VJ Grab Bag

Building a Platform

2008-02-11T11:42:00.000-05:00

My friend and German hero Sabine asked me a simple question. She is working on building an online VJ platform and wanted me to send some links to any sites I’ve worked on or seen. Rather than just send some links, I thought I’d put together my thoughts about what does and doesn’t work for video platforms.

In general, most video platforms look like replications of YouTube. A few of the sites stand out, either for adding an extra feature, or for dismissing the YouTube platform altogether and going in a different direction.

USABILITY
A couple of things have to be in place for a platform to be usable. The first is navigation. It has to be simple to locate videos by the following three categories: author, subject and date. It is useful to promote top videos, but in many sites this is an unbearable obsession. YouTube bombards us with popular videos (this makes sense for their mission of keeping people on the site for as long as possible). BlipTV, (now ShoartBrainTV) and Funny or Die have good presentations for Featured Videos. CurrentTV’s redesign is also a step in the right direction.

In the other direction is Rocketboom, which is almost so sparse it’s unusable. Wallstrip is stripped down and mixes blog entries with its video content, but is appealingly minimalist in its clutter. These two sites aren’t intended to be full-use portals as much as they are supposed to be centers for the publication of their product, and only their product. On these criteria, they are very successful.

Personally, I think CommonCraft’s Explanations in Plain English is one of the best examples of video integration. The site is clean, intuitive and let’s the users enjoy the content without worrying about getting lost down a rabbit hole.

Finally, TitanTV. My personal experience aside, the website is a mess. It’s very difficult to manage or easily find media. Part of the problem is poor categorization, but the other problem is that the “featured videos” section suggests that the site lacks content. For a site that wants to be a network for content, this is a dead giveaway to a content shortage.

USER GENERATED
Then there is the user-generated function, which has become an obsession of almost every video platform since YouTube. For my money, anyone building a platform is wasting their energy if they focus on user-generated content. This market is already controlled by YouTube and the like and anyone looking for free web hosting has plenty of choice in this matter.

If, however, one were to embrace user-generated content, two factors must be taken into account. The first is the widget. The platform must allow people to embed video from the host site in other blogs and websites. This draws viewers to the main site by allowing it to become integrated with the rest of the internet. If this option isn’t available (like on TitanTV), then there’s no incentive or capacity for a content producer to publish to your site.

The second factor is a revenue sharing program. Revver has a smart setup in which content producers can derive revenue from ads placed at the end of a clip, or as an overlay to the video. Tiva also tries to provide a financial incentive to content producers by developing a network like AFP, AP or Reuters. On the whole though, my experience with Tiva has been fruitless. More importantly, their rate structure is unfavorable to VJs and their distribution platform isn’t very friendly.

REVENUE SHARING
It’s a difficult balance to walk if you are trying to provide content to traditional media through a web portal. Truthfully, no revenue sharing seems fair except pay per view, or pay per click. Though this is clearly not fair to those who provide a sales services (Current, Tiva), as a content producer, I’m inclined to work as an independent and do my own sales rather than give up such a substantial portion of my revenue to these promoter agencies.

Brightcove should be mentioned here - not because of a unique rev-sharing system, but because they are very relevant in the derocktvelopment of video platforms. They run Blip/ShortBrain on the back end, along with several other video platforms. They know what they are doing, and a quick look at their site should give up a ton of ideas. But their work takes them away from the VJ driven model and focuses on providing services to companies looking to build video environments.

DO ONE THING & DO IT WELL
As I mentioned, Rocketboom and Wallstrip have an appeal to them, despite their minimalism. I’d add the already discussed Alive in Baghdad to this list. In each case the site focuses on the arrangement that best suits their mission of distributing the branded video. The videos stand out because they aren’t mixed in with the clutter common to Blip and YouTube. I’d argue that only Current is successful in having a unified brand image despite the diversity of user generated content.

I’d like to list CareerTV in this section because I think the site is very successful at presenting its content and allowing the user to find what they might like. The content is very specific and not intended for a mass audience. Though this means it won’t be seen everywhere, it also means they can focus and do their god work.

Essentially, this gets at the idea of the mega niche. It’s common wisdom that the media are fracturing, but too many platforms are trying to reach everyone, despite the indisputable dominance of the established players. By claiming a field like comedy (Funny or Die) or how-tos (CommonCraft), or whatever you might imagine, the site becomes focused and can dominate its specific market.

Work?

2008-02-07T10:28:00.000-05:00

Finding work ain't easy. That's what I've been doing lately - posting to job boards, connecting with old colleagues, volunteering and in general just trying to get out there. I'm bringing back Geek World and working through a couple of new story ideas. More to come, of course. Just wanted to say it though. Job Hunting does not equal fun.

And She Stares Longingly at What She Has Lost

2008-01-28T12:03:00.000-05:00

This film is beautiful and it is a pleasure to see it in the best sound design category because audio is such an important part of this clip. Though the audio is dominated by a song, the effect sounds never overwhelm. The extreme restraint and subtlety employed by the filmmakers is impressive on their own merits. More impressive, though, is the song selection, which evokes romance, tragedy and loss, the main themes of the work.

Bush Cross Dressing

2008-01-25T12:30:00.000-05:00

This video is crap. That is to say it looks like garbage. But what an ending! The final makeup shot is very well done. Strong concept, though a little overplayed.

Death of a Language

2008-01-24T16:52:00.000-05:00

Breaking the trend of great videos, I wanted to post this. The last speaker of a native Alaskan language has died at age 89.

It seems to me that we have been warned repeatedly that this is happening and will continue to happen. And though it doesn't make a lot of practical sense to get too worked up about it, the loss of a language is the loss of a history and a culture.

Would the preservation of an endangered language be useful in the future? Doubtlessly to historians and anthropologists. Does the disappearance of languages say anything about us today? Aren't we supposed to be embracing diversity and letting the global cultural market flourish?

Circle Squared

2008-01-24T13:30:00.000-05:00

Circle Squared is a beautiful animated short. It is simple, well-executed, and clever. The art design (clean, minimalist) and the sound editing are two strong elements contributing to this clip's success. I do wonder why the tiger thing died, and what a crocodile is doing near a corn farm, but really, these are minor questions.

Be a man

2008-01-24T13:18:00.001-05:00

WOW. This is too funny. Check your balls. Carpe Testes.

Evidence of My Existence

2008-01-24T10:49:00.000-05:00

This video is perfect. The narration is smart, swift, and informative, assuming you already understand the world well enough to skip over the basic and move deep into the terrain of Lo Scazlo's photo subjects. The editing is tight, especially for someone with a photographer's background, and the final chapter about his son is beautiful. The notion of exploring LoScazlo's Evidence of Existence is a smart concept created by a highly talented artist.

Getting Away With Murder

2008-01-24T10:31:00.000-05:00

Wow. I loved this. It's something like Reservoir Dogs crossbred with Curb Your Enthusiasm. It makes no sense, but the story is so full-bodied and insane, I can't help but slam my fist against the table and shout 'Yes!' This is something good, something new, and something engaging. My only question is, why is the FBI Agent doing an HST impression?

Webby Awards

2008-01-24T10:25:00.001-05:00

For the next few days I'll be working as a reviewer for the Webbys. My job is to watch internet videos and give some feedback. Whenever I find an interesting clip, I'm going to post it here. I wanted to start with one that relates to the VJ theme, though future video clips probably won't.

This comes from Rocketboom and features Ruud Elmendorp as the VJ. If you've seen my presentation, you might recognize him as the VJ behind the God's Army piece. He won the 2006 VJ Award for International reporting, and this clip shows he is still doing some great work.

Killer Rampage Rat

2007-11-07T10:38:00.000-05:00

Tell me this doesn't look like "Riot Gear Mickey Mouse"

(It's really a riot cop in Georgia putting down a demonstration - which seems like the continental sport of choice for Asian countries.)

2007-10-24T17:00:00.000-05:00

2007-10-24T16:53:00.001-05:00

Save Me a Dance

2007-05-08T10:48:00.000-05:00

Volume 3 - Invading Jackson Heights

2007-04-30T16:20:00.000-05:00

If you have been in New York for long enough, you've probably heard one of the semi-true urban legends about the city. (You can ride the six past the original City Hall Station. Steve Brodie never jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge. Rudy Giuliani planned September Eleventh to get back at his half-cousin/ex-wife for painting a portrait of Mary out of Cow dung.)

One of my favoites is this: Queens is the most ethnically diverse place on the planet. A variant of this has it that Jackson Heights, Zip Code 11372, is the most diverse neighborhood in the world.

So for round 3 of the Grab Bag we are going to combine the in-the-street assignments of Vol 1 and the overarching topic of Vol 2 for a one-neighborhood free-for-all. We are invading Jackson Heights!

You know how this works. We want stories. Show us the weirdos, the one of a kinds, the transplants, the nativists. Tell us about the train or the first Garden City Development.

The whole world is fair game.

VJ Grab Bag Vol 2 Wrap Up

2007-04-30T16:18:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who came out for the 2nd Volume of the VJ Grab Bag. I've been out of town for a few weeks but I will have the videos up in a few days along with the "Save Me a Dance" Music Video and some info for the next round of the Grab Bag. (Sorry, no pictures this time.)

Also, if you are in the area, stop by the South 4th Bar & Cafe and say hello to the guys who hosted. It was a great venue.

FastCompany Videos

2007-04-15T18:26:00.000-05:00

The Videos are up!
Go here to read the article.
Go here to see video. (Watch watch watch... it's about Spies and You Tube and a bunch of other stuff you know you love.)

Here's the old article which explains what this is all about

I will be shooting a story in Cambridge, MA next week. The story follows the release of a new internet technology called Podzinger. From the Podzinger website:

PodZinger is the only search engine that allows users to find audio and video content based on keyword searches and then skim the results for relevancethe same way they would for text.

