Green Screenin’

This is a sort of unexpected addition to our Digital Media Lab (DML). It was certainly on my wish list of items to have, but I never thought that a) it would be seen as a necessary component  and b) it would be an approved budget item. Sometimes it’s just serendipity. In this case the green screen was suggested by my boss, who had recently used a similar technology at a museum function and had a good time with it. Having already had the purchase rubber-stamped, I wasn’t going to question a good thing and placed the order pronto.

Green screen is a fairly simple special effects technology. It allows for someone\something to be videotaped in front solid green background and then in post processing that background can be removed and replaced with something entirely different. Most people are familiar with the technology, even if you are unaware of it. You can see a green screen being used every night on your local weather report.

It wasn’t until after I purchased the green screen that I thought about all of the neat things that we can do at the library. I’m not going to rattle off a list, but I will mention the thing that I find most exciting.  Until now the DML has been mostly focused on adult programming. Photoshop, VHS transfers, logo design, etc. Now we are able to open the lab up to an entirely different demographic – children. Imagine hosting a book talk on Harry Potter in Hogwarts. Or visiting Santa Claus in the elves workshop. The possibilities really are endless.

So you want to see what I’m talking about? Fair Enough. Here is a 10 second clip of our Children’s Librarian Penny displaying her extraordinary acting abilities.

 

Captain Cadbury Carefully Captures

So our new video capture device is ready to be used. Before installing I was a bit worried about a couple of things. I thought that it might be difficult interface for the average library patron to learn. I was also worried that it would be a very time consuming process. Anyone who has worked with even the slightest bit of video editing knows that rendering and uploading video files can take forever. Thankfully both of my worries were quashed once we got the device up and running.

It’s really as simple and playing your VHS on the VCR and clicking record on the software program. It records in real time, so if you have a 63 minute wedding video, it will take 63 minutes to transfer to the computer. You can then manipulate that file however you want. You can burn it to a DVD as-is, you can upload it to YouTube, or you can even plug that file into Final Cut and do some video editing.

I wanted to highlight what is possible with this new software, so I’ve created a couple of different videos. All are from the same source material with different filters and effects applied. I think I’ve mentioned it before, I am no pro. This literally took me all of 30 minutes to create.

THE ORIGINAL CLIP TRANSFERRED FROM VHS:

WITH SORT OF DREAMY FILTER APPLIED:

SAME DREAMY FILTER, BUT IMAGINE ONE CHARACTER IS FIRST PERSON RECORDING:

LASTLY, IMAGINE YOU HATED THE ORIGNAL SCORE AND THIS WAS A WEDDING VIDEO:

 

Listen, I know it’s kind of corny, but I think it shows you the possibilities of this software. This is a really neat addition and it’s something that people have been asking for. VHS is a dead format (mostly), soon DVD will be too. This software will allow you to preserve your videos in a way that they will never decay.

More to come soon.

So, how long has it been?

It’s been far too long since our last post. Plenty has been going on in the MediaLab. Since our last posting we have had some new faces use our lab for all sorts of creative projects. Most recently we have worked with Popz Schaffer (talented photographer and owner of Popz Stage Door Pix) in the lab on a regular basis to brand his music videos and pictures that he has taken at events all over Chicago. If you check out Popz’ YouTube channel you’ll be able to see insider footage of artists like Yelawolf, Blowfly and Ill Ambition. We encourage everyone to check out his videos.

We have also had regular visits from our rapping patron T and his crew. It’s fun to watch people use the lab for new and innovative purposes. It is also interesting to watch the creative growth of the individuals using the lab. I think that it is safe to say that both Popz and T are learning a lot while using the lab. While very good from the outset, both artists have gotten much more adept at using the software in the lab and their end results certainly exhibit this.

