3 Cinematic Looks With Natural Light
This is an excellent video showing a number of ways you can “shape” existing light in many situations to achieve a good result.
Even if you are not going to be setting up a shot quite to this degree, the tips and techniques they demonstrate are well worth knowing.
The Shot List Episodes 5 and 6
I was tracking this series of instructional videos from Studio Binder but because they have been releasing them intermittently I seem to have lost track a little!
So first up the one I missed is this one that comes in at Episode 5.
In this video they cover pretty much the entire range of camera equipment that can be used to shoot a movie.
Obviously for most people a lot of this gear is not really going to be relevant to what they are doing or the level at which they are operating.
However I thought it was interesting enough to take a look at.
Every Camera Movement Technique Explained
The one below is Episode 6 of the same series and covers camera movement and I think is quite important.
For the average person just shooting some videos the concept of camera movement may seem a little out of their league.
You have to bear in mind that a pro is intentionally using camera movement to create an effect.
An amateur may be unintentionally creating effects because of unplanned camera movement or a lack of awareness of what the movement of the camera is adding to or detracting from what they shoot.
What is a Static Shot? Definition and Examples in Film
This is another good article on a type of shot that you may or may not be intending to capture. The point is that if you do capture this type of shot you will be creating an effect whether you wanted it or not!
How to Use and Not Use a Ring Light
So apparently all the rage with the kids these days is to use ring lights for their talking head TikTocky types videos… groovy!
I kind of figured as much due to the sheer number of flat, washed out head shots I keep seeing on social media!
Don’t get me wrong though, a good ring light shot can be great as long as you know what you are doing.
Check out the video below… so you know what you are doing.
How to Actually Shoot with Natural Light – 3 Essential Tools You Need
A great lighting tutorial here based on the premise that the natural light you have is blowing out your image.
Basically it is an exercise in subject positioning in relation to the light as well as tricks for controlling that light.
How to Get Good Interview Audio
I would describe this as a very practical tutorial on getting good audio from one of my favorite creators, John Luna.
John is an independent cinematographer not really working at the Hollywood end of the market.
As such his tutorials are very method based rather than equipment based because he usually doesn’t have access to that kind of top end equipment.
You can also read a little more here in this article on Interview Lighting.
How to Use Custom, Linear and Parallel Masks – PowerDirector
A new feature introduced to PowerDirector 19 and PowerDirector 365 is an extension to the existing Masking features.
Previously PowerDirector had a pretty good masking tool that allowed for Linear and Parallel masks.
You could use these quite effectively in projects and exercise a good degree of control over them.
The only tool that was missing was the ability to create your own mask by hand using whatever image or video asset you had.
To be fair this is a very complex feature to put together and is generally only found in fully professional video editors.
In PowerDirector 19 they have actually introduced this feature to the masking tool and it is called the Vertex Tool.
If you check the video below at about the 0:43 sec. mark you can see it in action.
Changing Motion Graphics Object Colors in Title Designer – PowerDirector 19
PowerDirector 19 and 365 come preloaded with some pretty good Motion Graphics that you can use in your project titles.
On top of that you can also tailor those graphics to suit your projects or personalize them however you want.
The video below simply demonstrates how to access those features and shows what you can change within them.
How To Make The Indiana Jones Map Animation – CyberLink PowerDirector 18
Just to clarify something here, the title of this video refers to PowerDirector 18 and the technique shown is actually carried out in version 18.
However the tutorial itself can actually be done in any version of PowerDirector going back to about version 16 and up to the current version PowerDirector 19.
Even if you don’t really want to make an exact copy of this effect the tutorial is well worth watching.
Part of the process for getting a map to use as an image plus dealing with that image using free software is very informative.
How to Reverse a Clip in DaVinci Resolve 16
A straightforward tutorial on on a pretty straightforward effect when you think about it!
However in DaVinci Resolve and just about any other video editing software, the complication is not in performing the action.
The complication is in finding the damn controls in the first place!
Anyway in the video you can see how to get there but also take note that this is the same path to follow if you want to adjust the speed of the clip, speed ramp it and a few other “speed” type actions.
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