Shane Ross's Blog

The official title of the History Channel Series I am working on is STRANGE HISTORY. The stories will mainly deal with taboos, cultural and sexual, and strange cultural practices from around the world. There, now you know.

The first week there I was working on one of the rental systems. Because my computer hadn't come in yet and because they didn't play on renting my system for a few weeks yet. Now, this rental system was a bit lacking. Sure, it had the Octo Mac 3.0Ghz and a LARGE Mackie Mixer (that you would find on an Avid system) with 16 channels, 4 of which we use. Two for FCP, two for the deck...oh, 5...one for the microphone (temp VO). It had a Kona 3 card, was on one of those HUGE editing desks, was nestled in a rack, and had big HD LCDs. Not color correctable ones, but an early model Sony Luma series that was fine for producers to look at. The computer monitors? Lacking....WAY lacking. 17" square LCDs...brand I haven't heard of. SMALL, to say the least. I suffered on these for two weeks. The third week I was on my system. The rental didn't start on it until THIS week, but I wouldn't allow myself to suffer any more.

About the mic. We had it plugged into the Mixer, but then, how to get that audio from the mixer into the computer? The Kona 3 cards only have AES EBU audio in, so what do we do? Well, I happen to have the Griffin iMic, a device that takes an audio input via RCA and plugs into the computer via USB. This shows up on the INPUT list in the VO tool just fine. ISSUE...I had one, but Griffin no longer made the iMic. So for 3 weeks we have been shuttling back and forth from bay to bay. I finally searched EBAY and found a few. We will be getting them in soon. Why not get a USB mic and be done with it? Well, we already had mics, and to control them from the mixer is a breeze, so why not just get the $20 tool that allows you to use that?

Now for the types of footage we are working with. Plenty of Varicam DVCPRO HD 720p24 footage. A few 32GB cards worth of P2. Then comes the temp footage. DVDs with screener footage, temp stills, FLASH MOVIES from the internet...VHS screeners. Hoo boy...where to start. DVDs we are ripping using DVDxDV. I find it much more stable than MPEG STREAMCLIP, and the encode process is fast and very clean. I have the PRO version on mine, because one show I worked on had DVD as a master, and I needed to encode it uncompressed SD to match everything else.

The flash video (odd that we have to do this, but the clearance people said that is where they were directed) presented a problem. We tried FFMPEGX but that didn't do it. And we tried iSquint, but that didn't encode to an editable format. I could have gone with Visual Hub....but our budget was tight, and we had other fish to fry. OH, and FIRST we had to get them off the web using a few website services that did this. SO I did a test capture using iShowU and that worked out very well. I took the result into Compressor and used the Advanced Conversion presents (DV/NTSC) to upscale it and make it into a workable codec and all was good. And because of the open format timeline, we could mix DVCPRO HD and DV just fine without rendering.

Mind you all of these DVD rips and internet downloads are ALL temp. WE are putting reel numbers that indicate that they are TEMP only. When we lock picture, THAT is when we order the master footage and capture it properly.

OK...now on to how I spent my days. The first 3 days I spent looking at footage of female boxers. Figuring out how to use markers to mark and name the footage, then use those markers to subclip the master tapes. The other editor just went with the markers, but I liked the actual subclips. Of course this presented me with a few issues in dealing with these subclips...which I talk about on the Apple forums. Then I was presented with a script...well, semi OUTLINE with interview soundbytes paraphrased...and no transcripts. So I then spend the next two days listening to interviews and making a few selects. The BIG producer came in and said that this segment wasn't going to be in the first episode anymore, they have changed the order of a few things, so I was asked to start looking at footage for another segment. Again, no script, just interviews, so I listened to them.

The next week I was told to move onto yet ANOTHER segment, as it had more stuff to get into. And it did, the other one had no b-roll, it was all interview. It had to be, the story takes place in communist China in the 1970's. There would be generic b-roll, but we didn't have any yet. This other segment had more, and the producer had more of an idea about what points he wanted to hit, so I moved onto that. I spent the rest of the week cutting up the 3 hours of interviews into a 15 minute story. On Friday, I was handed a script. I was off.

Did I mention that the first rough cut for the first show was due the FOLLOWING Friday? I didn't? Oh, well either did they. I find this out on Tuesday.

Well, I can't go into details, but the delivery was pushed until Monday, then after a screening it was pushed to Tuesday, because huge structure changes needed to be addressed. What looked good on paper didn't on TV...which is typical. So I came in on Sunday and worked for 12 hours, then came in on Monday and worked hard until I finished my segments at 3. WHEW. All we needed now was a quick tease, to tie the segments together and find a bridge...or leave that alone for now. Just need to get the network something to show how we want to approach things. Then I come to find that we need more changes, and delivery was pushed until this Friday.

WHEW.

