Testimonial:
Pinnacle Real User: Jeff Nash
For Jeff Nash, Program Director of Habilitat, a nationally acclaimed drug addiction treatment facility located on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, the discovery of three decades worth of dusty old film and VHS tapes has opened doors of opportunity for the long-term care facility and its residents.
"Late in 2007, we realized that we had all these videos made by the founder of our organization, who, unfortunately, is now deceased," recalled Jeff. "He had written a lot of material, mostly about the history of our organization; and he had been in many media interviews dating back as far as Habilitat's beginning in 1971, so there was a lot of valuable material there."
Many of the videos Jeff recovered capture founder Vinny Marino himself explaining Habilitat's highly structured long-term program and its dedication to teaching a positive lifestyle based on hard work and family values.
"When I started to play this stuff," Jeff continued, "I realized that some of it was starting to deteriorate because it was quite old. So we decided that we needed to convert these videos to digital to preserve them, and we need to do it quickly."
To preserve the content, Habilitat's non-profit acquisition team contacted Pinnacle Systems and acquired Pinnacle's Movie Box® to convert the analog video to a digital format and Pinnacle Studio™ version 11 to perform any desired editing.
"But as we were going through the process of converting this historical video, I realized that we haven't really made any new videos since the founder's death in 2000," said Jeff. "We decided we needed to start creating some new videos; in part to continue to promote Habilitat, and also to add streaming video of residents to our website so their families could see them, see how they're progressing, see the facility and the program. A lot of our residents come here to the islands from all over the country," Jeff continued. "Their families are a long way away, so we wanted to give them a glimpse of some of the things that go on here."
After purchasing a high definition video camera, Jeff and his staff began capturing videos, editing them with Pinnacle Studio 11, and producing the content to stream their website for easy access. (www.habilitat.com/video.html)
"We're having fun with the transitions and I'm exploring the different ways to utilize the software," said Jeff. "I'm still kind of playing around with how to make it more efficient for people to access the longer videos because they can take a long time to load. Although for our family viewers, it's not really a problem because they would probably wait an hour to see their child or loved one in a video. Still, I'd like to find a way to reduce the load time on the longer videos."
Jeff also plans to incorporate video production and editing training using the tools from Pinnacle Studio in Habilitat's vocational training program. This will give residents of the 200-bed facility the opportunity explore the field of video editing and production as part of their computer training classes.
"I'm planning on having them make a video, sort of 'a day in the life of,' showing what goes on here, and it would all be produced by the residents," said Jeff. "Another idea is to create an advertising video that we would send to potential clients. Actually, what I dream of, is producing our own mini documentary for potential clients, showing what they can expect from the program. It would detail all the various aspects of the program; the vocational training and educational training for those who need their GED, and document each of our different vocational training programs."
Jeff's goal is to profile each vocational department and explain what a prospective resident can expect, what Habilitat is about, how the program can help and what is offered.
"That's kind of in the works right now," said Jeff, "but it will probably take some time because obviously, our main focus is the rehabilitation of people."
But Habilitat is not solely in the business of rehabilitation. The staff works hard in the community to prevent drug abuse and other destructive behavior as well.
"We are always trying to figure out ways to inform people about what we do here in our community," said Jeff. "We visit high schools and talk to the kids about the dangers of drug abuse and try to explain to them what prison is like, and were constantly trying to think of new tools to deliver those messages. Video will be a good way to present those messages to youth, and Studio 11 will be instrumental in quickly and easily creating those tools."
An experienced computer user himself, Jeff had no problem finding his way around the features of Pinnacle Studio version 11, but it's because the software is so easy to use out of the box, that he feels confident adding it to the curriculum and seeing how creative the residents can be with it.
"I fooled around with it for a few hours until I figured out what I could do with it, but I'm a button pusher," admitted Jeff, "to heck with the book! I'm just going to fool around until I get it right. I don't read software manuals, I find it's easier just to get on, play with it and see what happens. If I don't get the right result, I just go back and try again. Once I figure out how to get the results, I just remember the steps I took to get that result and then just keep doing that to get the same result. Most of the residents have had some exposure to a computer, so I'm sure that with their current level of experience, paired with some classroom guidance, that it will be easy for them to get up and running with Studio 11. The interface is pretty easy to use."
