posting clips...

2Green · Post by **2Green** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 3:57 am

Hi Dana:

I was over on Rick Wilson's forum trying to get a video clip put up for viewing, and I was wondering if you could offer any pointers for "us" on the use of point 'n shoot digicams with "movie" mode for doing this.

Some folks think they need some fancy "video recorder" gear to do this, but a lot of the new low-buck digicams have movie mode.
We've been using this to record and email Kata videos lately, and if you have any thoughts on this aspect I'm sure they would be helpful.

For example, my 59-second Kata produced a 14MB file, recorded at 30 fps (frames per second) which seems to be the Karate minimum standard for not blurring action.
The file was rejected by the server (R. Wilson's) as "too large".

Any way to keep the quality but reduce the file size, or any other pointers along these lines?

I'm asking you specifically because I understand you are a video editor/producer, plus a Uechi BB, so this may be familiar territory for you in both aspects.

NM

Rick Wilson · Post by **Rick Wilson** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:14 am

Hi Neil:

To email a large file the only service I know of to use is:

http://s5.yousendit.com/

This lets the email receiver know there is a large file to be downloaded.

If you want to load a file to be viewed there are a number of services now like:

http://www3.youtube.com/

You can load a clip free for any who wish to view can.

Windows Movie Maker has a compression option that can reduce the files somewhat.

Beyond that I hope Dana has some advice.

JimHawkins · Post by **JimHawkins** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 6:19 am

Most digicams will produce much larger files than that.. 14MB is small for a video clip today.. Depending on resolution and FPS, that file is probably already very compressed... 30FPS is nice but IMO not critical for good quality viewing--24FPS IMO is fine..

TMPEG enc is a great little program to compress further or to make changes in color or frame rate etc..

Other than that, as Rick said, you could either use USENDIT or just upload it to YouTube, and be done with it.. etc...

Valkenar · Post by **Valkenar** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 3:58 pm

With video you're almost always going to lose some quality in order to reduce file size. But you can choose a balance depending on how much blurring, pixellation and/or resolution reduction you're willing to accept. "XVid" is one codec (method, basically) for doing that which works pretty well for human subjects. You should be able to get the video file to reduce significantly without losing a lot of quality. Also, it's free.

Dana Sheets · Post by **Dana Sheets** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 11:02 am

soooo many options.

Neil if you go to the Uechi multimedia page and email Scott Danzinger:
scotttd at yahoo.com (spaces added and symbols deleted so he doesn't get spam) He's probably got tons of answers.

There's a difference in how you compress video for streaming vs video for download. There's video.google.com as well as youtube.com and recently I've used zippyvideos.com because you can keep a video private...sometimes.

All the compression things folks have posted sound good to me. You usually just have to play with a couple of freeware compression programs until you find one you like. I tend to belive that bad video does better with good audio and the programs I use at work let me select options for each.

So at work I use AVID and Cleaner 6.
Avid has a free version for PC and Mac:
http://www.avid.com/freedv/

But might be much more complicated than folks can to deal with.

Cleaner 6 was the last edition out of terran interactive, owner of Discreet Media, before Media 100 bought them up and made them go away. It is a wonderful program with a gazillion compression options. And now it seems Boris FX bought up Media 100 and the whole thing is just gone. What a waste.

Here's the program that came with our new HD avid last month:
http://www.sorensonmedia.com/solutions/ ... mp_win.php

$419. Not cheap. But then again our HD Avid system with all the extras was over 50K...so then $419 doesn't seem so bad. We like the sorenson codec at work - however it doesn't make files on the smaller size like you're seeking.

At home I bought at Dazzle for $59 which came with Pinnacle 7. Pinnacle 7 is a terrible program but does what I need it to do. Never get any of the updates or patches for the program - they just make it crash. I didn't want to run AVID free DV at home because the home computer is slow enough as it is.

So there you go - more options instead of answers. Just wait until we get into HD and it all goes crazy.

http://www.red.com/

Dana Sheets · Post by **Dana Sheets** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 11:03 am

Here's more than you need to know:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_compression

2Green · Post by **2Green** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:47 am

Thanks Dana et al:

I'm attempting to email the vid to Stryke to see if he can capture it and post it; apparently his server allows large files.
(Apparently these days, 15 MB is still considered "large".)

I don't have the capacity to load and run the excellent programs that several of you have mentioned, but compressing the vids for transmittal does indeed seem like the way to go, at least until email servers catch up with real life.

Onward!

NM

JimHawkins · Post by **JimHawkins** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:57 am

I'm sure you could run TMPEG Enc... I could email it to you.. Compressed IT is only 6785Kb...

