As a videographer and communications guy, I am always on the lookout for ways to streamline activities and cause the teams with whom I work to function fluidly and effectively.

Over the last few weeks, I have had the opportunity to work with a couple of groups from around the nation and I would like to share some of my observations about unity and teamwork.

24/7 Artisan teamwork (BizVid’s Caz Taylor, Billie Alexander, Josh and Luke LaRoya) in Washington DC

In one instance, I was at an outdoor venue in Washington D.C. where I was working on a 24 hour, non-stop, live worship and praise music gathering. Musicians and artists sometimes are known for pride issues or other idiosyncrasies which can make them hard to work with. I’m happy to report that this recent Washington D.C. experience was the complete opposite.

Even though each of the roughly 70 participants were excellent in their fields of art, music and administration, it took additional components to make the the long days flow smoothly.

California/DC Artisan teamwork at 24/7 David’s Tent in the DC National Mall. Tent founder Jason Hershey (l) receiving Kingdom Kajon as gift from California team (l to r) Michael, Dan, Kerah, Mary and Daniel

When someone needed to fill-in, they did. When a microphone needed to be moved they did. When administration needed to be accommodated, they did. A person’s skill level or status became irrelevant when everybody shared a common goal. It was a remarkable experience of having a single mind vested into by numerous people.

I experienced a similar phenomenon a few days later in San Diego when a beauty-product client named Japonesque brought BizVid Communications in to produce an instructional video series.

From the talent, to the makeup artist, to the production team, to even the clients themselves, everybody was working together for a common goal. What could have otherwise been a very challenging production, became a very pleasant and effective one.

A recent videotaping, showcasing teamwork by BizVid crew with model and makeup artist

The common denominators in both instances were selflessness, a willingness to be in harmony with one another, and high senses of camaraderie and purpose. Add to these the unifying goal of accomplishing a specific task, and you have a winner.

For those of you ramrodding multifaceted, multi-person projects, the best solution will be found around the caliber and selflessness of the people with whom you work. A single negative attitude can abort the entire effort.

Choose teams and join your teams wisely. Allow for and encourage plenty of freedom and interaction amongst teammates. Deferring to and uplifting one another play big parts in all this. You will be surprised at the excellence of your outcome, and how many times each person will look for opportunities to work with you again.

Today I’m going to show you how to create animated mattes (and text mattes) in Adobe Premiere Pro.  First, you’ll see an animated matte I got from Rampant Designs. We’ll also introduce a text matte… the text was created in Essential Graphics. Let’s begin with the animating the matte.

The first item of business is to place a video clip on video track 1.  Next, place the matte clip on video track two.  Many royalty-free, purchasable mattes are created in 4k but your project may be 2k.  If so, right click the matte clip and check the “scale to frame size” option. This will resize your matte to fit your project’s resolution.

Next, go to the “Effects” panel in Premiere and type in the search the word, “Track.”  That will bring up the effect we want: “Track Matte Key.” Next, I will click and drag the effect onto the video clip on video track one.  When I do, you will see that the effect appears in the “Effects Controls” panel where I can assign the effect to the video track that I want it placed.  In this case, you can see that the matte is on video track two so that means I want the “Track Matte Key” assigned to video track two.  I’ll click the dropdown arrow and then make the assignment.  Notice the black all around the matte; that’s actually a hole that can be filed with another video clip or a color background.

Let’s try adding a color to fill in the hole that our matte has left.  I will click on the “new item” icon and select “color matte.”  The dialogue box that appears will default to the project size so I will click “ok.”  Next, I have a choice of colors so I think I will use the eyedropper to clone the sand color on the beach.  When I click “ok” the color matte is ready to use.  In order to use it, I need to create the space so I am going to move the matte clip up to video track 3 and the video clip up to video track 2.  Next, I will place the color matte on video track 1.  Now, I’ll need to go back to the “effects control” panel and change the track assignment of the matte to video track 3. 

Now let’s create video inside of text.  I’ve already typed out my title, “water” and will place it on the timeline in video track 3.  For this effect, it’s best to use a bold font and make it as large on the screen as you can.  Underneath it, I will place my video clip on video track 2.  Next, I will go to the “effects” panel and type in “track” to get the “track matte key” which I will then drop onto the video clip.  Then, I will go to the “effects control panel” and assign the effect to video track 3.  Next, I’ll drop in the background. 

Now let’s say that we want to animate the text and add a drop shadow.  To do that, I will need to nest the video and matte tracks…but not the background track.  So I’ll right click, select “nest,” name the nest and click okay.  Now I can go to “effects” type in “drop,” add the effect then go to “effects controls” and manipulate. To animate the text, I go to “motion” and work with “scale” and “position.”  Adjust the parameters to your liking and have fun!

I hope this tutorial has been a help to you.  Be sure to explore our blog further and check out some of our video examples.  Happy editing and thanks for watching.

In this video I will show you an easy way to make a panoramic picture in Photoshop.  We’ve all been on vacation and come across that spectacular view that a single picture just couldn’t capture.  The example you see here isn’t what I would consider to be a spectacular view, but it was wide enough that one picture wasn’t enough.  

In order to make a panoramic print, you have to start with at least two individual pictures. I have three individual pictures for this example. So what’s the best way to take each of the three pictures?  First, you hold the camera level and click the first shot.  Then, staying on the same level plane, you take the next shot with about a 1/3^rd overlap of the first shot.  Then, for the third shot…again staying on the same level plane, you take the final shot with the same approximate 1/3^rd overlap. Once done, you have three good sources for your pano print.  It’s been my personal experience that any more or less than three pictures doesn’t work very well. 

Now it’s time to stitch them together.  To do that, go to “File” and click.  In the dropdown, navigate to “Automate” then over to “Photomerge.”  You will notice in the window that just opened, the “layout” is defaulted to “Auto.”  Leave it here.  I have found that Photoshop has a better idea what my pano should look like then if I should mess with the settings. 

Next, we need to populate the center window with the three images I showed you at the beginning of the tutorial.  To do that, go find your files.  I’ll click “browse” go to my folder titled “Photoshop Tute” and select the three images I want to import.  Be sure that the “Blend Images Together” box is checked since we want Photoshop to just that.  As you can see in the video, Images 1, 2 & 3 are ready to go so I’ll click “Ok” and let Photoshop begin its magic. 

As you can see, all three images have been stitched together seamlessly.  The next item of business it to clean up this image.  It looks pretty ragged around the edges. To do that, I’ll use the crop tool and set the parameters to the standard aspect ratio of a panoramic print which is 12-inches wide and 4-inches high.

But let’s say I wanted to work on it a little more like adjust the levels or color. Since the pano is still in layer form, I will want to flatten it by going to “layer” and “Flatten Image.”  Once it is flattened, I can do what I need to do.  Okay, now it is ready to be exported out of Photoshop so I will go to “File” then “Save As” then save it as a jpeg.  So there you have it: you can now convey the panoramic majesty of any location you encounter!