Video News

(CHICO, Calif. June 20, 2008) Video enthusiasts will refine their video production skills by attending a weekend of classes at the 2008 Videomaker Conference. The event will be held in San Diego, CA from July 19th - July 20th, 2008.

For the weekend, videographers and video enthusiasts can choose from a Video Production Workshop, Presentations on Specialty Video Topics and even a NEW Conference offering on both Saturday and Sunday that involves a full day of Hands-on Editing with Adobe Premiere Pro. Working with the editors and writers of Videomaker magazine, Videomaker Conferences provide you with the opportunity to meet the pros and explore all elements of video production. Whether you’re a beginning-to-intermediate videographer, an advanced user looking to brush up on your skills, or just someone who wants to gain a solid understanding of the basics of video production, attending this event is a must!

Videomaker Conference Weekend Details:
The Basics of Video Production - This 1-Day Course takes place on Saturday July 19th and will cover Camcorder Techniques, Choosing and Using the Right Microphone, Editing Techniques and Lighting Techniques in detail.

Specialty Topics - This 1-Day Course is the other Saturday June 19th option and will cover topics such as Wedding Videography, Creating Video for Online Sharing Sites, Tips for Shooting High Definition Formats, and Producing Videos for Schools.

Hands-On Lesson, Basic Editing - This is our NEW Hands-on Course, offered both on Saturday and Sunday! This is a full day of hands-on basic editing! If you’re new to video production, or just want to brush up your skills, you’ll benefit from this intensive lesson taught by one of Videomaker’s instructors. Techniques covered include editing theory, transitions, media management, audio track creation, and more. The class will follow the completion of a project from raw footage to polished final cut. Students each have their own computer running Adobe Premiere Pro.

Space is limited for these Videomaker Conferences so sign up today! Register online at www.events.videomaker.com/conferences If you have any questions, please contact Videomaker at 1-800-A-VID-CAM.
Since 1986, Videomaker Magazine has been the only national monthly publication that informs amateur, advancing and semi-professional consumers about products, techniques and trends in producing quality video.
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Lite Panels showed us a cool little wireless camcorder light that packs a powerful punch at this week’s NAB show.

The little Micro LED light runs on 4 standard AA batteries and weighs in at less than 4 ounces. It has a hotshoe adapter and is tilt-able and focus-able and holds about 1.5 hours of running time.

MSRP price is $349, and includes batteries, gels and diffusers along with filter holders. Watch for a review in Videomaker soon.

Videomaker was the first to hear about it at NAB: Boris, one of the first software effects companies, has a new released Version 5 of its popular effects plugin that works with Adobe After Effects CS3 and will be compatible as an FXPlug  for Apple Pro applications and Avid.

This new version will allow some cross-platform collaboration, allowing Final Cut editors to share their saved personal preset effects with Avid or Adobe editors.

Boris also announced Boris Blue 2.5, update to its 3D program that can now be applied directly within
Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects timelines.

Go to their website for more: http://www.borisfx.com/ 

SmartSound demonstrated some new features to it’s latest SonicFire Pro 4.5 customizable music library program at this year’s NAB show.

Designed with a video editor in mind, not a programmer, an engineer or a musician; the new search engine program was very intuitive, allowing the editor to search for several key words like themes, and then narrow the search down even more to fine-tune instrument type, music genre, music bed length, and “sting” points.

Once the bed is in the timeline, you can make easy keypoints to add stings, punches, or lower the audio level for a voice track, for instance, and you can adjust the key points to move along the track with ease.

Music addition used to be the bane of the one-man-band editor,  as most of us are video editors, not music composers. With the multi-level Mood Mapping and sensory search, the fun is back in editing. As our demo rep said, “It’s how editors edit”.

Some current users of SonicFire Pro can get a free upgrade, check SmartSound’s site for more details.

SonicFire Pro 4.5 will be available in June.

You may have heard that Avid snubbed NAB and wasn’t on the docket, but the company did have representatives there, just not on the convention center floor.

Choosing to forgo the millions-plus costs (that’s millions with an ’s’) that included setup, rent, delivery, manpower, etc ; Avid instead met one-on-one with press, vendors, and buyers in a quiet off-site location nearby. As one of the thousands walking all over the show floor, this was a much needed respite from the madding crowd.

The Avid Next Generation is specifically designed to make the HD editing process faster and easier, without the usual time-suck wait for rendered video and effects to cook. Reps demonstrated some pretty powerful effects layered upon each other and there was no lag time that HD footage and heavy effects can cause.

Avid also added even more to their already robust meta data features, including time code notes that can be color-coded, resized and placed on the screen where ever the editor wants.

Read more about Avid’s latest releases at: www.avid.com/newthinking