Videography Basics Everyone Needs to Know
Well maybe not “everyone needs to know” but at least a few of us!
So if you are using a consumer grade camera or a smartphone to capture your footage and you are just using the auto settings then you can move along cos’ there is nothing to see here!
Having said that, if you are stuck in auto you are leaving a lot of quality and creativity on the table.
Even with smartphones these days you can install a free APP like Open Camera and take more or full control of what the camera is doing.
Of course that means there are things you need to know and understand about shooting video footage manually to get decent results.
The good news is that it is way simpler than you think because of the nature of video.
In photography your exposure (brightness or darkness) is controlled by Aperture (How wide open the the lens is), shutter speed (How fast it opens and closes) and ISO (The sensitivity of the sensor).
So you have to know a bunch of stuff about how adjusting each of these affects your image.
In video your shutter speed is controlled by the frame rate you choose for you video (30fps or 24fps or whatever) and it is always two times the frame rate.
So immediately that parameter is taken out of the equation.
Next we have aperture.
Well wide open aperture means shallow depth of field and lots of light, closed aperture means everything is in focus with less light so that’s almost a “yes” or “no” proposition!
The only thing left is ISO so if you set the aperture how it is supposed to be and the shutter speed at twice the frame rate and ISO to auto you are done!
It’s pretty easy once you get this in your head so to do that check out the video below.
The Ultimate Guide to Freeze Frames – How to Do Them Right
The freeze frame is an effect anyone with access to video editing software can pull off.
Let’s face it, all you have to do is stop the video and the frame freezes!
Most software these days even has some sort of “freeze frame” button that you can use to just take a still image of the frame you are on and insert it as a freeze frame.
So like most things in video editing, just because you can do it doesn’t actually mean you should do it.
The freeze frame creates a very specific reaction on the part of the audience so before you do it make sure it is what you are really wanting to do.
The Simple Formula To Blow Up On YouTube
There is a ton of advice, free and otherwise, floating around the social media space on how to be successful especially on YouTube.
In fact you can find yourself travelling further and further down the rabbit hole on all sorts of strategies and tricks and tips on achieving this.
Some of this advice may be right, some may be wrong… who knows! And quite frankly, who cares!
None of that advice will add up to anything if you don’t have the three things mentioned in the video below in place.
These are the core values of what creates success on YouTube.
PowerDirector 365 Updates
In this video Sharper Turtle covers the latest updates to PowerDirector 365 that were recently released into the wild.
If you are not sure about how PowerDirector is delivered these days here’s a quick update.
The program can be purchased as either a standalone perpetual license as it always has been but you can also take out a subscription.
The subscription model is called PowerDirector 365 and one of the advantages to it is that all releases are instantly applied to the software you have on your computer.
The stand alone version is only updated with regards to security and bugfix release patches as they become necessary.
So the new features are: Preview Layout, Vertical Text, Panel Placement, and Background Removal which you can see demonstrated in the video below.
The Art of Hollywood Titles – Wondershare Filmora 13
Creating titles in Filmora or just about any other video editing software is pretty easy these days and the range of fonts, features, controls and special effects is astounding.
However if you are like me you can never really capture the same level of professionalism that you see in the big movies… or maybe it’s just me!
From where I am sitting I think the problem is not with the software being unable to do what I want it to do.
I think the problem is me pretty much having no idea about what I want to do!
Here are some ideas in Filmora.
How to Add Text to Video Like The Pros
Carrying on from the previous item concerning the use of titles in Filmora here’s one on the same subject using Movavi.
As I mentioned in that other snippet my problem is not technical… it’s creative!
So here are some more ideas done in the Movavi Video Editor.
Is Your Software Crashing Because It’s Overheating?
It is common for me to get questions from video editing software users regarding freezes and crashes when they are using the video editing software they have.
In most cases I refer them to an article on this site on Debugging Computer Problems When Video Editing.
It is very easy to assign the problem to being caused by the software itself because that what they are looking at on the screen at the time.
However in most cases (not all!) the software doesn’t end up being the actual problem and in most cases it turns out to be some kind of resources problem.
Another cause not mentioned on that page but well worth looking at is overheating.
4K video uses an enormous amount of processing power to manipulate very large files and as a result a lot of heat can get generated in both the CPU and GPU.
Check out the video below for some tips on monitoring this or at least finding out if it is the problem you may be having.
DaVinci Resolve 19 – Full Course with Free Practice Footage
OK so if you have about two hours to spare and really want to get into the nitty gritty of DaVinci Resolve then this is the tutorial for you!
All the files used in the project are free to download from Casey’s website and you can follow along at home while you are watching the video.
Yes, there are some pretty advanced concepts being discussed here but Casey makes it really easy to understand and track along.
If you are not working with RAW footage like most of us probably are that’s no reason to dismiss this tutorial as irrelevant.
There are great examples of color management and special FX all throughout the video and some great stuff to learn about Resolve and editing in general.
Star Wars Sound Design in DaVinci Resolve 19
This is a companion tutorial to the Star Wars one done by Casey Faris listed above.
In the Casey Faris tutorial he covers basically the visual aspects of the production in a step by step walkthrough.
In this video Jason Yadlovski does exactly the same thing on the same project only from an audio point of view.
As with the other video all the projects files can be downloaded so you can follow along as he moves through the process.
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