If you’ve been licking your chops for one of those editing suites with long lists of included programs, but you just need video and photo, make sure the Video & Photo Creative Collection from CyberLink Corp. is considered. The combination of video and photo editing software is the staple of many video producers, and both put professional level work at your fingertips. The process after production and through distribution is covered with the Creative Collection.

Fast video editing is the emphasis of PowerDirector 10 which utilizes TrueVelocity 2, a rendering engine designed to speed up editing. There are separate modes for editing including 3D, hundreds of features, professional plug-ins, free-hand paint tools, keyframing and TrueTheater enhancements.  Automatic functions and disc burning add to the host of features in PowerDirector 10. Notable additions from PowerDirector 9 are one-click audio normalizing, smart rendering technology, time-lapse and uploading to Vimeo and Dailymotion.

As for PhotoDirector 2011, those still images used in your Ken Burns effect will be well touched with features focused on manipulating camera functions. Your photos can stay as pristine as possible with native rendering of RAW files. Among the controls included are sharpness, noise, white balance and targeted regional adjustments. Both halves of the collection share well with social networking sites and connect you to upwards of 225,000 effects through DirectorZone. The supported file formats include the most popular ones such as AVCHD, FLV, MOV, MPEG, and WMV for video and for photos, MPO, JPS, RAW, GIF, BMP, JPG, TIF, and PNG.

Video & Photo Creative Collection is a complete package that is about the same cost as an upgrade for other software programs, but its features quickly add up to make it a very comparable option for consumers. Expect to get a lot done with this collection and outfit your productions to look their best with versatile and award winning software.

The Video & Photo Creative Collection is listed at $150.

Videomaker workshops offer a great ways to get good video info fast.  While Videomaker has lots of ways to learn about video — webinars, training DVDs, a monthly magazine, or can getting tips sent daily to your email — nothing quite compares to getting some face-time with a real live person. Luckily, there’s an easy way to get the personal attention that you crave – Videomaker‘s in-house workshops are the perfect opportunity to get all your toughest video and videography questions answered by a live Videomaker expert. Our experts love to help you make better video, so these popular and informative workshops thrive on student questions. Bring your biggest questions and trickiest problems and get some answers.

The Basics of Video Production is a great way to get a hands-on introduction to making videos. Various lectures by video experts will cover the fundamental techniques of shooting, miking, editing and lighting. Our best video experts are always on hand during these educational sessions. Each workshop contains lectures, demonstrations and Q&A sessions with experts. But by far the most popular section of the day is when attendees get to take their cameras out into the field to put all the new techniques they’ve just learned into practice. Previous workshop groups have used their skills to craft professional-looking video movies in just three days. End your weekend with a complete video project to how the class. It’s no wonder that previous attendees rave about Videomaker workshops; 100% of attendees rated this workshop as good or excellent and that’s a record we’re proud of.

Sign up for The Basics of Video Production today and you’re sure to agree.

Intensive Editing is a three-day, hands on course is for students who understand the basics of video editing and want to advance their skills. Each student will work on a supplied HP laptop, using Adobe professional editing software that will take you from the basic skills to some advanced techniques including time remapping, advanced trimming features, multi-camera editing and more. Seating is limited so register for Intensive Editing today!

Sign up for our Intensive Editing Workshop and get ready to learn.

What  if you could make professional grade video the first time you picked up a camera? Videomaker’s new free report “8 Tips for a Stellar First Video” will show you how to become a better videographer on your first shoot.

Maybe you’ve wanted to make video for a while; maybe you just caught the video bug recently. Either way, something’s holding you back – maybe you’re worried that any video you make will look amateurish next to those made by long-time video enthusiasts. We know that initial step can be daunting when you feel like you don’t know the first thing about making video. You feel the passion to create and share video stories but it seems like there’s so much to learn first.

No more excuses! Videomaker’s “8 Tips for a Stellar First Video” is exactly the resource created for you. It’s written with the eager young newbie in mind, so you don’t need to have any familiarity with video equipment to get the most out of these tips.

Learn:

• How to make sure that, before you even start, you have everything to finish
• The Two Easy Steps to Handling your Video Camera like a pro… and getting the same great footage.
• How to organize your thoughts into a video story
• The Secret to shooting footage that looks good on any screen.
• How video is different than real life… and how you can use that to your advantage.
• The single most important tip for keeping an audience interested. This remarkably simple tip will free you from the old style of thinking that holds you back and let you see the world the way the video pros do.
• The biggest mistake that can sink a first video and how you can avoid it.

