If you get handed a drive full of LOG footage, you could of course slap on the respective camera LUT and be done with it, right? Of course you can do that, but it’s very easy to manually grade LOG video and that gives you much more creative control. LOG grading in Final Cut Pro X. Image credit: cinema5D The purpose of using LOG gamma is to record as much of the Dynamic Range a camera sensor produces into the file that gets recorded to card. This file is a normal 8- or 10-bit file that is recorded in the camera’s codec and must not be confused with RAW data (which is a completely different beast). If you look at the image below you can see that the Dynamic Range of the scene is smaller than the Dynamic Range the codec could record. Thus leaving “headroom” below what was black in the scene (blue line) in front of the camera ad what was white (red line). In a way, the camera redistributes (squeezes) brightness values together towards the middle of the histogram. Typical Histogram of Video recorded in LOG If you put footage that has had it’s brightness values distributed on a LOG curve (like in the image above) into a timeline that expects blacks to be at 0% (green line) and white at 100% (orange line), then it’s perfectly clear that the “scenes blacks” are way above (and thus grey) the “timelines black” level and the “scenes whites” are way below “timeline white” (and thus light grey). So basically all you need to do is to bring down the blacks and bring up the whites so that what the camera “saw” as black and white is where the timeline “expects” black and white to be. The midtones theoretically fall into place automatically, if the image is technically exposed correctly (18% grey exposed at 40 IRE). We as Cinematographers If we do not want to expose technically correct most of the time, we deliberately under- or overexpose the skin tones depending on the mood and look of the scene. That’s why the midtones have to be put manually where we want them to be. Depending on how you lower the blacks and raise the whites you might need to add saturation to the image for it to look correctly. That’s it! In order to properly convert or “normalize” footage so that it looks correctly, camera manufacturers provide LUTs (Lookup Tables) that can be applied to the clips inside an NLE and make them look contrasty and colorful again. You can think of those LUTs as “frozen” color correction, so by design, those LUTs simply take an input value and “stupidly” convert it into an output value. If your footage is technically exposed correctly and you put on any old X-LOG to REC.709 LUT, your footage will look as if shot with a 709 gamma, but the LUT will not compensate if the material is accidentally or purposefully under- or overexposed. 8-Bit LOG files are generally soft and not as aggressive as their 10-bit counterparts. That means they need less shifting around brightness values and look almost normal to start with (Canon C-Log or DJI D-Cinelike for example), nevertheless they need the same adjustments that more aggressive flavours of LOG — just a bit less. That’s due to the fact that 8-Bit codecs “fall apart” very easily when you push them a bit too far. Thankfully 8-Bit codecs are finally on their way to the “happy hunting grounds” or wherever dead codecs go. The Big Benefit of Manual LOG Grading The benefit is that you keep complete control and can compensate for deliberate or accidental over- or under exposure to balance your image for editing or before you start your creative grade. It’s a relatively easy process and you need to know only the basic color correction tools in your NLE and be familiar with a waveform scope. You can correctly de-LOG footage by looking at your scopes without the need for a video I/O device and a display calibrated to your timeline color space. However, I really recommend getting the hardware for serious color correction work. Additional Video Editing Quick Tips: DaVinci Resolve Chroma Key on Color Page DaVinci Resolve Basics of Using LUTs DaVinci Resolve White Balancing   If you have thoughts, comments, or tips of your own, please put them in the comments. If you have an idea for a future Quick Tip Video, by all means, let us know!

