eZedia World e-Newsletter

1. NEW eZedia Plug-in Bundle!
The eZedia Plug-in Bundle for Apple's iMovie 2 is now available! The bundle includes eZeMatte, eZeScreen and eZeClip which allow iMovie users to add images, borders, frames, themes, logos, movies, blue-screen and picture-in-picture effects to iMovie clips.

"The eZedia Plug-in Bundle for iMovie gives iMovie users special effects and functionality that was previously only available in professional level products," said Stefan Embleton, President and Chief Executive Officer of eZedia Inc. "The interest and excitement generated by eZeMatte, eZeScreen and eZeClip has been tremendous. The bundle offers all of these plug-ins at one great price!"

eZedia Plug-in Bundle ($69 USD) for iMovie requires Mac OS X and iMovie 2.1.1 and can be purchased by visiting the eZedia web site at http://www.ezedia.ca/.

Learn More
Buy Now!

2. eZedia at Apple Expo Paris
Apple Expo was held at the stunning Paris Expo Hall at Porte de Versailles, one of the largest and most prestigious exhibition centres in Europe, situated in the heart of stylish Paris. Along with 250 exhibitors, manufacturers, publishers, developers and resellers and nearly 70,000 attendees, eZedia was there in full force.

eZedia announced its eZedia Plug-in Bundle for Apple's iMovie 2 at the expo and was showing eZediaMX, eZeMatte for iMovie, eZeScreen for iMovie, eZeClip for iMovie and a preview of its newest product, eZediaQTI.

Check out eZedia at Apple Expo
Apple Expo Paris 2002

3. Adding Impact to Visuals
How Sound Can Be Used To Bring Your Visual Projects To Life
By Kevin Klingler
President & CEO
Sonic Desktop Software, Inc.

One of the biggest misconceptions of visual images - particularly since computers started getting involved - is what people try to do to make them "look" better. Of course it's natural to use various 2D and 3D graphics programs, effects software packages, transitions, backgrounds, all sorts of things, to make your visual images "look" better. And these products can and do add some interesting things to the visual. Yet, after all the hard work and tinkering people often sit back and watch the project with all their new fancy graphics whooshing around and swirling and moving, and say to themselves "But why am I still not feeling anything from this visual? Why am I still not moved?"

The answer has been sitting there right under their, well, ears, all the while. In fact Hollywood has known from the beginning that if you really want to move an audience, you add a good, custom fit music soundtrack. Any pro will tell you that it is the music that moves the audience to tears, or has them on the edge of their seats during a chase sequence. Not convinced of this? Then try this experiment: Take your favorite movie and find one of the most important scenes in the movie; chances are it will have music. Now, watch that scene with the sound dialed off. In very short order you will realize you have been looking for visual "love" in all the wrong places, as the song goes.

But it can't just be any music and it just can't be thrown in willy-nilly and faded in and out. The real secret behind the great emotion of Hollywood projects - films and TV shows - is that they get music that fits the scene, not only in style, but also in the "rhythm" of the scene and most important of all in the timing of the scene: The music must begin at the beginning of the scene and end at the end of the scene.

Now this may seem obvious or pretty esoteric, but in fact, what is really going on when someone is viewing a visual is they are using all of their senses. If you are supplying an auditory stimulus along with the visual, then you are "communicating" with that audience on multiple levels and using different senses simultaneously to access their involvement with your visual. Essentially, by using music with the visual you are doubling the likelihood of an effective interaction between your visual and your audience.

By adding the musical element you have doubled your ability to reach an audience - but you have also doubled your chances of confusing or distracting them if there is any mismatch between the visual and the auditory portion. Indeed if the music suddenly stops, mid phrase or even fades out but the scene comes to a nice ending you have sent you're audience a very mixed message - the music is not ending (musically) but the visual is. This can be even more distracting, so you will want to make sure that music fits the visual - accurately. So whether you use SmartSound® or some other means, always make sure that the music fits the visual, and begins and ends with the scene. You'll be glad you did and you will have visuals that are much more involving to your audience.

For more information about SmartSound® soundtrack creation products go to:
www.smartsound.com

4. Rockin' the House - Adding Sound In eZediaMX
Sound is often the "crowning touch" that is used in digital media and presentations. In eZediaMX, it's simple to add virtually any type of sound file to your presentation and arrange it in a way that gives it a professional edge.

There are generally three types of sounds that are used in presentations: Background music, voice-overs and sound effects.

First, we'll add background music to a project. Import music onto your computer from a CD using iTunes or Windows Media Player. This will create an MP3 file. Drag the MP3 from its location on the hard drive onto an open eZediaMX document window.


Now that the music is in your project, double click on it to open the Movie Object dialog box (sounds and movies are treated the same in eZediaMX). If you want your background music to play through all the frames in your project, deselect "This Frame Only". Now run the project to hear the music throughout your presentation!

Next, we'll record a voice-over. Click the Record Object toolbar icon to open the Record Object dialog box. Make sure your mike is plugged in and set up, hit the record button, and start talking! When you're done, hit stop, then "OK". You will then see a "Save As..." dialog. Save the voice-over and be sure to give it an extension of .mov.

Finally, we'll add some sound effects. Most commonly these will be .WAV or .AIF files. As with the background music, sound effects can be imported with the Movie Object toolbar icon or through drag-and-drop. To time your sound effects to your presentation, open the Object Timers by selecting View > Show Object Timers. In the Object Timer window you can set the start time for your sound effects by dragging the blue bars.

So try it out! When used properly, sound can make a good presentation fantastic.

5. What's New at eZedia
eZedia Forum
NEW eZedia Plug-in Announcements and FAQs. Check it out!
• eZedia Forum

eZediaQTI
Sign up today to be the first to learn about eZediaQTI's official release!
• Find out more about eZediaQTI

Tutorials & eZeDocs
eZedia documentation to download!
• Tutorials
• eZeDocs

Did You Know?
eZedia Store
Purchase eZedia products in US or Canadian currency.
• Check out the great prices today

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Look for the next issue of eZedia World in October 2002.

eZedia World welcomes subscriber feedback, story ideas as well as editorial contributions to our monthly newsletter. Please e-mail us your ideas at ezediaworld@ezedia.ca.

© 2000-2002 eZedia Inc. All rights reserved. eZedia, the eZedia logo, and eZediaMX are registered trademarks or trademarks of eZedia Inc.