Videopia

OK, I know I have written a ton of post about the TechKnow show here on my blog along with writing about Eric Franks who stars in them on DJTV. I like to copy his show because I learn a ton each time I do, and since I am an audio guy and not a video guy – I have a ton to learn.

I was sadden to see that DJTV was placed on the back burner and Eric was laid off from Digital Juice 8 months ago (because of a slow economy) but I still needed my DJTV fix, so I was happy to see that Eric Frank’s personal web site Videopia is continuing the TechKnow show in spirit.

Here is the cool part, TechKnow was filmed in a very nice studio with some very expensive equipment and now Eric is doing it on a budget similar to mine. So watching someone that has a ton of experience in video going from an expensive to a cheap production budget fascinates me.

Also, I think Eric uses the same camera (Sony HDR SR7), the same NLE (Sony Vegas) and has a similar lighting set up as I do. So now I can watch what he does and know that his quality of videos can technically be matched by me if I keep learning more about video.

Here is the quality of video he had at DJTV above, and below is what he is currently doing in his garage.

As Eric himself talks about, video lighting dollar-for-dollar is the best investment you can make in your videos, and as you can see his personal $235 light kit (about the same price as mine) takes a quality hit compared to the lighting done in the DJTV videos. I am sure there is a quality hit in other areas such as the camera and distribution methods, but I am guessing not as large as the hit from the cheaper lighting.

I noticed that Eric is using Vimeo for his video sharing site (I have used Blip.tv for mine) and doing them in true 720p HD, so I will have to give that a try to see if I can get mine looking better.

As you can see above I have copied the DJTV lighting style by having equal diffuse lighting on both sides of my face vs what Eric is currently using. For some reason my face always looks a bit fuzzy compared to Eric’s.

I think what Eric is doing it great, not only providing great education to folks like me, but by doing so much with so little money. Sure his currently quality is not a good as before, but it is not that far off!