I fully agree that a "toybox" is no substitute for learning. But judging from way too many videos I've seen, you forgot one of the most critical tools, the one that almost instantly advances you from "rank amateur" to "serious work": a tripod.



Granted. However, gear can be limiting. When people ask me why I'm lugging around a DSLR, I tell them, truthfully, "Because I don't make phone calls with my camera, either." It's using the right tools for the jobs. You don't use a sports car to haul a horse or camping trailer; you don't run mainline excursions with an 0-6-0T and cabooses; and you don't shoot great indoor/night/etc. shots or video with a cell phone camera, as all those guys that ask me later to send them copies of my shots find out the hard way. Digital has gone a long ways toward leveling the playing field between "amateur" and "professional," but that still doesn't mean anyone can shoot a good video with any cell phone. Using better gear expands your options dramatically; getting someone who knows how to exploit those options to the fullest is the difference between adequate and "oh, WOW....."

If your mission is to produce a cute, quirky little video for your website to pitch the twenty "Engineer For an Hour" slots you have open, then grab the iTablet or whatever. If your intention is to "sell" your railroad/museum to the state tourism board, produce a slick three-minute video for marketing to tour groups, or to convince the town/county council to approve your planned expansion over the abandoned rail line to the next town, you'll need something decidedly less amateurish.

One real-life example I've encountered many times: Railfans seem to try their best to get videos of trains with no one in the way, and sometimes not even any human presence besides the train itself. If you're marketing your place as an attraction, however, you want people. People milling about, looking at the exhibits, posing with their little kids with the train, looking at the wheels from three feet away, having fun--all the things that drive "railfan" photographers bonkers. It sometimes takes an outsider to beat this message into railfans' heads, and sometimes the skulls remain impervious to the idea.

Only a tiny number of announcers are SAG-AFTRA union members. That's why I suggested the local public radio station that is extremely unlikely to be unionized.

You don't need a topotch commercial announcer. A small station announcer can probably do a much better job than an amateur.

At one time AFTRA did have rules allowing announcers to donate work to non-profit organizations through the union. I have no idea about current rules.

Audition from your whole volunteer corps, then.

Ask them to do some learning about how to voice. Again here you can rely on all the community resources about podcasting that are out there. Or grab any of the "For Dummies" type books on the subject. My local library has many, and they are lonely.

And then you audition everyone. If you can't decide, then let others decide.

Having multiple speakers is a good idea. Unless there's a lot of visual engagement, monologue can get dry.

Speaking of visual engagement, you can get remarkably good animations with the various "Train Simulator" games. They may not be your cuppa joe, but somebody in your circle will be into that. And they'll consider it a labor of love, because it is, after all, a game. The practice of using video games to render animation is called "Machinima" and it's surprisingly easy for the quality it gives.

Hate to break this to you Sandy. Ten seconds ago they just gave an Oscar to a film shot on a phone.

http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2 ... m.cnnmoney

This other thread viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34625 popped up, and it's spot-on to this discussion.


Hey hey hey. You see at 2:44 in that shot? There. They show you the shot of the shoot.

THAT-- That is the difference between amateur and pro. Note the things on the tripods, plural. The LIGHTS. Lighting makes the shot. Or fails to make it in this case, there should be key light, fill light and backlight, and the fill light is way too dim. Clearly they're trying to do an artsy fartsy thing here. Or their other light broke lol! Or they omitted the light so they could get this very shot. Risky but it works. On your first production I don't recommend "risky", just follow common practices.

You notice a good mike on a stick with the man to hold it. That looks wired back to a recorder, but the whole digital recorder could be on the end of the stick. How do you sync it in edit? Clap your hands or if you're fancy, use a clapper. Plus your camera will probably have some sort of audio so you can compare audio tracks to get them synced up.

By the way, notice all the motion shots, and virtually no lens action... everything is shot pretty much "wide"? Guess what tablets don't have. Zoom. Definitely steady-cam though. Those can be homemade, it's basically mass and balance.

That 2:48 scene was probably a guy on a forklift (not moving) with a steady-cam. The same one used in the shot before. (not synchronous. Three camera positions were used in as many seconds, and camera #2 is not in #3's shot.)

You can even do tricks like take the pedestal shot with the forklift engine ruining the audio, then run the streetcar by again with only the audio running. Join them in edit. I won't tell :)

I'm outlining the ways you can get production quality like this on the cheap. I don't know what HCRy actually did, maybe they'll tell.

What makes a production look "professional" is that kind of attention to detail and competent execution of the basics (which notice, they did not.) The camera scarcely matters by comparison, doesn't matter if you are shooting a DXC-537, Red Epic or Samsung Galaxy. Well, a DXC-537 doesn't have the resolution to compete anymore, but it handles damn nice.

Oh, and "GoPro". There's a cheap and hardy camera you can take underwater. Of course it's hard to get audio through a waterproof case, so you have an audio recorder and sync 'em up in edit.

Figure that shoot there, you would spend an hour setting up the lights and equipment, 1/2 hour shooting A-roll, many takes on that interview and other stuff you end up not using, then another 10-15 minutes setting up that camera #3 shot they used for 2 seconds. Welcome to TV field work.

There's a treasure trove of how to do this stuff right on Youtube.