Video Editor | Glenn Ward

Keeping up to date with technology and software

No matter how much time you manage to save through innovative thinking, technology improvements etc you always manage to fill the saved time with something new. So, how do keep up with technology and still do your day job. The short answer is with great difficultly but I shall share a few things I do to make life easier and a few things to think about for the future.

Firstly, I have a few magazines that I really identify with, I currently read .net magazine, stuff, wired digital video (when I find somewhere that sells it) video editor and the online Layers Magazine. Granted I don’t often manage the time to read them cover to cover but Reading the articles that really interest you watching a few tutorials and trying out the trials softwares usually keep my brain ticking over. The trick is to use the time that you would otherwise be waiting around, I sometimes put video tutorials on my desktop and delete them as and when I have watched them, this provides me opportunity to make use of passenger time in the car, on the train etc. Also if you keep up to date with softwares make the first thing you do when you get hold of a new version, watch the video tutorials and have a play with the additions. Often they cover all the major improvements to that version and keeps you up to speed.

If I’m honest, I am not a newspaper reader but recent shifts in social media has enabled me to absorb news type information that I choose to on the train at a glance. I use my Twitter account in conjunction with my blog, which I’ll get onto in a minute but by following some carefully chosen twitterers I can quickly browse and read the things I want to read about very efficiently. I also sign up to groups on website such as chinwag, this way I get continuous emails from the conversations going on from people like me talking about subjects that are relevant to what I do, there is no need to feel you need to take part but it’s a great way to keep up to date and possibly make new connections. At University I was not a massive fan of blogging, I thought blogging about my weekly progression about my digital media course was completely pointless and never received any viewers. I now have my own blog, as you know! Mainly to share the things I have researched in the past in order to hopefully save time learning, but also I regularly visit choice sites that I know write in a succinct manor and are up to date with the latest software, technology and goings on in Market Research world. I currently read TechCrunch, The Tech Sage among others and continually check back to the Apple site, Adobe, Revostock, and my favourite tech brands.

Although the aforementioned social media platforms provide an alternative networking platform I still think face to face networking is invaluable. Attending trade shows, going on training courses and showing your face at events is a great way to keep in touch and up to date.

One of my biggest time savers is not where and how to find the data but automating your daily routines that eat up your time. For example, getting to grips with RSS feeds and establishing an RSS reader that you are comfortable with (a post on RSS feeds to come soon) this means that information is delivered to you and you do not have to go out and fetch it, it also means that you can read it at your leisure when you do not have an Internet connection. Another prime example is the amount of time I spend on eBay, to speed things up I save my regular searches, motorbike, favourite windsurfing brands etc and set the interval for eBay to email me a summary and an end date for the emails to stop. Similarly write routines on your operating system, I use automator on the mac to get the computer to work for you, open programs, perform backups etc if you regularly do it, automate it!

Video Camera Review: JVC Everio GZ HD40

jvc_everio_hd40

My JVC Everio GZ-HD40 arrived the other day and I have been doing some testing and establishing some best settings for different filming scenarios. I chose the Everio for specific reasons, I wanted to move away from a tape work flow and the massive 120 gig HD provides this with a bit of future proofing thrown in for free. For personal use I wanted a compact camera that I could expand with peripherals rather than have it all on board. My largest needs were for a quality waterproof housing that would not only take a bit of a knock but also provide ease of use to film in the water and for general single person video production. The majority of housing on the Market, although are expensive don’t really do the job. If you are filming action sports it is important to know that your subject is within frame otherwise you often don’t quite get shots that don’t come about very often. The JVC WR-MG200 Everio Marine Case not only allows you to comfortably hold the camera but use the LCD display too so that even in surf you know you got the shot there and then.

