Blog Archives

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A video interview with Paul Matthijs Lombert, Founder & CEO of Hedge. He describes their range of media utilities and software, what tasks are designed for, and their new cooperative agreement to support Final Cut Library Manager.

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A video interview with Dan May, President of Blackmagic Design – US, where he reveals more than 16 new products at NAB, including a 12K cinema camera, 6K pocket camera, the latest version of DaVinci Resolve and other new hardware.

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Last week, I asked readers to write about web services they found useful in video editing. Here are two reports on what works.

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CommandPost is an indispensable tool for Final Cut Pro. One of its key features enables a scrolling timeline. However, this feature can conflict with the latest version of Final Cut. Here’s what you need to know.

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A secondary color correction adjusts the color of something in the frame – like changing the color of a shirt. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to create these in Premiere Pro.

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LUTs are a color lookup table. In this short video, Larry Jordan explains what LUTs are, how to use them to change the color of your clips, and how to properly set the new Color Settings panel in Premiere Pro.

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In today’s world of digital video, the Broadcast Safe effect (or Video Limiter in Premiere) is gathering dust in a corner. But, there is a BIG benefit to using it when you have a lighting problem to solve, as this tutorial illustrates. This trick works for all the major NLEs.

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The shift towards more complex projects requires reevaluating rendering solutions. Integrating cloud-based render farms into VFX workflows requires careful planning and execution. Here’s a detailed guide to ensure a successful transition.

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Just because your hardware is fast, does not mean that your software is optimized to take advantage of that speed. Premiere is fast. Your hardware is faster. Here’s a detailed look at real-world editing on Premiere Pro.

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8K is coming. Not today and not tomorrow. But sooner than you expect. To get ready, you should first look to upgrade your storage, then, once it is both big and fast enough, upgrade your computer. Here’s what you need to know.

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3D 3D Video Polygons, from Luca Visual Effects, creates highly-adjustable eye-catching 3D effects and transitions that push the boundaries of 3D in Final Cut Pro.

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Here are the settings you need to use when sending a file from Adobe Premiere Pro to Avid Pro Tools for audio mixing.

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When it comes to removing backgrounds using a green-screen key, not all video codecs create the same image quality. Here’s what you need to know to shoot and edit the cleanest keys.

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I wrote last week that a bug in Final Cut prevents dynamically updating Photoshop images in Final Cut when they are revised and saved in Photoshop. At some point, Apple will fix this. But, for now, here’s a workaround, first …

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Depending upon the settings you choose at import, Photoshop graphics update automatically in Premiere. But there are lots of exceptions to this rule. Here’s how this technique works.

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The OWC Thunderblade 8 SSD RAID is a silent, well-built, high-speed, high-capacity storage system that is easy to set up, flexible to configure, and designed to last for years. Here’s my detailed review.

Sometime in the past, Final Cut Pro handles importing Photoshop images. Changes used to be handled dynamically, but, in the current version, changes to a saved file seem to be ignored. This is not right. Here are the details.

ChronoX is a utility that measures the elapsed time of Final Cut Pro exports in a precise and fully automated way. There are two versions: Standard (free) and Professional. Here’s a detailed review of what this software does.

Most of the time, syncing clips to be frame accurate is good enough. But, sometimes you need more precision. This tutorial illustrates how to slip audio inside the frame in 1/80th of a frame increments using Apple Final Cut Pro.

Most of the time, syncing audio and video clips within a frame works fine. But, when you need to get really precise alignment – down to the millisecond – Premiere provides a way that makes it easy. Here’s how.

Project settings in DaVinci Resolve are significantly different from either Premiere or Final Cut. They are the technical foundation upon which an entire edit is built. Since Premiere and Final Cut don’t behave this way, editors moving to Resolve from other platforms – like me – are going to be surprised. Here’s what you need to know.

In this short video, Larry Jordan illustrates the differences between Paste Effects and Paste Attributes in Final Cut Pro. He’ll also show their impact on keyframe timing.

In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to use timecode to precisely move around inside a clip or in the timeline in Adobe Premiere Pro.

In this short video, Larry Jordan explains the potential causes of audio drop-outs during video editing. He’ll also provide some ideas on where to look for a fix.

In this short video, Larry Jordan compares the differences between using DisplayPort and HDMI when connecting external computer monitors to your Mac. One is a much better choice.

There are several security reasons for editing video where the computer is not attached to the Internet. But, if you do, which video editing software will work without the web?

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Multicam editing in DaVinci Resolve is not as refined as in Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro. But, it is still worth learning. Here’s a detailed tutorial on how multicam editing works.

