrate the holidays than at the fantabulous Greektown Casino in Detroit! Start making your plans to attend as this promises to be the best holiday party MIVA has ever thrown! Fun, food, drink, and lots of holiday cheer for everyone! The party will be on Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 7pm ’til…? The cost is $40/person, which includes 2 FREE drinks. But, here’s the best part… for all who attend, the $40 fee will be applied to next years membership dues ($40 total for each studio). So, essentially a free party… pretty cool!

Since the holiday season is about giving, we are asking all attendees to bring along one unwrapped toy or canned good, to donate to a worthy charity to help out those less fortunate than us. A fun party and helping our neighbors in need in Metro Detroit… a win-win all around!

August Recap – Audio Pointers

miva admin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:15:16 +0000

August 2009 MIVA Recap Video from Lee Higginbottom on Vimeo.

Many thanks go to Wes from Wes Cardone Productions and Hyun & Adam from Two Penny Productions for sharing some of their recent work. They took part in a new portion of our MIVA meetings where they show an example of their work and MIVA members can tell them what they liked and did not like. Our attempt is to give feedback and suggestions to our members about how they might improve their work. It is also a chance for members to learn new techniques and basically ask, “How did you do that?” Next month we will see examples from Chris and Trish from Personal Touch Productions and Jamie from Jamie Honce Productions. If you would like to be one of the next ones to share in October, please contact Lee at Days to Remember.

The major portion of the meeting consisted of a discussion of audio tips and methods from Ralph Cabildo from RC DJ and Video and Matt Trubac from TruVision Studios.

Since Ralph’s business provides both video and DJ services, he helped us understand some of the technical issues we would be confronted with at the reception. He explained the benefits of using such devices like a Rolls Matchbox DB25 which is good for attenuating the signal between the DJ board and recording to your camera via wireless systems or another recording mechanism. Another device he stressed was the Pro Co MS-2 Mic Splitter which helps with ground lift. Using this when the DJ plugs into the house system can help eliminate the buzz that is created with most house systems. He gave us great tips on what to do and what not to do to improve our audio for productions.

Matt Trubac discussed helpful tips for audio at our ceremonies. He discussed the differences between the various types of mics that are out there (omni-directional, uni-directional, shotgun mics on cameras). He also discussed how you can incorporate using devices like the iRiver ifp-795 (found on on-line forums and auction sites) to backup your audio to .mp3 recorders. It is nice to monitor your audio through the camera and wireless systems, but it’s also nice to have a backup plan when interference enters the picture. Another helpful recorder is the ZOOM H4N or the H2N. The H4N has 2 XLR inputs as well as line and mic connections. There are many great features to these recorders and many uses throughout the wedding day.

Thanks to Ralph and Matt for presenting in August. Next month we look forward to Ryan Koral’s presentation he will be giving at WEVA this year as well. It focuses on winning brides and influencing other vendors. A lot of Ryan’s success can be attributed to how he networks with other wedding professionals and how he works with his clients or potential clients. It will be a meeting you don’t want to miss. Check back a little bit later in August for the official meeting announcement and registration page.

MIVA and CS4 Recap June 3, 2009

miva admin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:03:52 +0000

Our meeting at Bastone’s in downtown Royal Oak featured Terry White- Director, North America Creative Pro Technical Sales for Adobe Systems, Inc. Terry has presented Adobe products before and does a great job showing us how Adobe products can help our workflow and ultimately increase our cash flow.

We were shown how Adobe CS4 Production Suite can take our productions to the next level.

Although Adobe products work great with various tape formats, Terry showed us how Adobe is going to tapeless video acquisition like Flash Memory/SD Cards. He took footage directly from an SD card through his USB port and edited directly in Premiere Pro CS4 without conforming any footage. He could edit in realtime while adding various effects inside of Premiere Pro or After Effects via Dynamic Link.

Terry showed us how we can acquire footage straight from the camera to our laptop hard drives using On-Location, even if our cameras typically use mini-dv tapes to digitize footage. One more way we can use the equipment we already have and save more time than before.

Using Dynamic Link, we learned how to work in Premiere Pro, After Effects and Encore simultaneously with compositions and timelines without having to save or render to see updated changes.

When our work is done, we saw how powerful the Adobe Media Encoder is in order to output our work in various formats using all the common and useful presets like: Youtube (SQ/HQ), MPEG-2, MPEG-2 DVD, MPEG-2 Blu-ray, Quicktime, iPod, and etc.

