Broken Windows

A few weeks ago I was perusing eBay for video backgrounds and lower thirds when I came across an offering of visuals for under 10 bucks. We all know you get what you pay for, and for $9.95 I wasn't expecting much. Then I clicked on the link and took a look at this disc. I think I just looked in astonishment when my DSL connection loaded the fantastic graphics on the page! The disc offering was from a company called Broken Windows. I bid then looked around the site some more! The link on the eBay site took me to Broken Window Productions, and there I could view the backgrounds on each volume. There are 4 beautiful and useful volumes of backgrounds. Only $29.99 from the designer himself at his site. The eBay price is $9.95. But it could easily be over a hundred for such quality graphics! Lucky for me, it wasn't! {http://brokenwindowproductions.com/}

Each volume has loopable animated graphics perfect for backgrounds and DVD menus! Gorgeous swirling patterns and symbols adorn the graphics, each following a basic theme. Something you could plug into just about any production you're working on. The same quality and conceptual adaptiveness would cost you hundreds from other royalty free production companies.

So why is this stuff so cheap and good, I ask myself? Looking around his site I figured it out. These graphics aren't being made by computer gurus in some cubical pushing out a new volume every month. The owner of Broken Windows is a shooter. Just like you and me. He offers his services of videography on his web site. He knows what it's like to shoot and edit and his creations obviously come from that perspective. Many times I've bought a whole library and only used maybe two cuts from it, the rest simply were not adaptable to my productions. Sure, they were cool graphics but they lacked some useful purpose. They were just that, cool graphics that look good on a monitor but don't fit a video production.

As I scanned the four volumes from Broken Windows I could see potential and ways to use ALL of the cuts. Each clip said something to me, some way I could use it for my needs. That is hard to find in a library. Digital Juice and maybe a few others meet this kind of expectation, and Juice is not usually cheap!
Rarely do you find a gem like the four volumes from Broken Window. I bought all four!

I've purchased some good stuff off eBay, some home-made products and older buy-out libraries but this was an unexpected and fresh new set that I'm proud to own. The Broken Window web site has a flash display so you can see each clip looping. http://brokenwindowproductions.com/animated_backgrounds_v1.shtml#preview
Visit the above link and take a look yourself. If you are looking for a low cost library or surfing for more graphics to add to your video arsenal, you may want to get these. I've found them very useful and have already put a few in productions. It's a great library and it won't break your budget!