There are 10,000 posts like “The Top-8 Ways to Tackle Your New Year’s Resolutions” streaming through your social media timelines and inboxes right now. This post is not one of them. This short post is to tell you that you can do whatever you want to do and give you a quick tip on succeeding in whatever goals you have whenever you have them.
post production tips
End of 2014 Challenge
Are you in?
Without fail the last two weeks of every year can be called the most anti-personal-and/or-work-related productivity period of the year.
Nothing gets done.
Nothing.
Ever.
At least nothing of any importance gets done towards your personal and/or professional goals.
Clients don’t respond. Producers go on vacation. It snows. Your in-laws stay at your house. You don’t want to workout because you’re waiting for January 1st. You are overburdened with last minute shopping and wrapping presents after one too many drinks.
I have a feeling that you’d rather use these two weeks to get something big finished instead. Maybe it’s something that’s been bugging you all year that you just didn’t get around to. Did you want to edit a family vacation video? Or write a short book? Start a website? Deep clean the garage? Why are we going to wait any longer to do these things when the opportunity is right in front of us?
I have a challenge for you. Let’s call it the End of 2014 Challenge. Together let’s take the next two weeks and complete one of these projects.
How to Become the Best Production Assistant
To break into the video industry you almost always have to become a PA, Production Assistant, or an AE, Assistant Editor. I’m assuming since you’re reading this than you’ve either been one, are one or want to become one. This article is on how to become the best assistant editor or production assistant that you can be.
I’ve worked as an assistant in a number of industries, as a PA and an AE and through my experiences I learned that there’s only one way to become the best PA or AE.
Here it is: Become the best PA or AE by always being one step ahead of the person you are assisting.
It’s rather simple. You can stop reading now if you want, my feelings won’t be hurt, or you can continue reading and learn about a couple real life examples from my career. There will also be some tactics along the way that will help you become the best PA or AE.
Video Editing Methods: Swoopers vs. Bashers
There are only two methods for editing video. Which one do you use? Find out what they are and decide…are you a Swooper or a Basher?
Before leaving for vacation I was listening to Tim Ferriss’ podcast. He was interviewing Rolf Potts and they discussed author Kurt Vonnegut’s concept of “Swoopers and Bashers” when it comes to writing. This idea states that writers can only write in one of two ways: by swooping or by bashing. I believe the same theory can and should be applied to video editing methods too.
Vacation Approaches
Friends, My long-awaited vacation is fast approaching. I’ll be in Japan in no time and have a checklist a mile long of items to pack, devices to charge, things to remember, phrases to learn and more. Instead of trying to cram the next three weeks of blog posts and tutorials into my crazy, self-imposed schedule … Read more
Preparing for Vacation: A Quick Guide for Jet-Setting Video Editors
Soon I’ll be taking my first trip out of the United States and I’m making it a big one – I’m headed to Japan! In this post I’m going to go over what I’m doing to prepare for this lengthy vacation. I’d love for you to chime in too with your thoughts on what you do before going out of town. Thanksgiving for us in the US is right around the corner and the other winter holidays are fast approaching so I think the timing of this post is pretty ideal.
There’s nothing worse than being bothered on vacation or someone messing up your projects/media/hard drive/etc. especially when there’s nothing you can do about it. I’m sure I’ll come back to 1500 emails but I’m going to prepare my company and team the best I can for anything that can happen while I’m gone.
Freeze Frame in After Effects
This tutorial is on how to create a Freeze Frame in Adobe After Effects. It takes seconds to make a Freeze Frame and only a couple minutes to learn to do it
EVF Tutorial – Quick Transitions in Avid Media Composer
I am SOOO excited. Today I’m launching my first ever product — an Avid Media Composer Bin with over 50 preset Quick Transitions. In the tutorial below you’ll find out how to create your own preset Quick Transitions. After watching the tutorial go here to get my Quick Transitions Bin. As always I come out with a new … Read more
What marriage has taught me about my NLE
I’ve been married to my wife for nearly two and a half wonderful years. I’ve been married to my NLE, Avid Media Composer, for twice that. What I’ve learned over that time is that the two relationships are fairly similar. I’m going to explain to you how lessons learned through your significant other directly relate to how you should work with your NLE.
Photo by Christopher Michel on Wikimedia Commons
Learn and Observe
In any relationship there is a learning curve. A man or woman never writes a user’s manual for himself or herself. That’s where you have an advantage with your NLE. Everything you need to know about it is right in front of you!
When I began editing on Avid Media Composer I had zero idea of what I was doing. None. I sat there for hours trying to figure out why I couldn’t click a clip in the timeline and move it (this was pre-Smart Tool). Then one day digging around my edit bay I found the software manual. I took it home and after a couple weeks had read the entire thing. This didn’t mean I knew everything about it but it did give me a huge heads up because I knew what it could and couldn’t do.
My week of focus – an experiment for video editors
Photo courtesy of Unsplash by Thomas Lefebvre
Last week I wrote about focusing and asked you to participate in an experiment with me. The experiment was simple – go one hour a day with complete focus on editing. No music. No Internet or email. No cell phone. Here’s what I learned from it.