Archive for category Tutorials

3 Methods for Creating Scrolling Credits in Final Cut Pro

May 17

Posted by Adam in Tutorials | 5 Comments

I love the part of the production process where you get to make the end credits. If you don’t do it first (I don’t think you should), you get to do it at the end of it all, and look back on all the people that helped, annoyed, or screwed you in the process of making your piece.

If you are working in Final Cut Pro, you probably know how to create basic scrolling text credits (if you don’t, here’s a tutorial on that). You know the kind, where everything is centered and it just goes up. For many situations, this is fine, but there are some alternative methods to creating some more attractive credits in FCP.

Credits

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Monday Roundup: Converting Video Babies

May 10

Posted by Adam in Roundups | 1 Comment

Another weekend come and gone. Hopefully you got to do something cool. If you didn’t there’s always next weekend. How’s that for a Monday pep talk?

To help you get to that happy weekend place again, we’re bringing you some of the coolest stuff that we found on the interwebs.

Video/Audio/Image Converter (for Free)

FCP Daily has this scoop. It’s a really amazing converter of formats called adapter. It’s free, AND you can get it for PC and MAC. It’s still technically in Beta, so you might wanna keep it in conjunction with your favorite video converter right now (like MPEG Streamclip), but it looks very promising. You can get all the deets at FCP Daily.

Adapter Screenshot

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What is Ambient Noise?

May 5

Posted by Adam in Tutorials | 1 Comment

Yesterday we talked about an important audio tool that is easy to acquire and essential for a lot of sound editing: room tone.

Now let’s take a look at another situation. You’re out shooting in the snow, and you have a protective cover around your camera. You are just looking to get the shot – you don’t have a microphone connected and you are just using the internal mic. Afterwards, you get into your editing software and look at the footage. The video looks great, but the audio is – as expected – lacking. Since you had that protective cover on and were just using the internal microphone, you got sub-par audio.

Winter Wonderland

The thing to remember is audio is a very important part of the experience the viewer has when watching your film or documentary. You can show footage of a carnival, but what is a carnival without the sounds that come with it? I’m talking about the screams, laughter, noises the rides make – all of it.

In this situation, you would have learned something important about ambient noise. For the user to full embrace the experience of being out there on that snowy hillside, they need to hear the soft breeze and the even softer sound of the snow falling. They need to hear a high quality recording of that, as well. This is what is known as ambient noise, and it can make a world of difference.

There are two routes you can do with ambient noise in terms of procuring it. If you think of it, of course, you can make your own, but sometimes a smarter idea is to get some ambient noise from another source.

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What is Room Tone?

May 4

Posted by Adam in Tutorials | 2 Comments

You may have found yourself in this situation before: you are editing a dialogue sequence, and you need to add a little bit of a pause that the actors didn’t put in there when you shot the scene. You add it, play it back, and there is something very noticeable when you encounter that pause in the timeline – the lack of dialogue is not the thing that sticks out – it is the lack of the tone of the room that produces an ugly audio gap.

What happened? Well, inside of that gap is complete silence. Absolute digital silence. But wherever you are reading this right now, close your eyes and listen to the room your in. No room is absolute silence, and the quiet subtleties you are hearing in your room are known as room tone. It’s important to know how to use room tone to avoid audio editing difficulties.

Microphone

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Go Go Gadget Web Roundup

Apr 28

Posted by Adam in Roundups | 1 Comment

It’s been a little quiet around here due to our prep for this week’s podcast – all about DSLR filmmaking for DiY Filmmakers. It’s a really exciting topic, and one that takes a lot of research and pizzas. The pizzas aren’t necessary, but they help.

In the mean time, here are some cool things around the web that caught our eye that may be useful or just fun:

DSLR Film Blog

DSLR Film Homepage

I came across this blog in my research on DSLR filmmaking for this week’s podcast. (I had hoped that there was a blog dedicated to this, and I found one! I love it when the internet works like that.)

Anyways, the DSLR filmmaker blog is really great – its in-depth, technical, and gets you excited about DSLR filmmaking while at the same time bringing you the latest news on the technological advances in the DSLR world. They also highlight some DSLR short films and other DSLR-created media.

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A Primer on SMPTE Timecode

Apr 19

Posted by Adam in Tutorials | 6 Comments

Let’s be honest with each other – timecode is cool. All those behind the scenes videos show some timecode in the corner, ticking away, as if it holds the secret key to the whole process behind the picture.

Well, in a way it does. Timecode is a very simple way of cataloging every single frame that you shoot. Any frame – any one at all – can be referred to by a string of 8 digits.

00:00:00:00

HOURS : MINUTES : SECONDS : FRAMES

Timecode

It was developed by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, and is the standard referred to as SMPTE timecode. For DiY filmmaking purposes, knowing your SMPTE timecode is a good idea, so let’s get started!

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Exporting Final Cut Pro for YouTube HD

Apr 8

Posted by Adam in Tutorials | 3 Comments

Oh, YouTube. So slippery.

You may have been in this situation before – you’ve got your straight HD export from Final Cut Pro with the sequence settings, and it goes fine into Vimeo and just about everywhere else. But, upload it to YouTube, and it’s a mess. Low quality everything, and no HD option.

This is a little frustrating, but it can be resolved. We tried out a number of settings and found that the following created the best results.

Audio Select

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How To: Make a Movie using the Internet

Apr 1

Posted by Doug in Online Tools, Tools, Tutorials | 1 Comment

About a month ago, we taught you an easy way to make a movie without a video camera. While simple and cost effective, this method still requires actors, a still camera and some video editing software… and although most people have access to all of these materials, there of still some of us who do not. If you are one of those people, or if you are simply looking for another fun way to tell your story, you may want to check out Text-To-Movie, an online module from Xtranormal.com that allows you to create short, animated movies right on the site.

5 Things You Can Learn About Marketing a Film From Raaaaaaaandy

Mar 30

Posted by Adam in Tutorials | 1 Comment

If you’re not familiar, Raaaaaaaandy (with 8 a’s) is a character Aziz Ansari plays in the Adam Sandler movie “Funny People”. They made a few online shorts in documentary format centered around him. Let’s check ‘em out!

Part I:

Shooting a Documentary with the Sony HVR-A1U

Mar 23

Posted by Adam in Tutorials | 25 Comments

A few weeks ago I wrote a post which was basically my review of the Sony HVR-A1U. Since then, I’ve noticed a good amount of traffic to the site from people searching for info about shooting a documentary with the HVR-A1U.

Sony HVR-A1U Camcorder Front View

I recently completed shooting on my first documentary, “Pope Michael“, using the Sony HVR-A1U as my only camera. Last week when I released a trailer with some footage in it, a few people told me the footage looked great and asked me what camera I used.

Let’s be honest here: the HVR-A1U is not the camera the next “Avatar” is going to be shot with, but with some effort you can produce some fantastic results in a documentary setting with it. Here’s an overview of the lessons I learned with my A1U over the course of shooting the documentary.

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The internet is chock full of how to guides for doing pretty much anything you can think of to make films on a budget. DiY Filmmaking is a blog that brings you the best and the worst of all that, plus great tips, tutorials, and guides of our own.

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