There are always rumors circulating about the release of real time TC generator effect for avid, to which all are inevitably untrue. As a professional avid editor, you maintain a certain close relationship with the tech guys out there in Tewksbury, and amidst our regular conversations, I kept asking the same question. “When are you making a RT timecode gen?” — Always to which they responded “Soon”. Frankly, I got sick of asking, and decided to make my own. It was mind numbingly easy to achieve and have never had to render another TC window burn again. Here it is –

Step 1: This will be the last TC effect you will ever have to render. Make it a long one. Create a sequence of however long you will need your TC to run. Mine is 1 hour. Apply the effect with no video in the background, and render.

Step 2: Create a quicktime of your sequence.

Step 3: Import this quicktime into Avid. This will be your TC Burn In .

Step 4: Mark an “In” point at the first frame of your TC Burn. Mark an “In” point to the corresponding Timecode in your sequence. Edit your TC clip as the upper most track in your sequence.

Step 5: Apply a Picture in Picture Effect to your TC Burn. (Note: This is a real time effect and does not need to be rendered!) Crop the Window Burn to reveal the Timecode. Use the postion to place the TC wherever you like on the screen.

That’s It! A perfect Real time TC Burn that MacGyver would be proud of. A few pitfalls to be aware of however. Make sure that your Burn In Timecode and your sequence Timecode match — meaning both are Drop Frame, or both Non Drop, however you are working. Also, if you let it, Avid will try and render your effect… No! It will play perfectly fine unrendered. Deselect this track, while rendering your sequence.

I am a big Photoshop junkie. I think it’s a great way for people working in video to gain a deep understanding of color and composition. After coming up with some cool new effect in Photoshop, my first thought is, “Wow, how do I get this effect in video?” Granted, there is a lot of overlap between the filters provided by Photoshop and those in most standard video software, but there’s still a lot of stuff that your average video software just doesn’t do as well as Photoshop. AfterEffects comes close but it still can’t do everything. That’s why I was really happy to find this great little tutorial describing how to apply a set of Photoshop effects to your video.

One effect I can’t wait to try out with technique is to fake miniature macro photography. To make this look extra cool, have the people in the scene move at half speed. Then play the video at double speed so everyone looks a little twitchy like hand crafted stop motion.

It feels like the first post should include some kind of manifesto. Certainly, filmmakers are no strangers to manifestos. It does seem a bit pretentious though doesn’t it?

Instead, I think we’ll just start with a quick intro to what to expect from this site. Agile Filmmaking is our entrance in to the growing new worldwide conversation about how movies get made. It is geared toward the next generation of independent filmmakers. The posts will try to provide helpful info on the art and the craft of filmmaking.

The title, Agile Filmmaking, is a methodology for getting films from idea through post-production. It is about taking the many complex tools and skills needed to make movies and getting them to work together in an economical way.