This means that Podzinger can transcribe video and audio into text. The applications for this are rooted in the Defense & Security industry’s need to transform audio conversations intosearchable text. It’s a lot like magic, and our video is going to try and capturethat magic.

I saw ‘our’ because I will be working with Adam Penenberg for this project (Thanks Anne!). From Adam’s website:

A journalism professor at New York University, Penenberg is the assistant director of the Business & Economic Program, heads the department's ethics committee and teaches investigative reporting, magazine writing and media ethics to graduate students.

Prof. Penenberg is also a writer for a magazine called Fast Company and he wrote a fascinating article for their February issue. The article follows Jeff Han, the engineer behind a new, multi-touch computer console. This might sound familiar to people who watched any of the Apple iPhone keynote (Use Podzinger to search YouTube for the iPhone and this is what you get). That new toy is essentially using Jeff’s technology.

You can watch a beautiful clip of Jeff’s Multi-Touch Platform at Fast Company.

The upcoming video (the one I will be shooting in Cambridge) is an attempt by Fast Company Magazine to integrate print and internet resources. You know I am going to love anyone who says that sentence out loud.

Alright, so this is all getting a little bit scattershot, but there is a unifying thread here. Each of these toys, the Podzinger, the multi-touch, they are all elements. Tiny steps. None of them are paradigm changing, but they are all paradigm shifting. It takes many tiny steps to create a revolution, and the more of these technologies we have, the more opportunities we have. True, some will fail, but neither of these toys seem likely to become dust collectors.

The Podzinger, for example, has applications totally unrelated to the web, or to government snooping. Imagine an application that can transcribe tapes for you, without you logging them yourself. Won’t get a spy excited, but spend a few hours looking over tapes and you will see why I can’t wait to get my hands on Podzinger.

My point is, integration is key. We are constantly trying to find ways to make technology increase our production. But we are also looking at technology as a way to open new, previously unimagined doors. It’s like we are floating up a mountain and each new technology has the potential to see on top of the next precipice.

Screening! Friday the 13th!

2007-04-04T12:01:00.000-05:00

Screening at the fantabulous South 4th Bar & Cafe. You know Bembe? You the Williamsburg Bridge? Right there. Expect food and an extended Happy Hour at the Bar. Tell everyone you know, starting with your pet cockroach.

Updater

2007-04-01T23:57:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've said something here, but the workload has been madness. Everyone has been working on some fine shorts, and here's a recap of the latest...
Mr. Graham Meriwether will be screening a short about the Pagan Spring Celebration known as the Ostara Ritual.

Mr. O'Hare will shower us with the love of a singing Atheist guy person.

Mr. Bernal, featuring the work of Ms. Kaleem will be contributing a short about non-believer marriage rituals

Mr. Ix and Mr. Zier will give us a vox populi confettit of evangelicals on easter

and... well we will have some surprises for you.

F48 - Ep 66: Highway Revenge

2007-03-14T13:35:00.001-05:00

A new episode will be airing Thursday at 9PM ET and again on Friday at 1PM ET. The episode follows two stories, one in Detroit and one in Memphis. Graham and I shot for the Detroit segments. Our story follows the murder of a driver on the interstate. It took a lot of effort to shoot this episode and we are very excited to see it go to air.

Plastic Bag Pillow

2007-03-01T16:30:00.000-05:00

Go show some love over at Treehugger's Convenient Truth Contest. Our resident hippie Graham posts us a little clip showing how he solves a problem we all have... how to deal with an excess of plastic bags. I know you have this problem. Even if you got a dog that craps a lot, you still can't get rid of them fast enough. So go watch...

VJ Academy: Video Releases

2007-02-20T10:34:00.000-05:00

You know the old story about the tribespeople who think that cameras steal souls? Well they might be right, or they might be luddites, but either way, if you are picking up a camera and want to make a piece, you should know the rules and regulations when it comes to video releases.

The basic questions you have to answer (and usually prove) are: does my subject realize that I am going to use this footage for my own purposes; will they allow it; and to what degree do I have to respect their good name (libel).

The rules are very different for every venue. Let's go through 3...

At one end of the spectrum, you need release forms for anyone who appears in a video, any place which appears or in which video was taken (if the place appears prominently), and any music which appears in the piece. These rules apply most stringently for network and cable television and for widely released movies. I can provide you with templates for each of these release forms.

At the other end of the spectrum, film festivals are not-for-profit events and they therefore have loopholes. One loophole, for example, is that you can use unlicensed music. As for appearance releases, the risk you run is that the person will be upset for libelous reasons. If the project were ever picked up for sale (which is possible) and you don't have a release you run the risk of your subject suing for compensation (and you also run the risk that the buyer won't buy it).

Then, right in the middle, there's news. News Crews rarely get releases. Instead they ask people to say and spell their first and last name. This is known as a video release. By making it clear to the subject that they are being filmed, news agencies argue that the burden is on the subject to prove that they were unfairly portrayed or that their image was stolen or misused. For this reason, news crews will never show a person's face when they need shots of obesity or hair loss (you've probably seen the blurry shots of a crowd, or the shots where they show people from their neck down).

For our purposes, I would encourage you to always get personal releases and try to avoid using copyrighted music. The music is unlikely to cause grief at first, but it could be tricky later on. The rules on music are pretty much the same as the rules of sampling music.

VJ Academy: Intro

2007-02-19T10:17:00.000-05:00

I'm going to start putting up posts that will provide info useful for production. In addition I compiled a collection of videos from the last few International VJ Awards and will be handing them out in the next few days.

If you would like to learn more about the Video Journalism movement, the first place you should look is Sabine Streich's VJ Queen vblog. The site is very new, but the content is of a high quality.

Unfortunately, some of it's in German, so... yeah. Choose wisely.

Just so we are all on the same page...

2007-02-18T16:08:00.000-05:00

What happens when you assign stories to a dozen Video Journalists? The VJs go out and find a character and present the truth of that character’s world. What happens when a dozen VJs find a dozen truths? What happens when the truths contradict each other?

These are the questions we want to answer in the VJ Grab Bag - Volume 2. And that’s why our topic will be Atheism.

I just want to make this clear: We are not looking to promote Atheism, but rather to turn a critical, investigative eye on the many interesting elements of life for a Non-Believer.

Volume 2 Research JumpStart

2007-02-13T15:27:00.000-05:00

Use the following questions to develop story ideas. Some of the suggestions have characters or organizations associated with them that can be used as starting points.

- Fundamentalism: Are fundamentalist Atheists a contradiction? Are they effective evangelicals? What’s the point?

- Politics: Can an Atheist be elected to public office? Find one. Are Atheists driven to one political party over another? Does being an Atheist also mean that the person is pro choice, pro stem cell research, pro homosexuality - is this some sort of a political alignment?

- Coming Out: Is it difficult to come out as an Atheist? What makes it a controversy? Is it frivolous to say you are ‘coming out’ when you decide to be an Atheist?

- New Atheism: Are New Atheists driven by politics, faith or revelation? Is it rational to embrace Atheism because of government policies? Are George Bush’s policy’s driving people towards Atheism? Is it just fashionable?

- Reverse Osmosis: Is Atheism a dead-end for spirituality? Do many Atheists later turn into believers?

- Faith: Is faith in science different from faith in religion?

- Organizing: Is it a contradiction to be an organized Atheist? What is unifying the Atheists?

- Spirituality: Can you be a good person and be an Atheist? Is there a moral sacrifice you make in choosing Atheism?

- Rituals: What does an Atheist Wedding look like? Funeral?

- Taxonomy: Brights, Freethinkers, Nonbelievers, Agnostics…what’s the difference? Why differentiate?

- Daily Life: What is it like for Atheists to survive in a society that is filled with rituals that are symbolic of religion? Is being Atheist somehow unnatural? Do Atheists live longer? How many Atheists are there?

- Public Perception: What do people think of Atheists? Are they evil? Do they shower? Conduct a “Man on the Street” Survey

- War: Are there ever any Atheists in Foxholes? Find one.

- Make your own religion: What kinds of religions are people making for themselves? Paganism? Infidel? Are people shopping for a religion?

- Technology: How are Atheists using cable TV and the internet? Is it a forum for discussion or is it an evangelical tool?

You don't have to dig too deep to find story ideas here. Looking forward to your feedback.

(Thanks to Sheherzad)

Volume 2

2007-02-13T11:10:00.000-05:00

For the Second Round of the Grab Bag, we have a couple of new objectives.

The biggest change between Rounds 1 & 2 will be in the kinds of content we are looking for. Instead of searching for stories and characters from all walks of life, we will be focusing on a specific topic. In an effort to choose the most fertile field, we have chosen to have all of our stories revolve around Atheism.

Another big change will be in our roster. We are looking to increase the number of contributors. We are also looking to add to our ranks more people who have worked as Video Journalists, camera, editors, writers, whatever. The reason here is that we want the Grab Bag to be a forum for people to experiment. The more mixed our group of contributors, the more likely it is that the work we feature will break boundaries and invent new forms. To that end, I will also be showing several exceptional videos on this site in the coming weeks.

The third major shift is in distribution. We are considering ways to simultaneously release the videos in several formats. We will have a screening of course, but as we develop we will be working on a website which houses the videos and arranges them in a functional, clear way. We hope to use this new site to as a kind of online publication, reminiscent of literary journals, but with flashing, blinking lights. We are also looking at a couple of alternative distribution methods, such as a DVD release (a VJ mix-tape?). Any ideas are welcome.

All of this means: we need your help. If you have any skills in web design (I sure don’t) or any production skills and you want to get involved, just send me an email.

