Sunday, December 30, 2007

Domain Resolving - ColorBurst Video

This is just a quick post to note the fact that as of today, the domains for ColorBurst Video are now resolving to the site rather than redirecting.

Prior to today, when you typed in either - http://www.colorburstvideo.com/ - or - http://www.colorburst-video.com/ - these addresses would redirect to http://colorburst-video.BLOGSPOT.com/. Although the site is still hosted on the same server, the domain will propogate properly.

This is a small technical change, but it will help with our long-term plans. It will be a brand new year for ColorBurst in 2008.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Video: Social Bookmarking in Plain English | Common Craft - In Plain English

The Common Craft Show is about simple video tutorials in "plain english" that introduce consumers to new technology products. Common Craft is a small company run by a married couple who are passionate about explanation.

Our business is explanation. We are hired to take a fresh look at a situation, problem, product or service and create a video that explains the issue in plain English so that a maximum number of people can understand it.

On a recent update, they turned their unique style and technique to the task of explaining Social Bookmarking with services like del.icio.us.

We made this video because we want others to feel the power of social bookmarking and how it works to make web pages easier to remember, organize and share.

Tools like these make the whole internet much more useful. Introducing these tools to the uninitiated is made less daunting using these videos from the Common Craft Show. See their site and other videos at CommonCraft.com - In Plain English.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

More Information on Hard Drive Camcorders

I've got an update on a recent post:

Review: Panasonic Camcorder Features 30GB Hard Drive

I admit that I didn't even know they made these yet, but it makes sense as a natural evolution of video technology.

Here is some more history on the subject:

Hard drive camcorders have actually been around since the '80s. They were first used (somewhat experimentally) by television news crews early in the electronic-news revolution. They were high-end broadcast quality cameras (high-priced) and included -removeable- hard drives. This allowed a news editor to have instant access to the footage without having to transfer from tape to computer. Of course, at that point in history, computer-video editing was in its infancy, and very high-$. Hard-drive technology was still rather fragile - imagine the typical drive bouncing around in the back of the news van speeding back from a breaking story. Video quality equivalent to your current camcorder was a challenge for these $100K+ systems. After some very costly trials, the technology was shelved waiting for more reliable and cheaper stuff.

Video is now more 'democratized' and we are starting to see numerous video formats - several different versions of HD, SD, widescreen, etc. Its not uncommon for some (upper-end) consumer camcoders to be able to switch between US, British, and French video standards, sometimes with the added choices of widescreen and high-def. Some of these choices don't easily translate to a specific tape media. At the same time the internet has eased the problem of transporting the various international television "standards" to other locations. Add to this the much lower cost of reliable drives, and you have a natural migration to consumer camcorders with built-in HDs. The only real limitation to these is the amount of video that can be contained on the drive. I also wonder how many people will be disciplined enough to regularly move the video off their camcorder before they need the space for the next event - Let's see... do I erase Reese's kindergarten graduation, or do I not tape Livvi's first day of school...

What will really be cool is when they offer a consumer version that gives you a choice of tape, HD, or maybe flash-memory card / flash-card HD. Probably late 2008 or early 2009.

This sounds like good news. I'm a bit behind the curve on the knowledge on this one, so I'm glad to get more input from the expert. Now, when will we see more common posts from said expert? cool

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Help on Video Editing PC

Here's a good question.

i'm planning on buying a computer system for video editing. here are the specs:

do you guys think that this system is fast enough to hadle tons of video editing? do u have any suggestions of a better computer system for video editing? and do u know a free video editing software that has functions similar to adobe premiere? thanks!

Read the community's answers at Tech Support Guy Forums.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Review: Panasonic Camcorder Features 30GB Hard Drive

I admit that I didn't even know they made these yet, but it makes sense as a natural evolution of video technology.

Panasonic Camcorder Features 30GB Hard-drive

(CNET.com) -- Hard-drive camcorders have been slower to catch on than I would've thought. Sure, they cost a bit more than their DVD- or tape-based equivalents, but the convenience of having such a large storage capacity -- and not having to deal with tape -- make them appealing.

Read the full review on CNN.com.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Wedding Photography - 21 Tips for for Amateur Wedding Photographers

I thought that the following tips might also work for the amateur videographer as much as photography. Read the introduction below.

It's a question that's been asked a few times in our forums over the last few months so while I'm not a Pro Wedding Photographer I thought it was time to share a few tips.

I'll leave the technical tips of photographing a wedding to the pros - but as someone who has been asked to photograph numerous friends and family weddings - here are a few suggestions.

To read the full list of helpful tips please see Wedding Photography - 21 Tips for for Amateur Wedding Photographers.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Zombies! How-to Special FX on the Cheap

Here is a good tutorial on creating movie studio quality makeup effects for zombies in your movie projects.

This content requires that your browser be Flash compatible. Please download the latest version for Flash from the Macromedia Shockwave Download Center.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Video Editing Interviews with the Adobe Premiere Team on Scobleizer

If you are familiar with Adobe Premier, then you might enjoy these video interviews behind-the-scenes with the teams at Adobe.

