ColorBurst Video

Two Quick Movie Mentions: Iron Man and Indiana Jones

2008-06-19T09:48:00.001-05:00

I wanted to quickly note that I've seen two really great films this summer and I wanted to mention my reactions briefly.

IRON MAN

Yeah, this one was surprisingly awesome and I think a lot of people reacted that way. Fans of Marvel Comics have had some ups and downs in the last several years with some good movies and some bad ones. From what I hear, the good has been outweighing the bad with their latest ventures because the powers that be in Hollywood finally decided to let Marvel have total control of their own films. Imagine that!

INDIANA JONES

Do I have to actually come out and say this one was great? Can't it just be a given? Some spectacular work went into this picture. It's not a hindrance to the plot at all that our beloved Indy is now much older. Nor is it a problem that we haven't known his whereabouts for nearly 20 years. In fact, it makes for some interesting character exposition how much he has aged and the fact that much of his adventuring life is supposedly behind him. Also, in the first 20 minutes enough hints are dropped about the intervening time period that you think Of course that's what he's been up to! There are a few surprises too and at the end of the first act there is a special effect BANG that you don't want to miss.

See these quickly before they leave the theaters!

PhotoshopDisasters: Washington Post: Unlikely

2008-06-18T21:46:00.000-05:00

Okay, first read this description from PhotoshopDisasters.

Have you seen a truly awful piece of Photoshop work? Clumsy manipulation, senseless comping, lazy cloning and thoughtless retouching are our bread and butter. And yes, deep down, we love Photoshop.

I know that a lot of the visitors here will be familiar with Photoshop, and might even have some experience in what should be done and what mistakes should be avoided. But hopefully, none of you will ever be this sloppy. Read the latest post called Washington Post: Unlikely.

Wired.com - Coolest Movie Metamorphoses

2008-06-18T21:36:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick post about a cool article that came to me on Wired.com about the 12 greatest movie transformations in all time. Check out the full list along with shots of each creature in the Coolest Movie Metamorphoses, From Wolf Man to Hulk.

The Day There Was No News

2008-05-15T00:37:00.001-05:00

The Day There Was No News
Originally uploaded by Pixelsurgeon

This video is striking. To quote the description...

"Today there was no news. And here is the proof."

THE CUTTING EDGE: the magic of movie editing (pt1)

2008-05-08T19:43:00.001-05:00

This is "Part 1 of a fantastic documentary about movie editing." The other parts of this are also possibly available on YouTube. This documentary gives the history of and an emphasis on the importance of EDITING as an art form and an important piece of any film-making.

Fiftieth Post!

2008-04-21T21:35:00.000-05:00

Doing some maintenance on the site earlier and I noted that the post earlier this month on Video on Flickr was this site's FIFTIETH PUBLISHED POST. There are a variety of drafts in progress that will be dated earlier than today, but I wanted to announce this fact briefly with some --albeit humble-- self-congratulatory nods.

Please stay tuned and keep the cameras rolling.

Video on Flickr! « Flickr Blog

2008-04-09T23:31:00.001-05:00

If you haven't heard of Flickr yet, it's one of the best photo community sites available right now that is actually taken seriously by professionals. Certainly there are competitors out there (like Photobucket) but they are usually frequented by MySpace teens.

However, Flickr has not had the technology or infrastructure in place to allow video uploads and sharing, something that their competitors have had a head start with. But that has just changed! You can now upload videos albeit in a slightly limited fashion. Read more about it at the announcement on Flickr Blog.

Watch Higher Quality YouTube Videos

2008-03-16T22:33:00.001-05:00

Do you like YouTube, but would like to see the videos in a higher quality? The answer is at Wired How-To Wiki. The news and reference stuff here is really of big importance to those videophiles who upload their videos to the site.

TRAILER - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008-02-16T17:18:00.005-06:00

I posted previously about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A new trailer has become available over the last week and I felt it needed to be shared.

Are you excited? Keep your eyes on this countdown timer or head to the link below to get it for your site.

Watch the Trailer on Yahoo! Movies

Domain Resolving - ColorBurst Video

2007-12-30T18:56:00.000-06:00

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.

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

2007-10-01T23:53:00.000-05:00

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.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2007-09-10T22:40:00.000-05:00

In movie news, the upcoming Indiana Jones film now has a title.

More Information on Hard Drive Camcorders

2007-08-14T22:02:00.000-05:00

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?

Help on Video Editing PC

2007-08-08T19:41:00.000-05:00

Here's a good question.

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

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
Dual Core 2MB L2 Cache, 2.13 GHz, 1066MHz FSB

Asus P5VD2-MX VIA Motherboard

512MB DDR2 533 Memory Apacer (i would add another 512mb ddr)

512MB Asus EN6200TC512 GeForce 6200 PCI-E 512MB Turbo Cache, TV/DVI

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.

Review: Panasonic Camcorder Features 30GB Hard Drive

2007-08-01T21:03:00.000-05:00

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

(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.

Wedding Photography - 21 Tips for for Amateur Wedding Photographers

2007-07-10T20:51:00.000-05:00

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.

Zombies! How-to Special FX on the Cheap

2007-06-08T13:26:00.000-05:00

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.

BackMoves.com

2007-05-04T19:22:00.003-05:00

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

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.

BizIII Podcast - Video Tips - Lighting and Background

2007-03-28T22:22:00.000-05:00

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.

Duration: 3:55

Monday, March 26th, 2007

Download MP3

Tags: video, tips

Source: BizIII - Play Podcast.

High Tech Noon

2007-03-11T00:29:00.000-06:00

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!

Search | Firefox Add-ons | VIDEO

2007-03-10T20:35:00.000-06:00

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--

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

2007-03-05T21:17:00.000-06:00

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.

Use YouTube to Learn Photoshop

2007-02-19T18:15:00.000-06:00

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.

Colorburst Video Blog is One Year Old

2007-02-12T16:46:00.000-06:00

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.

Online Photo Editing Overview (TechCrunch)

2007-02-04T20:01:00.000-06:00

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.