Perhaps the most amazing feature of Premiere Pro CS4 is its ability to edit our homemade uncopyrighted DVDs straight from the Disc. Only like a few minutes of your wedding video? Take those few minutes and piece them together into a one song highlight in no time. Wait no, maybe the coolest new feature is how CS4 can transcribe your audio and allow you to get the dialogue in a window you can copy and paste into whatever you need it for… Yes, it will listen to your talent’s voice and type out the words.

Don’t want to send a DVD to a client to proof? Use Encore to build you a Flash project that you can upload to a server. It will work just like a DVD, but you don’t have to go through the effort of burning the disc and sending it to the client. Or, need a Demo DVD? Have Encore build it for you and send the link to the client, they can watch your DVD on the computer saving you time and money.

It’s amazing how much better Adobe products get every year. Thanks to Terry for coming out again. We hope to see you again soon.

Terry has been with Adobe for over a decade and has extensive knowledge of Adobe’s Creative Professional product line.

In his current position, he leads a team of Solution Engineers and Product Specialists that focus on Professional Publishing, Web Authoring and Digital Video/Audio. Terry is an Adobe Certified Expert and Creative Suite Master. He has been active in the industry for over 20 years and is the founder and president of MacGroup-Detroit, “ Michigan’s largest Macintosh users group and is a columnist for Layers Magazine and X-Ology Magazine. Terry is the host of the top ranked Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast. He is also the author of Secrets of the Adobe Bridge and co-author of The iPhone Book, The iPhone Book 2nd Edition and InDesign CS/CS2 Killer Tips. Terry is a key presenter at major industry shows around the world.

Spring Film Festival Recap

miva admin — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:15:14 +0000

The votes are in! We had a great time at the Main Art Theater on May 6th for the MIVA Spring Film Festival. 15 area studios submitted wedding related films for the contest. A number of different styles were presented such as: the classical and traditional; cutting edge and contemporary; and, even concept and parody videos.

Fifth and Main Productions won the People’s Choice Award and also won the runner up prize for the Producer’s Choice Award. Here is that entry:

April 25, 2009 Milica & Andreas wedding trailer from Fifth and Main Productions on Vimeo.

The winner for the Producer’s Choice Award was Take One Productions with this entry:

Click here to View Don’s winning entry from his blog.

Here is the People’s Choice Runner Up by Two Penny Productions:

“People’s Choice Award” at the 2009 MIVA Wedding Film Festival. from Two Penny on Vimeo.

Here are the links to the companies who entered a video (As listed on the voting forms):
RC DJ and Video Productions
Personal Touch Productions
A1 Video Professionals
Fifth and Main Productions
W. Cardone Productions
Epic Motion
Joseph F Bauer Studios
Lee Thomas Films
Jamie Honce Productions
Two Penny Productions
TruVision Studios
Video Magic Productions
Take One Productions
Days to Remember
Mel’s Video

Please get involved with the MIVA Association and join us for fun and exciting events like this.

April Recap: Canon and MIVA present: StillMotion

miva admin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 01:49:34 +0000

To get a short glimpse of what went on, check out the video recap… This was not produced by StillMotion, please check out their work at: StillMotion.

Canon and MIVA present StillMotion from Lee Higginbottom on Vimeo.

There was not a regular April meeting because we planned an all day seminar with the guys from StillMotion. It was a great day with lots of opportunities for hands on with Canon XH-A1s and Brevis Extreme adapters. We also got some exposure to working the Canon 5D Mark II into our video workflows. Canon has a full line of HDV cameras and lenses that produce professional results for StillMotion and many others. Check out what Canon has to offer at: Canon.

Wow! The day was awesome and we had so much good interaction with some of the nicest people in the business. Thanks Patrick, Michael, Conrad, and Troy. Also, thanks to Paul McAniff from Canon and the Royal Park Hotel for the good food and meeting room.

March Meeting Recap

miva admin — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 16:26:12 +0000

MIVA Meeting Recap – March 4, 2009

MIVA March 2009 from Lee Higginbottom on Vimeo.

