Editing

Quicktip Day 04: Tear off the Avid tool palette

A floating tool palette is a handy thing

By Scott Simmons | February 04, 2009

Quicktip #4 (February 4, 2009) Tear off the Avid tool paletteBy default the Avid tool palette lives between the source and record monitors under the little "hamburger" menu. Click it and it drops down:but drag the mouse away while the tool palette is open and it will "tear away" into its own window which can then be positioned anywhere:It's a great place to store lesser used commands. As a bonus Avid tip, head over to the Rockhopper Post blog for their continuing series of Avid tips. Read More

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Remember Adobe Premiere Express?

The online editing application is featured in a Hyundai promotion

By Scott Simmons | February 03, 2009

A while back I seem to remember Adobe announcing Adobe Premiere Express, its Flash-based online video editor. I never played with it and really didn't hear that much about it but it is alive and well as part of the new Hyundai Genesis Coupe advertising campaign. And over on the Hyundai site you can even edit your own version of a Genesis Coupe commercial and post it for all the world to see. I gave it a try and I have to say that while it's exciting to see that the Internet has progressed far enough for feature rich "applications" like this to exist the last thing I want to do is edit with Premiere Express. It may not be the interface itself (though it's not the most pleasant thing) but the Hyundai site as I was only able to get a few of the user generated edits to play at all. As cool as the Genesis Coupe looks I'm sure the site isn't that overloaded! Read More

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Quicktip Day 03: Project folders in the Finder sidebar

The Mac Finder sidebar can be your friend

By Scott Simmons | February 03, 2009

Quicktip #3 (February 3, 2009) Put Project folders in the Finder sidebarI access my Final Cut Pro projects folder and my Avid projects folder all the time so I put those folders into the Places sidebar in the Finder window via click and drag. They are always there, even in an Open and Save dialog box. This is on my machine at home where I have both Avid and Final Cut Pro installed on the same drive. Another good tip if you run both applications is to install two separate boot drives, one for Avid and one for Final Cut Pro. Then you can keep your OS and your QuickTime version at the currently supported versions. It's a bit of a pain to manage two drives but it's better than doing a random update and then having a crashing application to troubleshoot when you need to be working. Read More

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Quicktip Day 02: Map your 9-split exactly to the keypad

Changing the FCP default 9-split multicam shortcut made my life easier

By Scott Simmons | February 02, 2009

Quicktip #2 (February 2, 2009) Map your 9-split exactly to the keypadFinal Cut Pro already has the 9-split multicam view edit keys mapped to the keypad of the Multi-camera Editing keyboard layout as a default where you can switch to the various cameras 1 - 9 with a press of the camera number you want to switch to. I like to change those mappings around where instead of the number on the keypad matching the number of the camera it is the placement of the key that matches the camera in a 9-split multicam view. For example, in my keyboard layout cut to camera 1 is mapped to keypad shift+7 (I mapped it to the shift tab so I didn't have to change keyboard layouts for multicam editing):To me this is much easier to make quick camera cuts on the keypad without even having to look at any buttons since the keys now exactly match the 9-split. Depending on where your cameras land when making your multiclip you can rearrange the cameras in the multicam view and place them where you want. For me I put camera 1 in the upper left corner where it matches the 7 key on the keypad. Camera 2 in the middle of the top row to match keypad 8 and so on. Plus it changes part of what I think is FCP's illogical default keyboard placements. Once you feel the raised bump on the 5 key you are cutting away. Read More

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Quicktip Day 01: Use that CAPS LOCK!

