billo

first off, jtval has a point...be sure to include everyone that you have footage of! at least once. student or experienced jumper, everyone likes to see themselves on video and feel like a part of the video. if you have no footage of them, well, at least you have a good excuse when they ask why they weren't in the video. as far as outline...figure out how much footage you have to work with. you gotta choose if you want to pick the soundtrack first and then edit video accordingly, or if you have certain video that you want to force the audio upon. that's your call. pick the mood. next up...keep it entertaining. repetitious exit shots, deployments, or segments of nothing but empty sky are boring. if your DZ is anything like mine, people drink a lot and have short attention spans. a 20 minute video full of "good stuff" is better than a 60 minute video of "blah" shots. be careful not to use too much tandem footage in a video intended for fun jumpers. save the good jump sequences for the movie. if you have anything that you might consider to be "special features", "deleted scenes", or other interesting bits with unique audio, keep them for the b-reel. this is a lot easier and better than trying to draw attention when those certain parts of the video are about to come up. i don't know much about MSN movie maker, but regardless...read up about it on the Internet! find out what it can do. however, transitions are cheezy as hell. keep these to a minimum. good luck, b

what can i say, i'm addicted to the crack that taco bell puts in the beef. if i could own any franchise restaurant, it would have to be a TB...that way, i could make up my own taste sensations like the bill-it-o. i usually eat there once a week, even though i have a lot of stock in mcdonalds. ah well...

matt, we've got an ex-mil jumper at our DZ who graduated this year and is doing great. i'm sure you'll do well in the sport! blue skies, b

Welcome to the sport! I just jumped with a bunch of folks Mt. Vernon the other weekend up in Iowa, good times had by all. It's a great group of folks down there so do what they say and you should be OK. Hopefully they'll get you all trained and psyched up in time for the Couch Freaks boogie next Labor Day.

here's a shot from my DZ's halloween boogie last weekend...not too sure what the next couple days will bring! i'll prob come up with something else just for kicks.

i like a small avitar to confuse the drunks. go buy some glasses!

"with karate i kick your ass, from here to tiananmen square..." really, i cannot argue the emotional content of tenacious D. but, speaking of tiananmen square, there is an awesome version of "faith" by the cure that was sung the day of or just after the killings in june of 1989. The D, or The Cure...it's a tough call...

Hell if i know!!! I say give it a shot and let us know what happens I have no experience with skyboards or snowboards, so as far as i know it's the same stuff...give it a shot! Good luck....

The slappin usually goes on just PRIOR to exit...not AFTER...

The Couch Freaks are bringing an Otter from Skydive Chicago, to our home DZ in Winterset. * There will not be entrance fee. * Jump tickets will be $20 to 14,500. * It will be a weekend of fun skydives, drinking, great food, and we will have a pre-Halloween costume party, and other parties as desired. Think of it as a dinner event, followed by a big party, surrounded by great skydiving. We will provide the beer, and the main course at the meals, you contribute the extras (potluck style). * We host, you bring the fun. * Camping, modern showers and indoor packing on site. Most of you have been to our Dollar Daze Boogie in Fort Dodge. Now we want to invite you to our home in Winterset so we can show you how we live the other 51 weekends of each year.

Since I was shooting with video for awhile before adding stills, my preferred video camera & wide angle lens played more of a factor when determining the lens for my still camera than the conversion factor of the camera itself. Wanted them to be close to matching up, ya know. We charge $60 for video OR stills, $80 for both. We dump the pics to a PC via a card reader, burn the CDR, and put it in a case. No printed label, sometimes scribbling the dz's website on the CDR itself along with the customer's name. Pre-printed CDR labels is something i was going to kick around with our video crew for next season. Delivery is very shortly after the jump while the customer is still there. Pricing is the same for us as it was with film. Not sure about our total sales, i'd have to hit up the treasurer. I did notice an increase in stills sales after us camera folks started printing off stills out of our own pockets and hanging pictures around the DZ. Makes for easy conversation with the tandem student..."Isn't that a sweet picture? We can take some like that with you in it, if you'd like..." Nope, we've got a full digital crew. I think that making the switchover to digital stills really would depend on how your DZ and concession operates, or if there is a DZO guiding the direction. We're a club DZ, and if someone wanted to shoot film i don't think anyone would mind, although we'd leave the choice to the customer as to which camera guy they'd get (the one with digital or the one with film). If the DZ was ran more like a full-time business and the bossman said that "everyone working for my concession must shoot digital", then that would be a fact of life if you wanted to shoot tandems at that DZ. If you wanted to meet somewhere in the middle, I'd let the video crew know, for example, that prior to the start of the 2007 season (or whenever) you must upgrade to digital if you want to stay on the tandem rotation. This direction would have to be determined by the head honcho (DZO or lead video person) or by all those on the rotation. I think that how the DZ operates (full-time vs. part-time) might also come into play.

yeah, attorneys are just as bad as realtors and lenders, i suspect. closing on my first property later this month, and my ass feels bloody already. sonofabitch, yeah i'm outta beer as well. shame i'm too lazy to walk to the booze shop, at least at my new place it won't be as long of a walk.

shit, sounds like my kind of thread. i'll hop on it as needed. as for now, too busy drunkedly hopping around some other sites.

ooooooooooo pretty purple.... here's a shot of my FF2 (c/o MRHIXXX), additions to it this upcoming off-season are maybe a new paint job but at the least a new flash...um and maybe a new pair of goggles...

marcin, i've got the same 20d/20mm setup that i use for most tandem/work jumps. only times i've had problems have been on extremely humid days, and it typically doesn't occur till right near pull time for tandems or shortly afterwards. by the time i shoot landings, the moisture is gone. what conditions and what discipline are you shooting? The canon 20mm is a sweet lens, that would suck for you to part with it.

