Creative COW Forum Host, Web Writer, Contributing Editor
Michael Mench
ThreeBoysProductions California USA
Captain
Mike Mench has been in the USAF for 10 years. He won numerous awards
and medals for his service to his country and his background includes 7
years teaching Junior and Senior High School bands in Missouri, Florida
and Pennsylvania. He continues to be actively sought out as a
clinician and adjudicator for educational and professional musical
organizations across the country.
Of
his video shooting and editing skills he says, "this is the most
expensive hobby I've ever had." Hobby or not, he is in high demand
across the Air Force for producing videos and creating DVDs for events
large and small. He produced, created and edited DVD products for
guest artists such as Maureen McGovern, Glen Campbell, Cleo Lane and
Wynonna Ryder. His work has been used to influence foreign leaders and
to inspire the spirits of the youngest members of the military. He's
worked and studied with everyone from local live switchers to A-List
producers and editors.
"I
started in this a little late," Mike says of editing. "I bought my
first video camera and a $100 Avid editing program when my first son
was born and my entry into video NLEs began. I had always been around
audio editing with Sonic Solutions, ProTools and SADIE, but now I was
hooked and couldn't get enough. I saved enough money to buy Apple's
Final Cut Pro v1 and soon after DVDStudio Pro. I brought a short video
I did in to my boss one day and asked if we could use something like
this to tell our story better. The next thing I know I'm designing a
studio in the basement of the building. It was me and another guy and
he knew less than even I did! There weren't many people using FCP
then, and the handful of us were more than willing to help out each
other. That spirit of community, that continues today, not only pushed
the software, but the industry as well."
Mike
freely admits that starting ThreeBoysProductions (formerly
TwoBoysProductions) was a front to his wife to convince her to let him
buy a DVX-100A. With his spare time from the Air Force he not only
practices and hones his skills with his own kids but has a small
business of shooting, editing and documenting memories for other
people's families. "It's amazing what you can capture and edit in only
a few hours with a family. When people see me come into their living
room with a wagon for a dolly they get a little scared... but when they
see their memories saved in 24P they are really very thankful."
Capt
Mench primarily uses Final Cut Pro Studio, After Effects, Shake and
Adobe CS2 and lives with his wife Linda and ThreeBoys Alex, Nathan and
Zachary just north of San Francisco, California.
You can find Michael Mench hosting in Creative COW's
Apple Shake forum.
In this Apple Shake video tutorial, Creative Cow Contributor Michael Mench begins a series called Shake is Money in which he will discuss how Final Cut Pro editors can quickly learn how to integrate Shake into their workflow for added flexibilty in the studio. In this first video in the series, Michael demonstrates the Smooth Cam Node in Shake.
