We didn't expect to get emails saying what happened to last week's Free Effect Friday, so let's put that right and get up to date. Five free effects to catch up with.
Well it seemed that #freeeffectfriday proved to be pretty popular! Although some plugins were released last Friday, we didn't post them here. Time for a bumper two week's worth catchup then.
First up is a new transition plugin called Postcard from Fox Mahoney. He keeps cranking them out and this one makes a great transition for anything from a product demo to a holiday video.
Idustrial Revolution have continued to publish a new free effect every week. New today is an effect plugin called Colour Rays. It takes the built in rays effect in Motion and adds a few extra controls such as the colour of rays and the luminance threshold at which the rays start.
If you work in broadcast television, then the next plugin will prove invaluable. Broadcast VT Clock is a generator that counts down time before the start of a broadcast television programme. It's an industry standard in many parts of the world and this clock has all the traditional areas to display the programme's information such as duration, part number and the specifications.
Alex Gollner has been busy and is also keeping up the challenge of publishing a new effect every week.
Random Tile is an effect that selects an area of a clip and then tiles the section over the rest of the image. A good way of making an abstract background or indeed frightening the children. No offence to the subject Matt Davis!
In a moment of unconnected serendipity, Alex has also released a light rays plugin. Light Rays takes the Motion filter and makes the effect available in FCPX. Slightly simpler that the Idustrial Revolution plugin, but great rays never the less.
And as a very last entry, (which actually makes the number of free effects up to six) we have Simple Bullets from FCP.co Forum member David Walsh AKA NocoDave. It's a great free way of building up bullet points on screen.
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
