Nashville Apple Pro Video Group http://www.naprovig.org celebrating film creation at every level Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 How to make your movies look professional http://www.naprovig.org/2011/10/07/how-to-make-your-movies-look-professional/ http://www.naprovig.org/2011/10/07/how-to-make-your-movies-look-professional/#comments Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000 admin http://www.naprovig.org/&p=36 No matter who you are, you can probably tell the difference between a professional Hollywood film and a shaky home-movie captured on an ancient consumer camcorder. The tells are endless, but here are some tips to help you make your home-videos and movie projects look much more professional.

1. Use a tripod. The bane of most home movies is their shakiness. Motion-sickness is NOT the reaction you want to evoke in your viewers, so use a tripod when you shoot.

2. Move the camera slowly.The whole story can be found at http://www.brighthub.com/electronics/cameras-camcorders/articles/20638.aspx A lot of home videos are riddled with over-active & spastic camera motion. This makes it hard to follow the action and focus on what the movie is trying to show. Move the camera slowly and deliberately. When using a tripod, pan smoothly and without rushing. This will automatically make your videos look much more professional.

3. Desaturate. If you edit your videos on a laptop or home computer, use your editing software to slightly desaturate your footage. Most consumer camcorders capture much more color than you see in an average blockbuster film. By removing a small amount of color, your footage will look much more like a cinema creation and less like a home movie.

]]> http://www.naprovig.org/2011/10/07/how-to-make-your-movies-look-professional/feed/ 0 Ways to improve your film quality through editing http://www.naprovig.org/2011/09/23/ways-to-improve-your-film-quality-through-editing/ http://www.naprovig.org/2011/09/23/ways-to-improve-your-film-quality-through-editing/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000 admin http://www.naprovig.org/&p=35 As a filmmaker you will always be interested in ways to make your films better. One of the top ways to improve the film quality is through various editing techniques. Editing techniques will allow you to manipulate the film in many ways enhancing the over all quality of the film. It is important to receiving tracing and take course on the many different varieties of film editing techniques. This is a process that is not learned over night and will take time to master. Taking the time to master film editing techniques will take your work and art to the next level.

Many different options within film editing exist allow you to manipulate your film to tell the story and have the mood you are looking for. The better you are at this manipulation the more superb your final product will turn out. It is crucial that you look into all of the different options with film editing to find which techniques will most help your product and start with those. Once you have a few skills mastered continue your education learning additional techniques. You will be surprised at how much various editing techniques can enhance your work taking you to the next level of filmmaker.

]]> http://www.naprovig.org/2011/09/23/ways-to-improve-your-film-quality-through-editing/feed/ 0 Video editing: Tips and Tricks to succeed http://www.naprovig.org/2011/09/09/video-editing-tips-and-tricks-to-succeed/ http://www.naprovig.org/2011/09/09/video-editing-tips-and-tricks-to-succeed/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000 admin http://www.naprovig.org/&p=34 Video editing has come a long way from massive tape machines with synchronization to a controller that managed all higher effect functions through a multi-port switcher. Today’s editing is simply done, as computer software has replaced most of the cumbersome hardware and most effects are push button . Still the process can be demanding without the proper preparation.

The key to successful edit is preparation. It begins when you ingest your footage into your editing software. Whether it’s importing files or streaming video, take notes and make locators. Most editing software has these wondrous little devices which allows you to mark an individual shot, or sequence of shots and tag them appropriately. This might seem like a small thing until you’re juggling 20 files and you’ve forgotten which is which.
Time is lost mostly through unrecognizable file names, mislabeled, or unlabeled files, and mismatched file formats.
This is why the ingestion process is as important as the actual edit. Mistakes in ingestion are always time consuming and are 100 avoidable. With each file you ingest take notice of the original file format and correct if necessary. Make copious notes on the footage being ingested, including keeping a “good shot” log which allows for more freedom and creativity in your edit. Lastly before you cut your first frame backup all your previous work.
Good preparation is only good if it’s saved!

]]> http://www.naprovig.org/2011/09/09/video-editing-tips-and-tricks-to-succeed/feed/ 0 Getting Your Foot in the Door http://www.naprovig.org/2011/08/02/getting-your-foot-in-the-door/ http://www.naprovig.org/2011/08/02/getting-your-foot-in-the-door/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000 admin http://www.naprovig.org/?p=31 If you’ve spent years watching http://www.direct.tv channels wondering how you can get into film and video editing you’ve come to the right place if you live in Nashville. Here are the best places to get your foot in the door when it comes to making a name for yourself in editing:
Schools: Nashville has a huge public school system and several notable colleges and universities, too. Volunteer to apprentice or produce a spot for your child’s class and you’ll be networking and learning more about the trade at the same time.
Sports: There are several professional sports teams in Nashville and the Titans need a lot of video editing. Talk to coaches, the local sports stations and even to radio producers about what it might take to get you on the field or in the cutting room.
Music: This one’s obvious but if you’ve got any ties to the music industry at all you should milk them. Find a way into music video editing or speak to a popular bar about recording some of their live performances…the possibilities are endless here.