Apple has made a massive move today, announcing that by year’s end it will be offering computers running on “Apple Silicon.” These new chips replace the Intel processors that have powered MacOS for the last 15 years. Let’s explain what that means, and see how it affects filmmakers. Image Credit: Apple What Is Apple Silicon? Strange as it may sound, Apple has long been a leading processor manufacturer. Their powerful, custom chips have set them apart from other manufacturers in the mobile and tablet arenas. iPhones have consistently out-performed top offerings from Samsung and Google. And, amazingly, they sometimes outperform themselves. The latest generation of iPad Pros get better GeekBench scores than a brand-new 13” Macbook Pro. Apple has been pushing the performance envelope on these custom ARM chips, and it has paid dividends for them. Today’s announcement, then, can be seen as almost inevitable. Apple has decided to begin placing these powerful custom processors in their Mac lineup as well, starting this fall. They have rolled out a suite of software products and updates to support this transition.Within a few years, I expect that all Apple computers will be running on Apple Silicon. Why does Apple Silicon Matter? And What Is ARM? These processors are not just Intel look-alikes. Apple Silicon processors are ARM chips, which are distinctly different from the x86 processors made by Intel and AMD. The details are less important than the impact: programs written for x86 processors will not run on ARM processors. You cannot run Photoshop natively on your iPad, and for many years could not run iPad apps on your Mac. In 2019, Apple announced Project Catalyst, a project that allowed iOS and iPadOS apps to run on MacOS. In other words, it translated apps from ARM systems to x86 systems. At the time, it was received as a welcome boost to the Mac App store, but it turns out to be the foundation for what was to come. Apple proved it could successfully and smoothly translate ARM to x86. Now they are preparing to translate the other direction. Will My Apps Still Work? When Apple first made the move to Intel chips, they added a piece of software called “Rosetta.” This program smoothed the transition by emulating the old systems on the new x86 hardware. Fittingly, Apple has announced Rosetta 2, this time translating x86 into ARM. According to 9to5 Mac, this change will cause fewer problems than it might seem. To quote their developers, “Very few apps work at such a low level that they care about the difference in CPU architecture.” With some small tweaks, your favorite apps should be fine. Image Credit: 9to5 Mac Some Apps are Already Native That said, all Apple Pro apps will run natively on the new systems, making this whole conversation irrelevant. Final Cut Pro editors should have no issues making the upgrade. Adobe has been working closely with Apple to get up and running on these new chips. Apple demonstrated Adobe Photoshop running natively on stage, which bodes well for Premiere and After Effects. No word yet from Avid or Blackmagic Design (DaVinci Resolve). Adobe Photoshop running natively on an Apple Silicon computer. Image Credit: Apple The Upshot for Filmmakers This major move from Apple means a lot for the filmmaking community. To start, Macbook Pros have had issues with cooling their overpowered Intel chips for years. ARM chips are designed to draw less power and therefore create less heat. This will likely extend battery life and help keep their laptops away from thermal throttling without sacrificing performance. Second, the iPad pro demonstrates that performance is not about to be sacrificed. If a small and nimble iPad can perform so well on an ARM chip, imagine what a MacBook or Mac Pro will be able to do with more room for additional hardware and heat dissipation. Tim Cook demonstrated 4K editing in FCPX, and bragged that it could play back 3 streams of 4K footage simultaneously. Make no mistake, this is a boost to raw computational performance. Third, the inter-operability of the entire Apple ecosystem going forward should not be ignored. iOS control apps, such as those for lights, motion control rigs, and more, will be available on Mac. And even more than that, desktop editing apps like Final Cut Pro may finally be available on iPad. That’s a major win for filmmakers and editors on the go, especially for documentaries and small crews trying to pack light. A custom Hackintosh computer. Image credit: Hackintosher Fourthly, unfortunately, this will likely lead to the end of Hackintosh computers, at least as we know them. A Hackintosh is an unapproved, non-Apple computer that still runs MacOS. This has proved to be a popular middle ground between Apple die-hards and custom-PC builders. Unfortunately, that only works if everyone has access to the same basic components that Apple already uses. Namely, Intel processors and AMD graphics cards. If MacOS in the future is built around Apple-exclusive processors, it will be very difficult to build your own. This will further lock people in to the Apple ecosystem.   When Will This Arrive? If you are a developer, the answer is now. Apple is offering developer beta kits immediately. For the rest of us, the first computers with Apple Silicon processors will be available by the end of the year. From there, you can expect it to take over the entire lineup of Mac computers as they are refreshed one by one on their regular release schedule. So what do you think? Will you make the switch? Or do you plan to hang back and see how it goes? Let us know in the comments!

