The Most Important Piece of Paperwork for Your Projects

August 01, 2008 Filed in: Resources | Business
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I often preach extensively about project management at design and creative conferences around the globe. The one piece of paperwork that I always emphasize is completing a scoping document for a project then getting the client to sign off and accept it. This one piece of papaerwork can solve all sorts of problems and is really worth the 2-5 hours it takes to write. The outline is as follows.

Project Scoping Document

( 2 - 1 0 p a g e s )
  • Project Name
  • Executive Summary
  • Background
  • Project Scope (High Level)
  • Project Objectives
  • Deliverables
  • Organizations
  • Interfaces Required
  • Assumptions
  • Constraints
  • Evaluation Criteria
  • Risks
  • Rewards
  • Budgets
  • Schedules (Due Dates)
  • Project Team Readiness
  • Key Roles
  • Executive Sponsor
  • Project Manager
  • Business Experts
  • Technical Experts
  • Signature Lines - Sign Off “Charter”
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Video Compression Workshop – Helpful Advice (part 3)

July 30, 2008 Filed in: Post
This is part two of our article on effectively compressing video for the web and multimedia. Be sure to read part one if you haven’t done so.

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Need to get your video delivered to your audience? Then there’s probably going to be some compression involved. Don’t let hardware or software get in your way. Let’s take a common sense approach to getting your video out there.

Pick Your Power

There are tons of compression tools out there, but the pro apps offer important features like batch processing, multiple architecture support, and customizable presets. The five most popular options are:

 Read More...
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Great News for Adobe Media Player 1.1

July 28, 2008 Filed in: Post | Business
Want to know more about the updated Adobe Media Player? Head over the Deeje Cooley’s blog for the straight info from Adobe.

There’s a lot of great things happening here for content creators.

Deeje-WhatsNewInAdobeMediaPlayer11813.flv

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Video Compression Workshop – 10 Steps to Better Compression (part 2)

July 27, 2008 Filed in: Post
This is part two of our article on effectively compressing video for the web and multimedia. Be sure to read part one if you haven’t done so.

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1.) De-interlace your video: Most video files are interlaced, which means that half of one image is blended with half of the next. On a Television this produces smoother motion, on a computer it produces junk.

2.) Lower your audio standards: Most users are listening to computer audio on tiny speakers. Cutting your sample rate to 22 or 11 kHz and the sample size to 8-bit will often produce unnoticeable audio changes but huge space saving.

3.) Shrink the window: While you don’t need to make video postage stamps sized. But reducing the window to half size creates a file that is 25% the file size of the original. That’s a BIG savings in space.

Read More...
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Convert MPEG-1 for FCP

July 24, 2008 Filed in: Resources | Post

bbDEMUX – Free

http://sourceforge.net/projects/macbbdemux
BBdemux
I stumbled across this great piece of freeware when stuck with an editing problem. My client had some MPEG-1 files they wanted to edit together for their website. While I was able to import them into FCPand set the timeline to 320X240, I couldn’t get the audio to import. Turns out with MPEG-1 files, the audio and video are merged into one track (muxed). This great little app does nothing more then split them apart, but that’s all that was needed and its free!

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Video Compression Workshop – An Introduction (part 1)

July 24, 2008 Filed in: Post
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Successfully getting a video file delivered to your audience usually means it will be compressed (heck it’s often compressed just so we can work with it in the first place). Making the video file available to your target audience is your goal, but the challenges of hardware, connection speed, and even operating system can affect the decisions you make. Let’s take a common sense approach to getting your video out there.

Read More...
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AJA Data Rate Calculator

July 22, 2008 Filed in: Podcast
Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington explains how to use AJA's Data Rate Calculator to figure out how much hard drive space you will need for your next video production.





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Directors Boards

July 15, 2008 Filed in: Podcast
Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington shows you a handy free utility called Directors Boards that can help you get your shot organized.





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Editors Retreat Returns

July 14, 2008 Filed in: Conferences | Education

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Recharge Your Creativity and Craft • January 28 - February 1 • Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

Now in its third year, the Editors Retreat has become an annual gathering for the post-production elite. Highly experienced editors from the worlds of film, TV and video gather to network, exchange ideas, share tips and of course, have fun!

Past keynotes and attendees have included such names as Alan Heim, Sally Menke, Stuart Bass, Chris Franklin and David Helfand as well as Apple, Adobe and Avid experts and industry power users. Attendees have included representatives from HBO, FRONTLINE, MTV, Lockheed Martin, Harpo Productions and Telemundo.

Running for 5 days and 4 nights, the Retreat offers advanced sessions on post visual and audio techniques and features valuable insight into emerging trends and technologies. An equal amount of time will be devoted to discussing the creativity, craft and business practices of successful editors.

To ensure that only the best of the best attend, participation is subject to an application and screening process. Visit www.EditorsRetreat.com for the full schedule and more details.

WATCH THIS YEAR'S VIDEO

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Rebuilding Permissions

July 08, 2008 Filed in: Resources | Post
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This sounds like something from etiquette class, but this little activity can save hours of headache throughout your system. In the Utilities folder in the Applications folder, there’s an application called Disk Utility. Under the First Aid tab there’s a button to repair permissions (Repair Disk Permissions). Select your drives and let it rip. You should run it a couple of times. It’s amazing how so many of those little quirky problems will go away.



fcpbook

Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.



