Resources & Links
Resources
Web Sites
Books
In alphabetical order:
Avid Handbook, The – "Brimming with workflow efficiencies for the experienced editor, The Avid Handbook teaches you the hows and whys of operating the system in order to reach streamlined, creative end solutions. The book emphasizes time-saving techniques, shortcuts, and workflow procedures."
Avid Media Composer Cookbook – I wrote this book as an additional resource for Avid Media Composer users ranging from those just beginning through those with intermediate experience. Its 435 pages are packed with Avid Media Composer editing essentials and far beyond, including tips, tricks, and explanations not found in other publications. Its "cookbook" (step-by-step), task-based approach (plus its three appendices) will help users at all experience levels gain a deeper, more thorough understanding of the software so they can spend less time dealing with technical and operational issues and instead focus on being creative. Much more information about the book is available at this link.
Cut By Cut – This book includes editing advice from all types of editors (movie, TV, music video, news, commercial, sound designers, etc.). It is divided into three stages, corresponding to the three stages of post production: Stage 1, Setting Up and Organizing; Stage 2, Editing Practices and Procedures; and Stage 3, Completing Your Project. Cut by Cut contains 35 tables, over 100 photos and illustrations, 15 printable forms, a meaty section on how to land that elusive editing job, an extensive glossary, and an editor’s resource guide.
Film Editing: Great Cuts Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know – "If you’ve ever wanted to understand how movies are put together, Film Editing: Great Cuts Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know provides an easy, fun way to learn. With 600 captivating frames from recent movies, it helps you see through movies to their building blocks – the cuts – that make up their scenes and sequences."
Film Editing Room Handbook: How to Tame the Chaos of the Editing Room (4th Edition), The – "The Film Editing Room Handbook systematically explains everything you need to know about the editing process, exactly as it exists in the making of major motion pictures. Complicated technical concepts are made totally clear and easily understandable in this absolutely essential book for all assistant editors, indie filmmakers, and those who aspire to break into the industry.” – Mark Goldblatt, A.C.E., editor of The Terminator, Starship Troopers, and True Lies
Filmmakers Handbook, The – "Each of the eighteen chapters is a detailed guide to one aspect of film production, from camera to film image, through picture, dialogue and sound editing to a full exposition of what goes on in film labs and why. Each specialist chapter is a handbook in itself, with explanatory diagrams, photos and sketches that support the text and put it in a physical context for clear understanding."
Make the Cut: A Guide to Becoming a Successful Assistant Editor in Film and TV – "Being a successful editor is about more than just knowing how to operate a certain piece of software, or when to make a certain transition. On the contrary, there are many unwritten laws and a sense of propriety that are never discussed or taught in film schools or in other books...." ~ "Make the Cut explains the postproduction editing workflow with utmost clarity and illustrates with abundant examples. Priceless! The book reflects a great depth of knowledge, that clearly has come from years of experience and accumulated wisdom. This book inspires excellence and will provide any aspiring editor with a huge leg up." – Howard E. Smith, A.C.E.
Nonlinear - A Field Guide to Digital Video and Film Editing – "Nonlinear is an engrossing and witty guide to computer-based editing and distribution of film and video ... [it] does a good job going from very basic to very technical, all in accessible language. If you have an interest in nonlinear editing, you'll definitely appreciate Nonlinear." 4.5 stars out of 5 - Computer Videomaker magazine
Nonlinear Editing: Storytelling, Aesthetics, & Craft – "If you are serious about improving your knowledge and skills as a filmmaker, you owe it to yourself to get a copy of this book and keep it handy." - Jim Kanter, CreativeCow.net
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Films
The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing – "If you're a filmmaker or an aspiring critic, it may well be essential viewing. This documentary is precisely what it's title purports to be, an in-depth and instructive look at movie editing that literally spans 100 years of film history..."
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Software & Hardware
Software & hardware that I use, in alphabetical order:
Adapter – "A free video converter for Mac & PC. It converts avi, saves flash .flv, crops video and more! It even works with audio and image files so you can convert wav to mp3 and transform jpg files! This tiny freeware program lets you quickly and easily change any file type to any other file type."
Adobe – Creators of indespensible applications such as:
Photoshop, After Effects, Dreamweaver, and Encore.
Audacity® – Free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.
Avid Media Composer – Industry-leading nonlinear editing, effects and color correction application.
BinaryBiz.com – "For over a decade, BinaryBiz has developed innovative tools that aid in recovering lost data." I've personally used their VirtualLab with great results when several other alternatives either did not do the job or were prohibitively expensive.
Blip.tv – Free, easy and customizable video hosting with no watermark.
Drupal – "Drupal is a free [open-source] software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations are using Drupal to power scores of different web sites..."
G-Technology – Media storage ranging from super small portable drives and RAIDS to "SAN-ready RAID storage solutions for SD, HD and 2K production."
Handbrake – "HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows."
MacTheRipper – Freeware DVD ripping application.
Mouse Locator – Useful freeware for instructors and presenters.
MPEG Streamclip – "MPEG Streamclip is a powerful free video converter, player, editor for Mac and Windows. It can play many movie files, not only MPEGs; it can convert MPEG files between muxed/demuxed formats for authoring; it can encode movies to many formats, including iPod; it can cut, trim and join movies. MPEG Streamclip can also download videos from YouTube and Google by entering the page URL."
