Detonation Films SFX Tutorials

Detonation Films has a page with a number of video tutorials on special effects techniques they have done for Final Cut Express. They includes a compositing demos for several other applications.

Creative Cow Magazine - Free

Creative Cow runs a great forum for finding answers to technical questions. They now produce Creative Cow Magazine and the subscription is free.

They say this about themselves.

Creative COW Magazine is the outgrowth of the Creative Communities of the World media professionals web community located at creativecow.net. Born from the work that Ron & Kathlyn Lindeboom and their team began over 11 years ago a team that now includes over 200 leaders and writers who create some of the finest content and support on the net for media professionals the COW has well over 275,000 unique visitors each month, with months reaching as high as 11 million pageviews.

Out of this phenomenal community, now comes a FREE magazine filled with the kind of no-nonsense practical and useable knowledge that will help unlock many new techniques, areas of expertise and tools that will make you a stronger and more creative media professional.

See the Video Instructor list of free industry magazines.

Celtx - Scriptwriting Software - Free

In a previous post I discussed using Macros in Microsoft word as script formating aids. I am now using Celtx, which is excellent freeware script writing software.

It has an easy to use interface and once you teach students the basic structure of proper formating, they can quickly use the software. Best of all, it is an open source project. It continues to add new features that make it useful for more that just formating.

The website states:

Celtx is the world's first fully integrated solution for media pre-production and collaboration. It replaces old fashioned 'paper, pen & binder' media creation with a digital approach to writing and organizing that's more complete, simpler to work with, and easier to share.

The website has some tutorial videos that provide a great way to learn what it does. It is available for OSX, Windows, and Linux.

UPDATE: Version 1 is now out.

Adobe Software Donation Program

K-12 Schools in the US and primary and secondary schools in Canada may request a software donation from Adobe through Gifts In Kind.

Eligible schools may request up to a total of four individual title products or one suite product per year. Each product package provides licensing for one computer. No additional licenses or program upgrades are available through this donation program.

Schools may apply once per Fiscal Year (December 1-November 30). Please be sure your request includes all the products (maximum of 4 individual or 1 bundled package) your school requires.

The software is not actually free, you must pay an administrative fee:

In order to recover its costs for administering this program, Gifts In Kind charges a modest administrative fee of $40 per package of Acrobat Pro, Contribute, Dreamweaver, Flash Professional, Fireworks, In Design, Illustrator, Photoshop and Premiere Pro; and a $140 administrative fee for CS Design Premiere, CS Web Premiere, and CS Production Premiere.

If you are not a member of Gifts In Kind, you will be charged an additional $25 on your entire order. If your order is not approved, you will not be charged for any portion of the order if paying by credit, or your check will be returned if paying by check.

If your organization is a North American based nonprofit, you may be eligible for a software donation from Adobe. Please go to Tech Soup for more information about Adobe's North American Nonprofit Software Donation Program and to how to apply.

Adobe Video Curriculum - Free

Adobe has developed an ISTE-aligned curriculum for video production, centered around Adobe software. It is available as a free download.

Digital Video: Foundations of Video Design and Production is a yearlong, project-based curriculum set that helps students develop career and communication skills in video and audio production. The Digital Video projects include instructor project guidelines and reproducible student materials. You can download individual projects or the entire curriculum.

Two other available courses are:
Visual Design: Foundations of Design and Print Production and

Digital Design: Foundations of Web Design

Adobe has an Education Resources page with interesting articles, case studies and other resources.

D-Day Invasion - Done by three guys

Here is an interesting YouTube video that shows some of the process taken to stage the invasion of Omaha Beach on D-Day for a BBC documentary. A total of three people were involved. They had four days of production. Very cool.

DV Magazine - Free

You can get a free subscription to DV Magazine.

Their tag line is "Tools and techniques for the independent professional." I recommend that advanced video students subscribe to this magazine.

Their website states:
Since 1993, DV Magazine has served the information needs of professionals involved in the production, postproduction, and delivery of digital video. Written and produced by experts in the field, DV provides objective, hard-hitting, in depth product information.

See the Video Instructor list of free industry magazines.