Make Better Media

A Practical Review of Premiere Elements 10

2012-01-01T13:39:00.000-08:00

Here's another piece from the ProVideo Coalition. In this article, "Can a professional really use Premiere Elements 10?", Allan Tépper assesses the limitations of Adobe Premiere Elements 10.

In the piece, Tépper lists what's missing from Elements 10:

* Multiple simultaneous sequence support
* Multicam editing
* Time remapping
* Scopes (waveform and vectorscope)
* Encore for more elaborate DVD menu authoring and Blu-ray Disc authoring
* OnLocation for in-field monitoring and direct-to-disk recording, both from a camera with FireWire
* XML i/o for PluralEyes (although DualEyes will work with Premiere Elements)
* Easy direct interoperability with other Adobe professional programs like After Effects, Audition, Soundbooth, etc.
* Compatibility for full use of a professional i/o device like the ones from AJA, Blackmagic, Matrox, or MOTU

So the question is, do you need these features?

Also Premiere Elements 10 will run on the 32-bit version of Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 while Premiere Pro requires the 64-bit version of Windows Vista or Windows 7.

So if you're not yet ready to upgrade your PC, Elements might just be the way to go.

After Effects Titling Tutorial

2011-12-19T07:34:00.000-08:00

Here's a tutorial by Chris Meyer of the ProVideo Coalition to walk you through the steps to use After Effects to create titles for Premiere Pro projects.

After Effects offers a number of text animation presets to offer looks that can't be created in Premiere Pro. And since the Premiere Pro project is dynamically linked to the After Effects composition, titles can be tweaked and edited after they're integrated into a Premiere Pro project.

The motion graphic design work of Chris and Trish Meyer has appeared on major TV networks and Hollywood films. They're also gifted teachers and the authors of a number of books on Adobe After Effects. Check out their Amazon.com page.

Post-Processing Tips For Time Lapse Videos

2011-11-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

A simple Google search will yield oodles of DSLR time lapse examples. However, I didn't find much regarding post-processing. How do you process that sequence of stills to get the best results? Working with the Nikon D7000 and Adobe After Effects, here's what I found.

When setting the camera the most important thing to remember is to set the exposure and focus manually. If either of these settings varies from frame to frame it can ruin the effect. The camera was set to make an exposure every 30 seconds over a four hour period.

Also for this test I shot the stills at the camera's lowest resolution - JPEG Basic 2464 x 1632. Why so low? Because these stills are destined to be incorporated into a 720p composition. Even at that low image setting, the pictures will need to be scaled down to about 27% of their original size to approximate the 720p frame.

A handy feature on the D7000 is its built-in Interval Timer. Here's a video which demos that tool:

Post-Processing

I use After Effects to convert the sequence of time-lapse stills to video. You can use Premiere Pro although I found that version CS4 struggled to render the sequence. After Effects worked much more smoothly.

In After Effects, import the stills making sure to check "Jpeg Sequence". The sequence of stills will be treated as a single clip in the After Effects timeline.

After placing the clip in a 720p composition here are the results with no adjustments applied:

That looks OK and comparable to many time lapse videos I've seen. But it runs rather fast and the animation seems like it could be smoother.

I decided to double the time of the clip by applying Time Stretch to the clip - Layer>Time>Time Stretch - 200%. Since Time Stretch is set to 200%, the program is simply doubling each frame. Yuk.

To smooth the animation I applied Frame Blending - a powerful tool to correct that problem. Here are the results:

Not bad but notice the image distortion that occurs in the landscape as the clouds pass overhead. The following still frames are zoomed in to show the problem.

Distorted

Correct

Well that's no good.

After some additional research and testing I learned that After Effects offers two kinds of Frame Blending - Frame Mix & Pixel Motion. Adobe claims Pixel Motion to be the superior tool and I've found that the program defaults to that setting when Frame Blending is applied. But for this clip, Frame Mix provides better results. To change that setting - Layer > Frame Blending >Frame Mix

Pretty smooth.

Finally here's an example by landscape photographer, Terje Sorgjerd which aptly demonstrates some of the possibilities of time lapse.

Note too that some of the shots include camera movement. One popular rig to achieve this effect is the Stage Zero Dolly from Dynamic Perception Here's a demo that shows how the system works:

Premiere Pro Audio Tutorial

2011-10-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a tutorial, "Normalizing, Compression, and Limiting in Action" by Rhed Pixel:

Premiere Pro Keyboard Shortcut of the Week

2011-09-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

Well it may be the keyboard shortcut of the month or year but whose counting?

Here it is. If you want to expand a panel to full screen, hover the mouse pointer over that panel and press the tilde (~) key.

Press it again to restore the previous workspace.

Color Correction in Premiere Pro

2011-08-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

Well-executed color correction can really upgrade the look of your productions. Check out this article by Jeff Sengstack at ProVideo Coalition. He provides a quick overview of the color correction process in Premiere Pro.

I'm looking forward to completing his online tutorial, "Premiere Pro: Color Correction and Enhancement" at lynda.com.

Here's a sample from that tutorial:

Changing a single color: Three approaches

Premiere Pro: Color Correction and Enhancement | by Jeff Sengstack

View this entire course and more in the lynda.com Online Training Library®.

Open Source Developments

2011-07-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

High-quality open source NLE's may become a reality in the not-too-distant future. (If you're unfamiliar with the Open Source software, check out this article.)

Lightworks is currently in beta mode and available for download. This NLE touts an impressive list of features. I'm testing this software now and look forward to sharing that experience here soon.

Novacut is now fundraising to help underwrite the release of its beta version. Here's an article from Studio Daily that describes the features to be included in this application.

If you want to support the project, check out the Kickstarter campaign here.

Windows 7 Networking Blues...(Or Is That Blows?)

2011-07-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

For the most part, I'm satisfied with Windows 7. It's very stable and doesn't seem to embrace the principles of Rube Goldberg in the way that Vista did.Unfortunately that isn't the case in Windows 7 networking. Windows 7 added the Homegroup "feature" to simplify home networking. Onefunction I need is the ability to fully share a network drive between two Windows 7 computers. Well after a couple of days of wrestling with this, there is no simple or obvious way to do this. Nice work Microsoft.

I won't bore you with all of the details. There's plenty of online fulminating to be found on the subject.

Instead I opted to create a Workgroup. Sounds easy and we've been using these for years - right? But hold on. While file copying across a network was a no-brainer in XP, Windows 7 grinds this simple process to a mind-numbing snail's pace.

Remedies?

After reviewing a number of user forums, I discovered some changes you can make that might help.

First you can tweak the settings on your NIC (network interface card):

Under Network Sharing Center>Change adapter settings,right-click your network adapter and select “Properties”

Disabled Ipv6 (uncheck the box)

Click OK

Right-click your network adapter again and select “Properties”

Click on “Configure”

Disabled Large Send Offload (IPv4)
Disabled Large Send Offload (IPv6)
Disabled Receive Side Scaling

The other thing you can do is Disabled Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level. You need to use Microsoft's command-line interpreter to do this. (Wah?)

To access this tool, click on Start and type "CMD" in the "search programs and files" field. Then go to this URL for instructions on the process.

I can't promise that this will fix the problem but it worked for me.

Final Cut No?

2011-07-12T05:12:00.000-07:00

Of late, there's been a great deal of debate and hand-wringing over the features (or lack thereof) in Apple's latest release of it's professional nonlinear editing application, Final Cut Pro X (FCP-X).

Here's a mixed review from Ars Technica and a more enthusiastic write-up from non-editor David Pogue at the New York Times.

There does seem to be some general agreement however. Many believe that Apple is no longer interested in solely targeting the professional video editor market, and has broadened its net to go after educators and do-it-yourself small business owners. Here's an article from the excellent ProVideo Coaltition that details this strategy.

That may be true, but if so Apple now finds itself in an even more competitive marketplace. If the actual goal is to provide a more affordable and easy-to-use NLE for "storytelling", there are plenty of options that are far cheaper than FCP-X. For instance, Adobe Premiere Elements is less than $100 and it runs easily on a pedestrian PC. And I suspect it's a corner of the market where low price typically wins the day.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out but there's little doubt that Apples new course has opened a major opportunity for Adobe and Avid. Adobe already offers a promotion to entice FCP editors to switch.

Using 4:3 Footage in a 16:9 Project

2011-06-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for ways to integrate 4:3 shots in a 16:9 HD project.

I found this article by Jude Cotter which details the challenges and offers some helpful alternatives.

Francis Ford Coppola on "Academy Aperture"

2011-06-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

Wide screen aspect ratios are all the rage these days. Broadcast television had adopted the 16:9 aspect ratio (although cable operators hack the ends of the frame in SD retransmission, referring to the process as "center cut".) Cable guys notwithstanding, even cheap consumer camcorders default to the wider frame.

In his commentary track included in the DVD release of his film, One From The Heart director Francis Ford Coppola explains his decision to shoot the film in the boxier 4:3 aspect ratio:

"I conceived the film to really revive and bring back so-called 'Academy Aperture' or the 1.33 format. This golden shape of a square basically or a slight rectangle. Not this sort of flat wide screen. But a shot that enables you to photograph human beings where you see her face. You see her shoulders. You see her hands. You cut her at the low waist.

In the opening of One From The Heart, Francis Ford Coppola echoes Orson Welles' traveling camera through a neon sign made famous in Citizen Kane. In the DVD commentary, Coppola mentions that his father, Carmine enjoined him to "steal from the best."

