[Mark Suszko]

Try the free version of Resolve 12 for windows

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/edit

[Mark Suszko]

You know, it’s a pretty conventional spot. They spent extra money on casting, but there isn’t anything horribly original in it. The controversial Budweiser spot takes more chances.

[Mark Suszko]

Hm, I’m sensing a potential market niche! ☺

If you like those whiteboard type drawn animations, (personally I think they’ve had their fifteen minutes), scribol or video scribe offers a templated way to generate those quickly. https://www.videoscribe.co/

Motion VFX offers kits of pre-animated elements you can mix and match in Motion of AfterEffects, covering a lot of generic PSA and general business type of concepts. https://www.motionvfx.com/mplugs-81.html

You can learn a lot by watching the best entries on the page for the Kinetic Typography Channel on Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/channels/kinetictypography

As far as a general class in how to make them, I’m unaware of one, but might be interested in taking one online.

I don’t personally think of these mograph /kinetic type projects any differently than I would live-action commercial-making. You’re solving similar problems using similar techniques for the most part, though with the emphasis on artful design. You might have more abstract concepts to try to illustrate thru motion and action. Point being, don’t let the acquisition of a new gimmick like animated puppeteering tools drive your choice of how to communicate the message. You still have to strategize and all that, just like any normal business video, THEN figure out the creative treatment that gets the message tot he target market best. The reason people got burned out so fast on whiteboard animation was that people were using it too much and on everything and for the wrong reasons and doing a lot of it badly. They bought a new hammer and suddenly everything around was a nail.

[Mark Suszko]

There’s remedy under most established law for cases like this already, but what would probably help more is the use of third-party rating of the provider’s reels. If you go to a big site like TheKnot.com, you’ll find they list wedding videographers with a combination of ratings for cost as well as multiple “stars” and referrals. Independent verification or rating is something a legit videographer could point to on their site.

It would have to be a free service: there is too much potential for hi-jinks if you have to pay to get reviewed.

[Mark Suszko]

What he said, just adding that you can get some funky looks by intentionally mis-using the new morph cut in FCPX between two dis-similar frames.

[Mark Suszko]

There’s a couple tricks to using autopoles. One is, don’t rely on just spring action to generate the tension. Use your arms and a tight grip to expand the pole segments and really jam them at the walls, so that there isn’t much travel left for the clutch lever.

Where the fittings integrate with the pipes, make sure any set screws or bolts are tight before expanding the pole.

Been a while since I used them, but the pads on the ends used to be adjustable and screw in and out a little bit.

Some surfaces might be extra slippery. You could try chunks of computer mouse pad under the cups. We used to place thin cloth or paper towels on the cups to prevent marring white walls and still had very good deployment.

Rubber wedge door stops have helped me on occasion to wedge a pole in place.

[Mark Suszko]

Roger nailed it – the clock trick doesn’t work now, at least, it didn’t for me: Apple Store refused to function until the clock was restored. What’s killing me is how long this is taking to resolve, because the imac i’m dealing with is a used/ resold one, it doesn’t qualify for AppleCare levels of attention, and the regular phone support hours mean I’d have to take a half day off from work at least, Business hours, mon-fri, to get the help I need from Apple on this.

Does anybody have a line on an installer for Mountain Lion that will work with/around Yosemite?

[Mark Suszko]

Vertical or horizontal?

[Mark Suszko]

You already have it, if you use a mac.

[Mark Suszko]

Watermarking the footage is a simple process that doesn’t keep it from being useful in an acting “reel”, but makes it useless to a competitor. I’d tend to be generous to the actors and give them as much of their “scene” as they need to demonstrate their craft, as long as it’s watermarked in some way. For short things like PSA’s and commercials, they should have the right to show the spot in their own reels, as long as it has a disclaimer supered over it; “by permission of”.