Why use QuickTime format for your movies?
QuickTime 7 Player takes advantage of the latest video compression technology. It’s called H.264, and it’s an important new industry standard that’s quickly gathered widespread support. Chosen as the industry-standard codec for 3GPP (mobile multimedia), MPEG-4 HD-DVD and Blu-ray, H.264 represents the next generation of video for everything from mobile multimedia to high-definition playback.


It's ultra-efficient, the H.264 codec compresses video tightly — resulting in much smaller files — without sacrificing any quality. So you can watch video of astonishing quality — crisp, clear and brilliantly saturated — in a window up to four times the size you are currently used to seeing.

If you haven't upgraded to QuickTime 7, visit www.apple.com/quicktime/ for your free player download.

If you have ever burnt a DVD to disc and deleted your original Quicktime or DV files you will appreciate the power of a tool that will allow you to rip the movie back from the DVD to allow for web sharing or further editing.

Handbrake is an Open Source program which means that a collaborative approach has been taken by the computing community to develop it. Think of the community as volunteer programmers working to provide tools in return for donations.

As such Handbrake can be downloaded and used for free.

The program is easy to use.
It should be noted of course that, as ever, video takes a mammoth amount of disk space so check that you have enough space before you start ripping a DVD.

Handbrake can rip the contents of almost any DVD film, though consideration should be given to copyright laws relating to the material.

At GraphicReporter.com, you will find weekly hints and tips for using Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.
Applicable to Mac and Windows. Usually very straight forward but effective.
Here is the latest tip in action to give Morgan, my son, an interesting frame.

Click HERE for the tips.

Art Rage is an Open Source natural media painting package.
The new version has vastly improved performance, and as it seems so far, stability.
There is a free version that can be used to create some stunning pieces of art work.
Check it out - for both Mac and Win.
http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html

Apple has introduced Boot Camp, software that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP. Once installed, users can restart their Mac to run either Mac OS X or Windows XP. Available now as a free download, Boot Camp will be a feature in “Leopard”, Apple’s next major release of Mac OS X, that will be previewed at Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developer Conference in August.

“Boot Camp does exactly what it’s supposed to, and with the relative ease you’d expect from Apple software”, writes Ken Mingis in Digit Magazine.

http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=5663

The Adobe site has a section aimed at helping children get the most from digital imagery. The presentation is dry but the tips are useful.

http://www.adobe.com/education/digkids/tips/main.html

They also have a story board pdf that can be downloaded:

http://www.adobe.com/education/digkids/intro_video/support/storyboard.pdf

At the cluster meeting 16th March 2006, the Day in a Day Video Project was announced.

The Day in a Day project is open to all schools that took part in this year's DV project.

The plan...
Each school will produce a video of a day in the life of a school. Shot in a day. Edited in a day and finally published to DVD and the web.
Pupils will use time lapse video, photo slide shows, video, voice overs and music accompaniments to bring the school day - dawn 'til dusk - into a five minute video.
Up for the challenge?
Email me for details.