"In a movie today, they would be squeezed down into a panorama which means you couldn’t show the torso and the hands. As you probably know the theater owners at the time of the ‘50’s in a kind of reaction of movies would be different than television just projected the movies and cut the tops and the bottoms off. They didn’t care if they ruined the composition that the film was made in. Just to be able to say that it was wide screen. You know because it wasn’t just the same aspect ratio of television. But more like Cinemascope and all those systems they were trying to use in the ‘50’s to woo people away from their television sets.

So I wanted to make this movie in the classic format that you see. Because it was such a prefect one, a beautiful one for the film and had been used from the beginning of cinema. From the silent – all the great silent films all through the classics of our heritage are all shot in this shape, this shaped screen. And of course after a while, when the filmmakers realized that the theater owners wanted to cut the tops and bottoms off, they began to compose the frame with a lot of air on the top and bottom so they could cut it off and it wouldn’t ruin their movie.

It’s such, I think, a joy to work in 1.33. If I had my way I would do many pictures in this kind of a format.

Of course if you’re making Gone With The Wind or some sort of epic story that was going to have a million Napoleonic soldiers on the field, or like Spartacus then you would want to have wide screen. So then you could have a choice and the audience would have the benefit of the filmmaker having some choice. "

Orson Welles Over Europe

2011-05-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a treat from the BBC. The documentary, Orson Welles Over Europe, is hosted by Welles biographer, Simon Callow.

On a disappointing note, Warner Brothers recently announced the "Ultimate Collector's" blu-ray release of Citizen Kane to commemorate the film's 70th anniversary. More appropriately it should be called the "Ultimate Sucker's Edition".

Apparently the studio execs haven't yet discovered that DVD releases of classic films demand equally interesting and compelling extras. (For instance check out The Searchers - ironically also a Warner Brothers release.) The decision to include two silly films, RKO 281 and American Experience: The Battle Over Citizen Kane is profoundly stupid.

Who do they think their market is anyway? There are a variety of other much more enlightening works that could have been included. For instance, the BBC documentary The Complete Citizen Kane is far more interesting and actually factual - wow.

Maybe Warner Brothers can contract with Criterion for the 75th anniversary release. (Although to cut Warner's some slack, The Magnificent Ambersons is also included and nice to know that this film is finally available on DVD - albeit the surviving RKO butchered version. Of course, that film deserves its own release.)

New Video Shows What's New In Premiere Pro 5.5

2011-05-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

Pointing to work from Adobe Technical Support Lead, Todd Koptiva on the latest developments in Premiere Pro is becoming a habit.

Here's the link to a 55 minute video - What’s New and Changed in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5

This free video is hosted by software tutorial site, Video2Brain.com.

Doc Editing Book - Now FREE!

2011-05-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

That's right.

Karen Everett of New Doc Editing published an eBook a while back on documentary editing, Documentary Editing. Here's my review.

Now that book is free to download. Check it out.

While you're at it, please look at the services offered by New Doc Editing. Karen offers an array of services to documentary filmmakers. She's a supportive teacher and a gifted story consultant.

proDAD Vitascene Pro Tutorial

2011-05-05T07:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick tutorial from Jan Ozer at EventDV.

I've used proDAD Vitascene LE for a couple of months now and am satisfied for the most part. It's a handy software plug-n to apply quick, contemporary-looking video transitions or effects.

One word of warning though. Registering the software was a nightmare. It took ten days AFTER I paid for the product to get the company to send the correct info to get the plugin properly registered.

I'm understand the need to thwart software theft, but paying customers shouldn't suffer delays and inconvenience as a result. Anyway I hope my experience with proDAD wasn't the norm.

New From Adobe

2011-04-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, Adobe announced the release of its Creative Suite upgrade. Here's a concise overview of the new features found in the new Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 - Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5: What’s new and changed. Here's Adobe's overview.

Also here's a report from the Videoguys. Finally, here's the review from EventDV.

Also nice to see Audition is once again included with the Production Premium Suite.

First Orbit - "Let's Go!"

2011-04-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic space flight a new film, First Orbit has been released and is being distributed for free viewing.

The film is a real-time recreation which features audio recordings of the radio communications between Vostok 1 - (Call Sign: Cedar) and several ground stations. News reports of the flight are also included. In order to recreate the flight, the stunning orbital footage was shot from the International Space Station. I was also reminded that in order to return safely to earth, Gagarin ejected and parachuted from the Vostok 1 capsule 7km (that's 4.3 miles) above the earth surface.

You may watch First Orbit here or download it for later viewing. I downloaded an MP4 using Keep Tube. That made it easy to watch the film on my Xbox on a larger screen. That's something this film definitely benefits from.

How To Fix A Broken Plugin

2011-04-09T07:08:00.000-07:00

After Effects is an amazing program. That's not particularly newsworthy.

But when using third party plug ins, it's not uncommon for a "demo" version watermark to reappear - even after you've paid your money and activated the plugin. In the past two weeks, I've experience this problem with Magic Bullet Looks and Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator Classic.

I'm not sure if this is a Windows issue or an After Effects issue or a plugin issue and I don't really care. Broken software is a real momentum-buster when you're trying to get something done. And when aren't we?

Anyway, here's a simple fix to try before spending hours attempting other remedies.

The problem can be found in the After Effects preference file. You can force the application to rebuild it by pressing and holding down Cmd-Opt-Shift (mac)/ Ctrl-Alt-Shift (win) immediately after you've clicked the AE icon.

I've found this solution is quick and often corrects the watermark problem.

If this doesn't help don't hesitate to involve the software support staff. I've worked with the folks at Magic Bullet Looks and Zaxwerks and both were friendly and responsive.

Also please give this blog post a look. Jonas Hummelstrand at General Specialist.com gives a thorough overview of troubleshooting After Effects issues.

Oscar Winner Available Free Online

2011-04-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

The 2011 Academy Award winning documentary, Inside Job, directed by Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs is now available online at no charge from the excellent Archive.org.

Here's a description:

Inside Job provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. It was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.

Here's the flash version:

Free is good!

"Common Ground"

2011-03-29T07:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a touching piece on the suburbanization of Illinois farm land by photojournalist Scott Strazzante. To tell this story the producers at Mediastorm did a great job weaving still images, video and music together.

The American family farm gives way to a subdivision - a critical cultural shift across the U.S. Common Ground is a 14-year document of this transition, through the Cagwins and the Grabenhofers, two families who love the same plot of land. See the project at http://mediastorm.com/publication/common-ground

While the story is sympathetic to the disappearance of the family farm, thankfully the video doesn't present a maudlin nostalgic view of local agriculture. Rather it describes methods of land use through the images and voices of the people that once farmed the land contrasted with those who live there now.

"Why documentaries matter"

2011-03-23T05:52:00.000-07:00

In this recent article published in the Guardian, Nick Fraser, series editor of Storyville on BBC4 considers the future of documentary.

Fraser writes: "Will these documentaries – low budget, clever, appealing to small, passionate audiences – be adequately funded in the squeeze on television budgets? I'm starting to worry. I'd like to know how their independent spirit can be conserved and nurtured.

In the meantime, let me suggest a way in which we might start to think about documentaries. Of the current manifestations of contemporary culture, which would you choose to preserve? Thought of as an app, documentaries wouldn't make it. They have no real cultural recognition. They will always be seen as part of something else – film, television, journalism, even real life. But you would miss them if they went. My hunch is that you would miss them very much."

A Brief History of Title Design

2011-03-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

From the great blog, The Art of the Title Design

A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

Good stuff.

Optimizing For Performance

2011-02-21T11:21:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to Adobe blogger Todd Kopriva's post, optimizing for performance: Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects.

It's an in-depth piece that includes a link to a recording of a one hour webinar on the topic.

Good stuff.

Premiere Pro Power Tips

2011-02-09T15:55:00.000-08:00

Here's the link to a recent article by Franklin McMahon at Digital Content Producer - Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 Power Tips.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5's History Panel

Note that while the article refers to CS5, these features discussed in the article are available in earlier versions of Premiere Pro.

More Free Music

2011-01-31T13:27:00.000-08:00

Here are two more sources for free music to use in your productions:

Jamendo

"Jamendo is a community of free, legal and unlimited music published under Creative Commons licenses. Share your music, download your favorite artists!"

Free Music Archive

"Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads."

While generally "free", the Creatives Commons licenses vary so be sure to check for any restrictions before using a specific piece of music.

Vimeo Video School

2011-01-04T14:21:00.000-08:00

By way of Let's Make Better Films I learned about Vimeo's foray into video tutorials - Vimeo Video School. It features a range of free articles and video tutorials suitable for both beginners and more experienced video makers.

Here's a short piece on shooting for novices.

Here's a more advanced examination of audio options when shooting with a DSLR.

Read Mac Disks

2010-12-08T15:14:00.000-08:00

Here's the link to a free software tool which enables you to read Mac disks on a PC. The application is called HFSExplorer and you can download it here. Macdisk also works well but isn't free so give HFSExplorer a shot first.

Murch on "The Three Fathers of Cinema"

2010-10-31T05:50:00.000-07:00

In this lecture excerpt, Walter Murch proclaims modern cinema's antecedents to be Beethoven, Flaubert and Thomas Edison. It's certainly worth a look.

This 18:00 clip comes from Old School Cinema by way of Art of the Guillotine.

