Before we started to make a film and cut the clips we had the task to record the conference in Oberwiesental. Our tool to record and film the conference were two handy cams, namely the Canon Legria FS 200 which used SD-cards as medium to safe the films and the Sony DCR-SR30E which had an integrated HDD of 30GB to safe the films. The handling of the two cameras was fairly easy we had two days to test and film to get used to the cameras.
Right on the first day of the conference we started to film the sessions and presentations to collect material for our film. The recording of the films came out to be slightly difficult because we had to hold the cameras for ours. Unfortunately we had no tripod to put the cameras on. We managed to get one tripod but it was not custom fit for the camera so it was a tentative solution. Since we were bloody amateurs to recording films, it was not easy to hold the camera and do not have a slight shake on the film. We recorded everything, even the coffee breaks. We collected a huge amount of film material of about 60GB. With such a huge amount of data we had to transmit the recorded material several times from the camera HDD and SD-Card to the computer. The capacity of the computer HDD was not enough so we had to ask a colleague for an external HDD to safe our recorded material. When the data had to be transmitted to the computer one camera was not useable because the Sony camera was connected to the computer via USB wire and busy with transmitting data. While we transmitted the material from the camera to the computer we already organized it into folders. Three big folders named with the date and then further folders named with the names of the presenters we recorded.
While making the film it was difficult to find the right scenes for the film due to the huge amount of data and the set time limit of 10-15 min. At first we had to find the proper software for cutting and making the film. We decided to use the Windows live Movie Maker because this software is fairly easy to understand and handle especially for beginners as we are. Moreover, it was also a challenge to cut the scenes together and match them with the right sound especially when the presenters talk and the scenes switch in between. In the end we managed to get the sound synchronized to the scenes.
As a hint for future film projects it is good if you have some ideas before you start recording and filming. Very important is huge amount of GB on your storage devices may they be external or internal storage devices on your computer. Before you start filming check which storage medium you need for the camera. If you have a camera with SD-Card slot then take two or three SD-Cards with you if possible so that you don’t have to stop filming during the sessions. If you think that you film a very useful scene for your film than take notes with the date and the time span so that you find that scene afterwards during the cutting work for the film.