Report from Volume 1

2007-02-12T22:54:00.000-05:00

I don't think any of us expected the success of the screening this weekend. We had a packed house and a lot of great people showed up to keep us laughing all night.

And of course, we had some exceptional videos to showcase. Thanks to everyone who came out and kept the place warm. More importantly, thanks to everyone who shared their work with us.

It is a difficult task to put in extra hours to work on a volunteer project. I am very proud and happy with all the work that came from our experiment and I'm looking forward to working with everyone for Round 2.

For more photos and videos from the screening, Go below the fold...

The screening program was made of 5 original videos, and 4 contributions from friends, old and new.
My favorite for the night was Daniel & Jeff's profile of James Spencer. The video has the distinct feeling of an Ode to James Brown. I was especially impressed by the limited use of music. When the soundtrack finally came up in the end, the video turned a classic funk ballad into a moving requiem.

The second clip also followed a soulful man, Daddy Bruce. The rib master sang his old song from the corner of a small shack in Boulder, Colorado. Fittingly, his customers are wacky troubadors and slightly dazed college kids. This video was the only one produced by a professional VJ, our very own Graham Meriwether, and shows how rewarding it is to find a strong, unique character and let them speak in their own voice.

In between two videos about meat, we were treated to the unusual genius of Vit, a Czech Marionette maestro, and the producer of an opera called, Once There Was a Village. Created by Mark Bernal, this video was being cut up until the very last minute. It seems puppeteers are a hard bunch to nail down, and it took a little extra time to find a group who was performing. The music comes from my favorite punk marching band, the HMB.

Another hit came in the form of a bleeting goat. "Fresh Meat" was produced by Kieran O'Hare and was the first video he has created. Be happy they weren't killing goats the day he went shooting. Be happy that you can see it right here.

And because blood and guts and old men are generally depressing, we finished our main program with Mayen Ma's "Waltz Cafe Comedy Hour." Showcasing the talents of one of Astoria's exhuberant artists, Mayen's video made me miss the souvlaki and many great little Astorian Cafes. As you may have read, Mayen had more than a few setbacks in making her piece. Happily, her clip got the place laughing after a few gruesome minutes in the butchery.

Once again, thanks to everyone who showed up and everyone who showed something. If you want to contribute to future Grab Bag's let us know. Also, thanks to Connie Sun for hosting us and for taking the photos.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is called a beautiful evening.

Photo Overload

2007-02-12T18:06:00.000-05:00

The screening was a huge success. Enjoy some photo overload at our rough, remote site...

James Spencer

2007-02-12T17:55:00.000-05:00

Created by Jeff French and Daniel Zier, this video has the distinct feeling of an Ode to James Brown. I was especially impressed by the limited use of music. When the soundtrack finally came up in the end, the video turned a classic funk ballad into a moving requiem.

Fresh Meat

2007-02-12T17:54:00.000-05:00

"Fresh Meat" was produced by Kieran O'Hare and was the first video he has created. Be happy they weren't killing goats the day he went shooting. Be happy that you can see it right here.

Daddy Bruce

2007-02-12T17:53:00.000-05:00

In this clip, the rib master sings his old song from the corner of a small shack in Boulder, Colorado. Fittingly, his customers are wacky troubadors and slightly dazed college kids. This video was the only one produced by a professional VJ, our very own Graham Meriwether, and shows how rewarding it is to find a strong, unique character and let them speak in their own voice.

Waltz Comedy

2007-02-12T17:48:00.000-05:00

Showcasing the talents of one of Astoria's exhuberant artists, Mayen's video made me miss the souvlaki and many great little Astorian Cafes. As you may have read, Mayen had more than a few setbacks in making her piece. Happily, her piece got the place laughing after a few gruesome minutes in the butchery.

Marionette Opera

2007-02-12T17:45:00.000-05:00

At the 1st VJ Grab Bag, we were treated to the rambling genius of Vit, a Czech Marionette maestro, and the producer of an opera called, Once There Was a Village. Created by Mark Bernal, this video was being cut up until the very last minute. It seems puppeteers are a hard bunch to nail down, and it took a little extra time to find a group who was performing. The music comes from my favorite punk marching band, the HMB.

1st VJ Grab Bag - Tonight!

2007-02-10T12:31:00.000-05:00

Get them booties on and put the final touches on your audio. We are screening to-night.

The screening will take place at 8PM with a little libation and some edible accompaniment. If you can't make it to the screening, give us a call. Doubtless we will be nearby having a post apocalyptic drink. We will also have photos and a wrap up right here, right away.

Also, keep a look out for info for VJ Grab Bag Volume 2. We are going to announce the changes and accompanying new story ideas tonight. Stay tuned for research links, story suggestions, and photos, fancy, fancy photos from tonight's screening.

Convenient Truth - Call for Entries

2007-02-08T22:18:00.000-05:00

The kind folks over at TreeHugger (really, go there right now if you've never been, they are fantastic) are holding a video competition called Convenient Truth and they are calling for entries. Read the flyer for more info or go to TreeHugger TV to get involved.

They will also be sharing a video with us at our screening this Saturday. Make sure you join us so you can see it. (They say it's themed for Valentine's Day.)

VJGrab Bag Vol. 1 - Screening on Saturday

2007-02-07T17:42:00.001-05:00

The VJ Grab Bag is an experiment designed to get people working together. We are a handful of friends challenging each other and trying to launch our ship into the ocean. We've got some big ideas coming up ahead and hope you will join us on Saturday and in our future games. Go take a look around to learn more about the Video Journalism Challenge.

Stay Warm...

From Tacos to Comics

2007-02-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

This entry comes from Mayen Ma...

VJ grab bag. This was not only an exercise in shooting and editing but also in the process of creating a story. My initial piece was going to be on the Taco Truck in Sunnyside. I had my shot list, questions, possible montage ideas, a soundtrack… it was going to be amazing! It was going to be amazing up until 8PM on the first cold night of the season. I had been waiting for the damn truck for 45 minutes and no dice.

Feeling a bit defeated, I returned home in order to regroup. Could I do a piece on the Taco Truck not being there? No, that would only be good if there were other people to talk to on the street and in the dead of winter, I’d be lucky if a passer-by stopped. The next best thing, I thought, would be the Waltz Astoria artist fair.

The Waltz Astoria artist fair happens at Waltz (a coffee shop in Astoria), which is artist friendly, especially for locals. So once again, I gathered my equipment readied my questions and shot list, only to find that the fair wasn’t happening on the particular day I went to shoot. BALLS!

The very friendly barista suggested that I come back on Tuesday night for their comedy night. Right-comedy. It’s not that I don’t like to laugh, don’t get me wrong, I just don’t like being somewhere, in public, feeling like I have to laugh at bad jokes to make the situation less awkward. Waltz is about the size of my living room, so awkward non-laughter was a big concern for me.

Needless to say, I schlepped back to Waltz on a cold Tuesday evening after a long day at work. I started filming the chalking on the sidewalk that acts silent hawkers cajoling Astorians to go to the show. As I was filming the chalking, I spotted a very concerned guy watching my every move suspiciously before entering Waltz. He was Matt Taylor, the host of the comedy night.

After Matt and I got on the same page-he realized I wasn’t filming in order to sue him for graffiti and I realized filming at night is a bit…creepy. Matt proved to be a very humorous character and his show proved that I didn’t hate stand-up comedy.

Some may find the piece to be a bit jumbled. Perhaps it is because I didn’t plan as thoroughly as I would have liked or perhaps because iMovie is a pain in the ass. I blame iMovie.

Fresh meat

2007-01-24T21:14:00.000-05:00

Over the past couple of weeks, as a part of the VJ Grab Bag Project, I visited and shot in one of the live poultry markets scattered around my neighborhood, Sunset Park. I've since officially retired the clothes and sneakers I wore during my time there.

Chanel, the charismatic owner, was my main focus. He spoke the best English, and seemed almost validated at having a camera detailing his every move-- even if it was one manned by someone who didn't know what the fuck he was doing. I suppose that falsely introducing myself as a "filmmaker" bought me some legitimacy. I may not be De Sica, but, I mean, I was holding a digital camera in a place where the most complicated piece of machinery was probably the latch to the goat pen.

The other guys were cool too. One guy didn't say a word to me; he just stoically slashed the shit out of sputtering chickens while I tried in vain to get him to give me a play by play. Another guy held a skinned chicken up against my back as a "joke." And one guy wore camoflage and fucked around with the goats in an endearing/borderline abusive type way.

There are probably millions of stories there, but most of them, unfortunately for a monolingual white boy like me, are in Spanish. But maybe that's the story. Some of my shots are tentative-- I felt uncomfortable being near chickens getting massacred and in an environment where I didn't understand what anyone was saying. Hopefully, people who haven't seen this type of thing-- which is most os us I guess-- will be a bit unnerved by it too.

Or maybe it's the completely the opposite- maybe it's about the way in which we can normalize just about anything we do. Editing with Matt today, I initially wanted to throw up when the stoic guy nearly cut one chicken's head off. After a while though, I forgot what I was looking at; I was just trying to decide if the shot was any good. And my face probably looked a lot like the stoic guy's when he tore back a chicken's head and swiped a knife across its neck.

First 48 Update

2007-01-18T15:03:00.000-05:00

We have two tidbits of news about A&E’s The First 48…

Numero Uno: A new episode will be airing tonight at 9PM ET. The episode follows two stories, one in Detroit and one in Dallas. Graham and I shot for the Detroit episode. Our story follows the murder of two guys driving a pickup truck in a vacant lot and reveals the eccentric life of an old man who lived near by.

And el Segundo: We received the DVDs from Granada Productions of the first episode to make it to air. The show aired in early December and was called Cat and Mouse. You can see a rough version of the clip here.

