video editing blog Archives – Page 8 of 9

My Course is Live!

July 18, 2019April 30, 2015 by Josh Short

Hey guys! First off, I know I’m late on this week’s post. My bad…it’s been a hectic week. Long story short I had to make an unexpected mad dash to New York City on Monday and got there just in time for a shoot. Then I got to make a fool out of myself on national TV.

Me at the Yankees game on Monday giving a heart symbol to my wife watching from Virginia.

On the train ride back on Tuesday I was going in a complete different direction with this week’s post. I simply ran out of minutes Tuesday and Wednesday to finish it but it worked out in the end. I found out this morning that my Tuts+ course Introduction to Video Editing in Avid Media Composer went live!

In this post I’ll tell you about my course and how to watch it (and hundreds of other courses) for free.

One-On-One Video Editing Coaching

January 11, 2016April 22, 2015 by Josh Short

I want to make you a better video editor. That’s what I’ve been doing through my site, YouTube channel and other avenues for the past year. Pretty much this entire time I’ve been helping a faceless audience. I’ve been guessing at what you want to learn and hoping I’m using something relatable to be able to teach you. I know it’s working for a lot of you (I love the thank you emails I get!). However a lot of the time I still don’t know what you are struggling with. You, the one reading my words right now, I want to help you. That’s why I want to be your coach.

Recently I’ve had a huge problem. I have had several requests come in for complex custom tutorials that can’t be reused for everyone. I want to help these individuals out but I have such limited time after my 9-5, creating content for this site, walking Peyton, another new secret project I’m announcing soon (!!!) and trying to have something close to a social life. I have two options. I can:

Spend several hours creating these custom tutorials, which results in lost time either with my family or creating content for this site or
I can keep my family time and EVF content creation time but not be able to help these individuals in the way that they want/need help since email and screen shots aren’t enough sometimes.

Neither option works for me.

I cannot justify helping one individual person at the expense of not being able to create content for this site (and thus helping many). It isn’t fair to everyone else…that means you! My family time will always come first and with my limited free time I need some grounds for cutting out on one of them. That justification comes in the form of private, one-on-one premium coaching.

When You Have Enough Tools and It’s Time to Start Building

July 18, 2019April 15, 2015 by Josh Short

Me, and a lot of other editors, like to say that knowing an NLE is just another tool in your tool belt. I like to take that analogy and go a step further. Every effect you learn to apply, software trick you implement, skill you acquire, connection you make, value you create for others and anything else you can think of that works towards improving yourself is a tool. Your tool belt consists of all of these. Each tool preforms a certain action whenever you are working on a project.

With your fully loaded tool belt you can build all sorts of things. The majority of time we tackle two types of projects. The first project is something simple, let’s say a chair if we can turn my analogy into something physical. We know there are four legs, a seat and a back to it. We have at least a rough blueprint we can follow or can easily find someone (or a YouTube video) to guide us. The other type of project is to build more tools! We build ourselves another screwdriver or a hammer or drill bit. These two types of projects pay our bills (barely) and (we hope) make our bosses happy. Are you happy though? If you are anything like me then you might not always be satisfied with the things you are building and their outcomes. Do they have enough reach? Do they improve my life or someone else’s life substantially?

Sure, we’re content after we sell off our chair or put away our screwdriver. We sold enough to pay off the mortgage this month or make ourselves more valuable candidates for a future job by having more tools. What we built was average. Deep down that’s not what we want. That’s not why we do what we do. We want incredible. As I lay here at 11:00PM drafting this on my phone in bed with my wife and dog already asleep long ago I’m reminded about how much incredible I want in my life and how little I am doing about it. For now…

Every Safari Keyboard Shortcut I Know

December 7, 2020April 1, 2015 by Josh Short

This article shares with you every Safari keyboard shortcut I know. I love keyboard shortcuts. Somewhere between 4% and 14% of all browser usage is through Safari. I’m in the small minority of the world that uses it as their main browser. However I absolutely love Safari’s bookmarks bar and reading list features. I love how they both transfer over automatically to my iPhone too. So that’s why we’re here today.

I believe in learning shortcuts not only in your NLE but also in every program you use. I bet you probably spend as much time clicking around the web as you do editing (you’re reading this right now, right??). So why not get faster with your browsing skills?

Work From Home with Avid Media Composer

March 14, 2020March 19, 2015 by Josh Short

This article will teach you how to work from home with Avid Media Composer. It shows you how to transfer your license from your office computer to home computer and how to keep your external hard drive organized with Avid Projects and AvidMediaFiles Folders so when you go back to the office you can put everything back together properly.

Reflections and My Big Secret Project Announcement

July 17, 2019March 11, 2015 by Josh Short

For someone who loves to write about time management, I’ve sure had a heck of a time doing it well lately. I started writing this post at exactly 9:07 on Saturday night. I had been working on my big secret project since about 1:00 that afternoon. Let’s pick it up from there…

By the way, I finally announce my project so keep reading!

Focus, Lists and Spirals

July 17, 2019February 18, 2015 by Josh Short

Two quick updates before we get into today’s post:

#1 – I finally moved into my new edit bay at the office! Here’s a picture of phase 1. Next up is phase 2, which is all about decorations. Any ideas on what I should put up?

#2 – I got featured on Pro Video Coalition! How crazy is that?! Scott Simmons is doing a post production quick tip everyday this month and he offered to let me write one. Read it here!

Okay, on with today’s post about Focus, Lists and Spirals…

Have you ever felt like there is so much you have to do but then instead of doing one of them you decide to sit down and start watching TV? That’s where I’ve been for the past couple weeks. There is sooooo much going on and I haven’t gotten anything done because I don’t know where to begin.

I really want to get back on track, if I was ever actually on track, with writing more how-to or instructional posts about editing. However since this feeling is so over-whelming at the moment I feel like I should share this struggle with you, tell you what I’m doing about it and get your thoughts on the topic.

Entrepreneuring Video Editing

July 2, 2020February 11, 2015 by Josh Short

I want to get this off my chest.

I want to make money from this site and brand.

That isn’t a secret I’ve been keeping. It’s just something I’ve never fully and openly disclosed. I’d like to take the next ~thousand words to talk about it.

Why I Have an Awful Logo

July 17, 2019February 4, 2015 by Josh Short

I have the worst logo ever for a creative professional and I don’t care one bit. Zero. In this post I’ll tell you why and why a logo could be holding you back from doing your best work.

Turn Off the Clock, Get More Done

July 2, 2020January 28, 2015 by Josh Short

On Monday I worked 100% distraction-free for hours for the first time in recent memory. I was completely sucked into my work and it all happened by accident. I’ll tell you how in this post.