Adrian's Journal

I am honoured to be part of the grand opening of Singapore's first luxury airport, JetQuay . Yes, my task is to document on video the whole event sequence. Guests arrived in limos, wines and champagnes were served. Mr Raymond Lim, Minister for Transport, graced the occasion. Speeches, ribbon cutting, toasting and a party. Of course I had my share of wines, champagnes and choc mousse. (If you don't have these, don't ask me to shoot your event... just kidding... but treat me well, I will treat your video even better). Adrian Lee http://www.videolane.com/?Videography_Service

I am in the process of documenting our work procedures here, so that we can achieve consistency and quality in every job we undertake. I had a hard time deciding where I can write down all my knowledge. Should it be on a word document format, in a blog format or website format? I want it to be easily accessible anywhere by our production crew. It must be readable and editable from a PC as well as from a PDA. I have not decided yet but the website format seems to be a good place to start. So here are some new pages created today. The webpage name is self-explanatory. http://www.videolane.com/?How_To:Convert_DVD_to_MP3 http://www.videolane.com/?How_To:Transfer_Files_to_a_CD http://www.videolane.com/?How_To:Extract_Video_from_a_VCD More free tips to come. They will not be free forever. When the documentation is fully complete, it will be taken off the website and compiled else where. Only our VideoLane.com Newsletter subscribers will have access to the information as long as they remain a...

In the last post I said there was a difference between your PC and our PC. Our PC is configured and optimised to do high level stuff like video capturing and DVD burning at the highest quality. DVDs we produce must be crisp, sharp and play smoothly on any DVD player. There is a long checklist to configure and optimise our PC. I will be revealing only 2 items for you. 1. Remove Adwares and Spywares Daily. Adwares and Spywares enter our PC when connected to the web. Some are friendly some are not. But all of them hinders the speed we need to process videos optimally. Scan and remove them daily. I recommend installing the free Yahoo Toolbar on IE. It comes with a spyware remover. All free. Don't be tricked into buying a spyware remover. It is free on Yahoo Toolbar . Go download and install it now! 2. Remove unused and temporary files. This is also free. I found a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It combines a system cleaner that removes unused and temporary files from y...

Here's the trade secret leak. We don't use expensive hardware or software . All we need is just a S$2000 miniDV camcorder, a $3000 PC and a $200 software . You can even do it yourself at home, but I am sure you will come back to me begging for help. Otherwise just face it, our $3000 PC is not the same as yours. Ours is specially configured. The real trade secret I am not going to reveal. As for the mini DV camcorder, you can get a cheaper one and it still works. The software no one will believe, but even the most fussy corporate client have been very satisfied with the crisp quality of our DVD conversions. It costs less than S$200. This secret I will reveal. Go download this DVD conversion software and try it on your PC. Click here.

A client wants to convert her betacam tape to DVD. We gladly accepted the job. When the tape arrived we found it was not a betacam but a DIGITAL betacam tape. The price for conversion will be 3 times more! All we can explain in layman terms is that Digital betacam is a very high end broadcast format and the players cost five figures and more. Anyway here is how wikipedia explains: What is Betacam SP The original Betacam format launched in 1982 . It is an analog component format. Provides a crisp, true broadcast quality product with 300 lines of horizontal resolution. In 1986 Betacam SP was developed, which increased horizontal resolution to 340 lines. While the quality improvement of the format itself was minor, the improvement to the VTRs was enormous, in quality, features, and particularly, the new larger cassette with 90 minutes of recording time. Beta SP (for "Superior Performance") became the industry standard for most TV stations and high-end production houses until...

Today, 22nd September 2006, marks the end of 2 SOLID MONTHS of Hungry Ghost Festival. Very unusual. Many friends and associates showed concern for my business, as we all know that there are no weddings during this festival. No wedding shoots . No business. NOT TRUE. The two months fared better than any other months. We were busy with overlapping assignments of corporate videography (marketing videos, award ceremonies, industrial construction and my favourite... seminars ). I had to hire freelance to help me out. Some of the jobs got so me so stressed up that I had to fall ill. But one thing I enjoyed best... My weekends were free! Yes, free weekends means outings with the kids. The kids are growing up really fast. Better enjoy cherish their sweet innocence before they become teenagers. This is the life I missed. You know what? I may not be keen to go back into wedding videography again. Life happen only once. Kids will be kids only once. Here is a typical weekend for a wedding vide...

That's right. If you did not notice, I have disappeared from this blog since June 2006. But I have not disappeared from the face of the earth. I joined a nice little community at MyOpera and decided to put my life's journal there. My personal thoughts will continue to be blogged at MyOpera while this blog will reflect my day as a videographer. Join me as I stumble along to catch up with the everchanging digital video landscape. Subscribe to my feed . I would be so honoured if you do so. Adrian Lee www.VideoLane.com

Why are there so many phone enquiries looking for photography service? I thought the company name clearly states "Video" as in " Adrian Video Image ". Even the website is called " Video Lane.com ". Most people assume that videographers also know photography. Yes most videographers do photography as well. BUT NOT ME. I would rather be the specialist than the general practioner. I would rather be the master of one trade than a jack of all. I would rather my clients enjoy full satisfaction for a service. Anyway we still entertain calls for photography politely. If you ask the right questions, we may even recommend you the perfect photographer for your requirement, be it wedding or product shots. (I've worked with too many photographers to know which is real and which is fake). For a start here's a list of wedding photogrphers I recommend. Ok. For those seriously looking for video graphers, would you like us to to a corporate shoot or a wedding shoot...