Written in early July, Detroit:

Outside my window, the weather is too warm and comfortable for people to stay indoors. All throughout the city, you will find folks wandering around, drinking outside of their houses, strolling up their streets. Some of the cops, they say to expect the worst on Thursdays and Fridays because that’s when folks get paid, and getting paid means buying booze. Other cops say, nobody here has jobs so it doesn’t matter what day of the week, you’re always going to find people out there, drinking and smoking. Doing nothing except getting into fights and shooting each other.

Joost is pronounced "Juiced"

2007-01-17T15:23:00.000-05:00

The news out of Scandanavia is that Joost has arrived.

The folks behind Kazaa and Skype have now released a beta of their internet video / tv software platform. The application is similar to Kazaa and Skype in that it is not a browser-based program.

I got a chance to play with Joost (pronounced ‘Juiced’) last night and I am a quick fan. I couldn’t stop myself from flipping through channels, fiddling on the instant messaging platform, and enjoying a cornucopia of diverse programming. I went from watching a British racing show, a video news release for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, an old episode of Lassie, and a quirky German program in which people’s faces kept exploding. The best part? When the program isn’t up to your interest, you can just scroll through upcoming shows and watch what you like on any of the theme-organized channels.

The software is still in Beta (not sure why they went public with the name…Venice Project was a beta tester as well) and only runs on Windows XP, for now. This is disappointing. After digging up a beta test password, it took me two more days to find someone willing to let me launch Joost on their machine. Either way, we have something to look forward to with this software.

Why? Because Joost will need content. And what are we if not content producers?

The Venice Project is now Joost. Long live Joost.

Geek Talk: Scripts

2007-01-10T15:10:00.000-05:00

I know you will probably dismiss this as geek talk, but let me tell you, I just discovered how to use apple scripts and wow. They are something else. I've always wondered about them, but I dismissed it as too much tech wizardry. Honestly, it is pretty simple and I'm a stooge for not looking into this before.

Why I had to do this: I recently cleared my desktop of all itunes music to make space for a project. When I no longer needed the space, I copied all my songs off my ipod using Senuti. Now I had the files on my comp (actually on an external HD) but I couldn't connect them to the old itunes library because they weren't in exactly the same place.

So I created a folder and chose "Attach a folder Action." I then get to pick from a list of scripts. Each script is a series of automated actions which automatically do things to whatever file you put into that folder (like rotate images, organize, move or change files). I downloaded a script to 'add items to itunes library' and I enabled this script for the folder. Then, all I had to do was drop the homeless files into the new, script-enabled folder and the script automatically opened itunes and started copying all the files into the library. The script can then delete all the files that are duplicated (though I'm going to do this by hand). So much easier than opening each folder and selecting all files and choosing 'open.'

So there you have it.

Update from Mark

2007-01-09T13:23:00.000-05:00

From Mark on his story:

The path that I'm trying to take with this story is to focus on a puppeteer who makes puppets and also performs them. I know that the Puppet Lending Library is closed for the winter, but, hopefully, they'll open their doors for me. I'm not sure if the museum contact will be the central character of my story. If she isn't, she can hopefully lead me to the character. I'll keep you posted.

Stories & Assignments

2007-01-08T13:21:00.000-05:00

Here's a short selection of 'already-assigned' stories matched with their producer. Some Stories don't have links because I don't have enough info at present to post them.

Mark Bernal = Puppet Museum inside the Grand Army Plaza Arch. That's right...Inside the arch.

Kristina Klebe & Linda Blake = Rudy Delamore

Kieran O'Hare = Warm Tofu Custard. Sold from a Shopping Cart. By an Elderly Chinese Woman. Who doesn't speak English.

Mayen Ma = Taco Truck

Daniel Zier = James Spencer (James Brown Photog)

Ix = Wheel Chair BallRoom Dancing

Graham Meriwether = Road Trip Surprise (GM is on a road trip to California and promises something bizarre and unscripted upon his return.)

We are looking to screen around the first or second of February. More stories & news to come.

Comrades

2007-01-05T10:57:00.000-05:00

One of the missions of the VJ Grab Bag is to find and develop a community of content producers. I identify most strongly with the Video Journalists. But I believe that the core philosophies of Video Journalism (one-person production, intimate and experimental storytelling) allow in projects which are wildly different in style and tone. For this reason, I hope to see submissions which askews the cinema-verite heritage of Video Journalism. This can take the form of animation, mockumentary, music videos, etc.

We are on the verge of something new. The form is rough, and remains to be determined. But there are many encouraging examples out there. Take a look at these two sites:

Alive in Baghdad

Alive in Baghdad was formed to counter the sound-bite driven, “Live From” news model. Through the work of a team of Americans and Iraqi correspondents on the ground, Alive in Baghdad shows the occupation through the voices of Iraqis. Alive in Baghdad brings testimonies from individual Iraqis, footage of daily life in Iraq, and short news segments from Iraq to you.

Alive in Baghdad gives cameras to Iraqis (recalls Voices of Iraq), lets them shoot the footage, and then has an elaborate but (apparently) effective way to cut the footage together into very compelling video pieces. Spend the time, watch some.

Another online video site is the Venice Project. The details of the site are being kept quiet. (feels like mumbo jumbo hype-building advertising - which is something of a turn off). Depending on what you read/hear/believe, the Venice Project is an online web portal for tv programming. Sound familiar? It should. That is the direction we hope to he be headed towards with our Grab Bag game.

Chapter 1

2007-01-04T02:11:00.000-05:00

Today is a July Thursday in Detroit, Michigan. The time is 8.19 PM, and the sun is high enough above the horizon that the light hasn’t yet turned golden yellow. Detroit is at the very western edge of the Eastern Time zone and evenings come on slow, the way you would expect them in a remote Alaskan city.

I’m writing because I’m waiting. The phone is next to me, plugged into the wall. I may not get a chance to charge it again in the next twenty-four hours. I’m surprised the call hasn’t come yet. I expected it by now. Maybe I’m not getting reception. Maybe the dispatch desk has forgotten to dial me, again.

I’m here to shoot a television show about the Detroit Homicide Unit. The show is called “The First 48.” It’s a reality television show but the producers like to think of it as a documentary drama. Reality TV has a bad reputation so it makes sense someone would want to obscure what we are creating. The show follows detectives around in several cities as they try to solve murders and catch killers. What this means is we are waiting for people to die a violent, mysterious death so we can start filming the crime-solving story.

I’m here with my colleague, Graham. We work as Video Journalists. Usually this means we run around untethered. But here, our job is to follow orders. This show is a kind of evolved version of “Cops.” There is more of a narrative, but it’s basically the same idea: turn the worst reality into pulp and sell it. All flash and glimmer; no context, no message except: “wait until you see what happens next.” When we were being interviewed for the job the producer told us how the show often employs staged moments. We cringed. She said, “Everyone does it. Public television does it. The best documentary filmmakers do it.” We never do it, but we don’t say anything. We could use the work. Now we are here for six weeks.

Outside my window, the weather is too warm and comfortable for people to stay indoors. All throughout the city, you will find folks wandering around, drinking outside of their houses, strolling up their streets. Some of the cops, they say to expect the worst on Thursdays and Fridays because that’s when folks get paid, and getting paid means buying booze. Other cops say, nobody here has jobs so it doesn’t matter what day of the week, you’re always going to find people out there, drinking and smoking. Doing nothing except getting into fights and shooting each other.

Before I arrived, I thought I was informed. I never imagined it could be this bad in my own country and I wouldn’t know it. But now, everything I understood about violence, about the police, about the news, about my neighbors and nation, all these old abstract ideas are becoming memories. This is no place for theories about wealth and poverty. Detroit is a hidden, rotting city. Imagine New Orleans before the flood.

It used to be, if you were entering a neighborhood where an officer might be fired upon, the police said you were going into a ‘Delta Zone.’ Before entering a Delta Zone, you always did a little check, made sure you had your bulletproof vest and a couple of extra guys with you, just in case of trouble. The reason they don’t use the phrase Delta Zone anymore is because there are no places where an officer won’t be shot at. Pretty much, all of Detroit is a Delta Zone.

Sitting downtown, knowing I will have to drive out into the gang territories tonight, I’m still waiting for my bulletproof vest to arrive. Just two metal sheets inside a loose canvas shell, every cop tells me bullet-resistant vest is the better phrase for it. I’ve been asking for the vest every week since we’ve been here, but the production’s distribution office in New York hasn’t gotten around to sending it. They say it takes two to three weeks to be made and sent. That was four weeks ago. At some point, it’s clear that it isn’t coming. You can hear the tone in people’s voices when you ask for the vest. They express shock, as in, ‘How did that not get there yet?’ and then they lean away from the phone and ask someone for an update, and an anonymous voice promises it will arrive next week, which is relayed with the same blasé disinterest that you might expect if we were talking about new shoe laces. The supervising producer calls back and says, “just try not to get into any dangerous situations.”

I try to tell her about the Delta Zones but she isn’t listening.

Santacon

2007-01-02T16:50:00.000-05:00

Click here to view Santacon

The night before santacon, I went home early.

I had spent the day dropping off Santa costumes, giving classes, working in confusing ways, all over the city, conducting an orchestra. I ended the night early, my friends drinking holiday cheer. It was warm, but I had to go. I had an appointment at 10 AM at the Delancey Lounge. Just me and a hundred other people dressed as Santa, ready to wander the city, I imagined.

I showed up, my costume in my bag, and found myself surrounded by Santas. I knew what was happening, but even still, the sight of half a dozen santas walking around was shocking. Eager to join the crowd, I ducked into a church, put on my costume, and ran over to the bar. Everyone was buzzing, giddy and thristy. The crowd was far beyond what I expected, and I later heard we had grown to near two thousand.