So today I was back on boxing girls until I get a new script. Mind you, this is all very typical for this kind of work. I grow to expect it. And I know that all the effort I put in on the weekend might get tossed aside in favor of a new approach. BUT, that work still served a purpose. To find out what works and what doesn't. Knowing what doesn't is a pretty big thing. Now all we need to do is find out what does work.

IFC, the Independent Film Channel, is having a film contest.

To promote this contest they have made a GREAT promo video...

What makes me like it more is the fact that I WORK in broascast TV, and must adhere to those rigid standards. Frankly, it can be a bit tiring. I mean, make the colors look good, make it not look to hot, but when I get a show kicked back because I am .02 above 100IRE...that pisses me off! What about my content? Oh, yeah, the networks have hacked that to death with their notes and there are structure rules to follow and then we get to the show timing, and my head REALLY swims when it comes to the technical mathmatical crap that we have to know about video levels. Sometimes I just want to make a good story that people will enjoy.

Sorry, ranting. Rough weekend. Watch and enjoy.

Last December I was asked to edit a trailer for a documentary.  This trailer would be used to solicit finishing funds.  And while they couldn't pay much, they could pay.  Since I wasn't doing anything in January and halfway thru Febuary, I took the job.  

The client asked how they should deal with the payment  I said that I would like half up front, and half when I deliver the final.  That sounded fine to them, so I received half the payment and the tapes to begin editing.

I worked on the project for about 3 weeks, and delivered a rough cut.  Then I waited...and waited...and waited.  Finally two weeks ago I received word from the director (the guy who hired me).  The producers partnership had split due to philosophical differences in the way they wanted to approach the documentary.  So not only was it on hold, but it might be shut down altogether.  At least the one that I was asked to edit.  The producers might end up with separate docs...but for me, the project was done.

Now, I am glad that I got half up front, because the doc was DOA.  I am darn sure that trying to get partial payment after what happened would be darn near impossible.  Who would want to pay for nothing?  This is a lesson I learned the hard way on a previous project.  Getting paid is VERY important.  If you don't arrange weekly payments, you need to arrange some sort of payment so that you can have something to live off of while you work.  

Here it is. It took me a while to get this post up because...well, I am beat. I spent last weekend finishing the desk...and taking the remaining wood and unused scraps to make THREE bird houses...well, help my daughters make them. Kids demanding their dad's time...how can I refuse? So that was Saturday.

But I am jumping ahead a little. The computer arrived on Thursday, Feb 28...a day ahead of schedule. I jumped for joy at work when my wife called. And when I got home from work...and after a quick meal...I put my full attention onto this machine. Installing three 500 GB Seagates into the spare drives, yanking out the fan to access one of the SATA ports on the logicboard and installing a small drive into the empty optical bay (this I am using as my Time Machine backup). I replaced the stock ATI 2600 card with the x1900 XT card. You heard about that mess last time. OK, bouncing ahead again.

Sunday evening I moved the desk and all my gear to the edit bay at the office in Hollywood. Yup, actually working in Hollywood. This installation took about 3 hours. Lugging equipment and desk upstairs, assembling desk, fixing HD CRT as the power button was stuck IN and I couldn't turn on the monitor. I fixed that and finished the build. I was pleasantly surprised that the desk was as steady as it was. I realized a small design flaw in my desk. The legs flare IN from the front. They need to flare OUT, as the bulk of the weight is in the back. I will be getting two more single legs from IKEA to add to the back.

I was up and running on Monday. Not on the XSAN yet, so I worked with the footage on the internal drives...I striped two of them as a Raid 0. Running the AJA SYSTEM TEST I found that I got 200MB/s read/write on this. NICE. I had the media stored on these drives for now, so I could edit. This afternoon, Tuesday, is when I was finally added to the network. So far so good...smooth sailing.

SIDE NOTE. I hooked up my G5 to the MacPro via GigE and was able to share the media drive from the G5 to the MacPro. And I was able to do three streams on the G5. The MacPro, connected to the G5 that was acting like a Server, was able to do 2 streams. That was cool to kown. SO if I have a two computer shot, this is a pretty cheap SAN.

ANYWAY...dying of sleep deprivation, so I gotta try to get some shuteye. I can't post specifics about the desk, as I have partners who want to make ALL the desks like this, but I will say that everything came from IKEA. Everything but the shelf...that came from a lumber yard.

EDIT: I am on the XSAN this morning, and it is SWEET!

If you have ever wanted to uninstall Final Cut Studio (FCS), for whatever reason, doing so was a bit of a challenge. If you are like me, you don't know where all of the components and extras that FCS installs are located, or what half of them are even called.

Now there is a way to do this. Jon Chappell, a contributing member of the Apple Final Cut Pro forums, has developed a small handy little application that finds and removes all the components Final Cut Studio installs. It is called the FCS REMOVER. Now I haven't tested it yet, as I have no reason to remove FCP, but I hear it works well.

