720x480, 640x480, 1920x1080... what is the significance behind these and other aspect ratios we sometimes love to hate? This Artbeats document presents a straightforward introduction to the significance of video aspect ratios, and how video differs when presented on computer screens and televisions, and captured on camcorders. Unfortunately, knowing a lot of these tedious factoids becomes invaluable when working with different format (SD vs. HD, NTSC vs. PAL) video. There's no such thing as a universal pixel aspect ratio, and learning the differences between formats will give you a better understanding of exactly how video is displayed.
MacBreak continues in the world of movie magic with some more tricks from Conversations with Other Women. Episode 61 shows how After Effects was used to create a ballroom dancing scene from different pieces of video. There's not a lot of how-to detail (I want the nitty gritty stuff) but it's still an interesting discussion and proof of what today's tools and imagination can produce.
Knowing your keyboard shortcuts will take you to the next level in your mastery of Final Cut Pro. For some help with memorization, try printing out this shortcut document and keep it on your desk while you edit. Thankfully, it's nicely organized so you can learn a block of shortcuts at a time. Thanks to Flippant for the tip.
Callbox has released a Tutorial dvd that teaches users how to maximize shooting with a DVX100 and editing in Final Cut Pro. The tutorial is taught by Noah Kadner. If you use the 2-pop forums, you will have surely seen his name or even recieved assistance from him. Topics include: Output for 35mm Film, Cinema Tools, SDI vs. Firewire Capture and, of coure, Advanced Pulldown Removal. Priced at $75.
As a videoblogger, I had initially hosted all my content on my own web server. I did this so because I could control how the content was viewed, build an audience around my site and keep the rights to the content. But with the diverging media platforms, the task quickly became a nuisance. Some people didn't have Quicktime, iTunes didn't like Flash, then there is the Windows Media Center. Yikes! After a while, I decided to share the hosting responsibilities with blip.tv.
It was a pretty easy decision to choose blip.tv. You uploaded one file and it did the rest. The Blip Flash conversion was as good as Sorenson's awesome Flash conversion. They offered Windows Media Center compatibility. Like Revver, they offered ads but with added options. They offered raw statistics. Upcoming features promised even more flexibility and power. For a filmmaker or videoblogger, there is not a better hosting site than blip.tv.
Mike Hudack is the CEO of blip.tv. He is a big presence within the videoblogging Yahoo forum group and by far the most accessible CEO I have ever met. In my interview with him, we covered a range of topics that I think every videoblogger should be thinking about: content rights, advertising, mobile distribution and upcoming features on blip.tv.
Ok, so I really quite like Children of Men. Partly because it is one of the most convincing films I have seen in a long time, in more ways than one. With other films, I sometimes doubt what I am witnessing, in due part to visual effects that are simply unnatural, for lack of a better word. However, in Children of Men, the implementation of CG and special effects is nearly seamless and unidentifiable, undoubtedly in due part to the overall fluid nature of the film. Nevertheless, CG is there, and this fxguide article does a great job in highlighting how special effects studio Double Negative handled implementing CG into several of CoM's key (and long) scenes. Ordinarily, visual effects artists deal with source footage in several second cuts, but DNeg was faced with compositing shots that went for up to nine minutes. The article also has great technical details regarding the camera rig used during the infamous car chase scene. Very enlightening stuff here. (Here's hoping for a feature-loaded DVD release.)
You may be like me and are constantly on the lookout for graphics to add to your production library. Besides being expensive, you usually get-what-you-get with no easy option to make changes. Well GFX Pack is offering video graphics packages that also contain the After Effects project file so you can make changes yourself. Now that is sweet. There may be others out there that provide project files, but this is the first one I have come across. GFX Pack currently has 5 packages available for $99 each, or you can purchase them all for $399.
ffmpegX is an extremely robust open source video and audio encoding application for Mac OS X that supports a great number of formats, with Flash Video being the newest addition to the program's encoding capabilities. The number of options and settings within ffmpegX can be a bit daunting at first, but Jake Ludington has a sweet and simple little tutorial for how to successfully convert videos to Flash format while still maintaining acceptable quality. Worth knowing. And if you are not familiar with ffmpegX, be sure to check it out and experiment a bit.
To the right is a screen grab from the credits of Children of Men which used a sample from the Free Sound Project. The sample is "male loud scream" and is probably the first time a major motion picture used Creative Commons content with proper accreditation. So what is the Free Sound Project? Only the biggest database of free snippits, samples, and remixes available to anyone to download and reuse as they see fit. Go Children of Men. And if you want to see more behind the scenes stuff about the movie, check out our previous post.
I've long maintained that no one I know actually uses Media 100 anymore, but lots of them "used to." I've even called out the application's faithful here on this very blog, but to no avail. I was about to give up on the software, when I read this.
Nick Griffin over at Creative Cow is another person who used to use the software, but after a rather nasty separation, he seems inclined to give the old gal a second chance. (Griffin actually compares Media 100 to an old girlfriend.) He says everything old is new, with support for 99 video tracks, and 24 audio tracks. Yet, the software felt familiar on Griffin's hands, and imported projects from past Media 100 versions flawlessly.
