Mike Cohen's Blog

Not all travel is by aeroplane. No sometimes we need to drive. If you do mostly local production, you are always driving. If you are like me, your gigs are anywhere and everywhere, although we do have a lot of shoots in Boston, NY and Philadelphia.

A big concern at the moment of course is the high price of fuel. I can't take a long car trip without adequate fuel in my tank, and one must make this a priority, or you might not get to your destination. I am of course talking about coffee and the very best gas station sandwiches money can buy.

A decent (or at least luke warm) cup of coffee, an iPod full of the latest podcasts and the occasional highway rest stop make for a tolerable journey. Given adequate fuel for the body, of course fuel for the vehicle is essential, and regardless of the price at the pump, you have to transport yourself to the job.

I have to laugh when politicians and the media announce "gas has hit $4 a gallon." Obviously these folks have not visited Connecticut.

I was behind another car from out of state and noticed a kid lean out the window to take a picture of this gas station's prices. They thought it was a novelty, I took a picture because I needed one for this article!

Given the increased price of everything, I am amazed that tolls on the Mass Pike have been the same since I started driving. Another disparity exists in hospital parking lots. I realize that everyone needs to pay their lease and property taxes, but prices range from free to $40 per 8 hours. At least most hospitals take credit cards, but a few demand cash, and have an ATM located elsewhere in the hospital for your convenience.

All of this is the cost of doing business, although I'm not sure the egg salad sandwiches were part of my budget!

As the sun sets ahead of me, I approach Hartford and the lovely traffic jams ahead of me. Another journey at its end, and another pile of tapes to digitize.

Thanks for reading.

Mike

If you have been following my blog, you know that we use a Sony V1U primarily as another DVCAM camera, for most of our shoots. We actually shot a lot of interviews a few weeks ago with our V1 and a rental, in the hopes that matching the two cameras would be easier than trying to match the V1 with a Panasonic camera.

Here is the transcript of a conversation had this week while shooting a surgery:

Doc: So, is that an HD camera?

Me: It shoots HD, but not at the moment. Do you record HD?

Doc: No, the HD scope (medical video camera) doesn't let you record in HD.

Me: Figures. Although you are displaying it on those nice plasma screens in your OR.

Doc: It's nice isn't it.

Me: Not bad, although when you walk right up to the screen it looks kind of grainy.

Doc: What do you think looks better the plasma or the boom mounted LCD?

Me: The LCD. You know, I have an idea. I can shoot the next case in HD (HDV is actually a phrase the average person has never heard, so saying HD results in fewer blank stares) and you are using an HD camera and displaying it in HD - what if I shoot the HD off the screen onto HD. The only analog signal will be the air between the screen and my camera.

Col. Hannibal Smith: Crazy as it sounds, it just might work.

Mr. T: I ain't gettin on no plane.

Sorry, had a brief 80's flashback, stick with me.

Obviously the plasma screen's grainy image won't be as crisp as the LCD, however from my camera's position hovering over the OR bed, I have a pretty straight shot to the plasma screen. I certainly do not expect to get a crystal clear image, however the aspect ratio is the same so it is worth a shot.

Here is a fullest size frame grab Flickr will allow from the experiment (I hope you have eaten recently):

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3269/2618226211_79fa9781a8_b.jpg

It's not bad is it. Does not actually look very grainy to me, and is certainly better sharpness than DV. We'll call this pseudo-HD.

Here is a smaller version allowed by the COW:

In case you were wondering, that's the prostate being cut away from the pelvic floor. That pink thing in the foreground might be the vas deferens, everyone's favorite structure!

For comparison, here is a frame from the full size DV recording from the same HD camera, taken from DV tape captured into Premiere(confused yet?). The HD surgical camera has S-Video outputs on the back, recording a slightly cropped SD version to whatever format you desire, in my case DV tape. Remember, compare this image to the link above, not the image which is essentially a thumbnail from the full size HDV frame:

Alas, the HDV recorded off plasma display of HD is certainly larger in size than standard DV, which is obvious given HDV's larger image size. However the real question is, is the resolution any better, and would it stand up to HD display and projection, or to printing for that matter. Another future experiment will be to try to record the HD signal from the OR camera to an HDV deck. The HD outputs of the medical video camera control units range from component to DVI. Thus a scan converter which accepts DVI and can output HDV via firewire, a device which probably does not exist, will need to be used. Short of renting an XDCAM deck, the only other choice might be to record directly to a computer.

