GoPro cheaper rival

http://www.wired.com/2016/07/review-yi-4k-action-camera/?mbid=social_fb

Re-format or partition portable/external hard drives

A Media student should invest in a sizeable USB hard drive; portable (no plug required) is better, and 1TB should be the absolute minimum ... but 4TB is much better if you can afford it. Amazon.de 4TB portable HDD search will give you sample prices; you can buy these in electrical stores.

TIP: Despite being USB3 models, portable drives all seem to come with a cheap USB2 cable - order a USB3 cable with your HDD or it will 10x slower than it should be - a real problem if copying large Final Cut libraries!!! (Also buy a protective case - the AmazonBasic range is fine for cables/cases)

You can back up work from Final Cut in a Library ... but not if you leave a hard drive formatted in FAT32, the default Windows file format, as this doesn't recognise files bigger than 4GB, and your Media work can easily exceed 1TB (250 times 4GB). The 'exFAT' file format allows you to use your portable drive for both Windows and Mac work.

A useful guide to the common file systems.

You can find a vodcast guide below the read more line, with a recording of re-formatting a new portable drive.

Budget Gimbals for steadier handheld work

http://nofilmschool.com/2016/04/ikan-competes-gimbal-market-only-one-hand

USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES: YouTube audience analysis

As well as branding your own channel, and using the other tools covered here, you can analyse your audience demographics and engagement (check the gender or age breakdown, the countries views are coming from, the sources (websites), and even how long individual videos are typically viewed for. You can also create graphs of audience engagement (subscriber numbers, dis/likes, comments) over a period of time you specify:

TO ACCESS: click on the 3 lines beside the YouTube logo; click on  My Channel. Then click on Video Manager and you can access your audience data.

FCPX freebies, guides and add-ins

The NoFilmSchool site announced an Apple offer: new downloadable content for learning advanced editing techniques. Go to the PremiumBeat link to find out more.

...

USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES: Photoshop YouTube tutorials

See more on using Photoshop + digipak design in this post + this vodcast.

You needn't be a Photoshop genius to produce some incredible FX in Photoshop - there are 100s of ace designers out there who have shared their knowledge online, producing effective guides. Have a browse and pick out one or more that can help raise your ideas to a higher level, and just follow the step by step guides!

STUDENT EXAMPLE:
2015 IGS A2 student Amber got inspired by a tutorial that looked at an effect that fitted neatly with Lady Gaga's complex relationship with the press (post link):

Here Amber goes through the techniques she used:

USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES face swap apps

There are many tablet, smartphone and computer apps that enable you to blend elements of a face into an existing image; Masquerade, bought up by Facebook, is amongst the most recent and virally successful examples - chances are someone you know has posted an image from this on your timeline.

Find more examples with a simple search.

Mr Facebook himself promoted the MSQRD tool with a Transformers video.

 MSQRD website.