Tedvid | Vlog | Videography | Video

Typography is.

Ted — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:38:25 +0000

Skip to the third paragraph if typography bores you

I have come to recently understand how important type is not only in design, but in video. As a consequence, I am currently reading The Elements of Typographic Style. I have heard it is a “must read” for anyone seeking good type in their creations.

I have already made a couple adjustments to tedvid.com based on what I have been reading. Unfortunately I have not read the entire thing, which means I’m certain that though I may have corrected myself in one or two areas, it probably has created other issues elsewhere. Nevertheless, I hope to eventually have a solid enough grasp on typography that I can hold a decently intelligent conversation over the matter.

Now for the life-type connection

This new interest in typography is more of a life transition than anything. All of high school up through your general education courses in college, you are hit over the head repeatedly with a broad base of potential life skills. Yes, you begin to formulate what you are going to do as early as the day you could say a combination of the words “fire” and “man” but you are at such risk of changing your mind five or six hundred times that the educators and purveyors (I just wanted to say purveyors) of our world find it necessary that you simply learn a little about a lot until you figure things out.

However, I am done with the bulk of my general education courses, I only have a year and a half of school left and life is coming at me fast. And to be honest, I’m excited. Now that I have been doing what I love for some time and realize that video and the web are (to use a very early 2000s buzz word) converging, I can begin to hone my skills in all of the unnoticeably noticeable aspects of videography and motionography. To clarify: those parts of a video that make it excellent, reputable and set apart but are not readily apparent to the average viewer.

Also, just as I have begun to focus on these “unnoticeably noticeable” aspects of video-making, I have also began to work on these things in my personal life. As most of you know, I am a Christian. And for those of you who didn’t know – I’m not afraid of your initial reaction to that statement. Everyone has a different response to that word based on their experiences with people – good or bad. I have grown up in the church (I’m even the son of a minister), seen absolutely ridiculous things happen and while I think most people see this as a way to discredit Christianity, I have had just the opposite reaction. I believe it affirms Christianity. And if you want to ask more about why I believe this, you can email me: ted@tedvid.com or comment. I can promise an honest, gentle response.

So as I work on letting God correct my imperfections by being made more fully aware that the imperfections of man are only made complete in Christ, I will also be letting Robert Bringhurst bring to light my typographic mistakes. *Note: these two things are in the same sentence, but no on the same plane of importance ; ) haha!

Thanks for reading.

Ted

Recreating the Kodak XL55 Movie Camera’s Viewfinder in Final Cut Pro

Ted — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 04:21:20 +0000

I’ll start with this 5 second clip of the end result and you can check out the tutorial and commentary below that:

End Result

Tutorial

After sitting in the office mesmerized by Brad’s old Kodak Super 8mm camera (and it spawning discussion of JJ Abrams latest endeavors), I eventually I got the idea to recreate the old camera’s viewfinder look in Final Cut Pro (FCP) because I just thought it looked awesome using some footage I already had of Matt Danner. Since I took the time to make it, I figured I would share how I did it with the world so that you too can recreate this look without having to spend forever tinkering with it yourself. If you find a use for it and work it into a clip I would love to see how you’ve used it! – so put a link in the comments if you ever do!

Click here to download the .ZIP file with some of the pieces I used so that you don’t have to do all of this from scratch.

(I included the 8mm clip from Video Copilot in the .zip file)

- Ted

Movie Posters

Ted — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 03:21:42 +0000

Well, suffice it to say.. I have failed epically on posting two videos a day for you all. So, I owe you guys at least an explanation as to what I have been doing before I get back to doing that again this next week because judging by the traffic bump on the site, you all enjoyed it.

Besides doing lots of work for iThemes this summer (Yeah, every word to this point is a link to something I’ve made, so pick a word and check it out), I’ve been gorging on movies and music. Also, I’ve found some time to do some reading and audiobook listening which is always a bonus.

To help break it down more for you and to make sure you’re spared the boring details here’s a simple list of things that apply to my life currently based off some inspiration from a blog post by my friend, Nathan Reynolds.

Movie Posters
Passion Pit
Titus
New MacBook Pro : )
Dwelling
Commutes
Future
Positively Overwhelmed
Compassion
When does football season get here?
Friendship
EmperorZurg.com

___

If you want more detail you’ll have to ask below, otherwise – why give you information you don’t want/need?

