Podcast Interview about UTD TV

In today's podcast,  I interview a Ian who is a technical director at University of Texas Dallas (UTD) Television. Some of the questions in the interview were as follows:

• Please, tell us about yourself.
• What kind of work do you do in UTD Television?
• What are the NLE software do you use?
• How does the programs reach viewer?
• What kind of Programs are showing in UTD Television?
• What are the fomarts used in UTD Television?
• Where is the UTD Television hosted?
• What is the feature of UTD Television?

Video Production by Steven Vance

In this post, I have the great joy of inviting my classmate Steven Vance, who is the author of the blog pregnancy for fathers. Steven is going share with us his insight in the video production field. This is what he has to say.

Video production is a growing aspect of America’s culture. People have started producing and editing their own movies by the thousands; whether for personal use or to try and grab their 15 minutes of fame on the internet through video sharing sites.

Spontaneous Video Recording

When a moment arises spontaneously that I want to capture, I will pull out my phone and start shooting. This is a great way for the average person to get everyday events and random act of comedy caught on video to; keep for personal recollection, share with friends, or share with the world via the internet.

Preplanned Recording

For the average person, taking quality video for important moments is much better than capturing video on a cell phone. For instance, many fathers have a higher quality video camera at the house to use in capturing family events. When shooting video for preplanned events such as a child’s birthday, Christmas, or other holidays, cell phone cameras are not good enough; and as it is preplanned, the father is able to bring a better camera to record the memories.

Video Editing

After a video has been shot, it is a good idea to edit the video to cut out parts that are unneeded/unwanted, put music to the images, or process the video in a way that it is more appealing to a large amount of people. Luckily most—if not all—computers today come with basic video editing software. The software I use is Windows Live Movie Maker. Movie Maker came with my computer’s operating system and is an easy and user friendly way to; make quick changes to videos, add in effects, and crop and/or combine several videos into one movie.

Author: Steven Vance.
For more information about his blog follow the link on the sidebar.

Evolution of home movie camera.

In today's posts have gathered the info-graphics that portrays the evolution of home movie making video cameras as they were first available in the market according to the guardian.

(Camera images source: Searches from The gurdian and Google)

For more in-depth information about the evolution of camera, refer to "A history of home film-making" article on the sidebar.

Podcast interview about video medium.

In this podcast, I interviewed my brother Daniel, in trying to understand his point of view about video as medium. Some of this questions that I asked in the interview were:

• Can you please introduce yourself?

• What experience do you have in video medium?

• What tools have you used in recording your videos? 

• What are mainly your videos are about? 

• Do you share your videos?

• Can you describe the feature of videos?

Encoding with Media Encoder CS 6

Exporting process is the outputting and saving video into a user able format that can be easily viewed or shared via DVDs, web and broadcasting formats. One of the simplest exporting system impart with Adobe Premiere that I find, is the Adobe media encoder CS 6. This system allow user to speed up video exporting process with its user friendly interface.

Exporting

In Adobe Premiere, go the top (file) menu and click the (Export) roll-out under it. Then select (Media) on the horizontal roll-out. After clicking the media roll-out the exporting setting panel will open. Then, Click on the (Queue) button on the export settings panel and the media encoder will launch.

Media Encoder

The Media Encoder CS 6 consists of few panels. Some of the major panels that we will use are:

·  Queue––this is where video project from premiere sits.

·  Preset browser––this provide selection of outputting formats. 

·  Encoding––where the encoding process takes place.

Applying Presets

To apply a preset, simply select the project to highlight it, then click to open one of the preset roll-out in the preset browser—e.g., YouTube. Then double click (YouTube HD 720p 29.97) outputting presets which will automatic add the preset to Queue ready for encoding. Repeat the process to add different output format such as DVD, Blu-ray or broadcasting as you wish. Lastly, before encoding you want to make sure you click to name your outputting files and select the right output location—e.g., the Final folder.

Encoding

Once your presets are well set, the next step is to click the play sign button also called (Start Queue). This button is located on the top corner of the Queue panel. During this step the system will begin to encoding while encoding video will be display through the encoding panel.

As the encoding process finishes the system will make a sound to inform you so. The final video files ready for uploading on the web as well as burning on the DVD, will be saved into the final folder.

