Offical Video Editing: Essential Software

[JacksSenseOfRejection]

Look, video editing is a pain in the a$$. That's just the truth of the matter, hours in front of an editing suite can wear on the brain and drive people to certain amounts of insanity that can only be measured by how much coffee you've consumed.

This thread isn't about editing suites so much as it's about how to make your life easier, your edits quicker, and maybe even lead you to find some resolution that there may in fact be light at the end of the video editing tunnel.

So pop some popcorn, put your editing on hold, and lets get started.

Audio

It's true. You can have the most bad ass looking video, but crappy audio or a bad sync will throw the whole viewing experience off.



Pluraleyes
http://www.singularsoftware.com/pluraleyes.html

Screw time stamps and your idiot cousin clapping his hands in front of your camera lens. Pluraleyes will sync your audio and video multi tracks for you. It's decently quick depending on your machine and is capatiable with Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, Vegas Pro, Media Composer and EDIUS.

It works about 95% of the time depending on your secondary audio quality. So don't throw away the clapboard yet. It's always good to bake yourself up, just in case.



MobyGratis
http://www.mobygratis.com/

OK, I admit it. This isn't software, but if you don't know about it now you do.

MobyGratis is a website that offers music by Moby (Yes, that Moby) for use in indie films and non-profit work. Signing up is free, and the legal department will turn around your music request i about 24 hours depending on what you're asking for.

It's a great source for high quality music that you can license for free.

Christopher North Gratis
http://web.me.com/christophernorth/c..._progress.html

Here's some great movie soundtrack/score music from a composer I know. His stuff is a little bit of everything, but quality tracks that come in handy.


Color

Not everyone is comfortable color correcting their own stuff, and it's understandable. If you don't have a background photo touching up it can be a bit daunting. But fear not there is help out there.



Red Giant Software has a lot of great plugins and if you haven't looked through their catalog of goodies, you should. You'll thank me later.

Colorista
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/prod...-colorista-II/

Colorista is a pretty darn powerful color correction plug in. It gives you some nice visual menus so you're not completely in the dark with what's going on. And as with all Red Giant gear, they have plenty of tutorial videos.

Looks
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/prod...-bullet-looks/

Still not comfortable doing the correcting yourself? Looks has pre-loaded color correction presets that you can modify to suite your own needs. But they're a great starting point for everyone from the advanced user to the beginner.


Cross Platform Communication

Face it, there is no one piece of software that is great at everything. Depending on your style or workflow you may be using a number of different editing platforms (Personally I use Final Cut Pro and After Effects side by side for work). But surprise surprise, the companies that made those editing suites don't want you using anyone's product by theirs.



Automatic Duck
http://www.automaticduck.com/products/

Automatic Duck is your answer for cross platform communication. Allowing you to export your Final Cut or Avid projects as XML files and then open them in After Effects to get all After Effectsy on them.

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I'll update again soon when I think of some more great stuff that I think everyone should look into.

[Karl_G]

This is a great thread that could use a little bit more attention. There are many powerful resources out there to help us out as video editors.

One that I need to try out myself would be Automatic Duck. I also use (at work) Final Cut Pro along side Adobe After Effects. I find it to be a real pain having to render out video files from AE to be used in FCP. I spend a lot of time and RAM doing so, and need to talk my manager into buying Automatic Duck. At home I use After Effects with Premier, and the dynamic link feature is very convenient for using the two editing platforms side by side as I don't have to render out my AE sequences and instead import them directly to Premier. This is one of the only reasons why I would choose Premier over FCP.

A couple good resource I use for music would be:

http://audionautix.com/
http://danosongs.com/
http://incompetech.com/

All three sites have somewhat decent music to choose from and best of all they are free to use in any of your video projects as long as you credit the artist.

Does anyone have any experience using the Magic Lantern firmware for Canon DSLRs? I am on the verge of installing on my T3i and would like some input as to its reliability.

[hipster.]

This is a great thread that could use a little bit more attention. There are many powerful resources out there to help us out as video editors.

One that I need to try out myself would be Automatic Duck. I also use (at work) Final Cut Pro along side Adobe After Effects. I find it to be a real pain having to render out video files from AE to be used in FCP. I spend a lot of time and RAM doing so, and need to talk my manager into buying Automatic Duck. At home I use After Effects with Premier, and the dynamic link feature is very convenient for using the two editing platforms side by side as I don't have to render out my AE sequences and instead import them directly to Premier. This is one of the only reasons why I would choose Premier over FCP.

A couple good resource I use for music would be:

http://audionautix.com/
http://danosongs.com/
http://incompetech.com/

All three sites have somewhat decent music to choose from and best of all they are free to use in any of your video projects as long as you credit the artist.

Does anyone have any experience using the Magic Lantern firmware for Canon DSLRs? I am on the verge of installing on my T3i and would like some input as to its reliability.

Also to be noted is that Vimeo now has music for sale as well as free music.

As for Magic Lantern, I haven't used it yet due to the fact there isn't a working hack for 7D, but I hear good things.

There is plenty of documentation out there on their website for the different builds. And I believe you can always install the stock Firmware if you end up hating Magic Lantern.

[hipster.]

http://www.technicolor.com/en/hi/the...ghts/cinestyle

Canon DSLR users may also want to check out Technicolor CineStyle. It's a picture settings profile from Technicolor that allows you to get amazing dynamic range while shooting. This means a very very flat image with a lot of information in the highlights and shadows. Which means that you have a LOT of room to play with when you color correct. They even provide you with a LUT (look up table) to use if you're not comfortable color correcting your own video.

To use the LUT you'll need to download and install LUT Buddy from Red Giant. Compatible with both After Effects and Premiere.

If you've color corrected before you'll be very happy with the flat image the CineStyle gives you to play with. It's much flatter than if you were to turn down the neutral settings all the way. And puts the Canon DSLR's very close to the same dynamic range of the Red cam.

[Karl_G]

Good addition on the vimeo music. I'm definitely going to have to give cinestyle a try as well. Seems like a very powerful tool for Canon DSLR users. I took a look at their website and say how they will be installing this in the new go pro firmware update in the future which will make those little things that much more useful. I'm hoping I can use it side by side with magic lantern once I install. As for color correcting, I just saw that Red Giant offers a free version of their colorista software:
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/prod...olorista-free/
Im not sure how powerful it is, but worth looking into if you can't afford the $300 for the regular version.

[yolo.]