I have been playing with digital video editing on the computer for a couple years now. My first "video" was done in powerpoint for my wedding 5 years ago and I used a video out card to record it to a tape. Since then my resources have improved a bit and I have thouroghly enjoyed using Vegas recently. I bought the Digital Video and Audio Production book put out by Sonic Foundry but am looking for a more general, technique oriented, book on creating video.
My most common project is working on home videos, mine and other's. I have done several wedding videos and photo montages. Another fun project is interviewing someone about their life growing up and using various video/photo inserts of the topic they are discussing, much like a documentary. Through lots of trial and error I have found techniques that I like. I am getting pretty good at using AVISynth to clean the video (since many of these are from older VHS sources). Crossing my fingers that Vegas 4 support .avs files.
I would like to increase my skills in this area and would like a book. The above mentioned book is great in learning how to use Vegas, but provides only little in technique. Since very little of my source material is stuff I shoot myself, this is less important (though still interesting), but I would like to focus on post-production techniques, hence Vegas! I would like information on audio as well, what methods are good for audio? What is pleasing to the ear? What does a track noise gate and attack speed do? When would I want to use some other audio effects? What colors in video produce certain emotions such as black and white, red shift, blue shift? What is a good length of time for a clip before the attention span of the viewer is exhausted.
I feel that I have a good amount of talent, and most of my creations come out looking very professional and I always have satisfied clients, but I would still like to improve. This is completely a freelance job, maybe one every 3 months but I really enjoy it. I have a degree in Computer Engineering, but no film education other than a class in 3D modelling using Maya (I know, not really film but they talked a lot about composition and lighting.)
I am sure there isn't a book out there that covers all I want to know, but I would like a starting point. I have a strong foundation in the technical parts of digital video (colorspace, platform, codecs, VCD, SVCD, CVD, DVD, compression algorithms, and so on) but now I need technique. Any recommendations based off of what I want to learn? I was looking at Digital Filmmaking 101 and the IFILM Handbook, but am not sure if they will provide much post-production advice and instead focus on preproduction and production (but they are inexpensive books and would be interesting as well).
Thanks.
My most common project is working on home videos, mine and other's. I have done several wedding videos and photo montages. Another fun project is interviewing someone about their life growing up and using various video/photo inserts of the topic they are discussing, much like a documentary. Through lots of trial and error I have found techniques that I like. I am getting pretty good at using AVISynth to clean the video (since many of these are from older VHS sources). Crossing my fingers that Vegas 4 support .avs files.
I would like to increase my skills in this area and would like a book. The above mentioned book is great in learning how to use Vegas, but provides only little in technique. Since very little of my source material is stuff I shoot myself, this is less important (though still interesting), but I would like to focus on post-production techniques, hence Vegas! I would like information on audio as well, what methods are good for audio? What is pleasing to the ear? What does a track noise gate and attack speed do? When would I want to use some other audio effects? What colors in video produce certain emotions such as black and white, red shift, blue shift? What is a good length of time for a clip before the attention span of the viewer is exhausted.
I feel that I have a good amount of talent, and most of my creations come out looking very professional and I always have satisfied clients, but I would still like to improve. This is completely a freelance job, maybe one every 3 months but I really enjoy it. I have a degree in Computer Engineering, but no film education other than a class in 3D modelling using Maya (I know, not really film but they talked a lot about composition and lighting.)
I am sure there isn't a book out there that covers all I want to know, but I would like a starting point. I have a strong foundation in the technical parts of digital video (colorspace, platform, codecs, VCD, SVCD, CVD, DVD, compression algorithms, and so on) but now I need technique. Any recommendations based off of what I want to learn? I was looking at Digital Filmmaking 101 and the IFILM Handbook, but am not sure if they will provide much post-production advice and instead focus on preproduction and production (but they are inexpensive books and would be interesting as well).
Thanks.