Customer Reviews

101 Tips & Tricks for Sony Movie Studio - updated for Movie Studio 11

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I had been trying to find instructional materials to help me through the process of learning Vegas Movie Studio without much luck. Frustrated by the seeming lack of availability of any instructional materials for this wonderful video editing application, I decided to search on Youtube to see if I could find anything that might be useful to help me learn the program. That's where I found many helpful video tips posted by Bill Meyers; the author and producer of "101 Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Sony Vegas Movie Studio". I only wish I had found his video tips before I wasted a LOT of my time sifting through Youtube videos posted by BRAProductions and another Youtube user named Mark Apsolon. These other two youtube users are self absorbed people who are more interested in promoting themselves and increasing their comments and number of views for their youtube videos than in helping their viewers learn something. If you want to waste incredible amounts of your time to "possibly" learn a tidbit of something useful here or there, then I suggest you go to Youtube and view videos on Sony Vegas posted by Mark Apsolon. You will watch a 15 to 20 minute video of him talking about his website and his random drawing contest for people who post comments on his videos and maybe he'll actually discuss Sony Movie Studio for 3 or 4 meandering minutes out of a 20 minute video. I think you'll find like I did that watching his videos are a complete waste of your time.

If you value your time like I do and really want to learn useful tips that will quickly get you working in this wonderful video application, then check out some of Bill Meyers Youtube videos on Sony Vegas Movie Studio and then Purchase "101 Tips and Tricks". I didn't purchase my copy from Amazon; I purchased it from Bill Meyers website, along with another video, "Tools of How to Video Production". Bill Meyers is very knowledgeable about using both Sony Vegas and Movie Studio and is an excellent teacher. His no nonsense approach to sharing his knowledge of these applications is well planned and thought out before he actually films his video clips, so what you get are short and concise video clips that get right to the point. All of his clips focus on demonstrating specific steps in accomplishing a variety of different tasks to aid the viewer in putting together your own video clips to make a complete DVD video production. The DVD is well organized and includes many videos that you won't find on youtube. I was convinced that purchasing his instructional DVD would be a good educational investment after watching some of his video clips on youtube and I was right! If you want to quickly learn valuable tips and information to help you get started in editing your own videos using Vegas Movie Studio, then I highly recommend you purchase this DVD as well as checking out his youtube videos; just search for Bill Meyers, Sony Vegas.

Pros...

Lots of great content broken up into small segments. It's very easy to find what you need.
The videos are short, to the point and show you exactly what you need to do to get a particular effect. Bill uses lots of screen shots so you can see everything he is doing very easily.
The material covered is very relevant to what you will actually need to do a real world project. Blur out faces, spotlight faces, slow motion, green screen effect (like you see all the time on tv and in the movies) so you can have very professional looking backgrounds, change from color to B&W, make new video look like older footage, etc...

The DVD covers the basics, telling you what settings to use when you are first starting out. Then, it covers many effects that you will need if you want your videos to look like the pro videos you see on TV all the time.

I am only half way through the videos right now and I can already say I am thoroughly happy with this product. I wanted to learn video editing very quickly. Now, that I have this DVD, I am confident I will be making pro looking videos in no time. I leave this istructional DVD software running in the background. If I forget how to do something, I open this program, point on the topic I need, and I get step by step instructions on how to do what I am trying to do. It encourages you to try new things. Help is only an alt-tab away!

If you want to learn how to use Sony Vegas movie studio in the shortest amount of time, do yourself a huge favor and order this. You will love it.

Cons...

None

I will make this short and sweet. Bill Myers delivers a how to video that is wonderful. Even though I have Pro 9, the basic are all the same. Without this video I would been pulling my hair out by the roots as I hate to read manuals. Bills intructions are clear and to the point. He explains everything thoroughly and will have you doing your own special effects in no time. I highly recomend this video for anyone who has a Sony Video software and little or no experience in video editing like myself. In fact I dare say it is a must unless you like to frustrate yourself. Good job Bill and keep them coming.