So, back to the HD40. Very impressed with the camera so far. My first impression is that for a small stylish consumer camera it comes with many pro features including the 1920 PRO HD resolution and the ability to now shoot in a AVCHD format as well as to an mpeg compression, CD supplied provides quicktime codecs for editing support. Using the AVCHD codec you will expect to get 15 hrs at PRO HD resolution (XP AVC) 55 hrs at standard definition or long play (EP AVC) and 22hrs on standard play. Using an Mpeg codec you will record around 10 hrs of footage. I know what you thinking, on such a portable device what is the point unless the battery can last out. It also allows for plenty of capture time before the need to transfer across to the edit suite. I have not yet decided how I shall be archiving or keeping hold of footage as I transfer it from the camera. I shall look into the share station, but if this just compresses a viewable DVD the I shall sway towards the external hard drive or data DVD.

For those of you who like your manual settings and I know we all do, the everio will take a little getting used to. There is an auto / manual button located under the LCD display. Press and press again to switch between the two, you then control many of the settings that you may need to use immediately with the joystick located on the left hand side of the display. It is here that I discovered the tidily hidden on board lamp hidden away to the lower quarter of the lens. The rest of the settings can be found using the menu button and then choosing the option > Manual Setting. Here you will find, Adjust Brightness, Shutter Speed, Aperture Priority, White Balance, Effect, Tele Macro, Zebra and Sharpness. Enough to tweak your shot just like the pro’s.

Obviously if you intend to shoot using a Pro HD resolution you will not want your footage to be let down by the sound from the on board microphone. Although hard to see on the images, the HD40 comes with a shoe hidden under a plastic clip in plate so I invested in a Rode DVCam Directional Video Condenser Microphone which comes with a 3.5 m plug for the mic socket on the camera.

videomic_replacement I also bought a lens hood from eBay and will soon purchase extra lenses such as wide angle, fish eye and tele macro and put the camera through its paces.

One thing that I am slightly disappointed about is the lack of iLink or firewire port on the actual camera (although this is on the dock) I was looking forward to shooting some time lapse footage using Dragon Stop Motion but will need to find and alternative camera to do this in conjunction with my Apple Macbook Pro.

Basic Video Editing Technique- Premiere Pro, Final Cut, iMovie, Movie Maker etc

Time for some basic editing technique and I’ll try to make as much of this as possible applicable to all editing software where possible so you can go away and practice. In order to produce a professional standard of video output there are certain guidelines you should adhere to. Programs like iMovie make editing easy but are confusing with offerings such as page peal transitions and sepia effects etc, which are often completely unnecessary. No matter how tempting it is you should keep your editing simple, so here’s a brief guide that can be applied to many editing platforms. I work using Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro so apologies in advance to other users.

Capture and Import

First thing you need to be confident about is getting your footage onto your computer. Often the assumption will be made by the client that the footage will be available for viewing minutes after the shoot when in reality this is possibly one of the timeliest processes. With changing formats this process differs but for those still using tape you will need to find your capture window. On Premiere Pro this is under File > Capture.

premiere_pro_capture

In final cut pro it is found under File > Log and Capture.

final_cut_log_and_capture

On consumer products such as iMovie choose imovie_import_from_camera File > Import from Camera. If you are plugged in using a FireWire cable you should now be able to operate your camera or deck from you desktop. If you have not logged your footage and have a handy list of time codes you will have to manually grab the footage. To do this que up the section of the video you desire, press play and then record. Your clip will appear in your projects library with the rest of your media. Be sure to name your clips well to locate them in the future and if you have a bunch of clips that belong together, create a New Bin by right clicking in the library and name accordingly. If you have HDD camera you should first have the drivers and codecs installed on your machine, in theory you should be able to plug in your hardware and then drag and drop the files across into you projects folder. Once or if your file are on your local machine you can click File > Import to import your files or in most programs drag and drop them to your library.