Video adjustments

Video adjustment step is an important part in the video production world. This step is the touch up step where as, the Premiere video project is being polished to make it look sharp. Some of the adjustment methods in Premiere that I will cover in this post are:

• Color correction
• footage stabilization

Color correction.
Color correcting is the process of adjusting various setting such as contrast, brightness, exposure and saturation accordingly to the need of your footage. To apply color correcting in Premiere, is always best to use adjustment layer. In the project panel click the (New Item) button and select adjustment layer. Then click and drag the created adjustment layer from the project panel to the timeline right above your edited video clip. Extend the adjustment layer to cover the length your clips or sequences.

Open (Effects) panel right next to the project panel, double click to open (Video Effects) and the (Color Correction) roll-outs. Then drag the Brightness & Contrast preset to the adjustment layer. At this point, go to  (Window) on the top menu and click to select (Effects Controls). As the (Effects Controls) appear on the left screen slide to adjust the values on Brightness and Contrast  from zero to any number. In doing so, your video clip may look sharper, contrasted and vibrant depending on your needs.

Here are the images before and after the adjustment.

Before color adjustment.

After color adjustment.

Footage stabilization.
Oftentimes you may want to stabilize some shaking footage in your project. One of the best tool in stabilizing footage in Adobe Premiere is the Warp Stabilizer preset. To apply Warp stabilizer effect preset, type the word stabilizes to the Search window on the Effects panel. Then click and drag the Warp Stabilizer direct to your shaky video footage. As the Stabilizing process in motion, a sign showing stabilizing in background (step 1 of 2) will appear on your program screen. As soon as the sign disappear, The shaky video clip will be made stable.

For more in-depth training about Warp stabilizer, refer to the link on the sidebar.

Editing with Premiere CS6.

 As we dive in editing with Adobe Premiere CS6, today's posts focuses on the on the following areas:

• Opening software
• The interface
• Importing footage
• Editing 
• Nesting sequences

Opening software

The first time  you open Adobe premiere CS6 you will be we introduced to the panel that has New project, Open project and Help icons. Select  the (new project) icon  will lead you to the next small dialog box. In this dialog box is where you create a project name as well as choosing the location to save your Adobe premiere project file.

In my example, I will be editing my sons video project which will be called The dance. In this project I recorded my son's as he realized how to dance on a song on his own for the first time. The video project file will be saved as follow:

MyVideo/The_Dance/ TheDanceProject.prproj
/IponeMedia
/IpadMedia
/AndroidMedia
/Final

The last panel in the opening stage is the new sequence panel. This panel lets manually you create sequence manually  but clicking (Cancel) button on the lower right lets system select sequences automatically.

The interface

Adobe premiere CS6 is consist of several panels which can be rearanged for customizing your workpsace. Some of the these panel we will use are:

• Common menu bar -- located at very top
• Source monitor panel--located on left center.
• Program monitor panel--located on right center.
• Timeline panel --located on lower right.
• Project panel --located on the lower left.
• Tools panel --located right before the timeline.

Importing footage
Double click on the project panel to open the (import) dialog box. Navigate to your media folders to select the media folder and click on the (import folder) button. Then, your media folder should appear as a new bin inside the project panel. Please view the image bellow.

Editing 
In the project panel, double click the Media folder to open your video files in the folder bin. Then click the video clip to load it on the source monitor. In the source monitor click the play button to view your clip. After you have decided where you want your start and end of your video clip, click (mark in) tool--to indicate the beginning of  your video then drag the play-head and click (mark out) icon--to indicate the end of the clip.

Then drag the video clip from the source monitor to the (new item) icon next to (mark in) icon. At this point, the sequence with your edited video clip will be created. From the project panel, continue to edit or mark in and out the rest of your video footage as desired and drag them to the same sequenced in the timeline. However, if you have multiple media files of different formats--e,g.,( IpadMedia/consist of 1080p HD format )and (IphoneMedia/consists of 720p HD format ), after editing on on the source monitor drag the the (new item) icon in the project panel to create the second sequence. Note: the main reason we separate different formats into a separate sequences is to make sure all video formats will fit the screen aspect ratio.  At this point, you can rename your sequences if needed.

To trim clips in the sequence, double click on your sequence to open it. Then positioning your play-head on the timeline to select part of the video clip you want to keep or cut out. After you made your selection, put your mouse cursor in the beginning of the video clip and hold down the control key to change the cursor from red to yellow pointing arrow, then drag the begging or end of the clip towards to the play-head (the red arrow will leave space in between clips while yellow won't leave space, but move the clips).

Nesting sequences
Once all sequences are completed, control click the all the sequences and drag them to the (new item) icon again to create new sequence that combine all of your sequences. At this point, click to save your edited sequences as you prepared for the Video Adjustment step which I will cove in the upcoming posts. For more in-depth training about editing in Premiere, refer to "Get editing quickly" video on sidebar.

