Thanks so much for the helpful reply Ivan! And for laying out the options so well. I agree. If you or others happen to know of any, I’d be grateful for links to examples of such crediting, in 9X16 videos, particularly ones with the on-screen option. Like you said, you have to be very careful of where/how you put such on-screen credit, which I feel…

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Can anyone please advise where/how to credit photos or other multimedia used in vertical, 9X16 videos for social media? (e.g. at the end, over the relevant visual, in the body text of the social post) I’m new to videos like this and would be grateful for any advice on that point. It’s hard enough to find the best way to credit multimedia in normal…

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Hi, has anyone ever tried editing Youtube’s automatic captions, like the VTT or SRT files, in a text editor? I’m the sole video person at my employer, and get a lot of questions from non-video colleagues, particularly about Youtube nuances I don’t always know, as the keeper of the Youtube ‘keys’ here. This one group here has a ton of videos for…

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Just to close this loop, I was able to get the PDF file as a high res PNG file, which solved the issue and the text looks correct now. Thanks again Mads for your responses on this!

Neil

Thanks Mads! I might be able to get that original, pre-PDF conversion, as I work at a sibling organization of the publication that authored this. I will try, and update the thread shortly. May I just ask, when you say the ‘original’, is there a specific type of file format I should request?

Thanks again and just let me know if anything else occurs,…

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Has anyone run into a PDF’s text looking fine when you open it in Acrobat, but messed up and incorrect when you bring the PDF in to an AFX comp? Is this because I lack the font included in the PDF? That seems likely but also weird to me, because isn’t a PDF more like an image when you import it, then a text document for example? If a missing font…

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I had a follow-up on this topic, on getting exposure and color right on 2-camera shoots with a Canon 5D Mark IV and Canon C70. I know that Riccardo’s helpful feedback here related to when one’s using the standard picture profile (Rec. 709) on the 5D, since clog isn’t available on that camera. My question was whether it would be better to try to…

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I really appreciate those insights, Mads and Mark! It’s really good to know all those nuances borne of your experiences. I’m working on getting connected to our AV vendor as we speak, with my colleagues on the ground at the event, and will work on getting all that info. (I work at a large nonprofit, where internal communication amongst departments…

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Wonderful to know, thanks so much Rob.

Thanks for another helpful reply, Mark! I was just telling Rob that this an award video driven by multimedia I get from the awardees, which is mainly still photos with a few video clips here and there from Youtube videos of them, downloaded from links they suggest. So none of it is footage I shot, in this case, and I’ve just used a standard 1080p…

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Thanks Rob! You raise a good point too about how the footage was captured. In this case, it’s an award video driven by the multimedia I get from the awardees, mainly still photos with a few video clips here and there from Youtube videos of them, downloaded from links they suggest. So none of it is footage I shot, in this case, and I’ve just used a…

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So helpful, thanks Liz! That’s great to know you really benefitted from a School of Motion course, and especially that you were able to juggle an intensive class with a family (similar juggling act here)!

Thanks again,

Neil

I’m considering signing up for an intensive course from School of Motion. https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/animation-course-overview . Has anyone taken courses from them, and if so did you feel it was worth the money and time? The one I’m considering is called Animation Bootcamp, which I understand is AFX-based, but they have a lot that look…

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Thank you Rob! This is really helpful. I’m waiting to be connected to our AV vendor, and will make sure to ask these good questions. I’m hoping they’re on an Apple platform like you said and I can just choose ProRes, like you said, but it’s great to know your preference for H.265 if they’re not. On the ProRes point, do you have any preference…

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I really appreciate the quick and helpful replies, Mark and Dennis! Mark, that’s great advice to ask the client, or the AV vendor in this case: “What format do you want this in and what kind of a container?” Depending on who gets the question, from the AV company, it’s particularly helpful to consider all those specifics you shared on things lik…

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Hi. First, do people agree that Apple ProRes is the best format for exporting a video to play at an event, on large screens? I’m a video producer at a nonprofit, and need to export a video to share with our AV vendor, to play at a conference. I’ve typically exported videos for this purpose in ProRes, but wanted to confirm people agree ProRes is…

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I have a Canon 5D Mk 4 and a C70, and a need to do a 2-camera shoot soon, in 4K if possible. Could anyone advise whether shooting 4K on both cameras would look strange (or is even possible), when I match up the clips in one video? TBH I’ve always favored full HD/1080, which has usually served our purposes, for the nonprofit I work at. But there’s…

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If anyone else has feedback on this, I’d also appreciate responses to 2 specific questions: Is lighting for green screen photography the same as lighting for green screen video shoots? Also, does keying out the green work the same in Photoshop that it works in After Effects?

