Video Editing

Last year I interviewed Stijn Verlinde, probably the best dance music festival filmmaker in the world right now. Last week, RED, makers of the camera equipment Stijn uses, recognized this and released a gorgeous 4K mini-profile that takes us deep into Stijn’s life, philosophy, shooting style and creative vision. If you're in need of a little inspiration today, take 4 minutes to check out this beautiful mini doc on one of the world's best.

How are you getting people to look at and engage with your work? This is something we all have to think about constantly in today’s visually saturated market place. It’s why it’s all the more important to look at – and learn from – those producing stunning and engaging work. Let me introduce you to Leonardo Dalessandri, and his latest project “Watchtower Of Turkey”, a video that he worked on over the course of a year and quite possibly some of the best visual media you’ll see in 2015.

Rob Whitworth builds upon his previous experience from his innovative Barcelona "flow motion" time-lapse with this new production covering the business oasis, Dubai. In his latest piece, Whitworth makes it apparent that he has perfected his craft to create the most fascinating time-lapse we've seen so far. We asked him to comment on his process. And while we got some behind-the-scenes footage and images, Whitworth simply told us, "It's always fun to keep people guessing." So by all means, let's guess.

Movies are something we can all thoroughly enjoy. Whether it be a hilarious comedy or an action adventure, they take us places we don't normally see or experience. Films all have the same goal, to capture and engage us within their world and to evoke feelings of excitement or even fear. The guys over at Movie Pilot have found something so simple that it screams brilliance in films by Quentin Tarantino: the sound!

If you didn't see the 2011 action film "Drive," directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, you should definitely check it out. Apart from it gratuitous violence, it is a fantastic work of complex cinematography and artistic storytelling. In this video review, Tony Zhou puts together another great analysis discussing how the use of quadrants add a unique dimension to the overall film. Zhou is also known for his breakdown of Edgar Wright's use of visual comedy in his ongoing series (and Vimeo Staff Pick), "Every Frame a Painting."

Whether you're a fan of the Jurassic Park franchise or not, it's going to continue to be pushed in hopes of reaching the status of the original blockbuster by Steven Spielberg. A tall order indeed, but with the first trailer slightly sparking my interest, it was the newest CGI-filled update during the Super Bowl that really brought me back to that first movie's excitement and unpredictability.

About a month ago I listed some of my favorite editing tricks and while experienced editors knew the deal, I got a lot of feedback saying that at least one or two of those techniques were helpful for people who have only started to edit videos in the last few years. So here are 5 more, some maybe a touch more advanced, editing tips for the video editors out there.

Ornana Films is a small production company based in San Rafael that is no stranger to awards. They took home the Jury Award at the SXSW film festival in 2012 for their short "(notes on) Biology" which continued on to win several other awards that same year, including Exceptional Short at Santa Fe Independent and the Grand Jury Prize at FFF. Two years later at SXSW, they premiered their latest short "Confusion Through Sand" to much acclaim. Now, after a year of waiting, the hand-drawn masterpiece is online for free along with a behind-the-scenes video documenting the work that went into this brilliant animated short.

You might not know who Candide Thovex is now, but trust me, by the time you finish this article, you will probably be more than a little in awe of him. His latest video is averaging 1.5 million hits a day and counting since going live last week. It could easily be the single best action spots video we’ll see all year. Today, I’ll break down why I think it’s so successful, and how we can apply the same techniques to our own work.

A group of filmmakers from Edmonton, Alberta have been working on a three-part science and nature documentary called The Great Human Odyssey. I recently spoke with some of the crew to learn more about how a production team approaches a project that involves planning and shooting in some of the most remote environments in the world. Check out their behind the scenes video, but read on for more videos and insight into their process.

If you’d asked me this question last week, I would have said no. What a difference a few days makes. Ruslan Pelykh, a New York City-based videographer and photographer, is creating outstanding video with a Leica D Lux 6, a 10 megapixel, $600 point and shoot. This post is a kick up the butt for anyone hanging on for a piece of gear as being the reason they can’t create with what they have. Welcome to creating more, with less.

Not quite in full effect just yet but out of the blue it appears that Vimeo is slowly implementing 4K streaming capability. It is a feature which has been hinted at and many have been waiting for. Philip Bloom and James Miller break it down.

This video reminds me of my college days– spending time working with a friend while having next to no budget, but coming up with a fun idea for a short video that would allow us to flex some creative muscle. Corridor Digital may have a (small) budget for these, but what I enjoy about them is that the fun and creativity feels authentic, which you often only get when no agency or corporate sponsor is pushing creative decisions. In this video, you'll see the final clip, with the behind-the-scenes video inside the full post.

When it comes to making video edits and sports demos of yourself, finding a friend to film can be the biggest challenge of all. With this second generation advancement of the SOLOSHOT you can film yourself in endless scenarios, photograph panning DSLR timelapse, and forego the need for a buddy on the beach.

As a professional photographer I have always been curious about the art of videography since the two seem to go hand in hand, but I have never made the jump to shooting my own content because I was always quite unsure of where to start. I wanted to quickly learn the basics and start shooting right away. I’m a visual learner, and I figured a crash course in an online tutorial would be my best bet, but searching for tutorials scattered across Youtube seemed tedious. Recently Jared Polin, better known as Fro from FroKnowsPhoto released a comprehensive guide to shooting video using a DSLR called The FroKnowsPhoto Guide to DSLR Video.