2Green · Post by **2Green** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:23 am

Jim:

Thank you so much!
I'll PM you my email address, that would be a super-handy utility to have.

However, I successfully uploaded it to MySpace for now...

If you want to see it, just go to:

www.myspace.com

Click on "videos" in the pale, thin blue bar: fourth tab from the right.

Select "instructional" as the category.

Mine is currently the second one in order...

---------------------------
Title: "Seisan Kata"
Description: "Uechi Ryu BB Kata"
Tags: "Kata NM"
---------------------------

These texts appear along with a couple of stills to uniquely identify MY video.

There are tons of mistakes by the way, I'm aware.
I just wanted to bare my Uechi soul by posting a Kata for all to see, as some others have done both here and on Rick Wilson's forum.

BTW there are some other Seisan/Uechi Kata there, no doubt all better than mine!

Neat site.

NM

Willy · Post by **Willy** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:01 am

Good to put a face to the name Neil!

Here is a short cut to the video

Seisan ala Neil

Dana Sheets · Post by **Dana Sheets** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:50 pm

Yahoo! Neil on video!

Well done. Nice explosive movements and great balance.

I've got a question for you, if that's OK, on that forward leaning elbow strike. What is your thinking, in principle, in having your striking arm hand up past your head? I know of a good rationale that I've seen in an army field manual but I'd be interested in your approach.

-d

2Green · Post by **2Green** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 4:55 am

Hi Dana, thanks for asking:

The hand formation was purely a guff, like many others on the video.

What my hand SHOULD be doing is forming a tiger-paw fist up by my ear as I "pike" the elbow in (as opposed to "sweeping" up with the elbow...)
The positioning of the hand by the ear is for protection as you "go in".

Just one of the many mistakes I freely acknowledge!
------------------------------------------------------------
I have a list by the way, perhaps I should present it as "how NOT to perform Seisan"...

#1: In the opening three thrusts, my left shoulder rotates too much in the #2 thrust.

#2: My Bushikens are WAY too straight and high. I have a problem: imagining my opponents too tall and distant.

#3: My hammer-fist to the Rear: I'm left handed and CANNOT swing my right hand convincingly. I "throw like a girl" right handed.(no offense, Dana.)

#4: My obvious guff in the hand-formation execution of the leaning-forward stance (ok, it's only one of the MOST IMPORTANT stances of the Kata, you bonehead! aka: ME!)

#5: Too much vertical movement while performing the three Nukites to the front, toward the end...

I see more, but I'm sure so do many more experienced UechiKa who are ROFL no doubt!

Anyway, I just wanted to present it for all to see, lay it on the line, since others have done the same.
I will NOT be offended in any way by comments or critiques, I promise!

I plan to work on it a bit more and re-post -- meantime , if any forum-readers out there have comments/questions/videos, just let it fly!
Ask anything!

NM

cdoucet · Post by **cdoucet** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:46 pm

#3: My hammer-fist to the Rear: I'm left handed and CANNOT swing my right hand convincingly. I "throw like a girl" right handed.(no offense, Dana.)

Ever notice how uechi is more geared towards righties then lefties? I can't speak of the higher black belt katas. But everytime there is an elbow strike its with the right hand.. same with the elbow > backfist > shoken fist (1 knuckle punch)?

Dana Sheets · Post by **Dana Sheets** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:15 am

There's a pretty good reason for and against the right-handedness. Over 80% of the attacks that come will be right hand swings of some kind. Just life. So it pays to excell at receiving, reading, pre-empting that kind of attack.

AND

It pays to be able to receive attacks from all around the clock from either side, either hand, foot, shoulder, hip, both, etc.

I'm left-handed. My right hand is more correct in performance, my left is more relaxed and stronger.

Neil - for the right hand tetsui - when you naturally throw a ball left handed notice how the elbow leads the wrist. Mimick that movement slowly on your right.

Throw a ball left handed, then throw a ball right handed. If possible - do this with your eyes shut. You can even throw an imaginary ball and it should still work. The tetsui it actually pretty close to how you throw a football because it has that little flick at the end that opens the wrist towards you vs a baseball where you may or may not do such a thing.

With your eyes closed you will also feel how your body naturally engages your core muscles (abs, lats, obliques) in a particular order in terms of focus through different parts of your throw. It may seem like they're engaging all at once - but if you slow down a little more you should feel slight movement. Again - once you can feel that try to mimick it on your right side.

These are the things that worked for me when I tried to learn how to throw anything right-handed.

Don't be so hard on yourself. There's so much to train and if you were already perfect, whatever would be left to do at the dojo?

-d