Aug. 10, 2015
News. Training. Insight. 

WELCOME BACK!

Jon Stewart, as he was ending his 16-year run on "The Daily Show," said: "An artist I really admire once said that he thinks of his career as a long conversation with the audience, a dialogue, and I really like that metaphor."

I'm not leaving anytime soon, but that comment really triggered my thinking. The conversation we have with each other is one of the things I most enjoy about writing this newsletter and my tutorials. Because through your comments and feedback, that conversation extends far beyond me, yet includes all of us.

Variety this week reported on "Edit Fest 2015," a gathering of editors talking about editing. The article reported that in one panel, editors Tom Cross and Wyatt Smith: "both agreed that it's important to get assistant editors out of the technical aspects as soon as possible."  This comment, perhaps taken out of context, implies that story-telling lives on some pure plane divorced from the base underpinnings of technology.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Story-telling today exists because of the technology we use, not in spite of it. You only need to look at the films of 30 years ago to see how the limitations of technology limited the stories that could be told - in effects, camera placement, lighting, audio, pacing, image quality.... Art lives at the boundary, the struggle, between the creative vision and the limitations of technology. Between the story and the tools needed to achieve it.

Story-telling is an art, but it is an art infused, driven and controlled by technology.

That's why our conversation, here, is so important. By enabling us to learn from each other how to better use our current technological tools, we alter and improve our ability to tell stories, involve audiences and, each in our own way, to change the world.

That's a conversation I'm happy to return to every week.

[ This is an excerpt from my longer blog for this week. Read the entire version here. ]

- - -

Lots of cool stuff for this week. All the details are below. As always, I love to hear from you.
 
Larry Jordan
Larry Jordan & Associates


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In This Issue
ShortNotes
RANKED A TOP 5 PODCAST!  
Digital Production Buzz
Our podcast - DigitalProductionBuzz.com - was ranked one of the Top 5 video editing podcasts by Motion Array.  As Tyler Williams wrote:

"Welcome to our ongoing series on great podcasts for creatives. In each post in our series, we'll highlight several podcasts in a topic related to production, creativity, or design. We're going to kick it off with podcasts for video editors.

"Whether you are a professional film editor or you just have to edit together a presentation from time to time, there is something here for everyone. Today we are highlighting 4 general editing podcasts..."

We are in great company. Join us for a new show every week.  Here's the link to the list.
2015 CREATIVE TRUTHS CONTEST
The last time we ran this contest, in 2013, I couldn't stop laughing. And now, it's back: The 2015 Edition of our Creative Truths Contest.

Share your aphorisms with the world - win prizes - become wickedly famous! Or, at least have a lot of fun reading the entries!

Enter here.

THIS WEEK'S WINNERS - AUG. 10

We pick 3-4 winners each week. Will Schwarz  is one of our winners this week:

"Every new technology opens a whole new world of things that can go wrong."

See all our winners here.
NEW PRODUCT  
LightLeakLove
Charlie, over at LightLeakLove, sent me a note about a new product: "FiltrCutPro."

This 12 filter plug-in collection adds a variety of interesting styles and textures for your video.  Creating looks from 8mm and Retro TV to Grunge, Film Strips and Polaroids, these provide a quick way to create a unique look for your next project.

Learn more here.

CLOSING DOWN
Scenios
I got some sad news this week. Scenios, the cloud platform designed to manage video productions is shutting down. They wrote:

"We are writing to let you know that, sadly, we will be shutting down Scenios in 30 days (Sept. 7th).  

"We tried to make a go of it, but we were unable to find a viable business model in the small (and shrinking) market for professional video production."

It is always sad to see a company close. I wish them the best in the future.
currentwebinars

Webinars
LAST WEEK'S WEBINAR
No Webinars Last Week

We took a break from webinars last week, which gave us time to plan the rest of this month.
THIS WEEK'S WEBINAR
Conversations on Craft - Screenwriting

We continue our "Conversations on Craft" by looking at screen-writing, but doing it differently than usual.  This week, instead of interviewing one guest, we showcase three  recent interviews from the Digital Production Buzz looking at screen-writing:
  • Pilar Alessandra is the director of the popular writing program "On The Page" and author of "The Coffee Break Screenwriter." 
  • Danny Manus is the CEO of "No Bull Script Consulting."
  • Lee Jessup is a career coach for screenwriters, specializing in guiding emerging and professional scribes toward successful screenwriting careers.
We are combining them into a single program designed to supercharge your own writing.

