Waiting 2B Scene

Tag: Editing

  • Article: Shoot, Produce, Edit: The Rise of the Pro “Shreditor”

    People love to know their place. Even when a person considers themselves to be unique and counter-cultural, knowing that they are unique and counter-cultural gives them a sense of location in the grand scheme of things.

    That is why I loved reading this article – Shoot, Produce, Edit: The Rise of the Pro “Shreditor” – by the guys at Premium Beats. It actually gives me a named location in the grand scheme of media-making: I am a shreditor. It sounds cool. Almost TMNT’ish.

     

    I am a Shredder. I mean, a Shreditor.

    How about you? Where do you fit in the media landscape?

  • Video Montage: Hello by Movies (Vlot)

    So the world is already sick of hearing Adele’s Hello. That is understandable, considering it has been played to death on pretty much every communication medium known to man.

    Why then would I want to contribute to the agony of humanity? Because I stumbled on an amazing video montage that has recreated the song using nothing but lines from films… and that stuff takes time man! So it is worth the pain of the song to share some love and kudos where it is due.

    Here’s to you Matthijs Vlot!

  • Blog: Best Free Editing Software

    People, it’s time to share some free stuff! And by free stuff, I mean my opinion and a lifetime of collected information, as that is really all I have to offer.

    I was chatting with one of my Australian friends in New Zealand, and he asked me what I thought might make for decent FREE editing software. I think that any self respecting screen junkie like you and I ought to be able to have an answer to that kind of a question.

    If you think that a “good” answer to that question is either iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, you may need professional help.

    As it stands, I don’t use the free stuff. I am media-professional that is a PC-based (*gasp*) Adobe CC user (*double gasp*). I know, I know. I just happen to like having a powerful machine for a fraction of the cost of an Apple equivalent, and I like the interconnectivity afforded by the suite of Adobe products. Nevertheless, there is some pretty powerful stuff that is available for free: and today I want to offer you the same two suggestions that I gave my friend.

    1. Blackmagic Design: DaVinci Resolve Lite.

    This is my number one suggestion by far. To be honest, Resolve has a reasonably steep learning curve for the beginner: you won’t create a masterpiece by simply playing around with it for an afternoon. With that being said, a masterpiece is possible if you’re truly interested in learning how to harness all the power that Resolve can offer.

    Despite being the Lite version, there are hardly any features missing compared to the Studio version. Sure it won’t do multi-camera editing or 3D, and you don’t have access to some minor features such as noise removal, but other than that, this is the same stuff the big boys use.

    1. Lightworks.

    Lightworks has been used to create Hollywood movies such as The Wolf of Wall Street, so it has some credibility. Like Resolve, there is a free and a pro edition, with the main difference being the output formats and the resolution (you are limited to 720p with the free version).

    The editing tools in Lightworks are powerful though, and even though both versions offer a limited range of special effects like transitions, TV programmes and Hollywood movies rarely use anything other than fade from/to black – so it shouldn’t be a problem. Aimed at professional video editors, it is a fascinating tool. It doesn’t do a lot, but what it does is pretty excellent.

    And that is it. I know that I’m not giving you easiest to use options here – but that was never the intent. The point was to show you that there are two incredibly powerful editing tools at our fingertips – and they will cost us nothing more than the time it will take to learn them. So long as we are willing to pay that price, the potential outcomes are amazing.

  • Blog Video: Sherlock Recut As a Thriller Trailer

    Throughout this year my workload has been focused primarily on editing and producing a series of women’s self-help modules. It is necessary work, and based on the stories that have come out of it – it is seeing some wonderful results. Still, it is hardly creative work.

    Well, yesterday I re-stumbled on a great little article by No Film School on how to help get past a bit of a creative funk: so I decided to give it a go. After having a look at some of the footage I had saved on my HD, I decided to do a re-cut version of the very first episode of Sherlock. In a trailer style for a thriller. Aaaand just 2-hours later, this is what I come up with. I’m not a sound stylist, so that side of things is a bit rough. Still, it was definitely a pleasure to stretch out some of the other creative muscles.

  • Video Essay: Mad Max: Center Framed (Nedomansky)

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to return to one of my favourite videography bloggers – Vashi Nedomansky. He recently posted a fantastic little piece that demonstrates the importance of framing and composition.

    We often have it drummed into our heads that our framing and composition will look best when it follows simple rules such as the rule of thirds (or perhaps the slightly more complex golden ratio/phi ratio. Don’t know the difference: check this out). And while you can’t exactly argue with the visual efficacy of either of these rules, it’s always nice to be reminded that there are still other alternatives.

    Ergo, we come to Vashi’s latest clip. In it, we explore how sequences in the newest edition to the action-packed Mad Max franchise actually work by utilising a centre-framed focus. Though technically it is still working within a rule of thirds/phi ratio framework – it has been a marked deviation from the normal sense of framing for modern action films (which have utilised more of a chaos cinema approach). While, “This is by no means a new technique… by shooting the entire film in this way, [editor] Margaret Sixel could amplify and accelerate scenes, cut as fast as possible with the confident knowledge that the visual information would be understood.” It is a short piece, so I hope you enjoy it.

  • Article: Stills Photographer Intro to Video (RED)

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to share a great article that was published a while back by those in the RED Universe. Really, there’s no surprises here as the title says it all: it is an introduction to video production for those of you who are photographers. Granted, many of you may know this stuff. Nevertheless, if you are just starting to play around with the video functionality on your DSLR – or you have never really dug into the kind of background information that can make your videos a little better – then this article is a must. I hope you find it useful.

    “This article gives an overview of the key differences in order to make the “cinephotography” transition as straightforward as possible…”

  • Video Essay: Hitchcock’s Cuts in ROPE

    Continuing with my new series of resource links – from video essays, to cinematographer interviews, how-to tips and the like – today I want to take a look at a short video essay. In it, this clip succinctly explores just one of the myriad of cinematic techniques that were employed by the film maestro of thrill and suspense – the “eloquent, suspenseful, quirky, and eminently entertaining”1 Alfred Hitchcock.

    In this, Hitchcock’s first colour film (and first use of James Stewart) – audiences the world over became somewhat convinced that the 1948 thriller was a single-take wonder. Now don’t get me wrong: these have been done since this film. But in Rope we find Hitchcock employing an especially creative use of framing to create and maintain an illusion of continuity (as in practice, reels only had either 10 minutes or 20 minutes to film on). By 2015 standards it may seem passé, but I would strongly suggest that any of the techniques employed by a technical master of cinema such as Hitchcock is worth considering in any age. Ergo, I hope you enjoy this video essay by Vashi Nedomansky.