Also available are seriously expensive Sony medical grade HD recorders - at least we know someone is thinking about recording HD in the OR.

These questions may be answered in a future episode entitled: HDV, it's What's for Dinner.

Or whatever. Must be time for lunch.

Mike

PS - If you are interested, here's a link to the full size HDV frame of the image at the top of this article:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3064/2618225867_e4db7d9d3f_b.jpg

In the past, here and on the forums, I have discussed the merits of putting one's relatives on videotape. I can think of no greater use for video than in documenting those you wish never to forget.

This past week we buried my last grandparent, my dear Izzy.

While sometimes an annoyance, the video camera surgically attached to my hand at every family gathering, no matter how insignificant, has been my own conduit to the storehouse of precious memories. If I close my eyes, I can certainly envision favorite memories, places, fragments of conversations with people I have loved. But with my eyes open, I have a treasure trove of visions of the past which I shall cherish forever. And when my relatives are prepared, past the point of immediate mourning and sadness, they too can share the magic of visting their best friends who speak no more.

Today I viewed a few minutes of video, shot around the dinner table at Grandma's house 6 years ago, before any of us could have imagined the start of a gradual decline in health we would helplessly witness less than 12 months later. I know not what was going through my mind as I shot this, but rather than the typical wide shots and zooms of family videos, I captured seemingly meaningless images - pouring soda into a glass, Grandpa eating a spoonful of noodle soup, Grandma shaking salt over her matzoh ball soup then asking if the soup needed salt, a closeup of the oil painting on the wall depicting a wise old rabbi who watched over all of us while we grew up. Now the wise rabbi is all that remains of that scene, helping us mourn our losses.

Indeed, the random images are in fact the most poignant of all. I encourage you the reader to do the same every chance you get. For life is fleeting, and any help you can give yourself in capturing meaningful imagery will pay dividends in the future.

Thanks for reading.

Mike

I hired two actors to role play about 15 different training scenarios. While we had about 25 pages of scripts, we improvised some new scenes and modified or deleted existing scenes. Overall it was loads of fun, single-camera film style setups. I even did a little acting.

As the day progressed from 7:30am call time to 4:30 wrap, people were getting a bit punchy and goofy, and there are some great outtakes and giggles, which keeps everyone engaged and working together.

I say this every time I participate in this type of shoot - it is some of the most fun one can have as a job.

Upon arrival back at the hotel, I went for a little walk around the Denver State Capitol grounds. I had toured the Capitol during a previous visit, however I neglected to take any photos at the time.

So I snapped a few shots of the Capitol and surrounding area, then walked around a community festive gathering before meeting my colleagues for a great P.F. Chang's dinner.

Most of the pictures I use in my blogs are cell phone pictures. It is often much easier to snap a photo with the phone, which is always on my person, than to carry my pocket digicam everywhere I go. And the pictures are not too bad at web sizes. And, since I bought this amazingly tiny 1 gigabyte memory card, I take a lot more useful pictures without worrying about running out of internal phone memory.

Not to mention the fact that I can e-mail the pictures directly to my Flickr page, so i do not have to carry around a card reader when I travel - if, that is, I want to blog while I travel. Even more Star Trek is the ability to e-mail camera phone video clips directly to my YouTube account. I am looking forward to the day when I can e-mail video from my HD camera directly to my office computer. One day perhaps. 

Incidentally, check outPicLens, a plugin for Firefox. you have to see it to get the concept - way cool way to browse internet photos and videos. 

And so my friends, this completes the summary of this adventure. Tomorrow it is back to CT, with more adventures to come.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mike

I chose the famous Hannibal Smith line from the A-Team because that's what happened today. As related in my previous post, i have been planning a weekend bonanza of shooting, here in Sunny, altitudinal Denver, CO.