I purchased this DVD a couple of weeks ago, and I've had my first look at the work produced by Bill Myers - I have to say I think it's pretty fantastic!

I first stumbled across Bill Myers in my search for easy to understand tips for Sony Vegas movie studio - I feel extremely happy to have done so because there is NOTHING out there for the novice user.

Bill has an uncanny capacity to breakdown the most complex piece of information into easy bite-size pieces, which make you the viewer feel confident in your abilities to produce an extremely good piece of work using Sony Vegas movie studio.

Each individual section in this DVD is about 3 to 5 min long, clearly explained and doesn't leave the viewer feeling overwhelmed, which for a instructional DVD is very rare these days.

So if anyone is thinking of purchasing this it will probably be one of your best decisions - so just do it.

Good information, well presented, a recommended product. The supplied manuals with the software don't include anything like the information that Bill Myers includes on this DVD.

You can't beat Bill Myers well thought out tips and tricks - The CD is well designed to get at whatever tip I want - he also lays out the best getting started tips I have ever found. Well worth every penny I spent - you won't be disappointed!

I am going through this "Tips, Tricks and Techniques" DVD for the 3rd time now since I purchased it just a few weeks ago. It is that interesting and inspiring. From the Basic set-up of Sony Vegas, to more advanced features like Chromakey - a real learning experience. I first found Mr. Myers on You Tube and spent several days going through his videos there. Now I have signed up at his web-site bmyers.com. And it is full of helpful information - over 2000 articles I believe.

If you are wanting to advance you video productions for what ever reason, here is a good place to start.

This exceptionally well done resource should be bundled automatically with Sony Movie Studio. You will QUICKLY get up to speed with some great short cuts and tips. Bill focuses on the most useful things that will turn you into a pro. If you are even considering this DVD, do yourself a favor and get it. Highly recommended.

Bill Myers has produced many good Vegas tutorials and this one, "101 Tips & Tricks for Sony Movie Studio", is also a great collection. We professionally make instructional videos for my wife's small business and have used Sony Vegas for many years (we are on Sony Vegas Pro 9 and also use Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 Suite). This video is relevant for all of the most recent versions of Vegas.

This video is divided into chapters for easy navigation and includes the promised "Tips & Tricks" but also a very useful section on customizing the "Preferences" to make the workflow smoother (at least for me).

Each concept is covered with video examples and a walkthrough of the required steps to achieve the result. The videos are mostly short and to the point, but thoroughly cover the concept being shown.

The real value of the DVD is that it even if you don't need a particular "Trick", watching all of it will give you an idea of the true power of Vegas and will give you ideas on how to get the most out of it on future projects.

Highly Recommended!

CFH

I learned alot about Vegas Movie Studio from watching YouTube videos by "GuerillaBill" Myers and TemporalParadox. Thought I'd order Bill's 101 Tips DVD since I felt I already got my moneys worth from his YouTube contributions. Some of the things on the DVD were already on YouTube, but I didn't mind. There were a number of other tips that were not on YouTube. The DVD has things nicely organized and easy to get to. I've gone through the entire DVD twice now and found it help me get up to speed quickly. It even had a place that was excellent for getting fonts. I recommend it to anyone who has just bought Sony Vegas Movie Studio.

As others have indicated it is about version 10, not version 11 ... but there is not that much different between the two versions. Version 11 actually has a bug in it in that if you open the Text and Title generator it almost always blows up when you go to add a shadow. However, there is a legacy Text generator in Version 11 that is the same Text generator from version 10 that Bill shows in his DVD. It's much better and does not blow up when adding shadows. Some of the videos are repetitive (in that they review things that were introduced in an earlier video), but as a beginner I did not mind being reminded. Additionally, that allowed me to jump directly to a topic of interest without worrying that I missed something I needed for the particular topic.

I was also impressed that Bill Myers took the time to write back when I originally asked about the shadow text on the next Text and Title generator causing Vegas Movie Studio to crash.