Synaptic Light

This is purely an academic post. No one has come to me an said; “Phill, you have this bucket of moola for video”. But I do have a bit of input to what will ultimately be a need – to set out a budget for the Big Move to the New Location. This will obviously be aimed straight at video needs brought out from the new location.

Video Mixer

For a long time I have been motivating this. Initially with the intent to improve the Creche environment  - currently we film any content displayed on the projector screen to be displayed on the Creche LCD TV. It is a terrible setup but it does the job. The new location has more LCD options and therefore greater potential for a Video mixer. Sending content to the projector  and the LCD TVs as well as switching to live footage with keyed verses for the LCDs will be way more professional. The option to use the projector for live footage with always be there but at the moment there is no real need as the environment is not that big.

But Environment like KIDStuf and UpStreet with definitely benefit from live footage, especially for close ups and the Singing sections. And once a new camera comes on board it will be even more fantastic.

There will obviously be the requirement for volunteers to operate the mixer, with a steep learning curve and responsibility. But once up and running it will be awesome.

I have been looking at the Edirol V8 because of the great variety on input and output options. It also has luma and chroma keying capabilities.

Mac Pro

Equal with the need for a new camera is the need for a better computer. One can never under state the need for a good editing setup. At the moment we double up the current Editing MacBook Pro as a Video and Slide presenter using Pro Presenter. Which becomes a problem because one can never really say that you are done editing your 4-5 hrs for the week as a volunteer. More like, yeah pick it up midnight tonight after the render – I hope.

Also one can never have enough processing power, RAM and storage. If there was a 10GHz 16Core mac Pro with 128 GB RAM – I would need it. As the hardware improves so does the software and artist’s abilities (as do the layers/nodes in the composition, hehehe). I just know I can do so much more with a Mac Pro, do it faster and do it more professionally. With the new Mac Pro’s I would start doing more 3D in Motion that is for sure.

A new Mac Pro would also free up the Macbook Pro for a new volunteer to share the workload – that would be a huge plus. Not many Churches does have the budget for Mac Pros and volunteer video editors/compositors  don’t always signup with a Mac pro under the arm.

Camera
As much as I want to shout out “RED One! RED One! RED One! RED One!” I do have to keep reason within reach. The RED One is just perfect and RED’s new EPIC is even way more better. But I could never motivate it’s cost to the leadership team. Well I could also not put anything past God.

Anyway Practicality must prevail (unless there is divine intervention) and I reckon a Panasonic HVX200A will suit our needs. And will also require a beefy Mac Pro and storage solution to work with (but not as much as RED One’s 4K footage).

The only problem is how this will integrate with the Video Mixer with is DV and my Camera which is also DV (Panasonic DVX100BE).

Software

With more computers for more volunteers there will have to be more licenses. Currently I am the only license holder for editing Software of any worth: Final Cut Studio 2, Shake 4.1 and PhotoShop CS2. There will have to be at least 2 more licenses for this as well as After Effects CS4.

As a Church it is imperative to adhere to the law of the land and comply to copyright. We cannot say that since we are not doing this for profit or commercial reasons so that we can download and use whatever. We must set the example. And this goes for content as well.

Wrap Up

Well there we go. My major budget items. Obviously there are other considerations  for integrating everything and making sure that everything works (storage, interfaces, screens, etc). If there was a bottomless pit of moola I would motivate for my Editor’s Wish List.