This month, we were glad to welcome Daren Bossenberger, founder and President, of Phono Creative, a metro Detroit design studio that develops branding, interactive, print marketing communication and environmental graphic design solutions for its clients. Daren has designed marketing solutions for small start-ups to some of the world’s largest companies including Dell, Microsoft and Ford Motor Company. Daren serves on the board of directors for the Boys & Girls Club of South Oakland County and LifeBuilders. Daren also is the founder and President of Ideation Signs & Communications, Inc., a metro Detroit company specializing in the production and installation of signage and environmental graphic solutions.

Daren shared some great information to help us in our companies. Each of us offers a unique product and service. How do you relate to each customer since every interaction will be different? How do you connect these customers to your product and or service? Daren gave some of the basics in how developing a brand can help shape clients’ perceptions about you and your company.

Developing your brand encompasses several things:
1. Visual stuff like: your logo, business cards, website(s), ads, and online gossip.
2. Personal Interactions like: how you answer the phone, responsiveness, communication style, and your personality.
3. Finished product: the film/video, turnaround time, and the price.

You want to reveal the reality of your business and if things need to be changed, change them.

This is just a sampling of what Daren shared. Make sure you participate in the MIVA meetings to get great value out of your membership.

Coming up in the next several months will be some exciting events and meetings.

We have pretty well confirmed the majority of our speakers for the rest of the year:
April 1st: StillMotion Seminar (This takes the place of the normal meeting)….
Where: The Royal Park Hotel in Rochester, MI
When: April 1st, 8:30am – 7:00pm
Cost:
*$159 Early Bird for MIVA Members (until March 13th) *includes out of state PVA members
$229 Early Bird for non-Members (until March 13th)
$269 Regular Price for Everyone after March 13th
**WORKSHOP SPECIAL: Add $89 to your workshop fee to receive 1 Year MIVA Membership (for new members only).

Registration is open. Click here to begin registration.

Details will follow for the following months:
May 6, 2009 – Spring Film Festival
June 3, 2009 – Terry White will present Adobe CS4 Master Collection followed by:
June 4, 2009 – All Day After Effects Seminar with Cassidy Bishar from Motivity Pictures.
Check out some of Cassidy’s AE templates at: http://www.aeprojects.biz
July 8, 2009 – John Zale from WEVA and The Editors’ Showdown
August 5, 2009 – Matt Davis from Lifestage Videography
September 2, 2009 – Ryan Koral from Epic Motion
More to follow next month…

We also had our board elections:
Ralph Cabildo – President
Ryan Koral – Vice President
Joe Bauer – Treasurer
Lee Higginbottom – Secretary
Scott Bert – Past President
Lee Thomas – Board Member at Large
Matt Trubac – Board Member at Large

Don’t miss the StillMotion Seminar, register now!

Registration is open. Click here to begin registration.

See you there!

February Meeting Wrap-Up

miva admin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:11:53 +0000

MIVA Meeting February 4, 2009

MIVA February 4, 2009 from Lee Higginbottom on Vimeo.

Thanks goes to Lee Higginbottom for putting together the teaser video.

Make sure you read to the bottom because we have exciting announcements to make about upcoming events and meetings.

D’Amato’s 222 S Sherman Royal Oak, MI

Our February 4th meeting took place in Royal Oak for the first time. We had the pleasure of welcoming Greg Zonca from Mort Crimm Communications of Southfield. Greg is a seasoned Producer, Editor, and Videographer who prefers to be called- ‘Director of Photography’- for the projects he works on regularly.

Greg shared and demonstrated the basics of setting up interview lighting to help make the subjects pop and show depth within the frame. He gave us tips on equipment to use and a few tricks and secrets that make the job easier.

As with Greg, we are planning to bring in many gifted professionals in varying areas of our industry. You’ll want to check back to mivaonline.com regularly so you won’t miss upcoming meetings that are guaranteed to be useful to making your business more successful.

Next month, we have scheduled Daren Bossenberger who is a branding and identity guru. His presentation is vital if you want to learn how to present your image to the world and make more money doing it. Here’s the link to learn more about his presentation next month.

Definitely mark your calendars for April 1st… we have an all day workshop scheduled – with details coming soon… but you will NOT want to miss this awesome opportunity for your studio.

There are many more special presenters we will be announcing soon and don’t forget about the upcoming Spring Film Festival that will be held in May.

There are a few other speakers that we will be announcing shortly, so check back often.