Great advice and will do, thanks John!

I’m a video producer for a nonprofit, and I’ve done green screen video shoots sporadically in my years doing this. Because of that, my employer has tapped me to help set up a ‘green screen photo booth’ for an event we’re having. And I’d be grateful if anyone will give their two cents on our plan for this booth idea, which concerns me and we could…

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What do people think of Canva for very basic video editing needs, for (video) beginners? Since posting my original question here, I discovered that my employer has a Canva account, so I tested the video editor. But it wouldn’t let me upload a clip larger than 1 GB in size, although when I googled this question, it said it can handle up to 5. Again…

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Thank Michael. I originally posted this question, which has generated some great and helpful responses, like yours here. Unfortunately, I’ve been distracted by deadlines the last couple of weeks, and been unable to really dig into this. But my IT colleagues connected me with sales people from Dropbox, since they’re still considering upgrading our…

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Your survey of the options was so helpful Mads, and thanks to Tod and Steve as well! You make a great point about the importance of ease of use for the client, and it’s interesting that you and Tod agree on that but come to opposite verdicts on Vimeo. Tod, may I ask, when you share vimeo drafts with clients, do you have them use the f…

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Hi,

Just wondering what site/tool people prefer for getting feedback on video drafts: Vimeo? Frame.io? Dropbox Relay? (this is a new one, to me at least, that our IT department is asking if we’d like to start using https://www.dropbox.com/replay) I”d be grateful for any quick responses on people’s preferred site/tool for this. To this point, for…

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Never mind on that last question. I figured it out.

May I ask a last question on this? What’s the quickest way to white balance with the C70? With my Mark III or IV, I’d just snap a photo of a white card (or sheet of paper) near my subject’s face, and use it for the reference image to get the white balance. On the C70 I see different controls that still seem foreign after all my DSLR use. Will…

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Great tips and will do, thanks Ricardo! Very interesting on color science, and I could definitely could use some instruction there. Will look into all of it, thanks again!

Thanks so much, Usama and Ricardo! Usama, those were great tips and tutorials. It sounded like the first tutorial on automatic exposure settings like auto ISO and auto iris was generally recommending using those auto settings, which seemed different from the DSLR world, but sounds great if I understood that right. Just let me know if you or others…

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I’m a long time user of Canon DSLR cameras like the Mk 3 and 4, and recently got a C70. I’m struggling with the adjustment like managing the exposure and overall look of shots, or recording options like XF-AVC v MP4 or 8 bit v 10bit. I’d be grateful for any tips on tutorials or resources that might help, particularly if they’re geared toward…

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Lots of interesting and helpful points, thanks so much, Mads and Stephen.

Mads, that’s very interesting about Time Machine not working with iCloud drive. I’m wondering if that’s why my helpdesk colleagues advised against Time Machine at one point. Do you think that’s why? That’s a great tip on that Samsung SSD T7 drive too, which seems like it…

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This is very helpful, thanks so much Dennis. I’ll try to adopt many if not all of these practices. I seem to remember the helpdesk people at my employer saying they didn’t like Time Machine for some reason. Not sure why, but we are largely a PC place with a small minority of Mac users. So if I’m remembering that right, maybe they just didn’t know…

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Is it better to save your projects on your computer, an external drive, or in the cloud? I have a 2019 MacBook Pro with 1 TB of storage. I’ve always saved my projects on my Mac’s internal drive, but noticed recently that that ppro projects folder was taking up more than 200 GB of space on my Mac. If people like the cloud, which I’ve never really…

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Hi, trying to chime in here again, in case Graham didn’t see my response to his suggestion, and sees this one. Graham, I was hoping to get your take on the challenge I ran into applying your precomp technique. For some reason, when I tried to reply to you Wednesday, instead of to myself I guess, I wasn’t able to do that. I’d be grateful for any…

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Thanks so much, Graham, for this helpful reply and video tutorial! You have a great teaching style. The method of creating a precomp seemed perfect to get solve this issue, just like you suggested, except one aspect I can’t seen to solve in my text. Unlike the ‘first name’ text in your tutorial, in my gold texture text I’m not able to create the…

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Do newer AFX versions (I have version 23) allow you to add texture to 3D text within the Cinema 4D 3D Renderer? I’m trying to make fancy-looking, shiny gold 3D text, but understand there are limitations on aspects like track mattes if you’re using Cinema 4D, that one might use to add texture to 2D text. So I’m grateful for any thoughts on this, or…

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Thanks for your response and those helpful tips, Graham! I’ll look at those approaches, and especially appreciate the idea of making my own ‘diopter’ effect using adjustment layers along with the Bulge and Magnify FX. I’ll update my post later with any results.