The Timeline and Tools

Understanding the timeline and a few tools is essential for editing. Obviously the timeline is the linear holder of your chosen clips but it is important to remember that you can stack up your video and audio to create a dynamic edit. This is used for things like titling the respondent in a clip or laying down a buzz track. You can add more tracks as and when you need them by right clicking one of the tracks to the left of the timeline. This can also be done for multiple audio tracks. Dragging and dropping your clips from the media library to the timeline is simple, you can then play through the clip by hitting the play button in the right hand viewer or by hitting the space bar, notice that as your clip plays the scrubber or play head moves along the timeline. You can also grab the play head with a hold click and scroll along the timeline. For frame by frame accuracy use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard. Whilst editing, for those who are used to the arduous wait for final cut to render your timeline it is not vital in Premiere Pro. Although playback will appear blurred, you can build an entire edit without rendering the timeline and export it without a problem.

Premiere Pro Timeline

Final Cut Pro Timeline

final_cut_timeline

Premiere Pro Tools Palette

Final Cut Pro Tools Palette

Audio Transitions

Like video transitions keep your audio transitions simple and use them to mainly improve the continuity of what you hear. You should always lay down a buzz track anyway but transitions can help smooth the audio between clips. In order to ensure you leave yourself the option to use transitions, try to direct some dead sound before and after the clip when shooting by telling your actors or respondents to count to 5 and then begin or to pause for 5 seconds after each take. (where possible) Use fades at the end of clips to reduce the glitch sound and gains at the beginning of clips, use constant audio transitions to smoothly link clips, although be aware that audio from one clip might be heard in the next and not be appropriate.

audio_transitions

Manipulating Sound

When transition fall short is when you need to affect the audio often along the timeline, this is often brought about when using a sound track. You may wish to bring up and reduce the track before and after some dialogue for example. In final cut pro this is very easy using pushpins in the audio timeline, you merely pop a pushpin where you want the change to begin and one where you want it to finish, followed by moving audio level up or down. In premiere pro however, it is a little more difficult. The best way I find is to select your clip in the timeline and then click the effects tab. Drop down the levels control and make sure your play head is at the point you want the effect to begin, add a key frame and then slide the play head to where you want the change to finish, in the same way as final cut you can now drag up or down the audio using the yellow line or the level slider. Do make sure your key frame indicator is black when you make the new change using the slider, otherwise you risk automatically adding a key frame in the wrong position.

manipulating_sound

Video Effects and Transitions

As aformentioned, using transitions should be a limited and controlled affair. As a rule if there is not a reason to do, or use something then don’t do it, you will just confuse the viewer. If it is appropriate and correctly timed a straight cut will do, if this is too hard soften it with a cross dissolve or a fade to or from black. Apply the same principle for video effects, don’t use one unless there is a specific reason for stylising your video, it will just look weird.

video_transitions

Effects Tab and Key frames

As aformentioned in the section on audio, you can effect things over time using the effects tab, the most common example of this would be the need to scale some over time or move the position within the frame. For this we would use the motion and position drop downs. In the same way as we affected the audio track place the play head at the point you wish to begin your animation and add a key frame, then place the timeline at the end point and add another key frame. Whilst the play head is at the point of the key frame your will turn black. Change your values here or effect the video in a drag and drop manner in the viewer on the right hand side. This technique is especially good for window in window video. As soon as possible try to get into the habit of changing co ordinates or percentage in the effects tab rather than manually dragging and moving the video in the preview pane. Have a notepad in front of you and record notes as you may need to replicate the size and position of another clip later on in the edit.

effects_tab_and_keyframes

Colour Correction

I shall first emphasize the important of getting colour right during the shoot, more on that in ‘Basic Filming Technique’. You can however, digitally fix your image and your controls can be found under your video effects. I won’t go into massive detail at this point but I recommend learning about brightness and contrast, saturation, curves and colour balance. Practice on images in Adobe Photoshop or Google some tutorials as you may waste hours trying to fix an image that could be corrected in seconds with a basic understanding of some image control options.

Cropping

Not a topic I originally intended to include here but as someone asked me today how to do it and with a growing trend for recording on screen tutorials, it will be handy to know to neaten up your work. Again the crop tool can be found in your video effects. Drag and drop it to your clip and manipulate the left, right up and down in the crop drop down in the effects.