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    On Set Audio Issues

    July 08, 2008 Filed in: Podcast
    Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington explains some of the most common audio problems you might find on set and how to avoid them.





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    After Effects CS3 Shape Tools

    July 07, 2008 Filed in: Resources


    Learn how to use the Shape Tools to create dynamic motion graphics elements. This tutorial was recorded as part of a session at the 2007 NY Post Production Conference (    www.nypostconference.com).

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    When in Doubt, Shut Down and Restart

    July 01, 2008 Filed in: Education
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    Things can and do go wrong. A simple reset to your system is often the best way to “cure” software problems. Don’t just click Restart, however; let the system fully reset itself by shutting down. As a favorite engineer used to tell me, “Shut down, count to 20, restart—if there’s still a problem, then call me.”



    fcpbook

    Like this tip? It comes from the book
    Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.



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      Keyboard Shortcuts

      July 01, 2008 Filed in: Podcast
      Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington explains the importance of keyboard shortcuts and how you can most efficiently use them in your NLE program.





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      Bill Mandates Captioning for Podcasts

      June 28, 2008 Filed in: Business | Post
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      A new bill has been introduced into congress that would target accessibility of web video. The "21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2008" (H.R. 6320) covers about a dozen areas. The proposed law has Internet video captioning requirements.

      Eighteen months after its enactment, the Federal Communications Commission must set up regulations and deadlines for "an appropriate schedule of deadlines for the provision of closed captioning of video programming distributed to the public over the Internet."

      Three kinds of video would be affected:
      • Material that has already been captioned for TV viewing
      • Live programming
      • Video that is "generally considered to be comparable to programming provided by multichannel programming distributors."
      It is point three that is sticky. A whole lot of podcasts fall into this category. Closed captioning and transcriptions cost.... many podcasters see little if any profit from their shows. Always nice when congress sticks its nose in the Internet.

      How about instead of sending money to worthless causes... they actualy fund this requirement.



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      New Media Expo Coming Soon

      June 28, 2008 Filed in: Conferences
      153px-closed_captioning_symbolsvg
      A new bill has been introduced into congress that would target accessibility of web video. The "21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2008" (H.R. 6320) covers about a dozen areas. The proposed law has Internet video captioning requirements.

      Eighteen months after its enactment, the Federal Communications Commission must set up regulations and deadlines for "an appropriate schedule of deadlines for the provision of closed captioning of video programming distributed to the public over the Internet."

      Three kinds of video would be affected:
      • Material that has already been captioned for TV viewing
      • Live programming
      • Video that is "generally considered to be comparable to programming provided by multichannel programming distributors."
      It is point three that is sticky. A whole lot of podcasts fall into this category. Closed captioning and transcriptions cost.... many podcasters see little if any profit from their shows. Always nice when congress sticks its nose in the Internet.

      How about instead of sending money to worhless causes... they actualy fund this requirement.



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      Using Dimmers

      June 24, 2008 Filed in: Podcast
      Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington explains how you can use dimmers to get more control over your production lights.




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      Advertisers Begin To Target Podcasts

      June 23, 2008 Filed in: Business
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      A great article about podcasters and advertisers....
      I’ve often scratched my head how I can gather 2 million people each month... but advertisrs still go with magazines that deliver less than 25% of that. This article from Investor’s Business Daily is an important read. It also features a colleague of mine... Scott Bourne.

      Lend Me Your Ears: Advertisers Begin To Target Podcasts
      Podcast audiences have branched out far beyond just geeks. And advertisers are starting to like them, too.
      After having placed ads with Web sites and search engines, more advertisers are starting to spread their ad dollars to audio and video podcasts in an attempt to reach certain consumers.

      Read the rest.



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      Special Episode of Layers TV

      June 20, 2008 Filed in: Post
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      I recently got a chance to co-host Layers TV with Corey Barker. The show is a great podcast that comes out each week on all things Adobe. They do a really great job with it and they had me on as a guest host to cover Adobe Production Premium.

      “Corey is joined by guest co-host Richard Harrington to discuss working with video in Photoshop Extended, Premiere, and After Effects.
      • When working in Premiere, don't forget about the search menu that you can use to locate the effects you want
      • Change Color is a useful effect that you can use to target and adjust one color region of your video clip
      • There are also Shadow/Highlight adjustment options in Premiere
      • You can bring your video clips into Photoshop Extended and apply Photoshop effects to them
      • Make video clips into smart objects so that Photoshop will treat them as a single layer
      • After you have finished editing the video clip in Photoshop, go under the Export command and render the finished video
      • Get more information from Richard at Photoshop For Video.com
      • Use After Effects to make speed changes to your video clips. Remember, time is just another keyframe
      • If you want further video training from Richard, you can watch his classes at Kelby Training.com, or see him live at Photoshop World this September in Las Vegas”
      DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE – WATCH ONLINE



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      Using Camera Tally Lights

      June 17, 2008 Filed in: Podcast
      Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington explains how and why you might want to use or not use your cameras video tally lights on your next shoot.





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