]]> http://www.naprovig.org/2011/08/02/getting-your-foot-in-the-door/feed/ 0 The power of collaborative video http://www.naprovig.org/2010/10/14/the-power-of-collaborative-video/ http://www.naprovig.org/2010/10/14/the-power-of-collaborative-video/#comments Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:00:33 +0000 admin http://www.naprovig.org/?p=13 One of the features which make Final Cut Pro so popular is the ability to easily transfer content across the web and compose a finished product. Some online directors are pushing this capability to its extremes, and the results are breathtaking, to say the least. One group regularly producing great content is the online music community. We don’t know if all of these were produced on Final Cut Pro, but they all certainly can be, in addition to much more.The Youtube Symphony Orchestra is probably the most widely-publicized of recent efforts. Sponsored by the London Symphony Orchestra, the project consisted of an open audition across the world of musician’s playing the same piece: Tan Dun’s “Internet Symphony No. 1 ‘Eroica.’” The different videos were compiled into a single video, which can be viewed on the Youtube Symphony Channel.Bjork is known for her choice of idiosyncratic music video directors, including Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham. For her song “The Dull Flame of Desire” from the album Volta, however, she couldn’t choose just one. Instead, she reached out to three different directorsChristoph Jantos of Berlin, Masahiro Mogari of Tokyo, and Marcal Cuberta Junca of Gironawho each filmed a different segment of the video. The finished product was edited together in London, and shows three very different artistic perspectives.Artists C-Mon & Kypski are behind one of the most inventive music videos, in which single frames of fans in different poses are spliced in with those of the band members. The video is being composed at the site oneframeoffame.com, and more than 19,000 people have already contributed. Check out the site for yourself, and join in if you’re feeling the urge to move. It doesn’t hurt that the song isn’t half-catchy, either.

]]> http://www.naprovig.org/2010/10/14/the-power-of-collaborative-video/feed/ 0 iMovie: Apple’s consumer video editing software http://www.naprovig.org/2010/10/07/imovie-apples-consumer-video-editing-software/ http://www.naprovig.org/2010/10/07/imovie-apples-consumer-video-editing-software/#comments Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:45:58 +0000 admin http://www.naprovig.org/?p=11 Not everybody wants to put down 1,000 to make a home movie of Grandma singing on Christmas Eve. If you’ve got Mac OS X, though, you’ve still got the power to preserve this treasured moment. iMovie is a video-editing software designed for ease of use by anybody. The newest version for Mac OS X is iMovie ’09, although the iPhone 4 supports a new iMovie for iOS.’09 keeps what worked in the previous settings and also restores some beloved features which were missing in iMovie ’08. These include the options for speeding up or slowing down footage and the ability to mark where different scenes were shot. There’s also the new ability to easily search through your library and find exactly what you’re looking for. You can read more about the application’s features at Apple’s official web site. iMovie is only available on Mac OS X, as it has been since iMovie 3.

]]> http://www.naprovig.org/2010/10/07/imovie-apples-consumer-video-editing-software/feed/ 0 Final Cut Pro 7 carries on the Apple tradition http://www.naprovig.org/2010/09/30/final-cut-pro-7-carries-on-the-apple-tradition/ http://www.naprovig.org/2010/09/30/final-cut-pro-7-carries-on-the-apple-tradition/#comments Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:30:06 +0000 admin http://www.naprovig.org/?p=9 Whenever a traditionally underground phenomenon goes mainstream, there are usually cries of “selling out.” However, Final Cut Pro has managed to avoid that, simply because its new-found popularity is based solely on its own merits. Well, that, and the Academy Award-winning films which have been produced on it (Avatar, No Country for Old Men, and many more).The newest version of the product is Final Cut Pro 7, also known informally as Final Cut Studio 3. Final Cut Studio is the application suite which includes FCP, the motion-graphics designer Motion, the audio editor Soundtrack Pro, the encoding and authoring app DVD Studio Pro, the color grader Color, and the video encoding app Compressor. The focus of version 7 is efficiency. As with anything Apple, newer products only get sleeker and faster, and FCP 7 is a great example.The support for a number of mediums, both tape- and file-based, eliminates the need for lengthy conversions, while tools like iChat Theater and Final Cut Server make it easy for groups to compose video without being in the same buildingor country. FCP 7 is also compatible with a number of third-party applications, so editors can customize their editors to their hearts’ content.Since the suite’s (version 1) introduction at a 2005 National Association of Broadcasters convention, competitor Avid Media Composer has been shaking in its boots. Experienced media figures like Walter Murch (a sound designer involved with The Godfather, among others) and San Francisco/New York production studio Mekanism threw their hats in with the studio at its inception, and the number has only grown since then.

