Vashi Nedomansky is a professional editor who’s worked on 11 feature films in his 17-year career, most notably cutting the pulp hit Sharknado 2. In addition, he’s somewhat of a post-production wizard and his blog has some great tips for anyone looking for edit hacks.
That goes double for editors that are looking for mastery of the Adobe suite. It’s really come to a point where the most in-demand editors are the ones that can do it all. In Nedomansky’s words, most paid editors are “now expected to be one man shops that can handle picture edit, VFX, sound design and even music/score.”
That’s a lot of information to consume, and with a bevy of software at your disposal, it’s even trickier to master. This is especially the case when you consider the job requires an “understanding of ever-changing skillsets, acquisition formats, and delivery requirements.” It’s important for an editor to create a system. Above all else, organization is perhaps the most crucial part of the job. Finding a flow through your software can help maximize that effectiveness.
Nedomansky recently published an article detailing his favorite plugins for Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects. The best part? They’re all entirely free. As he explains in the text, “There is a time and place for complicated or expensive effects but for most tasks, I lean on a core of common and simple effects that do most of the work.”
Check out his list below:
For Premiere:
"My friend and editor Jarle Leirpoll created 7 custom handheld camera presets for the film Deadpool that could be applied directly onto clips and played back in real-time in Premiere Pro."
“This plugin has 3 free effects that are powerful and effective. Feathered Crop gives you an advantage over Premiere Pro’s crop effect because you can feather any of the 4 sides…Creative Impatience also offer a Power Window plugin and a Vignette plugin.”
"98 presets for free! Included are simple color correction presets, LUTs for ARRI or Cinestyle, S-curves or varied intensity and dozens of Looks that can be applied to an adjustment layer and dialed to taste."
"The 5 Free Glitch presets add chaos and frenetic energy to your images, video or even text files that will all play back in real-time."
"These 4 free transitions give you a nice option to have inside Premiere that saves you a trip to After Effects using Dynamic Link."
"I created these 12 presets to solve a majority of audio issues and make your videos sound so much better."
"7 unique film roll emulation effects that mimic the gate weave, shake and blur of film rolling through a projector. Color shifts replicate old film and add a nice look to any project."
'Deadpool'Credit: 20th Century Fox
For After Effects:
"Make your video layer flicker the exact amount of frames on/off you would like to create a spooky horror film or music video effect."
"Energetically animated and dynamic transitioning template for video/photo/text."
"Create a diseased or zombie look that isolates just the skin tones of your actor."
"Andrew Davidson created this free plugin to generate gorgeous animatable colored fractals."
“Computer on-screen typewriter look that mimics vintage computer terminals from the 1980s.”
“This plugin set contains 44 effects that include Light effects, Filmic transitions, 10 Text presets & Instant Montage presets for video.”
“These 19 After Effects presets cover a lot of varied ground and have helped me in both simple and complicated situations.”
“I created this free plugin for use on your HD or 4K footage to emulate the look and feel of the Panavision 40mm anamorphic lens made famous by Wes Anderson in his films.”
“Easily add camera motion swish pans in all four directions: up/ down/left/ right.”
“Light Leaks have been very popular over the last couple years and they add a pleasing vintage and organic feel to any project that could benefit from their use.”
Source: Vashi Visuals
