You may not be familiar with the company Tronical but you will know their work because they are responsible for Gibson’s Robot Guitar tuning systems. Well judging by this video it appears that Tronical are about to launch some standalone systems that can be retrofit to pretty much any guitar be it a Les Paul [...]
Category: Video
10+ Cool Accessories Every Photographer Wants
When you’re passionate about photography, whether you’re taking photos with a heavy duty SLR or with your phone, there are a few accessories here or there that you’re probably dying to get.
We’ve put together a list of unique, cool and geeky addons for your camera. Everything from cases, to lenses, to tripods, you’ll want to get your hands on this gear.
We kick of the list with a few photography accessories that anyone can use, whether you’re using a point and shoot, a sSLR or even your cell phone, followed by sSLR accessories, and finally, iPhone accessories to take photos on the go.
How To Make Professional Video Editing Cuts Online For Free With JayCut
Jaycut.com may be the only web-based video editing application that registered members can use for free. Jaycut is not a professional video editor by a long shot. It doesn’t work as fast as consumer editors like iMovie and MovieMaker, but it can be very useful if you don’t have these applications or if you just need edit online.
Jaycut may have limitations but it doesn’t mean you can‘t use professional video editing techniques with your digital footage. In a recent article about home video productions, I alluded to techniques that can make your videos more appealing. Two such techniques are what are called J-cut and L-cut editing.
You have no doubt seen J-cut edits used in films many times without knowing what it’s called . In this cut, you hear the audio come from one video clip, but you see footage from another clip or visual element such a title board. Here’s a quick example on my Jaycut share page of a J-cut edit.
The video opens with a title card and the sound of a mariachi song that is a part of—let’s call it—the A-clip. After a few seconds the title card ends, and the visual part of the A-clip begins with the mariachi dancers; the music from the A-clip continues.
The B-roll could have also been another video shot of say people watching the performance but with the sound of that clip edited out. So if say you’re shooting a music performance with a single video camera, you might grab a shot of the audience or the outside of the venue before the performance begins, and use it for your B-roll.
While the Jaycut editor only has two video tracks and one audio, you cannot split music from a video clip as you can in say iMovie. But here’s a workaround.
How To Shoot Your Own Promotional Marketing Video From Start To Finish
Most of us realize that the Internet has enhanced and in many ways changed how businesses are marketed. No longer are they limited to print ads and paper brochures.
Now, Internet videos are a useful tool businesses. While the idea of using video as a marketing tool is not new, in the age of YouTube most people are now accustomed to seeing ordinary people talk about themselves — sharing their knowledge and expertise, or creating their own short form ’reality TV’ show. The benefit of these self-promotions is that potential customers get to hear from you — the business owner — not an attractive/distracting actor/model. You could also use this same technique for announcing new products and services.
A promotional video is great for nearly any type of business owner; including attorneys, accountants, web designers, physicians, realtors, dentists, mechanics, restaurant owners, and contractors.
Before you read about how to create your own promotional video, check out for free some of the sample videos posted on WhoToView.com. This is, I think, the best one. There are several examples on YouTube, including this one.
10 Reasons To Use Apple’s iMovie ‘09
I have a been a long-time user of Apple’s premiere movie editing program, Apple iMovie. I have edited everything from family birthday parties to professionally shot wedding videos.
With the release of iMovie ‘08, followed by the ‘09 update, Apple significantly re-designed iMovie, to the dismay of many long-time users like myself. Although I still use Apple iMovie ’06 from time to time, I have discovered many reasons why the latest version, iMovie ’09, is a useful program for managing, editing, and producing short form videos.
Event & Project Management
If you start shooting and editing movies on a regular basis, be it with the video camera on your cellphone or with your camcorder, iMovie is a useful program for managing and accessing your movie files in one place.
When you import files into the program, you can save the footage to either a new or existing Event. So for example, an event might be a vacation trip, birthday party, or YouTube presentation. After you create an event you can always add additional clips to it.
Also, events are organized by year, which is helpful for keeping track of clips. Right- or Control- clicking on an event provides additional options for managing and accessing files.
Similar to Events, Apple iMovie ‘09 allows you to organize all your movie projects within the application, rather than as complete separate files/projects outside of the program. You can select to save your projects to one or more storage drives, but you can access them all from within the program.
Mark As Favorites
If you’re working on a large project, you can mark individual clips as favorites. This is useful if your Event browser has lots of clips and you need a way to narrow it down. You can also reject individual clips, which means they are removed from the Events Browser but not deleted from your hard drive or the project itself. You can un-reject them at any time.
Video Adjustments
If you know how to make exposure adjustments and enhancements in programs like iPhoto, you might be surprised to know that you can make similar adjustments to your movie files in iMovie. Click on the tiny gear button of a clip in either the Event and Project browser to bring up the adjustment panals.
You get choices for making exposure and audio adjustments, as well as the ability to crop and rotate clips as you would still photos. And even better, you can copy adjustments you make on one clip and paste them to another.
Go to Edit>Paste Adjustments….
Clip Options
An advanced feature of iMovie ’09 does what some third-party plug-ins did for previous versions of iMovie. You can, for example, drag a selected clip or a portion of it from the Event Browser on top of one or more clips in the Project Story Board. You then choose from the pop-up window how you want the added clip to be used.
For instance, you can create a quick cutaway shot or picture within a picture.
Voice Over
Apple iMovie ‘09 makes it easy for you to select a group of clips or an entire project and perform a voice-over production. This is great for how-to or documentary videos.
