I am Officially on Twitter

I am officially on Twitter... you can follow if you'd like: 1. Random thoughts. 2. Cool links from Smart Friends 3. Breaking News. If my babbling doesn't bore you... http://twitter.com/rhedpixel
Two Funniest Videos Ever Made (About Type)
New Media for New Government Podcast
You’ll also find 6 hours of free video training to check out on their site. I’m one of the organizers of the group and I hope you can share this info with others. The group is free... the video is free... knowldge is free... let’s make a difference.
Here are the six videos you can watch (in HD even).
- New Media Boot Camp – slides
- Facebook 101– Why all the Buzz? – slides
- Podcasting and Government – slides
- Blogging to Reach an Audience – Does Anyone Care What You Have to Say – slides
- It’s all About Mobility – Reaching Audiences on the Go – slides
- Producing Video for the Web – Best Practices for Big Results – slides
Enjoy.
New Media for New Government Facebook Group
You’ll also find 6 hours of free video training to check out on their site. I’m one of the organizers of the group and I hope you can share this info with others. The group is free... the video is free... knowldge is free... let’s make a difference.
Here are the six videos you can watch (in HD even).
- New Media Boot Camp
- Facebook 101– Why all the Buzz?
- Podcasting and Government
- Blogging to Reach an Audience – Does Anyone Care What You Have to Say
- It’s all About Mobility – Reaching Audiences on the Go
- Producing Video for the Web – Best Practices for Big Results
Enjoy.
Free Photoshop and After Effects CS4 Tutorials

The fine folks at Focal Press have decided to release two free updates. The popular books Photoshop for Video and Creating Motion Graphics both have free updates for the Creative Suite 4 release.
Even if you don’t have these two books (which I’d really suggest you check them out)... the CS4 updates are absolutely free.
Editor's Retreat – "Virtually Free"

If you’re an editor, be sure to check out the Editors Retreat. This great event is a lot of fun and a wonderful learning experience (I’ve been 5 times its that good). The price is lowered, but you need to put a reservation in ASAP.
“With respect to the current economic times and in response to your requests, we are pleased to announce a price reduction for 2009 Editors Retreat. By shortening the length of the Retreat by one day, we’ve managed to cut the price from $3,150 to $2,300 without losing any of our key sessions.
The Retreat now includes:
• 4 days and 3 nights of sessions and activities
• All-inclusive resort stay
• See more here
And, a package of give-aways for each attendee worth $2,400 to include:
• A Full Pass to the 2009 NAB Post-Production World Conference in Las Vegas! (Valued at approx. $700)
• An Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium! (Valued at $1700)
With all of the give-aways and savings you actually receive more than the price of the retreat!
Join us for an amazing conference of advanced sessions, networking, creative workshops, award winning keynotes, raffles and unlimited access to representatives from Apple, Adobe and Avid!”
Registrations must be submitted before December 10th, 2009 with a 30% down payment. Visit www. EditorsRetreat.com for more info.
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Tech Shopping Deals
Delkin Devices – 25% off and free shipping. This includes a Blu-ray burner, multiple types of card readers (I ordered a 4 card reader to load from 4 Compact Flash cards at once)! Use the code HOLIDAY during checkout.
equinox – Makers of useful software utilities like Coverscout (to get iTunes artwork) and several templates for OSX mail. I ordered the tube stick bundle for $99 that lets you record over-the-air digital TV signals to your Mac, then transcode them for use on iPod or iPhone. Several bundles that are 50% off.
Mophie – Get the JuicePack for iPhone and iPod Touch. Doubles your battery life and makes for a long day of web work on the device. Take 25% off this weekend. Use the code gobblegobble3G.
Hop you enjoy... I get nothing from links... this is just what I spent money on and thought the deals were good.
Lighting Diagrams with Omnigraffle
Hoodman
yousendit.com
How to Fix Apple Compressor
“Apple's Compressor relies heavily on a service called Qmaster in order to work. Qmaster allows you to split rendering tasks across multiple machines in a render farm but it is still required even if you are only rendering on a single computer.The link between the two is so important that if the Qmaster service fails to launch, Compressor will be unable to submit batches. Should this occur, Compressor Repair checks for problems that could be preventing Qmaster from operating correctly. It checks for missing files, incorrect permissions, and attempts to manually start the qmasterd process.”
