Read more about the article I Hate ‘Multimedia’

I Hate ‘Multimedia’

Nothing in this profession irks me so much as the word “multimedia.” Not only is it linguistically confusing–“media” is itself already plural–in terms of describing our work, the label does us all a disservice. Multimedia is the combining of several forms of media. OK, so the combining of photography and video is multimedia. But what about the combination of text and photography in a book? Or a website for that matter? The point is, “multimedia” can mean anything. It just depends on whom you ask. With all due respect, I believe “multimedia” is the word we’ve come to use when describing photographers who make documentaries. It’s a word that belongs to journalists, not the audience we want to reach. This is not a new conversation at MediaStorm. It’s an issue we’ve wrestled with in innumerable conversations and one Brian Storm and I have had almost from day one of my tenure. But…

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Read more about the article MediaStorm Guide to Quickly Deleting Clips in Premiere Pro

MediaStorm Guide to Quickly Deleting Clips in Premiere Pro

This article is part of a new series of posts with tips and tricks from our producers' experience working with Adobe Premiere Pro after years of working in Final Cut Pro. To read more about why we made the switch, check out this post. Today's post was written by MediaStorm producer Eric Maierson. File this tip under I-should-have-thought-of-this-years-ago. First, some backstory from the MediaStorm Post-production Workflow. At MediaStorm, when we log b-roll we use two specific suffixes to identify our sequences. The first is RAW, which indicates that a timeline contains all the clips from a scene or day of shooting. So if a Finder folder contains clips from day one of shooting at a barn, the Adobe Premiere Pro sequence containing those files will be labeled Barn_01_RAW. We then log these clips, raising selects up one video channel as seen below. Next, we duplicate the sequence and replace the word RAW…

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Read more about the article MediaStorm Guide to Nudging in Premiere Pro CC

MediaStorm Guide to Nudging in Premiere Pro CC

This article is part of a new series of posts with tips and tricks from our producers' experience working with Adobe Production Pro after years of working in Final Cut Pro. To read more about why we made the switch, check out this post. Today's post was written by MediaStorm producer Eric Maierson. A great new feature in Adobe Premiere Pro CC is the ability to nudge clips up and down tracks using only the keyboard. To set a shortcut, simply open the Premiere Pro > Keyboard Shortcuts… menu. Then, search for “clip.” You’ll want to add shortcuts for Nudge Clip Selection Up and Nudge Clip Selection Down. We use Command-Up Arrow and Command-Down Arrow, respectively since they are similar to the default shortcuts for nudging clips left (Command-Left Arrow) and right (Command-Left Arrow). To nudge your clip, simply select it on the timeline and press the respective keyboard shortcut. Note that…

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Read more about the article This is what editing feels like.

This is what editing feels like.

You are alone in a dark room. Across the floor are the scattered pieces of three or four or five floor lamps. You don’t know how many. There are screws and bulbs and fixtures mixed together. You try not to panic as you feel your way across the floor in search of these pieces. It does not matter how many times you’ve done this exercise before. Each time you do it, it feels like the first. People tell you, you’ve done it before, you can do it again. But they don’t know what it feels like to be in the dark room searching blindly. Your work is meticulous. You must evaluate not only each piece, trying to discern its nature, but also how it relates to all of the other pieces. Most of the time, you feel as if your work is wrong. It’s a persistent feeling, that the path you’ve chosen,…

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