CUT.N.COLOR
Steve Hullfish has been producing and editing award-winning television since the mid-1980s. He has written four books, countless magazine articles and hosted an Avid training DVD. He has lectured at NAB, DVExpo and the Master Editor seminars. He has edited on Avid since 1992 and was named to Avid's first group of Master Editors. His client list includes: Universal Studios, NBC Television, PBS TV, Turner Networks, The Oprah Winfrey Show, "Investigative Reports" and "Cold Cases" with Bill Kurtis for A&E, Jim Henson Home Entertainment, HIT Enterta...
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A look at the many possible uses of the AJA KiPro.
By Steve Hullfish | November 26, 2009
The AJA KiPro (pronounced "kee-PRO") is a very nicely designed unit that I believe will become more and more useful over time. As it is currently released, several of the features that I really am interested in are still not implemented, but the potential is definitely there.My overall impression is that it's a great little box that is very well engineered, but I have some reservations and an extensive wish list for making the device a "must have." Before I get in to that, let me tell you a little about the device.
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Archival methods, database management and editorial direction
By Steve Hullfish | November 18, 2009
?The History Channel's WW2 in HD series has created a firestorm of debate over archival methods. If you read the AMIA listserve, the Cinematographer's Mailing List, or the Telecine Internet Group or TKColorist Internet Group listserve, chances are you saw the huge debate over how the huge amount of rare color footage from World War II was transferred. Many people thought that historical records were being destroyed by careless film transfers. Several web stories - that were actually created by publicists - supported this controversy, but turned out to be mis-information.The true story of the making of the series turns out to be far more interesting than the fiction, as so often is the case. I interviewed the series' director, Frederic Lumiere on the phone in the midst of the controversy and discovered a man passionate about his project and for the care and cataloging of the materials he oversaw. Any misquotes can be attributed to my transcription. I recorded the entire interview and did the transcription word for word, but phonetic transcription is contextual and between Mr. Lumiere's mild French accent and the quality of the phone line audio, I may have made minor mistakes. My intent was to be honest and portray the events correctly.
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Getting Video to the masses
By Steve Hullfish | October 29, 2009
Sorenson - known widely for its compression software, Squeeze, has recently launched a video publishing server service that integrates with Squeeze, but can also be used with nothing more than a web browser to encode files. The new service is called Sorenson 360.Most magazines or blogs prefer to separate interviews from tutorials from reviews, but this article will be a unique hybrid offering a little of all three. To start, we'll learn a little about the service from my interview with Sorenson Media's VP of Product Development, David Dudas.
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Transcriptions and YOU!
By Steve Hullfish | October 17, 2009
The topic of transcription came up on several forums recently, so I thought I'd share the peanut gallery's wisdom on the subject. If you don't think you need transcriptions, think again. With the recent FCC rules, all TV programs need closed-captioning, and unless you're doing scripted drama, you'll need transcriptions for the closed-captioner. It's also handy to have as an editor when you're trying to "Frankenstein" a soundbite together and you're looking for the sentence-ending word with an "S" at the end or something like that. Sometimes if I'm trying to end a speaker's thought in mid-sentence, I do a search for the same ending word with a period after it. Splice them together and you've got an elegant ending to an otherwise choppy sounding sentence. If you've got a transcription to search, doing these kinds of tasks is much, much easier.
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Adobe and Avid get synergistic
By Steve Hullfish | October 02, 2009
Anybody remember that classic commercial for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? "Hey! You got peanut butter on my chocolate! No! You got chocolate in my peanut butter!" Then the two injured parties in the commercial realize that peanut butter and chocolate are really two great tastes that taste great together! They shouldn't be kept apart. They should be celebrated in a joyful, delicious and nutritious union of flavors!Well folks, today I'm getting Adobe in my Avid and Avid in my Adobe. Now most of you are probably thinking, "Duh. Everyone combines Photoshop and After Effects with Avid. That's nothing new." But I'm taking my Adobe cravings one step beyond the ordinary. I'm going for a Media Composer and Premiere Pro sandwich!
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It's not easy keying green
By Steve Hullfish | September 14, 2009
I know it's kind of lame to just post someone else's YouTube video - but this seemed worth the time: funny, clever and "video relevant."
