Earl Green - Freelance Television Writer / Producer

Shot with two miniDV cameras over three days, the Classic Gaming Expo 4-DVD set was a full-service gig: shooting, editing, post, and DVD authoring (in this case, I did not handle duplication). Since it also happened before, after and around the period of time in 2007 when my son was born, it took an unusually long time to finish (the show itself was filmed in late July 2007, while various delays meant that the DVDs weren’t released until early 2009). Some 23 hours of footage were shot, including multi-camera coverage of every keynote presentation given by the Expo’s variety of classic (1970s/1980s) video game programmers, designers and hardware wizards, and fast-cutting, multi-camera coverage of the Expo’s famous auction, where some of the most prized relics in the video game collecting hobby change hands. All of this was edited and posted in Avid, and featured cutaway footage of various classic games in action, recorded as a direct A/V signal from the original hardware via my custom RF-to-A/V rig.

Some of the keynote presentations required more work than others. Atari co-founder Al Alcorn’s presentation featured a Powerpoint presentation projected on a screen behind him; as the camera failed to lock on to these images with a sharp focus, Mr. Alcorn had to be contacted directly to obtain a copy of his Powerpoint file. He was a bit reluctant to do so – he does paid speaking engagements at schools in which this presentation is a central part – but the promise was made that this would be the only use his material would see. This allowed sharper images to be seen on the DVD, many of which were superimposed over a background loop which I created using animated Atari logos from various classic games. As a result, one of the biggest potential problem areas of the DVD set is now one of its more visually interesting.

The three-hour auction was a back-breaking editing challenge. One camera was fixed on the podium where CGE co-organizer and auctioneer John Hardie was holding court; the other, operated from behind that podium, was kept very fluid, changing position, zoom and focus frequently. The intention was always to edit the auction together like a fast-cutting live sports event, complete with on-screen “scoreboard” graphics naming the item in question and the current high bid. (This graphic was created by scanning an actual Atari cartridge and modifying it in Paint Shop Pro.) With down-to-the-frame editing, the fast-cutting look is maintained without too many wayward pans and zooms distracting from the action. No CGE auction had ever run this long before, so I underestimated how much tape I would need; a few minutes into the third hour, the auction abruptly switched to fixed single-camera coverage because I had only brought one extra tape to use as a backup in case one of the others was “eaten.” I was trying to conserve tape for the Sunday keynotes, and this is one mistake I wouldn’t make again.

There are some audio issues that were simply out of my control; I was told that the hotel would provide a means to link into their sound board, and the hotel managed to do absolutely nothing about this. I used a mix of the audio from both cameras, but in the case of some of the softer-spoken guest speakers (and most of the audience sound aside from coughs and group laughter), there was only so much I could do: I raised the audio level and EQ’ed the sound vigorously when appropriate, trying to make the resulting sound mix at least somewhat graceful, but there are two or three guest speakers whose voices are hard to hear. Tight on luggage space or not, assurances from the venue or not, next time my audio gear is coming with me.

DVD authoring leaned on NeroVision, with chapter points dropped for changes of topic in the keynote presentations, and changes of item in the auctions. The menus were constructed around a piece of the cover artwork from the show’s printed program booklet, created by Dave Giarrusso. At the end of each disc is a variety of text biographies of the guest speakers, with backgrounds constructed by me from screen-captures of relevant video games, treated with a similar “halftone” effect as the cover artwork.

Classic Gaming Expo was postponed for 2008 and 2009 for a variety of reasons, and even as grueling as this shoot and post job was, I’m ready for the next one – hopefully the show will return in 2010, but if this DVD set turns out to be the last anyone sees of the show, then hopefully I’ve done the show, the special guests, and the attendees proud.