Up until today, Canon 1D X Mark III .crm RAW Files were only natively supported by Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 16 (latest version) and Final Cut Pro X. If you are like me, an Adobe Premiere editor who needed to work on some Canon 1D X Mark III RAW footage, well, you were out of luck – until today! Adobe Premiere Creative Cloud update – June 16th 2020 Kind of under the radar, this morning, my Creative Cloud account notified me that there is a new update featuring “New Canon and RED camera format support”. As someone who’s just finished editing Canon 1D X Mark III RAW material and had to convert it in DaVinci Resolve 16 to ProRes 4444 in order to finalize it (I’m still not fast enough with editing directly in Resolve), my curiosity made me download and update Premiere Pro CC. And there you go, Adobe Premiere CC now supports .crm RAW files natively! I can only assume that this move from Adobe is also preparing the NLE for the upcoming Canon EOS R5 as that camera will record RAW internally like the EOS 1D X Mark III can do. Those 5.5K RAW files coming out of the 1D X Mark III are simply incredible, but it is also important to note that those .crm files are very hard to process even on very modern computers. At least for those who are working inside the Adobe environment, it is good to know that those files are supported natively and can be adjusted if needed. (Color Temperature, Tint and Exposure). Adobe Premiere CC timeline Natively supporting .crm RAW files crm RAW controls inside Adobe Premiere CC Speaking about the ID X Mark III, in case you are interested in learning a bit more about the video capabilities of this camera, please head to our review by clicking here. Adobe Premiere CC Do you happen to have the Canon 1D X Mark III and were limited in editing RAW footage inside Adobe Premiere CC? If yes, please share your joy with us now that those files are supported. 

Adobe today announced a new update to its Creative Cloud video and audio applications. Perhaps the biggest update is the new Adobe Stock audio integration in Premiere Pro. Further updates include performance improvements with faster load times for Premiere Pro and After Effects, improved support for linking offline files in Audition, support for Apple Afterburner, and new camera format support. Adobe is also previewing several new features that are coming soon – Roto Brush 2 in After Effects, Scene Edit Detection in Premiere Pro, and an Effects panel in Premiere Rush with new Auto Reframe and Pan and Zoom. Creative Cloud video and audio apps – June 2020 Update. Source: Adobe Last month, Adobe updated its Creative Cloud video and audio apps with ProRes RAW support, hardware GPU acceleration, and other new features. For more information about the Adobe CC Video and Audio May 2020 update, here is our article on the topic. Today, Adobe releases another (a bit smaller) update aimed at its video and audio applications (Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Character Animator, and Premiere Rush). What is new this time? Adobe Stock Audio in Premiere Pro The latest release of Premiere Pro introduces Adobe Stock Audio – a new integration that sounds really useful and time-saving to me. It is a new panel that should make it easier and faster to find and add music to a video project. It works in a similar way like the Adobe Stock panel with graphics, footage, etc. Premiere Pro – Adobe Stock Audio. Source: Adobe Adobe Stock audio aggregates music tracks from stock providers like Epidemic Sound and Jamendo. The new panel allows users to search, preview, and license audio tracks within the editorial workflow. Search – according to Adobe, there are thousands of music tracks searchable based on mood, genre, tempo, and duration. Preview – with Timeline Sync (built into the Essential Sound Panel) it is possible to quickly try different music tracks together with the edit. Edit – users can edit the project with unwatermarked preview audio files and then only license the music they want to use. License – the chosen music tracks can be licensed directly from the Essential Sound panel or from the Project panel. Licensed audio automatically replaces preview files with the high-quality version throughout the edit. Premiere Pro – Adobe Stock Audio. Source: Adobe The music tracks included in Adobe Stock Audio are also accessible via the Adobe Stock website along with all the other Adobe Stock content. New Adobe Sensei Features Coming Soon Together with today’s announcement, Adobe also teases some new features based on Adobe Sensei – Adobe’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithm system. The following features will be available later in the future: Scene Edit Detection in Premiere Pro – Scene Edit Detection will automatically add cuts or markers at each edit point, turning rendered files into editable timelines and enabling per-clip adjustments, such as color correction or reframing. According to Adobe, unlike existing histogram-based solutions, this new technology in Premiere Pro was built with machine learning. Premiere Pro – Scene Edit Detection Preview. Source: Adobe Roto Brush 2 in After Effects – This tool used for rotoscoping, originally introduced as Project Fast Mask, Roto Brush 2 can generate more accurate mattes when separating foreground and background elements in video sequences. It will track the object automatically – no need for manual frame-by-frame rotoscoping. After Effects – RotoBrush Preview. Source: Adobe Motion Effects and Transitions in Premiere Rush A future update for Adobe’s mobile editing platform Premiere Rush coming later this year will bring a new Effects Panel including Auto Reframe, transitions, and Pan and Zoom features. Auto Reframe is designed to save time when working on a project with footage with different aspect ratios. It uses Adobe Sensei to automatically reframe videos and create projects with different aspect ratios (landscape, portrait, square, 4×5, etc.) suited for different platforms. When importing the clips, Premiere Rush automatically detects their aspect ratios. If the video clips have different ratios, you can select the desired output aspect ratio for the video and apply Auto Reframe to all the clips. Premiere Rush – Effects Panel. Source: Adobe According to Adobe, it will identify the point of interest in the frame and track it throughout the reframed video. Users can then customize the framing with “Adjust Framing” and change the speed of how Auto Reframe tracks the action in the video with the Motion Tracking menu. Pan and Zoom in the new Effects Panel can automatically animate still photos with motion. Users can set in and out points of the animation by setting the focus of the frames and then dragging a box to where they want the clip to land on the image. Price and Availability The latest versions of Adobe Audio and Video Applications are available as separate licenses or as part of the whole Adobe Creative Cloud (subscription-based). More information about prices can be found here. Users who are interested in testing features in development can download public Beta builds of the Adobe video and audio applications from the Creative Cloud desktop application. Are you using Adobe Creative Cloud applications for your work? What do you think about the new update? Let us know in the comments below the article.

If you’re having trouble managing your media assets on set or in the studio while collaborating with others, you should take a good look at Kyno. Let’s get straight to it since this update (again) has a long list of new features: Kyno 1.8 offers deep DaVinci Resolve and Avid Media Composer integration, Blackmagic RAW support plus the usual (but of course very welcomed) performance and workflow improvements. image credit: Kyno (edited by cinema5D). What’s Kyno you ask? It’s a piece of software which let’s you manage, preview, transcode, tag, organize, back up, ingest, log metadata, convert, trim, rename and organize all of your media assets from all of your cameras supporting all kinds of different codecs and formats and lets you work directly on the camera’s media, your internal or external storage or on shared folders when collaborating with others around the globe. That’s what Kyno is. And now, Kyno 1.8 adds a bunch of fresh features and improvements. Kyno 1.8 – Main Features Kyno has come a long way since it’s introduction back in 2016 (read our coverage here). German publishing company Lesspain Software’s original vision for Kyno was to create the central hub in production workflows across all major NLEs and production formats. With the release of Kyno 1.8, we have come a good deal closer to fulfilling this bold statement. The new send to integration brings the ability and ease of integrating field-logging and pre-selection workflows to DaVinci Resolve. image credit: Kyno Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro already sport Kyno integration but version 1.8 opens the door for Resolve users as well. All of your Kyno-prepared clips, including metadata (tags, ratings, descriptions, markers, subclips) are just two clicks away from being ready to go within DaVinci Resolve’s editing tab. So