My friend Mike is prone to spontaneous buying, and no one can help him. When he decided his video studio needed animation, he grabbed his beloved mail-order catalogs and dialed up a raft of dazzling hardware and software. Unfortunately, the dazzle must have scraped off in the mail, because...
When was the last time you looked at a video monitor? As a videomaker, you probably use monitors quite often, whether out in the field, in the editing suite, or both. And like many videomakers, you probably take them for granted. But take another look and ask a few...
Imagine two VCRs sitting side by side. One is
a regular VCR, like the one perched atop most TV sets across the country. The other is a deck built
especially for video editing.
To VCR users who don't edit their videos, these two decks are basically the same. Both play...
Just what exactly happens when you pop your tape into a VCR or camcorder? If you've never done so with the protective cover removed, you've probably only watched the cassette disappear into the body of the mechanism and listened as hidden motors clicked and whirred in some mysterious unseen...
These days our audiences expect more. Seeing hundreds of hours of network television and big-budget films have made the viewers of our videos more demanding; they dont want to watch while your vacation video shows your feet and they dont let editing glitches go by without comment. Today we...
Have you heard the buzz about non-linear editing? You know, the computer systems that let you cut and paste video together the same way you cut and paste sentences or paragraphs in a word processor? Curious about what these new systems can and can't do? You should be.Without a...
A cut is by far the most versatile, graceful
transition in your repertoire of edit types. It's how most of us start editing, and it's the best way to get from
scene to scene in a video.
As proof, study the edits in popular feature films and TV programs; more...
Tom drives me crazy. He thinks he knows everything. The worst part is, he does. So even though he has all
the personality of a sea urchin, sometimes I find myself asking him questions. The first time I picked his
brains was a few years ago when I got...
The words scrawled across the blackboard, pronouncing the name of the show in bold, slightly smeared lettering: "The Case of the Missing Headphones!" Thus began one of the many video projects that wash across my desk in a semester long torrent. The students were using their imagination just...
OK, you've decided to step up to better picture quality. You are the proud owner of a new high-quality camcorder or VCR, perhaps Hi8 or S-VHS. You've opened the box and inside are a number of little plastic bags holding all kinds of cables and accessories. Sure, you had...