The three of us on this shoot woke around 3am Connecticut time, which is a few minutes earlier than Eastern Daylight time, and high-tailed it to the airport in the torrential rain. For those who have not been to Hartford's airport, it is a time warp. If you are flying Southwest, United, Northwest, Delta or Air Jamaica, you depart via the new glass and steel terminal 3, reminiscent of the Deep Space Nine space station, complete with MSNBC store, a Brooks Brothers store should you need a $75 dress shirt at 5:30am and numerous coffee bars. If you are flying American, aside from paying the new innovative $25 for the first checked bag plus $125 for each additional bag fees, you walk into terminal 1 and are instantly transported to 1985 - no Delorean time vehicle required.

Hartford's Terminal 1 brings back special memories for me. In college Advanced TV production, we had the nonsensical assignment to create an airport scene within the confines of the tv studio. The intent of the professor, who was in fact a great mentor, was to learn how to use tv studio techniques to create a scene and set a mood without actually building a set. Well, my assigned partner (drug addict) and I (geek) took a brief road trip up to terminal 1 armed with a Hi8 camcorder. We filmed various scenes and recorded some NAT sound. Upon review of the tape, we decided to create the monitor wall with the well known American Airlines red white and blue wall stripes. We settled on just the lower half, from a few inches above the stripes down to the floor. A visit to Home Depot and $100 later we had all the makings of the set piece. It was beautiful. It weighed more than me (in 1992 I did not weigh very much, but you get my point).

We had to transport it from my meth-addicted partner's apartment to the tv studio on the roof of my roommate's station wagon. When the evening of our shoot arrived, we recruited my other roommates to act, from the waist down (oddly, I did not think to invite the women's volleyball team), and walk back and forth in front of the wall, as we played the NAT sound off an audio cart (remember those 8-track-like endless loops?). The big moment was when my roommate Pete, who was planted dead center leaning against the wall, looked up, as if looking at the arrivals monitor, we cut to a still store image of the monitor, captured at the airport, then cut back to the master shot to finish the scene. It was cinema magic. It is rumored that Spielberg was inspired to make The Terminal after catching a clip of this production on Compuserve (this was 1992 remember.)

Incidentally, I never got the $50 my partner owed me, although he offered me several bong hits as a consolation. I refused and left with my pride.

So getting back to Hartford's Bradley Field, we arrived at the gate and found the only food available were hot dogs and bagel sandwiches. Not a fan of microwaved egg patties, I went for the hot dog - not just for dinner anymore! The first flight to Dallas was uneventful, although 3.5 hours of uneventful while squeezed into 737-300 steerage is pretty dismal. The connection in Dallas, complete with Au bon Pan chocolate croissant (best chocolate croissant) and chef's salad, it was onto the Denver flight, a mere 2 hours. I always cringe when boarding an MD-80 series aircraft - these suckers are old with cockpits reminiscent of the Memphis Belle, and their history of failed acme screws in the tail. But alas we arrived safely in the Mile high city, and thank goodness John McLane was able to restore the correct ILS altitude settings!

Luggage claim was surprisingly efficient and our minivan easily held all of our gear.

We have always flown with our own luggage carts. We used to have some very sturdy carts, but thanks to TWA we no longer have these. Then around 2000 I discovered the Rock-n-Roller cart. Any production crew that does not have one of these should get one. This cart, pictured below, is one sturdy hunk of metal. I replaced the balloon tires with solid plastic wheels but every other part is factory. This thing is indestructable - 8 years of baggage handlers have not destroyed it yet!

We next proceeded to Film/Video Service Inc to pickup our Arri kits, batteries and LCD monitors. Given the high luggage fees, it made sense to rent this stuff on site. Note to anyone renting lighting kits - bring your own gels, C47's and extension cords - or be prepared to pay for each additional item. You've gotta pay someone no matter what you are doing!

Hampton Inn near the Capitol is very nice and modern. The breakfast, usually pretty nice, was fair. The scrambled egg nuggets may very well have been the leftover egg patties from Hartford, sent through a wood chipper and sent via Ace Ventura's shipping service to Denver. Pretty dismal!