File organization and transferring.

Today’s post focuses in file organization process as we prepare for video editing.  Weather you have used one or more devices to capture your great footages, organizing your files will ensure your editing process simple, fast and fun. Also when files are organized in the specific folder you will always be aware of  the location of your media files in case the adobe premiere required it.

File Organisation.

Before you transfer footages to your computer, it’s best to create a project folder with specific name of the project you plan to edit. In this folder, create two or more sub folders with names Media (where footages will be transfer to) and Final (where final completed video will be saved).To demonstrate this, below is a plan of folders organization hierarchy for the video project I am planning to edit which is called “The Dance.” The following file organization is for a project that captured using a single device,––i.e., the iPhone. 

•  MyVideo/The_Dance/Media
                                     /Final

The next file organization is for a project that captured using multiple devices that output different video formats,––i.e., the iPad 3^rd generation, iPhone 4, Android Phone. 

        MyVideo/The_Dance/IponeMedia
                                  /IpadMedia
                                 / AndroidMedia
                                 /Final

Transfer.

Once I have my entire files organized then the transferring of the footages begins. I’d connect my device using USB cable to a computer. In some device such as Android phones and tablets you can transfer files by removing an SD card and plugging in to a computer with a built-in SD reader or using external card reader. As the device  panel appeared locate the clip files under DCIM folder and drag the video files to the Media project file in your Project files.

Therefore when files are organize helps in making your editing process fast and smooth.

Non Linear Editing (NLE) systems

Many people today use devices to capture videos, but probably lack knowledge about Non Linear editing systems (NLE ). Understanding these systems will be an important part of learning video production.

Definition.
An NLE system is computer software that lets users edit video in a nondestructive way. Non-destructive editing is a form of editing where the original content is not modified —instead the edits act more like layers in Photoshop, preserving the original content. (Find the source for this from the bottom of the Wikipedia page!). Nowadays, there are many different NLE programs that you can use. These NLE systems can be classified into two groups:

Inexpensive Consumer NLEs

• Pinnacle Studio
• Adobe Premiere Elements.
• Sony Vegas Movie Studio
• Apple iMovie.
• Windows Moviemaker.

Advanced NLEs

• Adobe Premiere Pro.
• Apple Final Cut Pro.
• Sony Vegas.
• Avid Media Composer.

Although, the inexpensive Consumer NLEs are designed to be simple and easy to use, the advanced NLE are more flexible, and as such allow the user to be more creative. In his post “What is the Difference Between Consumer Video Editing Software and 'Real' NLEs”, Matt explains that many consumers have complained that Inexpensive NLEs have many problems, among which are sluggish playbacks when editing longer footage, and sound not syncing well with video.

Training and exercises in this blog will be based on Adobe premiere CS6 editing system. A 30 days free version of this system can be downloaded straight from the adobe website. I prefer this editing system due to the following advantages:
–– flexibility to use multiple file formats.
–– Smooth playback regardless of file formats.
–– Shaky footage stabilization tools –– i.e., Wrap stabilizer.
–– Integration with other software –– i.e. Photoshop, Aftereffects, Media Encoder and many more.

Adobe premiere CS6 system has many more advantages that we will be discussing in future posts. 

Understanding Lights and set-up.

Have you thought about making good quality video resume that standout? Do you think having the best camera is enough to make quality video? In this post, I will introduce the type of lights and learn the ways to set them up in order to capture better quality video footages.

Lighting  can be the most important aspect for making your video look clean and sharp and improving you video quality tremendously. Sunlight is always a great starting source, but having additional lights can boost your video production.  Before purchasing lights, here are few factors to consider:

• Did they have an adjustable beam spread?
• Are they portability?

Different Types of Lighting

Incandescent lights.
This type of lights is similar to your home light bulbs, which produce a yellow tinted light.  These bulbs are known to produce a lot of heat and therefore are not often placed close to the subject. They also tend to not last long. These lights allow consume more energy than a few of the other sources.
Halogen lights.Halogen lights produce a steady light of a higher luminous efficacy and put off a lot of heat. This kind of lights consume a lot of energy. Some of examples of Halogen lights are flood and construction lights.

Fluorescents lights.
These kind of lights produce nice bright white light at 5600K temperature and they produce less  heat. Hence its energy consumption is usually less than the  first two kinds. Fluorescents lights are cheaper and widely available through online retailers such as Amazon and EBay.  Most professional video artists and photographers preferred this lights. Some example of fluorescents lights are the tube lights and LED lights.

