DETAILS OF WORKSHOP : PREPPING : TECH FAQs : SOFTWARE DOWNLOADS : PROMO FLYER : FEEDBACK

FAQs and Tech Specs for Participants:

Our goal is to teach you skills that you can then apply at home - hence why we'd rather you used your own equipment as much as possible. Then you KNOW you can keep going when you get home, and that's when you'll develop your own style.

We also want to show that it's possible without buying expensive, specialised equipment. You might decide you want to buy a hardware video-mixer further down the track, but you certainly don't need one when you're starting out.

Other advantages of you bringing your own basic equipment are that you'll be familiar with it, we can help you to install the necessary software, and also it helps to keep the costs down (and thus allows us to have smaller class sizes).

Video Camera - Ideally, a mini-DV video camera with Firewire and s-Video. But if you don't have that, just about anything will do, even an old analog camera preferably with video-in and video-out. ie, you have a cable that you can use to input and output from your camera to a TV, computer or whatever. Bring ALL your camera cables, including firewire, AV or S-video, as the other end may be something special to your camera. Your freebie kit includes one tape - by default, a Master Quality mini-DV - let us know if your camera takes a different size/format and we'll do our best to get a blank tape for you to use.

Please note: Recent model consumer-end mini-DV video cameras often don't have video-in (only video-out). This isn't an insurmountable issue, but it does mean that you can't use your camera to record your VJ output - which is a cheap way for you to record good quality output at home, without buying all the extra equipment that we use to do that. Other options at home are for you to record out to your VCR, DVD recorder or HDD TV-recorder.

Please remember to bring your cables (both firewire and AV or s-video), mains-adapter and/or battery charger too, as these are specific to your model.

Computer - We've said a PC Laptop, but if you only have a desktop and you can be bothered lugging your box, screen and all it's peripherals in each day, then that's OK - as long as it has the necessary video in/out (firewire, S-video and/or AV).

Minimum Specs for Resolume (our main VJ software) are:

• 1024x768 screen resolution
• 1 Ghz processor
• 256 Mb RAM
• Windows XP

Although we'd suggest more RAM is really needed, especially if you're interested in working with live camera and applying real-time effects. The more RAM, the more effects you can apply and the less lag you'll have.

Mouse - It's a bit fiddly operating Resolume with a laptop's touchpad, so might be an idea to bring along a mouse.

Hard-drive space - Anyone who's worked with video knows how horribly large the files are. If you computer doesn't have a lot of available HD space, it might be the time to get yourself an external HDD. The cheapest place in Perth to buy that sort of thing is PLE (buy the HDD and external caddy separately, it's easy to put together yourself). You'll find an external HDD useful for backing up your laptop as well. You can either get a tiny 2.5" 'pocket' drive that's powered by USB, or a bigger capacity 3.5" one - preferably with a built-in fan to keep it cool. The latter are cheaper and much larger in potential capacity (320 gig is the current 'sweet spot' in terms of $/gig) but has to be plugged in to the mains, which is a bit annoying. Email us if you'd like some help working out what to buy.

Why PC Only? We've had a lot of queries from Mac people wanting to participate, especially since the local tertiary institutions are so Mac-based. Most of the software we use doesn't work on a Mac. We sold my G4 Powerbook last year because it simply wasn't worth the effort for us to be cross-platform. There are Mac VJs - usually at the more academic end of the spectrum such as jean poole keith_d and dpwolf in Melbourne. Some of the more commercial VJing software also works on a Mac - eg Motion Dive, Arkaos and Livid Union. In the previous workshops, we did have a few Mac users participate, and we got them using GridPro, which supports Freeframe Effects. The handbook we provide, however, is for PC/Resolume, so if you come along with a Mac, expect to take a lot of notes. Also, as the workshop's so intensive and we can't spare a lot of time with every person one-to-one, obviously it will be harder if you're using a different platform and program to that which we'll be demonstrating on. You've been warned :)

Is there anything I can do to prepare? Sure! Although don't install the Resolume trial as it's only 15 days, and you don't want it running out during the workshop. I've compiled a list with links to things that are are available online, although some are older programs that are no longer available online that will be on the CDs you get at the workshop.

Why would I pay to attend if you tell me stuff and give me so many links on your site? $200 for two days of pretty intensive training will save you a lot of time - in downloading, in working out where to start once you have the software open etc. We do free public VJ demos as often as we can, but they're fairly limited. This is the first time a workshop of this nature has been run in Perth - in fact, there are only a few such introductory-VJ workshops in the world. We'd like to develop a DVD training package so that people anywhere can learn these techniques more easily. Even then, $200 for 2 days of being able to ask us questions in person is probably still a good deal if you happen to be in Perth :)

Oh yeah, and the Newcastle workshops are free - it's one of Electrofringe's core principles. We'll still expect your 100% commitment though, even though you're not paying!

Geekspeak! I was intending to do a Glossary of Video Terms, but then discovered some good ones here and here - or go to google.com and type in the word and 'definition' - usually works.

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitiate to email us.