Using FCP's CAPS LOCK functionality can speed timeline work

By Scott Simmons | February 01, 2009

Quicktip #1 (February 1, 2009) Use that CAPS LOCK!In Final Cut Pro, when working on an edit sequence with lots of graphic layers, it can take a few seconds to render the current frame for display (especially if working in HD):Use the CAPS LOCK key to temporarily disable rendering and you can do a lot of really fast work in the timeline without having to wait on FCP to render the frame between adjustments. And you get an alert in the viewer and Canvas to let you know why you can't see the frame:I find this particularly useful when cleaning up my timeline, prepping an edit for online or OMF consolidation for audio mix, generally any kind of housekeeping or fine-tuning a multilayer edit. Read More

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28 Days of Quicktips

Wherein the Editblog attempts a new Quicktip for every day in February

By Scott Simmons | January 31, 2009

I just love quick tips! It's so much fun to see a blog post, Tweet, comment or image that gives me a little piece of editing / software knowledge that I didn't know before. I read the tip for a minute or so, try out the tip and then it's stuck in my brain from that point forward. Well ... some of them I will forget if I don't use them very much but for the most part they seem to stick pretty well. I've been using Avid Media Composer and Apple Final Cut Pro for about as long as I can remember but there are still learn new things about the software I see, read and stumble upon from time to time. For the last little while I've been making a list of some of my favorite Quicktip. I'm almost to 28 so I thought that February 2009 would be the perfect month in which to post one Quicktip a day! Some are my favorites, some are new discoveries, some are tips I probably learned elsewhere (so if you were an originator of a particular tip thanks!). I hope that one or more will be helpful. The madness begins tomorrow, February 1, 2009! Read More

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Is Apple Working on Storyboarding Software?

Apple patent appliction hints at future software

By Scott Simmons | January 30, 2009

It was on the same day that I got an email about the new version 6 of Storyboard Quick that I saw an article on Information Week entitled Apple Applies For Storyboard Software Patent. This article points to a patent application that includes a more detailed abstract. From the WIPO website:A storyboard presentation is generated by launching a scene design tool that includes actor and camera placement tools. Using the actor and camera placement tools, a first actor icon and a first camera icon are added on a scene layout, the first actor icon representing a first actor that will appear in a scene and the first camera icon representing a first camera that will film the scene. The user is enabled to control a location and orientation of the first actor icon using the actor placement tool and a location and orientation of the first camera icon relative to the first actor icon using the camera placement tool. Based on the location and orientation of the first actor icon and the first camera icon, a first projection of the scene featuring the first actor as seen from the first camera is generated.The first thing I wondered after reading about this patent would be if this could be a stand alone piece of software or would it be integrated into Final Cut Pro? Read More

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Please allow me to introduce myself

By Scott Simmons | January 25, 2009

Please allow me to introduce myself ....Hi, I'm Scott Simmons. you may remember me from such such blog posts as A Case Against Color, Compressor hatred. Resolved? or the infamous What's wrong with the young FCP editor? It's not all about bagging on FCP since I use it all the time and like to talk about the good things as well. As an early adopter of Final Cut Pro version 1.0 the only way I could have been using it longer would be to have been a beta tester! I also love and use Avid Media Composer. From my Avid Media Composer 3.0 review to If I Were Appointed Avid's CEO, a little love and tough-love is often in order. And how can we leave out discussion on the RED camera and its unique challenges in post. Oh, there's also one of my favorite topics, the ever raging Avid vs. Final Cut Pro debate. All of these articles come from my years of running The Editblog over on my own site as well as writing for Studio Daily. But it's not all about writing.I'm also a creative non-linear Avid/Final Cut Pro film/television/video editor. Plus there are all of the other hats than an editor must wear these days too: graphic designer, audio mixer, sound designer, compositor, colorist, client manager, QuickTime expert, Macintosh troubleshooter and technology understanderer just to name a few. I've been a professional editor for going on 9 years and have worked in and around post-production for over a decade (man ... writing that sentence makes me feel old!). In these years in the Nashville, Tennessee market I've worked on just about any and every type of program from music videos to commercials, narrative to documentary, corporate to broadcast. Editing is fun. Helping writers, producers and directors mold their raw footage into a finished product brings me great joy. Writing about these techniques and processes helps me understand and appreciate the art and craft of editing that much more. Along the way we might talk about filmmaking, music, movies and popular culture too. It's great to bring the Editblog over to ProVideo Coalition right alongside some of my favorite writers and teachers that I have been reading for years. You can also find me lurking around a number of Internet forums as editblog and on Vimeo, LinkedIn and Twitter. Hey ... I'm just happy to be here at all. Read More

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iMovie Pro?

