One of the more mysterious aspects of video editing is the use of proxies. The very word can strike fear into even the most confident of video editors and make beginning editors decide to start a new career. However, with the onset of high bit rate HD video editing, proxies have become a necessary evil. Just recently while working on the newest how-to video on shooting reception videos, I decided I had enough. Previewing my Canon 1D Mark IV footage natively on the laptop I was working on was like watching molasses dripping into a bucket in the middle of a North Dakota winter. In other words, it was unbearably slow. As a result, I decided to go online and figure out this proxy editing thing once and for all. I already had some knowledge having gone through several forums and news stories on the subject, but never really figured I’d need to use it. Boy was I wrong. I mean, when waiting for Premiere to spit out even one frame of the 45 Megabit per second HD video is less preferable than watching Robin Williams play Popeye, you know something has to change.

My search led me to all sorts of places on the net, but eventually I found the best solution was using either MPEG Streamclip, Compressor, Adobe Media Encoder or Super to make quick proxy versions of my files and then rename them with the Bulk Rename Utility. In case you were wondering, the best encoding settings were either ProRes Proxy (if on a Mac), or H.264 at about 3-5 Mbps (on Windows). At that point, it was possible to edit with the proxies scaled to the size of the source footage. Even though I lost a little quality, I more than made up for it in saved time. Instead of waiting for hours for my footage to render, I was able to watch my edit in real time which is crucial in order to get a “feel” for the edit (and not get mind-numbingly bored). Once I was finished with my edit, I simply reconnected my footage with the original source footage and because it had the same timecode and video settings, I was able to render it without any hiccups. I’m not going to lie to you though. Even though this method saved me time and effort, it still required two programs and an awful lot of time, which really wasn’t cool. Read the rest of this entry »

All of us have memories that will stick with us for the rest of our lives. Some are more powerful than others. For me, a lot of those memories have come behind the viewfinder of a camera. When I first started shooting videos, I was just a wee lad of about 7 or 8 years of age. I remember playing with the camera and being so confused and amazed with how the technology actually works. The same type of confusion that a dog feels when it looks in a mirror. Yup, I just compared myself to a dog… That is confused.

“Time to turn off the camera because this shoot is over.”

Once I hit high school, I developed a passion for loud aggressive music which would lead me to shooting music videos. This must have been my first true crazy experience shooting video.

I remember that this particular video was set to a post-Nirvana era noise jam and the scene called for shots of junkyards, and someone jumping trains. Read the rest of this entry »

Not sure if many of you have heard about Microsoft’s new development in video editing technology, but I just ran across a couple of very impressive articles about it. The idea is to be able to edit on a 3D surface by flattening it.

This is very new to the consumer market and I found it interesting that it seemed so easy to work with, (although we don’t actually see any operation). The other goal Microsoft is working at with this new development is to eliminate specialized software for different editing scenarios. For example, instead of having to use Photoshop, Ultra and then Encore you would just use the individual program for everything.

Take a look at this video on posted on BoreMe and this blog from NewScientist for more!