I've had my FF2 for a couple seasons and i like it! 2KC was the only manufacturer willing to make a helmet large enough for my gigantic cranium. Makes my 330 and 20d look small when on my head! The wait on it was awhile, but was worth it. I would recommend getting one in the early part of the off-season, just in case there are delays. Only have had to make a few mods other than the cameye and cutaway that were included. Trimmed a lot of CF off of the following areas: The back of the camera box that was interfering with the sliding eyepiece, the side of the helmet inside the camera box that was in the way of the LANC cable, a hole on the top of the side box above the video mic, and holes for cabling/stroboframe for the stills. Only thing i would change about it is the cutaway location. I prefer the side ones on the flat tops and optiks a bit more. This is a minor, minor thing though.

Our DZ and several jumpers i know use the "go video" dvd/vhs dual decks. They work well for editing straight to vhs or dvd, and you can also do dvd to vhs or vhs to dvd dubs. http://www.govideo.com/Index.asp?GV=VR5940 No complaints about this deck here!

I've been using DVD-Lab Pro (http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/index.html) for the past year and it rocks. It lets you control every aspect of authoring imaginable. It has a lot more than you'd need to make a simple 20 chapter menu, but you wouldn't need to use all its features right away. I would really recommend trying out the demo of it online before rushing out to buy another piece of the Adobe lineup. I demoed a lot of authoring suites before picking DVD-Lab, including SpruceUp, Ulead, Encore, Pinnacle, etc. If you want something quick and dirty, Spruce or Ulead Movie Factory would definitely do the trick. I don't think Encore is all its cracked up to be, but it all comes down to how folks use it and comfort level i suppose.

Couple suggestions. First off, if you're going to be using it in a range of situations, get some sort of zoom lens. If you can handle some amount of tripod shooting on the ground when encountering sub-perfect lighting conditions, i say go for the Canon 70-200 f/4L. Cheapest of the L-series you can get, and it won't disappoint. However, if I were to want something that had a bit more at the wider end, i'd hit the 28-135 IS. This is going to get you a few extra stops worth of handheld for everyday shooting (as you requested) and isn't going to break the bank. I guess it all really depends on what your definition of "everyday shooting" is. Indoor candid shots? Outdoor (on the ground) action shots? How often do you want to lug the tripod around? Know what you want to shoot before you start lens shopping...good luck!

i'm with you on needing some time to recover, today is my first day in the office and i've got a good case of the shakes. nimbus suggested that we needed to include a day or two of rehab with registration costs. hmmm... zoom, huge props to you and the whole zoomieland crew for doing the party night! (on whichever night that was). i would have loved to spin the wheel-of-misfortune, but the oh so slight chance of getting close and personal with junkyard kept me off the stage. oh and thanks to the crew for the pie, chocolate and ketchup is quite the flavor once you get used to it. so sad that we won't get to practice our chili dog and zoo load skills together again till next year, we must do some partying before then! (after my liver recovers)

I was lucky enough to have a buddy who did photography for a newspaper for years teach me about photography on the ground before i ever slapped a camera on my head. I spent months and thousands of shots on the ground shooting portraits, wildlife, and landscapes to learn how to get the shot that i want, not the shot that the camera wants. Thanks to his training i was really able to come out of the gates with some great shots in the air and i was able to help out the other camera fliers at my dz improve their use of a camera as well. One was disappointed that sunset shots weren't turning out when shooting Tv 1/500 @ 100 ISO. Pretty easy to remedy once you know the basics, but i would have probably been in the same boat had i not gotten help from my buddy and the internet.

Right on...i'll have our hand-me-down trailer from Ty setup on Tuesday so it will be all ready when you get there. I got my canopy at the FedEx shop this morning before work...WHEW too close of timing for me. Car is packed and ready to go, i'm just trying to get a few things whipped here at work first. Can't fuckin wait, i'm bouncing off the cube walls! (good thing they're padded)

Marc did mention that Chewie has some very nice tongue lashing skills, so i guess i'd be jealous of that if anything. You gonna be in town this weekend or holding off till the boogie? See ya when you get where ever.

Damn, Beavers, that pic brings back some memories! No wait, almost. I think i drank away most of my brain cells that night, but i do vaguely remember all of the naughty acts that happened to you while you were passed out in that chair. I swear it wasn't me! Drive safe, i'll party with ya in a week. - Tenacious B

jeez, a cellphone gets broke, marc falls off, hutto gets hit, chewie gets run over, nimbus's wife puts a bounty on my head...i can't imagine why you would suggest to people to watch out for me and golf carts. come on, let them find out for themselves!