Friday night, despite the 3am start time, we hit a Rockies - Milwaukee game. The dinner of beer and stadium meat-like products was perhaps not the best choice after a day of airport food, but adding insult to injury is sometimes a choice we humans make. No harm done, the aforementioned scrambled egg nuggets removed any doubt that a culinary mistake had been made.

Finally this morning arrived at the local Hospital around 7:30 and the shoots went as planned - perhaps even better. The Anton Bauer Dionic batteries, though small in size, powered my DVCPRO camera and attached audio receivers for about 3 hours per battery, including about 1 hour of shooting to 2 hours of standby time. Very good indeed.

I shot a video on preparing pediatric patients for surgery, with the help of a local audio engineer, while my two colleagues shot a video on operative patient positioning, with the help of a male and female model in their best leotard attire. Something for everyone.

Finally for dinner we hit a brew pub near the stadium, then Cheesecake factory for get this - cheesecake - and drinks, then back to hotel, so we can do this all again tomorrow.

I've said it before and I'll say it a gain - I love it when a plan comes together!

Thanks for reading.

Mike

Memorial Day weekend arrived in the US, indicating my 4th annual trip to Cape Cod for a much needed vacation. The weather was pleasant, the roads were relatively empty and my brain appreciated the chance to recharge.

I set out this year to take fewer pictures than usual, but make them more interesting as a result, and I left my video camera at home, forcing myself to relax a bit more. I also rented a bike and took some nice rides along the Cape Cod National Seashore.

The lobsters were sweet, and I tried some new recipes in the kitchen, watched some DVDs (Gone Baby Gone - thankfully Ben Affleck is a better director than actor; Revolver - Guy Ritchie has lost his mind, although kudos to the editors) and one theatrical movie (Indy IV - Speilberg did the best he could do with the story and George Lucas' proclivity for over use of green screens - the New Haven scenes were fun). 

Although I took my laptop, to keep up with e-mails regarding the next few weeks' shoots, the cottage's wi-fi failed after two days. I did ride my bike to the town library to check e-mail on two occasions. This is what I enjoy most about vacations in Wellfleet, MA - I can ride a bike or walk into town.

No highways.

Cool ocean breezes.

Sand.

Seashells.

Apollo 11 had the right idea: Tranquility base here, the Eagle has landed.

Next post, back to work...

Thanks for reading.

Mike 

Recently I experimented with different HD video editing options, to determine if I should shoot an upcoming project in HD or standard def. I concluded that i will stick with standard def for now. 

I installed the Intensity Pro card. This allows for HDMI capture and monitoring of HDV. I do not have an HDMI (or any HD) monitor, so I could not test that part, and from what I observed, without HDMI monitoring, using the Intensity for HD editing is not so useful.

Capturing HDMI HDV to external SATA drive (350 gig 7200rpm seagate)

You can of course capture native HDV via firewire, and playback on the LCD computer monitor actually looks great. Once you start editing, including titles and effects, the real-time playback really suffers and stutters. This is because HDV is long GOP mpeg, meaning a lot of processing has to happen to play back smooth video - not a problem with one track of video, dissovles and audio, but the more layers the worse it gets.

The Intensity has a compressed intermediary codec, the Blackmagic Design Motion JPEG codec. This captures to the external SATA drive with no dropped frames and plays back smoothly. However, monitoring the video on the computer monitor results in a jagged picture, not very clear monitoring, hence the need for a HDMI monitor.

Using RAID 0

I also tried a SATA RAID 0 array consisting of 2 500gig drives formatted as one 1TB drive. However the SATA cable is going into the onboard SATA port, as opposed to a SATA RAID controller card. This is a fairly cheap RAID enclosure which we acquired through a vendor with no particular need at the time, so for proper HD editing a proper RAID like the ones advertised on this page would probably be better in the long run. 

Again, capture and playback of the m-jpeg codec works smoothly. 

