Another product that caught our eye at NAB!

New SmartSound Quicktracks® will give customers instant access to customize and download any track from SmartSound’s entire royalty free music library

Quicktracks, an entirely Cloud-based technology, gives videographers and broadcast producers an industry first: full Web-based creative control of music track scoring. Selecting music from SmartSound’s extensive Royalty Free Music Library, users can set the length of the track precisely, choose a musical arrangement and instrument mix right over the Internet-and download a fully customized music track perfectly sized and arranged to meet project requirements.

See SmartSound’s Quicktracks Cloud-based music customization service for yourself at the NAB 2011 Show, April 11th-14th, Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth #SL7410; or contact SmartSound online for Quicktracks pricing and availability.

Good audio is invaluable to the process of making a video. In fact, it has been said that people will sit through a bad video much longer than they will tolerate a video with bad audio. However, audio is often an afterthought or considered something that can be easily fixed in post production. Video producers have had to learn the hard way that there is no substitution for properly recorded audio. Fortunately,  Videomaker’s Audio for Video Webinar aims at helping you capture the best audio possible, the first time around. We will discuss types of mics and their pick-up patterns, picking the best mic, tips on how to capture quality audio every time you shoot, and more.

In addition to valuable information, this event will also include a live Q&A segment; our team answering your questions. Videomaker’s Audio for Video Webinar starts at 11:00 AM (PST) on April 6th, so be sure to sign up soon!

Not interested in Audio for Video? Videomaker’s Webinar Training Series provides a wide variety of webinars that cover topics including Advanced Editing, Documentary Production, Lighting for Video, Advanced Shooting, Green Screens and Special Effects, and much more.

The 2010 Videomaker Best Product of the Year award for Best Audio Software Plug-ins goes to Singular Software PluralEyes.

Now, with the HDSLR revolution, more editors are having to sync external audio with their HDSLR footage; a very consuming endeavor. For this, Singular Software has a powerful solution called PluralEyes. With its affordable price and powerful set of features, it is definitely worth taking a look at.

Read Videomaker‘s review of the Singular Software PluralEyes .

My first job out of college was working as an editor for a local TV station. Well, technically, my first official job was a short stint working the make up counter at Walgreens, but that’s another story for another time. I didn’t work at the TV station very long either. I quickly learned that the employee-employer model wasn’t my cup of tea and struck out on my own after a few months. But the experience was enlightening. I got to see how the station made TV commercials. Granted, the spots were quite awful. Picture your typical schlock pitching used cars, law firms, and furniture stores, but they were commercials none-the-less. And I got to see first hand that making a commercial is not really that complicated. Of course, making a good commercial is extremely hard, but you gotta start somewhere.

So, in the spirit of demystification, I’d like to deconstruct my latest commercial spot for you. If you think you might have the stuff to produce commercial work but aren’t sure where to start, maybe this’ll help. Maybe not. I’m a filmmaker not a career counselor!

Have a look:

This particular spot can be broken down into 4 main elements.
1. The Copy – the words that are being said
2. Voice Over – the recording, or performance of the copy
3. Visuals – the stuff you see
4. Music and Sound – music bed and sound effects

If you’ve seen my portfolio you might correctly assume that I’ve worked with this client quite a bit. The message and branding have already been dialed in so I’m using those guidelines when developing the spot.

Now here are my secret weapons for each of these categories.

The Copy. I used to write all my own copy before I realized that there are much more talented people than I who actually LIKE writing scripts. After receiving the event details from the client, I wrote up some instructions and forwarded the details to my copy writer, Kallie. She’s worked with this client before and has the quirky Rolling Hills voice dialed in. By the way, Kallie is a pen-for-hire if you’re needing some deftly crafted prose or poetry for a project. You can find her on Twitter.

Voice Over. Once the script was approved by the client, I emailed it to Marketing Mania (mktmania.com). I’ve had the pleasure of working with this company for a few years now. They’ve done 95% of the VO work in my portfolio. Since we’d already cast a voice over artist for this client, the turn around was right quick. In less than 24 hours I had an MP3 of the final voice over. Use them. Tell Christina I sent you.

Visuals. No cameras were harmed, or even used, in the making of this commercial. This is all After Effects. Some artwork was provided by the client and the rest was created in software or sourced on iStockphoto. My goal was to create an interesting layout of content that illustrates the copy while leading the viewer’s eye through the spot in an engaging way. As you might imagine, this was the most laborious, time-consuming task of the process. The final visuals were assembled and timed in Final Cut Pro.

Music and Sound. Right now my favorite production music sites are Pump Audio, Non Stop Music, and Dewolfe Music. You buy only the song you need and pay based on use and distribution – pretty simple. Sound effects were all sourced through Sounddogs.com. Same search and purchase model.

Jesse Rosten is a filmmaker and photographer currently based out of Northern California. He’s a fan of creativity in all its forms.

It’s been known that people will sit through bad video much longer than they will sit through bad audio. For this reason, capturing great audio is invaluable to the process of making a video. Unfortunately, audio is often considered to be something that can easily be fixed in post production. Video producers have had to learn the hard way that there is no substitution for properly recorded audio.

To help you capture the best audio possible, Videomaker’s Audio for Video Webinar covers types of mics and their pick-up patterns, which mics are the best fit for each situation and tips on how to capture quality audio every time you shoot.

In addition to valuable information, our Audio for Video Webinar will also include a live Q&A segment; our team answering your questions. Videomaker’s Audio for Video Webinar starts at 11:00 AM (Wednesday, October 20^th), so be sure to sign up soon!

Not interested in Audio for Video? Videomaker’s Webinar Training series provides a wide variety of webinars that cover topics including Advanced Editing, Documentary Production, Lighting for Video, Advanced Shooting, Green Screens and Special Effects, and much more.

As a videographer we all know how hard it is to legally obtain music, especially for a Wedding video that the bride would actually enjoy. Let’s be honest when is the last time a bride agreed to use stock music for the reception montage or the first dance. It’s almost impossible without breaking the law, until now. Enter Songfreedom.com, a membership based site with a library of some of the most popular music tracks from record labels like Sony Music and EMI that offer their music for reproduction and streaming use, particularly for Wedding videographers.