Want to Win Photoshop CS4 or Other Cool Prizes?
So far we’ve got three copies of Adobe Photoshop, an assortment of Joby Gorillapods, and copies of Nik Software and Digital Anarchy plug-ins.
Cool right? Its easy to win (and your chances are very good). Simply watch the videos at CSFour.com or any of our embedded players.

With each video you’ll see a pencil shaped button. Click it to take a short (and I mean :45 seconds or less) survey.
You can take a survey one time only, that’s one time per video. Each survey counts as one entry. This means you have up to 15 chances to win prizes.
What are you waiting for? Free stuff is pretty cool.
mDialog
TubeMogul
Audio Gear from Mackie
Camera Support Gives Your Wrist a Break
I tried a unit out and bought one... its a nice way to get stability and literally take a load off the wrist. The unit is designed to work with cameras up to 10 pounds. What’s also nice is that the unity includes a tripod adapter mount making it easy to switch from your standard tripod to the WristShot unit.
We did a video interview on the product and will have it up shortly. For now, check out the company’s website.
Audio Gear from Edirol
Allvoices.com – A New Site for Distribution
New HD Survival Handbook Has Great Advice
“The HD Survival Handbook was written to answer the myriad of questions that arise when a video professional moves from working in the Standard Definition world up to the more complex world of High Definition.
From essential background information a video professional is expected to know, to summaries of the latest gear that would take you hours of research on the web, this handbook has it covered. The HD workflows area will help you avoid the pitfalls that have trapped so many others and be ready to meet your customers' demand for HD.”
The book works with all NLEs, but has deeper coverage of Final Cut Studio. What’s also cool is that you can buy just the sections you need. Philip sells the Production, Post Production, and Distribution chapters as separate downloads.
Here are two sample pages:
Here are the table of contents for each section:
Lower Thirds
VisualHub
The Most Important Piece of Paperwork for Your Projects
Project Scoping Document
( 2 - 1 0 p a g e s )- Project Name
- Executive Summary
- Background
- Project Scope (High Level)
- Project Objectives
- Deliverables
- Organizations
- Interfaces Required
- Assumptions
- Constraints
- Evaluation Criteria
- Risks
- Rewards
- Budgets
- Schedules (Due Dates)
- Project Team Readiness
- Key Roles
- Executive Sponsor
- Project Manager
- Business Experts
- Technical Experts
- Signature Lines - Sign Off “Charter”
Convert MPEG-1 for FCP
bbDEMUX – Free
http://sourceforge.net/projects/macbbdemux
I stumbled across this great piece of freeware when stuck with an editing problem. My client had some MPEG-1 files they wanted to edit together for their website. While I was able to import them into FCPand set the timeline to 320X240, I couldn’t get the audio to import. Turns out with MPEG-1 files, the audio and video are merged into one track (muxed). This great little app does nothing more then split them apart, but that’s all that was needed and its free!
Editors Retreat Returns
Recharge
Your Creativity and Craft • January 28 - February 1
• Playa Del Carmen, Mexico
Now in its third
year, the Editors Retreat
has become an
annual gathering for the post-production elite.
Highly experienced editors from the worlds of
film, TV and video gather to network, exchange
ideas, share tips and of course, have fun!
Past keynotes and attendees have included such
names as Alan Heim, Sally Menke, Stuart Bass, Chris
Franklin and David Helfand as well as Apple, Adobe
and Avid experts and industry power users.
Attendees have included representatives from HBO,
FRONTLINE, MTV, Lockheed Martin, Harpo Productions
and Telemundo.
Running for 5 days and 4 nights, the Retreat offers
advanced sessions on post visual and audio
techniques and features valuable insight into
emerging trends and technologies. An equal amount
of time will be devoted to discussing the
creativity, craft and business practices of
successful editors.
To ensure that only the best of the best attend,
participation is subject to an application and
screening process. Visit www.EditorsRetreat.com
for the full
schedule and more details.
WATCH THIS YEAR'S VIDEO
Motion Graphics Meets John Lennon
I was over at YouTube posting a new tutorial.... came across a great clip that mixes multiple animation styles… this is VERY cool. It’s nice to hear the man so off-the-cuff… yet wise.
