August 4, 2025

This Wednesday, I present AI Power Tools in DaVinci Resolve 20. While the free version of DaVinci Resolve 20 contains a wealth of editing tools, the Studio version unlocks the real power of AI for editing.

In this session, I'll demo techniques that can simplify difficult tasks without replacing the human at the center. As always, my live webinars are free!

Last week's webinar on Apple Final Cut Pro Power Tips was really well-attended. I presented more than three dozen hidden techniques that can help you solve problems and edit faster.

This covered media, proxies, organizing the browser, three different viewers, trimming tricks and more. More details are available in my store and Video Training Library.

I have two tutorials from last week's webinar.

This first one is for all of us looking for ways to improve the quality of our images, or, more accurately, who want to avoid picking a codec that will make our images look worse. Regardless of which NLE you use, these definitions will apply.

Next is a Final Cut-specific technique. As a backup protection, FCP supports both duplicating a project (timeline) or creating a snapshot of it. While similar, they have two key differences that make a big difference in whether you are actually backing up your work.

If you use FCP, you need to understand this.

I made an incorrect statement in last week's webinar - which I corrected in the version released in my store - about ProRes and log video.

So, to make amends, I wrote this illustrated tutorial.

Thinking of log video reminded me that RAW video also exists.

This brought me to a reader question: "Why can't we convert video into RAW files to get higher quality?" So, here's the answer.

As I was putting Philip Grossman's article together over the last two weeks, I was struck by how important documentaries are. As Philip wrote: "I focus on locations where human ambition collided with unintended consequence.... I’m concerned with how stories influence knowledge, and with an engineer’s brain, deconstructing complexity and making it more usable/understandable, whether it is designing infrastructure storage for an editorial department or sketching out the human toll of nuclear waste.... [I want] to understand the 'why' behind things that go terribly, terribly wrong."

Documentaries, at their core, seek truth, then share that truth with an audience. Because each of us is human, there's always bias; not least of which is that the filmmaker considers their story important enough to spend years telling it. "In the end," Philip says, "documentaries are inherently imperfect reflections, but approached with humility, curiosity, structure, and technical care, they can become deeply honest and resonant. What you hope for is to be a steward, not a sculptor, trusting the story to teach you, and trusting your craft to let it speak."

If you haven't read his article, please take a look at it now (link). His photos are indelible, his descriptions of process and gear extremely useful, and, so too, are his thoughts on media technology and workflow. 

TUTORIALS & REVIEWS

» Inside Chernobyl. Philip Grossman, Adventure Cinematographer (Comment)

  » He documents engineering disasters to explain how they happened.

» Color Space, Bit Depth, & Color Subsampling: Why Should We Care? (Tutorial)

  » How do these affect image quality?

» Duplicate or Snapshot - Which Protects Final Cut 11 Projects Better? (Tutorial)

  » These are similar, but not the same. One is far better.

» Yes, ProRes Supports Log Video (Tutorial)

  » This short illustrated tutorial explains what log video is.

» Why Can't We Convert Video to RAW Files? (Tutorial)

  » Smile... the answer is somewhat more than "because..."

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