Take Your Video to the Next Level

High Five Access Media offers free video production training so you can learn to make media and express your ideas with the community on television and the internet. But what happens after you've completed a workshop? Oftentimes, you're feeling overwhelmed and uncomfortable with the video-making process. The key to getting better is practice, and tutorials offer a great way to gain experience at your own pace.

Fortunately, the Eagle Valley Library District makes access to tutorials simple, and free. The library provides cardholders with a subscription to Lynda.com. For those of you unfamiliar with Lynda, it's a website focused on providing users with video tutorials on a variety of subjects, including "business, software, technology and creative skills," according to the site.

To get started, visit the district's Digital Resources, scroll down to Lynda, and click on the At Home Link if you're not physically at the library. Now, create a profile using your library card number, which you can find on the back of the card. You're ready to get started.

Here, we'll suggest a couple potential routes, camera and editing skills. If you don't have a camera or video editing software, High Five Access Media members get free access to our video equipment as long as anything you produce with our equipment is noncommercial and shown on local cable Channel 5. To reserve equipment, email info@highfivemedia.org. Otherwise, here are a couple great tutorials on Lynda to get started with:

Video Foundations: Cameras and Shooting
The author does an excellent job explaining concepts with language that is easy to understand for beginners. No technical jargon. The course is nearly three-hours long and includes topics such as focusing, exposure, lighting, and more.

Final Cut Pro X 10.3 Essential Training
The skills learned in Final Cut Pro X translate to other programs, including Adobe Premier, iMovie, and more. We prefer Final Cut at High Five Access Media because of its ease of use and affordability. In this tutorial, the author gets "user comfortable with each aspect of the video editing process." A great feature of this course is that it includes exercise files that you can download and work on as you follow along with the author. It's a long course, more than eight hours, but it an expansive piece of software. You can always bite it off in smaller chunks.

The rabbit hole doesn't end here. There are a plethora of related tutorials to explore, including lighting, audio, graphics, multi-camera productions, and so much more. Explore the site and add skills to your quiver over time.

If learning on your own isn't your style, High Five Access Media is always here to help. If you need one-on-one instruction beyond our free basic workshops, email us at info@highfivemedia.org and let us know what you'd like to learn. We'll do our best to facilitate your learning.

You may also join High Five Access Media on a production, whether it's a government meeting, music show or sporting event. Get in touch with us to find out about opportunities to get involved.

As always, we offer free Media Education workshops every month.

In Camera Basics, participants gain the skills to compose and expose an image, get familiar with basic operations of our Canon cameras, select the right microphone to capture clear audio and mount cameras on a tripod to get a stable image. Participants also get hands-on practice shooting footage that they’ll use to piece together a short video in the follow-up workshop, Final Cut X. In this workshop, students learn to navigate Final Cut X, piece together video clips with effective cuts, spice up projects with b-roll, lay down an audio track under footage, create simple but effective graphics and export a final video for the web, social media or broadcast.

Registration is required. Please email info@highfivemedia.org with your name, as well as the dates you'd like to attend. Membership also is required. It is free to Vail and Avon residents, $25 for other Eagle County residents and $50 for local nonprofits.

Both Camera Basics and Final Cut X are offered monthly and must be completed to become a community producer at High Five Access Media. Community producers have free access to High Five Access Media’s video production equipment and get the opportunity to show their creations on local cable television and the internet.

January
Camera Basics – Thursday, Jan. 18, 6 to 9 p.m.
Final Cut Pro X – Thursday, Jan. 25, 6 to 9 p.m.

February
Camera Basics – Thursday, Feb. 8, 6 to 9 p.m.
Final Cut Pro X - Thursday, Feb. 15, 6 to 9 p.m.