This is for video editing geeks who might want to see what's up in Adobe's latest video editing suite.

Again, Adobe did not pay me to come over and do these interviews (Adobe has contracted with PodTech in the past to do some podcasts but that was last year and separate from these efforts). I wanted to get a look inside Adobe's latest CS3 stuff. I still have a couple of teams I want to film up in Adobe's Seattle office. I hope you enjoyed this series, I sure learned a lot doing it.

Check it out at Video editing with Adobe Premiere on Scobleizer.

Friday, May 04, 2007

BackMoves.com

Here's a new site I've stumbled upon.

BackMoves.com Thumbnail

Backmoves.com is one of the world's first and largest collections of digital stock footage libraries and animated backgrounds. Our mission is to provide video editors and production houses with high quality motion graphics and 3D animations they need to further unleash the power of 3d animation.

Backmoves was founded in 2001 and headquartered in Dokki, Giza, Egypt by a professional team work who wanted to provide Clients with creativity without boundaries, to provide clients with high quality motion graphics at affordable prices with extraordinary customer service and technical support.

Our FREE libraries include Abstract, Blur, Water Effects, transitions and many others that are randomly rotated every month, FREE animations are downloadable in DivX format.

Update (2008-02-13): This site appears to redirect to a different site called Help3D.com.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

RSS in Plain English | TechLifeBlogged

I've been trying to spread the word about RSS for a while now. But it's a hard concept to explain. I could try to convey it elegantly, but it looks like someone has beat me to it.

Found via TechLifeBlogged.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Photos That Pop Out of the Page, Literally!

This is a great photography project that can be done easily --even with supervised children. I want to get this done with my kids. Check out Photos That Pop Out of the Page, Literally!

Pop Out of the Page

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

BizIII Podcast - Video Tips - Lighting and Background

Here is a podcast from Wizard-Creek.com that covers some great tips on lighting and backgrounds for your video shots.

Tips on lighting and backgrounds when creating video.

Source: BizIII - Play Podcast.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

High Tech Noon

I can't take credit for this joke, but here is proof that anything is cooler when you add lasers and photon shielding.

This content requires that your browser be Flash compatible. Please download the latest version for Flash from the Macromedia Shockwave Download Center.

In case you didn't know (cuz I didn't) the original film was called High Noon. This parody was found via High Tech Noon @ Skip.Jenkins. Now go out and find your own favorite movie and add lasers and androids. Enjoy!

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Search | Firefox Add-ons | VIDEO

Most video sharing sites make it very difficult to nearly impossible to download a local copy of the video files they are displaying. This is good news for those directors who want to keep their content protected, but bad news for those interested parties who want a local copy for reference, backup source material or outright copyright infringement (not recommended).

Those videophiles and collectors that use Firefox will be interested to know that there are several extensions available that make it easier to manipulate video files on the most common video sharing sites like YouTube, Google Video as well as many others. To get an idea, try the following search on the Mozilla Corporation Firefox Add-ons Site. There are currently over 50 results.

So keep this in mind when you share videos through these sites. They can be downloaded and then archived or re-shared onto a different site. You don't use Firefox? You should! Get it today--

Get Firefox!

Monday, March 05, 2007

Tutorial: Create a Stop-Motion Animation Movie using Digital Camera or WebCam

Have you ever wanted to create a stop-motion video? You can create many effects with toys and stuffed animals. Kids love them because they are an easy way to tell imaginary stories. Here is a good tutorial on how to start creating stop animation short films.

Sometime back, I created a stop-motion animation film with the soft toys of my 2-year old son playing the lead roles. This 19 second movie was done using just a digital still camera (not video camcorder) and Windows Movie Maker

Read the full post at Digital Inspiration.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Use YouTube to Learn Photoshop

I've found a great directory of links to YouTube videos that can help you learn to use Adobe® Photoshop®.

Both YouTube and MetaCafe have a lot of photoshop video tutorials and while not all are the best quality video, the ability to see techniques in action with video is great for quick learning.

To sample a few of the links and to get started, visit etc - quick links to good stuff.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Colorburst Video Blog is One Year Old

This is just a quick note to point out the fact that as of this month, Colorburst Video has been around for one whole year. Take a look back at the beginning.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Online Photo Editing Overview (TechCrunch)

TechCrunch has posted a good list of online photo editors. Since so much sharing of photos is done online or via email, it makes sense to be editing photos online as well. Most of these services work by allowing you to upload your photo to their web platform using a simple upload form. Then editing choices are made through the browser and you download the finished filed. Some of these services also work by connecting to your Flickr account in a two-way integration where you edit and reload the photo direct from your online photos that are already online.

The launch of Picnik a couple of days ago brought us yet another online photo editing tool. Like Fauxto, Picnik uses Flash, whereas most of the earlier editing tools all use Ajax for in-browser editing.

