Comcast & AT&T Taken To Task Before Congress

This is primarily a production techniques blog but people need to be aware of the threats to a tremendous free video production and distribution resource, public access TV. These community TV stations provide cheap or free production tools and video training in thousands of communities across the country.

Unfortunately access TV has been under corporate siege in the last couple of years. Thanks in part to gullible state legislatures and the corporate lackeys controlling the FCC, the meager resources and channel space allocated to access TV are directly threatened (and in some states, already lost.)

Given the tiny budgets of access stations, why do corporations work so hard to escape their public service obligations? Certainly the money isn't the issue, but I think control is. Corporations are resolute in their commitment to evade any social obligation, government regulation or accountability to the communities they profit from. In It's A Wonderful Life, I think George Bailey's rebuke of Mr. Potter's attempt to shutter the Building & Loan speaks volumes, "You're talking about something you can't get your fingers on, and it's galling you."

Well AT&T and Comcast were finally taken to task for their uncivil actions yesterday before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet in the hearing, "PEG Access in the Digital Age."






Many of the statements and questions from the committee members suggest support for the preservation and future health of PEG access TV. Time will tell if those words are followed substantive legislative action.

You can learn more about the issue and participate in the efforts to protect this important public resource by visiting the Alliance For Community Media.

The Inverse Square Law - Whaa?

What's the Inverse Square Law and why should I care? No one said there would be math - will it hurt?

This law of physics has extremely useful applications in video production. Understanding it will help you control your lighting and record better audio.

In Jay Rose's great book, Audio Postproduction for Digital Video he explains, "Each time you double the distance from a sound source, the power of the sound is one fourth as much. Each time you have the distance, it's quadrupled...It's called the inverse square law because power changes as the square of the change in distance." (page 26)




For example, if a microphone is four feet from your subject, moving the mic to a distance of two feet from that speaking subject will boost the power of that sound four times.

The same applies to light. Double the distance of your light from your subject and the intensity of that light decreases four times.

Adobe Premiere Tip Of The Week

Here's a tip that can help you avoid a lesson from the school of hard knocks.

The project file in Adobe Premiere is probably the most important. It contains all of the information which tells the application how to arrange, render and display the media elements in your video.

Unfortunately this file may become damaged which leaves it unusable and costing you hours of work. Adobe has an answer for this though. Within the application's preference settings, you can tell the program to create backup versions of your project file using the "Auto Save" feature.


To access this setting, select Edit>Preferences>Autosave... Make sure the box is checked, indicate how often you wish to create backups, and how many versions you wish to retain.

In the event that your project file is corrupted, you can open the most recent backup version and get back to work. These backup files are located in the Auto-Save directory of your project folder.

Check Out Audacity

There are a number of audio editing applications available, but this one stands out because it's free. Audacity is free and open source. (You can learn more about open source software by clicking here.)


Audacity enables the user to record, edit and mix audio and then export the file in a wide range of audio formats. It's a great tool to learn audio editing and mixing principles without spending lots of dough. (Please consider making a financial contribution to the project if you use the software to support its ongoing development.)

Free Music & Sound Effects - Part 2

Here are a few web sites that offer free music or sound effects to use in your video.

As their website states, "The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focusses only on sound, not songs." Read my earlier post to learn how Creative Commons licenses work.

Soundsnap.com is another source "to find and share free sound effects and loops- legally. It is a collection of original sounds made or recorded by its users, and not songs or sound FX found on commercial libraries or sample CD's."

If you're looking for music, check out ccMixter. Again quoting their website, ccMixter is "a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons, where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want."

Here's a little rocker from ccMixter...


Remember to check the details of any piece of media with a Creative Commons license. Some prohibit commercial use or require attribution in a manner specified by the author.

And while we're on the subject, to learn more about the sound mixing, Filmsound.org is a great resource.

Adobe Premiere Keyboard Shortcut of the Week

Here's the fast way to bring up the titler in Premiere Pro and Adobe Premiere Elements.


Just press the "F9" key.


Also, here's a link to an article at Tabletop Productions on some basic rules to consider when creating graphics for your video.

Understanding Digital Audio

Here's another video from the folks at Digital Juice TV. The piece explains the basics of digital sampling and how it affects the quality of your recording.

And Now A Word From David Lynch

I'm doing my best to refrain from editorializing much here but I can't help but admire film director, David Lynch's passion in this video. It's also a funny spoof on a grating ad campaign.

Adobe Premiere Keyboard Shortcut of the Week

Here's an obvious keyboard shortcut that's often overlooked by beginners (and by more than a few experienced users). The "F1" function key brings up the the Help section in Adobe Premiere Pro and most other Windows applications too.


I've found Premiere's help section to be quite comprehensive and should always be the first place to look for assistance when you get stuck.

Zoom Less, Live Better

One feature that's frequently offered as a basis of comparison is a camcorder's zoom capabilities. Most consumer and prosumer cameras offer both optical and digital zoom. (I'm not a fan of digital zooms because they degrade image quality so drastically. Essentially they just crop the image sensor, maintaining the aspect ratio and blowing up the image - yuk.)

For that matter, zooming should be exercised judiciously. Excessive and pointless zooming in a shot is a telltale sign of a newbie. So frame your shot, and then roll tape. You'll feel better because you did.

Adobe Premiere Keyboard Shortcut of the Week

Here is the easy way to trim your video clips before dropping them into the timeline. Trimming a clip means to select the portion of a source clip that you want to use. The "In Point" denotes the start of that portion and the "Out Point" is its end. While you can use the mouse to select these points, the keyboard is much faster.

1. Double-click on a clip in the Project Panel to view a clip in the Source Monitor.
   
2. To mark an In point, go to the frame you want, and press the "I" key.
3. To mark an Out point, go to the frame you want, and press the "O" key.