DV for Teachers

While looking for information about DV Expo (will they offer one on the east coast next spring or summer? Don’t know yet), I discovered EventDV, “The Event Videographer’s Resource.” On the Table of Contents page for the current (July 2008) issue, right at the top, is this tutorial: Cut Lines: Using Apple Keynote as a Motion Graphics Tool.

In this installment of Cut Lines, we’ll look at a growing trend among Final Cut users: utilizing Keynote as a quick-and-easy motion graphics tool. Everything you can do with graphics in Keynote can also be done in LiveType or Motion or directly in Final Cut Pro, and those larger apps can do much more than Keynote. The value in Keynote is that what it can do is really cool, really fast, and really easy. I’ve found I can do some graphical elements in Keynote faster and easier than I can in any of the Final Cut Studio (FCS) apps. Even with its limited abilities in this area, it’s still a valued part of my video graphics arsenal.

This is a really good idea! An easy video editor, really, if for making how-to tutorials to post on the web, too – this gets me thinkin’. Thanks to Ben Balser and EventDV for the tutorial.

Duplicate unencrypted DVDs in How To Make Copies of DVDs. This will only work with computer-burned DVDs, not encrypted ones, like movie rentals. Make backups of your software DVDs, for example, or duplicate projects from iDVD. Even make backup copies of iMovie project files if you think you’ll want to change your edits later, but need the disk space now.

OS X’s Burn Folders are explained in Burning Data CDs and DVDs in Leopard and Tiger. I’ve never used burn Folders as I have always used Roxio Toast Titanium, but if you want to use only what comes with your Mac, this is easier than I expected.

Derrick Story on making cool slideshows on DVD:iPhoto 08 to iDVD – My Favorite Method.

Derrick contributes to the MacDevCenter at O’Reilly and blogs and podcasts about photography at The Digital Story.

It’s not quite free software, but it’s a free calculator for planning DVDs in DVD Studio Pro, thanks to Ken Stone. You’ll need Excel, although I would guess one of the open source office suites would work as well if you don’t want to or can’t invest in Microsoft software. Ken says,

Bit Budget – Sometime ago I told the readers at my Discussion Board that I would try to obtain a Bit Budget for them. This week I was able to acquire the Bit Budget from Jeff, so here it is. This Bit Budget is for 4.7 GB DVD-5 single layer and 8.54 GB DVD-9 Dual layer Standard Definition DVDs and requires Excel to run. It is very easy to use, simply enter the duration for your audio assets, either AIFF or Dolby 2, Subtitle streams, motion menus, DVD-ROM content and the total run time for your video. Your average Bit Rate and Maximum Bit Rate will be calculated for you automatically.

A fascinating article on the whys and hows of DVD and CD media.

Bottom line: DVD+R better than DVD-R; Taiyo Yuden is the best brand.

The ever-reliable folks at Ken Stone present Working with Dual Layer Media, a tutorial I’ve known I’ll need one of these days. Since the price of dual layer disks and drives keeps dropping, it won’t belong until that’s what people will expect, even in schools.

How did I miss this one? Busy doing other things and reading other places on the web, I suppose. I just found DV Guru, and it’s full of tips, workflow ideas, links to new products, and industry assessments. Another site to check every day, and worth it. For one example, they link to FilmSite.org, Tim Dirks’ huge site with historical timelines, synopses of classic films, and much more. It’s been around for ten years! An excellent augmentation for any film studies class. Beware the pop-up ads, though. Tsk.

Here’s another example: a post about the importance of integrating your audio with your video edits. For some of us, it’s a no-brainer, but not everyone picks that up. DV Guru offers good info for experienced editors and newbies too, and a busy comments section to boot.

Flip4Mac, the folks who made it possible for Windows Media video to play on Macs in the QuickTime player, now offer the Episode media encoder, with a wide variety of input and output formats, with a standard version at $395 and Pro version for $895. See the website for details.

Qualified education customers can apply for a 20% academic discount.

Stephen Schleicher answers questions in the new feature at Digital Producer.com, called Questions Answered. The first installment explains Customizing iDVD Themes.

A very handy hint from Ken Stone , to make copy or so-called ‘image’ of your completed DVD for thorough testing before burning to DVD media.

In DVD Studio Pro and iDVD we can preview or simulate our DVD… as there is the opportunity to catch errors early on, but just because the DVD seems to work properly in simulation, you can still burn coasters. This is where the disc image comes in, as a disc image is the finished product, and can be tested in the Apple DVD Player. This is a real world test of your finished DVD and is much more accurate way to test.