August 18, 2025

Our Save 50% promotion continues now through the end of Labor Day (Sept. 1). Any webinar or bundle qualifies - but not gift cards or subscriptions. Enter coupon code - Larry-50 - during checkout.

500 titles covering Final Cut, Premiere and Resolve.

I'm delighted to announce that, as we continue rebuilding our server from its collapse earlier this summer, we are now able to offer gift cards for any training in my store.

Cards can be purchased in any amount and are good for a year from the date of purchase.

Kevin wanted detailed training on Adobe Premiere Pro 2025 and I realized that my current bundle was VERY out of date. So, over the weekend, I created a new one and included a LOT more. This new bundle includes: Workflow, editing, speech-to-text editing, latest features, audio, audio in Audition, still images, video scopes, color tools and AI features. Whew! Plus, this new bundle qualifies for our SAVE 50% promotion. 

If you are looking to improve your Premiere skills - or know someone who is - this is a great place to start. 

My first tutorial this week follows on what I learned when comparing captioning.

DaVinci Resolve outputs non-standard SRT caption files. This can drive you nuts until you figure it out, but it is very easy to fix. Here are the details.

Next, I have two videos that compare the Magnetic Mask in Final Cut with the Magic Mask 2 in Resolve. They both do the same thing - but there is a HUGE difference in ease-of-use between the two!

Let's start with using the Magnetic Mask in Final Cut to select multiple elements in the same video.

Next, let's look at how to use the Magic Mask 2 in Resolve, first to create selective color changes (which the Magnetic Mask can also do, but I won't demo it here), then to isolate a foreground element from the background.

The short answer: You'll never figure this out on your own.

Webinars will resume early next month. I'm thinking of starting a new series on workflow in Final Cut Pro, but I'm interested in your suggestions on what we should talk about. Email your thoughts.

It is interesting to me how training has evolved over the years. There's no doubt attention spans are getting shorter. TL;DR ("Too Long; Didn't Read") summaries are everywhere. It's as if any subject that can't be taught in two minutes isn't worth learning.

There's no doubt I can teach anyone how to push a button in two minutes or less. But "How" is not "Why." I remember Walter Murch, in his book "In the Blink of an Eye" took 100 pages to describe where to put a cut. (TL;DR: When the actor blinks.) But is cutting on the blink really the answer, or is the answer in knowing how to analyze a scene and use cuts to tell the story? In the brevity, something is lost.

Now, I grant you, railing against today's alarmingly short attention spans, where "What have you done for me lately?" means in the last ten minutes, is like shoveling against the tide. You aren't going to win.

But it seems worthwhile, in the slowness of these summer days, to ask ourselves: What do we need to learn and why do we need to learn it? When learning something new, a guide is always helpful. I truly appreciate a good teacher. But there's also the requirement for us to put that teaching into practice. We don't learn from our success, we learn from our mistakes. 

Learning is an essential element of life in today's world. Don't shortchange yourself by just looking for the answer. Spend time learning the process - you'll be the better for it.

TUTORIALS & REVIEWS

» Compare Captioning in Final Cut, Premiere, & Resolve (Tutorial)

  » For something supposedly easy, creating captions is certainly not!

» Resolve Creates Non-Standard SRT Files & How to Fix Them (Tutorial)

  » The problem is obvious and the fix is easy. 

» Create Multiple Magnetic Masks in Final Cut Pro 11 (Tutorial)

  » Magnetic Mask is not only easy to do, it is surprisingly powerful.

» Separate Foreground from Background in DaVinci Resolve 20 (Tutorial)

  » Resolve makes this process the poster-child for non-intuitive.

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