we’re seeing Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro as well as DaVinci Resolve. Are we missing something? Filling the void, Kyno 1.8 (in its Premium Edition) now supports Avid Media Compser integration through ALE export as well as copy & paste for markers between Kyno and Media Composer. image credit: Kyno NLE’s: covered. What’s about formats? Kyno 1.8 adds support for BlackMagic RAW (aka BRAW) files. Enjoy native playback, either in full or reduced resolution while perfroming transcodes, subclipping and logging your BlackMagic Cinema Camera’s footage within Kyno. Of course you can use the send to workflow to push the files straight to DaVinci (or to any other NLE) once you’re done organizing your footage. Kyno 1.8 – Workflow Improvements The new incremental transcoding workflow lets you transcode entire directory structures without worrying what you already transcoded last time, this potentially saves a lot of time when working with proxy or dailies workflows. image credit: Kyno A new automatic audio mapping feature takes care of your audio. It can automatically split discrete multichannel audio to mono tracks if required or create broadcast multichannel output, or create stereo output for mp3 audio export. No more good-looking but bad-sounding exports! Metadata of entire folder structures can be transferred between copies of the same footage. Wait, what? Why should I do that? Well, watch the video below for an real-world example of a Kyno-Dropbox collaborative workflow: By simple copying & pasting metadata between two instances of the same folder structure (one containing the master files, the other on proxie versions), this feature really comes in handy. It’s great for remote editorial workflows: Just transfer the logging metadata between dailies/proxies and master files and your done. By the way: The above video is the first of a whole new series of educational videos explaining different workflows, tricks and tweaks regarding Kyno. Stay tuned to their YouTube Channel here. image credit: Kyno Kyno 1.8 – A Few More Things On a more general scope, Lesspain have improved the overall performance of Kyno 1.8. It now benefits greatly from multi-core machines and you will see improvement in thumbnail generation performance with this release. The aggressiveness of this can now be configured in the preferences in order to balance the load. Furthermore, preanalyze is a background task which uses all cores available for a greatly improved speed when preanalyzing large data-sets. This is about polishing an already very capable piece of software: Kyno 1.8 sports a bunch of little improvements such as more metadata, some new formats, automatic application of sidecar-LUTs and improved drag & drop. The FCP XML workflow and Excel exports also have been improved plus a new MD5 verification option is in place. Pricing Kyno 1.8 comes in two editions: Standard and Premium (which adds pro formats and more integrations). You can compare both editions here in order to make an educated choice. Regardless of your edition of choice: both come as a buy-once license but you’re only get updates for one year. It’s not a subscription, you can keep your purchased version as long as you please but after one year you’ll need to renew your license in order to get updates. image credit: Kyno Kyno 1.8 Standard clocks in at €159 (including VAT) and each additional year of updates is €79. The Premium edition is €349 (including VAT) and €169 for each additional year if you want to get the latest updates. BUT, we have a discount for you guys: 10% Discount on Kyno & Give-Away Kyno is kind enough to offer a permanent 10% discount on all their products (Kyno Standard / Premium Edition as well as updates) – just use the discount code C5DKNYO at check-out on their site. Also, Lesspain Software wants to celebrate the launch of both, Kyno 1.8 and their new video initiative over on Youtube. That’s why they give away three Kyno Premium licenses. To enter you need to be a social networking aficionado since you have to a) follow their YouTube channel and leave a comment below their latest intro video here, then b) hop over to Twitter, follow Lesspain Software and post a reply on this tweet, mentioning at least two filmmaker friends who should know about Kyno and finally c) follow Lesspain over on facebook and leave a comment on this video, again, mentioning two or more friends who should know about Kyno. Links: Kyno Website What do you think? Do you already use Kyno or a different software for media management? Share your experiences in the comments below!

