Blog Archives

In it’s latest release (Dec. 2021), Adobe added some some, but significant, features to Premiere Pro that make text easier to find and graphics more flexible. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on what these new features are and how they work.

There are many reasons to send a project from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve. Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to move projects between apps. Easy, but there are a lot of steps. Here’s how it works.

There are many reasons to send a project from Final Cut Pro to Resolve, then bring them back into Final Cut. Fortunately, the process isn’t hard, but there are a lot of steps. Here’s what you need to know.

This morning, Adobe announced new features and updates for Premiere Pro, Character Animator and After Effects. Here are the details.

While human skin gray-scale and saturation values can vary by individual, skin color values are remarkably consistent. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to set skin color values to fix color problems and make on-camera talent look “normal.” This applies to all video editing software.

The Elgato Stream Deck is an easy-to-use, flexible and well-built external keyboard specifically designed to trigger actions by pushing a button with your fingers, not the mouse. For live events, webinars, gaming and general productivity, this is a great little device.

Most technical problems with media editing are often the result of insufficient bandwidth caused by bottlenecks in the media, the operating system, software, or hardware. This looks at each in detail to provide ideas to get your system working better.

DaVinci Resolve is a high-power media editing program. It is also very intimidating to learn. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to use the tools in the Cut page to get started learning Resolve. The Cut page is designed for projects with deadlines measured in minutes. It is a very fast way to edit.

The latest version of DaVinci Resolve introduced the Cut Page, an interface designed for high-speed, fast-turnaround, editing. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to sync, edit and trim multiple cameras using Resolve’s Cut page.

The latest version of DaVinci Resolve introduced the Cut Page, an interface designed for high-speed, fast-turnaround, editing. In this short tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to add, modify and remove transitions applied to clips in Resolve’s Cut page.

Apple introduced new security technology with M1 Macs that affects 3rd-party RAIDs, hard disk and other external gear frequently used by professionals. Here’s what it is and how it affects you.

The Primary Storyline is an innovative way of editing and organizing clips in the Final Cut Pro Timeline. But many editors find it confusing. In this illustrated tutorial, I explain what it is, how it works and how to work-around it when you need to.

Here are 21 keyboard shortcuts that work on any Mac that can help you get your work done faster.

Apple brags about how the new M1 Max CPU can play multiple streams of 8K ProRes video in real-time. But that’s using a fully-loaded system. I wondered: How well does a new MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro CPU handle …

Remix, a new feature in the beta version of Adobe Premiere and an existing feature in Audition, adjusts the duration of existing music to meet whatever shorter duration you provide. While not as flexible as Smartsound, this is a very handy tool. Here’s how it works.

Apple updated Final Cut Pro to version 10.6.1 last week. All the changes were bug fixes, but one change, that didn’t make the list, suddenly made Object Tracking useful. Learn more.

The G-DRIVE ArmorATD is a solid value for a reasonably-rugged, medium-capacity, portable hard drive. It isn’t the fastest, it isn’t the most rugged, but it is made by a reliable company that should meet the needs of anyone needing portable storage.

LG makes good monitors, but, in the case of the 27UK500, if you are tall or need to tweak how your monitor looks, the 27UK500 monitor should be avoided.

The OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual provides extremely fast, high-capacity storage that’s essential for many creative workflows today. It works perfectly as plug-and-play, but has problems if you tweak.

Andy, from Scotland, upgraded to FCP 10.6 only to get a constant “Spinning Beach Ball of Death” every time he tried to open an existing Library. Here’s how Apple Support helped him solve this problem.

Recently, Adobe updated Premiere Pro to version 22 where one of the big new features is called: “Simplify Sequences.” In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how this feature works, the options it has and when it makes sense to use it.

Recently, Adobe updated Premiere Pro to version 22, where one of the new features is very mysterious – a hidden keyboard shortcut that can save you time – if only you can find it. Larry Jordan shows what this does, where it is and how to turn it on.

NAB announced the winners of their third annual “Product of the Year” awards, this time for 2021. The awards recognize significant and promising new products and technologies. Here’s the list.

Accusonus has been improving audio for a long time. Regardless of where you edit your audio, ERA 6 can make it sound better. Here’s a look at the new ERA 6 bundle with automatic, customizable audio repair.