For now, the only time-consuming kink in the entire video-production process is the proprietary format that his camera records in. Jeff has been extremely happy with the video quality, camera performance and its ease of use. When he encountered file format problems, he did some on-line research and found that while it is a standard file format, it has been implemented in a unique manner requireing him to wait for his post production software to be modified to resolve the issue. Fortunately, Pinnacle quickly upgraded Studio 11 to ease the transition.
"It's a high-definition 60 GB hard drive camera that records to this TOD format," Jeff explained. "There's a lack of software that recognizes the format, so all the video we take has to be converted to the MOV format first using the bundled software before we can edit and transform it using Pinnacle Studio. It has been kind of a pain, but I read on the Pinnacle forum that there is a plan in the future for Pinnacle to support that file format in the next version of Pinnacle Studio. The software that comes with the camera does some of the same things that the Pinnacle software does," continued Jeff, "however Pinnacle is much easier to use. The video loads faster and it just seems to be much quicker than the bundled software that came with the camera, so I prefer using Pinnacle Studio 11 for all the editing and final production."
According to Jeff, the difference between the two software applications isn't any one big thing, but rather a number of small things that to Jeff and his staff, seem to be easier to perform using Pinnacle Studio version 11.
"When you move video clips down from a folder to the timeline, for example, that process is so much quicker with the Pinnacle software than the bundled stuff," said Jeff. "There's just a bunch of little bitty things that seem to happen much quicker. The Pinnacle file conversion feature for instance, when I tried to apply transitions to all of the clips on the board it just seems to take so much time to do it with the software that came with the camera, compared to using Studio 11 to do the same thing. The Pinnacle software seems to be much more stable and the work flow is faster. There's not a lot of sitting around waiting like there is with the bundled software."
Driven by a desire to get maximum creative use out of the software, Jeff admits that he still uses Pinnacle Studio version 11 almost daily, exploring features, getting new ideas and trying to figure out how he can make the software do what he wants it to do. But unlike the early weeks, when the application first arrived, he isn't spending hours and hours every day working with the software.
"When I first got it, I spent several hours every day on it for the first week or so," said Jeff. "Right now, we're just fooling around with it mostly. I have put up a couple of quick little videos for the families of the clients to see, but as far as the big projects, we're still learning the software and learning how to use the camera properly."
The response from those few short video clips has been very positive and encouraging. Habilitat has already received several emails from family members, most from thousands of miles away who, in many cases had to send their child to the facility without ever having the opportunity to see the conditions they were going to be in.
"We don't allow visitation until about six months into the program, so the small token of a brief video has really been creating great feelings in the families," said Jeff. "They get to see their kid smiling, feeling better, and in better health; and I've received emails saying they haven't seen that in years. For anybody in the business that we're in, that is obviously very rewarding. I would say that has been the biggest benefit to this video editing project so far."
About Pinnacle Studio Software version 11
To meet the video authoring and budget needs of consumers, ranging from beginners to experienced users, the award-winning Pinnacle Studio™ version 11 family of products includes Pinnacle Studio, Pinnacle Studio Plus and Pinnacle Studio Ultimate. Equipped with powerful personal video creation and sharing capabilities, Pinnacle Studio can be used to create Hollywood-style DVDs that can be played on any set-top DVD player or PC. Movies can even be enjoyed on a Sony® PSP™, Apple® iPod® and other portable devices. The Pinnacle Studio version 11 family of products is available now through e-tail and retail stores.
About Pinnacle Systems, Inc.
Pinnacle Systems, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc. is an industry leader in video editing solutions, TV tuners for the PC and digital media adapters for the consumer market. The company's product lines include Pinnacle PCTV™, Dazzle®, Pinnacle ShowCenter™, Pinnacle Mobile Media™ and its flagship Pinnacle Studio™ line. For more information, visit www.pinnaclesys.com.
About Avid Technology, Inc.
Avid Technology, Inc. is the world leader in digital nonlinear media creation, management and distribution solutions, enabling film, video, audio, animation, games and broadcast professionals to work more efficiently, productively and creatively. Avid received an Oscar Statuette representing the 1998 Scientific and Technical Award for the concept, design and engineering of the Avid® Film Composer® system for motion picture editing. Digidesign, Avid's audio division, received an Oscar Statuette representing the 2003 Scientific and Technical Award for the design, development and implementation of its Pro Tools® digital audio work station. For more information about the company's Oscar®, Grammy® and Emmy® award-winning products and services, please visit: www.avid.com.
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