June 2008 Archives
Here’s another competition for you: Capture It!, from our friends at Films for Learning. Entry is open to schools affiliated with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, and there are excellent prizes on offer.
Be very very quick, though, as the deadline for this one is June 13th.
American science teacher, video fan, and SciCast supporter David Colarusso is holding his second annual physics film competition, under the catchy name of 'Phylm.' Check the website for the dead-simple rules, chuck your film on YouTube to enter, and have your say by voting everyone else's films up or down.“What camera should I buy?” is just about the most common question I get asked by prospective SciCast film-makers. My usual reply is “What have you got already?” — most people, it seems, have a mobile phone that can record video, or a stills camera that has a video mode, or a mate who has a video camera, or there’s something stashed away in the back of the cupboard in school, or…
When people actually want an answer, however, things get trickier. Broadly, you get what you pay for. We’ve some basic notes on the main SciCast site to get you started, but it’s hard to know what you’re actually getting for your money.
Enter the BBC. Springwatch last week featured an excellent story with a pair of teenage brothers who are keen wildlife cameramen. It’s a lovely piece, but it’s also interesting (and useful) since it sets footage from their cameras alongside professional equipment. The brothers are using cheap-and-cheerful Sony miniDV cameras, and the footage from them looks rather flat and blurry, and somewhat purple-edged, next to the shots from the ‘proper’ camera.
But you know what? Once the clips are compressed down to web video quality, it doesn’t make anything like as much difference as you might expect. Having a good eye is more important than having the ‘best’ camera gear.
Don’t believe me? You’ve three more days to catch the film on iPlayer. It starts about 24 minutes in.
Here’s an experiment you probably shouldn’t repeat at home. Not because it’s particularly dangerous, mind — more that it’s going to really really hurt. Lots.
Tom Scott tests out the often-repeated notion that you can remove your fingerprints by soaking your hands in pineapple. His film is brilliant, even if the experiment… umm… isn’t the most sensible I’ve ever seen.
Credit for dedication, though.
