Next meeting Tuesday 18 October

Hi Everyone,

At the last meeting members requested that we get down to basic editing of a video. So, on Tuesday, after we've seen all of your videos,  we'll hold an editing workshop where everybody works on the same project.

I will give everybody a folder with 18 clips I shot last year at Eagle Farm Markets, so everyone will do the same. We'll all help each other with the project.

It'll be a real Videographers' Workshop, So please bring your computers and editing software, whatever it is you use.

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY

Next Meeting Tuesday 4 October 11.00am at the Library

Hi Members and welcome to  U3A Term 4, the last for this year. We hope you'll have a few videos to show us of functions and challenges over the last few months.

The main topic for the meeting will be audio levels. We've all seen videos where sections are too loud, others too soft and you end up constantly adjusting the volume of your TV or monitor. 

We'll discuss what the audio levels should be and how to set them for best results. We'll briefly discuss Audio Limiters and what their function is.

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY

Today's Meeting

Hi Members,

Today was the last meeting of Term 3. Unless told otherwise, I will enrol you again for Term 4.

I was very impressed with the quality of your work presented this morning. You guys captured the Brisbane Port Facility very well. The videos were inventive, well produced and edited with appropriate music and some very funny segments.

The main topic was using motion backgrounds for both titling and special effects.

The challenge for the next meeting is to produce a 1-2 min video using one or more of the motion backgrounds on the folder I handed out this morning. Or better still, create your own motion backgrounds. Use it on a fancy title or as a PIP (Picture in Picture clips.

Roy passed on a folder with over a thousand sound effects. I tried to copy them onto members memory sticks but we ran out of time to pass them on to everyone. If you missed out, please bring along your laptop at the next meeting and yon can copy them that way which is much faster than onto a memory stick,

The next Meeting is in Term 4 on Tuesday 4 October 11.00am at the Logan North Library.

Next Meeting Tuesday 6 September 11.00am

Hi members,

Hopefully we'll be able to enjoy a few 1-2 minute videos of our recent visit to the Port of Brisbane. I am looking forward to see those.

The main topic on Tuesday is the use of moving backgrounds for titling and special effects in video productions.
Bring along a memory stick. I will be handing out a folder with a number of background loops you can use in your videos.

I will give some demonstrations of how background loops can be used in titling and video in general.

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY

Next Meeting - Tuesday 16 August - 10.00AM

Hi Members,

We'll be visiting the Port of Brisbane on Tuesday 16 August at 10.00am NOT 11.00am

This will be a great opportunity to capture the activities of an operational port. Hopefully there will be some ships in the port at the time. We'll meet at 10.00am at the Visitors Centre, from where we go up to the top floor both to the viewing area and cafe.

The Port of Brisbane is on Fisherman Island 

Map of the Port Area

We'll meet at the Visitors Centre

View of the Port Area

We will not be allowed to film on the ground floor, only from the Observation Deck on the top floor.

Bird Area

There is a fenced off area for which we'll get the key to enter the enclosure where usually migratory birds settle for visits. 

The lagoon at the Visitors Centre always holds good numbers of waterbirds including Black Swan, Australian Pelican, White Ibis, Royal Spoonbill, Great and Intermediate Egret, Chestnut Teal, Grey Teal, and many other well known species. Pink-eared Duck, Buff-banded Rail and Australasian Shoveler have also been seen here. 

The car parking area is a great spot to see and photograph Mangrove Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater and Rainbow Lorikeets, particularly when the Grevilllea and Bottle-brushes are in flower. Striped Honeyeater, Eastern Spinebill, Scaly-breasted and Rainbow Lorikeets, Spangled Drongo, Superb Fairy-wrens also visit the flowering native shrubs in the car park.

Cooking Challenge

The challenge for last week. Members were asked to produce a 1-2 minute cooking video for the class to admire. We can't show all of them but here are a few submissions.

Here is Will's PIZZA KING movie, including blood and bandaids.



Here is Anton's SANDWICH PROJECT movie. I can honestly say, I have never eaten such a masterpiece of a sandwich.



Michael showed us how to cook Chinese Sausage in his movie, CHINESE COOKING DEMONSTRATION, a mouth-watering meal.



