Shane Ross's Blog

I leave Tuesday for Amsterdam...I will be attending IBC. I am heading out a week early to bring the family along and do the tourist thang. Then I will be at IBC, working at the CalDigit booth as their "expert who uses and likes the product." So if you are a follower of my blog, and happen to be in Amsterdam and HAPPEN to be at IBC, that is where you can find me. I will also be checking out the RED camera (finally shipping) and see if I can find the MOTU booth and look at the V3HD.

And I will no doubt take advantage of the town to do a little partying.

I'll blog if I happen to find internet cafés and have the inclination after working and partying.

I finished the rough cut of the episode of the Discovery show I am working on, so they will have three weeks to pick it apart and give me notes. When I come back, I have 3 weeks to get it into shape and out the door. I can do that.

I have become the type of editor that I used to make fun of as an assistant. In fact, I am sure the two assistants we have on this show are making fun of ME as I write this.

What is that kind of editor? The one who doesn't pay attention to what drive they are rendering to, or capturing to. The one who when something bad technical happens, is pretty much useless in terms of figuring anything out.

How did this happen? I was the assistant who figured all of this stuff out. I knew all the tricks to get the Avid working again. How to locate the CREATING files and TEMP files and trash them...that to fix media linking issues you trash the media file databases in the OMFI folders on the drives. That...

Wait...have I told you what happened yet? Oh, I see I haven't.

I lost 80% of my temp VO. And I was too...SOMETHING...to figure it out for myself. I dunno...stuck in my "creative" editing mind that I couldn't figure it out. Or daunted about working in OS9 again...something. Dunno...but I couldn't figure it out myself.

This happened before. The media was offline. BUT, it was there. I saw it. It didn't say OFFLINE in the bin, it just wouldn't play. Now, I did look on the drive I recorded it on and I saw it (Audio files have the name you give them in the Avid project, thank goodness)...but it wouldn't play. The Avid techs were called in (Assistants not on during the day) and they looked at the Unity, found the error, trashed the CREATING and TEMP files and BOOM, the audio came back. I felt a little stupid...but was happy to have the audio back.

Then on Friday the audio went away AGAIN, and I needed to do an output. So I was trying to be all "technical" and trashed the CREATING files, and TEMP files, and media databases and still...nada. Well darn it. And THIS time they said offline. So I was at a loss. Before I started recording the VO again, the assistants arrived and I asked one of them to look into it. HE did and said, "well, they're offline. They aren't here."

Uh...what? I look...the drive is EMPTY. Well, it has the database files, but NO MEDIA. Did I NOTICE THIS when I trashed the database files? No. How did I miss that there was NO MEDIA on the drive? Got me...I have no excuse. Buried in my creative mind. I had to laugh at myself for that. "Yep," the assistant continued. "Looks like this drive is corrupt. This is why you can't render to it either." I had beed getting an error when trying to render to the drive too. Forgot to mention that. And I got an error (FATAL ERROR) when loading the Media Composer software with that drive mounted. He took the drive offline, loaded MC, and no problem. "Yep, corrupt sector. We are replacing the Unity this weekend, so just do without it for now."

And while I feel like a BIT of a heel here, not remembering all this techie stuff, my job is to pay attention to the creative, so that is where it all lies. Working with FCP and working WITHOUT and assistant and building my own system has kept me in my tech head that I had as an assistant. But now with two assistants I guess I am getting spoiled.

I can get used to being spoiled. I like this. And if I provide a little amusement to the Assistants...it is well worth it.

Currently I am color correcting a short film shot on DVCPRO HD...this while I am working full time editing a Discovery Channel series. But that is par for the course...main project, occasional side project. ANWAY, I want to mention a pretty vital part of my color correction arsonal. The book ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COLOR CORRECTION by Alexis Van Hurkman (found at Amazon.com.

