Category Archives: technology
Point and Shoot Cameras
P&S cameras used by pros. A lot of iPhones (with favorite apps listed) but others as well.
Digital Video Editing Tutorial
I didn’t know about this:
Once you have gotten the digital video of the film you will be commenting on, you will need to both get the specific clips you want to talk about and compress them. We recommend you use a tool like MPEG Streamclip (PC/Mac). Important: When using a Mac or PC and working with video editing/conversion tools like MPEG Streamclip (or any of the others listed above) it is highly recommend that you make sure to install Perian (for the Mac) or the K-Lite Codec Pack(for the PC)—both of which are free utilities that add a series of codec recognition tools across the various video applications on your computer.
What MPEG Streamclip will allow you to do is select and trim exactly the clips you want to discuss from the longer scenes. Doing this in MPEG Streamclip will save you time and energy before importing it into a video editor like Moviemaker or iMovie, both of which bloat video unnecessarily and take a lot more time and resources to work with. Note that you may have to cut a longer scene up into various clips that you will then edit together in your final version. Also, when converting the clips, make sure they are the same aspect ratio as the original, and that you are saving them in the proper codec for your video editing software. (Note: MPEG Streamclip will convert files to Windows media format.)
Misc info from the Calumet sound workshop with Richard Newman
Note that most of this is correct terminology but some is, well, my paraphrases with terms that make more sense to me.
He says that the chain Guitar Workshop has good audio equipment at good prices. In SF and El Cerrito.
His workflow for video editing:
1-complete the editing in Final Cut – do all the cuts, etc, that you’re going to do before you move on. [You can do this in iMovie, too.]
2-export the sound from the video to Garage Band [or other audio editing software] where you fix the sound quality, add sound effects, etc. [iMovie, obviously, is designed to do this.] You can’t cut (or expand) either of these or they won’t sync any more, so it’s critical that you don’t do this until you’re completely finished with edits.
3-then re-combine the new sound and the video in Final Cut. [If you can’t remove the original audio track in whatever software you use, you can turn the volume down all the way and add the new audio track.]
He uses a dog clicker and keeps the click on both sound and video tracks till the very end –so that he can use it to sync the sound and video.
Tutorials on Media-Making and Tools
This is linked from our blog but I had forgotten —
http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/
They have online tutorials on Final Cut Pro, audio editing including Garage Band and Audacity, Photoshop, Soundslides…and so forth.
There are also tutorials on making media, not just tools. I skimmed through the one on making video — started really obvious, but had some good advice, points I hadn’t thought about. I think it’s worth going through their tutorials (which it’s easy to to quickly) for various media, just to see what they may say that you don’t already know. Especially, tof course, for whatever media you plan to use, but others as well.
iPod and iPhone Recording
From Transom.org — review of two “microphones” for iPod/iPhone for quality recording.
iPhones, iPods and other portable media players have included recording utility applications for several years, but there haven’t been good ways to connect a high-quality microphone as an input. Even if one could, the rest of the input circuitry was less than ideal, often resulting in noisy, grainy or distorted recordings. Additionally, these devices often recorded at unacceptably low quality. Some of these devices have been able to record at high sample rates and bit-depths for some time, but getting a good quality signal INTO the machine has been a challenge.
But now, a few different approaches have presented solutions for recording onto an iPod. The first is the simplest: a high-quality microphone that attaches to the dock connector on most iPods and iPhones. There have been several such devices on the market previously, but the Blue Mikey from Blue Microphones represents a significant advance in quality. The second approach is more elaborate: an add-on accessory case that connects to an iPod, and provides two built-in microphones, as well as professional-quality XLR inputs for using external microphones. There are two devices that use this second model: the Alesis Pro Track, and the Belkin GoStudio. ….
Lightroom Workshop
Tues March 1 4-5:30 in room 205 SH.
Homemade diffusers
Last week we talked about putting a diffuse piece of paper in front of the flash element to reduce the harsh flash lighting when capturing an image. Here is a quick tutorial for those that have point and shoots.
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Flash-diffuser-for-point-and-shoot-digital-cam/
The general idea is to securely place the diffuse paper in front of the flash, but props to you if you can come up with a clever way of doing it for your own camera. Some camera form factors make it really easy while others need extra tape to work well.
Final Cut Express
$69 at ASUC computer store, not the $100+ I said it was.
Speech Search for Video and Audio?
UPDATE 2/5/11: Forget it. I tried it with a nice, clean audio file recorded under optimal conditions, and it was gibberish. They shouldn’t have this on the market.
Adobe Premiere Pro is supposed to now have a Speech Search feature that does automatic transcriptions. No one claims it’s as good as a human transcriber, but some claim it’s 75% accurate or so. They advertise it as being for searching audio and video for where certain things are said, but of course it could also be used to do a first pass at transcriptions, IF it is as good as they claim. I don’t know anyone who has tried it. I supposedly have access to it — need to see if I can get it working.
Here’s a review:
http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1600v1027
And this is from Adobe:
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/digital-video/using-speech-search-to-speed-editing/
I found a blog posting about Get, an add-in for Final Cut Pro that does something similar, but it’s $499 on top of the $800 or so for FCP.