Diane who claimed she can't cook, showed us how to poach an egg in her movie, DIANE'S QUICK LUNCH.  Just to prove that she can cook, if only an egg.



Bill devised a quick method to cook a chook in his movie COOKING A CHOOK THE MOVIE. Not recommended in timber dwellings. The kitchen renovations are nearly completed and Diane started talking to him again.

Next Meeting - Tuesday 2 August - 11.00am

Hi Members,

How did you go with the challenge for the week, producing a 1-2 minute cooking video? Hopefully you had some fun coming up with a masterpiece.

So, we'll start admiring them first up on Tuesday.

The main topic will be on the subject Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound in films and videos, a vast but very important subject in filmmaking.

We'll be discussing how we can enhance our videos drastically by applying sound and sound effects.

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY

Today's Meeting

Hi Members,

It was great to see so many wonderful videos presented by members. The challenge to show interviews utilising cutaway shots was taken up my most who showed their productions. Well done.

The main topic was a demonstration of Final Cut Pro X.

We looked at basic editing techniques, adding, moving, trimming clips.

We had a look at the Optical Flow function, unique to Final Cut Pro X.

Then we had a look at Final Cut Pro X Chroma key (Green Screen Effect)

And finally we looked at adding a cinematic effect to our videos.

The challenge for next meeting on the 2 August:

Produce a 1-2 minute cooking video. Make it funny. 

Next Meeting, Tuesday 19 July -11.00am

Hi Members,

A new U3A term has started and we meet for the first time on Tuesday at 11.00am at the library.

Hopefully you all have some short videos to show us, especially of the exercise we talked about at the Roma Street Gardens, that is, an interview with cutaway shots. Looking forward to see those.

In this term, I'll try to look at some of the many editing systems available these days. We already saw a demonstration by Roy of Adobe Premier, last term.

So, on Monday, we'll examine Apple's Final Cut Pro X.

FCP-X Colour Board

Video Scopes

Neat Audio Functions

SEE YOU ALL ON TUESDAY

Interviewing

Over the last year, we have been discussing lots of video techniques we can employ in our own videos to make them more appealing to our viewers. The time has come to put some of those techniques into practice. So from Term 3, starting 19 July for this club, we will start each meeting concentrating on video subjects and topics we have set as challenges. I do hope that more members will from now on participate not just the few who have in the past. If  you need help with these, please talk to me.

At the last meeting, we looked how a BBC documentary was constructed. Including interviewing techniques, especially using cutaway shots make a lengthy interview more interesting. 

So, on Tuesday when we go on a video shoot at Roma Street Parklands, the challenge will be for members to include a short interview either from another member or a voice-over from the videographer while shooting. 

Use either a tripod or a steady handheld method

Then when you are editing your footage in your editing software, insert some cutaway shots to break up the interview.

If you are not totally sure of how this is done, feel free to come and talk to me.

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY 11am

AT THE MELANGE CAFE

ROMA STREET GARDENS.

Next Meeting Tuesday 7 June - 11.00am

Hi Members,

Bring along your short videos for us to enjoy on Tuesday morning. For the main topic, we'll closely examine the structure of a BBC documentary and look of how it is put together and what we can learn from it in our own film making.

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY

Next Meeting - Tuesday 24 May - 11.00am

Hi Members,

Wasn't it fun last Tuesday at the Brisbane Tramway Museum. The volunteers there really did a great job running the various trams just for us, as well as providing us with morning tea. We were very privileged to experience their hospitality.

Hopefully we can all enjoy some of your 1 - 2 minute clips of that event next Tuesday. Or anything else you have to show us.

The main topic of the meeting will be presented by Roy, who is going to give us a demonstration of Adobe Premier. which a few members are now using. 

Adobe Premier Editing Software

SEE YOU ALL NEXT TUESDAY

Enhancing your Videos

Now that you have shot and edited you video footage, it is time to spruce it up and turn it into a worthwhile production.

As you would cook a meal and serve it to your friends, you would add condiments to enhance the flavour before you'd serve it up. You wouldn't want them to eat a bland meal as you wouldn't want them to watch a boring video.