]]> http://www.naprovig.org/2010/09/30/final-cut-pro-7-carries-on-the-apple-tradition/feed/ 0 Blockbusters that make the Cutand are made by it http://www.naprovig.org/2010/09/23/blockbusters-that-make-the-cutand-are-made-by-it/ http://www.naprovig.org/2010/09/23/blockbusters-that-make-the-cutand-are-made-by-it/#comments Thu, 23 Sep 2010 21:15:29 +0000 admin http://www.naprovig.org/?p=6 Final Cut Pro was introduced by Apple in 1999, and the consumer product opened up the editing market to independent filmmakers, who could now create feature-quality products. However, it would be two years before Hollywood filmmakers caught on. Here’s a look at some of the films that have used the software, from past to present.
  • The Rules of Attraction (2002): Roger Avary’s tale of unrequited love at a liberal arts school (based on Bret Easton Ellis’s novel) was the first major film to be edited with the software. Afterwards, he appeared in ads promoting FCP.
  • Cold Mountain (2003): Editor and sound designer Walter Murch was inspired by Avary to make the switch to FCP, and his work on Cold Mountain proved them both right. Murch was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Editing, and his efforts were memorialized in the book Behind the Seen: How Walter Murch Edited Cold Mountain Using Apple’s Final Cut Pro and What This Means for Cinema.
  • Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004): This innovative sci-fi film combined CG surroundings with human actors. Director Kerry Conran credits Final Cut Pro with giving them the ability to bring it all together”I don’t know how we would have made this movie otherwise.”
  • 300 (2007): Yes, the film which has spawned legions of imitators was edited on Apple’s program. The majority of the film (excluding one scene) was shot on digital backlots, and other programs like Maya and RealFlow were used to add in the blood effects. Again, FCP tied it all together.
  • No Country For Old Men (2007): This critically-acclaimed film was nominated for, but did not win, Best Film Editing at the Academy Awards. Nevertheless, the Coen’s ability to work this complex and gritty story of good and evil in the New West into a perfect 2-hour film is perhaps testament enough to what the software can achieve.
]]> http://www.naprovig.org/2010/09/23/blockbusters-that-make-the-cutand-are-made-by-it/feed/ 0 A guide to the film editing companies in Nashville http://www.naprovig.org/2010/09/16/a-guide-to-the-film-editing-companies-in-nashville/ http://www.naprovig.org/2010/09/16/a-guide-to-the-film-editing-companies-in-nashville/#comments Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:13:39 +0000 admin http://www.naprovig.org/?p=4 Nashville’s historic prevalence in the music industry is well-known. However, the growth of the film editing industry in the city should not be ignored. There are a number of companies in the city doing great work in post-production, filming, and editing. Some of those which cater to professional interests are listed below.Gemini Production Group: This group brings 30 years of combined experience to bear on almost any project imaginable. Although they focus on identity campaigns, commercials, and web campaigns, Gemini has also won an Emmy for a documentary and been featured at many independent Film Festivals.POSTDIGITAL: Founded in 1996, POSTDIGITAL started focusing on motion pictures in 2000. The company keeps pace with recent technology and recently added Blu-ray and HD/SD closed captioning to their production capabilities. Their clients have included USA Home Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Geffen Records.Midsouth Visual Inc: Google Local awarded Midsouth the 1 Highest Rated Video Agency in Tennessee. Along with video production, the company brings their time-tested marketing skills to every projectfor free. Midsouth has produced material for the Maury television show, the University of Phoenix, and even Microsoft.Epicstar Media: Representing the freelance sector of the video production industry, Epicstar is headed by Shayne Edwards. He and Anna Cates-Edwards (producer) work on a strict code of ethics in which the truth is more important than the bottom line. They’ve edited TV pilots, documentary films, music videos, and commercials.Ross-McDowell Group: RMG is a dual-focus video and voiceover production company. Their video editing services attract musical performers and actors alike. Each finished project serves as the perfect way to promote a band to venues or concert promoters, or for an actor to attract a director or producer.

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