Funny thing about being my age (44 as of the time I write this), the technology involved to do things that just say, oh, 10 years ago has morphed like you'd never believe. There isn't anyone both in the Video business or at home who ever thought that things would change like this.
Those who have known me for the past oh...22 years or so know that my chosen profession is the TV-Video business. I have over the years shot, edited, written and produced stories and full TV shows both by myself and with help and it amazes me as I sit here, just how technically involved it has all become.
((The crew at a UGA Football game (me, Scott Christenberry, Eric Hager, Dwayne Harden and Tony Light in back))
22 years ago, I started working in TV in Lynchburg, Virginia. I shot, edited and produced the Sports at WSET-TV. As a Photographer, I carried in no particular order; a 35lb Ikegami 730 TV Camera which had 3 Tubes in it, a Sony 110 Tape Deck (which felt like a cinder block), a light belt that weighed about 10lbs, cables, mics, tapes and accessories. We shot on Video Tape, 3/4 inch video tape to be exact. A rather large cassette format and tape was scarce enough that we were each given 4 tapes a day for 5 days to shoot on. We edited with 2 rather large editing machines that were linked together by a huge mass of cables.
By the year 2000, I was in Atlanta working for the CBS station, where I was originally given a Sony 300A Camcorder that shot on Beta tapes (yes, similar to THAT Betamax thing from the late 70's). We had rather large Anton Bauer "Brick" batteries that weighed as much as the camera did. However the total weight was down under 20lbs. And we still edited on rather large tape decks.
Forward 5 years. Same station, different equipment. Panasonic DVC-Pro camera (910), the tapes were the size of a small cellphone. The accesories, much smaller, most could be carried in a small equipment pouch. At this point, we are loading the videotapes into a computer, an AVID and airing it out of a server.
Last year...2009, right before I left Atlanta. Carrying a Panasonic P2 Camera with no tape rather 5 memory cards. However, it is about 10lbs heavier. We take the cards and pop them into a reader and they show up on the computer.
What I am getting to is this. I'm now sitting at my desktop computer at home where I just loaded a story that I had on a DVD to You Tube. I popped it into my computer and with some software that I had purchased, loaded the story to a hard drive. I then uploaded it to my YouTube channel (OSGPhil) and there it sits for whoever wants to see it.
If I sound like I am amazed at the process...and progress of the technology, I am. It just never dawned on me when I started this back in 1988 that it would be where it is now. Nothing is done the "Old" way. Everything is on the computer. I basically, could program my channel on YouTube from home...in essence my own TV Channel. I'd have to figure out a way for it to be found, but it's there...much like this blog, for whomever stumbles across it. And oh...it's linked to my Facebook page and Twitter page too.
Maybe I'm just sounding old, but it amazes me that this can be done. I had to learn how to do it, because if I want to stay in my chosen profession, I need to know how to do these things. Sure it makes my head spin sometimes and I am not always doing it the right way. But eventually, I figure it out...sometimes quickly...but most of the time slowly...Yes...Learning can be a VERY slow process.
In the meantime...enjoy this video from the You Tube...it doesn't relate to any of this...I just thought it was funny...and yes, it amazes me that you can find this and take it and post it to a story on the computer.
As a bonus video...enjoy some clips from one of the Greatest Movies Ever...the top 10 quotes from Airplane:
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