Adobe Premiere Pro – Setting up a Project, Device and Folder Structure

One major point to remember is that Adobe Premiere Pro’s settings or preferences sit independently from the system preferences on the machine. This can often be confusing at the early stages of playback. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to get your project settings right at the beginning to avoid not understanding why premiere is behaving in a particular way in the future. The first few times you begin a project check each setting independently until you are familiar with what each one does, also be sure to understand the folder structure, which I shall talk about in a short while. Let’s take a look at the new project settings. Unless you have double clicked on a project you will not avoid seeing the open or new project screen. Select new project and you will be faced with the first of two opening screens, let’s look at each setting separately. Firstly choose New Project and you will be faced with the first of two options menus.

Adobe Premiere New Project

In the first new project window leave the Action safe and Title safe areas as is, next to Display Format be sure this dropdown is set to Timecode, Capture Format should read Quicktime but will be different if you are using a windows PC. Next set the Location to the location of intended project folder (See folder structure below) and then name the project something convenient. I recommend something searchable so you can find files easily as your project portfolio builds.

Premiere Pro New Project

Next swtich the top tab to Scratch Discs and you will see the options below. Set all to Same as Project (see Folder Structure below for details) Now click on OK and move onto the second set up window.

Premiere Pro Scratch Disks

Under the Sequence Presets tab select the native video format you have been working in or your intended output if you intend to output to a format of a lesser dimension i.e. Mobile Device. If you know what you would like your first sequence to be then name it accordingly. I shall go into the benefits and uses of sequences separately.

Premiere Pro New Sequence

The majority of the settings under the General tab are governed by your choice of setup on the previous tab. You should not need to change any of these settings.

Premiere Pro General Settings

Again you should not need to touch the settings in the Tracks tab unless you anticipate needing to add more video tracks to your timeline or output your projects audio to 5.1 surround sound. Otherwise leave these set to 3 tracks of Video and Audio set to Stereo.

Premiere Pro Tracks Settings

Click OK and Adobe Premiere Pro creates your project.

Folder Structure
As I mentioned before I like to keep all my files in one place just in case I want to put the project on a hard drive and work on it at home. Also working on projects across multiple user set ups on an operating system can cause errors. Files that reside in a users documents folder will appear offline signed in as another user and will be impossible to reconnect. For these reasons I set all my Scratch Discs to Same as Project. This keeps everything together but the folder can soon get cluttered once you have begun capturing a few videos. When begin a project I drag and drop a folder structure comprising of the following folders, images, after effects, sfx, buzz tracks, music, voice over etc download the example project to see how I have set this up. It also means that once you have populated a particular folder you can drag the file into your projects, creating a new bin and maintaining an efficient structure within your project. I also create a new bin for assets created from within premiere such as titles and also for every scene, cutaways, gv’s, chapter, camera etc so that I can immediately ring my clips as and when I need them.

Capture Device
Setting up the capture device or video camera can bring about a few headaches. Premiere recognizes most firewire decks and cameras but if you see a black screen in the capture window, check your settings. You can find the Settings on the second tab on the capture window under the Device Control section. Be sure on the dropdown you see your device, if not restart the program with your peripherals plugged in and you should achieve success.

Fortunately Premiere seems to be keeping up to speed with all HDD cameras to. Most require you to install additional drivers or codecs on your machine but once installed allow for a simple drag and drop to your projects and playsback in their native format with no need for a further conversion.

Example Adobe Premiere Pro Project (380)

Now see Basic editing technique

Making a smooth transition from Final Cut Pro to Adobe Premiere Pro

This is the first in a series of guides on Premiere Pro. Up until now I had been an avid Final Cut Pro user and always considered Adobe Premiere Pro to not quite be a professional standard editing platform. Perhaps my judgement was unfounded as I had only limited experience using the editing software but my new job meant that this would my new primary edit suite. Armed with a Mac Pro Dual Quadcore I got stuck in and once I got started I found many pros and cons with the platform, this is what I noted down as I made the change.