Its all FREE - register here!



Buzz
Digital Production Buzz
THE BUZZ - VOTED ONE OF THE TOP FOUR VIDEO EDITING PODCASTS!!

In Tech Talk this week, discover how Time Tuner works in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

Our guests this week started with Mike Mihalik, formerly of LaCie now a roving "Computer Industry Maven," talking about planning your next storage and which technology you need to watch. Then, Steve Eisen, filmmaker, talks about his latest film, "The 1000 Feet Project." Finally, John Feland, CEO/Founder, Argus Insights talks about how they predict the future of technology by looking at big data.  All this, plus Randi Altman with her "Perspectives on the News."
  • Watch the entire show here.
  • Listen to the entire show here.
  • Read the show transcript here.
By the way, the Buzz website is evolving. Come visit and check out our new look!


artvids
New Articles & Videos
Something for everyone this week starting with a blog on the intersection of story-telling with technology. Then, two tutorials, one for Final Cut Pro X and the other for Premiere Pro CC. Finally, I added a Quick Start Guide to provide ideas on how to improve your video compression.

As always, I updated our Top 3 Lists. Stay cool -- I'll see you next week!


Article01

Blog: The Art of Story-telling Isn't Enough
BLOG

This blog occurred to me as I was reading comments on Jon Stewart's last "Daily Show."

This is the more complete version of the thoughts that started my newsletter this week.

Read my blog here. 
FCP X: Remove Harsh "S" Sounds from your Audio
TUTORIAL

This article grew out of an email request.

I have a love/hate relationship with the audio effects in FCP X. But, some of them are just so good, you need to learn about them.

Read my tutorial here.



Article02
Premiere Pro CC: Understand the Project Manager
TUTORIAL

It hasn't drawn the attention of the new Morph Cut, or the new Lumetri Looks, but the recent addition of project consolidation and transcoding using the Project Manager in Premiere Pro CC is a big deal.

This is simplifies our ability to archive projects, or allows us to optimize existing projects for better playback.
 
Video Compression
Quick Start Guide
ARTICLE
 
I've written a lot about compression. In this article, I want to provide a Quick Start Guide containing key points you need to know about video compression.

These concepts are true, regardless of which software you use for video compression.

Read my thoughts here.



Articles03


Training
 
Larry's Best Training: 
Final Cut Pro X: Complete
NEW for version 10.2!
We've updated our training to include all the new features in the 10.2 release of Final Cut Pro X.

Plus, we added new or revised chapters covering:
  • An Editing Quick Start
  • Learning the Interface
  • Media Management
  • Media Import
  • Keywords
  • 3D Text and Titles
  • Inspector Effects
  • Masking
  • Color Correction
  • Video Effects Cookbook
  • And more

More than 200 movies, more than 20 hours of training - all guaranteed to get you up-and-running quickly and turn you into a Final Cut Pro X expert.

 

There's nothing better on the market. 

 

  

 NEW & IMPROVED!
Video Compression:
 
Master Apple Compressor 4.2
This Master Collection includes everything you need to know to learn Apple Compressor from the ground up.

This bundle includes our comprehensive Compressor 4.1 training, then updates it with all the new features in Compressor 4.2.

Then, we put the software to the test to see if it was any faster than previous versions - and discovered is is more than THREE TIMES faster than Compressor 4.1!

NEW TRAINING NOW SUPPORTS
COMPRESSOR 4.2

These days, everything we do ends up on the web. Which means that if we don't know how to compress our video to make it look good, all our work during production and post is wasted.

Everything you need - all in one place. 51 movies, more than six hours of training!

popular
Top Three + 1 Lists