Thanks again for your response,

Neil

I’m producing a video where I want to simulate the effect of looking through a lens, in a visually interesting way. There’s an AFX plug-in I came across called ‘Diopter,’ from a firm called The Waenderer https://youtu.be/ij8de9mrNuQ. However, when I try to download the trial version to test it, on to my Macbook, I can’t seem to do so successfully.…

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in looking for a solution here, one option I came across is Wondershare Filmora.

https://filmora.wondershare.net/filmora-video-editor.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwhNWZBhB_EiwAPzlhNpHVKzfzYrTruaWL9TkANgE85wETimBlzH5M0nrHps6L8Lrnsymp2hoC_o4QAvD_BwE

So I’d be interested, too, if anyone has used that, and has any feedback?

Thanks a lot, Neil

In looking around some more, Wondershare Filmora looks like it might be a good option.

https://filmora.wondershare.net/filmora-video-editor.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwhNWZBhB_EiwAPzlhNpHVKzfzYrTruaWL9TkANgE85wETimBlzH5M0nrHps6L8Lrnsymp2hoC_o4QAvD_BwE

So please let me know if anyone’s used that and has feedback.

Just circling back on my main question here, in case any insights occur. Is there a simple-ish app that non-video-people could use themselves on their everyday computers, like Thinkpad PCs for example, to make basic edits to their zoom recordings if need be? I’d be grateful for any suggestions. Typical requests include deleting the start portion w…

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Hi,

I’m a video producer at a nonprofit, and get a lot of requests from colleagues to edit their event videos, especially Zoom webinars these days, before I upload them to our Youtube. Typical requests include deleting the start portion when they’re waiting for people to join, cutting out a portion where there were brief technical difficulties, or…

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Hi,

I’m a video producer at a nonprofit, and I get a lot of requests from colleagues to edit their Zoom webinars. Typical requests include deleting the start portion when they’re waiting for people to join, cutting out a portion where there were brief technical difficulties, or adding a title slide such as a jpeg version of a Powerpoint cover they…

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Thanks for the heads-up Greg. I should’ve attached that tips doc as a PDF, which I’m doing here. Hopefully it will be accessible now, but let me know if you can’t open. And like I said, I welcome any suggestions for improvement.

Sorry for my slow reply, Jerry. And sure happy to share that how-to guide. I’d welcome any feedback or suggestions for improvement, if anything occurs to you or others, as I continue to share this with most of my remote interviewees. And that guide you shared looks great too! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Patrick, good point on sharing examples of self-taping with smartphones. Those are below. Just FYI, I always advise these remote subjects to use window light, to simplify that challenge, and give them reference pic examples on framing their shots, where they should be in the frame etc. Just let me know if you have further thoughts, and Mark…

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I work as a nonprofit video producer, and especially since the pandemic, it’s often helpful to ask remote video subjects to record themselves. For that, I’ve found smartphones offer the best combination of good video and audio quality (much better than laptop-based options like Zoom recordings, with the tinny laptop audio etc), and ease of use. So…

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Hi,

Many thanks again to Cliff, Eric and Ryan for your responses on this a couple of weeks back. Just circling back one last time, as I’m about to present the different options to my employers. Based on the helpful feedback so far, I’m planning to suggest 3 options: the C70 (the preferred alternative), the R5 and the R6. But just wanted to make sur…

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Many thanks Cliff, really appreciate you breaking down the R6 and R series options so well. Honestly, I’ve only worked with the Mark III or IV for the last 8 years. May I ask another one please, if you or others have thoughts on this aspect? Another big motivation for buying (or asking my nonprofit employer to buy) the camera is I do a lot of…

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I really appreciate this note, Cliff, about the EOS R6 with an Atomos Ninja 5. Having a cheaper option will help enormously with my nonprofit employer, as I’m still looking, and it’s very helpful to have all your technical notes too (including on the ability to use old lenses, with an adapter). Just so I understand, is the EOS R6 so much cheaper…

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