Two new components were recently added to the lab. The first is a slide and film scanner. This is a relatively simple piece of technology, but it allows patrons to easily scan their old photos, film, or slides directly to the computer. We have used the scanner to preserve some old slides of Bensenville history. The quality of these scans was impressive. We also recently acquired a video capture device which allows for patrons to transfer old VHS (or any analog input) to the computer. These transferred files can then be edited, uploaded to YouTube, or burned to a DVD. Both of these components are neat pieces of technology because they allow for patrons to conserve things that might otherwise decay with age. We hope that opening up the lab for these more practical purposes will encourage patronage.

Until next time.

The Progress of the Piffcast

With 12+ episodes recorded thus far, Michael J. Piff spends his Tuesdays and Thursdays (spare for Thanksgiving – the guy deserves a break) in our Digital Media Lab here at the Bensenville Community Public Library recording and creating original content for the oh-so-reputable Piffcast. We first introduced the Piffcast on this blog back in early October, but we think we’re long overdue (hah – library humor) for a Piffcast recap! *Cue the get psyched song.*

In the words of Mike Piff himself, “I call it a whacked out conspiracy wrapped up in a top secret weapon topped off with a ribbon of awesome.” What he means to say is that it’s an entertainment talk radio show – and you shouldn’t miss out.

Each episode runs approximately an hour long, takes about 5 – 6 hours to record/edit/mix, and is just jam-packed with the things people want to talk and hear about: sports, tv, news, current events, and just general hilarity. He’s always got a great mixture of music, clips, interviews, and his own (plus your own!) thoughts in each episode. (Got a softer side? So does Mike Piff. Check out his Thanksgiving episode.)

Mike really has something for everyone is his bi-weekly Piffcast, and one of the greatest features is the completely organic fan interaction that he promotes through The Piffcast Facebook page. Go ahead and “like” The Piffcast on Facebook, you won’t be sorry. He asks his fans questions about things happening in the world, and will feature your answers in each episode. It really gets the conversation going, and it’s a great use of social media to keep fans interested, participating, and listening. Are you more of a tweeter? Join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtags #AskPiff and #Piffcast, or just tweet directly to Mike @Mike_PiFF03.

So, what episode are you on? Check out The Piffcast on SoundCloud, where all the episodes are streamed. You can listen right from SoundCloud, or you can download the Piffcasts. Piff-to-go!

We’re thankful to have such a hardworking and dedicated person like Mike using our Digital Media Lab for a productive, inspiring, and creative reason. This is what the Digital Media Lab is all about – we want our community members to benefit from what we provide here at the Bensenville Community Public Library. Want to reserve your own time in the DML? Call us at 630.766.4642. (Reservations recommended.)

And with that, we’ll leave you with one of the first Piffcast episodes to get you started. Get listening!

2012 Holiday Tech Gift Guide

It’s the day after Thanksgiving and with gravy hangovers and gastric distress Americans are doing what Americans do best: shop. Or more specifically, spend oodles of money on stuff they either can’t afford or could really live without. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy a good bargain or the excitement of making it rain at Best Buy (more realistically Amazon, but it’s hard to make it rain online).

With this in mind I thought to myself that I could do what C|Net and every other self respecting tech blog or website is doing and make an official “2012 Techie Holiday Gift Guide”. So here is my list:

• Vizio CA27-A2 Intel Core i7 2.3 GHz All-in-One Desktop PC – Who knew that Vizio made computers? I didn’t, but it turns out they can make one mean machine. Featuring quad-core processors with speeds up to 3.3GHz, a 1TB HDD, 8GB of RAM, and a solid graphics card in the  NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M LE 1GB, and lets not forget that is comes with an impressive 27″ Vizio 1080p monitor. We shouldn’t forget that it’s an all-in-one PC which means that this computer can function as your TV and the centerpiece of your living room.

• Kindle Paperwhite – I know, I know. Everyone wants an iPad or a Kindle Fire and I get that. I have an iPad and it has essentially replaced my laptop and desktop computer. They are both wonderful devices, but I’m excited about the Kindle Paperwhite. First, Amazon makes the best e-readers around. I don’t think that the Nook or any other competitor comes even close in terms of e-book selection or easy of use. By all accounts this new Kindle has the best e-ink technology seen to date and it has a built in night light, which is also pretty awesome.