Blackmagic also has 8 bit (4:2:2) and 10 bit (4:4:4) uncompressed HD settings. On the RAID, I could capture the 8 bit variety with no lost frames, however it only plays back a second or two without freezing. On the external SATA solo drive I could only capture a second or two before frames were dropped, but this is to be expected.

Indeed, to do uncompressed HD one would need a RAID controller card, and RAID level 1 formatted drives, with 2,4 or more drives in the RAID. 

Still, the fact that this $400 card can capture compressed HDV and convert it on the fly to uncompressed 1920x1080 HD is pretty impressive. 

Granted, if you are dealing with uncompressed HD, and have invested in large RAID storage systems, you possible are not shooting HDV, but rather XDCAM or DVCPRO HD, or film or Viper etc. Although using any intermediary codec rather than HDV seems like the right move. 

Conclusions, Part 1 

So do I even need the RAID if the m-jpeg codec plays ok off the external SATA drive? Perhaps not - Blackmagic Design says so (they promote firewire 800 drive usage for non-uncompressed HD editing).

So by this point, I convinced myself that cool as it would be to work in HD for this upcoming project, there are too many variables to work efficiently, especially without a deliberate monetary investment to that end. 

Exporting 

The next part of my experiment had to do with getting the edited video back out of the machine, in the various formats we would need: 

Standard Def DVD - you can export to MPEG-2 from the HD project, and get an anamorphic video, which will be correctly formatted by a home DVD player. I have done this with a 16:9 SD project recently.

H.264 720p - This is the standard for web-based HD video, played using Flash 9+ and Quicktime. This export works as expected.

H.264 for those keeping score at home is the same codec used in Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and satellite HD broadcasting, not to mention AVCHD cameras.

Standard Def DV - you can export to either a Blackmagic flavor of DV, or standard Microsoft DV-AVI - either version works.

HDV tape - this one puzzled me up until now, as there is no documentation from Blackmagic or on most user forums about how you get your HD project back to an HDV tape master.  It is actually simple, you make a new HDV native project in Premiere and import the Blackmagic m-jpeg project into the HDV project, open the sequence, and export to tape. Premiere renders out to HDV, activates the deck and lays the program off to tape. There is not a export to HDV function within a Blackmagic HD project. Come to think of it, I don't think there is an export to HDV file function within an HDV native project.

I also tried exporting from the m-jpeg project to a Blackmagic HD 4:2:2 formatted file. The file does not of course play smoothly within premiere, but within windows media player it is a bit better. 

Incidentally, as mentioned above, playing back m-jpeg video within Premiere looks jaggy on the computer monitor, but via windows media player it looks slightly better.

No Audio - a minor inconvenience ;) 

In all of the above proceedings, I could not capture AUDIO via HDMI - which is another reason to stay away from this method of production for the time being, until this can be resolved. Others have had a similar problem. I could try capturing audio via analog and see if that works - another day.

Speaking of Analog...

Another interesting feature of the intensity is the analog inputs and outputs. In addition to the HDMI for capture and monitoring, you can capture SD component and composite or S-Video. 

During HDMI capture from my HDV video deck, I could simultaneously monitor a letterboxed SD signal via the component inputs of the video monitor. 

Also, when laying back my HDV project to HDV tape, I got SD monitoring on the video monitor. 

However, you are supposed to be able to play back the m-jpeg codec within premiere, and simultaneously get component SD video from the timeline. I could not get this to work. If this gets working, it could stand-in for true HD monitoring, and make the Intensity useful in the meantime (assuming the audio bug is resolved of course.)

You can also capture standard definition video via component and work with the m-jpeg and uncompressed standard def blackmagic settings. I did not test the storage bandwidth for SD capture, it would of course be lower than the HD capture. A reason to work uncompressed SD is to avoid DV recompression, especially when doing effects, chroma keying or color correction. Even if you start with DV or DVCAM, presumably capturing as uncompressed for editing has benefits, hence the previously touted Media 100 noncompressed system among other circa 2003 editing systems. Again, you would have to render back to DV to lay off to DV or DVCAM tape. You could also work with Betacam material this way, which is still quite commonly used in the world. 