Reading between the lines of Randy Ubillo's astonishing comment at Macworld Expo

By Allan Tépper | January 24, 2009

Even though I have never gone to a Macworld Expo (and now probably never will, since Apple will no longer present there), I have always enjoyed watching Apple's infamous keynote presentations via Internet. However, being so familiar with Final Cut Pro, I never thought I would be blown away by the presentation about iMovie 09, which you will see later in this article. I was quite surprised when I heard who was going to present it (Randy Ubillos), by the new features in iMovie 09, and even more so by Randy's astonishing comment, which I will visit later in this article. Read More

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Editing is Mind Control for the Masses

Editing and directing style capable of eliciting a common viewer response

By Matthew Jeppsen | January 19, 2009

In a study released in mid-2008, neuroscientists noted that certain styles of motion pictures are capable of exerting "considerable control over brain activity." In the study that used fMRI imaging to study neocortex response, researchers found that the level of control exerted was linked directly to the film's editing and directing style. One of the films screened for subjects was an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents "Bang! You're Dead." The findings are probably not that surprising to most experienced editors, I think many of us feel that on some level editing is a form of manipulation. However, it's interesting to see real data on the topic. Read on... Read More

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Controlling HDV when capturing HDMI or HD-SDI

Control is vital when capturing, especially if you expect to conserve the original timecode and recapturability

By Allan Tépper | January 13, 2009

Most HDV editors are ecstatic when they hear about all of the many benefits of using HDMI capture in post-production, as explained in the two prior articles Why capture HDV via HDMI? and Universal HDV Deck. The next question is how to control when capturing via HDMI or HD-SDI, in order to retain timecode and recapture capability. Read More

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Controlling HDV when capturing HDMI or HD-SDI

Control is vital when capturing, especially if you expect to conserve the original timecode and recapturability

By Allan Tépper | January 12, 2009

Most HDV editors are ecstatic when they hear about all of the many benefits of using HDMI capture in post-production, as explained in the two prior articles Why capture HDV via HDMI? and Universal HDV Deck. The next question is how to control when capturing via HDMI or HD-SDI, in order to retain timecode and recapture capability.The rest of this article has been moved to Allan's PVC channel. Click here to view it. Read More

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Universal HDV deck (almost)

To avoid having to buy two HDV decks, many people desperately seek a universal model

By Allan Tépper | January 09, 2009

Up until now, post-production facilities that accept HDV footage have confronted a major dilemma: If they bought a JVC BR-HD50 deck (US$3,399 list), the only HD recordings they could play were HDV 720p from JVC (none of the HDV 1080i tapes from Canon or Sony). On the other hand, if they bought one of the professional Sony HDV decks (currently between US$2,480 and US$8,290 list), they could play any HDV 1080i tape, but as soon as they tried to play an HDV 720p tape, the IEEE-1394's video output would mysteriously go blank. Out of desperation, some facilities went to the extreme of buying two HDV decks: one JVC and one Sony. In other cases, people bought a Sony HDV deck only, and then settled for an analog capture from HDV 720p recordings, with its noticeable D>A>D conversion as shown in this breathtaking video (courtesy of Convergent Design and JVC Italy), and in some cases (as with the HVR-M15 and HVR-M15A when playing HDV 720p tapes), a forced, undesired cross-conversion from 720p to 1080i. This is a nightmare for a purist! But hold on... Read More

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Universal HDV deck (almost)

To avoid having to buy two HDV decks, many people desperately seek a universal model