Premiere Elements 9

2010-10-13T10:14:00.000-07:00

Premiere Elements 9, the latest upgrade to a very useful and affordable non-linear editing application was released recently. Its key improvements are better online file sharing and more filters to correct marginal audio.

Here's the link to a review. The author complains a bit about a work flow which can be a little confusing but seems like a solid upgrade.

Free trial available from Adobe.

The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing

2010-10-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

Here's the first 10 minutes from The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing. The film features interviews with many of Hollywood's leading editors and directors, as well as well-known sequences from a number of films.

[ Download ]

Listening to Walter Murch describe his approach to the craft within the confines of his pristine workspace is worth the price of admission.

And you can avoid the hassle of watching a degraded copy in segments on YouTube. The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing is available for purchase or you can rent it from Netflix.

"Sans-culotte Idealism"

2010-09-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a clip I found at Art Of The Guillotine - a great blog devoted to film and video editing. This is a 15 minute interview (subtitled in English) with German filmmaker, Alexander Kluge.

Toward the end of the clip, Kluge discusses documentary storytelling and states: "I can't change people, and some are more tolerant than others. But its sans-culotte idealism to say, 'The viewer ought to be interested in reality.' He's not in search of truth, unless you promise him a treasure trove."

Pleasure before truth, I guess.

Witnessing History

2010-09-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to witness the release of political prisoner, Carlos Alberto Torres from federal prison in downstate Illinois. This was followed by a terrific welcome home celebration in Chicago. Here's a short piece I produced which documents those events:

The piece was created using a Sony VX-2100 and edited in Premiere Pro CS3.

After decades of incarceration, Oscar López Rivera remains behind bars, convicted of the federal thought-crime "seditious conspiracy." You can join the campaign to help win his release. Visit the National Boricua Human Rights Network to learn more.

Ira Glass On Storytelling

2010-08-30T07:17:00.001-07:00

Ira Glass, host and executive producer of public radio's This American Life describes the building blocks of storytelling.

In this clip Glass discusses using anecdotes and raising questions within them to keep an audience engaged. He adds that stories also need a moment of reflection or in other words, "Here's why the hell you're listening to this story."

Walter Murch, A Lecture

2010-08-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

While I refine a reliable work flow to edit AVCHD footage in Premiere Pro, check out this 2003 lecture by Oscar-winning film editor Walter Murch at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Part II of the lecture is here.

I'll share what I've learned editing AVCHD soon.

Mercury Playback Hack Premiere Pro CS5

2010-08-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

Adobe's Mercury Playback Engine leverages the GPU of select display cards to deliver real-time editing. Pretty cool.

This video demonstrates the performance gains of the Mercury Playback Engine

Unfortunately the only display cards to be certified by Adobe are pretty pricey.

Here's an article that explains how to tweak Premiere Pro CS5 to work with cheaper NVIDIA cards. The changes look fairly simple although make sure to review cooling requirements as the demands on your display adapter will increase substantially.

Cool Tool

2010-08-09T08:20:00.001-07:00

Working with AVCHD video clips can be a hassle, particularly when your computer doesn't have the power to edit that footage in its native format. MPEG Streamclip is a great free tool to transcode footage to more manageable formats:

"MPEG Streamclip lets you play and edit QuickTime, DV, AVI, MPEG-4, MPEG-1; MPEG-2 or VOB files or transport streams with MPEG, PCM, or AC3 audio. MPEG Streamclip can export all these formats to QuickTime, DV, AVI/DivX and MPEG-4 with high quality encoding and even uncompressed or HD video."

Squared 5's MPEG Streamclip
is available at no charge for
Windows and Mac

MPEG Streamclip also supports batch projects and simple editing.

Here are two short clips created using a Koday Playsport. The first [file spec] and the second transcoded to DV. The ratio of transcode time to the duration of the footage was about 1:1.

This first clip is straight from the camera.

Notice that the DV version was mangled by Vimeo. The original file is 720x480 with letter box. Vimeo's transcoding squeezed the image and cropped the letter box. Ugh. Beyond the problems created by the video host, the DV file held up pretty well.

MPEG Streamclip is a great utility to have around. I'll have more on that little Kodak Playsport later, but as you've probably guessed, it's waterproof.

"Photographs of people talking..."

2010-07-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

"...bares no relation to the art of cinema"

Here's a great clip from an interview with Alfred Hitchcock on making movies.

I found this on this web site - The Story Department. Check it out.

Premiere Pro CS5 Reviewed

2010-07-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to a thorough review of Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5 recently published at PC Magazine. Since I work mostly in SD (standard definition) I'm continuing work with version CS4.

However, for HD editing you will see significant performance improvements with the latest version. This performance boost can be attributed to two factors. The first is that Premiere Pro CS5 only runs on a 64-bit platform. (You can read about 64-bit computing here.)

The other factor is Adobe's new Mercury Playback Engine. Basically this technology is able to leverage the full power of display adapters using Nvidia's CUDA technology in tandem with the computer's CPU. Here's a short video from Adobe that explains its value:

Ugly graphics aside, one can see that the great value is the ability to work with compressed HD video formats like AVCHD and edit natively in real time with no rendering. Exporting video is also very impressive.

At the same time, you need to determine whether or not you need all of this horse power. Premiere Elements 8 is an excellent basic editing application that may well suit you needs (and save you hundreds of dollars.) And it doesn't demand the 64 bit computing environment which is now required for Premiere Pro. (You can check out my review of Premiere Elements 8 here.)

Trial versions are available for both products at Adobe.

Legal Music For Videos

2010-05-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a great page from Creative Commons which lists links for a number of free online music resources.

Check it out.

Get The Buzz Out

2010-05-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

Despite our best efforts, audio recorded in the field doesn't always live up to expectations. In this article, I'll demonstrate the process of cleaning up an audio track plagued with hum and noise.

In this first clip you can hear the audio in its camera original form. Lot's of audio hum and crackle - yuck.

So the first task is to try to eliminate the hum. Premiere Pro includes a notch filter to correct such problems. (A notch filter passes most frequencies unaltered, but attenuates those in a specific range to very low levels.) The key to successfully applying a notch filter is to identify the frequency of the offensive hum. The easiest way to do this is to apply the filter and then slowly sweep through the frequency range, previewing the effect after each adjustment. In this case the hum was predominantly located at 150 Hz.

That improved things a bit, but notice there is the hum is also present at a higher frequency range. The solution is to apply a second notch filter using the same technique. In this case the hum was present at about 310 Hz. Listen to the next example and think you'll notice that the hum is gone.

The next problem you may notice is the persistent crackle in the audio. It seems that the wireless mic system used to record the audio added this crackle as well. Premiere Pro includes an easy-to-use filter for this problem aptly named "DeCrackler". Like the notch filter, you can preview the filter will have on your audio and tweak the settings accordingly. In this case, the Threshold was set to 2% and the Reduction was set to 94%
.

Finally, there's a lot of airy noise present. Sure enough, there's a filter to correct this too - DeNoiser. In this case, I reduced the hiss 5dB. In this next clip you'll hear the cumulative effect each of the filters described above.

Here's a still which shows the filters that were used to fix this audio.

One thing to keep in mind when applying audio filters is listen to ensure the filter degrades your audio as little as possible. The point is to attenuate or remove the offensive noises without harming the sound you want to preserve.

To learn more about working with audio, check out Jay Rose's Audio Postproduction for Digital Video.

Great Interview Advice

2010-05-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

Interviewing people for a video can be tricky. There's nothing more frustrating than editing an interview only to discover that a sound bite doesn't work.

In the course of normal conversation, most people don't speak in complete sentences. We often offer one-word answers. However can create a huge problem. During editing the voice of the interviewer is typically removed leaving only cryptic and unworkable one-word answers. Ouch.

To combat this, interview subjects are often coached to speak in complete sentences. This works sometimes, but too often it makes the subject self-conscious and screws up the flow of the interview. In short, your subject may start to dwell on how they're speaking instead of thinking about what they're saying.

At the New Doc Editing blog, Karen Everett offers some great advice:

"The key is to avoiding this situation to frame your question with certain opening phrases that will force your subject to give full sentence responses.

For example, if I asked you what color your car is, and you reply 'blue', that’s not a very helpful soundbite to use in the edit room. But if I asked you to 'Describe the color and make of the car in your driveway?' you’re more likely to say something to the effect of, 'It’s a light gray Honda Prius.'

I credit my colleague, PBS filmmaker Jon Else, with these interview tips. Try framing your questions with one of the following opening phrases:

'Describe such and such…'
'Explain such and such…'
'Tell me about such and such…'

Use one of these opening phrases and watch your interview come alive with full-bodied answers that will stand on their own in your script."

You can read the full post here.

Celebrate May Day

2010-05-01T07:10:00.001-07:00

International Workers Day is here again; a day to commemorate the sacrifices of the Chicago Anarchists in 1886.

Today also provides the opportunity to share a tremendous online film resource - The National Film Board of Canada. For over 70 years, the Film Board has provided over 12,000 works as Canada's public film producer and distributor. More than 1,000 of those works are available to online at no charge.

In keeping with this important holiday, here's a selection from the Film Board's online archive, The Coca Cola Case: The Truth That Refreshes.

The film details the role of Coca Cola in ant-union activities in Columbia
including the assassination of eight union activists.

It's great to see pro-labor films on controversial subjects supported with public funds. We'd be well-served to see the anemic U.S. public broadcasting system take a turn in that direction.

