Event videography can be a scary undertaking. Because, unlike almost any other sort of videography, you only have one shot to get it right. There’s no way that a couple is going to agree to restage their entire wedding just because you messed up a shot, and likewise no band is going to put on a repeat performance because you forgot to prepare right. Naturally, you need to be on your A-game for any event videography job, be it a birthday party, a sports game or even a political speech. One of the best ways to make sure that you’re catching all the action that you need is to use multiple cameras. And we’ve got just the tool to help you do that, a brand new free report titled Multi-Camera Shooting for Event Videography!

Using multiple cameras lets you make sure that you capture all the action. Even if you get distracted by one thing, your spare cameras will save your neck… if you set them up right to catch what you need! This latest free report from Videomaker explains what you need to do to make sure that you use multiple cameras effectively.

What can you do to make sure you don’t miss the most important parts of the event? Multiple cameras are a great way to get all the angles, but, remember, a camera is only a piece of equipment. That means it’s only as good as the person using it. What good are multiple expensive cameras if you don’t know the first thing about using them all at once? We’ll give you the skinny so that you can juggle two or even three cameras like a professional. This report includes:

Learn:

• Why Multi-Camera Shoots?
• Camera Placement in Multi-Cam Shooting
• Using Rehearsals for Perfect Placement
• Going To Multiple Performances
• The Blair Witch Effect
• The Camera: A Scene’s Invisible Player
• Using Three Cameras When You’re Alone

Download Videomaker’s latest free report, Multi-Camera Shooting for Event Videography, to get more helpful tips about juggling multiple cameras when you’re on a tight deadline. We asked a professional event videographer with extensive concert-shooting experience to share some of his expertise, including a look at the so-called “Blair Witch” effect of event videography.  We think you’ll find some new tricks here that will help you on your path to improved video. Check it out!

On May 7th Adobe released Creative Suite 6, and it’s pretty clear that their eyes are keenly focused on video production. While we’re still in the process of writing our review of the software suite, here are a few of the features we’re think video producers everywhere will be excited about.

Adjustment Layers in Premiere – Here’s the situation. You’ve edited together a very complex sequence of shots which features a drunk stumbling from home from a night at the local watering hole. The sequence is composed of several point of view shots cut tightly together, and sprinkled with wide shots of the person walking down the sidewalk. You want to make sure every POV shot is blurry and de-saturated so the viewer can see the world as the drunk sees it. Before, our only solution was to either apply the blur and de-saturation effects to each clip individually, or nest each chunk of shots and then apply the effects. Adjustment layers change this. They work just like they do in After Effects. Simply place an adjustment layer over the shots you want to affect, then apply the effects you want to the adjustment layer. It will transfer those effects to every clip underneath it in Premiere’s timeline. Now, if you have to change the amount of blur or desaturation, you only have to change the settings on the adjustment layer(s) and not each clip or clips inside of a nested sequence. To me, this feature is about six versions late, but better late than never!

3D Text (and Basic Shapes) in After Effects – Have you ever needed to do simple 3D text when working in an After Effects project? Unfortunately, After Effects could never do true 3D. Rather, it could place 2D objects in 3D space. That means if you wanted 3D text, you’d have to put 2D text in a 3D composition, duplicate it about a hundred times, then offset each layer’s Z position by one pixel. What a pain! Alternatively, there was a way to use the Shatter effect and turn off force and gravity to give pre-composed text a bit of extrusion. Still not very efficient. Finally, Adobe has added an extrusion option within the settings of 3D text/shapes. For those that only need very basic 3D tools, this may save you from spending a couple grand on 3D software.

SpeedGrade – Okay, this isn’t so much of a feature as it is a complete product. Adobe aquired IRIDAS, and included it in the creative suite for the first time in this sixth version. The first thing you’ll notice is that it doesn’t really feel like an Adobe product. The user interface is way different. Additionally, quite a few Adobe UI conventions that are ubiquitous in Adobe products aren’t there. The software itself, however, is great. Dedicated color grading software is being used more and more frequently outside of Hollywood. DaVinci, for example, can now be purchased for $1000 on OS X, where it used to be a $20,000+ system only. It only makes sens that Adobe wants to get in on the action. Considering the price for Adobe’s Creative suite hasn’t risen any (in fact, the Creative Cloud option looks like it’ll save you money), having a dedicated color grader is a welcome addition!

