My Name is Michael Rosenberger and together with my partner Douglas Burt we produce a local Arizona traditional outdoor television show, the Arizona Sportsman's Journal. Though our company Azuho Productions has been around for the last 4+ years, we just started airing statewide this October. From a proverbial bar napkin to a cable show, we have made slow consistant growth our staying power.

With just under 2 months of airing under our belts we are already moving to the next level. Accepted by Fox Sports Az, we will be moving to a larger audience and more popular station. The biggest boost will be in marketing the program, were now we can say "Did you watch the world series? Yes? Yeah, that was Fox, we are on thier local affiliate. You might have caught a couple Suns NBA games there also." Along with Fox Sport Az. we have also been accepted nationally to the Outdoors Channel.

While I am not an expert at any aspect of production, post production, or the business, I would be glad to throw in comments and suggestions to topics or answer email best I can. We have certainly made some mistakes along the way and have learned some important leasons.

If you would like further information about what we do, please visit our webiste. I have been working on our online video, posting segments and shows. We also have pictures from local events captured straight from a GL-1.

Our current gear is as follows:
XL-1s (just recieved)
GL-1 (shot for over a year now)
(4) Azden 500udr (decent)
Bogden tripods (they work)
Canopus DVStorm (Excellent quality)
Premiere 6 (God, I wish FCP was on Windows!)
Apple 8600 w/FCP (old but works)
SpruceDVD (no burner yet.)
Nero (burning VCD SVCD)
Misc stuff.

Joined this board to gain experience with the XL-1, and hopefully be able to toss out some insights myself. Email with any questions.

Michael, good to have you aboard.
Wayde Gardner

Thanks Wayde.

Michael.

Ah an international member, good to see another non Texan

Don't forget us New Mexicans, we're international too. (at least a lot of folks seem to think so)

Ed

It's amazing with how big Texas is that anyone is living outside the state, and to have 3 of us already post here must "sum kinda rekerd...y'all." At least my buddy in Austin says so. :)

Michael.

Hello,

I just joined the board and based on the equipment you own, I thought that you might be able to help me out.

I too own an XL1 and I have just purchased an Azden Shotgun and the Canon MA200. Now, I need to buy a longer XLR cable to connect the shotgun to the MA200.

When I plug in the provided XLR cable into the MA200 in AUDIO 1 - Left only (my mike has only one cable output), I can only hear the sound coming on the left channel, of course. Now, I don't plan to use more than one mike for my next film. Do you know if there is such a thing as an XLR cable splitter to go from my mike's single ouptut to the L and R audio 1 channels of the MA200?

Or, is there something out there I have missed with the Canon? I did call Canon and they were not very helpful telling me they didn't know if an XLR cable splitter would even exist... sigh!

Cheers,

Isabelle

Didn't Arizona used to be part of Texas?

(and Australia too for that matter)

;)

Yeah,

I think most of the western hemisphere was part of Texas at one point. Hell, a good chunk of it still is. Have you even tried to drive across that state? It's like a small continent.

I'll reserve the Texas jokes out of repsect for Chris :)

I wound up in Korea after I made a wrong left turn in Lubbock six years ago.

So speaking as yet another Texan in this community...if you've got Texas jokes, let 'em fly. We're thick-skinned (caused by years of sandstorm exposure).

By all means, if you've got Texas jokes, let 'em fly. But they damn well better be funny.

;-)

DV & DV Accessories,

Okay...here's one:

A cowboy rode into town and stopped at a saloon for a drink. Unfortunately, the locals always had a habit of picking on strangers, which he was. When he finished his drink, he found his horse had been stolen.

He went back into the bar, handily flipped his gun into the air, caught it above his head without even looking and fired a shot into the ceiling. "Which one of you ornery sidewinders stole my horse?!?!?" he yelled with surprising forcefulness.

No one answered.

"Alright, I'm gonna have another beer, and if my horse ain't back outside by the time I finish, I'm gonna do what I dun in Texas! And I don't like to have to do what I dun in Texas!"

Some of the locals shifted restlessly. The man, true to his word, had another beer, walked outside, and his horse has been returned to the post. He saddled up and prepared to ride out of town.

The bartender wandered out of the bar and asked, "Say partner, before you go... what happened in Texas?"

The cowboy looked at him blankly and said, "I had to walk home."

