Testimonial:

Real User Paul Lemmens

In 1987, just a few short months before his three-week honeymoon to Ontario, Canada, groom Paul Lemmens bought a camcorder. Not just to record happy memories for the future, but in a way, to move on with his life.

"My first wife passed away in 1985 leaving me with our two-year-old daughter. I married my second wife two years later in early 1987; and that trip to Canada, with the three of us, was kind of a family honeymoon. I didn’t have video from the first part of my life, this was a chance to make and record new, happy memories."

In the twenty years that followed, Paul and his camcorder captured many happy occasions such as other family trips, reunions, holidays and weddings. As his experience as a cameraman grew, he began directing his lens beyond his family and recorded bicycle events (www.powerbikers.tk), as well as some artistic nature recordings of the birds, plants and flowers in their backyard garden in Ravels, Belgium. Paul soon realized he needed to edit down the content to create a better, more interesting story.

"In the beginning, my first and only goal was to cut out the clutter in my recordings. Although my first camcorder did have some nice titling and transition features, I wanted to have more sophisticated options at hand. Also, having to push Play, Stop, FF, RW on both the camcorder and VCR by hand time after time was rather primitive and inconvenient."

He was also experiencing loss in video quality due to having to convert analog source tapes into a digital format and found that even the most basic editing tasks were taking a considerable amount of time.

"In fact I worried about the loss in video quality that was due to having to copy the analog Video8 tapes over to another (master) analog tape while editing it and then for distribution the master had to be copied a second time to VHS tape."

Even with the editing limitations, Paul was being asked to share his video creations with his closest relatives and friends. For Paul, that was one of the first signs that it was time to upgrade his video editing skills--and his video editing tools, so he began looking into new digital camcorders and new software programs. A "savvy" computer user, Paul had always been interested in new technology and wasn’t too intimidated by the editing tools he saw in the market.

"I’m a technical engineer in electronics, but I didn’t learn about computers at school like they do now because that training just didn’t exist in the mid ‘70s. You could call me a self-made man when it comes to computers. I learned what was in the box while I was using the box. I guess I had that same self-made spirit when it came to my videos. While the tools I had allowed me to share what I had captured, enjoying it by myself was not enough. I wanted my family and friends to have something they would watch more than once; something they would enjoy. I did not want to saddle them up with annoying, long-winded scenes. "

It was in the latter part of 2000 that Paul first tried Pinnacle’s Studio DC10 Plus.

"From the moment I chose Pinnacle, I was able to cut scenes, apply effects, add transitions, titles and background music. I was able to add something personal and set a feeling for the movies I shared. Of course, I did read through the entire product manual first; but from the moment I launched the application, I was impressed by Pinnacle’s ease-of-use and the simple, straightforward user interface."

Twenty years and hundreds of hours of video editing experience behind him, Paul still considers Pinnacle Studio’s simple, straightforward user interface to be among his favorite features. He’s especially impressed that a single application can provide everything he needs including video capture, editing, authoring and burning to a broad range of media.

"My latest camera is an HD (High Definition), so one feature I really do appreciate with Pinnacle Studio 11 software, is its ability to burn projects in HD-DV and the AVCHD format onto standard, DVD media. I’m also very happy with the enormous amount of effects available through Pinnacle as well as third-party plug-ins that you can buy piece by piece, so there’s no need to pay for features one doesn’t need or want."

As his skills improved, both behind the camera and in front of the keyboard, Paul has been asked to create videos of family events and gatherings more and more. And now that he’s retired, Paul has even more time to spend mastering his video hobby. But he’s determined to keep it just that, a hobby.

"After a week of bike racing in France’s Ardèche, and another event climbing the Passo dello Stelvio between Italy and Switzerland, I authored DVDs of each event and I burned a copy for each of the 15 participants and club members. But I quit making videos like that. I do it for myself and my family because it’s a fun hobby for me. Commitments like club events and races make it more of a job, and I just don’t want that."

Even though it’s "just a hobby," Paul has the videofile bug and can be found at his computer editing his videos almost every day. His motivation? The simple satisfaction he gets when his audience appreciates the end result; or better yet, asks to see it again.

"People who are not familiar with video editing are always very surprised by what they are seeing--the professional look and quality, and they wonder how I do it. That’s what makes me want to do the next one."

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.