This was a demonstration on how to shoot an interview during the video production class at Welfare Reform Liaison Project in Greensboro, North Carolina, that I instruct.

As the instructor, I was trying to show how to show drama with certain lighting and different tripod height.

The students were then asked who would like to act as a victim and another as a convict. Once that was decided the victim interviewed the convict and the convict interviewed the victim.

What they came up with was an ad-libbed haunting story.

Aquafada’s PulpFX Abstract 1.1 is a generator for Final Cut Pro. This is a well deserved improved upgrade from 1.0. When I reviewed 1.0, I liked the the plugin but I had some issues with how the generator handled displaying the titles of the pics. They have fixed that…here’s how.

Click on the Image Sources in the controls tab.

Once the edit window opens you can rename the pics and move the pics in what order you want it to appear in the slideshow. You can also delete or add photos to the slideshow. Something that the previous version did not do within the plugin.

They have also added “Small Moves” another generator to their cool list of slideshows. Small Moves or better know to editors as The Ken Burns Effect is a generator that I will be using quite frequently.

I’m surprised that this filter isn’t in the default filters in Final Cut Pro. It is easy to use and very effective. It also allows you to animate the rotation and the X & Y axis. Pretty sweet generator that you will be seeing in action with Often Awesome the series.

Check out the other great slideshows that this generator does on Aquafada’s youtube page.

Price
$49…purchase this plugin. Their first version I suggested to hold off until they upgrade and the upgrades and addition of Small Moves makes this buy a no brainer. Especially if you are constantly using images in your videos. This is perfect for any wedding or event editor and especially an editor that is doing a family project.

You can download the latest FxFactory Pro and use it for free for 14 days to try out this plugin.

I met Todd through another filmmaker friend, Ajit Anthony Prem. Our brief introduction left an impression on him…he casted me to play a bruiser in his newest film Southland of the Heart. I accepted and was part of magic that day. Not the kind of magic that I create but the magic of a crew all participating to make the film the best it can be. I was and am in awe of the film. I saw a assemble edit and was very impressed with the acting and storytelling. Simply a beautiful American story.

Todd Tinkham longed to write and direct films since he was a boy growing up in a small fishing community in Massachusetts. But it would take years of working with at-risk teens, mentally ill adults, and incarcerated men, before Tinkham would ever make his first film.

Todd Tinkham founded TinkhamTown Productions in 2005 after losing both of his parents to cancer in 2004. Realizing that his parents had never really pursued their dreams, Todd decided that he could not wait any longer. “After my folks died, I realized that I wasn’t going to live forever, and that if I wanted to go after my dreams, I’d better start now.”

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Once again Class on Demand does a top notch job with their training DVDs, this time with Advanced Training for Apple’s Color.

The Instructors
Bob Sliga and Steve Hullfish are once again your trainers with Apple’s Color application….but this time it’s Advanced Training (extreme trailer music playing).

This DVD will give you a great understanding of how to use Color as an advanced user. Not only using the tools and rooms in the application but it is very cerebral that makes you think like the professionals. I can’t express enough how cool it is to get access to minds like Bob and Steve.

The expertise of the trainers are outstanding and they openly give you tips and information to make you an advanced colorist right off the bat. I had a difficult time understanding Color when I first opened it up and even began with Class on Demand – Basic Training for Apple Color. After watching a few lessons over and over again and getting used to the rooms in Color, everything began to make sense. After you get an understanding of Color the Advanced training is the next logical step.

Not For Everyone
I have to warn new editors not to jump into Color until you have become very comfortable using Final Cut Pro as an editor. To think like an editor is so very important in using this application especially if you are aware of archiving, saving backups and creating presets or scones. There is only one Undo move in Color so be careful and listen to these instructors and save at every step.

Important
The project media used in this training comes with the DVD, simply drag and drop from the DVD to your desktop. Everything is sorted in easy to find folders. One thing you need to do before you begin your training with this DVD is to download from RED RED FINAL CUT STUDIO 3 INSTALLER and REDCODE QUICKTIME CODEC (BETA). Otherwise you will be lost in the first lesson. After you do that you can open your projects in this training and follow along. When I opened the first lesson I couldn’t re-link the media in the project. I tried over and over, then just moved on in the lesson until they covered that media file and that is when I knew I needed to install RED on my computer. After the installation I could finally re-link the media…only problem was the media on my computer didn’t match what they were training with.

Here is the media I was supplied with…

Outlined in the red square is what the trainers worked with…

This is not a deal breaker by any means. Just followed along with the instructors and made the changes with them…it didn’t matter what footage I was using as long as I had media linked.

