video

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Following up on a previously posted video on Germs are from Germany, here comes CollegeHumor’s take — using only archive footage and some novel soundbites. Enjoy.

Just came across a one-page site by Jan E. Schotsman which offers a couple of video tools for the Mac, and at zero cost.

Fix your video

The JES Deinterlacer does a fine de-interlacing job, but despite its name, it does more. It lets you slow down the frame rate, interpolating the in-between frames. Click here for a comparison between iMovie and the JES Deinterlacer. Feature list:

• Deinterlace movies (half height/normal height/double frame rate/blend,adaptive/simple).
• Change field dominance (for PAL films with fake interlace).
• Reinterlace from one or two movies.
• Standards conversion (PAL<->NTSC or custom).
• Inverse telecine.
• Trim, shift, simple color correction, noise reduction.
• Change encoding (RGB gamma, video range/full range).
• Fix jagged edges.
• Pitch preserving sound track for half speed.
• Change movie speed, reverse movie.
• Interlaced in/out, progressive in/out.
• Includes utility to view and edit image description extensions and movie and track geometry

Clean up your video

If you have noisy video, the JES Video Cleaner may be the quick tool for you. It also allows for removal of logos. I imagine this must be great for cleaning up consumer camcorder footage with a burned in date.

• General noise reduction (adaptive)
• Remove logo
• Average two movies
• Remove cross-luma
• Remove periodic brightness variation

Vintage computing

If you still run OS9, he has a helper program that allows for transfers > 2GB.

And if you have an old Power Mac, he offers a program for uncompressed capture of SD video.

Finally, Jan has a little app to fix the blue cast on a monitor under Mac OS 10.4.

The past months I have noticed a rise in the use of video on corporate and software developer websites. This trend is probably led by Apple, who now produces instructional videos alongside any major hardware and software release. Many other companies have followed suit, but all too often poorly executed. They often seem to be produced internally and done without (much) thought about script, sound, light or even white balance. Those reflect poorly on the advertised product/service. Either get it produced professionally, or save yourself the bandwidth and your customers the time.

And then there are some that manage to make a short, different presentation, that give you the gist of their offering without telling too much. LifeShaker from Funky Cloud is a prime example.

Even though it is for the ‘wrong’ company, here is a lovely tv commercial.
(via Mason)

If you have a Mac and a video camera, there is a nifty tool called iDive (“the iPhoto of video”). Good program if you want to organize your shots, it integrates into Final Cut Pro or iMovie, lets you keep compressed versions of the footage. And it gets good to very good ratings across the range.

Neon Bible is an exciting example of an interactive music video. Simplicity should not be confused with Quick To Do.
(via)