At some point, I looked to Kieran. As the only one who made the early trek with me to our first location, we kept turning to each other in shock, sharing our disbelief. The first bar had its rollgate down, enhancing the delusion that we were at a late night dance party. The hallucination was encouraged by bloody marys, jello shots and whiskey… all of which only serve to confuse and disorient you when you finally go outside and find the sun so fresh and cold you know it isn’t yet noon.

Believe in Santa. Believe in Jesus. Believe in fantasy. Whatever you chose, there have always been holidays in the winter. Saturnalia, Sol Invictus, Yule…these festivals were celebrated at the end of December in pre-Christian times. It seems fair, therefore, to claim that Santacon is a restoration of pagan era festivities. Of course, you wouldn’t reflect on this history when a crowd of Santas are marching through midtown shouting ‘Ho Ho Ho Ho.’

Click here to view Santacon

Further Explanation

2006-12-19T16:38:00.000-05:00

The way the game works is, we are getting together a bunch of video journalists, video storytellers, animators, graphic designers, radio producers, photographers, etc etc, and putting together an assemblage of work. The goal will be for each person to shoot a short video (a few minutes long) and screen it together at the end of a month. The task will take you a few hours of shooting and maybe a day or a weekend of editing (no excuses for being too busy).

The trick is, everyone participating has to submit a story suggestion. In return for submitting an idea, they get one assigned to them. The stories are irreverent and silly, or serious and deep, or insane. One story focuses on a puppet museum which is built inside of a mock-up of the arc-de-triomphe. Another explores a gay AIDS crisis center. Another features 1500 drunk santas wandering around manhattan just before christmas. Another follows a bunch of jugglers who get together to practice in groups of 30. Another follows a championship hand cyclist. The range is broad. The hope is that the stories will be outside of the realm of normal storytelling. We want to do more than just push the production technique towards one-person authorship. We want to see some really insane stuff. So consider this an excuse to go in a radical direction, to invent a hypothesis and test it out.

So start looking for an assignment. I've already got some and I will be handing out the list out all week. To submit an assignment, here's the idea: find something or someone challenging who would make a good story. Look around for the freak you see on your commute, or the weird market or store you have always wanted to learn about. Anything that piques your curiosity would be a good assignment. We want the videos to be funny, goddamn it, so bring your top game.

The stories are coming in from several cities (just got a guy in Beijing to commit) and I wanted to include you all as much as possible. It's my hope that I can assign you new stories and you can play the game with us. But if you have an old story sitting around that you'd like us to screen, let me know. I'd be happy to show it in our collection. ANd if you have any friends who might be interested, spread the word. The more the merrier.

The work will be screened in late January in Brooklyn. I hope to hear from you soon. Enjoy the holidays.

Grab Bag Begins

2006-12-11T13:33:00.000-05:00

Hello Friends,

Some of you have already heard from me on this idea, and some of you haven't. So here's the long and short of it... Starting this month, we are going to create a list of video journalists and send them out on various assignments around town. The goal will be for each person to shoot a short video (a few minutes long) and screen it together at the end of the month. The task will take you a few hours of shooting and maybe a day or a weekend of editing (no excuses for being too busy). The trick is, your assignment will be created by one of the other participants. So if you want play, you have to bring an assignment to the table. You give me the assignment, we have a random drawing, and then everyone goes out to shoot the story they've been given. Thus, the VJ Grab Bag...

So start looking for an assignment. I've already got a handful and I will be handing out the list at the end of THIS WEEK. If you haven't submitted an assignment already, here's the idea: find something or someone challenging who would make a good story. Look around for the freak you see on your commute, or the weird market or store you have always wanted to learn about. Anything that piques your curiosity would be a good assignment. We want the videos to be funny, goddamn it, so bring your top game. At the end of the month, we are going to show the videos in a small screening together, and then hopefully begin work on a second round of the game.

If you need a tutorial in shooting & editing, I would be very happy to teach you and I am available at all times. I would like to run a small class (maybe on Friday or Sunday), so let me know your schedules and I will come up with a date.

Call to Arms

2006-11-12T13:58:00.000-05:00

I have an idea.

Over time I have kicked around many suggestions for increasing my output of shorts. But none of them have come to much fruition, for very obvious reasons…they are a lot of work. Every time I get psyched up to work more and produce more (e.g. coming back from the 3rd Int’l VJ Awards in Berlin two weeks ago), I find myself bogged down by day to day tedium, and I end up creating excuses not to do the work I want to do.

And so we are clear, “the work I want to do” has the following qualities:

It is innovative.
It is journalistic.
It is short-form.
It is entertaining.

One thing I know is that, in addition to the fact that it is just hard work, one of my biggest reasons for not producing material (either video or print) is the concern that I don’t have any venue to show the work. I have nobody to show it to, no audience to which I can communicate, except maybe an online audience (which is pretty lame; let’s face it: you can’t see them laugh, or nod, or worse, fall asleep).

Now in the last few weeks I have had a few good ideas for stories, but as I said before, I find it hard to get the motivation going to go out and shoot this stuff. I’ve taken to carrying around one of our small cameras and shooting footage of subways to maybe recreate Pennebaker’s “Sunshine Express” or to reimagine the city symphonies of yore. But this method is very noncommittal, and avoids all the strengths of videojournalism (i.e. it isn’t character driven work). I have thought about stories in shanty towns, in bike shops. In my mind, I have shot a slew of great shorts. But very little tape has rolled.

I am right now sitting in Vbar, one of my favorite watering holes. On the way here I passed the Chess gallery where Mic Powell plays chess. I recognized it from the White House Hotel footage and because his work is on the walls and in the windows. I recall hearing that, when that scene was shot, everyone perked up, hoping that someone was shooting a piece about the gallery. Walking by, the urge struck me. But it is not my story. It is Graham’s. So I want him to shoot it. That’s an assignment. And that is what got me to thinking…

Let’s get each other to start working…

1) I want to start assigning each other shorts. I want to create a list of ideas for shorts for other people to shoot. Maybe they will be specific (such as, Graham: shoot a short on the chess venue), maybe they will be open assignments. And I want people to give me assignments. I want someone to give me an idea that inspires me and makes me want to work hard to realize it. I want to be challenged. Otherwise I think I may be bored by my own suggestions.
2) I want to start working like a little output factory. I want to create a roster of producers, maybe open a blog, and have a forum for us people to talk to each other and get on each others’ cases. I want to work hard and I want encouragement and for people to encourage me
3) I want to create deadlines (maybe monthly) and every month I want to screen the pieces. Maybe we will just screen at the 50th street office.
4) I want to build a stronger collective. Already we know people, friends, students, mentors, who do this work, but are dying for a story, or for a venue. If we make this a regular event, where the price of admission is a contribution, then we will have a group of great people in the same room, sharing ideas, pushing each other. Maybe we can grow a website and screen at bigger venues over time. Maybe at next year’s VJ Awards we overwhelm them with our work.

Right now that’s all I have. I’m curious to hear your reaction.

Tell me if you’d be interested. And if so, I want an idea for a story, and I will send you one in reply. Consider it a VJ grab bag.

Experimentation

2006-10-27T15:33:00.000-05:00

Albert says to me, “Don’t you think your desktop background is kind of cheesy? This nature picture and all…” And he’s right, of course, even though no less than thirteen dozen people have complimented the picture and asked, where is that? Did you take it? And I lie to this answer and say it’s New Mexico, so maybe they will go away or maybe they will ask about why I was there and I can tell them my stories.

So now it is the Challenger explosion on the background. And we are sitting at the front desk of the Third International Video Journalism Film Festival. This is the ticket desk. The festival posters are hanging on every wall and window, plastered on every ID tag, on the cash box, projected on the walls, and smiling from a button on my lapel.

Most of the time, the desk is occupied by a small army of students, volunteers from Weimar, media students at the Bauhaus University. Part of the time I am here, I am giving them on the fly lessons about shooting. We’ve had some workshops where I introduce them to the basic shooting system we have taught and perfected on a thousand disparate occasions.

Though we are inside, I suggest wearing a light jacket. Every few moments someone opens the door and lets in the cold air. Outside, a VJ is shooting an interview, and part of me wants to revolt at the way he is doing it, but I am wrong.

The Vj is shooting his subject in front of the cinema (kino). The subject is on a stool, and, as it is nighttime, there is a sungun on the ground pointed upward at the subject.

This makes me crazy inside. It’s a kind of rage I usually feel when I see tourists shooting statues or using a camera’s eyepiece instead of taking advantage of the brilliant invention known as a viewscreen. But watching him work, I know I am wrong. So very wrong.

Anyone who has taken our course knows that, though we love to be surprised, we always begin with a very strict regimen of shots, which we use in order to help people get on a solid plane as a shooter-editor. It trains you to think of shooting as the first step of editing, to collect usable images, because, though a sunset might be attractive to your camera-eye, it is not always a useful shot.

The longer you do videojournalism, the more you learn to move beyond the five shots. It becomes the kind of thing which you can always fall back on, but there are many situations where 5 shots won’t work (conversations, for example). You put yourself into the piece. Or you take yourself out. You find characters to tell the story, or the story tells itself. I could go and on abut this, but the fact is it’s up to everyone individually, and a quick glance over our work will show quite a bit of variety which strays beyond the basics.

This festival constantly features people talking about the meaning of videojournalism. Pretty much, the only thing everyone agrees on is that it’s digital, and relies on one person to shoot and edit. Beyond that, the content and style are left to the individual. The grand hope is that the technology will liberate people and new styles will develop. This, of course, will take time. Though you can already see it happening on several levels at the festival, a lot of the work is traditional in style and execution.