The Course
Primary Color Correction

Day for night look
Adding a highlight glow in secondaries
Keyframing color corrections
Using the RED tab

Advanced Grade Management

Archiving Grades for future use
Dragging grades between shots
Applying the same grade to multiple “grouped” clips
Sharing grades between users

Secondaries

HSL Qualification – Improving Skin Tones
Saving a secondary matte or key from an HSL qualification
Using Key Blur to soften skin tones
Combining Multiple HSL Qualifications
Keyframing – moving, copying and pasting them, including auto / manual tracking plus custom shapes
Using Secondaries without qualifying anything

Advanced Color FX Room

Creating a Color FX preset
Understanding the nodes – when to use them
Dealing with Interlaced footage
Keyframing in ColorFX Room

Nattress Plug-ins

Understanding the nodes

Primary Out Room

Using this in combination with other corrections

Geometry Room

Adding keyframes in the Geometry room

Archiving

How to archive and restore archives of Color Projects
Workaround to “Save As” with a Color Project

Interfacing with Final Cut Pro

How to import color corrections from another Color Project or version
How to reconform an FCP sequence after color correction has been done

Tangent Devices WAVE panel

Customizing your panel
Using your WAVE panel as a mouse
Where the customized panel settings are saved for sharing/ moving settings

Spyder calibration

Show setup and configuration
Using the Spyder Cube to white balance in Color – three different methods

Tek scopes

How to capture a reference still and use it in matching footage in Color
Line select mode to isolate an element vertically in the picture
Review of how to use presets
Explanation of gamut displays
Demonstration of proprietary LQV vectorscope display
Explanation of customizing presets

Cine-Tal calibration

Time Saving Short Cuts
Listening to these experts is the best thing about this DVD. They give so many time saving short cuts. Even the smallest of things are important to grasp like; saving grades every time you finish a color project so you can use them later or copying those grades and putting them on another computer. Also grouping Secondaries and listing them by name so if you color for one clip and you have multiple clips in your project you can group them all together and drag and drop the Color Correction on the group.

They go through and show you how to color correct for skin tone with the HSL tool. H (Hue) S (Saturation) L (Luminance). Learn how to matte a color range and enhance it with the HSL parameters.

The one I can say is they are very aware of how easy it might be to ruin all the hard work it takes to do color correction. They show short cut and methods on how to backup your work without accidentally deleting your work. Color only has 1 undo, and you can’t set it either…so if you mess up make sure you are aware of it right away. So it is invaluable to pay attention and retain that information. Part of my blog is reference for the mistakes I’ve made and how I learned from it. It’s great to share these fixed mistakes with FCP users on the internet.

One of my favorite sections is the keyframing, tracking & user shapes. You will fall in love with the motion tracker, very easy to use and easier to clean up. You can choose from automatic or manual. Each is very easy to use. At the end of this lesson Bob gives his tip on how to keep a single color and make everything else black and white. He also shows you how to change the background from black and white to any other color scheme you can think up. Outstanding!

Another great section is when these great instructors introduce you to preset nodes in the Color FX room. If you are a Shake user you will feel very comfortable using these, if not it will take sometime getting used to. Watching Bob explain what each node does is great, you really get a good understanding what each node does. At the end of the lesson Bob throws one of his samples on the screen and the node tree looks like a freaking redwood tree…as a beginner color artist it looks so intimidating but they calm me down and explain that the best learning is deconstructing a complex tree. That is a great way to learn what node does what…brilliant sirs.

Wrap It Up
As you can tell I’m a big fan of this DVD. The price is right at $99. To learn the power that this application has is incredible and worth the money and time. As an editor, learning Color will place you in another level in the editing world as a professional. There are more and more jobs being offered to Color specialists and purchasing this DVD is a step into becoming a Color specialist.

Normalization…for the longest time I couldn’t figure out exactly what it did. I had audio geeks tell me to normalize everything and I’d ask, “what does it do?” The answer I always got was always to technical and in terms I couldn’t understand. I think like a video editor, so I needed it explained to me by a video editor. I found a perfect post by Final Cut Pro Master, Larry Jordan, explaining exactly what Normalization does.

Normalization means to raise the audio gain of an enitre clip such that the loudest portion of the clip does not exceed a level which you specify. As a note, I never normalize to 0 dB — it’s too loud. I tend to normalize audio between -4.5 and -6 dB.

That explains it and is a great utility to use on your clips. Select all the audio in your project that you want to Normalize, which should be all the talking audio, and normalize. You have to be careful though not to Normalize a final project without selecting the audio tracks from the clips because it will add gain to the entire project including any music tracks that you have.

If you care about becoming a more efficient video editor check out Larry Jordan’s site and learn from the master. This one tip will save me about 30 minutes every two weeks when I clean up the audio for Often Awesome the series.