Export Options
iMovie ‘09 provides several export options for your completed projects. You can format projects for YouTube posting, your iPhone, Flash Video, QuickTime format, etc. You can also save projects in the Media Browser; these files in turn can be accessed from the Media Browser of other iLife programs such as iDVD and Keynote.
When you save a project to the Media Browser, iMovie compresses the movie according to your specifications. That way you don’t have to open iMovie in order to retrieve saved projects. With the latest version of iMovie you can also export movies to iDVD.
Edit To The Beat
When you want to create an advanced slide show, the Edit to the Beat feature of iMovie is very useful for getting the job done quickly. See my video tutorial for how to use this feature.
Project Properties
Before or after you begin a project, you can set default properties for automatic transitions between clips, the duration of transitions, the aspect ratio of clips, and the theme you want to use for a project. Go to File>Project Properties to make these settings.
Also in Properties, you can set the default for the duration time for transitions, titles and photo displays.
Favorite Fonts
In iMovie‘s Preferences, you can create a collection of favorite fonts you use for projects. You’re not limited to the default set. Click on an existing font and change it.
There are several other advanced features in iMovie ‘09 that I didn’t touch upon. If you have shied away from movie editing because it looks too complicated, I can assure you that it’s possible for anyone to learn, using iMovie ‘09. Start with Apple‘s own tutorials and then experiment with many of the features described above.
See our other MUO articles about online video tutorials and home movie making tips. If you’re an avid iMovie ‘09 user, let us know what features you like.
(Via MakeUseOf.com.)
YouTube Debuts New Movies Section With 400 Free, Full-Length Films
YouTube has launched a fresh Movies category on its website, gathering about 400 full-length films for your on-demand viewing pleasure, all free of charge.
The renewed section, which is actually more like the next step in previously announced projects, comes courtesy of deals the Google company struck with U.S. studios like Lionsgate, MGM and Sony Pictures and UK service Blinkbox.
Update: Google checked in to clarify this is a UK announcement only and doesn’t affect the US Movies section announced last year (see link above).
In addition, the company wanted to make clear that the MGM / Lionsgate / Sony Pictures content is currently only available in the US, not in the UK.
What can you find there? Loads of Bollywood flicks, a bunch of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan films, obscure horror movies and cartoons, among many other sections.
‘This is one of many efforts to ensure that people can find all the different kinds of video they want to see, from bedroom vlogs and citizen journalism reports to full-length films and TV shows,’ YouTube head of video partnerships Donagh O’Malley told The Guardian.
‘We hope film lovers enjoy the range of titles in this free library, whether catching up on a mainstream hit or delving into the vast archive of classic films from decades past.’
(Via TechCrunch.)
Netflix for iPhone and iPod Touch Finally Here
Want to stream Netflix shows and TV on a tiny screen? Well now you can. The Netflix iPhone app is now available on iTunes and it offers the same functionality you know and love on the iPad but on the smaller devices.
No huge changes here: you sign-in, pick a video, and start watching over wi-fi or 3G, with obvious quality reduction with bad reception. Click through for the press release.
(Via TechCrunch.)
New Apple TV/iTV will change everything
Digg founder Kevin Rose thinks the upcoming $99, iOS-powered Apple TV/iTV will change everything when it launches this September:
- iOS TV Applications: Expect to see an iPhone/Pad like marketplace for television applications. Video sharing/streaming/recording apps, interactive news apps, and of course games.
- a la carte (app) stations: With Apple’s iAds, content producers (eg. ABC/NBC/etc.) can directly monetize and distribute their content. This will eventually destroy the television side of the cable and satellite industry, as your only requirement to access these on-demand stations will be an internet connection. Say goodbye to your monthly cable bill.
- .Me Picture/Video sharing: At $99 your parents, grandparents, and friends will have an iTV. Sharing pictures/videos from your iPhone will happen with the push of a button. Imagine getting a notification of new family videos the next time you turn on your TV. My mom will love this feature.
- The iPad will turn into one big badass remote control: The iPad will be the preferred input device for the iTV. You’ll be able to editing videos, control games, and extend the interactive television experience. Imagine watching monday night football on the TV while viewing/exploring other camera angles on the iPad.
Rose has mixed history on Apple rumors. He’s nailed some big scoops over the years, but he’s also been wrong on more than one occasion. Which is this, far out or far fetched?
(Via The iPhone Blog.)
Netflix For The iPad
Seeing as today is April Fools Day, no one seems to have any idea which stories to believe and which to think are bogus. Yesterday, the blog AppAdvice had an exclusive story that Netflix was bring a free app to stream movies to the iPad. Plenty of people thought this was just an early April Fools joke because, quite frankly, it seemed almost too good to be true. But it is very true. The app is now live in the App Store.
Assuming you’re a Netflix member, the new iPad app lets you watch as many movies as you want (assuming they’re available on Netflix’s Watch Instantly service) streaming to the device. Yes, this gives you access to some 20,000+ movies and television shows. You can also browse movies and manage your queue from the app. And you can even pick up watching them from where you left off on your TV or computer.
And since the iPad is currently WiFi-only, you don’t have to worry about streaming over 3G, so performance should be good. It will be interesting to see what happens with this app when the WiFi + 3G models of the iPad hit later this month.
And yes, the app is currently iPad-only — there is no iPhone or iPod touch version. At least not yet.
(Via TechCrunch.)
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