In an effort to embrace the freedoms of VJ, I believe we have, at Moose, developed our own dogma. Whenever we can, we refuse tripods, lights and staged interviews. We use narration and text with as much moderation as possible (I can’t begin to explain how easy some projects would have been with some narration, but it is a restraint we put on ourselves because, for me, it seems lazy and sloppy to rely on voice over to tell a story when it can usually be told best by the people involved).

So when I see someone on the street, some traditional camera crew, with a producer, or with their camera on a tripod, my immediate reaction is to scoff. Just the other week, we attended a retrospective of Richard Leacock’s work, and the old man, quick as he is, went right after those who use tripods…how they limit you, how they restrict your access to people. I’ll tell you it would have been almost impossible to shoot the White House film using tripods…though of course tripods have their time and place.

Tripods are just an example of the kinds of tactics we avoid in order to become more pure about our work. It’s a weird outgrowth of our upbringing as VJs, trained in the Rosenblum method, growing in the world of television, and maturing in the world of cinema.

But there he sits outside, this accomplished German VJ using a stool and a light. Either he isn’t a pure VJ, or he is just showing that, the thing works no matter what, and my rules are no better than anyone else’s. Of course there are a lot of people who just VJ to save money. But who cares about those people? Their work is clean and pretty and antiseptic. Maybe they have a better image than us, but we can get a damn good image too, and nobody will get closer to your soul than a VJ. That’s our essence.

So if you are reading this and are in my class, maybe you can throw me for a loop by bringing up this argument. But if you have ever worked as a VJ, you know what I mean. Experimentation is key, and any rule, even if the rule is a rejection of rules, is a waste and gets in the way. We are after truth and we chase it by building an alliance to our stories. That’s all.

Volume 1

2006-10-12T11:10:00.000-05:00

The First VJ Grab Bag featured a wide array of story ideas and narrative voices. Story ideas were drawn from daily life. People pursued whatever topics or characters interested them. The goal was simply to get people together to show that we can accomplish brilliant, independent work when we push ourselves. The screening was a massive success and the event connected people who had never met.

In the end, we screened work from our contributing Grab Bag VJs, and put in a few extra treats just to get people thinking about how else they can apply themselves.

For a wrap-up of the 1st VJ Grab Bag, click here.

To watch videos from the 1st Grab Bag, click here.

Video Journalism

2006-10-12T11:08:00.001-05:00

Video Journalism is a production model in which one person takes on all the jobs required to create tv/film/video. When one single person is the shooter, the editor and the writer, that one person achieves total control over their final product. That person becomes the author, and they are free to tell the story however they want. Video Journalism can take many forms, including reportage, mockumentary, animation, etc. The key is that the work is based on non-fiction and tells stories in a genuine, unique voice.

For more info, check out some essays, or go to Sabine Streich’s VJQueen website.

What kinds of stories are we looking for?

2006-10-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

The best stories are about an unusual character, an odd profession. Find something or someone challenging who would make a good story. Look around for the freak you see on your commute, or the weird market or store you have always wanted to learn about. Anything that piques your curiosity would be a good assignment. We want the videos to be funny, goddamn it, so bring your top game.

Grab Bag’s will be topic driven, so check to see the latest challenge and then start looking for a story that fits.

How Does it Work?

2006-10-12T11:07:00.000-05:00

In the end, we screen the work together so you can have an opportunity to get feedback and to see other work. You may see your story assignment imagined through someone else’s voice. You can meet people of all skill levels and can use their influence to grow your own work.

If you want to participate, here’s how it works: First, you find a story. Second, you put that story into the Grab Bag. We mix them up and assign the stories back out to people who want to play the game. When you get your story assignment, it is on you to do the research, contact your subjects, devise a story and / or production style, shoot and edit the piece.

Read more here.

Where are we Headed?

2006-10-12T11:06:00.000-05:00

Ultimately, our goal is to create a regular, digital publication in which we focus on a specific topic. Imagine an online web-magazine where you can see focused stories on a variety of subjects. We want to choose themes rich in characters and full of opportunities for contradiction and controversy. We want to cover a story from all angles, even if it yields inconsistency. We believe that, once you see a story from every viewpoint you can gain context. It is only through context that we can truly tackle a problem or critical social issue. This is our goal for Journalism.

What is the VJ Grab Bag?

2006-10-12T11:04:00.000-05:00

The VJ Grab Bag is an experiment and a challenge. The idea is to make something. To apply the verb part of the word ‘creative.’

The goal is to create an ongoing forum for Video Journalism. We want to establish a real community (not just a virtual, online one), and to use this community to learn, to expand, to experiment and discover how far we can go if we apply ourselves.

In the end, we screen the work together so you can have an opportunity to get feedback and to see other work. You may see your story assignment imagined through someone else’s voice. You can meet people of all skill levels and can use their influence to grow your own work. It is our hope that, in sharing stories, and in pushing each other, we can create something new and exciting.

Read more here.

Who Are We?

2006-10-12T10:52:00.000-05:00

We are you. We are a group of people with very diverse skills. The first Grab Bag had contributions from Video Journalists, Animators, Photographers, Musicians, and friends. Take a look around and you will find plenty of opportunities to show your work to a hungry audience.

The Grab Bag was started by Matt Rivera of Moose Productions. But it’s origin lies in the International VJ Awards, held in Germany. Every year at the awards, strangers meet and share their work to an audience of hungry friends and fellow VJs. We felt that it was time to bring this experience to the States. And if the community wasn’t there to greet us, we’d have to create one. Thus was born the VJ Grab Bag.

We want you to join us. If you need it, we will teach you how to shoot and edit. Welcome, one and all.

Chapter 1

2006-01-04T02:11:00.000-05:00

Today is a July Thursday in Detroit, Michigan. The time is 8.19 PM, and the sun is high enough above the horizon that the light hasn’t yet turned golden yellow. Detroit is at the very western edge of the Eastern Time zone and evenings come on slow, the way you would expect them in a remote Alaskan city.

I’m writing because I’m waiting. The phone is next to me, plugged into the wall. I may not get a chance to charge it again in the next twenty-four hours. I’m surprised the call hasn’t come yet. I expected it by now. Maybe I’m not getting reception. Maybe the dispatch desk has forgotten to dial me, again.
I’m here to shoot a television show about the Detroit Homicide Unit. The show is called “The First 48.” It’s a reality television show but the producers like to think of it as a documentary drama. Reality TV has a bad reputation so it makes sense someone would want to obscure what we are creating. The show follows detectives around in several cities as they try to solve murders and catch killers. What this means is we are waiting for people to die a violent, mysterious death so we can start filming the crime-solving story.
I’m here with my colleague, Graham. We work as Video Journalists. Usually this means we run around untethered. But here, our job is to follow orders. This show is a kind of evolved version of “Cops.” There is more of a narrative, but it’s basically the same idea: turn the worst reality into pulp and sell it. All flash and glimmer; no context, no message except: “wait until you see what happens next.” When we were being interviewed for the job the producer told us how the show often employs staged moments. We cringed. She said, “Everyone does it. Public television does it. The best documentary filmmakers do it.” We never do it, but we don’t say anything. We could use the work. Now we are here for six weeks.
Outside my window, the weather is too warm and comfortable for people to stay indoors. All throughout the city, you will find folks wandering around, drinking outside of their houses, strolling up their streets. Some of the cops, they say to expect the worst on Thursdays and Fridays because that’s when folks get paid, and getting paid means buying booze. Other cops say, nobody here has jobs so it doesn’t matter what day of the week, you’re always going to find people out there, drinking and smoking. Doing nothing except getting into fights and shooting each other.
Before I arrived, I thought I was informed. I never imagined it could be this bad in my own country and I wouldn’t know it. But now, everything I understood about violence, about the police, about the news, about my neighbors and nation, all these old abstract ideas are becoming memories. This is no place for theories about wealth and poverty. Detroit is a hidden, rotting city. Imagine New Orleans before the flood.
It used to be, if you were entering a neighborhood where an officer might be fired upon, the police said you were going into a ‘Delta Zone.’ Before entering a Delta Zone, you always did a little check, made sure you had your bulletproof vest and a couple of extra guys with you, just in case of trouble. The reason they don’t use the phrase Delta Zone anymore is because there are no places where an officer won’t be shot at. Pretty much, all of Detroit is a Delta Zone.
Sitting downtown, knowing I will have to drive out into the gang territories tonight, I’m still waiting for my bulletproof vest to arrive. Just two metal sheets inside a loose canvas shell, every cop tells me bullet-resistant vest is the better phrase for it. I’ve been asking for the vest every week since we’ve been here, but the production’s distribution office in New York hasn’t gotten around to sending it. They say it takes two to three weeks to be made and sent. That was four weeks ago. At some point, it’s clear that it isn’t coming. You can hear the tone in people’s voices when you ask for the vest. They express shock, as in, ‘How did that not get there yet?’ and then they lean away from the phone and ask someone for an update, and an anonymous voice promises it will arrive next week, which is relayed with the same blasé disinterest that you might expect if we were talking about new shoe laces. The supervising producer calls back and says, “just try not to get into any dangerous situations.”
I try to tell her about the Delta Zones but she isn’t listening.

Intro to Editing FCP

2004-10-30T13:57:00.001-05:00

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Set Up
1) Hard Drive Location
2) Setting Scratch Disks

II. Layout
1) Broswer
2) Viewer
3) Timeline
4) Canvas

III. Controlling Final Cut Pro
1) Screen Space
2) Time Code
3) Keyboard Shortcuts

IV. Log & Capture
1) Organizing
2) Logging
3) Capturing

V. Building a Rough Cut
1) Moving footage to the Timeline
2) Working with footage on the Timeline
a. The Hierarchy
b. The Tool Bar
3) Graphics
a. Text
b. Wireframe
c. Graphics

VI. Final Cut
1) Audio
2) Voice Over
3) Visual Transitions
4) Filters
5) Paste Attributes
6) Rendering

VII. Exporting
1) Types of Output
a. Aspect
B. Format
C. Compression
2) How to Output

Introduction to Editing with Final Cut Pro

I. SET UP
Final Cut Pro (FCP) video projects can include many types of media, such as video files, sound files, render files, still images, and a project file. In order to keep video projects organized, you must direct Final Cut to keep all files in a specific place.