1 - VIDEO QUALITY

Whichever formt your video editor compiles your project into, convert it to MP4, using H.264 Codec. H.264 was created to provide good video quality at substantially lower bitrates than previous standards. Consequently it uses less memory but provides good quality video.

Most likely your video editing software can or will already compile your vide into H.264 format. If not, there are free or inexpensive video format converters on the market that let you do that.

2 - TITLES

All editing software has the capability to let you add titles and sub-titles to your videos. BE CREATIVE. Don't just use the first title that is available to you. To really make a title stand out, pick a complementary piece of music just for the title sequence.

Here are some basic titles available from most editing software

3 - Subtitles

Don't be afraid to use subtitles to point out events, locations or important information. Your editing software has ready-made templates of subtitles. But if you really want to be unique, create your own templates with your graphics software. Your limit is your imagination. here is one I created with Photoshop.

How about creating your own, using a graphics program, such as Photoshop, Gimp etc.

Title created in Photoshop

How to do this:

In Photoshop create the title behind a 'Green Screen'

In your editor, place the 'Green Screen' above the timeline containing the scene that will carry the title.

Then 'key' in the green title, and the text will be displayed in your scene.

4 - Sound and Sound Effects

Your sound track is very important. Research your music. Use upbeat music in fast paced videos, and slower tracks when the action is subdued. Add appropriate Sound Effects to enhance your video quality. Sound can totally transform a video. Check this out. Here is a simple title scene modified with spooky music and a few SFXs.

Last meeting of term 1

Hi Everyone,

Today we had the last meeting of Term 1 for the year.

We saw some terrific videos this morning of the recent Berrinba outing as well as Will's London Experience and Roy's recent visit to RAAF Amberley. It's very good to see members adopting some of the filming and editing techniques we've been talking about this term.

As our main topic, we talked about Composition of our videos.

Rule of Thirds

Golden Ratio also known as the Fibonacci  Spiral

Use triangles to frame shots

Full Shots

Medium Shots

Close Shots

Balanced Shots

Leave some headroom to balance the clip

Not too much or the clip looks unnatural

Don't cut the Chin

For Close shots it's ok to cut the top of the head

Person looking out of shot looks trapped and confuses the viewer

Person looking out of shot looks trapped and confuses the viewer

These were a few tips we talked about Composition this morning.

We're now on a break. From Term 2, we'll only meet on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month. Term 2 starts officially on Monday 11 April so we therefore resume again on Tuesday 19 April, being the 3rd Tuesday of the month. Keep producing your videos over the break and bring along some 1minute videos using some of these composition rules.

Next Meeting (and last for this term) 22 March

Hi Everyone,

I hope we'll be able to see lots of videos from Berrinba last Tuesday. I am looking forward to those.

The main topic we'll be discussing is one of the most important subjects of any film maker:

COMPOSITION

We'll be looking at a video from another Brisbane filmmaker who will show us how to properly compose our shots.

We look at framing a shot

We'll explain using lines

We'll look at how to use patterns

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY

Tuesday's Meeting

On Tuesday, we expanded the topic of our excellent guest speaker, professional filmmaker  Hayden Lowry from the previous meeting, namely GIVING OUR VIDEOS THE FILM LOOK.

We took a brief history lesson of how come we use 24 (25) frames per second in connection with a shutter speed double of that 1/48 (1/50). Simply because at those figures, a film looks reasonably true to the eye and it is most economical in film and developing costs, so these values have been retained even now that most of us use digital video recording methods.

We looked at the various picture ratio formats film makers use on their productions.

We looked at colouring our videos to give them 'The Film Look'. Especially the 'In Look' Blue and Orange.



We also discussed how we can turn our videos from 'Day' to 'Night' look.

Finally, Roy showed us how to capture smoke in front of a black screen and superimpose it onto a video clip. And Rod showed us his video of his recent cruise experience.

So on Tuesday 15 March 2016, we go on a film shoot as follows:

LOCATION:

BERNINBA WETLANDS

WAYNE GOSS DRIVE

BROWNS PLAINS 4118

TIME:

9.00am

The aim is to not only film the wildlife and flora but also to concentrate on filming each other, filming. A bit like 'Behind The Scene' documentary And then give it The Film Look in post processing.

SEE YOU AT BERINBA ON TUESDAY 9am