By Allan Tépper | January 08, 2009

Up until now, post-production facilities that accept HDV footage have confronted a major dilemma: If they bought a JVC BR-HD50 deck (US$3,399 list), the only HD recordings they could play were HDV 720p from JVC (none of the HDV 1080i tapes from Canon or Sony). On the other hand, if they bought one of the professional Sony HDV decks (currently between US$2,480 and US$8,290 list), they could play any HDV 1080i tape, but as soon as they tried to play an HDV 720p tape, the IEEE-1394's video output would mysteriously go blank. Out of desperation, some facilities went to the extreme of buying two HDV decks: one JVC and one Sony. In other cases, people bought a Sony HDV deck only, and then settled for an analog capture from HDV 720p recordings, with its noticeable D>A>D conversion as shown in this breathtaking video (courtesy of Convergent Design and JVC Italy), and in some cases (as with the HVR-M15 and HVR-M15A when playing HDV 720p tapes), a forced, undesired cross-conversion from 720p to 1080i. This is a nightmare for a purist! But hold on...The rest of this article has been moved to Allan's PVC channel. Click here to view it. Read More

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Why capture HDV via HDMI?

Visual frame accuracy, picture quality, and recapturability are only some of the many advantages of HDMI capture.

By Allan Tépper | January 05, 2009

For many reasons explained in my recent article, it makes a lot of sense to capture your HDV footage directly to an editing i-frame códec like ProRes422. One of the best way to do that nowadays from HDV is via HDMI. Editing directly from ProRes422 files (as opposed to hybrid editing or native editing, as explained in the prior article,) offers you visually frame-accurate editing, which is critical whenever your project includes:Critical multilayer editingIndependently recorded 48 KHz audio which needs to be lip-syncedIf you try to do either of those two things from your raw long-GOP HDV footage directly, you'll find that what you see is rarely what you eventually get. This has nothing to do with choosing to shoot in HDV or not; but it has everything to do with how to post-produce your HDV footage, especially when your production will include either of those two demanding facets mentioned above. (If your production includes neither of those facets, and you are very short on space, then hybrid editing or native editing would work, but you would miss out on some of the other advantages you're about to discover.) Advantages of capturing via HDMI directly (or via HD-SDI) as opposed to other methods include:Avoiding unnecessary D>A (digital>analog) and A>D (analog>digital) conversions by keeping your HD signal as digital (as opposed to capturing via component analog). Click here to see a breathtaking comparison video, courtesy of Convergent Design and JVC Italy. The same HDV 720p25 footage was captured from the same HDV tape both via component analog HD and via HDMI>HD-SDI, and compared. This video is in 1280x720 in WMV. If you are on a Mac and have not done so yet, please download Flip4Mac's free WMV component for QuickTime here, which will allow you to see WMV in your QuickTime Player.Taking advantage of the HDV deck's correction circuit (which is unfortunately bypassed via IEEE-1394).You can get a more universal HDV player (see details later in the next article, Universal HDV deck, coming January 8th).You can save time and space (as opposed to capturing via 1394 and converting later)You retain Log & Capture, deck control, original timecode, and (as a result) recapture capability (as opposed to using FCP's HDV-ProRes422 capture preset via 1394, where you sadly lose all of these four features) Read More

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Cool After Effects Tutorial - Rhythmic Motion Typography

Bring static text to life with this simple tutorial

By Matthew Jeppsen | January 04, 2009

As a video editor, I posses a very basic working knowledge of Adobe After Effects. I can zing around in Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro, but my grasp of AE is still a work in progress. So when I happen across a tutorial that I'm able to quickly grasp, you know I have to share it. Here's one such tutorial video compliments of AETUTS that shows you how to do that currently-popular dynamic text/lyrics thing, bringing simple words to life in time with music. The video is embedded below. Read More

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Why capture HDV via HDMI?

Visual frame accuracy, picture quality, and recapturability are only some of the many advantages of HDMI capture.

