Not sure I'm going to call this a review, because I doubt I'll go that in-depth.
I've watched through them now, and I have some observations . . .
For the price, I was a little disappointed.
Gary knows his stuff, no doubt about it, and he makes his knowledge understandable to the beginner (and has a good, even speaking voice which makes it easy to listen to it). The information is explained well, and there are many on-screen demonstrations, as well as text info on keyboard shortcuts, etc..
But it really seems more for the very beginner who's never worked with any NLE before. The more advanced features are hardly touched upon, and some are specifically not covered.
Which is fine, except that it's billed as being for beginners and advanced users alike. I don't think intermediate to advanced users will get much out of these discs. I was really expecting to be surprised at the information presented, but it turned out that he didn't cover much I didn't already know.
There are also way too many plugs for his own plug-in, Excalibur. Several times he spends more time showing you how to do something in Excalibur, which most of us don't even have, than he does on the same function in Vegas.
Considering whoever's watching it dropped $50 for the ability to do so, I don't think a commercial is appropriate to the extent it was used.
And, it's not a very slickly-produced video, either. It was itself edited on Vegas, but it could have been done on a dual set of VCRs. Any of us could have produced a more polished work. On top of that, there's an editing glitch about two thirds of the way through the second disc -- a couple of frames from another clip dropped in the middle of the one we're watching.
Bottom line, if you're going to ask someone to lay out $50, it should look better; you shouldn't try to sell something else with it; and it should be what it's billed to be.
It *is* a good, informative set of discs for the beginner, but if you're looking for more than that, look elsewhere, IMHO.
I've watched through them now, and I have some observations . . .
For the price, I was a little disappointed.
Gary knows his stuff, no doubt about it, and he makes his knowledge understandable to the beginner (and has a good, even speaking voice which makes it easy to listen to it). The information is explained well, and there are many on-screen demonstrations, as well as text info on keyboard shortcuts, etc..
But it really seems more for the very beginner who's never worked with any NLE before. The more advanced features are hardly touched upon, and some are specifically not covered.
Which is fine, except that it's billed as being for beginners and advanced users alike. I don't think intermediate to advanced users will get much out of these discs. I was really expecting to be surprised at the information presented, but it turned out that he didn't cover much I didn't already know.
There are also way too many plugs for his own plug-in, Excalibur. Several times he spends more time showing you how to do something in Excalibur, which most of us don't even have, than he does on the same function in Vegas.
Considering whoever's watching it dropped $50 for the ability to do so, I don't think a commercial is appropriate to the extent it was used.
And, it's not a very slickly-produced video, either. It was itself edited on Vegas, but it could have been done on a dual set of VCRs. Any of us could have produced a more polished work. On top of that, there's an editing glitch about two thirds of the way through the second disc -- a couple of frames from another clip dropped in the middle of the one we're watching.
Bottom line, if you're going to ask someone to lay out $50, it should look better; you shouldn't try to sell something else with it; and it should be what it's billed to be.
It *is* a good, informative set of discs for the beginner, but if you're looking for more than that, look elsewhere, IMHO.