• 3M Streaming Projector – Other people have the Roku box or Apple TV on their lists, but I think that this device is the future of on-demand streaming entertainment. This projector is literally pocket sized and powered by Roku. It’s not HD quality with a with a max resolution of 800×480, for me that seems negligible because it can project up to a 120″ image onto virtually any surface and doesn’t require all the planning and setup of a traditional mounted projector. It’s already a pretty reasonable $299 and as time goes on I’m sure the technology will improve and the price will drop.

• MakerBot Replicator 2 – This one is a stretch at a hefty $2100 price tag, but this is a wishlist\gift guide and just because it’s not affordable to me doesn’t mean….you get the point. Dream it and this thing can print it. Anything is in the realm of possibility from customized chess pieces to your very own bobblehead. Let’s hope that buzz about people buying this thing to mass produce functional plastic guns in overblown.

• GOGroove BlueSYNC Portable Bluetooth Speaker – There are a million different bluetooth speakers out there and of all of them, I think this one is the best for personal use. It may look unassuming, but sync one of these little speakers to your iPhone or Android device and you can have the 21st equivalent to this:And if that isn’t cool, I don’t know what is. Also this device has a rechargeable battery so you can pump up the jams wherever you please.

Making this list was much harder than expected. There is a ton of cool stuff out there to spend you hard earned cash on. Who needs to eat, pay the water bill, or buy presents for other people. If anyone has some suggestions, leave a comment and let me know what tech devices are on your list for this holiday season.

Droppin’ Dope Rhymes in the Lab

It’s been too long since my last post. That’s because it has been too long since someone has used the lab for a new project. I don’t want to give the impression that things aren’t taking place. Chris Sloan has been here every Sunday working with different people on their respective projects and I hope to be able to feature their content soon. What I failed to realize is that just because someone wants to use the lab doesn’t necessarily mean that they will a) want to share their project or b) finish their project in a short period of time. For instance, we have a loyal patron who owns and operates a local company which focuses on photographing red carpet events and all things celebrity in Chicago (Popz Stage Door Pix!) and he has some really exclusive video content from different events around Chicago. He has been working with Chris to establish the rights of his content by overlaying titles on his videos. This way when posted nobody can unrightfully copy his videos without his name being embedded. I can’t wait to feature these videos on the blog (Popz is equally excited), but the process of branding his videos takes a considerable amount of time. Anyway, something to look forward to.

All that being said, we did have a very talented individual by the name of “T” come into the library and want to record some of his songs. Luckily he knew what he was doing so he was able to come in one evening and bang out a pretty killer track. I will admit that I am not the biggest aficionado of rap music, but I’m not uneducated on the genre either and I have my favorites (Gangstarr’s Moment of Truth is an amazing album, so is Biggie’s Ready to Die and Nas’ Illmatic). So, T came in with his own microphone and mic stand and he had his own beats and lyrics ready. I pretty much just opened the door and turned him loose. He was in the lab (very appropriately named in this post cuz’ the lab is totally where rappers cook up dope rhymes) maybe two hours and then left. He left behind his track which I then downloaded to my phone so I could listen to it on the way home. I was blown away by a couple of things. First, this isn’t a terrible rap song. T obviously has some skills and has been working on this for a while. Secondly, it sounds legit. We’ve had a podcast recorded here twice a week (see previous post) for a couple of months now and it sounds great, but I was unsure if music produced in the lab would sound equally professional. It does.  I was so excited to have another young person in the lab creating something original. It makes me feel like what we are trying to achieve here at the library is working and will be appreciated by the community. I wish I could link all of T’s song, but I can’t. It has some naughty words (oh you rappers!). So here it is the very first rap song recorded in the Bensenville Community Public Library’s Digital Media Lab.

