Color Tutorial: Skin Softening

Simple tutorial on skin softening in Color.

Color Correction for Editors - great tutorial from Editor's Lounge

If you are unfamiliar with vectroscope, RGB parade and color correction basics this tutorial is for you. Simple, clear and very practical

Audio and video sync workflow for FCP7

Source materials:
Video: Sony FS 700, Canon Mark III. Video materials has their own audio track.
Sound: recordered separately
Tools: 
FCP 7, Plural Eyes 3.5

How to:  

How to send large files - free file transfer services I personally like

I usually use "WeTransfer" to send large files - I like the design, no need to register, unlimited number of files, automated email to a friend or client with a link and download confirmation. The only "but" of wetransfer is the 2gb limit. I've made my own research to see what are the wetransfer alternatives and the best file transfer sites with greater file size limit. Here I post my own list  - free services only, no registration needed, automated emails with links.

MyAirBridge

Size per file: 20 gb
Design:  clean and look much like wetransfer, but requiers few more steps to upload file.  
Download confirmation: YES
How long file is on the server:  3 days
Nice feature: while you're entering all information (email addresses, subject, text) it already uploads the files
Apps: Android and AppStore  - allow to upload up to 5gb with internet reconnect when using wifi

    FileMail

Size per file: 50gb
Design: everything is clear, but no beautiful background images

Download confirmation: YES
How long file is on the server: you can choose the number of days, but up to 7
+ multi-language interface, confirmation email is sent in language you've used during upload
Nice feature: you can have password protected page with your file (paid)
Apps: AppStore, Desktop (mac & pc) + Outlook addon, API

If you know more good resources please post in comments

Top 10 Most Effective Editing Moments of All Time

Check this great video by CineFix - great review on best editing moments

Editing: styles, cuts and matches

This article at Yale university site for Film studies course on Editing covers all principal editing styles, cut and matches you need to know with images and video examples

Editing at Yale University site

Prestashop: change user password via phpmyadmin

I've found this great article on how to change user / admin /  employee password via phpmyadmin if you can't login to your dashboard in Prestashop. It works both for 1.5 and 1.6 version.

308: How to change your admin password by database in PrestaShop 1.5

The short overview:
1. Open ps_employee data row in your database
2. Click Edit near user you want to change, find "Password"
3. Choose MD5 in "Function" column.
4. From your settings.inc.php file (config folder in prestashop folder) copy COOKIE_KEY value (usually, line 10) to "Value" column. At the end of it add new password (with no spaces!).

If you need more detailed instructions with images, click link above:) 

Short AVID tip - how to scale frame more than 400

To scale frames we usually use 3DWarp effect or Resize effect. But the limit for scaling is only 400. So what to do if you want more?
My simple solution was to add the same effect 2 times. After adding it for the first time Step In and add it again. And it works!

Few steps to make your wordpress site more secure

1. Username

NEVER use "admin" as your administator user name. Choose something different!

2. Database prefix. 

Dont use wp_! Choose something different

3. Salt

Connecting Sony Z-1 (SONY HVRZ1E) to AVID or any other system

Sony HVR-Z1E (HVRZ1E) (or just Sony Z-1) is an old camcoder which was kind of popular some time ago. I haven't expected I'm going to capture from it again but it happened. And my Avid didn't want to see it at all. I searched the internet how to understand if the camera is connected but with no result. In my case it was bad cable. Here are some tips how to understand if Sony Z-1 is properly connected to your computer.



If camera is connected you should see "'HDV/DV in" on the screen:

Subtitles in Avid - How to prepare and import

Step 1. Create subtitles. For me the best soft to create subtitles is Subtitle Workshop, v. 2.51 or the new one: v.6 (you could find it on Sound Forge here). It is easy to use and has many export options. After creating subtitle file, export it is as SubRip (.srt extenstion). Subtitle Workshop can't export the format Avid needs. 

AVCHD workflow for Final Cut Pro 7

As you know Final Cut Pro 7 doesn’t support AVCHD/MTS files natively.  There are few ways to get them in Final Cut Pro 7.

1.     With Log and Transfer tool in FCP

IMPORTANT: You should keep SD card folder structure to be able to import files.  You should copy and keep all folders from your card or camera, not only folders with .MTS files.  That is how file structure looks in Sony cameras:

Short tip: graphic files for DVD Studio Pro

DVD Studio Pro unfortunately doesn't have any positioning or sizing controls for images. So all images should be properly in created before they are imported in DVD Studio Pro.

Right dimensions for the full screen images (like backgrounds or slideshows):
PAL SD: 768 x 576, resolution 72 pixels
NTSC SD: 720 x 534, resolution 72 pixels

Important! The size is different then we're used to. Normal PAL dimensions are720 x 576, but because video uses rectangular pixels images has to have the size mentioned a
bove.

How to easily hardcode (burn in) .srt subtitles to video file on PC (free encoder!)

There are different options to burn in your subtitles. You can do it through your editing software (like with Avid) or use some external soft.
I use Any Video Converter to hardcode subtitles into the film. It's free.
The older version (3.3.1) works better for me than the recent 5.5.5 as it shows subtitles preview (which helps when you have subtitles in different strange languages, as my Georgian example).
Below you could find simple step-by step instruction how to do it.

Corrupted XDCAM file structure and import to FCP or AVID

Problem: you can't import files to Final Cut Pro 7 or Avid MC because file structure was changed: clip names, folder names, some folders were deleted..

Solution: 
In BPAV folder there are 2 files which are database files CUEUP.XML and MEDIAPRO.XML - here all information about files is stored and it was recorded during shooting.
Put missing folders back, change names back and delete database files.
After that open XDCAM Clip Browser from Sony (you can dowload it for free) and browse to folder you are trying to repair. XDCAM Browser will re-create database files again and you will able to import all your media files.

PS. And never change structure of xdcam or other cards!!!

Avid MC or Symphony: Exception:MSM:Unknown directory

Problem: After system has crashed, I can't import media to the bin getting an error: Exception:MSM:Unknown directory. Seems it's all about corrupted media.

Solution(s): What I found as possible solutions on Avid forums you can find below, but what actually helped me was much more simplier:
I've deleted media files (.mxf) in Avid MediaFiles directory which I suspect to be corrupted and it worked again!
In my case these were the last files I've imported and actually during this import system crash happened. So it should be the first thing to try. If you have no idea which files are corrupted, you have 2 possible solutions below:

Adobe Encoder crashed on startup - what helped me

Problem: Abobe Encoder CS6 was crashing on startup, after Vignette.aex plug-in. But actually it turned to be not a plug-in problem. These were corrupted preferences. 

Solution: After searching on forums, this is the solution I found and which helped me: 
Delete all files in the C:\Users\{your user name}\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Media Encoder\6.0
(the same goes witth Encoder CC - just open 7.0  folder).