Click on the image to learn more about the
campaign to protect labor rights in Columbia.

Visual Storytelling

2010-03-28T19:43:00.001-07:00

"When we tell a story in cinema, we should resort to dialogue only when it's impossible to do otherwise. I always try first to tell a story in the cinematic way, through a succession of shots and bits of film in between" - Alfred Hitchcock

While sound and dialogue are integral parts of film making, lesser films which fail to adequately exploit the visual possibilities of the medium could just as easily play on the radio.

Charles Chaplin was a master of visual storytelling and resisted the trend toward sound pictures well after sound technology had been adopted in Hollywood.

Here are the famous opening scenes from Chaplin's City Lights:

Chaplin seemed to relent in in the 1936 film, Modern Times. Yet even then the Tramp uttered only gobbledygook.

In the BFI Film Classics book Modern Times, author Joan Mellon writes: "For the first time on the screen, Chaplin's voice is heard, if only in mock-Italian gibberish...The song may be synchronized but it doesn't make any sense. Yet through pantomime, finger to his lips, slapping his rear end, circling his hand on his hip, moving his arms together, the tramp tells an entire story. You don't need words, Chaplin's final pantomime insists." (p. 63)

Two contemporary films exemplify fine examples of visual storytelling. One is Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 film, There Will Be Blood. While the entire film relies heavily on visual language to tell the story, the opening fifteen minutes are completely devoid of dialog. Here's the trailer.

And here's the trailer from Steve McQueen's remarkable 2008 debut film, Hunger which was just released on DVD.

Coming full circle, here's the link to a fine article from the British Film Institute on Hitchcock's visual storytelling methods.

Book Review ~ "Documentary Editing"

2010-03-27T13:58:00.000-07:00

While the video industry provides a constant stream of new and improved production gadgets, cameras and software, little attention is paid to the craft of storytelling. The new eBook, Documentary Editing by Karen Everett makes a welcome contribution to this often ignored area.

Addressing documentary story structure Everett writes: "A story, in the screenwriter’s sense of the word, is not a profile (for example, a film about an eccentric uncle who farms nuts), a condition (human rights abuses in Haiti), a phenomenon (the popularity of multi-player video games), or a point of view (Social Security should be privatized). Robert McKee defines story as 'the great sweep of change that takes life from one condition at the opening to a changed condition at the end.'"

While the book is a useful text in its own right, Documentary Editing might better be referred to as a workbook. Everett leads the reader through a number of exercises to help craft and hone the structure of a documentary story. And since the book is delivered as an Adobe PDF, the reader is able to type directly into the included work forms. The eBook also includes embedded links to a number useful Internet resources.

The book also includes a discussion of the trend of funders to favor of character driven documentaries. This type of film has grown in prominence due in part to the reluctance of funders to underwrite vérité works which rely on the process of discovery to tell stories.

Everett writes: "the dramatic arc of a vérité film, in which life is recorded as it unfolds, is understandably difficult to predict. Filmmaker Fredrick Wiseman probably did not write a detailed, three act treatment for Titticut Follies (1967). Likewise, the Maysles brothers couldn’t have foreseen the dramatic arc of Salesman (1969) before filming. Sadly, these grand experiments in cinema verité would most likely not get funded today."

Documentary Editing also reviews essay style documentaries, three act structure, iring an editor and story consultant as well as producing a trailer. And while the book focuses on story structure, it also details the documentary editing process from logging to rough cut to finished film. Proper and improper cutting techniques are also reviewed.

Documentary Editing is an obvious choice for anyone interested in documentary film production. Here's a link to order the book. Don't miss the opportunity to browse all of the resources available at Karen Everett's web site, New Doc Editing.

Free Music Resources

2010-02-27T05:39:00.001-08:00

Here's a list of free music and sound resources for filmmakers compiled by Blake Whitman.

ccMixter offers great material and
the opportunity to collaborate

Much of the music made available through these sites are public domain or available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license.

Keyboard Shortcut Customization

2010-02-09T06:34:00.000-08:00

When working in Premiere Pro or just about any other Adobe application, it's very clear that being able to move nimbly between panels is a necessity. Although using the mouse does work, it can be pretty cumbersome. Here are the default Adobe keyboard shortcuts for the application panels:

Shift + 1 Project Panel

Shift + 2 Source Panel

Shift + 3 Timeline Panel

Shift + 4 Program Monitor Panel

Here's a link for all of them.

However I jump to and from these panels frequently so I substituted single-stroke keyboard shortcuts to make things even simpler.

Remember that if you screw up, you can always restore the defaults.

Here's the link to Adobe Knowledge Base article on customizing keyboard shortcuts. Note that if you attempt to assign a key that already in use for another shortcut, the program will alert you to the conflict. From there, you may choose whether or not to reassign that key.

Here are the substitutes that I use:

F8 - Effects Panel

F9 - Source Monitor Panel

F10 - Program Monitor Panel

F11 - Project Panel

F12 - Timeline Panel

Online Help From Creative Cow

2010-01-11T07:00:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned before, Adobe's technical support can leave a lot to be desired. For instance, I've had an open case since November 28, 2009 which has never been addressed - very lame to say the least.

Last week I highlighted PremiereProPedia, a wiki devoted to Premiere Pro support. Creative Cow's Adobe Premiere Pro Forum is another site to find support.

The site provides an online forum, tutorials, articles and an archive of podcast.

A Worthy Wiki

2010-01-02T11:12:00.000-08:00

When searching for solutions to problems with Adobe Premiere Pro, here's a good resource.

The PremiereProPedia isn't affiliated with Adobe. Rather is a user-generated site which provides a platform for Premiere Pro editors to share problems and solutions.

If you have a problem and strike out searching Adobe's Knowledge Base, make sure to give this site a try.

The Murder of Fred Hampton

2009-12-04T06:08:00.000-08:00

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark by the Chicago Police Department and the FBI.

Filmmakers Mike Gray and Howard Alk arrived at the crime scene a few hours after the massacre to document the scene. Their footage disproved official police testimony and newspaper accounts which portrayed the raid as a "shootout" with the Black Panthers when in fact it was nothing short of a deliberate execution.

This footage was incorporated into their documentary, The Murder Of Fred Hampton, which is available in a newly restored version on DVD. Here's the lower resolution online version:

The police involved in the raid, State's Attorney Hanrahan and the FBI officials involved in the conspiracy against the Black Panthers were never brought to justice. However, survivors and the families of the deceased eventually won a civil law suit more than a decade after the murders thanks to the diligent efforts of the People's Law Office in Chicago.

One of the lead attorneys, Jeffrey Haas, has recently written a book on the case, The Assassination of Fred Hampton. It's a great read and much-needed reminder of the consequences of unbridled government power which is as relevant today as it was in 1969.

DIY Project Report #3

2009-12-02T16:56:00.000-08:00

Still ironing out a few bugs with the new system although overall I'm quite pleased with its performance.

One issue that I've wrestled with is finding a quality file backup application that's free and easy to use. I started with Comodo Backup but was unable to get file synchronization to to run correctly. The issue may be Windows 7 (or not) but I was more interested in backing up my files than in troubleshooting the application. That being said, Comodo is free and many have great success with it - so it's worth a shot.

Instead I chose Areca Backup, an open source backup application. It's very easy to use and performs as advertised.

Areca Backup can email reports to you
after scheduled backups have run.

They haven't certified it for Windows 7 yet, but I haven't had any problems with it. There's also a helpful online tutorial.

DIY Project Report #2

2009-11-07T12:14:00.000-08:00

Here's the second report on my computer building project. The first post is here. Here are a few notes on the project that might interest you.

Windows Stuff

First off Windows 7 networking sucks...that is if you're trying to network a Windows XP machine with a Windows 7 computer. Windows 7 Networking relies upon the Link-Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) protocol which was introduced with Windows Vista. Of course most of us avoided Vista like the plague, so one should expect that many will be trying to network XP machines with their new Windows 7 computers. You can do it, but it takes some doin'. Here's how:

First, make sure your Windows XP machine is updated with the Service Pack 3. (By the way, you can install the LLTD on XP with Service Pack 2. However, I tried this and the computer still wouldn't appear on the network map. So spare yourself a headache and install Service Pack 3!)

Then, apply this Microsoft Hotfix and LLTD should be correctly installed.

Finally, follow this blog post from the How-To Geek and and you should be able to share resources between machines.

(This is way too much work. Like I said, it sucks.)

I also experienced an issue with firewire drivers. I found that I had to manually change the 1394a driver to OCHI Compliant Host Legacy in order for the computer to recognize and work with my Sony DV deck. It's easy to do. Here are the instructions.

Software

I selected Comodo Backup which is free and has a very good reputation. I'm sure you've read this a million times, but it's very important to set up regular reliable backup routines to protect your data. A major computer hardware meltdown motivated me to build this new machine in the first place. Thanks to maintaining good backups, that computer crash only cost me time. No important data was lost and everything else has been restored to the new machine.

For anti-virus support I installed AVG's free version. I've been running AVG on one of my computers for well over a year with no problems. If you insist on spending money, I recommend ESET's NOD32 which I've had good luck with. (I'm not too high on Norton's Anti-Virus. In my experience, the application ground my computer to a crawl. Totally unacceptable.) If you go with AVG, I suggest you uncheck the option to install the AVG toolbar in your browser. Otherwise there's no way to get rid of it short of completely removing the application.

