We're having a blast with our new addition to the studio. The Sony PMW-EX1 XDCAM is a full High Definition camera capable of recording video at multiple frame rates. It uses SxS ExpressCard memory instead of tape, which gives us the ability to pop the memory card into a laptop and view the footage right there on location. This feature alone has already saved us time during production.

The image quality is stunning. I'll have samples up soon. Drop us a line if you're looking for a local cameraman with a Sony EX1 in Oakland, San Francisco, or the Bay Area.

Conference and event videography is our specialty, and that's why Prosper.com (the people-to-people lending marketplace) hired us again this year to cover their annual conference in San Francisco. Videos from Prosper Days 2008 have been posted to Google Video and YouTube. Hi-Resolution Flash videos are also available.

Need video coverage for your big event? Drop us a line. We'll create a custom package based on your needs.

March 8th was International Women's Day. Celebrating 20 Years of grantmaking, The Global Fund for Women partnered with volunteers from across the country to organize house party events to celebrate and build awareness for women's issues. I created the DVD that was included in the event kit. They loved my idea of making a true or false quiz using DVD menus. It turned out great.

I also took care of the disc duplication and printing.

Have you ever downloaded a video and found it wouldn't play on your computer? That's because not all videos are alike. In order to play a specific video, you'll need the software that's required to play it.

Macs users can add support for most video formats by downloading two programs, Perian and VLC. Perian is a free tool that installs the necessary QuickTime components for many popular video formats. It saves you the hassle of installing each software package one-by-one. VLC should fill in any gaps left by Perian. VLC will play pretty much anything, and it's cross-platform so PC and Linux users can use it too.

Another tool to consider is the Flip4Mac plugin for viewing Windows Media files in Apple's QuickTime player. Microsoft doesn't support Windows Media for Mac anymore, and instead they have acquired Flip4Mac to replace Windows Media Player.

These tools should enable your computer to play just about any format out there. Enjoy!

Back from Prosper Days! We are happy Prosper asked us to record the conference again this year. Videos will be appearing on Google Video in a couple weeks after we finish editing and adding in the presentation slides. I'll be posting them here on this blog so check back.

View videos from last year.