1) Hard Drive Location
Create a new folder, preferably on an external hard drive. Name the folder with the name/lede/slug for your project.

2) Setting Scratch Disks
As projects become more complicated, or as you move between editing stations, or between video projects, you will want to be sure that all the required media have been kept together and that

Inside FCP, click on the title bar at the top of the screen where it reads: Final Cut Pro. Choose System Settings.

On this screen you will have to set 4 values to direct to the folder you created in the previous step. The 4 values are: Capture Scratch (at the very top), Waveform Cache, Thumbnail Cache and Autosave Vault.

II. LAYOUT
Final Cut is organized into 4 basic windows.

1) Browser
The Browser is a list of all of the elements included in a video project. This list can include video media, audio tracks, graphics, voice over, sequences, etc. The Browser includes information such as the length of the clip, the type of video, audio rates and frame rates. Files can be organized in the Browser inside of folders called Bins. Bins can be organized by tape/reel, character, location, media type, etc.

2) Viewer
The Viewer is the place where you can watch video files selected from the Browser. As with all of Final Cut, take special note of the tabs at the top of the screen. Later, these tabs will become useful, especially in dealing with filters, audio editing and effects.

3) Timeline
The Timeline is a graphical representation of your video project. Video and audio elements are displayed in a linear way, but they can be manipulated by grabbing, dragging, copying, pasting, trimming and by many other methods.

The timeline is arranged in a hierarchy. Video clips higher on the track will take priority over those below; this does not apply to audio which is, by default, mixed equally. This will become especially important when working with graphics or when mixing audio (ex. Interview or voice-over audio with natural sound).

4) Canvas
Playback on the timeline will be viewed in the canvas.

III. CONTROLLING FCP

1) Screen Space
Be aware of which screen you intend to work in. The bar at the top of the screen will be highlighted for the active screen.

Video can be reviewed by scrolling the playhead. The playhead is a yellow triangle that can be moved or can jump anywhere on the timeline.

2) Time Code
The camera will automatically generate time code onto the tape as you record. Time Code (TC) is organized into Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames. As you enter the Log & Capture process, TC will become very important.

3) Keyboard Shortcuts
FCP is rich with keyboard shortcuts. To begin, it is useful to know the following key commands:

A) Undo is Command – z
B) Play/Pause is Space Bar
C) Rewind/Play/Forward is J/K/L
D) Mark In / Mark Out is I/O
E) Move Forward / Backward 1 Frame is Left/Right arrow
F) Move Forward / Backward 1 Second is Shift – Left arrow / Shift Right arrow.

IV. LOG & CAPTURE
Logging and Capturing is a process in which you identify parts of the tape by their time code. Final Cut can then import the files into the hard drive and prepare them for the editing process.

1) Organizing
To begin logging & capture, create a new bin in your Browser (File – New – Bin). Label the bin Tape 1 (or 2, or 3, and so on). Right click the bin and choose, Set Logging Bin. Now your footage will go into the specific folder, and will stay organized inside the Browser.

As you import additional media, including video files, create new bins to help keep the browser organized. This becomes especially important as the number of assets in a project, or the length of the project increases.

2) Logging
Open the Log & Capture window (File – Log & Capture).

Enter the number of the tape for your project in the field marked “Reel.”

Use the key commands, or the playback buttons on the bottom of the screen to navigate around the tape.

To log the tape, navigate through your footage and identify the clips you want to import (aka digitize, aka capture) into FCP.

As you review the tape, mark in points and out points (using timecode) of usable footage. In points will appear in the lower left field, out points in the lower right.

To log a single clip, mark the in, the out, and then press “Log Clip” on the lower right corner of the Log & Capture window.

Give the clip a succinct, easily identifiable name. Try to keep clips longer than 30 seconds, but shorter than 10 minutes.

3) Capturing
A) If you are using Final Cut Pro, you can log the whole tape and then go back to automatically batch the clips you’ve identified.

To do this, press, Batch. In the new window, choose All Clips in Logging Bin. Select OK. In the next window choose Continue.

B) In Final Cut Express you will need to capture each clip individually. Choose Capture Clip. Follow the same process.

C) You can also batch footage in real time. To do this, enter a title in the Description Field. Press Play, and then press Capture Now. To end Capture Now, press Escape.

V. BUILDING A ROUGH CUT
1) Moving footage to the Timeline.
There are many ways to move media to the timeline, and many more ways to manipulate media once it’s there.

Basically, your job now is to select the clips you want to use and choose the specific moments you want to appear in your video. Once the clips are on the Timeline, they can be moved as objects. They can be selected by clicking and dragging, by selecting several clips at once, or by using key commands.

One strategy for building a rough cut is called: Three Point Editing.

Select the clip you want to bring down from the Browser and view it in the Viewer. Using the playhead at the bottom of the Viewer (the yellow triangle on a white strip), review the clip and select the portion that you want to move down to the timeline. Mark an In and Out at the portions you want to use.

You can move this selection to the Timeline by pressing Insert (F9 or the Yellow Button on the lower left corner of the Browser) or Overwrite (F10 or the Red Button on the lower left corner of the Browser).

By default, the clip will appear on the Timeline beginning wherever the playhead rests.

You can change this by setting an In point or an Out Point on the Timeline (creating three edit points).

Alternatively, you can set an In point and an Out point on the Timeline, and just an In point on the Viewer. In this example, the two In points will match up, and the clip be placed on the Timeline based on the timing of the sequence, rather than the timing of the original clip.

2) Working with footage on the Timeline.
Once you’ve built a rough cut on the Timeline, it’s time to refine your edit.

A) Hierarchy
Clips can also be moved on top of or below each other. Video clips work in a hierarchy. The clip on top is the clip that will be seen. (This can be changed by adjusting the opacity of a video clip.)

Audio clips play simultaneously – the hierarchy does not apply to audio.

B) The Toolbar
The Toolbar includes many useful tools. It’s usually located to the lower right of your screen, next to your audio monitors.

Almost all Toolbar icons contain multiple tools. If you hold down an icon secondary tools will appear. Click the one you want to use.

.
1. Selection Tool (Arrow) – The Arrow is your default tool. It’s used to select, highlight and more clips. Keep in mind that, after using any other tool on the toolbar you will need to return to using the arrow. The key command for the arrow tool is A, and because you will use this tool so often, it’s a good one to add to your repertoire.

2. Edit Selection Tool – The Edit Select is an advanced tool used for adjusting trim and cue points of clips on the Timeline.

3. Track Select Tool – The Track Select allows you to choose all clips to the left or right of an arrow. By default it is set to choose all clips on one track. If you hold down the button you can select the icon with two arrows. This will allow you to choose all media on all tracks to the left or right of any point on the Timeline.

4. Roll Tool – Roll allows you to change the In and Out points of a clip once it’s on the Timeline. This will not affect other clips on the Timeline. This is especially useful if you realize, for example, that a selection inserted to the timeline begins at the wrong place on the original media, and that it should begin earlier or later.

5. Slip Tool – Slip allows you to change the edit point between two clips on the Timeline. This tool changes the Timeline.

6. Razor Blade Tool – The Blade allows you to make a cut on the Timeline. This can be used in many ways. The most direct use is to easily remove unwanted parts of a clip from the Timeline. Make a cut on the clip, on the Timeline. You will see red arrows on the place where the cut has been made. Engage the Selection Tool (Arrow) and choose the unwanted part of the clip. Press delete.

7. Zoom-In Tool – This tool allows you to see more or less of the timeline. This tool can be especially useful if you want to make specific changes to the timeline. Engage the tool and choose the area on the Timeline where you want to zoom in. If you hold down this tool you will find the Zoom Out tool (magnifier with a minus sign). The shortcut for this tool is Z; the shortcut for the Zoom Out is ZZ. The key command for zooming can be used in place of the tool. Press Command –Plus (+) to zoom in, or Command-Minus (–) to zoom out.

8. Crop Tool – Crop tool and Distort Tool are especially useful when dealing with graphics. Ideally, use the crop tool when they are in the Viewer (i.e. before they are moved to the Timeline/Canvas).

9. Pen Tool – The Pen tool is useful for making changes on the Timeline to your video’s opacity, or to the audio levels on a Timeline. The Pen Tool can also be used to adjust filters and characteristics of the media found inside the Motion tab. (More on this the Graphics section (V. 3.) and in the Filters section (VI. 4.).

3) Graphics
Graphics can be text (either as a slate with text on a blank / black background, or as a graphic on screen to identify a character, reporter, location of the origin of third-party media).

ALL GRAPHICS MUST BE RENDERED BEFORE FINAL EXPORT.
THIS INCLUDES ALL TEXT.
FOR MORE ON RENDERING, GO TO SECTION VI. 5.

A) Text
To place text on the Timeline, click on the button with the letter A at the bottom right corner of the Viewer.

Choose Text – Text.

The words Sample Text will appear in the Viewer. Click on the “Controls” tab at the top of the Viewer

Inside this window, you can adjust the text, font and font size.

Text can then be inserted into the Timeline in the same way that a video clip would be inserted. Once there, it can be manipulated as a video clip would be.

Lower Thirds are a special type of text that appears at the bottom of the screen to identify a subject.

You can build lower thirds in 2 and a half steps:
1. The simplest way to create a lower third is to choose the lower third text template. Once open, adjust the text using the Control tab in the Viewer just as you did with normal text.

