March 2009 Cover Image

March 2009
Table of Contents

You're not a musician, but you need specialized music that fits exactly to your video. Why not create your own? It's easier than you think. This issue's Tutorial shows you how to create your own original soundtracks using music editing software. Perfect style. Perfect length. Made by you.

Plus, tips to using eyelights to create perfect twinkle, mixing music for mood, finding your muse, and seeing the rule of thirds in every shot you compose. We also take a look at Panasonic's HDC-HS100 hi-def camcorder.

Feature Stories

Tutorial - Using Loops to Create Original Music

Whether you want to build themes and variations for large-scale productions or as signature music for your promotional videos, make catchy music beds for 30-second spots or produce ambient music with subtle mood-fitting changes for wedding videos...

Seeking Great Ideas

Was The Thinker thinking about the effects of free trade or wondering how to enrich his next project with amazing storytelling and killer graphics? Finding inspiration for our creations can be difficult at times; most of us have good days and bad ones.

Refining Imagery: A Filter Buyer's Guide

Lens filters can block the level of light reaching your camera and protect your precious lens from harm. Taking them up a notch, you can soften faces, make ordinary sunsets breathtaking or add sparkle to a glistening river. In all cases, filters are just what they sound like:

A Blank Canvas: Monitor Buyer's Guide for Editors

Monitors are getting sharper and can handle higher resolutions than ever before. And prices are reasonable. What do you need your next monitor to be able to do? As video producers, we use monitors as the tools to display the critical visual information we live to see.

Standard and Widescreen, what's the Diff? A Primer on Aspect Ratios

With widescreen fast becoming the default format, what's the best way to convert your traditional 4:3 images for widescreen viewing? The aspect ratio is the width of a picture in relationship to its height. "Normal" television images were in the 4:3 ratio...

Reviews

Panasonic HDC-HS100 AVCHD Camcorder Review

Panasonic for the Ages - Get in line: It has finally arrived. Panasonic's new HDC-HS100 is an SD/HDD hybrid camcorder that is sure to shake things up. It's a beauty with an innovative design and a very user-friendly touch. At $1,200, the HS100 is a much welcome edition...

DoubleSight DS-1900S Dual-Monitor LCD Review

Seeing Double - As prices of LCDs slowly drop, multi-LCD displays become more affordable. Anybody can take two LCDs and put them beside each other. Doublesight is offering a simpler, more elegant solution: one stand to support both your LCDs. The result is more available...

MAGIX Rescue Your Videotapes! Video Rescue Package Review

The Analog Bridge - For most of us over the age of 20, memories of VCR recording are still stuck in the back of our brains. Over the years, we've all found some embarrassing childhood memories under a couch on some dusty videotape. The birthday with that invincible pi�±ata.

Imagine Products' ShotPut Pro Video Offloading Software Review

Offload Your Worries - ShotPut Pro is a useful new application from Imagine Products that simplifies offloading video from memory cards. It's a tool that can be used along with your favorite NLE or as a standalone application. ShotPut Pro can be configured to do many...

Videomaker's 2009 Best Display Hardware: NVIDIA Quadro CX Video Card Review

Pedal to the Metal - NVIDIA has something that could be nothing short of revolutionary to creative users: the Quadro CX chipset. The Quadro CX includes a technology called CUDA, which stands for Compute Unified Device Architecture. Basically, the idea is...

Columns

Viewfinder: Paper vs. Electrons

If you are reading this in 2009, you are most likely reading these words as ink on paper, as 60,000 other Videomaker magazine subscribers do. You might be reading this on a web page, as have 300,000 Videomaker.com visitors in a typical month in the last year or so.

Seeing the Rule of Thirds

Some photographers and videographers have a Natural Eye that composes shots and scenes all around them, even when they aren't holding a camera. You know you have The Eye when you start composing scenes everywhere you go. Eventually you'll compose using the Rule of Thirds...

Building an Audience Online

A blog is simply a web log, or diary, that one shares with others. But when users were finally able to add video to these blogs, a viral phenomenon was born. People watched more than 10 billion videos online last year. Shouldn't some of those people be watching your stuff?

The Eye Light

With a twinkle in his eye, your actor can win the damsel and convince the audience of his good intentions. Creating that twinkle is all in the art of lighting. Twinkle, twinkle little star. With the crisp winter air, we can see the stars brightly shining in the heavens.

Media Management

A well-organized post-production workflow can help save you time and money. Media management, the process of keeping your media assets accounted for in a system that makes sense, is key in getting projects done on time. Editors each have their own preferences on how to...

Mixing for Mood

Imagine your favorite movie or TV show without the music. It just doesn't work, does it? What would a Batman movie be without the dark, brooding score? Where would Napoleon Dynamite be without its quirky soundtrack? The selection, timing and mixing of music are critical...

Departments

Is DVD the New Best Way to Distribute Video?

I'm a Middle School Theater Teacher. For the past 10 years we've been recording all the students' performances onto VHS tapes. Two years ago we tried using recordable DVDs, with the problem that the DVD player took too long to format the DVD, and we couldn't get through...

Help Me Understand the Switch to DTV

DTV Confusion Cleared a Bit: technical details of what was really happening... A Picture Worth 1000 Words: DIY camera jib ... More Editing Tricks: I hope I never have to use this one again... Storage Formula: determining file size ... Correction: Adobe Premiere Elements 7 Price...

Know What You're Buying

HDTV: make smart choices with good comprehension when you go shopping... Market7.com: helps producers save time, money and energy as they collaborate on video productions with each other and their clients... The Guild: Popular Web Series Dissed by TV Dinosaur Execs...

New Gear: hot off the presses

Ribbit Films: thematic volumes of pre-keyed HD clips... Litepanels: 1x1 Bi-Color LED light allows the light color to vary between 3200K and 5600K by using either an on-board dial or... AKG: LC (Light Condenser) microphone is designed for voice acquisition.
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