Last thing – I was messing with GarageBand and my brother’s musical ability, and have put together a pretty catchy 45 second audio clip you can download/listen to here.

See ya this week!

- Ted

Modern Glitch

Ted — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:25:50 +0000

Everything I’ve seen from people who are attending/have attended the Vancouver Film School Foundation has been intriguing. I told you yesterday that I’d feature another Ryan Smith video today so here you have it. My friend, Brad Ulrich, pointed out to me when I showed this to him yesterday that it has some semblance of this piece and I definitely agree that there is some inspiration drawn from it.

Digging the old billboards in this one a ton.

- Ted

Pre-iPad Motion Magazine

Ted — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:10:12 +0000

I titled this post the “pre-iPad” motion magazine because now this kind of thing can actually happen. Well.. at least parts of it. I don’t think letters fall off of the iPad and rearrange themselves.. Anyway, I digress. Liked seeing that they obviously planned way ahead. I particularly enjoyed the series that starts at around 17 seconds. Go check out some of Ryan Smith’s stuff – it’s all pretty good. I’m featuring another one of his pieces tomorrow.

- Ted

Vampire Weekend and Typography

Ted — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:00:46 +0000

Although there are parts of this I think could be improved upon. The idea from June Harrild is just wonderful. I would love it if bands actually commissioned someone to do this to correspond with the song and the standard music video because I think it really helps bring clarity out of songs like Vampire Weekend’s typical stuff. Plus, it also more clearly lays out the specific lyrics for those of us who have a tendency to not realize they’ve been singing a song wrong for years (notice I did not fully admit anything there). Anyway, motion typography + Vampire Weekend = a good start to your Wednesday morning, am I right?

(Best sequence is from 2:40-2:45 in my opinion)

- Ted

Best Wedding Invitation I’ve Ever Seen

Ted — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:00:14 +0000

I hope to tell you that if I ever do find the one, I’m convincing her that we need to do this. Creative. Awesome. Easily Accessible. Now the trouble is.. finding that girl. Anyway, you came here for my commentary on the video – not my (lack of) love life. I think setting the shots up as if they were pictures was what did it for me. Love the idea and hope to see more of this soon.

- Ted

Motion Blur

Ted — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:15:35 +0000

I’m not sure whether or not all of the motion blur in this video was intentional or not, however it alone makes this video watchable. Surprisingly, the guy who made it (Rob Wilson) was in high school at the time which kind of adds to the innocence of the video (if you see this post Rob don’t take that comment as derogatory – it’s a positive thing). Love some of the bike shots along the sand near the water. Song was from Angus & Julia Stone and I figured this post might be an uplifting start to your week (for those of you who were off yesterday for Memorial Day like I was – hence the no posts from yesterday).

Be sure to check back later today for the next post – very neat idea for a wedding invitation.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

- Ted

Bunker Down

Ted — Fri, 28 May 2010 06:37:11 +0000

This short film entitled Bunker from Paul Doucet is great for many reasons. One being that it’s French which means I’m not able to understand any of the speech but because of the mood created by the videography and other thematic elements I’m pretty positive I was able to discern what happens and am certainly able to distinguish the emotions I’m supposed to be feeling at various times. However, I would have posted this film if for nothing else but for the first two minutes. From a brilliant establishing shot of the pull back away from the phonograph to the isolation shot of the character sitting lying on the couch – it was excellent. Some solid sound mixing too!

Anyway, I’m really enjoying this two videos a day thing. I think on Friday’s though, I’m just going to post one and only put videos longer than 6 minutes up so that there can be a place for those. It would be bad news to put you guys through super long videos during the week so I’ll give you the weekend (every weekend) to check out Friday posts. I hope you’re enjoying this as much as I am – feel free to email me (ted@tedvid.com) stuff you’ve seen and would like to share and let people know about the blog!

- Ted

AOL’s New Promos

Ted — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:35:24 +0000

I think words like stunning and totally rad come to mind when watching these. I love the play on the new branding job they’ve done. Much better in video than in graphical form in my opinion too. I had another video for this slot today but I saw this and decided to drop it in quickly after lunch before I got back to work. Hope you enjoy!

- Ted