Leave Color Effect

Last year I had a project on a course called Theory and Practice of Cinema. The lecturer wanted us to write a script and create a short film 5 to 10 minutes. At the beginning I had difficulties finding a topic, but with the help of the lecturer I decided to make a short film about me having trouble finding ideas for the project. Obviously it was a comedy, at least I tried. The way I thought that the flow of the story was going to be, was me talking to the camera saying what were the difficulties I faced and what were the Ideas I was changing all the time because of these difficulties. I have done the script and the production and the last step was the editing. I was trying to find effects that will help me keep the interest of the viewers so they won’t get bored. Looking around YouTube I found out an effect called ‘Leave Color Effect’ (Adobe Premiere Effect). This effect allows you to choose which colour you want on your video or picture and then makes all the others black and white. Most people refer to this effect as ‘The Sin City Effect’ because of the constant use of it at the actual Hollywood movie. This effect makes you focus on one colour of your screen showing you what is important on this image/video and what not. The way I wanted this effect to work in my case was similar to the sin city movie, keeping the interest of the viewers with a cool, unusual and amazing effect that everyone will wonder how this effect was added to the film. Well, to help some of you who want to use this effect I created a tutorial with Camtasia Studio 8. Hope you like it.

Andreas Papatheodoulou – TV / Audio  MZ Lab Assistant

What is Kinetic Typography?

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Have you ever watched a whole music video consisting of letters? Literally only words flying around the screen, but made in a such way that it’s actually very cool?

Well this kind of motion graphics is called “kinetic typography”. I got very inspired by this kind of art lately and that’s why I would like to share some helpful information with you. Continue reading

Mediazone Student website statistics for the Spring semester – Making its way around the world!

Spring Semester Stats – Fresh from Google!

It is hard to believe that next month our student website will be 2 years old. In that time it has grown from being a basic information site to an incredible tool for all students taking practical courses in the Department of Communications. Not only have we improved, tweaked and tinkered under the hood, but we have added “can’t live without” tools such as all of our operation manuals in pdf – including the hard to find ones. Students are using our handbooks, useful links, booking their cameras and facilities, all from the comfort of their own homes. It truly is a “one stop shopping site”,  a “megamart” of sorts. Or maybe a really cool “Swiss army tool-kit”,  where you can quickly find the right tool, & pretty well everything you need to survive throughout the semester.  Continue reading

RED Epic? What is that?!

If 2 cameras are not enough for your production, try shooting with 50. Recently, I was watching a behind the scenes video of the new Hollywood film,  “The Hobbit”. The thing that amazed me was the fact that in order for the film to be shot, 48 RED epic cameras were used. I started asking myself  “Why RED?”, “What is it that makes these cameras  better than the rest, and why choose them ?” . And that is why I want to share with you a brief review of the RED epic cameras and leave you to decide for yourself if it’s worth  the price of 24 000$ !!! Continue reading

A great Christmas Fair! Check out the video contest!

A Christmas Fair by the sea in Limassol is being put on by Germasoia & Vestnik Kipra.

Lights, music, festivities are all abound in this one of a kind Christmas fair.

Apart from enjoying the festivities why not grab a camera head down to create your very own video. You can use your Smartphone or camcorder and edit on Imovie or Moviemaker; and if you a registered Communications student,  Mediazone will also help you with equipment & facilities to get your video done. Good Luck! Continue reading