Obviously this isn’t a comprehensive list of new features. There’s tons more to look forward to in CS 6, so keep an eye out for our upcoming review!

Best Editing Software: Adobe Production Premium Creative Suite 6 – Editing Suite

Adobe you know, what you’re waiting on is CS6 and rightly so, it will be a very strong presence in the video editing world for good reason, such as a clean and easy to use interface and good utilization of 64-bit processing. The suite combines big names like Premiere, Audition, Photoshop and After Effects with many more for a package that gives video professionals and enthusiasts an extensive group of tools.

Their emphasis this time around is to speed up your editing, allowing for hover scrubbing within windows, better/more intuitive performance in Audition and uninterrupted playback in Premiere. Another welcome expansion will be found in multicam editing and color correcting. There’s plenty more new features to discover, and as for pricing, we can’t be sure, but to get into the ballpark, CS5.5 is $1,700 and upgrades are about $400.

Panasonic is now going to compete with other cameras on terms of blank media, for those that decided not to go with the P2 workflow, think again. The new blank media, microP2 is simply the same memory card, with a new form factor, SD.

This size all of a sudden, makes the P2 card much more widely accepted and versatile. The 64GB and 32GB cards will help allow large video files to move from camera to computer and other devices, even older cameras with an adapter. The adapter may also extend the use of your existing cache of class 10 SD cards to Panasonic’s P2 cameras.

The microP2 cards also support AVC-ULTRA, the new compression platform which is coming in 2013 and will prepare the way for future video work.

As for exciting news, none may top the 4K camera body that was briefly shown during the press conference in Las Vegas. It looked to have four XLR inputs, SDI outputs and capacity to add plenty of attachments. This is all part of Panasonic’s plan to allow users a 4K workflow from shoot to edit to master and monitor.

News that is more readily useful includes a few updates, the first is for a camera that we reviewed, the AG-AF100. The software upgrade allows for 1080 60p and 50p HD and ring in the 2.39:1 aspect ratio marking which is utilized in theaters and useful for documentary and narrative producers. This update, AF-SFU100 comes in May at $250.

If you don’t have one of these Panasonic cameras yet, look into these updated versions of professional cameras, the AG-AC160A and AG-AC130A. The AC160A ($5,100) includes 1080, 60p HD recording and a focus assist that allows for zooming in to check focus. This turbo-speed focus assist can be upgraded on your camera for $300 at an authorized service center. The AG-AC130A ($4,200) will likewise be available in May if you are looking to pick up the camera with the upgrade already installed.

These announcements definitely give Panasonic a forward-facing plan with the microP2 blank media, upgrades to current cameras and what could be the most complete 4K workflow we’ve seen.

Please discuss in the Videomaker forums…

Last week we looked at one new tool for tidying up your videos in post-production.  The Fix it in Post DVD is Videomaker’s answer to the eternal question, “Oh no, this footage is messed up! What do I do now?”  We like to think that the Fix it in Post DVD will help answer any post-production mess that you could encounter, from washed out colors to shaky camera work.

But we know that’s not really the case: There’s always going to be some new problem that you’ve never encountered before, that we didn’t have the time or foresight to cover.  What then?  What if you need more help?

We were worried about just that situation, so we put our heads together and came up with something brilliant. It’s the Fix it in Post Ultimate Toolkit.  It’s got all the same great info about fixing static-muddled audio, ramping up bland colors, deinterlacnig footage, steadying nausea-inducing shakes, changing frame rates,  and subtly erasing unwanted objects  — plus a ton more that we weren’t able to cram onto a single DVD. This is the package for when you come back with footage that you just know will need A LOT of help.  It’s the big guns of post-production fix-its. In fact, it’s more than that. It’s the big TANK of post-production fix-its.

The Fix it in Post Ultimate Toolkit has all the best goodies for assuaging your post-production worries:

Edit Like the Pros #1 (eDoc)

Get your act together! Everyone wants to “edit like a pro”. But what does that really mean? Learn how to use your space and time effectively.

Edit Like the Pros #2 (eDoc)

Beginning editors concentrate on how to do the tasks of editing well. The professionals change their perspective. Learn how to shift your perspective from simply “how to do things” to how things should be done.

