Has anyone with ULEAD made any independent films?

extremekicks · Post by **extremekicks** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 5:29 pm

I thought I'd bring this issue up cause I'm expanding my horizons with a Immigration case that happened in our area that went to federal court and was wondering if I should do this in VS or run with Vegas. I plan on making a 30-45 min short and submit it to film festivals.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 6:10 pm

As babdi's signature says, "No video editor can surpass human creativity!". Sure, some software may make some tasks a little easier, but I believe it's really what is between the ears, not the pc case, that makes or breaks a video production.

Peta · Post by **Peta** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:43 pm

Yes I have made independent, admittedly short, films using VS from V7 to current VS12 They are also about a different kind of immigration - Refugees. My client uses them to advocate to UNHCR for the cause of refugees in Kenya, Ethiopia, Thai/Burma border, India and the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The Rohingya film is on YouTube (Amnesty International posted it there) it is called "Forgotten Refugees". It has provoked a great deal of interest from UK (a group trying to persuade the British Home Office to resettle 100 Rohingya refugees in UK) to Austria where a film maker has contacted me as he is going to Bangladesh next month to film there.
So long answer to a short question is a resounding YES!
Good luck
Peta

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:04 pm

If you give a professional Photographer a simple point and shoot digital camera, and at the same time give a novice a Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera - then send them both out to shoot some pictures of waterfalls, a football match, a few insects and a field full of flowers.

Which of the two do you think would provide you with the best pictures?

It's not what it is, its what you do with it that counts.

babdi · Post by **babdi** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 4:44 pm

Thank you Black lab

for the compliments.
SJJ hit the nail on the head. It is man behind the lens that matters.
A Creative eye makes a picture while an untrained makes a photograph

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 4:57 pm

A Creative eye makes a picture while an untrained makes a photograph

You are very wise, great Obi-Won.

extremekicks · Post by **extremekicks** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 11:11 pm

I agree, camera work is the most crucial.

I'm currently working on a DVD of my breakdance event that went down in Philly, I'm going to use VS 11+ which I have already made a few weddings and dance recitals of DVD quality. However these have potential to sell thousands if its promoted and done right.

You can see the trailer at www.youtube.com/extremekicksdotcom

Pce

B

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 2:10 am

Pretty cool stuff. Those guys are amazing.

I liked the video except for one thing. The titles. And this isn't your fault, because VS just doesn't produce "professional" looking titles. I think it would look 100x better with 3D titles. Check out Xara. Low cost, easy to use, and it produces great looking titles.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 3:11 am

I would endorse the comment about Xara, which I use a lot. And it's very fast. Another good one is Bluff Titler. Or even the old freebie which used to come with earlier versions of Video Studio, namely Ulead Cool 3D or its more up-market big brother/sister Cool 3D Production Studio. Great titles and effects, but a relatively steeper learning curve than Xara, and incredible slow renders -- a 10 second title uncompressed .avi can take more than 40 minutes to render!

extremekicks · Post by **extremekicks** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 4:09 am

Ken and Black Lab mucho thanko on the 3d titles I will peep it out. Your input I highly apperciate.

Cant wait to see it and use it.

Pce

Brian

jmcadory · Post by **jmcadory** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:54 pm

I just finished a 2 1/2 hour DVD using 11+ that will be distributed commercially. I created 22 projects and then loaded them all to create the final DVD. The focus of the DVD was a gathering of a famous racing team from the 1960's in a panel discussion so the main camera shots were pretty simple. We did "dress it up" with photos from the period ( and the same people now ) as well as some amount of period racing footage.

The hardest part was the audio as the audio in the room was awful. What I had to do was render each project, load the mpg into a new project and create an audio track. With that I used Audicity to filter, boost and normalize the audio which made a big difference. I then loaded this back as the active audio track and used this as the final take on the project.

With the basic footage, audio correction and the period stills mixed with pretty basic transitions, split screen techinques and titles the final product came out with a really clean look and sound ( well as clean as I could make it ). The interesting part is the reponse so far from early viewers is that they thought it had been created by professional stuido rather than some guy working at home on the weekends!

extremekicks · Post by **extremekicks** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 11:38 pm

Nice JMC good luck with it, wish you the best.

Since we are on here dicussing this does anyone have DVD distributors contact info / data base , links?

Brian

richmg821 · Post by **richmg821** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 4:00 am

Brian,
Nice Video. Have you looked into selling on Amazon.com? All you need is pay a monthly fee. They have two plans now, I think. They add the shipping price. You do the mailing, and packaging. You just need to get a barcode (As low as $35 per item or DVD title). You can ship international too.

RG.

extremekicks · Post by **extremekicks** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 7:30 pm

Hey Rich, yeah we are getting bar codes and spine lables on these suckers. And the shrink wrap.

We plan on doing the Amazon thing and we also have a cable company intrested in doing our video on pay per view.

Well see where this goes. Hopefully it makes some $ to raise for our next event.

babdi · Post by **babdi** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 3:01 pm

Ken Berry
I found Bluff Titler more versatile compared to XARA and value for money.