Yes, the new M1 MacBook Pro is very, very fast. But, the M1 did not win every race when tested against a 2013 MacBook Pro and a 2017 iMac. These twelve tests are a good comparison between performance benchmarks and real-world media processing of the improvements you can expect if you upgrade to these new systems.

When you need to get the best streaming video possible – for Mac or Windows, live or recorded – here is the gear you need, links to find it and instructions on how to get it all to work.

New to the latest (v22) version of Adobe Premiere Pro is “Simplify Sequence.” This allows you to remove empty tracks, disable clips with specific labels, and remove markers, or other user-specified elements. Larry Jordan illustrates how this works in this tutorial.

I’m a keyboard shortcut junkie. Many editors can edit happily and well using only the mouse. I am not one of them. Here’s a list of 50 hidden keyboard shortcuts that make editing, trimming and navigation in Adobe Premiere Pro a LOT faster.

Last week, as part of Adobe MAX, Adobe released a flock of new features and improvements to Premiere Pro. Here’s a summary of what’s new.

Recently, Apple updated Compressor to version 4.6, where a highlighted feature is automated Watch Folders. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how these work and how you can use them to automate compression of video, audio or still images exported from any media application.

Recently, Apple updated Motion to version 5.6, where one of the highlighted features is a new neon text effect. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how this works and how you can add an effect to make it look even better.

Recently, Apple updated Final Cut Pro to version 10.6 where one of the big new features is object tracking. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how this works and how it compares to the same feature in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Watch Folders are an important new feature in Apple Compressor 4.6 that can speed your workflow. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how they work.

Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to use the new Object Tracker in Apple Final Cut Pro 10.6 to move text in sync with an element in the background. (Updated with improvement released with the FCP 10.6.1 update.)

Apple released new MacBook Pro laptops featuring high-performance Apple silicon chips. Given all the options, here are Larry Jordan’s recommendations for the best system for your budget.

Final Cut makes working with proxies extremely easy. The challenge, as Wes discovered, is what happens when you are working with multicam footage at a much larger size. Here’s the workflow.

The sound these monitors produce is very clean, crisp and rich that fills the space. If you are looking for accurate, high-quality sound in a small space, give these Yamaha monitor speakers a good listen. Larry Jordan has a review.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about subjects related to editing. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the two key video scopes in Apple Final Cut Pro, how to read them and how to use them to fix color problems like color casts and dark exposure levels.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about subjects related to editing. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains what an LTO tape drive is, the differences between LTO generations, recommendations for LTO software and how media creators can use this technology to safely archive their media and projects for decades.

The latest version of LTO – generation 9 – is now available. Storing 18 TB / tape, and archiving faster than generation 8, here’s a quick overview of the new version of archiving technology.

An illustrated tutorial on how to put different video inside each 3D text letter, while still keeping the 3D effect. This effect has multiple uses and lots of creative options to play with it, once the basic effect is created.

Adobe introduces Auto Tone in the beta version of Adobe Premiere Pro. Here’s a description of what this new automatic color correction tool does.

By default, YouTube takes down any video that uses music challenged for copyright infringement. The problem is that many of those charges are fake. Even when filmmakers purchase the correct music rights, YouTube makes it very, very difficult to overcome a copyright objection. Anthony Fleming has a first-hand report.

The OWC Envoy Pro FX SSD delivers performance, compatibility and ruggedness. It is also smokin’ fast. It supports both Mac and Windows computers and provides storage from 240 GB to 2 TB. Here’s my review.

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. While VPNs are used extensively, they may not be as secure as you think. DH2i has something better.

An overview of opportunities for financing film marketing budgets, provided by Freelance Video Collective.

The revised speech-to-text transcription and caption workflow in Adobe Premiere Pro is fast, easy to use and, now. extremely useful. If you haven’t looked at the new options for Speech-to-Text in Adobe Premiere Pro, now is a great time to start. This one feature can save you hours.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about, well, anything you want to ask. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to export captions from YouTube, then what you need to do to convert them for import into Adobe Premiere.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about, well, anything you want to ask. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan demos the new Speech-to-Text transcript and caption workflow options in Adobe Premiere Pro.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about, well, anything you want to ask. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains where to store media in Apple Final Cut Pro and how the storage you use affects performance. This also includes a chart detailing the speed of different storage.