“8 Tips for a Stellar First Video” is a quick and easy read for even the greenest video lover, but we didn’t want to leave you with obvious, philosophical tips that wouldn’t actually help you. That’s why we’ve picked the eight tips that you can start applying the moment you pick up a camera.

You can pick these tips out after hours of studying film theory or you figure them out after days of trial and error – or you can get them all here, collected in one place, in just minutes.

Download your FREE report 8 Tips for a Stellar First Video and start learning today!

Videomaker’s Intermediate Editing Webinar will take you beyond simple cuts and transitions and teach you techniques that will allow you to advance your basic video editing skills. Our web presentation focuses on multi-camera editing, simple compositing, filters and effects and more; helping you in your quest to create polished and professional-looking video.

Following the session, all registrants will receive a copy of our special report, Multicam Editing. Additionally, we will be including live Q&A throughout the event; our team answering your questions. This event starts at 11:00 AM (PST) on Wednesday, August 24th, so be sure to sign up soon!

Check out Videomaker’s weekly Webinar Training Series for other sessions taught by our experts. Our webinar series features a wide variety of video production and post production topics including Advanced Shooting, Green Screen and Special Effects, Documentary Production, Lighting for Video, and much more.

Videomaker has been publishing video production tips and techniques for 25 years and on June 2, Matt York and Videomaker celebrated our Silver Anniversary with a party for family and friends. During the event, Matt sent a live-streaming message to our readers, contributors and a host of others who helped make Videomaker the success it is today. The following is the text from Matt’s live streaming speech.

Welcome to our humble abode and thank you for coming.
As you look around you will find the people most responsible for Videomaker’s success. I want to extend my warmest appreciation to each and every one of them. Starting with my son, daughter and wife (all of whom currently work here), thanks for putting up with me and my devotion to this company that, at times, may have overlapped into our family a bit too much. Thanks especially to my wife Patrice for being the keeper of the purse strings. She and I are a perfect balance, as I tend to be the visionary risk-taker and she’s the pragmatic voice who keeps us grounded in reality. As Vice President she has been and remains “the other half of the sky” involved in every important decision ever rendered here.

Outside of my family, I want to recognize the people who I approached 26 years ago when I first had the idea for this magazine. One of our local business leaders, Howard Isom, and I spoke last week about the day we first met. Howard said I was just a hippie living in the woods with a crazy idea and that no one had ever published an international magazine in this town before.

Some of the people who I pitched actually invested in Videomaker (Howard wasn’t one of them), but Garey Weibel (the then Publisher of our local newspaper, the Chico Enterprise Record) did. Some would say that Garey and I couldn’t have been more different, but we developed a keen relationship based on mutual respect. Garey’s advice over the first few years was indispensable and more than once helped save this fledgling company from disaster. In one harrowing incident in our earliest days, Garey literally rescued the company from the brink of disaster, contributing venture capital when it looked like this start-up was going to run out of cash.

Read the rest of this entry »

Editing documentaries can be challenging at times. Not having ample B-roll can make a challenging editing session near impossible. Though B-roll is secondary footage captured in order to supplement the A-roll, it should be thought of as being just as important. The problem many beginner documentarians  encounter with B-roll is not knowing what to shoot.

When thinking about what kind of images to shoot, you should always consider topics discussed during your interviews. The easiest way of doing this is to listen carefully to the answers given by your subjects. Make a mental note of anything the subject says that could be used as B-roll, and then be sure to shoot it after the interview. For example, if your documentary is about the local animal shelter and your subject is talking about the wonderful dogs they have for adoption, be sure to get some compelling shots of those wonderful dogs before you leave. Some other possibilities when considering shots for B-roll are:

• Photographs, newspaper clippings, letters and documents. These are all great ways to visit the past and usually easily obtainable through the interviewee.
• Close-up shots of fidgety or expressive hands. These kinds of shots are visual clues as to how the person is feeling.
• If your interview subject is talking about an activity they partake in, shoot them doing that activity. For example, if your documentary is about an artist and your subject is discussing why they love to paint, try to get some footage of their creative process.

Since B-roll can mask jump cuts, hide technical errors, break up talking heads, and add valuable information to the narrative, the more you can capture during production the better off you’ll be once you begin to edit your documentary.

For more B-roll solutions check out Video Editing : Plan A: B-roll.

Interested in more tips on documentary production? Sign up for Videomaker’s free Documentary Course. This free tip series is designed to help you improve your video production skills, fast. Learn More.