“In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message.”
Learn more about it here (and yes… I missed this one somehow).
Using Camera Tally Lights
Shooting Progressive
Sharing Internet Connections
Cool Video Prodution Widgets for Your iPhone or Laptop
Video Footage Calculator – Calculates how much storage you'll need for your footage type and duration.
Web – iPhone version – Offline version
Film Rate Calculator – Determines how much film you need for a particular scenario.
Web – iPhone version – Offline version
Aspect Ratio Calculator – Determines the aspect ratio for different footage formats.
Web – iPhone version
Depth of Field Calculator – Calculates depth of field for many camera sensors.
Web – iPhone version
Pixel Aspect Ratio Calculator – Determines relationship of Pixels for many digital formats.
Web – iPhone version
Lens Angle Calculator – Helps calculate the lens angle for a given sensor size and focal length.
Web – iPhone version
Power Load Calculator – Calculates the load on a circuit to see if it is excessive. You can also calculate the minimum circuit breaker size for the given load.
Web – iPhone version
These tools are cool, free, and useful.... three points that make them a must have for my iPhone.
Analyze Video Files on a Mac with Video Spec
• The latest version has been tested on Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard.
• It is compatible with PowerPC and Intel Mac (Universal Binary).
• This version is localized in english and french.
Nice Tutorial on Using Motion for Pan & Scan Effects
“Animating photos is a staple effect pioneered by celebrated documentarian Ken Burns. In this tutorial Mark Spencer shows you why you should be doing these types of effects in Motion rather than Final Cut Pro.”
Click here to watch Mark's tutorial
Adobe TV at NAB 2008 – Production Premium CS3 for Final Cut Pro Editors
If you want more free classes... visit the Adobe TV site.
Adobe TV at NAB 2008 – Photoshop CS3 Extended for Video
If you want more free classes... visit the Adobe TV site.
School of Podcasting Interview about Video Podcasting
You can get the interview for free right here (http://www.schoolofpodcasting.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=330803) and you should also check out their other shows which offer great perspective.
China Balls (Lighting)
Get Your Free Podcasts in One Convenient Place
Apple iTunes just promoted my company to network status. You can find all of our "in-house" technical training podcasts on a single page now.
I encourage you to take a look at our several shows.
- Understanding Adobe Photoshop – iPod and HD – A general interest show about Photoshop for beginners and intermediates
- Photoshop for Video – iPod and HD – A show about creating graphics for video pros and motion graphic designers
- Producing Video Podcasts – iPod and HD – A show that offers both production and post tips for making video for the web
- Final Cut Help – iPod – Weekly tips about using Final Cut Studio
Remember, the podcasts are totally free, all we ask is you post a review to the iTunes store and tell a friend.
NAB Show 2008 Conference Notes
Thanks to all the great people who attended my classes at NAB this year. It was a ton of work to prep (and I must admit I needed some rest when I got back home). As promised, the class notes and resources have been posted to the Handouts section (be sure to browse for other resources as well).
Here's the list of what's available.
01 Fast Start with Adobe Photoshop for Video Pros – Slides | Book Sample
02 Video Podcasting Essentials – Slides
03 Selling Podcasting to Your Clients – Slides
04 A Sense of Perspective with Vanishing Point – Slides | Practice Files
05 Creating Movement within Photos with After Effects CS3 – Slides | Practice Files 1 | Practice Files 2
06 Directing Video Podcasts – Slides
07 Project Management for Video Pros – Slides
08 In-Depth: Video Production for the Web – Slides
09 Creating a Graphic Identity for Your Web Video – Slides [Enhanced PDF]
10 Render Faster: Wait Less and Play More in Adobe After Effects – Slides
11 Storyboard Techniques with Adobe Photoshop – Slides
12 Creative and Animated DVD menus using Photoshop – Handouts
13 Automating Broadcast Design with Photoshop – Slides
14 Seeing a New Light: FCP Color Correction – Slides | DVD
Two Great Sites on Apple Motion
AppleMotion.net
Mark Simpson is the author of the official Apple book's on Motion. He's got a great site with lots of news and downloads.
Moojoose
“Here is a colleciton of small motion projects and movie examples.”
