Artbeats After Effects Turorials & Free Footage

Artbeats, a company that sells stock footage, has a great podcast with After Effects tutorials. They lso have some video and writtien tutorials that are worth checking out. You can also get free footage from them, too.

Royalty free music from SonnyBoo.com

Peter John Ross provides some royalty-free music on his website SonnyBoo.com. If you add it to your video, all he asks is that you list him in the credits.

All you have to do is credit the songwriter - Peter John Ross (www.sonnyboo.com) and the music is your to use for free. They may not be "Beatles" songs, but they can be the difference between your movie getting popular, or getting a "Cease & Desist" court order. And there is no more music for sale on this site or any other site from Peter John Ross. These are just a donation to the public domain.

Make a Blu-Ray Disk on a standard DVD

The 8th Annual MacWorld FCP SuperMeet was held on January 7, 2009. There were a number of interesting speakers and among those was DVD wiz Bruce Nazarian.

He gave a presentation on how Mac users can use a standard "red-ray" DVD burner and regular DVD-R media to create a Blu-Ray disk. His method involves Roxio Toast.

You can get a PDF of his presentation at his website www.recipe4dvd.com. (You will need to sign-up, for free.) Among the things Nazarian recommends is that content producers sign a petition to lower the licensing fees associated with Blu-Ray replication. The licensing cost is $4,500. Both DVD and HD-DVD never had a licensing fee. So, this is an important issue. You can duplicate Blu-Ray disks one at a time from your computer without having to pay this fee, but if you send it off to a professional replicator, you will have to pay the fee. You can sign a petition about this issue from the DVD Association.

Flash Website Templates - Free

If you want to set up a flash-based website for your film or to feature your work, you can get free flash templates for your website at flashvillage.com. You will need Flash to use them.

Making Movies: A Guide for Young Filmmakers - Free

The Film Foundation has a downloadable movie making guide targeted to teens titled, Making Movies: A Guide for Young Filmmakers. It offers film watching suggestions and a number exercises.

Created with the assistance and expertise of 25 professional film artists and educators, the manual is a detailed text that takes you step-by-step through the filmmaking process…from story concept to completed film.

The chapter on editing describes tape-to-tape editing, but the rest of the manual remains relevant.

IMDB Policy Change

IMDB.com, The Internet Movie Database, is an important resume link for people breaking into the film industry. IMDB used to have a policy that only films shown in select film festivals or distributed through a studio or network could be listed. They have just changed their policy in a way that will benefit new filmmakers.

GOT IMDb? YOUR NEXT SUBMISSION COULD PRE-QUALIFY YOU.
Does your film have a Title Page on IMDb yet? If not, maybe it should. IMDb wants to help you publicize and promote your movie as soon as its ready for the world, not just after you've won recognition for it. Next time you submit to a Withoutabox Partner Festival, you will be invited by email to create a Title Page on IMDb, the most recognized and trafficked movie site in the world. Submit to a festival by year's end to get in line for your Title Page. Certain submissions are not eligible, but the great majority are. Invitations are sent once the festival receives your submission. In fact, thousands have been sent just in the last couple weeks!

Learn more about this opportunity here.

Quizlet - Free Quiz Website

Quizlet is a free website that allows you to create online quizzes. Both students and teachers can use this as a study aid. Check out this quiz on film vocabulary to see how it works.

Browse and use millions of flashcards created by other students and teachers, or create your own.

Create Flashcard Sets

1. Easily create flashcard sets with as many questions and answers as you want.
2. Import questions and answers from your computer or other websites (or just type them in directly).
3. Cut and paste questions from other peoples' flashcard sets to make your own.
4. Invite friends to share your flashcards via email, Facebook, or MySpace.
5. One-click lookup of official dictionary definitions, and other users' previous answers.

Teacher Features

1. Give your students a study tool that's both powerful and fun, encouraging them to learn.
2. Share study materials online with your classes, or generate photocopy-ready flashcards for in-class distribution.
3. Host a group where your students can create and discuss study materials for your class.
4. Notify students by email when you've posted new study materials, and receive messages back from them.
5. See what other teachers are teaching at your grade level and in your subject area.