Wedding Clip Part III

Finally, I finished the third clip of the wedding video. Exhausted... and I have two more to edit...

Some Tips about Wedding Videography

I have shot over 20 wedding ceremonies for friends. Here are some tips based on my experiences.

• I personally prefer to use hand-held camcorders. Typically, a wedding shoot can last for up to 9 hours. Using light camcorders can save videographers a lot of energy. Morover, hand-held camcorders do not look as "official"as big ones, so the people being shot feel more comfortable. Thanks to HD technology, today's hand-hand camcorders have professional video quality as well.


• Always have back-up mics and audio cables. I have encounted the situation where my wireless mic went down during shooting. What a disaster! Although it doesn't happen often, back-up mics and audio cables can save your life.


• Have your tripod with you. I didn't take one with me when I shot the wedding in April because the tripods I was allowed to check out from school didn't come with cases. I didn't want to run the risk of the tripod being broken by those who checked in my luggage. But shooting without a tripod turned out to be an exhausting job.

Recommending a Final Cut Pro Tutorial Site

I found a web site, which may be helpful to many student editors. It is called Final Cut Pro tips.



FCPtips tutors its viewers about how to use existing tools in Final Cut Pro to achieve effects similar to those that can be created using expensive plug-ins. For example, there is a clip on the site's main page that explains how to blur a person's wrinkles by adding several layers of Blur filters; so it's not necessary to buy skin-smoothing plug-ins.

Most tutorials are provided in the form of a video clip, which usually lasts 10 mins. There are several clips available to everyone, but you have to register online to gain full access to the website.

Line Video Clips Up with Audio Clips

I often messup the sequence I'm working on when editing. In most cases, the linked video and audio clips are not lined up with each other, which makes editing tough.
To line them up, simply click the clip in the sequence to highlight it. The video and audio clip will both highlight even if they are sepearted.



Click the Linked Selection button, which is on the right upper corner of the timeline.

Once the icon changes from green to gray, the video clip is no longer linked with the audio clip.




Then move the video or the audio clip manually to line them up. Finally, click the Linked Selection button again to re-link them.

Problem with Frozen Frames

When I was editing my friend's wedding clip, I froze some frames to make them look like still image. As usual, I double-clicked the clip containing the frame I wanted to "freeze." Then I placed the playhead over the frame so it was shown in the Canvas window.



Then, I went to the Modify tab and selected Make Freeze Frame. The frozen frame appeared in the Viewer window.



Finally, I dragged the frozen frame back into my sequence and performed Image Motion as I had before. I made four frozen images in total. The first three looked fine when I played back the sequence. But the fourth frame had some problems. Compared to the other three, it looked blurred in the Canvas window, and on the external monitor, I saw interlacing lines and flickers.



I checked again to make sure I performed the same effects on all four frames. I can't figure out the problem with the fourth image. Can anybody help me?

Full Circle Package

Here is the talk show package I produced last semester for my Studio Production class. I want to thank Pedro Falci, my fellow classmate, who hosted the show for me and interviewed John Holland, star of the BU men's basketball team. Hope you like it.

My Story about Yao Ming

In April, I flew down to Houston, TX to shoot my friend's wedding. Meanwhile, I needed an interviewee to finish a story for my Broadcast Sports Journalism class. I thought of Yao Ming, the center of the Houston Rockets, whom I have known for years. So, I called Yao and asked him if he could spare a few minutes to do the interview. Fortunately, I got a "yes."

In the story, Yao talked about his injury recovery, his eagerness for the upcoming birth of his first baby, and his contract negotiations with the Houston Rockets.


Here is the story...