Testimonial:

Leon Vlems, Portrait of a Pinnacle Studio Software Addict

From the outside looking in, 42-year-old Leon Vlems’ life appears, well, normal. Living in Cuijk, Holland, south of Nijmegen with his wife, three daughters and his dog, Diesel, Leon earns his living as a lighting designer, working with several well-known Italian light designers and creating beautiful custom lighting plans for his residential clients. Most would never suspect this hard working, family man’s secret. He’s an addict. A Pinnacle video editing addict, that is.

Inspired to capture the birth of his daughter, Leon first picked up a video camera eleven years ago. Initially, Leon was satisfied to simply record his daughter’s milestones and share them from beginning to end with "fortunate” family and friends. Two years and many hours of home videos later, Leon invested in a new camera which came with Pinnacle Studio 9 software, giving Leon his first glimpse at video editing and how easy it really could be to capture and save those family memories as creatively edited moments the neighbors would actually enjoy watching.

"I wanted to do more with my movies, and I wanted to be able to store and share them on DVD. I wanted to make them shorter, so they would be more interesting for us, and our extended family to watch. I wanted to tell a better story, leave the bad parts out, and dub in some nice music. I could do all that with Studio 9. I get the greatest satisfaction when people keep quite during my movie, or laugh out loud and want to see the whole movie more than once.”

It didn’t take long before the mild-mannered lighting designer was hooked; his creative nature finding a new outlet as an avid video post production person. Encouraged by the appreciation of his audience, Leon’s interest in editing began to grow from an hour or so a week to a couple hours a day.

"At first I didn't edit a lot, but I became more interested in the software when I realized it was possible to create my own DVD's with it. Even without any previous video editing experience, I learned the editing/authoring very quickly. These days, I use Studio almost every day. My wife doesn't like that I spend so much time editing on the computer now, but, I'm an addict... I can’t help it.”

Leon was quickly hooked on the easy-to-use special effects, transitions and editing functions. According to Leon, all of the tools were straightforward, making it easy for him to incorporate professional editing elements such as customized titles, drag and drop transitions and DVD authoring, even from his first production. And now, even with thousands of hours of editing experience under his belt, Leon is still discovering creative ways to enhance his videos.

"I recently upgraded to Pinnacle Studio 11 software, which has some really nice extra features such as VitaScene for more text editing functions and support for AVCHD - Advanced Video Codec High Definition. I also needed to upgrade because my new notebook came with Microsoft Vista and Pinnacle Studio 11 is Pinnacle’s first Vista-compatible video editing suite. But, part of me just wanted to have the latest version.”

Far from ready for a 12-step program, Leon’s growing passion for video editing lead him to seek out others with the same obsession. Becoming an active member of the Dutch Pinnacle User Forum, Leon found plenty of kitchen table movie directors and soon, Leon was among the founders of the Dutch Pinnacle Video Club. The club serves as a place for other admitted (and closet) addicts to share editing tips, ideas and challenges. Leon now serves as the Dutch club’s president.

"Now we have 15 members including some from Belgium too. We cross borders with Pinnacle Studio software because it’s all about our common interest in video editing. All our members would say they are addicted to Pinnacle Studio software too, but I am the king of the addicts!”

One of the recent club challenges was to make a movie that represented spring. Leon’s video, "Diesel Goes to the Forest” was well received by family and fellow club members, which led Leon to shorten the piece and submit it to Pinnacle’s "Share Your Studio Experience” contest where it won first place:

Leon’s winning video pips as many as three streams of video at once in arranged windows on the screen, offering an exciting visual effect that gives Leon multiple angle opportunities to tell his story of spring. "Diesel Goes to the Forest” also makes good use of Chromakey, Studio’s "green screen” tool.

"I used Chromakey at the start of the movie. I had our dog lie on a green blanket, so I was able to place her in a forest, at a beach or on the highway in editing with Studio. Chromakey green screen was already possible in version 10, but I use it more extensively now. I used it for the end title also, which I use for all my movies now. That’s the part with the little girl holding cards that read ‘On The Movie’. It isn't a company; it’s more like a hobby.”

This "hobby,” however, is starting to transition into something of a side job for Leon who also shoots, edit and produces a number of videos each year for friends, family and even his community.

"I’ve made several DVDs of events at the kids’ schools, for their musical and even birthdays. You can see some of them on my website www.OnTheMovie.nl, although it’s all in Dutch of course! It’s very satisfying to capture and save family moments and in just a short time, turn that raw footage into something people will enjoy today, and tomorrow”

Now an experienced, award-winning video editing hobbyist, Leon is well-qualified to pass on his passion to his family. Share the director’s chair with his daughters, or perhaps pass the keyboard to his wife, an avid photographer and family photo album creator so she can transform her still shots into artistic video slideshows complete with panning, transitions and music to set the mood. But he has no plans to do so.

"NO! Studio is MINE!” Jokes Leon.

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.