Golden Rule of Compression
The Golden rule of Compression (above all others) is this:
Try to compress your video only once. Each time you compress your product, you're taking a chance and lowering it's final quality.
I keep seeing people use tools like Handbrake to rip a DVD into MPG4 and then use another tool, like Apple Compressor to make ProRes. That's taking a distribution quality codec (MPEG2) taking it to another distribution quality (h.264) and then to an editorial codec.
Try, when possible to only transform your video once - at the end of your editorial process.
Compression Tips like this can be found by attending sessions at Post Production World at NAB (this link includes links to non-PPW sessions)
Build your photo montage to music quickly (Premiere)
Everyone sooner or later is asked to build a photo montage. Here's how to build them quick in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Drop your music in, play back and press the M key for markers on the music during the beat. Then use the Automate to Sequence button at the bottom of the project panel.
Click to view. Switch from sequentially to "at unnumbered markers"
Great feature/Fix the most annoying part of Apple Mail...
...where it brings up someone's name/email you want/can't stand/need to forget....
Or can't remember. You can search the list too. Killer.
Window > Previous Recipient
Onavo - a lifesaver for international Travellers
Short version: Install the free app Onavo on your iPhone or Android phone and get at least double from your expensive international data plan.
I travel quite a bit. About 2-3 times a year I go overseas - each time I experiment with different ways to stay connected.
International travelers: Please practice good data procedures. Your smartphone is a computer - with access to your passwords, photos and possibly banking information. Be sure to turn on any wipe/lock if lost features to your device! Also make sure you to reset your data before you leave, stay in airplane mode as much as possible, and turn data roaming off (until you need it) to minimize your costs.
I'm using ATT - their data plans are fair at best - and data is what I need the most when traveling. Google maps if neede. Maybe translation software. But it's $60 for 300mb (note - your ATT voicemails will ALWAYS come through a cellular signal.)
Onavo Extended it's a VPN (virtual private network) which routes all your data to their servers, where they dynamically recompress your data to get it smaller. It's going to slow down your data a little - but double/triple or more your data plan by compressing everything.
Start their app and it'll give you the ability to add a VPN to your device.
Once installed you can truly see what apps are taking up data (there's even a second app called Onavo Count to see that granularity.
Finally, when you get home, check your data usage (take screenshots just in case you need to prove it!) and uninstall/turn off Onavo.
Avoid a PITA iPhone/iPad problem: videos
I add quite a bit of video to my devices.
The problem? iTunes. You add that one video via iTunes? Now you have to wait for the six plus sync process. Horrible if you're in a rush...and if the video isn't in MP4/h.264 format that matches what works? Again, you're SOL.
There's a way to totally avoid the sync process.
Get a video player app and add your video on the App section of itunes. Today gplayer is free. Add your video to the Apps Tab of your device...go to the bottom and choose an app at the bottom that has file sharing capabilities.
Bonus - Apps like Gplayer will play video that doesn't conform to hardware playback.
Advanced Media Composer tips
Tip sessions are my favorite. They're unique, custom to the room - based on everyone's needs. My favorite saying is:
“I want to show you something so cool it makes you cry”
...and then find a dozen or so things to make each person in the room cry.
But there're no notes from sessions like this because it's so custom. If you have a question about something I did during the session, feel free to ask me in the comments or email me.
Advanced Adobe Premiere Pro tips
I love tips sessions - they're always about 'Can I find something really new and powerful that this group doesn't know.' And my goal always is to find at least five items for every person in the room.
Since Tips sessions are custom to the room - there are no notes; if you look at your notes and have questions email them or leave them in the comments.
The rule is cool/quick/smart about which items I pick. Sure, it might be nice to have insight to the how/why of setting up Adobe Premiere Pro sequences - but that's really a blog post. For example, it's about the idea that you can render faster if someone shows you how to create previews at half resolution.
The problem with tip sessions is tips one the one above (which I didn't show) is unique to the crowd. I usually come in with a dozen or so cool tips and let the crowd tell me where they're frustrated/lost with the software.
I didn't do the above tip during the session, so I wrote it out below.
If you create a sequence preview and switch it's editing mode to custom, you can halve the vertical and horizontal resolutions of your previews in Adobe Premiere Pro. This is only useful if you export Media at the default setting (use previews off.) If you turn this on, you'll screw up your exports. Keep "Use Previews" off if you want to use this technique.
Take your Preview size and set it to half - so 1920 becomes 960, 1080 becomes 540 - 960x540. If you're working in 720, that's 640x360.
Since we're calculating only 1/4 of the area - your previews will be 4x faster in Adobe Premiere Pro - and this tip works (at least) all the way back from version 5.
“This tip will quadruple the speed of your previews in Adobe Premiere Pro”