Fix It In Post (eDoc)

If the footage you just shot has problems, all is not lost. You can fix it! Ever get a sinking feeling when you review your footage and discover problems? Maybe it’s a sound you do not want or a camera shot that was too jittery. A lot of things go overlooked while shooting, only to show up as problems during the editing process. The good news is that your footage is probably salvageable with the proper techniques.

Scoping Out Your Video (eDoc)

Many editing software programs offer a variety of colorful scopes to help enhance the hue, color, and brilliance, among other editing tweaks. But how do they work?

Fix it in Post (DVD)

This DVD covers all the constant bugaboos of video creators: Washed-out color, shaky camera work, hisses and hums and annoying electrical noises, even the dreaded visible boom mic. But the worst part? No matter how careful you are, you’re sure to meet them time and again over the course of your video career. Learn how to stop them! Adobe software is used as demonstration software, but this DVD teaches theory and techniques that can be used in most current editing programs.

Rotoscoping  (Multimedia)

Do you want to make your hero fly? Stand your talent behind a virtual news desk? There’s nothing you can’t do with the right tools and skill-set. This tutorial teaches you how to realistically do this using rotoscoping tricks with Adobe After Effects.

Color Correction (VOD)

We look at how to read color scopes and monitors, use color correction tools to fix your footage and use secondary color correction to make sure your footage looks its best.

Compression Connection (Multimedia)

If you want your video to sound professional, you need to use compressors. This tutorial explains the process and how to compress your audio for the best sound results. This is a segment from Editing, part of our popular multimedia tutorial DVD-ROM series.

Color Correction 101 (eDoc)

A few simple steps can save an improperly-shot scene or improve one that is less than brilliant.

Color Correction 201 (eDoc)

Ever want to enhance a washed-out sky or push the color on a less-than-vibrant hill of grass? This eDoc covers working with Secondary Color Correction aspects such as Filters, Style and Color Enhancement.

Not to toot our own horn, but we’re really happy to finally be able to offer this toolkit.  Fix it in Post DVD is a great tool, but, if you’re like me, you know that you need a lot of post production help.  Some video creators have a sharp eye for detail; they like to carefully and meticulously dot every i and cross every t. If that’s your personality, you’ll still make some mistakes — it’s inevitable — but you’ll be able to catch most of them before you make them.  But if you’re a shoot-from-the-hip rebel who’s more attuned to worrying about the big picture…well, you might need a little extra help in post-production.  (Don’t feel bad if that sounds like you — I always get so excited during shooting that I end up with a bunch of problems that need fixing in post!)

Learn more about the Fix it in Post Ultimate Toolkit.

Whether you’re just starting out in video production – or have been into cinematography for years, taking a video production course can help you break out of a rut with new ideas as you meet-n-greet with people who share your interest in video making.

People from all over the country – and all over the world, come to our small town of Chico California – 70 miles north of Sacramento, 2 hours east of San Francisco – for our three day workshop that includes lighting, shooting, editing and audio techniques as well as production planning and location and studio  setups. they learn to work with a crew, and study the many crew positions in the video production process including directing, audio mixing, lighting design, and, of course, shooting.

From our basic workshop that covers a bit of every aspect of being on a crew to our  intensive courses that include Intensive Editing, Intensive Lighting, Advanced Shooting, and Advance Lighting – we enjoy teaching our workshops and these tight-knit groups always leave on Sunday exhausted, but with a new knowledge and understanding of the field of video production.

this week’s Videomaker workshops includes Basic Production and Intensive Editing.

People from all areas of video production come to our workshops: those in video advertising and starting a home business; those interested in possibly moving on to specialized cinematography schools, making online documentaries or looking for television production jobs in the future. We get teachers and hobbyists, career-changers and those looking to enter festivals, contests and film competitions.

Videomaker is a good place to learn – and connect, and we recently added more dates to our 2012 lineup:

May 4-6:  Basic Production Workshop and Intensive Lighting Workshop
June 1-3:  Basic Production Workshop and Intensive Editing Workshop
Sept 14 -16: Basic Production Workshop and Intensive Lighting Workshop
Oct 12 -14: Basic Production Workshop and Advanced Shooting Workshop
Dec 7 -9: Basic Production Workshop and Intensive Editing Workshop

For those who have attended our workshops in the past, we are also updating some of the stories we shoot, the gear we work with and the class schedules. We hope to see you here someday.