CD-R Rot

Here in Bermuda we get a lot of sun and humidity, and CD-Rs do not like either of those things. The life expectancy of CD-Rs in our climate seems to be around five years, after which time they degrade and become unplayable. That said I do have some CD-Rs that were recorded nearly 10 years ago that play fine. Through the years I've tried several brands, and of which the best lasting seems to be TDK. Unfortunately TDK discs are hard to come by now, so I'm using Verbatim and they seem to be pretty good so far. Time will tell as to their long term stability. A few common sense words of advice:

1). Keep the discs out of direct sunlight at all times.
2). Keep discs in Tyvek sleaves to avoid scratching.
3). Where possible store in low humidity environment.
4). Don't touch the playing surfaces.

Keep shots short and still

Two things I keep having to tell myself is to keep video shots short and still. Cute as our daughter Ariane is, a movie of two hours of her sleeping on a couch is plain boring to anyone else. So when making mixes for others to view edit the shots short. I find that any shot longer than five seconds is too long (generally I use 3 second shots). Try shooting the subject from different angles. Its OK to video longer shots, just cut them down before you bore everyone. Also shorter shots are less prone to tired-arm camera wobble, ... which brings me onto the second point - keep shots still. Nothing can ruin a good scene more than camera wobble. Don't waive the camera about. Hold the camera with two hands if necessary, prop yourself against a wall, whatever necessary, just keep the camera still. Avoid pans as much as you can. If you must have the majestic sunset from the beach pan, try slowing the video down in your editor when you mix it - that will smooth out some of the wobble.

Making tape backups

For any project it is always important to make backup copies, no brainer that one. But also consider that the media that you backup onto may be from a faulty or bad batch. Backing up onto bad media will only show up months maybe years later, by which time it is too late. To hedge against this failure make two backups using media from different manufacturers.