Cineform 

An alternative workflow, and supposedly more efficient, is to use the Cineform Aspect intermediary codec. This can still capture using HDMI, but it converts on the fly to the Cineform codec, which is compressed but very efficient for editing. They too have a 8 bit 4:2:2 and a 10 bit 4:4:4 version, with a $500 price difference. The 10 bit will do 1920x1080, whereas the 8 bit is limited to HDV, DVCPRO and XDCAM format of 1440 x 1080. 

Cineform will let you render your final edit to an HDV m2t video file, for easy export back to HDV tape. Kudos to Cineform for keeping this part of the workflow in mind.

Cineform's other benefits include built in support for P2, XDCAM EX and RED ONE formats.

Going Native (oh, like no one has used that headline before...)

Up until now I have of course edited DV and HDV natively, with no serious problems. Premiere CS 3 has built-in settings for P2 DVCPRO HD, and there are plug-ins to handle XDCAM HD and EX and presumably other formats, such as the elusive Fisher Price video camera. But these formats are not on my radar yet. 

Thanks for reading, the learning never stops!

Mike

Someone ought to write a book called "I'm a project manager, Now What?!"

Hey, not a bad idea for a book.

Back in 2003 I began the gradual transition from video editor/shooter to project manager. Mind you I do plenty of editing, but depending upon the project I am in fact managing, sometimes more sometimes less. But the particular responsibilities are no less important than the others.

At the time, we had about 3 times as many employees, so I was also a department manager. There was some resentment, such as "can you do my job as the web master? how can you possibly manage me or review my performance if you can't do my job yourself?"

I'm not making this up.

As it turns out, in addition to learning how to evaluate the performance of others, I also had to learn how to fire people, not an easy thing to do.

Given a leaner crew, I could focus less on personnel issues and more on figuring out how to juggle multiple projects and manage a few others, and delegate work to everyone, including to myself.

I have blogged previously about making lists and using the right tools to keep track of a project's process, milestones and deliverables. My favorite tool is a great new application - a calendar! Another tool I use a lot is the yellow sticky note pad - brilliant!

We tried using MS Project and various other free and non-free pieces of software, but in a small organization you can easily devote hours per week just managing the tools you are trying to use to manage your work. Alas, every organization is different and has different needs.

What has worked the best is relative autonomy. Give someone a task and a deadline, and they generally only seek help when absolutely necessary. Everyone, however, has interruptions - many of which are unavoidable - and these lead to missed deadlines. We can all improve in that department.

Project management, thus, includes a heavy dose of time management. Time management is an acquired skill and perhaps the most difficult one to master.

In summary, project management can take many forms. Personnel management, time management, even equipment management all play a role in moving forward toward deadlines. Some deadlines are a day or two, a week or two, a month or two or years in the making. Something useful yet cumbersome about breaking up a project into tasks, either in MS Project or on paper, is that you can fail to see the big picture - or you are so focused on only the major milestones, that you feel like you are not accomplishing anything, while in fact you are working on a 3 month deadline, which is itself made up of perhaps 50 smaller tasks. But these 50 smaller tasks are not and should not be part of a big picture view of anything. This is the beauty of delegation - you can avoid micromanagement as long as you have a capable person working towards the goal - it is assumed the resource will hit each smaller task.

The challenge is when you are the manager and the resource. Time management indeed!

Thanks for slogging through this one!

Mike Cohen

Over the past two weeks I attended several medical conventions as an exhibitor.

First was a meeting for laparoscopic surgeons. Last week was a combined meeting of surgical program directors and coordinators, held in Toronto. The unique aspect of the exhibits at this meeting were the uses of multimedia technology aimed at surgical education.