The software also boasts full Quicktime support, and therefore will edit footage captured by Apple's Final Cut Pro natively. Other Media 100 features include Panasonic P2 support, and the ability to edit multiple formats on the same timeline. Click READ below for a link to the full review.
Wanna get into video editing, but can't afford the latest studio bundle? Never fear, Ubuntu will have you logging, trimming, and printing in no time!
The popular Linux flavor is planning an April release for a new distribution aimed at video production enthusiasts and professionals. The software package features Cinelerra as an editor, Jahshaka for compositing, and audio suite, Wired. The Ubuntu Studio wiki also states the building of an "alt" DVD authoring program as one of the team's goals.
I find this information cool, but I must confess, I've never tried any of the apps included here. I have always intended to try one or the other, mostly for comparison to the expensive software I regularly use, but the thought of having to install another OS just to get a crack at them seemed daunting. However, with everything bundled into a nice tight "distro" April can't come fast enough.
Shooting good footage can be a challenge under normal circumstances. Add the elements of shooting underwater, big ol' spearguns and the occasional shark and I won't be signing up for your project. But the crew of Speargun Hunter, a 13 episode series airing on The Outdoor Channel, had to deal with all these issues. They shot the series with a Sony XDCAM HD PDW-F350 and used a Sony Z1 for all the underwater footage. For more details check out this article on the series, plus this interview with the creators.
Scott Simmons over at the editblog unearthed a pretty spiffy aspect ratio dashboard widget for OS X, appropriately named Aspect. This little bit of software takes 'popular ratios used in video and film and calculates any size you need based on the height or width and pixel aspect.' Simple, quick, and effective. Grab the 209Kb download here.
Currently, there is no established workflow for editing AVCHD video, the latest HD format introduced by Panasonic and Sony. Proper editing software for editing raw AVCHD files will not be made available until at least March, however, resourceful reader Jake Ludington has discovered a workaround to editing the raw video produced by the Sony HDR-SR1. It's quite a complicated process and can only be accomplished on a PC due to the software that is involved, but if you need to be able to edit MT2S and cannot wait until the proper tools are released, this method might be your only solution. Be warned that is requires PowerDVD Ultra, VirtualDubMod, and AVIsynth, and a hearty helping of patience. But, there you have it! Thanks, Jake.
Digital Heaven just released a neat little app that might help Final Cut Pro users manage project workflows. Final Print reads an XML file exported by FCP and displays a list of clip and sequence markers with name, comments, timecode and thumbnail image. You can check out an example here (PDF alert). Price is $99 and you can download a demo to give it a whirl.
720x480, 640x480, 1920x1080... what is the significance behind these and other aspect ratios we sometimes love to hate? This Artbeats document presents a straightforward introduction to the significance of video aspect ratios, and how video differs when presented on computer screens and televisions, and captured on camcorders. Unfortunately, knowing a lot of these tedious factoids becomes invaluable when working with different format (SD vs. HD, NTSC vs. PAL) video. There's no such thing as a universal pixel aspect ratio, and learning the differences between formats will give you a better understanding of exactly how video is displayed.
Knowing your keyboard shortcuts will take you to the next level in your mastery of Final Cut Pro. For some help with memorization, try printing out this shortcut 
Callbox has released a 
As a videoblogger, I had initially hosted all my content on my own web server. I did this so because I could control how the content was viewed, build an audience around my site and keep the rights to the content. But with the diverging media platforms, the task quickly became a nuisance. Some people didn't have Quicktime, iTunes didn't like Flash, then there is the Windows Media Center. Yikes! After a while, I decided to share the hosting responsibilities with blip.tv.
Ok, so I really quite like Children of Men. Partly because it is one of the most convincing films I have seen in a long time, in more ways than one. With other films, I sometimes doubt what I am witnessing, in due part to visual effects that are simply unnatural, for lack of a better word. However, in Children of Men, the implementation of CG and special effects is nearly seamless and unidentifiable, undoubtedly in due part to the overall fluid nature of the film. Nevertheless, CG is there, and this 
You may be like me and are constantly on the lookout for graphics to add to your production library. Besides being expensive, you usually get-what-you-get with no easy option to make changes. Well 
To the right is a screen grab from the credits of Children of Men which used a sample from the 
Wanna get into video editing, but can't afford the latest studio bundle? Never fear, Ubuntu will have you logging, trimming, and printing in no time! 
Shooting good footage can be a challenge under normal circumstances. Add the elements of shooting underwater, big ol' spearguns and the occasional shark and I won't be signing up for your project. But the crew of 
Scott Simmons over at the 
Currently, there is no established workflow for editing AVCHD video, the latest HD format introduced by Panasonic and Sony. Proper editing software for editing raw AVCHD files will not be made available until at least March, however, resourceful reader Jake Ludington has discovered 
