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.
Whether you’re working on a film, a podcast, or a YouTube video, getting the audio right is crucial for your project to shine. In this guest post, Abdul Jabbar describes the importance of creating good audio in post-production.
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.
Feathering converts a hard edge to a soft fade. Feathering an image out is easy. Feathering an image in, though, is much harder. Here’s what you need to know, as Larry Jordan explains.
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.
DaVinci Resolve has a preference with a default setting that makes editing audio almost impossible. Here’s which preference to change and how to edit audio in very small increments, easily and accurately, using the Fairlight page in DaVinci Resolve 19.
Recently, Jungle Power launched a series of eco-friendly, on-location power generation systems. To learn more, I emailed a series of questions to Mark Naidoo, CEO of Jungle Power.
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.
