How To

• Lighting Solutions: Choosing the Correct Light Source

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  Jordan Claverie - Tue, 03/26/2013 - 11:37am

  

  An essential element in producing excellent video is correct lighting. Too much, too little or the wrong kind and you’re in for dissatisfying results.

• Matching Action Cuts Like the Pros

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  One thing that separates amateur videos from professional videos is shooting a scene from multiple angles and cutting on the action. Cutting on the action is an editing technique where the editor cuts from one angle of a shot to another, while maintaining the continuity of the action in the scene. In this segment, we'll show you how we cut four different camera angles together to form one continuous scene.

• 5 Tips for Improving Supporting Graphics

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  Greg Olson - March 25th, 2013

  

  If the average video producer made a list of the key elements for a great project, the list would probably start with capturing great images, and hopefully include getting good audio, having great content, and maybe even getting good performances from talent. However, you're probably not likely to find solid supporting graphics on that list.

• Actors and Movie Prop Tricks

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  Jennifer O'Rourke - March 22nd, 2013

  

  The most obvious way to make your audience aware of the importance of a movie prop is to shoot a closeup cutaway of it, but this is also the most boring and predictable method. How then, can you let the audience know - in a split second - what a props is or its importance to a scene without slowing the scene down for a classic cutaway? Watch the Masters.

• Is SXSW Worth Attending as a Film/Video Geek?

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  Mike Wilhelm - March 20th, 2013

  

  When video enthusiasts and filmmakers are planning travel for the year, a few big events spring to mind. NAB in Vegas and IBC in Amsterdam are no-brainers. For the creative minded, Sundance, Cannes, and the Toronto Film Festival are obvious choices as well. What about SXSW? Most people seem to associate SXSW with music and technology, but for 20 years it’s also been a prominent film festival. In fact, film is the largest segment of the event.

• Trash the Dress and Destruction Videos - You Get One Chance

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  Jackson Wong - March 19th, 2013

  

  Trash the dress, explosions, demolition ... product testing. These are just a few of the descriptors for a special genre of video that event videographers understand so well. Destruction video - the kind of video that is designed to make audiences cringe or watch in awe, and if the work is especially effective, will be so strong a visual that viewers simply can't stop watching. There are many genres for which destruction video may fit, including music video, documentary, even educational. To make destruction video we'll look at some examples and help you get prepared.

• Explode with Trapcode

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  Particle generators are a powerful tool for motion graphics.  Go behind the scenes as we recreate the exploding Videomaker logo used in the open of some of our web videos.  We use Red Giant's Trapcode Particular to create this effect, which is a third party plug-in available for Adobe After Effects.

• Production Tip: Know Your Adapters from Converters

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  There's a difference, and every member on a production crew should understand that adapters and converters are not interchangeable. One changes a physical connector, the other changes the signal.

• Star Wars Spin-off: May the Force be with... Whom?

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  Jennifer O'Rourke - March 15th, 2013

  

  Once the Star Wars franchise was sold to Disney, the spin-off genie was destined to be let out of the bottle. The popular Star Wars saga is going to have two familiar characters developed into their own movie spin-offs - is there a possible second and third franchise in the future?

• Film Production and YouTube Video - Future Partners?

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  Jackson Wong - March 12th, 2013

  

  Directors in Hollywood film production, are rarely young. Directors of a given YouTube video are less likely to be older than 35. These two generalizations are quite incorrect, now, more than ever. Those that are immersed in media - meaning TV stations, newspapers, radio stations, film studios, music studios, book publishers, magazine publishers, and an Internet version of each have been talking at length about how entertainment is shifting. So often we'll read that a movie blockbuster or a hit TV show is only reaching a small percentage of potential viewers. This idea is best compared to the media that was available decades ago, such as I Love Lucy or M*A*S*H. Everyone watched them. That's 72 percent of homes with a television tuned to Lucille Ball or 106 million viewers out of 200 million possible U.S. citizens. Today's nearest competitor in terms of viewership are the big games at the end of the NFL season. Those football games reach about 110 million, but the U.S. is has grown to more than 300 million. OK, so now you should be in agreement that audiences are getting stretched thin.

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