First let me touch on what I consider to be the main pros and cons of the software’s. For me premiere pro biggest asset is it’s seamless integration with the other adobe products. I have cs4 and in this most of the niggles associated with bringing unrendered files such as psd’s and aep’s has been ironed out. A hefty after effects file will slow down the display of an image in the preview pane but if you can live with this the time saving benefits are worth it. The other major time saver is the ability to drag and drop differing video formats to your project, place them in the timeline and not have to convert the video to the projects native video format or even render it out before previewing. Adobe has not seemed to complete the cross program synergy though at a crucial point. As you come to export your final piece premiere passes the project adobe media (the program we used to use merely to encode our flv’s. Unfortunately exporting a video file to full quality pal DV produces poor results especially for projects with text titling and linear shapes and effects created within premiere pro (more on this in a later post). Final cut on the other hand outputs perfect quality video.

Windows and Mac – There are some differences between the windows and mac versions of Premiere Pro that you should be aware of. Firstly when capturing video the files are saved as the operating systems preferred video. Mac saves as .mov and Windows saves as .avi. If you are hoping to export your files to be used directly in a Powerpoint Presentation on a Mac then you will struggle, there is no export to WMV option as there is in the windows version and the Mpeg formats are not supported in powerpoint. I shall write a separate detailed blog on my workarounds in this area.

Quicktime – I believe it is a necessity to have Quicktime Pro installed on your computer to save frustration with Adobes video Exports. I tend to export to the highest quality possible in Premiere and then re export them for purpose using quicktime. A bit long winded but I don’t have to do this for every export, as I mentioned it often depends on the graphical content of the video.

Making the change – There are a couple of pointers that will save you some time. With regards to making cuts in the timeline, unlike FCP there is no button for toggling the linkage between video and audio off and on, instead hold down the alt key as you make the cut or drag the clip around the timeline independently from the sound. Also another major difference is the ability to edit sound in the timeline by simply adding pushpins. For those familiar with After effects they will have no issues, simply click on the effects tab next to the source tab effects_tab and drop down the volume control menu followed by the level dropdown, place your scrubber in the timeline where you wish to begin the effects on the sound and click the stopwatch icon stopwatch_button this adds a keyframe and indicates the beginning of your change. Scrub along to where you wish the loudest or quietest point to be and add another keyframe. While the small triangle is black adjust your volume you should see the volume level in the effects pane reflect your changes. This is a skill you can also apply to motion and scale changes over time, and can also be useful in getting your head around the motion graphics program After effects. Any static graphical elements to your projects I would fully recommend building in Photoshop to the exact dimensions as your project and not resizing in premiere pro. These are the main things that I had to go looking for as most other differences were pretty intuitive or even the same as in Final Cut Pro. I’m sure there’s more I haven’t discussed so just ask in the comments box below.

As I write, I have decided to break this subject down into separate blog posts and go into greater detail.
- Setting up a Project, Device and Folder system in Premiere Pro.
- Exporting Video and preparing it for Powerpoint Presentations. (Workaround)
- Issues, Observations and Top Tips for using Adobe Media Encoder.

Windsurf videos and stuff from Moon Beach, Egypt, West Wittering, IOW etc

This is going to be a quick blog with two windsurf videos I put up on Youtube, one is of me and the guys windsurfing at Moon Beach in Egypt and the other is the one I made of the 2008 UKWA wave event down at West Wittering.

Here is the short 2XS write up for the event
The final round of the UKWA Wave series was hosted by West Wittering Windsurf Club and Glenn Ward was there to cover the action. This 3 day event attracted windsurfers from all over the UK . Due to the light winds things got off to a slow start, on Sunday the wind picked up and provided a platform for a high level of windsurfing. Conditions were tough for filming but we managed to put together a 5 minute presentation of the event. View the coverage below.

Thanks to 2xs, X-train, Ezzy, RRD and Dakine, Boardseeker, Boards and Windsurf…