Technology

DC-10 Video Capture Board: This is a good little analog->digital converter that sits in your PCI slot. It can capture fairly well with minimal dropped frames. Effects like saturation, brightness, tint, contrast, and sharpness can all be done on the fly as you capture the video. The only downsides are that the video is compressed and looses quality with each edit. If you have a large file, it can skip when sending back out to a VCR. But all in all, when dealing with a standard 8mm camcorder, this is the thing to get. Retail price is usually about $230.

Sony 8mm Camera: We're still living in the analog world and 8mm tape will have to do. We plan to get a Mini-DV in the future, but until then let's take a look at this $500 wonder. The most convienent feature is the pull-out screen which enables us to see exactly what we're filming. It came with a paper thin remote (after driving 40 miles and complaining to circuit city that they forgot to give it to us) so we no longer need a person to hit the record button for us; good for our 3 person movies, or people constantly laugh in the background when filming. There are some effects but they aren't used much since we have the video capture board. But these are: mosaic, negative, letterbox, mirror, and digital zoom. Fades include: fade to black, fade to b/w, and fade to black and zoom. Some downsides to this camera are lack of external microphone support, and it fuzzes sometimes.

Adobe Premier: All video editing and splicing must pass through this program. You can re-arrange scenes, add effects, speed/slow down film, set transparency (blue screens), and add transitions between scenes. Without this we would have had to use the default DC-10 editor which was barfy.

Adobe Photoshop & Eyecandy: All frame by frame stuff was done in this program. Most importantly the lightsaber scenes, where a glow (or other) effect had to be applied by hand to each frame (7798 in DWI, 8300+ in DWII).

Newtek Lightwave: All 3d work was done in this. Both full scene 3d and added characters. This was the most painful work because I'm no good at 3d modeling/animation.

Soundforge: Sound effects are key. All dubbing needed to be recorded through this. And some voices need to be altered because they couldn't stop laughing through the scene.

Broomhandles: Yes, never underestimate how good a broom handle makes for a lightsaber. Except when it shatters into two (or three) pieces.

Ducttape: ¿Need I say more?