After installing virus protection and backup software, I installed Adobe's Creative Suite 4 Production Premium. This suite includes the 64-bit versions of Premiere Pro and Photoshop Extended. Nice.

I also installed Magic Bullet Looks, Video Copilot Twitch and Knoll Light Factory. If you use Looks or Knoll Light Factory make sure to confirm that your display adapter is compatible. I made doubly sure by contacting Red Giant Software's support to confirm compatibility with my Nvidia 9800 GeForce GT. (I did get a little scare installing Looks, only to see a message warning that my display adapter wasn't compatible. However, the plug-in works fine and I've had no issues using it.)

Hardware Compatibility Issues

Don't assume that your cards and peripherals are necessarily compatible with the new operating system. A good place to check is Windows 7 Compatibility Center. Since the OS is so new, you may be surprised to see that many contemporary cards and devices still lack drivers. This will change with time, but for now you can hit some snags if your not careful.

For example, the Pyro AVTurbo 1394b PCI card has no Windows 7 drivers as of yet although I expect that will change.

I also own a Tascam US-122 USB audio interface. Same story as no drivers are available. This is an older model so its quite possible there never will be Windows 7 drivers for this unit.

Performance

I won't spend a lot of time on the actual performance of the computer other than to say the computer is very fast. Windows 7 boots up very quickly. The computer's POST takes longer than the time needed for the the operating system to be up and running.

32-bit applications run fast, but 64-bit are even faster. The computer really flies. And the Adobe Creative Suite is tightly integrated to improve the workflow. Adobe has done a great job here.

I'll post additional notes after I've spent more time breaking the machine in.

DIY Project Report #1

2009-11-06T16:02:00.000-08:00

Last week I mentioned that I'm in the process of building a new computer build based on the Videoguys DIY-7 specifications. Here are some early observations on that process.

The barebones kit came from Tiger Direct. The kit mostly follows the Videoguys specs, and exactly follows them as far as the motherboard and processor. Putting the machine together was easy and went together in less than an hour. SATA technology as really made hard drive configuration simple.

Tiger Direct's 64-bit workstation which includes a Core I7
processor, 12 GB of ram and 750 watt power supply.
Don't forget to order a video card.

I do want to caution those that have never built a computer before. It can be a frustrating process and Tiger Direct provides no customer support. So if you don't know what you're doing, find a skilled friend who can help you or buy a Dell or HP.

I installed the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional which went very quickly - the full install was less than 30 minutes. System booting is much faster than older versions of Windows.

Things slowed down considerably after that. After installing Adobe's Production Suite and attempting to activate the software, I noticed the computer lost Internet connectivity. To troubleshoot, the first thing one looks at when things go wrong is to examine what changed. I spent a couple of hours online (with a different computer) searching for clues.

As it turns out, the Adobe installation adds a small networking application called Bonjour Service. Apparently on some installations, that service breaks the computer's Internet connection. By disabling the service from the Computer Management Console, Internet service was restored after restarting the machine. Now why this would break the Internet connection is a mystery to me. The same applications ran fine on my old XP Pro machine. And this is the kind of problem that can drive you nuts.

I did see a lot of online griping about Windows 7's networking problems. Now you do have to take what you read online with a big grain of salt. I've never seen a product that didn't get flamed online. But I'm still wrestling with networking my older Windows computers with the new Windows 7 box. I can say confidently that it's not as simple as it should be.

I'll post more on my progress soon.

Adobe's 64-Bit Commitment

2009-11-03T05:27:00.000-08:00

You may have read about this elsewhere, but it's worth noting that future versions of Premiere Pro and After Effects will only run on 64-bit operating systems. In my view this is a smart decision by Adobe and should serve to make your work flow faster and better able to support HD video formats.

64-bit computing has been around a long time but Microsoft Windows and processors from Intel and AMD have matured to the point where upgrading to a 64-bit system is relatively affordable and bug-free.

Adobe boasts performancegains of up to 227%
using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 on a 64-bit system
with more memory.

But what are the advantages of 64-bit computing for video makers? The main advantage is performance.

Adobe notes in its FAQ: "With a 64-bit operating systems you get a wider address system and data path, providing access to essentially unlimited RAM. On 32-bit systems, each application is limited to 4GB of RAM (and in practice this number is actually smaller). More RAM means applications can manipulate larger chunks of data, cache more information, and handle a wide range of tasks more efficiently."

At EventDV, Jan Ozer documents the performance gains, "...the 64-bit system was 67% faster on my standard DV test file, up to 63% faster on HDV-related tests, up to 50% faster on AVCHD tests, and up to 227% faster on tests using footage from the RED camera."

Now with the new release of Windows 7, 64-bit computing looks even more promising. Microsoft received nearly universal and well-deserved atomic dope slaps for its awful Vista operating system. However, having recently installed and worked with Windows 7, I'd say things are looking up. I'm in the process of building a new computer build based on the Videoguys DIY-7 specifications. I'll follow up with a review after I've tested this 64-bit monster.

Premiere Elements 8 Reviewed

2009-10-31T13:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a short review of Premiere Elements 8.

I tested the software on a HP xw4400 Workstation - Core 2 6600 processor @2.4 Ghz, 2 GB ram. Make sure to review system requirements, especially if you want to edit HD.

Premiere Elements 8 user interface

Pros:

Friendly user interface with a fairly logical work-flow. The interface supports both timeline and storyboard editing. After editing, it was very easy to export a file for web upload, export to tape or burn a DVD.

Many of Premiere Pro's keyboard shortcuts apply to Premiere Elements 8 too.

Worked very nicely with both SD and HD footage. (SD footage was captured from a Sony VX2100). Easily imported HD files from a Canon Vixia HF S100 and a DXG-567 HD camera. Mixed HD and SD footage with no problems.

Using the titler was pretty easy for the most part, but I still haven't figured out how to applying a stoke (outline) to text.

Cons:

I had some trouble with the Welcome Screen. Several times when attempting to open a project, the system appeared to be working but wouldn't progress beyond that screen. When this occurred, I had to launch Windows Task Manager to force the application to close and then launch the application by double-clicking the project file.

The good news on this is that Adobe has a fix if you encounter this problem.

Conclusions:

This is definitely an ideal video editing application for the hobbyist or casual user. I having some difficulty identifying where the cutoff would be for higher end users. One of the advantages of this application is that with each new release, more advanced features trickle down from Premiere Pro without boosting the price tag for Elements. (For instance, motion tracking was just added.)

My recommendation for mid-range users is to try Premiere Elements 8 before assuming that you need the full flexibility and power of Premiere Pro CS4. You may just find that you have everything you need and save a lot money too. (Right now Premiere Elements goes for less than $90.)

A trial version is available for download here - available for Windows and the Mac.

Learn To Light Better

2009-10-23T06:05:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to a great site created by Lowel Lighting to improve your lighting skills.

Interactive features allow you to see the effect of
each instrument in a lighting setup.

The site reviews and demonstrates lighting placement, use of lighting controls, interview lighting, and soft lighting. Lowel also provides a number of lessons to teach you how to light typical setups.

Each lesson includes a wide shot to show lighting
and camera placement relative to the position
and orientation of the subject.

Lowel has long been recognized for selling quality gear at affordable prices. This useful site demonstrates a growing trend among manufacturers to educate customers in the proper use of the gear they sell.

More Than An Inconvenience

2009-10-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

Recently I needed to edit DVCam footage which was closed-captioned.

What is Closed Captioning? Closed-captioning ensures the hearing impaired are able to view television, and has been a federal requirement for most television stations since the early 1990's. This Wikipedia article delineates the technical standards for captioning.

Back to the story:

I was surprised to learn that while the DV standard does support closed captioning, the process of capturing the footage in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 stripped the captions from the footage.

I reported the problem to Adobe and received this prompt response:

"I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you and I understand that when capturing DVCam material that is already closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired, that the captioning is removed.

After collecting all the information provided by you, I researched on this issue in my resources and have found that this is the product limitation that through which you are facing inconvenience. We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause to you." (sic)

To be fair, this isn't solely an Adobe problem. It appears that most nonlinear applications fail to retain captioning information when footage is captured.

But this is a problem that's been around for years and NLE manufacturers need to correct it soon. Or perhaps federal regulations need to be expanded to included video software companies too.

Online Video Hosting Compared

2009-10-08T13:13:00.001-07:00

While I complete tests on the latest release of Premiere Elements (we're now up to version 8), here's a link to the site Alternatives To YouTube. It's interesting to see which service mangles source footage the least.

View on ExposureRoom

This clip is hosted by ExposureRoom, a hosting service for both standard and high definition video. Clearly YouTube isn't the only game in town.

Pixorial - New Online Video Service

2009-09-28T06:11:00.000-07:00

Pixorial is a new video sharing site that adds new features for home users. In addition to online video hosting, Pixorial offers online video editing, VHS, Hi-8 and film digital transfer, and video sharing - either online or you can have DVD's delivered to your door.

There are fees for most of these services but Pixorial looks like an easy way to move your old analog tapes and films into the digital realm.

CMOS vs CCD

2009-08-16T06:11:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to a new article published in Videomaker magazine. Understanding the differences between popular digital imaging technologies can help you make better choices when you buy a camera.

While camcorders have typically incorporated CCD's since the demise of tube cameras decades ago, the adoption of CMOS chips in camcorders is on the rise due to cheaper manufacturing costs and lower power consumption.

