Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Greetings, Rangers, Rohirrim, Men of Dale, of Gondor, alike!

As I'm sure you're aware, one of the things that makes our community so awesome is that it's small. I'd rather like to keep it that way. It's a friendly atmosphere where everyone knows everyone, and we all get along. We've had very few issues with member-to-member relations, and they've all been resolved rather quickly.

That being said, there’s plenty of room for us to grow. I am in the process of cutting together some footage (yes, footage!) of hikes and other Ranger-related things that I’ve done into a promotional video to point interested and like-minded folk to our community. The demand for hobbies such as ours is relatively small, so I don’t anticipate things getting out of hand with thousands of members, but I would expect us to garner the kind of people we want in our community from this new medium.

However, this community is in NO way about myself. I am a Ranger, but I am NOT the ranger.

Therefore, I need help from you!

I need anyone who is able to take a short video clip or two of themselves doing something forum-related, in kit or otherwise. I want to display not only the trekking aspect of what we do, but the practicing of the arts, tricks, crafts, and skills of our “trade”, as it were, to show that we're not just dressing up and camping, but that we actually build our equipment, practice our skills, and KNOW how to use our tools/weapons/kit. Clips of you working leather, clips of you at the anvil, clips of you sparring with a partner, practice cutting, shooting your bow, doing sword drills, lighting a fire…the list goes on! Take advantage of what you're good at, and showcase yourself working on it! All of the things I just listed could easily be shown in street clothes to get the message across. In addition, clips of hiking, archery, sword drills, tracking, starting fires, setting up camp, etc. could be shown in kit. These clips don’t have to be LONG, mind you. I’ll be using a few seconds, perhaps 5 at the most, of each, to keep things moving.

Imagine if you watched a video where you saw one or two dudes in funny clothes performing a bunch of outdoor skills and advertising a website. It’d seem a bit, umm…small, wouldn’t it? Imagine again that you saw the same video, but there were ten or fifteen different people shown in it, all with a common goal, practicing skills and putting them to use. Now THAT’S something worth looking into.

Now I know not everyone has access to a video camera, so just do the best you can with what you have. The production quality of this little video isn’t expected to be stellar; it’s just a start. But it’s a chance to get our hobby to an audience that, for some reason or another, hasn’t found us yet. In addition, it’d be a nice thing to be able to just link someone who’s interested in our shenanigans on a forum during a discussion. Let me know what you think, and if you’re willing, tell us what clips you think you might be able to get shot for us, and by about when. There’s no big rush; we can take as much or as little time on this as we want. If you DO get some things shot, please email them to me in a windows-compatible video format at gregory.lammers@gmail.com

Thanks everybody! Hope all is well, and I’ll look forward to hearing from you soon!

-Greg

Mmm. I'll see what I can manage; working on leather projects..and there's silk banner painting of my Ranger flag...I might be able to get some archery footage.

That help? If I can get it.

Eledhwen

That'd be great.

Great Idea. I've tried to crossover between other forums and refer others to threads on this forum to garner the like minded and make them aware that our group exists. I have had some success in getting new members but this would multiple that by a great factor.

I might also suggest that you make a slideshow included in the video (maybe as a backdrop for the title or credit pages) to include many of the pics in the Photo Contest. They show a good many different folkes in garb.

Count me in!

The slideshow is a good idea, I think. I'm not sure if we can do a video or not, but some stills of craftwork and archery shouldn't be a problem.

I think it's a great idea. We don't have a digital video camera, but we did recently get a video adapter for our analog we have yet to try. Maybe my wife's ghostbusting addiction that she buys all these gadgets for will finally pay off for my Rangering addiction!

Our little digital cam takes videos without sound. A short vid of knife forging could be in order.

Sound isn't necessary; I'll be cutting in music over the clips anyway.

Feel free to use the "Bearskin Rug" photo!

There'll be about 2-3 frames' worth of that interspersed into the video...a lucky few will catch it!

Sounds like an intersting idea! I don't have any skills really, but I love making videos. I look forward to seeing some of the videos

Are you thinking about like 4:9 or widescreen? I could do a video of making maille perhaps.

Whatever you've got available. I probably won't film in widescreen myself, personally, since this is intended for poor-quality viewing mediums such as youtube.

I think this is a great idea, Greg. My family and I recorded a few short videos of me doing various Ranger things while we were working on photos for your contest yesterday. I plan to record a couple more by the end of the month. Would you like me to wait until I get those before I email you my videos, or just send them along as they are created?

You can just send them along as they come.

Glad to hear you're entering! I *WILL* have my sample photos up tonight, so help me...I'll be going into town where I can get internet on my wife's computer...I'm on my gov't compy right now, which does not have my photos on it. *le sigh*