Meeting Recap 11.05.2008

miva admin — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:23:25 +0000

Hey everybody! We had a great meeting this past Wednesday. If you haven’t attended the last few months of MIVA, you’ve really missed out. This time, Prem Mukherjee from Arising Images shared awesome secrets from his business, and Panasonic and ROSCOR spent the remainder of the evening giving us the low down on their HD cameras.

First off, don’t forget to plan for the Christmas Part at Deluca’s (Warren and Inkster) on December 2, 2008. Members of MIVA are free and their (1) guest/spouse is $13 (Like a really great dinner for the cost of a Subway Sub!). More details to follow, keep checking the site.

Next, we were honored by the presence of Prem Mukherjee of Arising Images Photography. If you haven’t met Prem, you should. He’s one of the top netting photographers in the country (~$11,000/wedding) and a super nice guy. He shoots with his wife, Cheridy using Canon camera bodies.

There is no way we can cover all Prem talked about. It was a very valuable discussion about his business like: how he shoots, what he shoots, and how he makes his images pop in post. One of the secrets of his success is attending group meetings like MIVA on the Photography side, and making sure you attend conferences and training seminars to keep you at the top of your specialty.

He’s also a montage creator. He showed us one of his montages with an array of cool pics he’s done over the years. So, we probably won’t get much business from Prem in the slideshow biz, oh well. But, it was a great production. He recommended a great place to get royalty free music at: Triple Scoop Music.

Here, you go, another one of his secrets: Be Yourself! Prem gets high end clients by driving a Jaguar? Nope, a Chevy. He and Cheridy are people of faith and like to use their money for more important causes than expensive clothes and things. Basically, just be who you are and figure out how to get your product to where it needs to be. You don’t need all the expensive gadgets out there to be successful, be passionate and love what you do.

There is a lot more to share about Prem’s time with us, but it’s just not going to happen in a recap. If you want more, leave a comment and we might do another post. Make sure you attend every meeting if possible, because they are great!

Panasonic finished our three month exploration of the HD/HDV cameras produced by Sony, Canon, and Panasonic. Shawn Watts from ROSCOR helped to coordinate our presenters. Our main presenter was Michael Caporale who is an independent consultant from Cincinnati (E-mail: varicap@mac.com). Tom Parrish represented Panasonic and is the Midwest Sales Account Manager (E-mail: parrisht@us.panasonic.com). Any technical questions about Panasonic cameras could be directed to Michael, and any sales questions could be sent to Tom. As with all manufacturers, leasing and purchasing info can be obtained through ROSCOR.

Michael spoke about the differences between the Panasonic AJ-HPX2700, AG- HPX170, and AG-HMC150… And there are a bunch. These are great cameras and can record in a whole slew of different codecs.

Here is a breakdown:

AJ-HPX2700 New Varicam
Can shoot in: DVCProHD, AVCI 50, AVCI 100 (Roughly D5 equivalent- 10bit recording)– Only looks within the frame to determine compression (Intraframe)

(~$4800) AG-HPX170 shoots in: DVCPro, DVCPro50, DVCProHD

($3400) AG-HMC150 shoots in AVC (MPEG-4) Cam which uses Interframe compression- references other frames to determine compression. This is the same compression used for Bluray players. The one downside is that you have to transcode before editing (FCP users).

They all store the date on P2 cards. There are currently card capacities up to 64Gb and it is capable of data transfer rates up to 800 Mbps.

New Features of the HPX170

*Smaller lighter no tape transport/5 year warranty
*Wider lens
*Higher resolution LCD window/finder
*Focus/iris ring switch
*ND Filters 1/4 1/16, 1/64
*3 user buttons– delete last clip, increment framerates
*Waveform/Vectorscope
*Dynamic Range Stretching DRS 60i only
*Navigation Controls
*HDSDI Out
*SD Card slot moved to be with P2 slots
*Focus assists: Histogram, Zoom, EVF Detail, line graph and manual assist
*11 more variable frame rates than in 200a
*Can write metadata to SD card from camera
*Computer locking slot
*Better low light performance and lower noise levels than 200
*Downloadable scene files

Please search on-line for information regarding the HPX2700. It’s a really awesome camera, and you’ll have lots of friends if you’re able to pick one of these up.

Please join us in January when we are planning to have a night of color grading. Specialized experts will be able to walk us through the process no matter what platform or editing software you currently own. Keep checking back to the website for more information.

Have a great November, and Happy Thanksgiving. Peace and safety to you and your families.