Todd Tinkham is an accomplish Independent filmmaker from Hillsborough, NC. He type casted me in his film and I enjoyed every second being on his set. His crew was some of the most professional and kind that I’ve worked with. It felt like a close knit family and everyone was helping each other. So far, Todd Tinkham’s films have screened at more than 250 film festivals in the past 3 years.

If you have any questions that you would like for me to ask Todd, please leave them in the comments and I’ll ask during the podcast.

My buddies are at it again. Micah and his crew went out and shot a very cool parody of two popular video games and came up with a great short action film.

The idea behind this short is to get eyes and potential sponsorship for Micah’s next feature film called, “Beat Down Boogie.” A slick action comedy film that will blend the style of Jackie Chan’s “Rumble in the Bronx” and Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch.” Stylish and fun and bound to be a big hit. I’ve worked with Micah and his crew and I’m 100% sure that the film will be a huge success.

They will be posting “how-to” videos and behind the scenes clips, photos, and some really fun short films in the meantime to get people excited about the project. Pay attention to these guys, they are ready to cut a path to self distribution and create a way for independent films to break into the mainstream. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor let me know and I’ll put you in touch with the producer.

I’m posting this letter to my site in hopes some of my readers know a producer from The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Or to see if there is any media outlet that wants to take up this story.

From the Often Awesome Army to the Ellen DeGeneres Show…

Our friend, Timothy LaFollette, is incredible. He is also sick. An unfair, scary and painful kind of sick that can’t be fixed. In April 2009, Tim was diagnosed at age 29 with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). At least five generations of Tim’s family have died from ALS, including his mother and grandmother, who both died within a year of their diagnosis. Tim’s subtype of ALS has a median survival rate of 12 months. Tim survived his first diagnosis “birthday”, but there have been no advances in treatment in the 28 years since his mother’s death. Tim is almost house-bound and has lost his ability to care for his basic needs.

There is a silver lining to this seemingly sad story. Tim can discuss his decline with humor and truthfulness and he has the kind of friends that give you faith in humanity. We felt helpless as we watched our friend lose muscle control and his ability to breathe on his own. We desperately wanted to care for our friend and so the Often Awesome Army was born. Our “Army” started off as a close-knit group. It grew into a 1100+ person movement with t-shirts, a care team, benefit shows and an award winning web series!

Tim is dedicated to spreading ALS awareness and believes that Ellen’s show would be a perfect match for his personality. Ellen, please help us complete his mission. We know that you’ll love him as much as we do. Will you be a soldier in the Often Awesome Army?

Contact: info@oftenawesome.org

Please feel free to copy and paste this letter and submit it to this page.

You see the signs on busy street corners and you have your own ideas on what is behind the sign. This short film takes you behind the sign and educates you about what life is like for the homeless in a medium size city.

“What’s Behind The Sign?” Came in first place in the first annual Welfare Reform Liaison Project: Copycents Film Festival.

This short film was produced and shot by some of the students that enrolled in the program I teach at. I’m so proud of them and all the participants. Keep in mind this is the first film that they have ever shot, edited and produced. An accomplishment that really humbles me.

A great article in the News & Record about the event. Check it out if your curious about where I’m working at and what we are striving to do.

So copy and past this code in your blog sidebar or widget. Change the code of http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Corporate-Assassin/8587727397 to the Facebook page you want to display.


<script src="http://static.ak.facebook.com/js/api_lib/v0.4/FeatureLoader.js.php/en_US" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">FB.init("a6637eb1240c50dd7ea73686e1a78c53");</script><fb:fan profile_id="8587727397" stream="1" connections="10" width="300"></fb:fan><div style="font-size:8px; padding-left:10px"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Corporate-Assassin/8587727397">The Corporate Assassin</a> on Facebook</div>


Simple to do, go to the Facebook page you want to create a badge and copy the link in the address bar and replace the http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Corporate-Assassin/8587727397 link.

Also change the profile_id in this line fan profile_id=”8587727397″ to the id # of the page you want to showcase. So, “8587727397″ is the Corporate Assassin’s page # and I want to change it to Often Awesome The Series page number which is “106583139365159″.

One more change. At the end of the code…

>The Corporate Assassin</a> on Facebook</div>
change the name of Corporate Assassin to whatever you want to call your badge name. I changed mine to Often Awesome The Series.

All you have to do is make those small changes and you now have a javascript Facebook Badge that is more interactive and esthetically pleasing than the html badge that is now the only badge that Facebook gives you.

This is what the html Often Awesome The Series badge looks like.

Often Awesome The Series

Promote Your Page Too

And the Javascript Facebook Badge…

Thanks John Ford for helping me put code in my post…you are simply awesome.