Average Joe’s Huntin’ Show Premiere

Don’t forget to set your DVRs!  Average Joe’s Huntin’ Show premieres June 28th, 2010 on the Pursuit Channel (DirecTV 608 or contact your local cable provider).  It’s been a fun show to edit, their crew is a great bunch of guys. For you techy folks out there, they’re shooting with a variety of cameras.  A Sony [...]

Final Cut Freakout

Well, the interwebs are all abuzz these last couple days about a horribly unthought out post on Apple Insider, claiming that Apple is dumbing down Final Cut Pro to appeal more to prosumers.  I’m tired of talking about it, but I thought I’d lay out my thoughts and concerns quick before I move on.  I will [...]

Log & Transfer Clip Naming

One of my favorite new features of FCP7 is the fact that you can now almost completely customize the automated naming process in Log & Transfer. Previously, you could tell it which of the 5 or so categories you wanted it to include in the name, and then each incremental clip would get a number [...]

AJA Video Customer Support

Throughout the last several years, there’s been a very cordial, quiet battle between fans of BlackMagic Designs and AJA products.  The battle always seems to have less to do with the products and features as they have been about customer support.  I just wanted to offer up this little anecdote to the battle. DISCLAIMER: I have absolutely [...]

Today's Quote:

Think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half the people out there are stupider than that.

-George Carlin

Recent Articles:

FCP Feature Wish List – Someone else’s.

April 1, 2010 News No Comments
FCP Feature Wish List – Someone else’s.

Interesting list of requests for FCP features found here.  Let me break it down with my opinion on it.  Why?  Because absolutely nobody cares what I think about it, and that’s what blogs are for. … Continue Reading

Ken Burns my ass!!!

Ken Burns my ass!!!

Have you ever noticed that, whenever a producer hands you a drive full of photos they say something to the effect of “oh, this will be quick and easy, it’s all photos!”?

What they don’t seem to realize is that it takes even more time to put together a video consisting of nothing but photos that they will actually be happy with.  Sure, I could just dump all their photos on the timeline, line them up with the VO and be done with it.  But they wouldn’t like that.  ”Not really what I was imagining.  Could we do a move on them?” … Continue Reading

Z-Motion in Motion

Z-Motion in Motion

I’ll admit it.  I bought After Effects and spent about 4 hours with 2 different books and gave up on learning it. It just didn’t seem very intuitive to me. I kept meaning to learn it, but there was always something more interesting for me to learn. So it sat there. Oh, I upgraded the software a few times, again, with the intention of learning it. But never learned it.

Enter Apple’s Motion. … Continue Reading

Final Cutters

March 17, 2010 News 2 Comments
Final Cutters

It’s really not a big thing, but my edit suite at Iowa State was the rig of the day on Final Cutters earlier this month. Why am I posting this? I don’t know. Why not?

Liven Up Your Text

Liven Up Your Text

When you use text in a video, you don’t have to go all out and use the ‘used car dealer’ effects in Motion (or LiveType), but at least take the time and change it from the default font and color.  It gets noticed.

M-Audio Project Mix I/O

March 16, 2010 Gear No Comments
M-Audio Project Mix I/O

Well, I got a new mixer.  It’s very nice.  It’s been out for awhile, in fact, it’s rumored to be ready for a refresh (kinda like the MacPro, but let’s not get me started on that).

The reason I’m reviewing an older piece of gear like this is because, as I researched the purchase, I had a very hard time finding anyone using this mixer with Final Cut Studio, so I went in crossing my fingers, pretty much blind.  Well, it works.  Everything maps out great, works great.  Except… … Continue Reading

Average Joe’s Huntin’ Show :: TRAILER

March 16, 2010 Projects No Comments
Average Joe’s Huntin’ Show :: TRAILER

The trailer for Average Joe’s Huntin’ Show is now online!  Don’t miss the show, premiering June 28, 2010 on PURSUIT (DirecTV 608).  Click the logo to watch!

This Post Sponsored by the Letter “T”

This Post Sponsored by the Letter “T”

One of my favorite keyboard shortcuts in Final Cut Pro is the letter T.  Often times I need to select everything on a track and tighten it up or move it down. T will do that. And the number of times you press it select what items it’s going to select when you click.  Very cool.  Very handy.  Very quick.

Multicam #1 Mistake

February 24, 2010 Final Cut Pro Tips 4 Comments
Multicam #1 Mistake

One thing you should always remember, when you’re working with multiclips, you can’t render your sequence. Once you’ve rendered, you’ll only be able to see one clip in the viewer when playing the sequence, which defeats the purpose of multiclips.

If you need to render your multiclip, either your sequence settings are wrong, or your hard drive is causing a bottleneck, whether it’s from drive speed or connection speed, or you just need a faster computer/more RAM. … Continue Reading

AVCHD Final Cut Pro Workflow

February 24, 2010 Final Cut Pro Tips No Comments
AVCHD Final Cut Pro Workflow

I’ve been shooting and editing AVCHD with Final Cut Pro and a Panasonic HMC-150 for just over a year now. I’ve worked out a pretty good workflow that has caused me no problems at all.  Here’s how it goes: … Continue Reading

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