Readers have enjoyed my past blogs on editing from home, making a better demo reel, and other video-editing articles, so now I’m sharing with you my favorite editing tricks that I find make for better cuts and ultimately make videos easier to watch.

"Mayokero" may be the best music video that came out in 2014, yet you probably never heard of it before. In the video, famous vinyl album covers come to life and they all lip-sync to Roy Kafri's singing. Michael Jackson, Abba, Madonna, The Beatles, Elton John and Bob Dylan are only few of the "collaborators" in the video. Check out the BTS video below and also the amazing final result.

Whether or not you knew it, you have most likely viewed a short film by Adam Pesapane, better known as PES. The director and animator has released several immensely popular stop-motion shorts, directed numerous commercials for major companies such as PlayStation, Scrabble, and Bacardi, and has even been nominated for an Academy Award. Along with the release of his newest short, "Submarine Sandwich," PES and Nikon Cinema have teamed up to bring you a rather comprehensive behind-the-scenes look into the process that goes into the making of PES’ films.

Through Premiumbeat.com's Vimeo channel and blog, motion graphic designer Kevin Gater did the world a huge favor by recently providing a tutorial on creating realistic, falling snow with RED Giant's After Effects plug-in. There are a ton of settings in After Effects, let alone in the RED Giant Trapcode Particular plug-in, that would take forever to navigate; but Gater does a great job going through which settings to ignore and which ones to pay attention to so you'll know exactly what to tweak for your needs. Thankfully, in 15 minutes, you can be ready to add great snow effects for the holiday season or that high-mountain horror short with just a few careful clicks.

Growing up, I have been entranced by Jackie Chan films for their insane stunts, beautifully choreographed action sequences and hilarious physical comedy. His action scenes are both visually stunning and involving, playing underdog characters fighting against impossible odds. Chan’s dedication to his craft is unquestionable but perhaps he has not been given enough credit as an action director. In this video, filmmaker Tony Zhou breaks down the framing and editing techniques that Hong Kong directors use to create engaging fighting scenes, highlighting how many of these techniques are absent in Hollywood films of today. If you are interested in becoming a filmmaker, you need to watch this.

Patrick and I have been in Iceland for 2 weeks with Elia Locardi filming our next tutorial on landscape/travel photography. We brought a truck-load of gear with us but our favorite piece has been our DJI phantom quadcopter. Here's a quick cut of our best drone footage in Iceland.

As part of Universal’s 100th anniversary, a team of restoration experts took on the task of digitally remastering the classic film “Jaws.” The fully restored feature required intense labor from colorists, digital artists, audio engineers, preservation experts, and everyone in between. In this fascinating documentary, we get a look at all the various complex efforts taken in order to bring the ‘70s blockbuster in to the digital age.

While sharing drinks with a friend, he started inquiring as to how I’m able to supplement my income with video editing projects. The more we talked, the more I realized that a lot of people have the ability and skill to do it, but they don’t understand the small things that can make or break being successful at it. In this post, I’ll share what I’ve learned about being a freelance editor.

Excuse me a moment while I try and reassemble my brain, it’s kind of just been blown by the video reel I’m about to talk about. While I collect my senses, feel free to join me as I showcase this piece of artistic genius and the talent of the young lady who put it together. This might just be the most insane, joyous 50 second video you’ve ever seen.

Do you have an eye for editing video? The editor often wields the power and ability to breathe life into a piece of motion work, or to kill it off. But where do you go to learn how to edit? Inside The Edit recently launched the world’s first end-to-end online program, and while it’s not without it’s considerations, it represents a giant leap forward for anyone who wants to get hands-on experience in the world of motion storytelling.

Most people I work with manually dump thousands of files at the end of their shoot day (myself included.) A stack of cards, hard drives, and waiting for one card to finish before starting the next. All of this is followed by checking each dump to make sure nothing was missed. A new software app from Red Giant is looking to help this process, without bogging users down with extra steps.

Alex Buono, member of the SNL's film unit, helped produce one of the coolest title sequences ever using time-lapsing, light writing, freelensing, and other effects. The show is celebrating their 40th season so they wanted this sequence to be classic and iconic, a little dressed-up, and typography integrated into the cityscape.

If you aren't using some sort of software to sync audio, you're sitting in your edit bay manually matching audio to video queues, be that sounds, video hints or timecodes. But what if you could just dump all your camera footage from an interview and all the audio from your recorder into one program and hit one button to sync them all quickly and accurately? You can with Red Giant Pluraleyes, and it's nearly perfect.

If you follow any of my work, you know I am a sucker for anything Back To The Future. I even recreated my own BTTF image using a real DeLorean awhile back, so I HAD to share this video. The guys over at Shanks FX have created another inventive tutorial on how you can create your own time travel scene on a budget using a DSLR, simple time lapse software, a toy DeLorean, and some LED lights. Think you may want to try something like this at home?

What sets you and your work apart? Having a clear idea of this is critical if you want to develop your work but when was the last time you actually thought about it? Shane Hurlbut is a veteran Director of Photography and today shares his thoughts on his career and success. Whether you work with stills or motion, his approach sets him apart and we can all learn from him.