Since all computers come with basic software that rotates, resizes and crops photos, there needs to be a compelling reason to use an online service. Uploading a photo to such a service, editing it and then downloading it back to your hard drive too high of a cost. To compensate for this, most services allow you to transfer the edited photos directly to Flickr, Webshots or other online photo services, saving users the trouble of making round trips uploading and downloading.

Read the full article on TechCrunch.com.

Queensbound Seven: The Next Step in Pro-Sumer Video

Here is an interesting blog post debunking a recent CNET article.

I wrote a post not long ago about the rise of pro-sumer video over the last 15 years, and the impact it's making right now on the web video revolution.

Well, this CNET article fortells the coming of a second wave of pro-sumerism... and I think they totally miss the point.

They're talking about evolution of internet video editing tools like eyespot and jumpcut, and asserting that these will open up the exclusive world of video editing to 'the rest of us'...

I'm very suspect of this assertion - Editing is about choices. That takes experience and training. The tools you use to edit are pretty much irrelevant.

Read the full post at Queensbound Seven.

Monday, January 22, 2007

The Perfect Editing Station - Expert Help by PC Magazine

Jan Ozer at PC Magazine has an article on the perfect setup for video-editing.

Are you a filmmaker? Or a video enthusiast? Or the greatest thing to hit YouTube since that Star Wars kid? You've been editing video for a while, perhaps producing short films, training videos, or maybe even a wedding or two, and the only thing standing between you and an Independent Spirit award is the limitations of your current gear. It's time to jump-start your career with an upgrade.

The first step in your transformation into George Lucas is clear: You'll need a superfine digital camcorder. But once you've spent a cool thousand dollars on the latest and greatest from Sony, Samsung, or whichever manufacturer you favor, you've only just begun your journey from taking cute home movies to making great videos. That camera is only going to get you halfway. But that's why I'm here. I'll show you how to build an awesome editing station to take your video to the next level.

Read the full article at The Perfect Editing Station.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Unable to Load Archived Video

dnix71 asks:

For some as yet to be explained reason, none of my video stored on my hard drive will load into the editing software. This just began happening recently. Cannot even load sample stuff! CPU locks up and must be re-booted.

I have been using WinDVD creator for over a year without probs, tho I am aware of its shortcomings, it worked for me. I have attempted to load any video clip from my drive to Movie Maker and ShowBiz with the same results.

For the full post, please visit VideoHelp.com.

Video Editing Software - Tech Support Guy Forums

iandy16 asks:

I am in need of some new video editing software, Which is the best one out these days which is easiest use, and contains lots of effect features, and other editing stuff.

To see the full post and add your own comments, please visit Video Editing Software @ Tech Support Guy Forums.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Why Videoblog?

The natural point of this site is video editing meets blogging. However, doesn't it make sense to also have some information on video-blogging? To start off with, we can at least point to a good reference on how to begin video blogging.

Comon' every web 2.0 geek has a videoblog - you should have one too! Seriously though, we know it's super simple to put videos up on YouTube and for many people (okay a kabillion people) that works just fine. The nice thing about a videoblog is it's like your own little corner of the Internet. You control how it looks, whether it has ads on it or not, what format(s) the videos are in and how long they are. Plus, because it's built on a blog it has all the advantages of a blog - it's easily found in search engines, it's automatically archived, and it's easy to subscribe to.

Do you have a blog and a webcam? Get started at Freevlog » Tutorial.

CGTalk - Organization and Naming Schemes

Handling video editing projects can become very confusing and difficult if the director does not plan how they are going to organize their project files. David Edmondson, a.k.a. ThreeHams, posted a detailed explanation of how he organizes his files on his computer as he's working on them.

I've noticed something isn't really talked about all that much - organization of files during a project. When you're struggling to meet a deadline at the eleventh hour, you'll realize just how worthwhile all the preparation really is - no overwriting vital files, no searching for files, no duplicate names in subfolders, no -FINAL04.max suffixes. Everything is exactly where you expect it to be, and everything (basically) works exactly the way you want.

Sounds like advice we could all use, right? He continues...

What I'd like to see is how other people organize their projects. My scheme started out much uglier and looser than this, and eventually developed over time as I learned how to fix problems I was having. It's very streamlined for the projects I do - about 14-15 minutes of rendered footage, quick rendering times on two computers, lots of external references, and 25-30 minutes with stillframes after editing. The destination is a run of CDs and DVDs.

Want more tips and discussion like this one? Visit CGTalk @ cgsociety.org.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Dots on the Movie Screen

In older films and movies there were commonly dots or small flashes that appeared in the top-right of the screen. Up until yesterday, I thought these were simply glitches or dust motes. Then I read the following:

According to a list of Frequently Asked Questions originally created for the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies, those dots are cue marks that let the projectionist know that it's time to change reels. Film reels generally range in length from 20 to 22 minutes, so there are several "changeovers" in a feature-length film.

Want to learn more? Go to I did not know that yesterday!.