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Modified behaviors with modifier keys
By Steve Hullfish | August 26, 2009
So, it's been a while since I've started writing this series, so I should probably point out that the point here is to simply locate those cool tips and techniques that are easily found in the user manual - if you actually chose to read it. But this is much easier - at least for you - because I've sifted out most of the "duh" stuff and just delivered the tips that you might have not heard before.The theme of this specific column was inspired by a reader who commented on Avid Gems #10. They wanted to know all of the different ways the alt key on Windows or the option key on Mac altered the behavior of various keystrokes and mouse movements, so that's what I'm serving up today.
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Using StumbleUpon for creative inspiration and resources
By Steve Hullfish | August 23, 2009
More and more production professionals are living in a kind of social vacuum as production and post moves from larger companies to small 1 or 2 man boutiques. So for a little inspiration and a feeling that you're part of a greater whole, I'd suggest checking out StumbleUpon. I know that many of you have probably already become addicted to the steady stream of interesting content provided by StumbleUpon, but for those who have yet to discover the joys of Stumbling, let me introduce you.
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New Publishing presets deliver great workflow
By Steve Hullfish | July 31, 2009
PVC Reviews - The BackstoryThere's been some back-room discussion amongst the PVC writers about reviews. The general consensus being that since all of the PVC writers are actually folks just like you who are actually making a living as video professionals, instead of as "bloggers," we don't have the time or patience to review a bunch of crappy products that we'd never use in the course of trying to make a living. And since we wouldn't use bad products for projects involving real clients, and since we're too busy to do anything else, the reviews of products by PVC writers will tend to be fairly positive, more often than not. That doesn't mean they're not honest, it just means that they're well-informed purchases to begin with. That's certainly the case for this review. As background information, I've been using a number of compression products for several years: Squeeze has always been part of the arsenal; Apple Compression, of course; Adobe Media Encoder CS4, the Elgato Turbo-264 USB device; and my oldest compression product, ProCoder, which I haven't upgraded since 2002, I think.
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Turn a video pro into a web geek in 30 minutes
By Steve Hullfish | July 31, 2009
I am not a web geek. I am a video professional who realizes how important the web is to video professionals. I wish I had the time to master one more skillset to make my own cool Flash video sites, but I don't. If you can relate, then I have a cool solution to turn you into a web geek in only about 30 minutes with skills you probably already have.
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Effects plugins for FCP, Motion, After Effects and Avid
By Steve Hullfish | March 01, 2009
Most people I know in this industry love new gear. And in the world of desktop video applications and editing, new gear is now less and less about the physical stuff with buttons and knobs and more about "the code."If you want access to a lot of new stuff, the easiest way to get high quality stuff to play with is to load FxFactory for Final Cut Pro, or FxFactory Pro with its 142 plug-ins already included. These plug-ins can be used in FCP, Motion, and After Effects. A similar product - Factory Tools - is available for Avid.
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More than just a facelift
By Steve Hullfish | February 01, 2009
Last year I wrote a review of various software-based waveform/vectorscopes. In that review I included my praise and criticism of Adobe OnLocation, though technically it's a lot more than just simple wave/vector software. Since that time, Adobe has released the CS4 collection, upgrading most of their apps with significant features and - probably more importantly - increasing the interoperability of the apps in the overall suite. Once of the apps that got a huge overhaul in CS4 was OnLocation, so I wanted to revisit it and share a little of what has changed and why you should consider using this app on your next project.
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How to see what you're doing in a nest
By Steve Hullfish | January 16, 2009
Here's an interesting problem I came across on the Avid-L2 listserve:An editor was trying to create three circle wipes to reveal three video files over a background. To achieve this the editor dropped three circle wipes onto the videos and customized the position, size and softness of each circlular "window." The problem was that even though the circles were positioned properly, the video inside each circular window was not displaying the desired portion of the underlying video track. In order to reposition the video underneath the window, the editor "stepped in" to the effect and added a resize effect, allowing them to change the size and position of the video. The problem is that when you step in to an effect like this, you can no longer see the position of the circular window, so you have to guess where to place the video and then step out to see how close your guess is.
