Who says that video production can’t be a family activity?

I get requests for Motion tutorials all the time, and it’s been a while since I’ve released one, so I thought we’d have a little fun in this week’s episode. In this installment of Izzy Video, I demonstrate the steps you take in Motion to turn a face into a monster’s face. The technique uses motion tracking and keyframed filters. I hope you have as much fun with this technique as we did.

You can download the video here.

Many times when you’re shooting video outdoors, you compromise on your exposure because of the high contrast range of the sunny outdoors, and the limited contrast range of your video camera. The video clip I use in this episode of Izzy Video is a perfect example of this type of compromise. Luckily, you can improve the imagery in post production, and in this video, I show you one way to do it. It’s a technique I call faking a graduated ND filter. It’s pretty simple, but it can have a big impact.

This installment of Izzy Video is for members only. To learn more about how an Izzy Video membership works, please visit this page.

I have received many, many emails asking me to please describe my process of archiving and backing up video files. I think people are starting to feel the pains associated with shooting tapeless. You end up with a lot of data and very few places to put it.

And how do you take precautions to prevent data loss?

This installment of Izzy Video will show you my personal process. While there are many different ways you could do this, my system works for me. In the video you’ll see the tools I use, and how I use them.

Here are links to some of the items I discuss in the video:

• Drobo
• Dual Drive Adapter
• Wiebetech DriveBox 10 pack
• SuperDuper

This installment of Izzy Video is available to members only. Members get more. A lot more.

In this video tutorial, I demonstrate the final tool I recommend as part of your outdoor lighting gear. It’s a black net. You can use a black net for a lot of things, but it’s an excellent tool to cut the light in a background. In this video, you’ll see how I use an 8×8 Scrim Jim with a double black net to darken the background behind the subject. This is the last lighting control tutorial I have planned for the “Shooting Outdoors” series. More on shooting outdoors is still to come, but not on lighting.

This video is archived in the members-only area.

Also, if you’re interested in the live workshop I’m doing on April 17th, 2009, you can get the details here.

If you’re not an Izzy Video member, you might want to check out how it works so you can see the rest of the videos in the “Shooting Outdoors” series, along with more than 100 other videos. Members get more. A lot more.