Today Adobe announces a new release for their Creative Cloud video and audio applications, including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Character Animator, and Premiere Rush. Available today, the updates offer support for Apple ProRes RAW, new creative tools in After Effects, workflow refinements in Character Animator, and performance improvements, such as faster Auto Reframe in Premiere Pro. Adobe also claims to have improved the performance and stability of their software. Adobe Announces New Versions of CC Video Apps. Source: Adobe Adobe CC Stability As a former long-time Premiere Pro user I know that stability has not always been that great. This time, during their virtual press conference, Adobe emphasized the performance and stability of their apps to be their top priority. The changes they have made include a shift to more frequent updates and introducing the public beta program to better incorporate user engagement and feedback within the development process. As Adobe said, its video applications run on a wide range of systems across platforms. That flexibility, however, brings the risk of stability issues with various configurations across hardware, software, operating systems, and GPU. Their research into crash statistics and causes showed that a large percentage of problems stem from insufficient hardware specs or out-of-date drivers. Adobe admits that it shouldn’t require expert knowledge for a user to keep their system running smoothly. System Compatibility Report in Premiere Pro. Source: Adobe Last year, Adobe introduced the System Compatibility Report in Premiere Pro, which identifies problems with out-of-date drivers to help with stability. The company said they will continue to develop reporting capabilities to help users keep their systems in shape while they also continue to make their apps less susceptible to driver issues. Adobe CC Performance To give users some guidelines, Adobe posted detailed system requirements separately for Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Character Animator, Adobe Media Encoder, and Premiere Rush. Adobe also has a hardware recommendation guide for Premiere Pro and After Effects, including specific configurations. Adobe says they have been working to improve playback and export times for various codecs. With the latest releases of Premiere Pro and After Effects, Adobe now offers hardware encoding for the H.264 and HEVC formats across the full range of macOS and Windows systems. Premiere Pro Performance Improvements. Source: Adobe With new support for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs on Windows, Premiere Pro leverages hardware acceleration to speed up encoding on those systems. As a result of this, the Auto Reframe feature in Premiere is now twice as fast. More on this later. Now, let’s take a look at the new features in each application. Adobe Premiere Pro Premiere Pro and After Effects ProRes RAW Support. Source: Adobe Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects now natively support Apple’s ProRes RAW codec which was a feature many users were waiting for. ProRes RAW got quite a lot of attention lately thanks to the Ninja V firmware update which will very soon enable ProRes RAW recording via HDMI from the Panasonic S1H. One of the things that can now be tweaked in Premiere Pro with ProRes RAW is the exposure. Premiere Pro New Features. Source: Adobe Other updates for Premiere Pro include: More streamlined graphics workflows in Premiere Pro include an improved Pen tool with better support for Bezier curves and more precision creating lines and shapes. Filter effects show attributes that only have keyframes or adjusted parameters so users can focus on the currently active effects. Auto Reframe in Premiere Pro is now faster. Powered by Adobe Sensei, the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology, Auto Reframe automatically reformats and repositions video within different aspect ratios, such as square and vertical video, accelerating workflows for social media and content platforms, such as Quibi. Hardware encoding on Windows for H.264 and H.265 (HEVC) is available for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs, providing consistently faster exports for these widely used formats. Support for audio files in Creative Cloud Libraries enables Premiere Pro users to save, organize, and share frequently used audio assets for easy access right from the CC Libraries panel. Adobe After Effects After Effects Offset Paths. Source: Adobe Other than ProRes RAW support, Adobe After Effects also got some other updates such as: Tapered Shape Strokes in After Effects give motion graphics artists new options for animation and design. Users can make tapered, wavy, pointed, or rounded strokes on shape layers. The strokes can be