Editing may tell stories, but visual effects make those stories eye-catching. In this short video, Larry Jordan illustrates how to use blend modes to fix image problems, enhance an image or create a surreal effect.
Editing may tell stories, but visual effects make those stories eye-catching. In this short video, Larry Jordan illustrates how to create and format 3D text. Plus, how to convert 2D text into 3D.
Recently, I purchased an OWC Thunderbay 4 RAID. To go with the RAID enclosure, I also bought four Seagate Iron Wolf Pro 16 TB drives. Over the last two weeks I conducted a wide variety of performance tests and, in many cases, the results surprised me.
This tutorial measures and illustrates the difference in speeds between different HDD (Hard Disk Drive) RAID levels. This also provides definitions of these different levels and recommendations on which to use for your storage.
High-performance, high-capacity storage is at the heart of everything we do as media editors. Clearly, performance improves with each generation of gear. Equally clearly, none of us have unlimited budgets. These tests compare the benefits of migrating from Thunderbolt 2 storage to Thunderbolt 3.
For many years, I’ve written that the fuller a spinning hard disk drive (HDD) is, the slower it goes. But, while I’ve “known” this for years, I never really bothered to test it. Until this week, as part of a detailed review of a Thunderbay 4 HDD RAID. Here’s the answer.
I’ve often wondered just how much better an SSD is for multicam editing than an HDD (spinning hard disk drive). Recently, as part of detailed review of the OWC Thunderbay 4 HDD RAID, I decided to find out.
I’ve always “known” that HFS+ is better for formatting spinning hard drives for the Mac than APFS. But, I wondered, is that just hearsay or is there some truth to it? So, I put them both to the test. The results are surprising.
Christopher Campbell created an amazing time-lapse image sequence about painting a large picture. Then, he asked me for ways to make this time-lapse look better. Here is a technique you can use in Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve.
As I was editing a recent webinar, I rediscovered three highly useful techniques that sped my work. Since these are not techniques I use everyday, I wanted to share them with you so you could save some time on your next edit as well.
Apple changed how adjustment layers for Final Cut are created in Motion with FCP 11. An adjustment layer in Final Cut Pro is a special clip to which you can apply effects that affect all layers or clips below it. The only problem is that it doesn’t exist. Here’s how to create it.
The Ken Burns effect provides automated image animation and it works for both horizontal and vertical projects. But there are several cases where keyframes work better. Larry Jordan illustrates both in this short video.
Drop zones are areas in a Final Cut Pro effect into which you can insert an image or video. But, there’s a key “gotcha” that you need to know to use them effectively. Larry Jordan explains.
Backups are basic to protecting your media. But what should you use for hardware, or software, and how many backups are “enough.” Larry Jordan explains the basics.
There are four menu options to scale images in Premiere Pro. One is a really bad choice, while two aren’t bad. But one is clearly the best choice when you also want to animate image scaling. Larry Jordan explains.
Most of the preference settings in Adobe Premiere Pro are fine. But, not all of them. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows which preferences you need to change to improve performance.
A fast way to edit video programs that feature lots of interviews is using speech-to-text editing in Adobe Premiere Pro. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how you can quickly create and edit using transcripts, then how to turn those transcripts into captions.
Dan asks: “I just edited a short family video and was stunned at how long it took! What should my expectations be for editing a project?” This is a GREAT question and one that I’m asking my readers to share their thoughts. Yes, the answer could be anything – but we still need to create an estimate.
Gary asks: “I recall you said that mixed frame rates cannot exist on a DaVinci Resolve timeline. Often my media is submitted in a myriad of forms/rates. How do I deal with that?” Actually, Resolve handles mixed frame rates easily – with one BIG!! gotcha. Here are the details.
Geoff is experiencing consistent jerkiness during pans of any speed on multiple cameras when shooting PAL video. Take a look and see if you can solve the problem.
Recently, I made a mistake that destroyed all my existing projects. Here’s what I did, and here’s what I learned: how to archive projects, how to restore from backups and where to set the initial Resolve Project Library.
Here’s a very fast technique that can reduce (or emphasize) wrinkles in an actor’s face – without resorting to plug-ins. Watch as Larry Jordan illustrates how this adjustment works – improving how an actor looks instantly!
In this short video, Larry Jordan demonstrates how to import timelines from Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro for color grading, then export them back out again.
This short video showcases the differences between using Lift – Gamma – Gain and Shadows – Mids – Highlights to change the gray-scale values of a clip. These differences are significant, powerful, and highly useful, as Larry Jordan illustrates.
