Top 5 Video Production Industry Trends – 2011, Part 1

Vancouver Video Productions by Shawn Lam

2011 Video Production Industry Year in Review

2011 is drawing to a close and before I start making predictions for 2012, I thought I’d have a look back at 2011 to revisit some of the video industry developments that I thought were the most significant for the segments of the event and corporate video production industry that I work in and cover as a video industry journalist. Now let me be upfront with my biases because they certainly shape my preferences and the perspective in which I see video industry developments.

I derive more than 95% of my income from my Vancouver video production business, so changes that benefit my own video businesses’ workflows are naturally going to be featured more prominently in what I follow, research, and write about. As a columnist and contributing editor with the recently defunct EventDV Magazine, I have and continue to be approached by manufacturers who request product and software reviews. So I have lots of opportunities to test a wide variety of products and software but I only review products that I would consider using in my own video production business and this means they would have to be compatible with my own existing and future workflows. If there isn’t a fit I encourage them to contact another writer who is a better fit for a product review.

One example that comes to mind is Singular Software and their latest software plug-in, Presto. I’d love to review it and incorporate it in my own video business but it is only supported on Sony Vegas Pro on the PC and FCP & Adobe Premiere Pro on the MAC- I edit with Adobe Premiere Pro on the PC, so I’m not about to change my NLE in order to test a plug-in. Well, at least at this point, after 10 years in the video production business, all editing on Premiere – but back in 2003, I was on the verge of ditching Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5, in favour of Sony Vegas, because there was a third-party multi-cam editing plug-in for Vegas that heard good things about and the third-party one that worked with Premiere (which I bought and tested) really sucked. Within a week of my decision, and before I was able to start a new project in the Vegas trial that I downloaded, Adobe announced multi-cam support in PPro 2.0. I upgraded to PPro 2.0 and have stuck with Adobe for my editing software.

In addition to my own workflows, I’m also influenced by discussions in the communities I take part of, including the BC Professional Videographers Association (BCPVA), WEVA, Videouniverity, DVXUSER, and most recently, Twitter. So enough of me explaining the relevance of my opinions… And on with the unveiling of my Top 5 Video Production Industry news, trends, and products that I felt were the most impactful in 2011.

1) Apple Final Cut X and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 read more...