Now I have a couple tutorial DVDs on how to use Final Cut Pro's built in 3-way color corrector to match hue from shot to shot, and how to white and black balance, and some color correction tips. This book covers all of those basics and takes it a step further to go into advanced color correction techniques....and gives some pretty cool tricks too. My favorite is KEYFRAMING color correction, and making footage DAY FOR NIGHT. The book contains several tutorials in just about every chapter...and my favorite is the one that deals with turning out a light.

The tutorial shows a hand turning off a light switch, and you see that indeed a light does go off, but the change isn't all that great. The director wants more. So this is something you fix with color correction. The tutorial shows how you set keyframes in the 3-way color corrector and shows the settings you need to use to make the room look very DARK...so when the light switch is flipped, the change is more drastic. VERY cool. It also talks about color correcting and keyframing from when you go from a well lit shot to a prety darn one.

And many more. This book is great because it will explain the theory, then show an example that you not only follow along you DO IT so that you retain the information better.

This book does go pretty in depth into the technical aspects, why the monitor needs to be a certain color temperature and many theories and tech talk about color and light. Now, I am not a very technical person, I know how to ONLINE a show, but I am no colorist. So there is technical jargon that I catch only about 50% of what is being said...but that is enough to understand what the author is saying.

ANYWAY...it is a good book. If you have any desire to color correct, you have to read this book.

I was chatting with an editor friend of mine the other day about this and that...installing updates that won't break FCP, our various experiences with shows that we were/are working on, network nonsense...when the conversation turned to "transitions."

We were just talking about editing and concentrating on a good story were key, and how many productions/networks try to make shows better by adding fancy transitions. Complaining more like it. We are always asked to "make it better" or "more exciting" with "cool" transitions But, does it really? No...well, they may LOOK cool...I suppose...but does it make the show "better?" Or are we trying to fool people into THINKING it is better by adding the cool transitions? The latter is the case. If you don't tell a compelling story, then no amount of FANCY TRANSITIONS will make it better. But sometimes what we work on isn't exciting, so we are told to liven it up.

I see this on the forums too. People asking where they can get "really cool" transitions so they can make their project better. These same people think that adding the "film look" will make their projects better. That a CUBE SPIN will somehow make the story more compelling. Sorry guys...it doesn't.

My buddy commented how he was watching "housing porn" (home decorating show) on HGTV or somesuch network and in this show was a SPARKLE TRANSITION! I guess they thought that just the fact that you are showing off nice decorating tips wasn't enough. They wanted to GET YOUR ATTENTION..or "make it cool." I know this transition...it is part of the SAPPHIRE set that is available for Avid and FCP. I had the...pleasure...of using these on a VH1 show about a young female pop star. In fact, I used a bunch of these odd plugins, including that sparkle transition. WHY? Because I was told to. I didn't want to, but they wanted to ROCK the show and "liven" it up. Was the show good? No. It was all flash and no substance.

What transition do I use the most? Which is most effective? THE CUT. Simple cut from one scene to another. Sometimes a dissolve, to denote passage of time. The basic tools. Although I will admit that for Andrew Jackson I did a BLUR DISSOLVE (part of the <a href=http://www.nattress.com/Products/BigBox/Bigbox.htm target=_blank>Nattress Big Box of Tricks</a> instead of a regular dissolve. Because I knew the network would want something new...preemptive strike. I also added another cool transition that I discovered in FCP 5.1.4, the LIGHT ZOOM. I thought it was very cool, and used it as a transition to signify a flashback. It had a specific purpose. But then the network exec saw that, and REALLY liked it. "I want to see this transition used more!" I dug myself into a hole on that one. I wanted to use it ONCE as a flashback device, and now I had to "sprinkle" it about the rest of the show.

And I am ashamed to admit that I have worked on more than my share of no-substance-all-flash shows. Par for the course for the freelance editor. But in working on those shows, and employing all sorts of flash and trickery to try to make them better, I know that it is pointless. That without a good story, no sort of "plugin window dressing" will make it better.

Nothing beats a good story.