Okay,

I can only tell one in mixed company, and it is actually a funny story and not a joke, and I'm not claimin' it's "damn funny." :)

I have a friend in Texas who works for Dell. I used to travel out and visit and after a few beers at the bar we start telling stories. (We had to go to some other county to drink because this particular county was a "dry area". And then had to buy some drinking card to be able to drink in the next county...but I gues that's another story).

Anyway, after years of trips to Texas I came to the conclusion that there isn't that much difference between Texans and Arizonians, and I told my friend this. His reply was "yep." I further added that although Texans talked a big game that they are really just down to earth folks. Again my friend just took a sip of beer and said "yep." This went on for a short time as I tried to bring the margin closer between the "large" Texas attitude and a simple Arizona way of life, all the while my firend just smiled and replied "yep" or "yessir." I finally became frustrated at the lack of feedback to my analysis and asked my friend what he thought the biggest difference between Texas and the rest of the west coast was. He simply replied "Well, you start out your stories with 'once upon a time' and I start out with 'y'all gotta hear this sh*t'"

I do have one joke, but I will save that for a bit.

...and we get sandstorms too, but we believe the dust is stirred up because Texas sucks and California blows. We are unfortunatley caught in the middle. :) Yes, that is just a joke.

Hi Ya'll!

I'm glad to meet such a nice bunch of people. I'm new to this forum, new to any forum for that matter, never been on one. I have been reading this one for a couple of weeks and decided it was a friendly place. So I joined in.

I probably won't be much help to ya'll, but, I'm hoping to learn a lot from you. I'm pretty much an newbie wanna bee video guy. I have a GL-1 and access to an XL-1. I got your basic equipment, like bogen tripod, low end Azden wireless, Premiere, and a DV Raptor. But, I got a BIG itch and desire to learn. I keep walking around video taping stuff with no real focus on what to do with all this footage I'm shooting.

I relate to "Arizona" the most I think, I'm big on outdoors and I love video. I grew up in Texas, near Dallas, and as you can see by my location, I got transplanted in a small town West of Seattle a long time ago when I was in the military. I like it here, there is a lot of outdoors to video! If anybody ever wakes up and finds themselves on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington I can show them some pretty decent big game/fishing/bird hunting spots.

Back to video, my short term goals are to shoot a short film, and anything else that others might like to watch.

I do have a specific question for AZSportsman, when you first started, did you film on minidv and submit that to a local broadcast station? What format and medium were you using to get your series out to the public? I guess you can tell that I am really intrigued with your concept and the way you and your buddies got started.

Thanks guys, glad to be here! (wouldn't mind being in Texas though)

Welcome aboard!

Sounds like you came about the board as most people do and I joined for the same reason.

Your on the same track we took for producing the show. Here is a brief history ( and I am including some of this information for an email I just recieved from a board user that is along the same lines)...

Worked for a local college and did freelance for years. One year at New Years I all of a sudden decided I wanted to do an outdoor program. Wild hair or whatever, that night I sat down with my friend and our wives and basically did a business presentation. Everyone smiled and said "sounds good". The next day we were out to lunch and we wrote down our business plan on a bar napkin (see above introduction). This was 1997/1998.

For us the process was slow, I think as it should be. Lots of research was needed. Having done video production and post production for the last several years I had no doubt we could do it technically, but the business and advertising side was going to the key to success.

We ended up self publishing a 8 to 12 page bi-monthly newsletter covering the same topics that would be in the show (always keeping in mind that we could us the information to create scripts for shoots). It allowed us to get exposure for our company and get a feel for the market.

Come a year and a half ago we stopped the journal, opened our webiste to keep readers interested, and started shooting and planning the show.

First concern was access to networks or stations. This was a challenge. My partner Doug Burt worked hard calling ever concievable station in town to find out costs, format requirements, and if they were interested in our shows content. Let me tell you up front, MOST people will self produce and self air a show to start. It is a far longer road to have a show picked up by a major network off the bat. We were no different and started looking at options.

Air cost can vary from $70 per half hour show to over $8000, covering lease access to local NBC. We knew from our research that presenting a new show about a local market might not be enough to get national dollars so we chose to get ourselves on the air and work from there. Even at the lowest level, costs for producing, editing, airing, and business fees were over $23,000 for our first season.(That doesn't include cost of equipment)

Developing advertising packages was next. We came up with numbers for 3 distinct markets - lease access, local network, and national network. Commercials would sell for anywhere from $75 to over $500 per spot. For the smaller market we were able to add in commercial production for free. Nothing super fancy, but good, clean spots. Most only took a 12 hour day to shoot and edit.