Over the last week, I tested Apple Final Cut Pro 11, Adobe Premiere Pro 25 and DaVinci Resolve 19.1 using a variety of computers from 2018 to the new M4 Pro Mac mini. This article summarizes what I’ve learned with an emphasis on the M4 Pro Mac mini and M2 Max Mac Studio.
This review looks at the performance differences in video editing running DaVinci Resolve 19.1 on a variety of Macs from the 2018 Mac mini to the new 2024 Apple M4 Pro Mac mini.
The new Transcribe to Captions automatically generates text captions from clips in the Final Cut timeline. It fast and dead easy to use… except, there’s one small problem: It creates captions in the wrong format. In this demo, Larry Jordan shows how it works and how to change caption formats.
The new Magnetic Mask is nothing short of amazing. Whether you want to remove a background, improve a color grade, or apply an effect to only a portion of the clip, the Magnetic mask is your new tool of choice. This video shows how it works.
The new Transcribe to Captions Feature in Final Cut Pro – the first, big step toward speech-to-text. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how this works AND an essential workaround that you need to know.
Here’s an illustrated, step-by-step tutorial to Apple’s Magnetic Mask, new with Final Cut Pro 11. This can create amazing results quickly – once you know how it works.
This review looks at the performance differences in video editing running Adobe Premiere Pro 25 on a variety of Macs from the 2018 Mac mini to the new 2024 Apple M4 Pro Mac mini. The results may surprise you!
It’s important to remember that you don’t need to buy the fully-loaded version of any system to get serious work done. Here are my thoughts on how to configure an M4-series Mac for serious video editing without breaking the bank.
This review looks at the performance differences in video editing running Apple Final Cut Pro 11 on a variety of Macs from the 2018 Mac mini to the new 2024 Apple M4 Pro Mac mini. The results may surprise you!
Today, Apple updated Final Cut Pro – Mac to version 11, along with updates to Final Cut Camera, Final Cut Pro – iPad and Logic. Here are the details and more links.
“How fast is fast enough?” is a question I’ve been pondering this last week. I decided to compare the speeds of two popular SSD drives: the T9 and T5 from Samsung. Partly, to see how fast they were, and partly to see if they were “fast enough” for video editing.
Over the weekend, I bought a newly-announced M4 Pro Mac Mini. This article explains what I bought and why. (Updated based on my recent performance tests.)
Last week, Apple announcing a bevy of new Macs: MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini; each using variations of the M4: M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max. Here are my thoughts on what to know, when to upgrade, and where to spend your money.
It appears as a bug during audio dialog editing in DaVinci Resolve 19. What it ACTUALLY is, is a preference that defaults to the wrong setting.
Paul is creating a compilation video and asks: What happens when I copy clips from one Final Cut Pro library to another? And how can I keep my library sizes small? The answer? It all depends upon how you initially import your media.
Templates are simply customized project files for Premiere or Audition that are saved to a specific location, then accessed whenever you create a new project. These can significantly speed your workflow when you are creating similar projects over and over.
The new context-aware Properties Panel highlights the new features in the October 2024 release of Adobe Premiere Pro, showcased at the recent Adobe MAX conference. Here’s a list of what’s new.
Here’s a detailed look at how I recorded my interviews at the NAB Show New York. This goes into detail in terms of how I edited, how clips were named and the audio effects and settings I used.
In this interview, Larry Jordan and Andrew Takacs discuss the remote production tools QuickLink provides, why they are needed, how they are used, and their new integration with collaborative software like Skype and Teams.
In this interview, Larry Jordan and Jeff Sengpiehl discuss how the media industry has morphed over the last few years, where growth is occurring, and how AI is playing a more nuanced role in production and post today.
In this interview, Larry Jordan and Kari Eythorsson discuss how Clear-Com began in the rock palaces of 1960’s San Fransisco, how they evolved a cloud-based intercom solution and began offering communications on a per-project basis.
In this interview, Larry Jordan and Tara Montford discuss the 20-year history of Editshare, the stresses in the industry today, and emerging new markets.
In this interview, Larry and Neal discuss the role MPE plays in media post-production around the world, along with the opportunities and challenges of remote production and post.
In this interview, Larry and Sean discuss what OpenDrives provides, the benefits of the OpenDrives architecture, why storage performance is so challenging, why storage hardware and controller software need to be different, and the industry trend toward the commoditization of storage.
In this interview, Larry and Gary discuss the challenges of accurately tracking camera pan and tilt changes when shooting on an LED volume stage and how Cartoni is providing tripod heads that track this and send it to the computer. As well, Gary shares his thoughts on how to pick the right tripod for your work.
In this interview, Larry and Marc discuss the differences between backups and archives, the current state of archiving using LTO tape and trends toward integrating archiving with cloud services.
