This page presents a selection of videos talking about some of the technical aspects of filmmaking. Digital technology has been a tremendous asset to many of the creative arts, including filmmaking. However, while it certainly solves a lot of problems, it also brings new confusion of its own, particularly to people who are not computer experts. Since I've been working on computers most of my life, I'm going to use these videos to de-mystify the technology used in filmmaking as much as I can.
The videos are listed below. If you wish, you can also find them on
the Vimeo showcaseVideo Technology
The Video Technology video showcase on Vimeo. (Vimeo)
https://vimeo.com/showcase/9754303. You can also
find them on a YouTube playlistVideo Technology
The YouTube playlist where the Video Technology videos live. (YouTube)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgONi5OR1r5cW37MshNqsT8wfuFHLvlNa.
In general, the Vimeo versions will deliver the better picture quality, due
to the infamous YouTube compression.
One area where computer technology unfortunately intrudes into film-making is the whole issue of bit rates. The core of this concept is fairly simple, but the industry seems to have gone out of its way to make this more confusing. Cameras and memory cards measure bit rates in different ways, the units are weird, and even the basic notations seem to be designed to confuse.
This video cuts through the computing technology to shed some light on the stuff that matters to film-makers. How to calculate and use bit rates, how to buy memory cards, and even how to measure your camera's bit rate are all explained here.
2 August 2022
Codecs and video formats are another aspect of video recording that seems to be intentionally designed for only experts to understand. It’s a minefield of crazy buzzwords and abbreviations, and unfortunately the reality behind the terminology fog is — also pretty foggy. But your choice of codec will have a big impact on your workflow, and even the look of your film.
In this video, I’m going to talk about how codecs work, and why we even need them; and how to figure out what codec you should be using for your film-making.
4 August 2022
Flash memory devices like memory cards are a basic and essential tool in film-making today, but what goes on inside them is invisible, and unfortunately rather complicated. And this complexity is important for video recording, where the speed we need from a memory card is right on the edge of what they can deliver.
This has led to a lot of confusion and misinformation about exactly how memory cards work, and how they can impact your shooting — which, unfortunately, they can. This video will try to explain what the deal is, and show you how to avoid running into the pitfalls.
5 August 2022
With cameras these days getting more and more sophisticated, file sizes and file complexity are getting to be more and more of an issue. I’ve talked about both these subjects in other videos, but whatever you do, it seems like editing is going to be a potential problem — either your files will be too complex, or they’ll be too big to handle easily. Or even both.
One easy answer to both of these issues is a proxy-based workflow. Most NLEs today will have a decent proxy workflow; I happen to be a Premiere user, so in this video I’m going to show you how to get to grips with proxies in Premiere.
6 August 2022
