Steven Speilberg directing Jurassic Park

Below is some interesting video from the Electronic Press Kit sent to television stations to promote Jurassic Park.  The clip comes from Mike Carroll, who promotes a one-man-band approach to filmmaking in his book Naked Filmmaking.  (The book is great.) He wrote on his blog:

This clip shows Steven Spielberg on the set of Jurassic Park directing actors, blocking the scene, and operating his own Panavision camera and skillfully working the geared head wheels, one of the hardest feats to master. Notice how quickly and efficiently he works. Early in his career he was known for doing ten to twenty takes on everything. Here you see him grabbing shots in one or two takes. Speed, efficiency, and doing things yourself saves time & money.

DSLR Basics Tutorials from Vimeo Video School

Phillip Bloom has contributed a series of video tutorial on DSLR Basics to the Vimeo Video School. 


Setting up your DSLR from Vimeo Staff on Vimeo.

Filmmaking Tips: Composition, Rule of Thirds and Building a Sequence

The guys at Hollywood Bubble have and interesting contest that allows anyone to edit footage they shot.  While the contest ends in April 2011, the tips in the video are valuable, if not perfectly illustrated.  They provide the raw footage as a free download. If you are not turned off by using a shooting scene, then this makes a fun and quick editing assignment.  Download the HD .mov files here.

Vimeo Video School

The streaming video website Vimeo has launched the Vimeo Video School, which is has a growing series of "how to" videos. 

Atomic Learning Video Storytelling Guide - Free

Atomic Learning has a free preview of their Video Storytelling Guide with a series of videos.  The entire series requires a subscription, but the first 16 short videos are free. 

Production Apprentice - Videos and tips

Production Apprentice is a great website for tips on entering the industry and working on set. Check out the video below on how to use a C-Stand.

CStand from John DeMaio on Vimeo.

Juiced Link Audio Tutorials

Juiced Link, a company that specializes in audio for camcorders and HD DSLRs has a number of audio related tutorials.

Final Cut Pro Color Correction - Video Tutorial

Digital Content Producer has a video tutorial on Final Cut Pro Color Correction, which is presented by Jan Ozer.

Of all the skills necessary to successfully edit video, one of the most important is brightness and color correction. To understand how to adjust brightness and color optimally, you have to know how to read a waveform monitor.

In this tutorial, first we'll learn how to enter Apple Final Cut Pro's color correction mode and read the waveform monitor.

Video Made on a Mac - Calibrate a Monitor - Free tutorials

Peachpit Press is posting podcast from the authors of a book titled, Video Made on a Mac. There are several, including one on how to calibrate a monitor:

Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman show you how to create professional video on the Mac. In this series, they share videos and project files using real world examples in Final Cut Studio and Adobe Creative Suite. From pre-production to post, and accomplishing it all within a tight schedule, this podcast series gives you a sample of what you can learn using their book, Video Made on the a Mac.

Got Milk? Contest and Video Features

The Got Milk? ad campaign is working with Scholastic by hosting a video contest for California public high school students. The goal is to recreate scenes from the 20 minute short film White Gold Rock Opera: Battle for Milkquarious.

The video on the website defaults to the Standard Mode, but if you select the Competition Mode you can access several "extra features." These include interviews with the producer, cinematographer, production designer, costume designer, and editor.

The White Gold Rock Opera Video Contest (“Contest”) encourages public high school students between the ages of 14-18, in the state of California, to develop the most creative video recreating a got milk? scene as presented by the Sponsor. Ten (10) Finalists' videos will be posted online for the general public to vote for their favorite. Cash prizes will be awarded to winners' schools to be used towards enhancing the schools' arts education programs.

Final Cut Studio - Ripple Training Tutorials - Free

Apple has announced the release of the latest version of Final Cut Studio.

The folks at Ripple Training have produced 19 free tutorial videos that cover some of the new features in:

Final Cut Pro 7
Motion 4
Compressor 3.5
Soundtrack Pro 3
Color 1.5

Combined, the total running time for the 19 tutorials is a whopping 78 minutes! Produced by all the Apple-certified experts at Ripple Training: Steve Martin, Brian Gary, Mark Spencer, and Alexis Van Hurkman.