However, CCD's and CMOS video cameras don't always create similar results. To illustrate the differences, here's a YouTube video produced by formaset, and shot from a moving motorcycle.

As you can see, for those shooting conditions a CMOS camera is a lousy choice.

Orson Welles On Editing

2009-07-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

Mr. Welles shares his views on film editing in this YouTube clip.

I came across this at this site, Art of the Guillotine.com

Learn To Edit

2009-06-25T08:39:00.000-07:00

There are countless articles and tutorials on using video editing software. However, most don't address why cuts are made or how editing establishes pace and contributes to the structure of a story.

Here's a book by Ken Dancyger, The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory & Practice from Focal Press.

A preview is available on Google Books

Here's a short excerpt on editing for comedy:

"In terms of editing, the key is enough screen time to allow the performance to convince us of the credibility of the situation. The emphasis throughout the scene is on the character's reaction to the situation, allowing us to follow through the logic of the scene. In every case, editing is subordinate to setting and performance. Pace is not used for dramatic purposes. Here, too, performance is the key to pacing."

This short excerpt from Chaplin's Modern Times illustrates the point:

The book is full of useful information so check it out.

Which HD Format?

2009-06-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

Today manufacturers offer a number of high definition formats for consumer and prosumer videomakers. The knowledgeable folks at Videoguys.com recently created this handy .pdf to clarify the relative advantages and disadvantages of each format.

One thing you'll probably notice is that as HD formats become more compressed, as for example with AVCHD, the demands on your computer to edit the footage increase substantially. In some cases, transcoding the footage to a more easily editable format is in order. But that adds time and steps to your workflow.

Were I to purchase an HD camcorder today, I'd probably go with HDV. Since it uses tape, archiving source footage is cheap and reliable. And HDV editing is less taxing on a computer when edited allowing me to work with a more affordable machine. Most HDV cameras also shoot DV so if you want to shoot an SD project, that's easy enough to do.

Hard Drive Perils

2009-06-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

As video camera manufacturers move away from tape toward solid-state flash media, understanding how to implement reliable backups for your media is more important than ever. Zero capture times, longer battery life and fewer mechanical parts to fail may make the appeal of the these new cameras seem like a no-brainer. But without tape, if that file is lost and there is no backup - well you know the rest.

Fresh DV recently conducted an interview with Mike Mihalik, Product Manager at LaCie. It's well worth a listen. In addition to reviewing best practices for data backup, Mihalik notes that even if you copy your data on a separate drive for safe keeping on a shelf, the data may degrade over time and become unusable.

You can listen to the interview here. Also be sure to check out FreshDV's great web site. Plenty of tutorials, interviews and product reviews.

Musuem of the Moving Image

2009-05-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

The Museum of the Moving Image is a great site to learn about the history of cinema.

The website also features the Pinewood Dialogs, "discussions with creative figures in film, television, and digital media." Interviews include Francis Ford Coppola, Thelma Schoonmaker, Terry Gilliam and Jerry Lewis to name a few. You can listen on the site or subscribe to these interviews as a podcast.

Really great stuff - check it out.

Ripple Delete

2009-05-12T14:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick and clean way to delete a clip from the Premiere Pro timeline without leaving a gap.

Select the clip to be deleted. Hold down the ALT key and press the BACKSPACE key.

The clip will be deleted and everything to the right of the the deleted clip will move to fill the space. Instant ripple delete.

Beam Me Up

2009-05-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

In keeping with the release of the new Star Trek flick, here's a tutorial from tech journalist D. Eric Franks. He demonstrates how to create the famous trek transporter effect.

Energize: Star Trek Transporter Effect from Videopia on Vimeo.

Franks hosts Videopia.org, his site devoted to "professional-quality video production for the (non-professional) masses." He was also the host of Digital Juice's TechKnow videos which are well worth watching.

Adobe Kuler Theory

2009-04-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

Adobe offers a free online tool to create color themes for your work.

Adobe Kuler "is a web-hosted application for generating color themes...Whether creating websites, interior designs, scrapbooks, fabric patterns, graphic identities, or any other visual, you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes from the Kuler community. Designed both to stand alone and to complement Adobe Creative Suite® software, Kuler uses Adobe Flash® technology to bring you online tools for color theme creation."

You can use it by applying standard rules of color theory or experiment on your own. The themes you create can be saved and shared. Check it out.

Faking Depth of Field In Photoshop

2009-04-20T06:09:00.000-07:00

This is mostly a video blog but once in a while I come across a Photoshop tutorial that creates a useful effect that's easy to create. This month in EventDV magazine, Lance Gray, the chief creative pixelmonkey at PixelPops Design, LLC demonstrates how to simulate narrow depth of field in Graphic Thoughts: Faking Depth of Field.

While it used to be a free magazine, EventDV recently shifted to a paid subscriber only for its print publication. I've found it to be among the most useful of the video magazines I receive. For me it's well worth $17.95 per year.

Adobe Garbage

2009-04-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

Today I had the unfortunate experience of attempting to reinstall Adobe's DV Rack HD on an Windows XP machine. For some reason the application, which ran perfectly well for over two years, now refused to run. Although the software had been correctly installed and authorized years ago, it now demanded that an authorization code be re-entered.

Adobe uses the codes to prevent software theft which is understandable. And typically accessing a new code from Adobe's customer service after a system crash or other mishap is a simple process - at least until now.

Even though I was able to provide a copy of the sales receipt and the software serial number, Adobe provided absolutely no help. In fact, the company's solution was to tell me that I needed "to buy an upgrade."

This was after spending over an hour on the telephone. That telephone call ended abruptly after John, the Adobe customer service representative hung up the phone after I requested to speak with a manager.

Now the latest version of DV Rack is Adobe's On Location. But you can't purchase an "upgrade". In fact, you can't purchase a stand-alone copy of On Location at all. The cheapest path to getting a copy is to buy it bundled with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 for a whopping $799. Keep in mind that DV Rack cost $530 a little over 2 years ago. And now Adobe's "solution" to this problem is to spend an additional $799.

As I mentioned, I understand the reasoning behind Adobe software authorization. But in the end, if it prevents those who have legally paid for a license to use the software then no doubt Adobe's measures to prevent unlicensed use of its software have gone way overboard.

Any readers that may be aware of any class action suits to seek redress for Adobe's failure to live up to its obligations are encouraged to contact me.

Premiere Pro 2.0: Clip Notes

2009-03-09T10:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a tutorial by Digital Media Net's Charlie White on a helpful feature introduced in Premiere Pro 2.0. Clip Notes enables you to export your sequence as a PDF document which can be emailed for comments by the viewer. It's very handy when working with a client or collaborator.

Here's Adobe's word on Clip Notes:

Getting fast, to-the-point feedback from clients is a crucial part of successful production, but it can also be a time-consuming chore. Adobe Clip Notes streamlines the process with an elegant solution based on two easy, accessible technologies: e-mail and Adobe PDF.

Export a video sequence as an Adobe PDF file with embedded or streamed video, and then e-mail the file to your reviewer. The reviewer plays the video with Adobe® Reader® and enters timecode-specific remarks into the comment box. After the reviewer e-mails back the comments and you open the file in Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4 software, the comments appear as clip markers at the appropriate timecode locations in the timeline.

Great Online Font Utility

2009-03-05T07:48:00.000-08:00

I've never been delighted with Premiere Pro's font browser. It works well enough but is a bit clumsy to use.

Here's a very useful website when you need to know how your text will look in any font installed on your computer. The name of the site is Flipping Typical.

Make sure to check out the keyboard shortcuts on the wtf? page.

Thanks to Scott Kelby for sharing this link. Check out his blog here.

Somebody Shoot Me

2009-03-01T10:13:00.000-08:00

John Huston was a talented actor and Oscar-winning filmmaker who directed 47 films. While well-remembered for Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Prizzi's Honor, Huston also served in the U.S. Army during WWII and made three war documentaries for the Photographic Division of the Army Signal Corps.

Typically Hollywood personnel were enlisted to produce propaganda for the U.S. government. However Huston chose to show the horrors of war and its long-term consequences. It's not surprising that Huston's war films were not appreciated by U.S. military leaders. Recounting a screening for the brass, Huston said: ''I remember the ranking officer rising around a third of the way through and leaving the theater. And when he was gone, the next-ranking officer rose and he left. And so they went, one after the other, until I was alone in the room.''

Midge Mackenzie wrote for the NY Times, "two of the three films Huston was to make were never shown, suppressed by the military because the images of broken bodies and stumbling, shell-shocked soldiers told a different story: that in war, everybody loses."

These films were finally declassified in the 1970's and are now freely available via Archive.org.

Let There Be Light, 1946

The Battle of San Pietro, 1945

Huston said that "If I ever do a movie that glorifies war, somebody shoot me".

Dumb Marketing

2009-02-26T06:40:00.000-08:00

I just received an email from Pinnacle Systems touting their latest tutorial, "Making A Documentary Part III." Hoping to share this information with you, I clicked the link only to find this:

I appreciate when manufacturers provide tutorials and I've heard plenty of good things about Pinnacle Studio, but this is a surefire way to scare off customers.

Synthetic Media In Premiere Pro

2009-02-11T18:20:00.001-08:00

It's good to see that Layers Magazine finally began offering Premiere Pro tutorials about six months ago. In this tutorial, Franklin McMahon demonstrates the uses of media created within Premiere Pro.