animated for stylized looks and motion designs. Concentric Shape Repeater in After Effects offers new parameters in the Offset Paths shape effect to create copies of a path that radiate outward or inward for funky designs with a cool retro vibe. Mask and Shape Cursor Indicators in After Effects show which tool you are using to help avoid unnecessary un-dos when drawing shapes and masks. Adobe Audition Automatic audio hardware switching is now available on macOS not only for Audition, but for all Adobe CC Video apps (After Effects, Media Encoder, Audition, Character Animator, Prelude, Premiere Pro, and Premiere Rush). When changing audio devices, or simply plugging in headphones, the OS recognizes the hardware and the Adobe application automatically switches to the current hardware. Another update for Audition is the improved Relink Media and Offline Files support. Adobe Character Animator New Background Characters. Source: Adobe When it comes to Adobe’s Character Animator, the update includes improvements to Audio Triggers and Timeline filtering to increase efficiency in animation workflows. Also, there is a new collection of background puppets that let users trigger animated elements of the scene behind a character. Adobe Premiere Rush Premiere Rush 4:5 Export. Source: Adobe Adobe’s mobile editing platform Premiere Rush also got some updates. Premiere Rush users can now automatically resize projects to the 4:5 aspect ratio to match formats for Facebook and Instagram videos. Back camera switching on an iOS device (requires iOS 13 and a current iPhone) enables capture within Premiere Rush from the selected back camera (ultra-wide, wide, or telephoto). Users can now import media from the Files app directly from the Premiere Rush media browser on iOS devices. This simplifies access to files stored on the device or different cloud services. Price and Availability All the new features are available now with the new updates at Adobe Creative Cloud. Like always, those are free updates for Adobe CC subscribers. Plans and pricing are available here. What do you think of the new Adobe Video apps updates? Do you use Adobe CC for your work? Do you work with ProRes RAW material? Let us know in the comment section underneath the article.

When you are shooting on location, especially as a one-man-band filmmaker, there are times when you can’t switch the air conditioning off or add some sound blankets to attenuate the reverb of a room. In this quick tip tutorial, I’m going to show you how to improve your audio by removing background noise and reverb quickly and easily. Let’s take a closer look at it! Disclaimer: Let’s start by saying that I am not an Accusonus Ambassador. Like every other article on cinema5D, Accusonus, or any other brand, did not pay me to write this article. I bought this plugin with my own money, and this is my unbiased opinion. Image credit: Free To Use Sounds What is Background Noise Background noise, also called ambient noise, are all the extra sounds you end up recording that pollute your main recording. For example, if you are shooting an interview of a person talking in a park, background noises could be traffic noise, planes, people honking, noise from animals, and so on. For interior setups, the concept is similar: air conditioning, people walking in the office next door, power supplies, and so on. All these sounds are not what you wanted to record initially. Of course, by using the right microphone for the situation, shooting in a quiet environment, or switching unnecessary equipment off, you can reduce background noise as much as possible. Otherwise, sometimes you just don’t have the choice. Reverb When you are recording interior dialogue scenes or interviews, audio reverberation or reverb is one of your worst enemies. In technical terms: Reverberation, in psychoacoustics and acoustics, is a persistence of sound after the sound is produced. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing a large number of reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is absorbed by the surfaces of objects in the space – which could include furniture, people, and air. Source:  Wikipedia In short, an empty office, a room with a high ceiling, or a big gym center are not the most reverb-friendly locations. If this is your house or studio, you can add acoustic treatment to the walls to reduce it. If you are on-site, you can attenuate the reverb of a room by putting sound blankets all over the place, but most of the time, you don’t have the time to do so. Accusonus Noise Remover. Image credit: cinema5D Removing Background Noise and Reverb In this tutorial, I’m using two plugins by Accusonus called ERA-4 Noise Remover and ERA-4 Reverb Remover. Indeed, the first one will get rid of the background noise, while the second one will take