Preflight Briefing Video

[jergar999]

A friend of mine has asked me to help him with a little project. He is a one man flight department (part 91) for a business headquartered here. They operate a King Air F90, and with all the people who use the airplane (several departments, owners, family, etc) he is getting tired of doing the full song and dance before each flight. He would like to make some kind of computer based presentation that would cover all the legal stuff and look really shiny. I have a digital video camera, but it records on tapes and I am wondering if anyone has done something like this before. Basically, I was thinking of a few options:

1. Make a tape, somehow record it onto a CD (not sure how to do it) and save it in Windows Media format

2. Use the camera to take still photos and create a powerpoint presentation (not totally sure how to do this either, but could probably figure it out faster)

The guy really wants this thing to look good, and I would really like to help him out. I realize this is more of a computer question, but I was wondering if anyone has any input on a way to put this together and make it look good.

 

[jdog78]

I have a kodak digital camera that takes digital videos with sound as well as still photos. The picture and audio quality is excellent and transfers easily onto my computer. With the 64MB card i can take over 4 minutes of video. It is called the EasyShare DX4330. I'm sure there are other cameras out there with the same capabilities. Find a friend with a digital camera or go to circuit city and "buy" one for a few hours...they have a no-questions-asked return policy.

john

 

[bigD]

Using a digital camera like jdog78 recommended will produce better quality stills than your digital video camera will, but if you would like to use full screen live video or not bother getting a digital camera, you can find a friend with a computer that has a Firewire port. All late model Macs have one, as well as all late model Sony PC's, and any other PC or Mac can be equipped with Firewire for less than a hundred bucks.

You can then connect your digital video camera to the computer and either grab still images or live video, and then use a program like Powerpoint or whatever to put it all together for distibution on CD-ROM or DVD. For a truly professional look, I'd recommend using something higher powered than Powerpoint (such as Director, Premier, etc...), but then you're getting into programs with steeper learning curves, and you may not want to invest the time necessary to sit down and learn them. Powerpoint is certainly the easiest program to use for this kind of thing, but you pay a bit of a penalty in flexability.

Bottom line is that you have a ton of options, and they all depend on the time and money you want to put into it.

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions - I make my living in "rich media".

 

[dmspilot00]

I am just wondering but how do you plan to present it--where and with what kind of screen?

Personally I think several still photos with some text (closed captioning almost) and an audio recording would do the trick. More of a slide-show than a video. I believe it would be easier to make it look professional, as long as you use a program suited for the task, probably not Powerpoint, and it would communicate the message to the passengers as good as a video. Or, you could combine slides and audio with brief in-set video closeups of certain actions, such as seat belts buckling, moving the door handle, etc.

If you want to use mere video I would stay away from a few things. The first is not to use a constant stream as you would if you were making a home movie of your vacation (i.e. edit it!). The other thing you may want to do is not use the sound from the video. Record narration seperately with a simple audio program. I would also avoid having people fully in the video, except maybe someone's hands buckling a seatbelt or whatever.

If you don't have a regular digital camera than the firewire thing is probably the best way to go, look on your DV camera and check the types of ports though.

Your project sounds fun.

 

[alimaui]

A friend of mine has asked me to help him with a little project. He is a one man flight department (part 91) for a business headquartered here. They operate a King Air F90, and with all the people who use the airplane (several departments, owners, family, etc) he is getting tired of doing the full song and dance before each flight. He would like to make some kind of computer based presentation that would cover all the legal stuff and look really shiny. I have a digital video camera, but it records on tapes and I am wondering if anyone has done something like this before. Basically, I was thinking of a few options:

I would have have to check my regs to be sure, but IIRC you dont legally need to demonstrate or even give an oral/audible preflight, a safety card may be provided, I know this is boring, but I just thought I would mention it.

Ali

 

[Fast8945]

Well I have an option for you. On Windows XP there is a program called Windows Movie Maker. It is a real basic editing software. All you do is hook up the camera (make sure it is digital) through the USB port. Import the images into WMM. If you want text the best thing to do is to save them in Power Point as JPEG format. Then import them into WMM. When it is time to save it, you tell the computer to save it to play in WMP and you can also make a CD out of it by copying it to the CD-R. Good luck and hope all works out for your friend.