2. Set an In point on the Timeline where you want the Lower Third to appear. Move the Destination Cue to a track above your video. For example, if your video is on Video Track 1 (V1) move the Destination Cue (v1) to Video Track 2 (V2).

Now, press the Overwrite button and the text will appear on V2. The Lower Third effect takes special advantage of the Hierarchy concept discussed above. The graphic must be on a higher track than the video so that both the text and the picture appear on the Canvas.

3. If your Lower Thirds are difficult to see because they appear against a bright background, the easiest solution is to add a drop shadow to the Text. (There is a Drop Shadow used on the example above – it’s the black outline to the letters.)

To add a Drop shadow, double click the text element on the Timeline. When it appears in the Viewer, choose the Motion tab. Select the Drop Shadow radio box. If you press the arrow next to Drop Shadow, you can adjust the qualities of the Drop Shadow.

B) Wireframe
If you want to move the Text or any graphics, you will need to engage the Wireframe view. This button is found at the top of the Viewer and the Canvas.

Choose Image+Wireframe. This will allow you to grab and manipulate the location of a Text or Graphic element on the screen. Click the text or Graphic you want to adjust on the timeline.

Once engaged, double-click the Text/Graphic you want to adjust on the Timeline and it will appear in the Canvas. Once there, you can grab it and drag it to other places on the screen. You can also grab at the edges of a clip and increase or decrease the size of the Text/Graphic.

C) Graphics
Still images can be imported to the Browser and brought into the Timeline just like a video clip. Be aware that still images must fit the frame, or else they will have to be adjusted. Use the Wireframe method described above to adjust the size of a graphic.

To import graphics, choose File – Import – Files. Select the graphic you want. Final Cut can deal with most graphic formats, such as Jpegs, PNGs and Tiffs.

VI. FINAL CUT
1) Audio
Making sure that your audio is well-balanced and moves smoothly between cuts is very important to the editing process.

A) Transitions
As an editor, your job is to hide the edit points. Because rough audio edits are an easy way to call attention to cuts, make sure to apply audio transitions to rough edits, and to the start and end of a piece.

Click the edit point between two clips so they are highlighted as above. To apply the audio transition, choose Effects -> Default – Cross Fade (+3db).

Be ware that the audio transition doesn’t now incorporate unwanted audio to the Timeline (such as a partial phrase, if you’re editing a soundbite). To reduce the length of an audio cross fade, double click on the transition and a duration window will appear. Reduce the time from the default 00:00:01:00 (1 second) to something shorter, such as 00:00:00:10 (10 frames).

B) Levels
To adjust audio levels, turn on the Clip Overlays. The button is in the bottom left corner of the Timeline and looks like a Mountain / Valley graph.

You will notice the appearance of pink lines (levels) over the audio tracks and black lines (opacity) over the video tracks. Hover over the pink lines and drag them up or down. They are, by default, set to 0db. Try to keep the levels consistent (use the audio level monitor next to the Timeline to double check).

For more on audio, see the Audio Production section.
C) Natural Sound
When editing, beware of sections with dead sound. If you create a portion of a sequence where there is voice over or text, be sure to include some natural (or environmental) sound. This can be anything from a background hum (if your video takes place in an office) or the sound of a breeze (if you are shooting outdoors).

The Natural Sound can be stripped from the video (using techniques referred to above) and run on a lower audio track, such as A3/A4. Make sure to lower the audio of the Nat Sound so it doesn’t interfere or overwhelm.

D) Linked Audio
By default, most audio is linked. This means if you click on one of the tracks, be it V1, A1 or A2, you will have selected the whole clip. To unlink a clip, select the clip and choose Modify -> Link. You can also choose the icon on the top right corner of the Timeline (it looks like a diagonal rectangle).

E) Stereo Pairs
Some audio, such as much tracks, will be created as a stereo pair. This means that the left channel (-1) will be mixed to the left, and the right channel will be mixed to the right (1).

In general, we want clips mixed in mono, not stereo. This means that both the right and left channel should play down the center (mixed at 0). This is more of a problem with soundbites and speech than music.

You can tell that a clip is a stereo pair by the pair of dark green, vertical triangles between A1 and A2. You can also tell that a clip is a stereo pair if you hear it on one channel of your headphones and not the other; or if you see that your levels on your audio monitors are uneven.

To turn off stereo pairs, choose the clip and choose Modify ->Stereo Pair. The clip will still be mixed in stereo, so you must now click A1 and open it in the Viewer. Under Pan, choose 0, instead of -1. Repeat for the clip on A2 (mix to 0).

If you have several clips that must be changed, you can use the Paste Attributes function described below to change the Pan of more than one clip at a time. See Section VI-6 for more.

2) Voice Over
Recording Voice Over requires the narrator to deliver information in a clear, concise and engaging manner. When delivering narration, be sure to be expressive and project your voice. Be ware not to explode on pronouncing hard letters, such as B’s P’s and D’s.

Some say it helps to bring your heart rate up, so feel free to do some jumping jacks or push-ups before recording. Others say it helps to record early in the morning, when most people’s voices are very deep and rich. Finally, if you find that your audio has too much echo, try draping a towel or t-shirt over your head to create a small space between the mic and yourself.

There are two ways to record voice over. Chose the method you find easiest:

A) Record to a Camera
Recording using a camera will yield high quality audio. Make sure to use a lavalier microphone and to check your sound using headphones. If you like, you can leave the lens cap on the camera as you record onto a tape.

Once you’ve recorded the voice over track, you can use the steps outlined above for Log & Capture (Section IV). Before you log the track, open the Log & Capture window. Choose the Clip Settings tab in the upper right corner. Uncheck the Video Box. When you log and capture the footage, you will now bring in the audio, but not the video. This is useful because it will help save space on your hard drive.

Be sure to turn the Video dialog back on when you finish. If you don’t, the next time you go to capture footage you will only bring in audio.

B) Using the Voice Over Tool
Alternatively, you may record voice over directly into Final Cut using the Voice Over Tool. To open the tool, choose Tools -> Voice Over.

To make the voice over tool work, you will need to plug a microphone into your computer. Although most Macs have a built-in mic, the quality is usually too poor to use for our purposes.

You can plug a mic directly into your mac (Set Sources to Built In Line Input), or plug your camera into the computer and then use the mic attached to the camera (set to DV Audio).

Place an in point on your Timeline and press the record button. The Tool will count down from five and then begin recording directly to your timeline. Be aware that the track tends to be very low in volume so you will need to boost the levels after recording.

To save a voice over track, drag it from the Timeline into the Browser. You will see a message that reads: Creating Master Clips. The voice over will then be available in your Capture Scratch folder.

3) Visual Transitions
Visual transitions include fades in or out of a sequence, cross-dissolves, and dip to black (i.e. fade-in / fade-out between clips). Visual transitions can be useful for cutting between two difficult edit points, such as a jump cut. They can also be used to indicate a passage of time.

Be careful not to overuse visual transitions. As with all additive elements, consider them useful as support, or when something can’t be accomplished with a straightforward cut. Visual transitions can stylistically date a piece (recall the abundances of cube spins and star wipes in early music videos).

To create a visual transition, select the edit point between two clips on the Timeline.

To apply the Cross Dissolve transition, choose Effects -> Default – Cross Dissolve. For other types of transitions, choose Effects -> Video Transitions. Then choose the type of transition you want to use.

Keep in mind: the cross dissolve will grab and display footage from before and after the edit point you’ve chosen. Be careful to make sure that the cross dissolve doesn’t reveal any unwanted footage (such as shaky video, or footage from a separate shot).

To change the length of a cross dissolve, double click the cross dissolve icon on the Timeline. A window will appear in the browser. Enter the new length in the upper left corner.

You can also change the length of a cross dissolve by hovering near the edge of the icon and dragging it to the left or right, depending on how you want to affect the transition’s length.

Cross Dissolves can be used at the start or end of a video and (because they will effectively be a cross dissolve between the clip and nothing) they will function as a Fade In or Fade Out.

4) Filters
Filters have a wide variety of application, including correcting bad color, or adding an effect. To apply a filter to a clip, select the clip on the Timeline. Choose Effects -> Video Filters. Then select the filter you’d like to apply.

To adjust the properties of a filter that has been implemented, double click on the clip on the Timeline. After it appears in the Viewer, choose the Filters Tab. Now you can adjust the filter.

In this example, a Desaturate filter has been applied to make the clip Black and White. If we reduce the amount in the dialog box from 100 to 0, the filter would be effectively turned off and the clip will return to its original, full color appearance.

5) Paste Attributes
While working on a clip, you may change some of its attributes (such as scale, audio levels, playback speed, etc.) or add filters. If you find that you need to make the changes to multiple clips, you can use the Paste Attributes feature.

To begin, make the necessary changes to one of your clips. When you finish, click the clip and Copy (Edit ->Copy or Command-C). Select the other clips you’d like to affect and choose Paste Attributes (Edit -> Paste Attributes or Ctrl-Click / Right-Click -> Paste Attributes).

A dialog box will appear allowing you to choose which attributes should be applied to the clip(s). Select any that are appropriate. Press OK.

6) Rendering
Rendering is the final step in the editing process before exporting.

After affecting a clip in any way whatsoever, you will need to Render the clip. Rendering is a process by which Final Cut creates a full quality frame

You will know if you need to render by checking the bars on the top of the Timeline. If you see a color on the bars, make sure to render.

To Render, Select All and choose Sequence -> Render All (Option-R).

When you finish a clip, be on the lookout for sections that retain a faint green Render bar. Make sure to Render these sections as well by selecting the clip and choosing Sequence -> Render Only.

Intro to Editing using Final Cut Pro by Matt Rivera is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at moose3.com.