IT'S HERE! It was supposed to be delivered tomorrow, but it got here a day early. I was tracking it on FedEx and it seemed to be sitting idle in Fort Worth Texas...it was there for a while. But then I looked up the tracking number just after lunch yesterday and suddenly it was in Sun Valley CA (here in the Valley, close to Burbank Airport) and on the truck to be delivered! I called my wife...she was going to be out of the house from 11:45 to 3:00...and sure enough, that was when the delivery occurred. But then they made another attempt later in the afternoon and my wife was home and I GOT MY NEW MAC PRO!

I raced home from work...as fast as one can race in rush hour traffic...and burst through the door. There it was, in the entrance hall. Too heavy for my wife and kids to move. After dinner I unpacked it and...well, OK...I'll go into more of that later. Posting pics and all...as if you all care. I'm getting a new machine, it is exciting to ME. But I'll post a few pics as to what I installed and how crowded it is inside there.

But I did want to mention one thing. One thing that put a damper on this machine. I replaced the stock ATI x2600 card with the ATI x1900XT. I read on BareFeats.com that this card works in the newer MacPros. I plugged in a monitor and fired it up and....nothing happened. The card was spinning VERY FAST AND VERY LOUD...but nothing appeared on the screen. DRAT! I took the Kona 3 card out and put the x2600 card back in and fired it up again. Yup, now I can see something. I looked in the System Profiler and it saw the 2600 card, but it said GRAPHICS CARD...then ATI...in slot 1. It wasn't working.

GAH!

I updated the system fully. Nothing. I looked to see if there was a driver for this, and I found that there was a Firmware Update. I downloaded that and ran it, but the computer said "that is unnecessary for this computer" or something like that. GAH! So I e-mailed Rob-Art of Barefeats and told him my predicament. He responded with "You have to upgrade the firmware on the X1900 XT with it installed in a 2006/2007 Mac Pro." OK...fine. I can do that. Rather I can have a friend with an older MacPro do it for me.

More after the weekend. BIG post when it is all installed into the edit bay.

A couple posts ago I pointed out the great PSA "Indie Fever" that Scott Simmons of the EditBlog made.

In what seems like perfect timing, I found myself watching a great short documentary on IFC on Monday called Failure. I stumbled on this by accident. My wife and I always watch the Henry Rollins Show and before I could change the channel, I saw the lead in to this documentary. I watched it...and it was hilarious. It was a documentary all about this guys attempt to make an independent film. In short, it was a disaster...and from the scenes he showed, I wondered what the heck it was about, because none of the scenes made sense. And he seemed to fall into every single pitfall that beginning filmmakers make...well, there was no "dream sequence," so he avoided one. But it showcased a lot of the points made by the Indie Fever PSA...and what was really neat is that the documentary was VERY GOOD. The movie he was doing was so bad, yet this was great. He spent three years making this, and it shows. Lots of time to fine tune it. Pure joy to watch. Because I have made a

or two in my time and this seems all to familiar to me.

While I am linking like a mad man, I might as well link to the FAILURE Myspace page.

I love this town...LA. Every now and then I see some character actor in the park or in the store. I cut off Danny DeVito in front of Warner Brothers my first week in town...got an earful. I walked thru the airplace crash set of the new WAR OF THE WORLDS one week before they shot, because the production I was working on was just up the hill on the Universal Lot. During my lunch hour from jury duty I walked into the Bradbury Building where they shot a lot of Blade Runner scenes. Snuck onto the lot at Warner Brothers and walked down the street where they shot Seinfeld.

Then today, I am driving to work on the 101 Freeway, on the Barham pass near Universal City, when I come up behind this semi truck towing a flatbed trailer with a large tube on it. I took small notice, thinking it was some large pipe for some sort of underground irrigation. Then I start passing it as I approached my exit into Hollywood and I look closer and notice that it isn't a pipe, it looks like some sort of rocket. So I speed up to get a closer look and then I see what it is.

One of the nacelles from the U.S.S. Enterprise. Most likely a LARGE SCALE model for the new movie...no doubt on the way to the Paramount lot. This thing was HUGE! As long as a light post. I quickly whipped out my iPhone and snapped a couple hasty pics.




What is this? Where does it go? This is a nacelle:



OK...I'm done geeking now.

Quick update. My MacPro is finally shipping. And it turns out that I will be getting the original machine I ordered. Even though my dealer bent over backwards to get me the older version of the MacPro, I will be getting the new machine. Why? Well, the XSAN we will be getting will be running Leopard, so the fact that my machine will be running Leopard as well can only be good. And this saves me a few hundred bucks too...which is also a good thing.

I am still tracking the progress of the shipment at Apple...building the excitement. And when it arrives I'll to the obligatory unboxing photos, followed by the installing of the accessories photos (Kona 3, x1900XT, hard drives).

In the meantime I finished building the desk. Here is a quick photo of the desk...built entirely from parts purchased at Ikea. Well, except for the shelf, that was bought from the lumber store.