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Intro to Apple Color's Color FX Room
By Steve Hullfish | January 15, 2009
After a brief hiatus, my color correction tutorials are back.This tutorial is about 8 minutes long and provides a glimpse into how to use the Color FX Room in Apple's Color. The Color FX room is very cool. It is a "nodal" or "process tree" based process where you add nodes (effects) together by graphically linking them into a "tree" that allows MANY effects to be linked in novel and complex ways. This tutorial shows how you can start THINKING about using the nodes to create effects. I'll do another tutorial later to give some more complex examples of process trees and how they can be built.I still have a dozen more from the revised edition of my first color correction book - "Color Correction for Video." The original book was co-authored with Jaime Fowler and was called "Color Correction for Digital Video." The revised edition is completely re-written with a great DVD that has more than two hours of video tutorials and sample footage to play with. You'll be able to use the book no matter which application (or even OS) you prefer for color correction.
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Things to pledge to do - and NOT to do - next year!
By Steve Hullfish | December 21, 2008
So the grand poobahs at ProVideoCoalition wanted all of us gurus to write a few year end lists. There are all kinds of things that are important to editors and video professionals that could be turned into lists: plug-ins, equipment, innovative productions.My list is of none of these things. But hopefully, it will be even more helpful and valuable. Oftentimes I get called in to fix projects that have been started by other editors, so I see a lot of other people's work. There are a few common mistakes that I see over and over again. So welcome to "My New Year's Resolution List of Mistakes That You Should Avoid Next Year." Some are technical. Some are creative. And some are business mistakes or client relationship mistakes. There are also a few positive "to dos" to add to your New Year's Resolution list.
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user tips on effects
By Steve Hullfish | December 09, 2008
This column on Avid tips and tricks was originally designed to include hidden "gems" from the Avid user manual, but today we're going to feature a bunch of nice "gems" from one of our readers, Josh Petok as well as a stream-of-conscious of gems from me. Manuals? We don't need no stinkin' manuals for these gems! Josh's gems are definitely included in the list of tips that I know I learned at one point but I'd stored them away in that section of my brain that has the giant dust bunnies and is crawling with spiders. That doesn't mean that they're not great tips! Far from it. These are excellent tips and Josh has reminded me that I need to store them somewhere closer to the frontal lobe with the important information like my wife's birthday and our anniversary.
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fix it in Color Finesse - or adapt it to Color
By Steve Hullfish | November 17, 2008
This week I balance and fix a dark image in Synthetic Aperture's Color Finesse color correction application, but if you are using Apple Color, you can adapt this easily to Color by using the Master Gain, Gamma and Pedestal and the Advanced Tabs Red, Green and Blue gain, gamma and pedestal controls. You could also do this correction using Curves and guide your corrections using eyedroppering instead of using an RGB Parade waveform monitor if you wanted.The image that I used in the example is on the CD from my first color correction book, co-authored with Jaime Fowler, "Color Correction for Digital Video." That book is about to be released in an almost completely re-written revised edition called "Color Correction for Video." This image is also on the DVD for that book.Next week we'll get into some more advanced techniques in Color, so make sure to subscribe to the RSS feed for this series.
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Bringing home the production bacon
By Steve Hullfish | November 13, 2008
Last year was my best year ever. Huge projects and lots of them. Plenty of work to pass out to the great freelancers that I knew. This year… not so much. Actually this year is my worst year. From feast to famine.So what am I doing about it? Losing sleep? Yes. But this is an inspirational and motivational column to convince you to wear out some shoe leather and burn up the phone lines.There's still work out there. Someone is doing it. So how do you get a piece of the pie?
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Gems in the Bins - How many do YOU know?
By Steve Hullfish | November 10, 2008
Get your bin tips! Step right up, folks! Get your bin tips here!Once again: maybe not sexy, but useful. One of these tips isn't even in the manual and one of them was new to me until I re-read the manual. Which ones will be new to you? You never know what little gem has slipped past you on the way to becoming the experienced editor you are.
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Using color contrast to improve an image
By Steve Hullfish | November 05, 2008
This video tutorial on color correction shows how color contrast can be used to really transform an image. A large part of color correction is improving and manipulating the tonal contrast - the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of the image. But color contrast can be even more important in creating an interesting and arresting image. Contrasting warm tones with cool tones or playing colors against each other to create interest is something that sets the truly great colorists apart from the rest. The example in this video tutorial uses footage from Evan Nicholas' short film, "Susannah," which was shot with a RED camera, to show how tonal and color contrast can be used to improve the impact of a shot.
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DBA Createasphere