Great Archive for Free Textures
Free is good... "good" free is even better.
Troubleshooting Apple Compressor
Apple has posted a useful article on what to do when Compressor isn't starting up properly or performing normally.They offer basic troubleshooting steps to remedy the situation. This is the right place to start if you are attempting to to submit a batch and you see the following message:
Unable to submit to queue. Please restart your computer or verify your Compressor installation is correct.
Check out the whole article here.
Richard Harrington on the Plugged-In Podcast
- Coby Rich – Sorenson Media
- Larry O'Connor – Other World Computing
- Richard Harrington – RHED Pixel
- Jon Schilling – CalDigit
- Marlon Braccia – Shiva Entertainment
You can listen to the show here
GridIron Flow Demo Movie
"Flow is a revolutionary approach to digital content management that dramatically simplifies the design process for creative professionals working on graphic design, web and video projects. Flow automatically tracks your work from idea to end result and manages your assets and applications for your most complex projects- all without changing the way you work."
Flow isn't shipping for a while, but GridIron is accepting sign-ups for beta testing.
New Plugins for Broader DVCPRO HD and P2 Support
For playing P2 MXF Files and QuickTime DVCProHD Files on Mac OSX (Intel) and importing native P2 MXF Files into Final Cut Pro Studio 2 Applications (see Read Me)
Please note: The P2 MXF plugin has NOT been tested in long form projects in FCP Studio 2 Applications and the DVCProHD Codec should NOT be installed if the Apple DVCProHD Codec is already installed.
Download BETA 1.0.0 (Build 18) for OSX 10.4 (Tiger) - Intel Only
Download BETA 1.0.0 (Build 18) for OSX 10.5 (Leopard) - Intel Only
Download Read Me
Download License Agreement
QuickTime
P2 MXF/DVCProHD Decode Components for
Windows
For playing P2 MXF Files and QuickTime DVCProHD
Files on Windows (see Read Me)
Download BETA 1.0.0 (Build 18)
for Windows
Download Read
Me
Download License
Agreement
Apple Updates QuickTIme
Apple has released a new update to QuickTime... lets hope it's elusive “improves compatibility with third-party applications” actually means something.
Visit http://www.apple.com/support/quicktime/ for more information.
Compressing with Stomp
Like the podcast? Subscribe for FREE.
Multi-camera Editing
Like the podcast? Subscribe for FREE.
Compressing with Turbo.264
Like the podcast? Subscribe for FREE.
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New Scripts for Photoshop CS3
"Background Remover," "Interpret Video," "Fit Video to Audio," and "Slide Show" scripts take advantage of Photoshop CS3 Extended's new video capabilities.
If you want to save time, download Dr. Brown's Services 1.9.2
Great Piece of Freeware for Producers/Directors/DPs
This great program is based on Filemaker, but doesn't need you to have the full program installed in order to run. You essentially load in information regarding the shots including the audio and video columns, shot number, and a thumbnail image. Directors Boards then allows you to organize the shots as well as create a sldieshow presentation or print out professional looking storyboards. The product is cross-platform and free... what more do you need? Well there is a more robust version called Directors Notebook, which we are putting through its paces and will have a detailed review soon.
Cool Free Fonts
Classic TV Test Pattern Now as Desktop Wallpaper
A few folks commented about my desktop pattern at a recent conference. It seems the old 'Indian head' pattern evokes some memories in many audience members.
Well the version I had comes from a Russian designer named Art. Lebedev. You'll find it and several other pieces of artwork on his posters page. For the test pattern, scroll down to the bottom and you'll find it in the right column. All are free to download.
New P2 Utility Makes Field Production Easier
Leave it to Anders Holck to come up with a great solution. We already profiled the useful utility called FCP Rescue on this blog. Now he's released P2 Genie which automates several of the media management aspects when working with the cards.
• You run it on a Mac Laptop with a CardBus slot (This means PowerBooks only)
• P2 genie can be used as an automatic P2 store, or you set manual options
• It can also be used offload a P2 store or HVX-200.
• You can also choose to datestamp all your ofloaded P2 cards for easier sorting
We'll be putting it to test on a week-long shoot next week. P2 Genie costs $33 (US) or €25.



