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AJA Kona - Mac
AJA HD10AVA Converter
CreativeCOW's Bob Zelin discusses how to turn your HDV VTR into a professional product using the amazing AJA HD10AVA converter. It takes the analog component HD signal from your Sony or JVC HDV VTR, and converts it to an HD-SDI signal that can go right into the HD-SDI input of your capture card.
Review
Bob Zelin |
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Art of the Edit
Exploring the Workflow of Good Eats
No matter what a television series is about, producing a series is all about workflow. The credits at the end of an episode list who did a particular task, but how they all work together is a story in itself. For a small part of that story on one show, meet -Good Eats-, the top-rated Food Network series.
Feature, People / Interview
Tim Wilson |
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Corporate Video
MediaFiler 2.0
MediaFiler 2.0 is a professional database software designed for the video production industry. It's an easy way to catalog, track, label, and organize your whole library of tapes and disks. In this article, Creative Cow Leader Aanarav Sareen takes a look at the software for use in his own production environment and determines that it is everything they say it is.
Review
Aanarav Sareen |
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Business & Marketing
Becoming Your Client's Voice
Creative Cow's Tim Kolb takes a look at the concept of 'voice' -- not the narrator's voice but the actual tone in which people and organizations communicate and how to relay that 'personality' to better convey your message.
Feature, Business
Tim Kolb |
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Adobe ULTRA
Serious Magic's Ultra2
CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Joaquin 'Kino' Gil writes a review on Serious Magic's ULTRA 2 Professional Keying Software with Vector Keying Technology and tells readers, ''[Before ULTRA2] each matte had to be calibrated separately and the values adjusted almost on a frame by frame basis in order to get details like loose strands of hair, bluish shadows and reflections, grains of sand and other minutiae. Yes, it took forever [and] no motion tracking software, either. All of that effort, [and hours of work] very seriously done, is made moot today with this software tool from Serious Magic. ... The key is perfect to the extreme of perfectly keyed fine strands of hair, transparency and translucency.''
Review
Joaquin Gil |
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HDV Format
High Definition for the Road
Thanks to formats like DVCPro HD and HDV, High Definition can now be edited pretty much anywhere on just about any computer. Yeah, this is cool and you can really make your friends jealous just cutting away with your super slick laptop. But you know what's really slick? Editing Uncompressed High Definition anywhere. How about an Uncompressed editing workstation in a 25'' square box? No way? Way! Read on to find out about Wally's Traveling Box of Mystery and Intrigue...
Tutorial, Feature
Walter Biscardi |
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Cinematography
First Look: AspectCorrect(TM)
We've all done this at least once in our careers. You're shooting with a standard camera but you know you're going to letterbox later so you tape two pieces of paper to 'crop' the field monitor. Or you're trying to make sure an element in the shot is in safe title, so you use a grease pencil and approximate where safe title will be. You do what you have to do when you're out in the field, but of course you're never quite sure if it's accurate until you get back into the edit suite. In this article, Creativecow leader Walter Biscardi takes a first look at a handy 'widget' developed by Cinematographer and fellow COW leader, Clay Walker called AspectCorrect and determines that ''...This is just one of those cool little things that should make camera operators lives easier.''
Review
Walter Biscardi |
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G-Tech
The G-Tech G-Raid
For years Medea Corporation has been the hallmark of reliability when it comes to storage for the media industry. If you wanted big, fast storage with mission critical reliability, Medea was the drive array for you. Now comes its little brother, G-Technology Corporation. In this article, Creativecow leader reviews the G-Tech G-Raid and concludes...''This is the most versatile unit I've ever used with its ability to work seamlessly with anything up to 10bit uncompressed and just remain solid no matter the situation or machine it's connected to. '''
Review
Walter Biscardi |
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HDV Format
HDV vs HD: A Primer
Emmy Award winner, Tim Kolb discusses HDV and its place in the greater scope of HD production formats. Since the inception of the HDV format, we have seen many responces regarding the HDV format and how it fits alongside HDCam, DVCProHD, XDCam and other formats in the greater scope of the HD picture. In this article (which is taken from an HDV Format forum responce), Creative Cow's Tim Kolb gives what we feel is an exemplary job of dissecting the subject and clarifying the many components of the HD universe, HDV being one of those parts....
Tutorial, Feature
Tim Kolb |
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Cinematography
Vortex Media Warm Cards
In this article, CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Jim Harvey reviews Vortex Media Warm Cards and states, ''You know you do it. We all do it. It's not something that we brag about. It's not even something that we think about too much. White Balancing. Sure some guys carry a worn out piece of white paper, or they use the foamcore to set the camera. We've balanced on walls, notepaper, even the fat guy's t-shirt. It gets us by and we get on with the show. But as we are all professionals, shouldn't we have a professional system to white balance out gear and do it consistently? Well, we do and we can.'' Read on to discover an effective answer to your white balancing dilemmas.
Review
Jim Harvey |
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Adobe Premiere Pro
TBC Crossfire X-K3 Non-linear Editing Console
With people continually asking, "what edit desk do you use?" here at the COW forums, Creative Cow forum leader, Marco Solorio hopes to settle this question once and for all with his in-depth review of TBC's Crossfire X-K3 edit console. If you're in the market for a new editor's console or are just curious to know what's "out there", this should give you all the information you need to base your own judgment.
Review
Marco Solorio |
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Adobe Premiere Pro basics
Great Titles with the DV Codec
In this article, Philip Hodgetts gives us a few hints on how to make great titles with the DV Codec. In most cases, if you're using the DV Codec, you'll find that your titles at best will be good. If you want great quality, then you will need to follow most of these guideliness that Philip discusses but NOT compress to the DV Codec.
Tutorial
Philip Hodgetts |
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Adobe Premiere Pro basics
A Primer on NLE Video Quality
In this article, Ron Shook attempts in a relatively non-techy way to put some perspective on a range of quality issues inherent in today's Non-Linear Editing technology. Perhaps as you shop for your next NLE or the services of an NLE/editor, you will have a better background for asking significant questions and separating the important stuff from the selling hype.
Editorial, Tutorial
Ron Shook |
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Business & Marketing
What is Value?
Creative Cows Tim Kolb takes a look at the concept of value -- Its a topic that comes up over and over on the many forums in which Tim participates. In this article, Tim discusses the various factors involved in determining value and how to know if were getting our moneys worth.
Feature, Business
Tim Kolb |
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FireStore
Creative Cow looks at the FireStore from Focus Enhancements
Tim Kolb explores the FireStore system from Focus Enhancements. The FireStore allows camera operators to shoot directly to FireWire harddrives, allowing longer shoot times and also giving users the ability to hook the drive directly to their computers, avoiding the capture process. A real time saver.
Review
Tim Kolb |
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Corporate Video
Corporate Clients: What do they want?
Tim Kolb of Creative Cow gives some tips on how to really understand what your Corporate Client wants and how to deliver. He points out that: There are very few of us in this industry who can purchase a piece of equipment and have customers approaching us because of it. We must understand how to deliver a usable video/CD/etc., as most of us base our livelihood on our ability to provide a finished project that is successful. This is not a difficult premise, until you ask the question, What does the CLIENT see as being a successful project?
Tutorial, Feature, Business
Tim Kolb |
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Corporate Video
Entering the Age of Expertise
Creative Cow's Tim Kolb, looks at our changing profession and offers some insights he's gained in his thirteen year career that has won him multiple ITVA, Telly, American Advertising, and Emmy Award honors. In the end, Tim concludes it isn't the kitchen that makes the cook.
Feature, Business
Tim Kolb |
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