IzzyVideo.com Video Tutorials

IzzyVideo.com features video tutorials produced by Israel Hyman. The website that features a large range of tips and techniques for people interesting in learning video production. He offers access to his material through a paid subscription.

He offers a number of free videos including one series called "Learn Final Cut Express 4."

StarWars.com Behind the Scenes Videos

StarWars.com has a number of interesting behind the scenes videos that are worth checking out.

SONY XDCAM EX Tutorials

Sony has a series of short work flow tutorials for the XDCAM EX format.

The XDCAM EX format's revolutionary file-based workflow allows the user to ingest, edit, and export high quality content exclusively as data files, greatly enhancing the speed and flexibility of the editing process.

View brief tutorials of the XDCAM EX editing process with the following non-linear editors: Sony Vegas, Avid Media Composer, Apple Final Cut Pro, Thomson EDIUS and Adobe Premier Pro. Registration (at no cost) is required.

Plug-ins won't save you - on MacVideo.tv

Eric Escobar, a director, producer, visual effects artist and independent filmmaker, gave a really interesting presentation at the Final Cut Pro Users Group Supermeet at MacWorld 2009.

In this piece Eric runs through the essentials to making a production work, and explains just why things cannot be fixed in post, why planning is so essential and what is needed to make a production come together. He provides insight into why crews and budgets are shrinking and how to produce quality regardless of the amount of cash you have to throw at the project.

Watch it at MacVideo.tv

Build a car racing scene using stills - After Effects

GreyScaleGorilla.com has and interesting After Effects tutorial on how to "build a car racing scene using still photographs."

IndyModul - Robot Arm Tutorial

Indy Mogul has a number of free filmmaking tutorials videos. Check out this segment from "Backyard Effects," which shows you how to make your own special effects for cheap. The episode below features a method for adding cyborg arms to an actor.

MacBreak Studio - Free Tutorials

Mac users will really benefit from the podcast MacBreak Studio. They feature tips and techniques for users of Final Cut Studio. They have had some really excellent episodes. They are short, around eight minutes, which makes them great for showing to a class. They put out a new episode every Friday.

Join Steve Martin, Mark Spencer, Brian Gary, Alex Lindsay and friends as they reveal the ins and outs of video production on the Mac. From 3D to audio, video, and compression, learn from the experts how to add advanced techniques to your production workflow and a professional touch to your video content.

Expert Village - Video Tutorials - Free

Expert Village is a website that provides short instructional videos on a wide variety of topics. They have several on video production. They are typically produced in a package of 15 parts. The video below is a tutorial on Final Cut Pro.

Adding Clips to the Timeline in Final Cut Pro 5 -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

You can check out the rest of this Final Cut Pro 5 Video Editing Tutorial. Below are some other titles available (of varying quality):

How To Use GarageBand

How To Create and Edit Videos

Video Production Lighting

All About Delivering a Post Production Video Project

Film and Conduct a Video Interview

How to Make a Documentary Film

Become a Cartoon Voice Actor

How to Make an Indie Film

Low Budget Indie Filmmaking

How To Operate a Digital Video Camera

How to Make Independent Films

16 mm Films

How To Write a Movie Script

How to Write a Screenplay

Prosthetic Makeup: How to create a witch

Current TV - Producer Training Resources

The cable/satellite channel Current TV is built upon the submission of programming from viewers. There website has resources for potential contributors. The have "producer training" section and production knowledgebase with information on pre-production, production, post production and marketing. They also have license cleared music for their projects.

Current is about what's going on in your world: all the things you and your friends are actually interested in -- that you won't find on any other news site or cable TV channel.

Current.com is the place to find and share stories and videos that are interesting to you. It connects to Current TV, a global cable and satellite TV network.

You can watch Current TV online or enjoy it from the comfort of your couch:

DirecTV: channel 366
Dish Network: channel 196
Comcast: channel 107
AT&T U-Verse: channel 189
Time Warner: check listings