Democracy in media

There was a time when editing a video was a mystery. Cheap PCs, the advent of digital video and the availability of non linear editing software changed all that. One company I would like to thank is Adobe. Now, Mac folks, before you are ready to chew my head off, read further.

When I started creating video clips and stuff, it was just out of curiosity. Just like music. I discovered that I had a talent for creating visual media. My boss at my job at Cingular was a great guy. His name is Dave Doyle. He helped me build some cheap but powerful machines. He also got me some 'cracked' software. I remember working in Premiere 5.0 and editing some video of my daughter. This was 8 years ago. Even with the crashes and burns with Premeire, the experience of creating a video was exhilarating. Adobe got their act together with Premiere a few years later. But I was hooked in to the possibilities. Then came After Effects which in my opinion is the most powerful compositing software out there. Only your imagination is your limit.

By the time, I started with Kanmani, digital video had matured to a great level. Apple made headways with their cool machines and Final Cut Pro. HD video was already mainstream. We shot the first Kanmani video on HD but edited in SD (Standard definition). Premiere wasnt capable with the current hardware and we barely had access to any good Mac system. The visual beauty of Kanmani belongs to cinematographer Sudesh Balan. A person who knows his craft. I still wish we had edited the video in HD but we did with what we had at that time.

Kunnimanikal is a whole different story. I would have very much like to have Sudesh do the cinematography for Kunnimanikal. It would have taken the story to a whole different level. It didnt work out. Even though I had the story and script ready, by the time I started to produce the video, I only had 10 days left for my return trip. As far as I was concerned, I'd rather try and fail and not attempt making it at all. So I shot Kunnimanikal with 6 actors and a crew of 3 people. There were no fancy cranes or rails or huge reflectors or anything. I prayed for at least one day of sunshine and clear sky.. The prayes went un answered. But the overcast sky let me shoot all day in those 5 days. I left for US on the 6th day. There was no time to even preview the footage.

When I got back, the first thing I did was upgrade my PC. Frys had a sale for a Quad Core processor. The experience building my own PCs paid off. WIth less than $600, I had upgraded my PC with a Quad core processor, 4GB of ram and 2 SATA hard disks 500GB each.

Adobe Premiere smiled at me this time. Editing in HD was now possible! And I started my work on Kunnimanikal.

So how does democracy fit in here? The truth is that the only thing that stands in your way to tell a story now is your will to do it. Period. Its not rocket science anymore. There is a price to pay but if you want to do it, you can. And if done right, no body cares if it was done at and editing house where you spent hundreds of dollars a day or at your own home PC or Mac with affordable tools.

With blogs, social networks and video sharing sites, you are virtually unstoppable.

No more mysteries.