We had been working with many groups and organizations in the state, and had many contacts. Through that we ended up with a full boat, 12 full :30 spots. Not sure if that was luck or what.

Getting accepted to networks and such: We decided to produce a pilot of the show. At the time I was shooting BetaSP and editing on a high end Media 100 system - and I metion that as a point of reference for further down in my rambling, not as what you need to make this work. We submitted the tape to ever place we could. Most graded on technical setup, content, appeal, and flow. Again, not sure if it was luck or what, but we were accepted at every network and station we submitted to, locally and nationally.

Everything in place, gearing up was next. This was difficult for me. As mentioned above, I was shooting and editing on highend equipment, but going on my own I sure as heck wasn't going to be able to afford it myself. I really worried about quality with "lower end" gear. As I have for the last 12 years, I ventured to NAB with a new product on the list for touchy/feely...DV.

Long story short, with field requirements and short funding (we still needed wireless mics, sticks, misc gear, and an editing system.) we chose the GL-1. That was the best investment we have made yet.

We have shot our first season almost exclusively with it and none of the stations have been the wiser from our pilot tape. I am not saying it shoots as well, but it does an admirable job.

We shot for the whole year, during which we started editing the first shows on our new Canopus system. The combination of the Canon and the Canopus is a winner for us.

We just started airing this last October and as I write this I am finishing the last 4 shows of the season. We distribute on (1) 3/4" and (8) SVHS to the local cable stations. We cover most of Arizona and have had wonderful response, and are quickly being pushed to move to the next level, which for us is Fox Sports Arizona. More costs, but better coverage. We currently reach about 800,000 households. Fox Sports Arizona is 1.5 million, and includes some of New Mexico.

As you might have noticed by my presence here we just recently upgraded to the XL-1S. A fine camera in its' own right. I had a few choice words for it to start, but after a long trip to Canon for transport and lens work life is good. We are looking at a second Xl-1S very soon.

So (as I chuckle to myself), to answer your questions:

- Yes we do aquisition on mini-dv
- We distribute 3/4" and SVHS
- We are also working on VCD, DVD, and webcast

And as a note, it is just my excellent partner, Douglas Burt and myself who are Azuho Productions.

Jesus! I just did a preview. Man, I haven't typed that much since those college reports.

Anyway, I hope there is some useful information in my ramblings above. Someone said most people are tight lipped about getting into the business, but as you might gather I'm not. Everyone's route to success will be different, but I try to point out some of the problems and solutions we have come across and come up with.

I'm going to stop here. If anyone wants to add to this I think we could move it to the General Discussion Forum. People might see all these posts and think I'm popular or something.

I would love to hear anyone else's tale of self production.

PS - I sure as heck ain't going to go back and read my post so I apologize for spelling and grammatical errors :)

Thank-you very much, you answered all my questions and I can't tell you how much you've helped me. My hunting buddies and I have always laughed over beer about taping our crazy hunts, but, I guess I never realized how possible it really was! Thanks for helping the newbie.

Well,

Now I am going to play the devils advocate.

Though it isn't difficult to get on the air, there is a right way and a wrong way. I see many programs on the air, specifically outdoor shows, that disregard editing and production standards and basically put out a very poor product, not to mention showing unacceptable situations for safety and ethics. Added to that, there is TONS of legal issues to settle before paying for air time, including E&O and Liability insurance, business registration, taxes (jeez, there is ALWAYS taxes.), and contracts.

I talk to many people about starting shows, and I whole heartily support those efforts, but I have to harp on what I consider of the utmost importance. We took 2 of the four years doing research and working our regular jobs. We took the next couple years putting the business together and creating our product identity. Plan, plan, plan.

Speaking of planning, even as a tight run two person company you need to plan to have NO INCOME for the first year. Our company runs itself and does pay for some things for us, but we don't get to draw a regular check. Not all shows start that way and good sales people can help in that regard, but I am telling you to be prepared with business loans and such. Well, unless you have a good chunk of change lying around. Most advertisers in larger markets want to see at least one year of stability to make sure they are not supporting some flash in the pan. I have seen 3 of the 5 local show go out of business with the first couple years.

I will get off my box now and return to our regularly scheduled program.

Best of luck and let me know if I can be of any other help. There will be many questions and the best advice I can give is ask as many people as possible for answers and develop a plan from the input.

Cheers!

