Frequently Asked Questions

The Club

What is AMP? It sounds like an extreme sports drink.

AMP, or the Association of Movie Productions, is a Virginia Tech club dedicated to a common interest in movies and film.

What does AMP do, sit around and talk about movies?

Rather than just admiring film, we meet regularly as a group to create our own films. We also have other informal gatherings, such as going to see movies together.

What kind of films does AMP create?

We make short films, generally a few minutes long each. We do comedy, drama, horror and anything in between.

Who can join AMP?

Anyone who has an interest in film is welcome. Our members have widely varying degrees of film and filmmaking knowledge. So whatever your level of expertise, everyone can contribute something.

This sounds way too good to be true. Is it free?

We ask that members who plan to attend regularly pay a membership due of $10. Don't worry, this doesn't mean we'll stop you at the door and shake you down for the money. Everyone is welcome to come see what we're about. We only ask that you contribute if you decide to join. This money goes towards projects for the club. As an added bonus, you get a spiffy profile on the members page!

Technical Info.

What kind of cameras are used in filming?

Typically, during the meetings we use Canon GL1's and GL2's. However, we rely on people to bring their own cameras for shooting. With all the people that show up to meetings we don't have enough cameras for everyone. If you have a video camera we encourage you to bring it, no matter how old the camera is.

What software and other methods are used in editing?

Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro HD are what we normally use to edit our projects. Sometimes we also turn to Adobe After Effects. And if we're really feeling lazy we turn to Windows Movie Maker and iMovie. The New Media Center provides a great environment for students to edit their films. It's got all the software you could need, including a staff who can teach you how to use it.

Which video and audio formats are used?

This can vary according to the filmmaker's preference or the camera used. For example, the GL2 creates DV films in NTSC format with a 16x9 aspect ratio (853 x 480 resolution) and 16-bit PCM audio.
      Before being put on the website, they are compressed using the H.264 standard with MPEG-4 (Part 10) video and AAC audio.

Website Info.

What protocols are used in creating the site?

We use HTML 4.01 Transitional and CSS for all of the site.

I'm having trouble viewing the site. What gives?

During the construction of this site Firefox was used for most testing, meaning the site should always work fine in it. Firefox is also tested on both Windows (XP) and Mac OS X (10.4) systems. Our main goal is to have the site work on at least Internet Explorer, because it is still the most widely used browser, and Firefox, because it can be run on Windows, Mac, and Linux. This assures maximum compatiblity across different platforms.
Firefox users: No known issues in 1.5 or 2.0 (Beta)
Internet Explorer users: Due to the way IE displays the layout of the site, there are some slight differences between what it shows and other browsers. These issues aren't very noticeable and should not hinder site viewing in IE 6
Safari users: No known issues in the current version, 2.0
Netscape users: No known issues in the newest version, 8.1 (7.2 for Mac).