care of the reverb. I show you how to use them inside of Adobe Premiere Pro, but they work with every video and audio editing software that accepts VSTs like Final Cut Pro X, DaVinci Resolve, ProTools, Avid, Logic Pro X and so on. I already talked about the Accusonus ERA-4 “one-knob” plugins a couple of times, but if you’re new to them, this tutorial is a good starting point. The concept of these audio plugins for filmmakers is simple: all you have to do is turn one knob to improve your audio drastically. The ERA-4 plugins are part of my toolkit for over a year now, and you can take a look at my entire review here. Accusonus Reverb Remover. Image credit: cinema5D First of all, I applied the ERA-4 Noise Remover to get rid of all the air conditioning background noise. Once my signal is much cleaner, I use the Reverb Remover to improve the presence of my audio. As you can hear in the video above, the results I got are phenomenal. Otherwise, the ERA-4 plugins are not magical. If your original audio recording is terrible, you won’t get a crystal-clear studio-quality recording by using these plugins. Also, I recommend you to stay gentle with the central adjustment knob. Indeed, if you crank it up to high, it can start sounding muffly or not natural, and this is something you want to avoid. Pricing and Availability You can try all the Accusonus ERA-4 plugins for free if you want to test them out and see if they improve your audio recordings. If you wish to purchase them, you can do it individually at $59.00 per plugin, or get them as a bundle. The ERA-4 Bundle Standard is $149.00, and the ERA Bundle Pro is $449.00. Alternatively, you can also buy them at B&H through the links below. What do you think of this Quick Tip tutorial? Did you find it useful? Did you already try the ERA-4 plugins? Let us know in the comments below!

Watchtower is an extension for Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects that auto-syncs project bins with system folders. The extension just got a new update to version V1.2.0 that adds some useful features – the auto-sync feature works in the background, and folder selection can be made using Standard or Advanced tab. Watchtower V1.2.0. Source: Knights of the Editing Table Watchtower for Premiere and After Effects In case you have never heard of Watchtower, it is an extension for Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects that auto-syncs project bins with system folders. Often project bins structure and system folders structure mirror each other. In Premiere and After Effects, after adding a new file to the system folder, it should be manually imported into a project and then moved to the relative bin. Watchtower does this automatically. At the moment it is compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects: CC 2017, CC 2018, CC 2019, 2020 and it works on both Windows and macOS versions. As Watchtower is an extension, it needs to be opened first in order (Window/Extensions/Watchtower). Watchtower V1.2.0 – New Features Just recently, Watchtower got a new update to version 1.2.0. All the new features are nicely explained in the Youtube video below. One of the updated features is the auto-sync. With this option turned on, files are auto imported to project bins once added to the watch folder. Watchtower panel can be closed and auto-sync will be working in the background. This will work even with multiple projects open. Watchtower V1.2.0 auto-sync. Source: Knights of the Editing Table Folder selection now has two tabs: Standard – here you can select which folder to import to the project. During selection Watchtower autodetects folders with image sequences inside (it should have 3 and more digits at the end of a name) and camera folders, so you can skip Advanced part and click “Ok”. (Camera folders supported: ARRIRAW, RED, AVCHD, Canon XF, Panasonic P2 (spanned clips are not supported at the moment), XDCAM-EX, XDCAM-HD, Sony HDV, Sony a7S) Advanced – If special adjustments are needed, here you can set: “S” – import image sequences, “F” – flatten sub-folders (useful for camera cards), or “R” – use relative path (useful for templates). Watchtower V1.2.0 folders. Source: Knights of the Editing Table In settings, users can select which file extensions should be imported. In After Effects it is possible to choose how to import Photoshop and Illustrator files: As footage, composition or composition with retained layers sizes. Price and Availability The latest version of Watchtower is currently available online for $20. You can go ahead to the Knights of the Editing Table website to download it. What do you think of Watchtower? Do you have any experience with this extension? Do you do a lot of post production work in Premiere Pro or After Effects? Let us know in the comment section below the article.