We have some of the commercials we produced online and was wondering if anyone has had a chance to check them out? I would appreciate any comments. They are larger files so may take a minute to download, unless you have DSL or cable.

http://www.azuho.com/azsj_tv/sponsors.html

Quicktime format.

Thanks!

Michael, I checked out all your commercial spots and they're all inspiring in their professional look, sound, pace, and graphics. Thanks for sharing them.

Speaking of graphics...what did you use to make them and animate them? FCP doesn't have much of anything available for titles, but I hear the new 3.0 version has been souped-up.

One thing...in the "Retrievers" commercial, I particularly liked the "bounce" transition where you quickly zoomed in then cut to a new shot as you quickly zoomed out.

That's the Canopus system using Premiere 6, TitleDeko, and TitleMotion. All free versions and almost everything done in the commercials was realtime in the DVStorm. I LOVE FCP, but for the money and capabilities Canopus has been invaluable.

Thanks for your comments. As I said above. Nothing super fancy, but they were shot and edited in one long day...and they were free.

I should note that we did not produce the Kohl's Ranch, 4 Wheelers Supply, or 4 Seasons Motorsports commercials.

Michael,

Could you tell me more about what the market requires for submissions? You've mentioned that they require tone, bars, slate, and count on the leader. Does it matter how many seconds that the bars are shown? Or the setting of the tone? Why is there a need for both a slate and a count (can't imagine why you'd need a blank slate inserted between the bars and the count)?

Man! I wish someone would write a book or make a video along the lines of "The Practical Guide to Submitting Film/Video Productions for Airing." I've searched Amazon.com high and low. Seems all the titles I find talk about "theory"...more along the lines of "How to Succeed in Business" rather than simply outlining concrete procedures as in "Okay...here's what you need to do and how to do it. One,..."

To you and all the veterans out there...write the book or make the video...and I'll be your first customer!

I don't remember what the industry standard is/was anymore, maybe someone could chime in.

I put 30 seconds of bars and tone. I set my tone for 0 vu, 1k tone at -10dB (using my old Fostex tone generator, model TT-15.). I use -10 becuase that is what most consumer and prosumer equipment is referenced to. The pro stuff I have used is +4, again 0 vu and 1k tone. The BIGGEST thing is to keep audio consistent to whatever tone you set. That way the station or duplication house can set their audio output to your 0 vu point. For direct to consumer stuff, like making vhs copies for people, you should make sure you use the correct reference.

One of the most difficult setups I have done is to make sure I have consistent tone throughout my system. My Canopus system references to -12, as does my Xl1-S, Tone and bars generated by Premiere are like 0dB, or something like that. Anyway, just make sure you take whatever tone you want to use and put it through each piece of equipment to see where it comes up for levels. There is much more to that, but that is the basic concept.

I put a 10 second slate on the front of every program. This includes name of the show, title of the show, episode or reel number, audio assignment, Creation and copyright dates, air date(s), contact information, and whatever else the stations require.

Another note on audio is that many stations use automation for switching, so every station you send to may have different requirements for audio assignment. Some use mono right or mono left, with the other track blank for control. Some want both mono tracks clear and stereo on the Hi-Fi tracks.

Even though I am talking audio I guess my point here is kinda global to formating leaders, and for that matter tape format in general.

- Ask the station what they want.
- Make sure to adhere to that.

With all the information from the stations you may be able to find a standard format you can put on all of the tapes you submit. As an example, I put mono audio on left and right lower tracks and stereo on the Hi-Fi tracks. I called each of the stations and they said that was fine and that they would just lay down their control track over which ever channel they needed. Saved me from having to create several different formats.

It is really funny you should ask for a book on the topics. My partner Doug and I have talked to dozens of people just in the last few months on all the same topics we have been chatting about here. I was talking to a local guy just last week who, after listening to my same blabbering about marketing, and format, and shooting ,and editing, and the business, said the same exact thing. I wish we had the time and patience to write a book, but we are slammed! I am thinking of throwing all this information and more on a personal website. Not sure if or when that will happen, but it has been on my TODO list.

Anyway, I don't mind writing when I have time and this is the place for getting good information from good people. As usual, the above is just my expierence that is working for our show. Your expierence will certainly be different in practice, but similar in theory, and I am sure there are other rock solid standards and setup practices out there that can be shared. In other words, I still don't consider myself and expert or professional, so adjust the volume and tone of the conversation to your liking :)



Hope this helps.