For more information about lightings see Dr. Robert G. Nulph  “Choosing the Best Video Lighting Kit”.

Light set-ups techniques. 

The first technique is the use of a single light. The light can be mounted on the camera or fixed onto a tripod. Camera mounted lights provide more flexibility especially when shooting a moving subject. Some cameras and devices have built–in flash.

Another technique is 3 point lighting. This technique works for interviews where the subject is stationary in a single place. Using three different lights positioned at a 45 degree angle away from each other and from the subject produces a nice evenly lit space. Such lights are named as follows:

• The Key light
• The fill light
• The backlight.

––The key light is usually placed on the front and side of the subject to create soft, diffused light.
––The fill light is placed on the side  of the key light to soften the shadows.
––Lastly, the back light is placed behind the subject to illuminate the overall shape of the subject.  

Reference:
Dr. Nulph, R, G.(May, 23 2012) Choosing the Best Video Lighting  
Retrieved from http://www.videomaker.com/article/9362


 

Video formats and Devices recording capabilities.

Nowadays, most camera devices record  video in HD format.  High definition (HD), is a high quality video format that is standard definition, according to Wiki. HD video comprises of vertical lines that determine the aspect ratio of an image such as 1280 x 720 (often called 720p), 1460 x 1080 (often called 1080i) and 1920 x 1080 (also called 1080p). HD format has several recording frame rates that are: 24fps, 25fps, 30fps, 50fps and 60fps.

On the other hand, the Standard definition (SD) is in PAL and NTSC formats. PAL format has 25fps and commonly used in Europe, Africa and some parts of Asia. However, NTSC format has 30fps and is used in North & South America and some parts of Asia.

In order to understand cameras and other recording device capabilities, I have broken-down this section into the following three categories:

• The first category is Phones such as I-phones and LG Android phones. The I-phone 4 and earlier models captures video in 720p HD format at 30fps while I-phone 4s and 5 record 1080p HD format. The video footage is stored internally on all versions of the I-phones. However, Android LG phone capture 720p HD format at 30fps. The phone stores footage internally as well as using an external storage card––e.g., mini SD card.

• The second category is tablet PCs like an I-pad. I-pad 2 and prior models captures in 720p HD format. The 3rd generation I-pad and I-pad mini records in1080p HD format. In addition, all I-pads have 30fps and stores footage via its internal storage.

• The third and last category is consumer camcorders such as the Cannon T2i and the 7d. Cannon T2i and 7D or DSLRs are capable of capture images and video footage in a wide range of formats. The high quality footages from these cameras range from SD to HD –e.g., 480p, 720p and 1080p at variable frame rates from 24 to 60fps. The cameras use a removable SD and or Compact flash cards to store the video footage. These cards are usually inserted in the camera slot section. Furthermore, the camera ability for Interchangeable lenses is what makes it more popular. In addition, various shooting modes and other settings including both automatic and manual adjustments of ISO and Aperture are quite useful when adjusting image quality from these cameras. So far these camera produce best quality video compared to other devices.

Summing up, we have gone through an understanding of the formats that are used in the video production. Thus formats are High definition (HD) and standard definition (SD). We have also gained some knowledge for some devices recording capabilities. This knowledge will be an essential tool as we proceed with more lessons throughout this blog.

Welcome to Simple video production blog

Have you used your favorite video device to capture your great memorable events lately? Are you wondering how to transfer video footage for editing and sharing via online as well as DVD? If this is you, then you have come to the right place. Welcome to simple video production blog. In this blog you will learn how to use simple short cuts for video production that will help edit, store and easily share all of your memorable captured events. Some of the topics that will be covered are:

Preparation Stage

• Gaining an insight of camera and devices recording capabilities.
• Recognizing formats used––digital video (DV) and High definition video (HDV).
• Understanding lighting and set-ups.
• Gaining knowledge of the editing systems or Non Linear Editing (NLE) systems.

Editing Stage

• Explaining the importance of file transferring and organization.
• Understanding the process of digital video editing.
• Applying various effects and transitions to the footages.

Video enhancement

• Gaining perspective in color correction and video footage adjustments.
• Providing techniques for stabilizing shaky footage.

Post production

• Explaining the techniques for video/images compositing.
• Understanding the output formats.
• Finalizing or preparation digital video output to web, DVD and television.

The skills learned from this blog will not only provide the knowledge in making the best home videos, but also help in designing a stand–out video resume––as require in many professional level companies, including making corporate video materials and television commercials. Finally, I am planning on creating a great learning experience which will be fun and exciting.