 

DML Promo

Designing a Logo

Since we started this blog, oh about a week ago, I’ve been really obsessed with getting the logo just right. Of course, I’ve been using the tools that are available in the DML (Photoshop CS6 and our iMac). I’m new to both the hardware and the software, so there has been a steep learning curve. We have some really fantastic how-to books that can walk you through different aspects of Photoshop (i.e. creating layers, using filters, etc.) and I’ve used pretty much all of them. I have to say that so far I’ve found the Photoshop CS6 On Demand by Steve Johnson to be the best resource. Over and over again, I’ve been able to go to the index, find the thing I’m trying to achieve (for instance, how to create a chiseled type over an existing image), turn to the page (in this case, page 336), and follow the simple directions. I’ve also been able just to flip through the book and see projects that look kind of neat and then have been able to replicate them on images of my own. Again, I’m relatively new to all of this, but Photoshop is powerful stuff. Even in my limited experience I’ve been able to churn out stuff that I think looks quasi-professional.

                Okay, so back to the logo. Another sort of obsession that I’ve had recently is that all things 80’s are coming back and coming back hard. If you do any reasonable amount of internet trolling, you’ll see that neon’s, synth music, and other such forgotten relics of the 80’s are all over the place. My theory is that the children of the 80’s are just now getting to positions of power and are able to create stuff inspired by nostalgia. I get caught up in nostalgia all of the time and have an entire basement full of stuff to prove it. I wanted to create a logo that had that kind of feel. So I took a picture of our Mackie mixer, applied a glow filter, added a later and some neon lettering and presto, you’ve got a full-fledged  1980’s style logo for the DML.

                We’ve got some neat things happening this weekend. Our resident expert Chris Sloan will be here Sunday to provide some DML open hours. Chris pretty much set the whole lab up and made sure all of the components are working properly with each other. He is also the owner of Rainbow Body Records and knows all about music recording. We have a gentleman coming in who wants to record himself playing the harmonica. I really can’t wait to see how it turns out and I promise to post some of the results as soon as I can. Chris and I also are tasked to make a 30 second library commercial that we can feature on the library’s main page. I’m more nervous about this project because I have very limited experience with videography. That too will be posted here when it is available.

In closing, I’ll leave you with this:

Piffcast! New bi-weekly sports podcast recorded at the DML!

Almost the minute we opened the DML Mike Piff showed up ready to record his  new bi-weekly radio show, Piffcast. We are thrilled to have him bring his talents to the library and while it’s just our humble opinion, we think the outcome it pretty good. Piffcast is sports themed but tackles a variety of subjects from Monday Night Football recaps to CBS anchor Jennifer Livingston and her AWESOME on-air response to an internet troll (see video here). Insightful and original check out PIFFCAST!

Firsties!

Each year the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity offers a grant (Eliminate the Digital Divide) that “seeks to provide access to computers, telecommunications technologies and related training to disadvantaged communities.” In 2012 the Bensenville Community Public Library was fortunate enough to have our grant proposal accepted (you can read more about the grant here). Our proposal was multifaceted and focused mostly on a teaching and training. Another component of our grant proposal was to build a Digital Media Lab in an existing space at the library.

I assume that not everyone is familiar with what a Digital Media Lab is and why a public library might find it fit to invest in building one. Long story short, public libraries are finding unique ways to reinvent themselves to remain relevant in the digital world. Google has taken root and the fact is that in many aspects the internet has supplanted the library when it comes to the average persons informational gathering needs. One way that libraries can remain relevant is to become a place of creation as opposed to a dusty warehouse of forgotten tomes. Enter the Digital Media Lab (DML).

In the Digital Media Lab at the Bensenville Community Public Library (BCPL) one can create an array of digital media centric projects. In our DML one can use professional equipment to record podcasts or music, rework photos with Photoshop, shoot and edit HD videos, write screen plays, and any number of other things. In addition to just providing the instruments, the library is also going to provide instruction. More on that later.

So, that is a very brief history of the Digital Media Lab at the BCPL. This blog was created with the intent that we will be able to showcase and promote the content that was created at the library. We are already underway and I just got through listening to the first recorded podcast. Again, more on that later. Hopefully you can expect to see original content that will be entertaining and unique, but will also showcase the power of the DML. We look forward to working with all of you very soon.