Welcome, Amanda.
Lots of info here too... What kind of stuff do you want to learn about? "Everything I can" is kind of a broad subject range...
Well, I tend to fixate on technical stuff first. Once I have a sense of having a solid technical foundation under me I then focus on the "Art of".
I've been successfully editing under predefined conditions for the past couple of months. Meaning all of the Final Cut Pro parameters were set for me to work with a particular vid.mov format and the output compression parameters were set for me as well. You know... "don't ask questions... Just do this..." Which was fine and I learned a lot about basic editing. Now that I am breaking out of the predefined conditions I'm feeling confused.
Example 1: I was recently given a few clips from a HD video Camera in clip.MTS formats. FCP7 does not load MTS formated clips. So! I used a converter to convert from MTS to a FCP7 acceptable format. When I loaded the clips in FCP7 I was surprised when I did some motion centering and zooming to center the subject and the resultant video became kind of blurry. Why did this happen? Clearly I made a wrong choice somewhere and lost my high definition. I suspect it has to do with converting Frame Sizes and other stuff. So maintaining video definition and integrity (or what ever the appropriate nomenclature is to refer to this) through the entire Production Work Flow is a subject to learn.
Example 2: I was recently asked to shoot a lecture in a room with overhead fluorescent lights. The talent had a bald head and everything he walked to one spot his head would bloom with light and the camera would react on automatic. What a nightmare trying to find the right camera settings so this would not happen. So Lighting and Camera settings are subjects to learn.
Example 3: For the main stage area we have 3 cameras that feed into Wirecast for a Live Edit. I haven't started directing yet BUT I'm hearing complaints about direction from parties. "Too many camera view changes". Is there a golden rule about how long to stay on a camera view? Of course Direction is a subject learn.
Example 4: During one editing session I was detecting a problem with the sound. It turned out to be a knob on a sound board was not turned off or all the way down which resulted in some "occasional" voice distortions. Sound engineering is a subject to understand.
Example 5: My personal Sony SD camcorder uses tape, so it has a motor that the mic pics up. I know you can send the sound track through SoundSoap (they went out of business) and filter out the motor noise. Another Sound Engineering area to learn.
Example 6: One of my first videos was focused on a Business Group, a bunch of talking heads. It was as boring as watching paint dry. How do I make the video appealing, capture interest, render useful information?
Example 7: I have an idea that will produce some useful videos for the general public. How do I go about obtaining the production elements AND funding to "do it"?
AND of course I'm so green I don't know what I don't know about.
Well now that I have bored you with my stuff... I know it sounds rather naive to say that I want to learn everything I can about the Art and Science of Video BUT its true... I do.
I am talking classes in things like "Intro to Production", "Field Cameras" etc., when I can find a class and I can afford the class. AND I'm hoping I can ask questions here in this forum that will provide me with answers or at least pointers to where an answer can be found.
Is there a book that every aspiring film and or video productionist should read? How do you go about "learning everything you can" about the TRADE? All advice is welcome.
So there you have it.
Amanda
