Adobe Premiere Pro: Scale to Frame Size and Cropping Clips

 In Adobe Premiere Pro if your video clip doesn't look right when you put it in the storyboard, then right click on the clip and scroll down to "Scale to Frame Size." 

If a clip will look better if it is cropped, do the steps shown in this brief tutorial to crop the top, bottom and sides as you see fit.

Here is my brief demo video showing how these tools are used. Thank you to Delano Whitfield for use of his back-to-school clip! 

Here is a screenshot showing show the process to do this. 

Interview Shots- Good and Not So Good

 

On Sunday, Sept. 11, Patrick McEnroe on ESPN interviews the runners-up after the 2022 U.S. Open women's doubles final. Americans Caty McNally (center) and Taylor Townsend lost to the Czech Republic team of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.

When McEnroe first speaks with Tayor Townsend he, in my opinion, awkwardly steps in front of Caty McNally and he is holding the microphone with his outside hand when it would look better if he held it with his inside or left hand. 

The camera person soon zooms in on her from the awkward wide shot. So the tip is that if the wide shot looks off then quickly zoom in on the person speaking. This close-up of Taylor looks good and we see the top of the microphone, which is fine. 

Here is the shot when McEnroe interviewed McNally. The composition looks OK, though it looks a bit off or odd to see part of McEnroe's arm in the shot. He should be holding the mic with his inside hand. It is good that we also see her smiling partner in the two-shot. 

Patrick McEnroe, in my opinion, did better when he next interviewed the winning doubles team from Czech Republic. This time, after interviewing (right) Katarina Siniakova, he asked her if he could step by her so he could speak with her partner Barbora Krejcikova. This looked much better than his previous interview with the Americans. 

This is a live interview conducted by Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean on Monday, Sept. 12. Notice that she is holding the microphone, appropriately for the setting, with her inside or right hand. The three-shot composition is comfortable. We see everyone from the waist up and we also see the background environment, which is good. 

When Janice Dean goes to speak with the woman, the shot stays wide and remains very comfortable to the viewer in terms of not being distracting in some way. 

Types of Feature Stories: Profiles, Trends, Seasonal and More

To be able to write feature stories it is important to know what feature stories are and how there are many different kinds of these "soft" (as opposed to "hard") news stories. This post will "feature" examples of nine types that I talk about in my Feature/Magazine Writing class at SC State. 

1. PROFILE OR PERSONALITY FEATURE

This is a good example of a profile feature. Is about Austin Johnson, who is the caddy to his famous (and rich) golfer brother Dustin Johnson. 

The article appeared in the Summer 2022 issue of College of Charleton Magazine, the flagship magazine of CofC. Austin is a CofC graduate as his wife Samantha who is also featured in the piece.

The headline is a catchy one: "Every Step of the Way." 

2. HUMAN INTEREST FEATURE

In that same College of Charleston publication is this really nice story about another graduate, Alex Jackson. As a young child he was badly injured and paralyzed in a car accident with his mother. 

The feature covers Alex' life with the many challenges he has faced and overcome to become a public affairs specialist with the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic in Charleston. "Man on the Move" is a great headline for this feature. 

Alex earned two degrees at CofC and I am proud to say he was a student years ago in a television journalism course I taught back then. 

Adobe Premiere Pro 2022 Version Tutorial

 For my Basic Television Production class, I produced a step-by-step using Adobe Premiere Pro 2022 tutorial. 

See the YouTube link below. To the right is the Premiere interface from a completed project. That is a short introductory video I am having the students do as their first project. 

Here is the tutorial: 

And here is the short video I produced as an example for the students. They are doing a 30 video introducing themselves and talking about things such as what they like about going to SC State.