The tutorial demonstrates how and why to use transparent video in your timeline. Also note that in Premiere Pro CS4 color mattes support an assortment of blending modes which opens up some visual possibilities. (Here's a link to information on blending modes and what they do.)

Quicktime Alternative

2009-02-09T06:16:00.000-08:00

Typically one needs to install Apple's Quicktime player in order to support .mov and other video file codecs. Unfortunately, the installation can be a little tricky. The Quicktime player is available free on Apple's site. But be warned that the page defaults to the full Itunes download, which you may not need, and if you're a Windows user, may not run at all. Ugh.

Remember to check the appropriate boxes
when downloading Quicktime from Apple.
Otherwise you'll download software you
don't need and receive email you don't want.

Here's an easy alternative to avoid those potential hazards. You can download the Quicktime Alternative instead. The file is about half the size of Apple's version and has performed just as well.

Affordable DVD Authoring

2009-01-27T12:47:00.000-08:00

Recently I've tested a couple of affordable DVD authoring tools. While most non-linear editors include some way to create a DVD, sometimes these built-in applications leave something to be desired. In each of the following examples, you may download and test trial versions of the software before you commit your hard-earned loot.

The first application is the popular Nero 9.0 Suite. On the upside, it's affordable at $79 for the download version. The interface is fairly friendly as well. I didn't need to plow into the help files in order to figure out how to make things go.

There were drawbacks though. During installation, Nero's suite automatically associates every file type it works to its applications. I really hate that. (Fortunately Windows reverted to the original file associations when I un-installed Nero.)

But for me, the deal-breaker for me was the encoder Nero employs for DVD transcoding. In short, it's lousy. Even at the highest quality settings, motion is displayed in odd ways - echoes and motion blurs. There's really no excuse for such a lame encoder today.

The second DVD authoring program I tested was DVD Flick. First off, it's free. Yea. Even better, it supports an incredibly wide range of codecs. (What's a codec?) I'm unaware of any other authoring application that offers such format support. Finally, the interface is very intuitive and simple.

Now the downside. DVD Flick can add a DVD menu to your project and there are several templates to choose from. Typically the "first play" menu of a video DVD displays until the user navigates to another menu or plays the feature selection. But with DVD Flick, the menu displays for a short time and then stops. Pushing "play" will activate the movie but once the menu disappears, such button-pushing is more an act of faith or desperation than deliberate navigation. (If someone knows how to address this problem, please email me and I'll post an update.

That aside, one can elect to author the DVD without a menu. In this case the DVD begins to play automatically after loading into your player.

Finally, DVD Flick did a poor job of encoding Microsoft DV .avi files. This surprised me given its wide range of format support but maybe that will improve with future releases. In any case, I'd give it a try. The application isn't huge and and again, it is free.

That last application I tested was TMPGEnc's Authoring Works 4. Although the corporate name is a bit awkward, this affordable DVD authoring program did a very good job.

At $99 it's pretty affordable. The user interface is easy to follow and it also includes oodles of menu templates that are easy to customize. Most importantly, the quality of transcoding is very good. At it's best setting I was unable to see any artifacts or degradation of the picture.

In this comparison you get what you pay for. And unfortuntately it seems that one of the drawbacks of living in the age of YouTube is that crummy picture quality has become acceptable, even in commerical products.

Premiere Elements 7 Reviewed

2009-01-14T11:44:00.000-08:00

John Virata, senior editor of Digital Media Online offers his take on Premiere Elements 7.0.

If you're more hobbyist than pro, Premiere Elements is certainly worth a look. I'm still pleasantly surprised by the number of features included in this very affordable application. For many video projects, Premiere Elements is more than adequate to finish the job.

You may also try before you buy. Check out the free trial at Adobe.com.

Trim Operations Tutorial

2009-01-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

Here's a useful tutorial from Talented Pixie on efficient ways to rearrange or trim clips within the Premiere Pro timeline.

Host Tom Mavro-Michaelis reviews ripple edits, rolling edits and keyboard shortcuts to quickly change the order of clips in a sequence. Understanding how to use these tools can really speed the edit process along. And while the tutorial is targeted at Premiere Pro CS3 users, the techniques presented apply to every version of Premiere Pro.

Capture Tutorial And More

2008-12-16T10:52:00.000-08:00

Here's a short, competent tutorial on capturing DV footage using Premiere Pro CS3. It was produced by Talented Pixie, a firm which produces tutorials for Apple and Adobe software.

If you're in the market for tutorial materials, I recommend Total Training and Lynda.com. While both offer online tutorials I think those offered by Total Training are a little slicker and well-produced. That's no slight against Lynda.com though.

Also each requires a paid subscription. In this case Lynda.com's approach is preferable because it offers a monthly subscription plan, while Total Training offers only annual plans.

On the subject of tutorials, if you're in to Photoshop be sure to check out the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). More than any other site, they're really figured out how to offer a value-packed membership at an affordable annual membership fee. In fact, if you are a regular B&H Photo customer, the NAPP membership will pay for itself quickly since one of the membership benefits is free standard shipping on B&H orders.

Finally, check out Kelby Training for digital photography instruction. These are basically the same folks that run NAPP but there are more in-depth tutorials on photography and lighting (and a lot more) that are very well done.

Premiere CS4 - Pros and Cons

2008-12-04T12:42:00.000-08:00

Here's an article by Scott Simmons of The Editblog. He takes a thorough and critical look at Premiere Pro CS4's efficacy in a professional environment.

For me, the most valuable insight was raising its media management deficiencies. This won't affect all editors the same way but locating a project's missing media in Premiere Pro has long been a challenge. Although as the article points out, Final Cut Pro suffers from the similar problems.

Free Video Training From FourDocs

2008-11-09T06:11:00.000-08:00

FourDocs is the online documentary channel from Channel 4 in Great Britain. As part of its mission, FourDocs devotes a a portion of the site to documentary video training. I spend quite a bit of time looking at free video training resources and this is among the best.

One could easily spend hours working through the wide range of online tutorials there. They cover the gamut; from planning to budget to documentary film history, with plenty of technical tutorials on directing, shooting, and editing.

Although there are many of technical tutorials available online, FourDocs takes great care to wed technique to storytelling. Check it out.

Free Stock Footage

2008-11-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

Stock footage comes in very handy when you need a shot but can't obtain it on your own. While stock footage houses have been around forever, a few businesses are now offering select clips at no charge via the Internet.

Footage Firm recently launched the site, http://stockfootageforfree.com/. Users simply register, browse the collection and download what they need. Here's an example:

Admittedly the collection is somewhat limited and generic, but stock footage can be a life saver and you can't beat the price.

Make Backups Easily

2008-10-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

As the trend to abandon video tape in favor of file-based camera recording systems continues, the need to back up your files becomes that much more pressing. Allowing camera original footage to reside on a single hard disc without backup is inviting disaster. And typically the question isn't if the drive will fail, rather the question is "When?".

Fortunately, the price of big hard drives continues to plummet and there are software solutions that are cheap, reliable and easy to use. For instance, a Seagate 1.5 TB USB 2.0 drive goes for under $230. (If you're used to using a firewire drive for editing, this isn't necessary for a backup drive. USB 2.0 is plenty fast and the addition of a firewire port can boost the price.)

For software, you can check out memeo's autosync. I use it to maintain a duplicate of any project I'm working on. Once the initial sync has run, the program only backs up changes you've made which is usually a quick process. Also since it's syncing the drive, there is no file compression introduced. Backup compression isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if I need to restore a file it only entail a simple copy procedure.

At $30 it's also cheap and offers peace of mind and huge labor savings when the hard drive catastrophes occur.

Video Introduction to Premiere Pro CS4

2008-10-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

Here's an informative tour of Premiere Pro CS4 by Adobe's Senior Business Development Manager for Video and Imaging Products, Dave Helmly. You can check out his blog, DAV’s Tech Table here.

The video demonstrates Premiere Pro CS4's support for AVCHD as well as the application's tight integration with After Effects and Adobe Encore.

Write On Tutorial

2008-10-12T11:49:00.001-07:00

Here's another helpful tutorial from Jeff Schell of Digital Media Network.

In this presentation, Jeff demonstrates how to use Premiere Pro's Write On effect to trace a traveler's progress across a map.

Premiere Pro CS4 Highlights

2008-10-08T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here's the lowdown on the latest iteration of Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. You can review Adobe's PDF on the subject here. Now that Premiere Pro supports AVCHD, I expect that Premiere Elements won't be far behind.

If you're in the market, the knowledgeable Videoguys are running a great upgrade special on the Matrox RTX.2 LE bundled with Premiere CS3. You get CS4 when it's released at no extra charge. (No I don't get any kickbacks from Videoguys. I just like working with vendors who know their stuff and treat customers as humans.)