ScreenFlow – "Capture the contents of your entire desktop at the same time as your video camera, microphone and computer's audio. Sophisticated editing tools allow you to create incredible screencasts in no time. The finished result is a QuickTime or Windows Media movie, ready for publishing to your website or blog."
Snapz Pro X – "Snapz Pro X allows you to effortlessly record anything on your [computer] screen, saving it as a QuickTime movie or screenshot..."
Statcounter (with both free and paid services) provides an invisible web tracker, highly configurable hit counters, and real-time detailed web stats. Insert a simple piece of code on your web page or blog and you will be able to analyse and monitor all the visitors to your website in real-time.
TimeEdition is a free application (Mac, PC, Linux) that makes it easy to keep track of working hours for various clients and specific tasks which may be billed at different rates. Perfect for customer billing and/or monitoring the duration of projects. Note: I highly suggest you get in the habit of backing-up the database file after every session (the command is in the File Menu).
VLC Media Player – "VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac ...) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols. ... It can also be used as a media converter or a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on networks."
Weebly.com – While looking for easy web solutions for a friend, I came across Weebly. It's free (with additional paid services if you want them). Plus it's so easy that there is no excuse for anyone not to have a presence on the web.
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Filmmaking Web Sites
Filmmaker.Com is chock full of useful information on every aspect of the filmmaking process from editing and screenwriting to producing and distribution. The site features a huge link database of filmmaking/filmmaker sites, the top ten links of the week, and tons of fun and useful information. Well worth a bookmark.
Back-End Music Library is a group of professional composers with a common goal of supplying the best music tracks to the production community worldwide. Their music library is primarily focused on major network and cable television programming, but is useful for all types of media. If they don't have the perfect tracks for your productions, they'll create whatever you need to get the job done. After you turn to Back-End Music Library, you will begin enjoying reduced upfront costs on sync/license fees, personal customer service, and have access to the best music available for your productions.
Hollywood Shorts Monthly Film Festival (Los Angeles) is a monthly festival series introducing emerging directors, producers and their production teams to the Los Angeles film and television community through their short subject films, videos and animations.
DVshop.ca is a web site filled with many useful links and discussions about all things DV. They also run a store in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. So, stop by if you're in the area.
Desktop Video offers lots of great information and links for editors and content creators.
24p.com is a consulting service for film and HD based productions for television and theatrical release. 24p.com will also be the online presence for the soon to be published book: “24P, Handbook for Film and HD based Post Production.” 24p.com will also be a resource for content creators looking for tools and solutions for post production processes using film, 1080p/24, or 720p/24 HD sources. Thanks for this link recommendation go to Rupert W. from Root6 in the UK.
BestVideomaker is run by "Ed," a prize-winning film and video maker. His website features his reel, filmmaking articles and videography links.
Odd Duck Films is a portal to Arkansas Independent Film & Video. Site includes their projects, script downloads, links and contacts.
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Editing Related Web Sites
Avid Technology – Leading industry nonlinear video and audio ediitng software. Site offers product and user community information.
GeniusDV – If you're in the Florida or Ohio areas, looking for top-notch training in Avid, Final Cut Pro, After Effects (and more), then be sure to check out GeniusDV.
Back-End Music Library is a group of professional composers with a common goal of supplying the best music tracks to the production community worldwide. Their music library is primarily focused on major network and cable television programming, but is useful for all types of media. If they don't have the perfect tracks for your productions, they'll create whatever you need to get the job done. After you turn to Back-End Music Library, you will begin enjoying reduced upfront costs on sync/license fees, personal customer service, and have access to the best music available for your productions.
ToolFarm.com – Great resource for many host applications, including Avid.
Steve Cohen – Steve is an Avid guru, and Steve's a giver. What a great combination! He shares a variety of Avid tips and tricks.
Zerocut.Com – Alan Stewart's Technical papers page. Contains incredibly valuable, and useful information. This is a top site on the internet for Avid users all over the world.
Avid-L2 Mailing List – Subscribe to the new Avid Mailing List and get connected to Avid editors world-wide. The primary purpose of this list is to provide a Q&A forum for issues surrounding Avid products, and those who edit with them.
Grant's Avid Tips – He's an Aussie with a blog of great Avid tips. Be sure to also check out Grant's Twitter page.
The Joy of Film Editing – Gael Chandler's site aims to be a resource to help you edit your project and propel your show to the finish line. Moviegoers and filmmakers alike will appreciate the site’s Cut of the Month feature, Gael's blog, and finding out about her books.
www.AvidUserGroup.nl – Netherland's Avid User Group has quite a bit of useful information in English as well as Dutch. Stop by and take a look around.
Motion Picture Editors Guild (U.S.) – offers quite a bit of information on editing, including technical issues and Avid user tips.
Personal Web Sites
The Bronx Boys – This is the official web site for the documentary "The Bronx Boys", about 15 men that have remained friends since first meeting in kindergarten 62 years ago. This award-winning film, hosted by Carl Reiner, aired on Cinemax and PBS; and, subsequently, the subjects of the film were the focus of a TIME magazine story.
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