First, of course, the Cine-Med display featured our latest books and our online video libraries, and a demo of our forthcoming Multimedia Atlas of Surgery. At this meeting, the most popular items were the books. Particularly a book about improving communication techniques for surgeons. The ACGME has mandated that surgical education serve one or more of six core competencies, including communication and professionalism. This book covers these two competencies. Click here if you want to see more:

http://cine-med.com/index.php?nav=books&id=COM100

Other interesting displays included virtual reality for surgical skills training. Cine-Med incidentally was one of the pioneers in medical VR, back in the early to mid 1990s. Our simulations required SGI computers costing more than your average family SUV of today. One memorable experience had me at a pay phone at the Atlanta Convention Center talking to our engineer, writing UNIX commands on the back of a cocktail napkin, then running back to our booth, climbing inside the wooden enclosure, typing the commands into the UNIX shell, jiggling some wires and then repeating until things were working. Cell phones in 1995 were not quite something your average person carried around, so payphones and running shoes fit the bill.

Today obviously the simulations run off laptops or similarly equipped desktop computers, sometimes cleverly hidden inside streamlined plastic enclosures. Input devices take the shape of actual or simulated surgical instruments, attached to any number of sensors, force feedback mechanisms or simply viewed with a video camera, as in actual surgery

Perhaps the most impressive use of multimedia and computers is the virtual patient simulator, known as Stan, seen in the lower left. This 200 pound android, developed for the military, has all the vital signs of a real person. You can listen to his breathing and heartbeat with a stethoscope, listen to bowel sounds, feel for a pulse in the neck and wrist, intubate his airway and even administer drugs and fluids. Wirelessly controlled by a Mac, and attached to a DVR with 5000 hours of recording time, the setup is used to train medical students in dealing with a variety of medical scenarios, and then review the exercises in real time. Very cool.

As usual, I spent my off hours exploring the city and seeking out new dining experiences. Unfortuantely I was also dealing with either Spring allergies, a head cold, or both. The first night I went to the Pickle Barrel, an odd restaurant serving deli food, Asian dishes, steaks and everything in between. The next night, exhausted from 8+ hours of standing and sneezing and coughing, I ate at the supposedly well regarded Chinese Dim Sum restaurant at my hotel, Lai Wah Heen. The Duck soup was very good, the roasted walnut beef dish was ok except for the walnuts and the beef, and the service was extremely slow. However watching the parade of roasted ducks (beaks included) and other unique presentations passed the time. The final night I went to the Irish Embassy Pub for a much deserved Irish Stew and a pint of Guiness. You can't go wrong with this combination. Finally Friday's events included a complimentary sit-down lunch at the hotel, then a quick break down and load out, cab to the airport, US customs while still in Canada (?) and an earlier flight back to New York for a drive home.

Thanks for reading.

Mike

Recently I was asked to make a video loop to play on the hotel television system during this week's convention. No problem, I had already begun receiving videos. The format requirements were simple: DV tape, DVCAM tape or authored DVD.

In reality, I received videos in the following formats: DV tape, Authored DVD, Windows Media, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, H.264, DIVX - all the usual suspects.

In most cases this is not a problem, Premiere Pro 2.0 will import just about every format. A few files had to be converted to another format due to the wrong audio frequency (32 vs 48k). Two videos came in without their audio, so i used Squueze to convert the original file to an MP3,import the MP3 and line it up on the timeline.

Next problem, the videos in a non-720x480 format, about half of them, cannot be stretched to full screen without losing image quality, which in effect would make the authors look bad. So I decided to make the project 16:9. I used a Jumpback from Digital Juice as the background, took the name of the medical society and put this on the left and right sides of the screen ESPN style, and then depending upon the size of the videos centered the image at whatever the maximum size possible for each file. Not too bad, makes it look like it is supposed to be shrunken. Compared to the 720x480 and even the 640x480- videos, the smaller ones don't look so small, because everything is part of a larger display.

After every two author videos is a brief promo clip from the sponsor. Their production group edited the promo in HD, so I asked them for an anamorphic 16:9 DVCAM tape, which imported into the Premiere 16:9 SD project. With the clip conformed to 16:9 it filled the frame perfectly.

On the hotel system, the DVD player feeding the cable system correctly letterboxes the DVD.

On the Plasma screens scattered around the hotel, the standalone DVD players correctly play the DVD anamorphic.

So the learning point here, is given a mixed grab bag of video formats, one can make it look appropriate, make each author look as good as possible and serve more than one display scenario with one project.

Now if I could just find my room key!

Thanks for reading.

Mike