Tapeless camera support
Edit video natively in the latest tapeless formats, including AVCHD, P2, XDCAM EX, and XDCAM HD, without transcoding or rewrapping. Browse your drives and removable media from inside Adobe Premiere Pro to find, log, and import footage.
Batch encoding in the background
Save time with Adobe Media Encoder, a separate included software application that automates the process of creating multiple encoded versions of your source files and sequences. Manage priorities and control advanced settings for individual files.
Dynamic workflow with other Adobe tools
Achieve a high level of productivity from production to delivery with the tightly integrated toolset in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. Eliminate intermediate rendering when moving sequences into Adobe Encore CS4 software, and take advantage of new support for Adobe Photoshop files with video and blend modes.
Direct-to-disk recording with cross-platform, redesigned Adobe OnLocation CS4
Get critical monitoring information while you record directly to disk with Adobe OnLocation CS4 software, now cross-platform with a new Adobe-standard interface. Save time and take the tedium out of logging with shot lists and metadata-based project intelligence.
End-to-end metadata workflow
Easily add metadata to clips both on set with Adobe OnLocation and while editing using Adobe Premiere Pro, for greater project intelligence. Use speech recognition technology to create text-based metadata that helps you organize and find your assets more efficiently during editing. Finally, pass the metadata through export for publishing to the web, enabling searchable video and helping to unlock new revenue streams.
Editing efficiency
Take advantage of more than 50 of the most requested editing enhancements to make your workflow more efficient. Apply effects to multiple selections, get timecode information faster, speed work in the timeline with new keyboard shortcuts, and more.
Speech Search
Turn spoken dialogue into text-based, timecode-accurate, searchable metadata. Jump to a specific area of a shot by searching for keywords within the dialogue, and then use keywords to quickly locate and display what you’re looking for—or even cut video based on the script.
Faster, customizable SWF output
Create SWF file versions of your DVD and Blu-ray projects for the web, complete with DVD interactivity, menus, URL links, and customizable HTML templates, without opening another application. Export for streaming or progressive download, and reduce encode time by using optimized encode settings in Adobe Media Encoder.
Resource Central
Access product-related news and tutorials online by using the Resource Central panel in Adobe Premiere Pro and Encore.

Good Shooting Guide

2008-10-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to the BBC's video training site, Good Shooting Guide: The Basic Principle s.

In the U.S., we may only associate the BBC with PBS import programs and public radio news, but media training is an important part of the BBC's mission.

Be sure to take the time to review the entire offerings of the BBC's Training and Development web site. There's plenty of great information on journalism and storytelling techniques for TV, radio and the Internet.

Professional Color Correction In Premiere Pro

2008-09-21T07:17:00.001-07:00

Here's a new piece on color correction by Rich Harrington of Layers Magazine.

Harrington wisely recommends white and black balancing using a calibration card as part of your shooting workflow. This also includes shooting some footage of the card in the same lighting setup you will use for your subject.

This is the Qpcard disposable callibration card

It's nice to see Premiere Pro garnering some attention in Layers Magazine. While Layers has always been great on the rest of the Adobe suite of programs, their attention to Premiere Pro has been pretty lean in the past.

Importing Still Images In Premiere Pro CS3

2008-09-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

In this video podcast, the Digital Media Network's Jeff Schell demonstrates how to work with images that are larger than the frame size of your project.

Jeff created 26 podcast tutorials for Premiere Pro CS3. You can them out at his blog.

New DVD Releases From Chris Marker

2008-09-02T05:57:00.000-07:00

Too few of French documentarian, Chris Marker's works have been available on DVD until now. The Boston Globe reports four new discs will be released today.

Marker is best known for his cinema-essays, a form of documentary "consisting of the evolution of a theme or an idea rather than a plot per se; or the film literally being a cinematic accompaniment to a narrator reading an essay." (Taken from Wikipedia) That sounds pretty dry, but Marker's films are beautiful, funny and smart.

Here's the trailer from Yannick Bellon and Chris Marker's documentary, Remembrance of Things to Come, which is included with the new releases.

Marker is celebrated as "the best-known author of unknown movies". These new DVD's should remedy the obscurity of these great films.

Happy Labor Day

2008-09-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

Over the years there have been many fine documentaries which have examined class conflict and the rights of workers. Tom Zaniello's book, Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff: An Expanded Guide to Films About Labor provides a comprehensive list of this wide range of films.

In the spirit of the day, here's the trailer from Barbara Kopple's Academy Award winning documentary, Harlan County USA.

Si Se Puede!

Adobe Premiere Pro Keyboard Shortcut Of The Week

2008-08-25T07:43:00.000-07:00

Slip or slide edits are used when you need to to edit a clip in a sequence while keeping the overall duration of the clips constant.

Here's and excerpt from Antony Bolante's “Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 for Windows: Visual QuickPro Guide” which explains how to use slip and slide edits.

The keyboard shortcut for the Slip tool is "Y".

Speech-To-Text Revolution on the Way?

2008-08-11T08:22:00.001-07:00

Here's an article by Jan Ozer from eventdv.net on a new feature to be included with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.

Predicting that Premiere Pro CS4 will be out in early 2009, Ozer writes: "the most significant addition to Premiere Pro is a new speech-to-text function that will revolutionize how video is edited and watched within 6 months of CS4’s ship date."

What is Speech-To-Text? It's an application that can process recorded speech and produce text. With the exception of a few applications which have to be "taught" one's vocal patterns in order to accomplish this, one typically had to manually type or hire a service to produce transcriptions of interviews or speeches. And transcription services aren't cheap.

Ozer predicts: "speech-to-text is such a sufficiently 'disruptive' feature that it will change editing and streaming preferences." He reasons that with the ability to include the transcription as metadata, "A formerly featureless lump of video is transformed into a scanable, searchable object".

Adobe already includes this feature in the beta release of Soundbooth CS4. I haven't had time to work with it, but for the type of work I do, a functional speech-to-text application would save a great deal of time and money.

Why Upgrade to Premiere Pro CS3?

2008-08-11T06:27:00.000-07:00

Once you've committed to an application, weighing the benefits of each new software upgrade becomes an inevitable part of the process.

One issue to consider with software upgrades is to determine the resources the new application will demand. Software "bloat" can drag your once perky system down to a crawl. It's not unusual to need a RAM or even processor upgrade in order to run the latest version of piece of software. And in some cases, the "upgrade" can represent a step backwards. (Read the excellent Videoguys for their take on upgrading to Windows Vista.)

I'm happy to report that upgrading to Premiere Pro CS3 is exactly that - an upgrade. Of course there is an improved feature set for the application. For instance, a very good Time Remapping feature and the addition of H.264 codecs. The upgrade also includes Adobe Encore CS3 for DVD authoring and Adobe OnLocation, a direct to disk recorder. A complete overview of new and improved CS3 features can be found here.

However, the genuine surprise was to see that the application ran faster and in a more stable fashion than Premiere Pro 1.5 on the exact same machine. Nice job, Adobe.

Shooting For The Internet

2008-08-10T06:25:00.001-07:00

Here's the link to a great article by Jan Ozer which appears in the August 2008 issue of event DV magazine. Ozer addresses the unique issues that arise when shooting talking head video for the Internet.

Why should Internet delivery matter? Because if you're not careful, the codecs and bit rates used for Internet video can render your piece unwatchable.

In this example, Ozer demonstrates how striped patterns in clothing are unsuitable for the Internet. Notice the rainbow and smeary artifacts in the shirt.

In addition to clothing Ozer reviews lighting and backgrounds. To sum up, keep it simple. Most video codecs handle simple images and lighting much better than complex scenes.

Multi-Camera Editing In Premiere Pro

2008-08-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Multi-camera editing has been a Premiere Pro feature since version 2.0.

You can use the Multi‑Camera Monitor to edit footage from multiple cameras, simulating live camera switching. You can edit footage from up to four cameras using this technique. For event videographers, this can be a huge time-saver.

Here's a video from Creative Cow's Aanarav Sareen on multi-camera work flow in Premiere Pro.

Hitchcock's Style

2008-07-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

The British Film Institute hosts a great web site, screenonline, the definitive guide to Britain's film and TV history. Director Alfred Hitchcock's early film work is the subject of Mark Duguid's article, Hitchcock's Style.

Speaking to Hitchcock's visual storytelling ability, Duguid writes:

"The limitations of the silent form led filmmakers to develop a visual language to enable them to say with images what they could not using dialogue or sound. By the time of the arrival of sound in 1927 (later in Europe) this filmmaking language had become so sophisticated that sound was felt by some to be almost unnecessary. Others - including Hitchcock - felt that the arrival of sound meant that something was lost to cinema. Directors were no longer forced to tell a story using images alone, and cinema's distinctively visual storytelling suffered as a result.

Throughout his career, Hitchcock continued to believe in cinema as a visual medium... when we think of Hitchcock we tend to remember images - the shower scene in Psycho (1960) or the handcuffed Robert Donat and Madelaine Carroll in The 39 Steps (1935) - rather than lines of dialogue."

Unfortunately those of us outside the U.K. can't view the film clips included with the article. (Damn that revolutionary war anyway!)

In any case, a number of Hitchcock's early British films are available on Google Video. Here's his great The 39 Steps. (Let the clip play for a while. For some reason there is about 30 seconds of black leader before the film begins.)

Adobe Premiere Pro Keyboard Shortcut of the Week

2008-07-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted one of these so here goes. The Track Select tool enables you to select all clips that exist on and after a certain time on one track, and then slide them to a new location in the timeline.

It's also good to know that by holding down the shift key, the tool selects the clips in all the tracks from that point.

The keyboard shortcut to access this tool is "M".

Color Correction Using Premiere Pro

2008-07-14T04:42:00.000-07:00

Here's another video tutorial from studiodaily.com on basic color correction in Premiere Pro.

To learn more about color correction, I suggest you check out Stu Maschwitz's blog, Prolost. In this post, he demonstrates how flesh tones can be preserved while applying radical color changes to the rest of the shot.