By Allan Tépper | January 04, 2009

For many reasons explained in my recent article, it makes a lot of sense to capture your HDV footage directly to an editing i-frame códec like ProRes422. One of the best way to do that nowadays from HDV is via HDMI. Editing directly from ProRes422 files (as opposed to hybrid editing or native editing, as explained in the prior article,) offers you visually frame-accurate editing, which is critical whenever your project includes:Critical multilayer editingIndependently recorded 48 KHz audio which needs to be lip-syncedIf you try to do either of those two things from your raw long-GOP HDV footage directly, you'll find that what you see is rarely what you eventually get. This has nothing to do with choosing to shoot in HDV or not; but it has everything to do with how to post-produce your HDV footage, especially when your production will include either of those two demanding facets mentioned above. (If your production includes neither of those facets, and you are very short on space, then hybrid editing or native editing would work, but you would miss out on some of the other advantages you're about to discover.) Advantages of capturing via HDMI directly (or via HD-SDI) as opposed to other methods include:Avoiding unnecessary D>A (digital>analog) and A>D (analog>digital) conversions by keeping your HD signal as digital (as opposed to capturing via component analog). Click here to see a breathtaking comparison video, courtesy of Convergent Design and JVC Italy. The same HDV 720p25 footage was captured from the same HDV tape both via component analog HD and via HDMI>HD-SDI, and compared. This video is in 1280x720 in WMV. If you are on a Mac and have not done so yet, please download Flip4Mac's free WMV component for QuickTime here, which will allow you to see WMV in your QuickTime Player.Taking advantage of the HDV deck's correction circuit (which is unfortunately bypassed via IEEE-1394).You can get a more universal HDV player (see details later in the next article, Universal HDV deck, coming January 8th).You can save time and space (as opposed to capturing via 1394 and converting later)You retain Log & Capture, deck control, original timecode, and (as a result) recapture capability (as opposed to using FCP's HDV-ProRes422 capture preset via 1394, where you sadly lose all of these four features)The rest of this article has been moved to Allan's PVC channel. Click here to view it. Read More

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Revisiting HDV’s Virtues

Some videographers would "rather fight than switch" from tape

By Allan Tépper | December 31, 2008

Among my clients and friends who are video professionals, many of those who produce commercials, corporate, and music videos have already embraced tapeless acquisition with such cameras as JVC's high definition Everio, Panasonic's AG-HMC150/151, and Sony's EX1 & EX3. However, those who shoot events (Bar Mitzvahs, Quinces/Sixteen Parties, Weddings) -and some of those who shoot documentaries- are relentless in defending their need to shoot on tape. They cite the following HDV advantages over tapeless acquisition:There is always an original tape for future use.The original HDV tape is the permanent archive.The original HDV tape is very inexpensive.Although they have to capture in real time before editing, they don't have to worry about the time or expense of other types of long-term archival methods required with tapeless acquisition. Read More

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Revisiting HDV’s Virtues

Some videographers would "rather fight than switch" from tape

By Allan Tépper | December 31, 2008

Among my clients and friends who are video professionals, many of those who produce commercials, corporate, and music videos have already embraced tapeless acquisition with such cameras as JVC's high definition Everio, Panasonic's AG-HMC150/151, and Sony's EX1 & EX3. However, those who shoot events (Bar Mitzvahs, Quinces/Sixteen Parties, Weddings) -and some of those who shoot documentaries- are relentless in defending their need to shoot on tape. They cite the following HDV advantages over tapeless acquisition:There is always an original tape for future use.The original HDV tape is the permanent archive.The original HDV tape is very inexpensive.Although they have to capture in real time before editing, they don't have to worry about the time or expense of other types of long-term archival methods required with tapeless acquisition.The rest of this article has been moved to Allan's PVC channel. Click here to view it. Read More

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Bella Editing Keyboard Review

Bella's Professional Series EZKeyboard with Jog/Shuttle

By Matthew Jeppsen | December 12, 2008

Bella editing keyboards include printed NLE shortcuts in addition to the normal key symbols. Some models include a jog wheel and customizable user keys. I've been editing on a daily basis with my Bella Shuttle FCP keyboard for about 3.5 years now. Apparently that is long enough to wear off the left COMMAND, A, and S key labels (I think we're in danger of losing the T key in the next 6 months). Mine is the 5102 DV Keyboard model. MSRP is a little over $100. The keyboard was initially very helpful for me to learn and recall Final Cut Pro keyboard shortcuts quickly, and it's been in constant daily use for my writing at FreshDV and PVC. Here's a quick review. Read More

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