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In the face of evolving digital threats, small media businesses are tasked with the critical responsibility of securing their assets. Here are tips you can use to keep your business safe.

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Hawaiki Keyer 5 is a high-quality, infinitely-adjustable chroma-key plugin for Premiere Pro, After Effects, Final Cut Pro and Motion. Offering controls that simply aren’t available on other keyers, when you need to create a truly clean chroma-key, even with substandard production, you need Hawaiki Keyer, from FxFactory.

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I created a green-screen shot that was impossible to key because the foreground elements kept keying out due to reflections. Here’s how to use a solid matte in Adobe Premiere or Apple Final Cut Pro, or even DaVinci Resolve, to fix this.

There are two key questions we ask whenever we buy storage: How fast does it go and how long does it last? We’ve got a pretty good handle on SSD speeds. Trickier, though, is determining endurance (life-span). Here’s what you need to know.

What causes those strange hash marks at the top of clips in Final Cut Pro? Actually, they are indicating a good thing – here’s what they are and how to turn them on or off.

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Yes, Resolve is complex. However, at heart, it’s just like any NLE – and very similar to both Premiere and Final Cut. This covers the basics: startup, import, editing, trimming, audio levels and export.

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Apple Final Cut Pro has four ways to place clips: In the Primary storyline, a connected clip, a connected storyline, or  a compound clip. There are several differences between these. Here’s how to choose which to use.

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So, I wondered whether Final Cut Pro exported faster if you rendered the timeline before exporting. The answer surprised me – most of the time, it doesn’t. Here’s what you need to know to speed your exports.

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In this tutorial, using Adobe Premiere Pro and BorisFX Continuum 2023, we’ll explore how to explode an image into thousands of particles then, even more fun, how to coalesce thousands of particles into a solid image o video.

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Here’s a quick trouble-shooting tip. After buying my M2 Max Mac Studio, my second monitor starting flashing to black every few minutes. Here’s what it took to fix it.

Two weeks before Christmas, my old Synology server died. Dead. I had all my data safely backed up – but on an expansion chassis that required a functioning server to access. Here’s what I learned in migrating to a new Synology server.

At its simplest, a backup is a copy of a file, generally stored on a separate device, such that if the original file is lost, a current copy is available to take its place. If backups are new to you, here’s what you need to know to protect your data.

Posted on by Larry

Working on a Mac provides a great experience with optimal performance. Some problems might set you back, though, as your computer slows down. Here are a series of tips for ways to resolve them.

Have you ever wanted to find a shot you haven’t used yet? Yeah, happens to me all the time. Fortunately, Final Cut Pro makes it easy. Here’s how to either find the media you are using, or find the media you are NOT using.

There’s a hidden rating feature in Final Cut Pro that can help you organize your clips. It’s been there since FCP was first released over a decade ago. However, in recent years, Apple has deemphasized this to the point you …

Video Walls 3.0, by Luca Visual FX, is an extremely well-thought-out, highly-flexible series of 3D video wall effects. The controls are detailed and the results are mind-boggling. Even better, though, the defaults work without any modifications, so if you are pressed for time, you don’t need to tweak anything to get an outstanding effect.

Recently, I’ve gotten a lot of email from people trying to capture video from video tape. This used to be easy… but with changes to Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple Final Cut Pro, it has become more challenging. Here’s what you need to know.

For speed, solid construction, ease of use and portability, the OWC Express 1M2 is amazing. Faster than Thunderbolt, about the size of a deck of cards. Fits in your pocket. Oh… and no power brick. Here’s mu review.

Creative Cow reports that Retroactive 2.0 now supports Apple Final Cut Pro 7 running on macOS Mojave and High Sierra. Here are the details.

VideoProc Converter is a highly-affordable media clip compression and adjustment software. While most of its clip manipulation and trimming features already exist in professional video editing software, its support for transcoding virtually all known video formats makes it an attractive addition to your toolkit – once it fixes problems in the Mac version.

This article takes a closer look at improving video editing and computer performance using SSDs and provide specific suggestions on the gear to buy and how to configure your system.

Export segmentation is one of the new features in Final Cut 10.7 that becomes available when you upgrade to macOS Sonoma. This harnesses the power of multiple media engines in Apple silicon chips to accelerate H.264 and HEVC exports in FCP or Compressor. While this makes exports faster, it also has other benefits – and limitations.

This guest post, from Zac Carr, goes deep into the advanced features of the Warp Stabilizer in Adobe Premiere Pro. He looks into several key advanced features of the Warp Stabilizer tool and discusses why they are indispensable for achieving smooth motion and high-quality results.

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