Frames, time, and why the numbers are strange
Frame rates, timecode, and the historical accidents that still cost people a day of work.
Video Craft and Theory
These chapters stand on their own. You do not need the software to read them and nothing here depends on a particular application, though where an idea shows up as a button in AVPrep2 or AVPrep3 it gets named. Words in blue link to the glossary.
What is actually inside a video file
Containers, codecs, bitrate, and why two files with the same extension behave nothing alike.
Size, shape, and where to put the subject
Resolution, aspect ratio, vertical video, safe areas, and the composition rules worth keeping.
Why your export looks different from your edit
Levels, gamma, colour space, and the single mismatch behind most washed out exports.
Levels, headroom, and loudness
dBFS, LUFS, true peak, and why mastering louder than the platform target gains you nothing.
Making a voice sound like a voice
EQ, noise, sibilance, music beds and ducking, in the order that actually works.
When to cut, and why most cuts fail
Continuity, motivation, jump cuts, B roll, and pacing that does not put people to sleep.
What a transition says
Why the cut is the default, what a dissolve means, and why your crossfade needs frames you may not have.
Text people can actually read
Titles, lower thirds, captions, and why most social video is watched with the sound off.
Getting it out the door
Export settings, platform behaviour, what to archive, and the checks worth running before you publish.