My edit suite runs two 25' DVI extenders, VERY heavy duty extenders that were about $120 each. This suite has run with the G5 Quad 2.5, the Mac Pro Quad 3.0 and the Mac Pro Octo 3.2 with zero issues running two DVI monitors and the extenders.
Now I get the $7,000 top of the line Apple Octo Core machine with the ATI 4870 graphics card which of course Apple mandates with one regular DVI port and one Mini DVI port. I got the adapter that allows me to run two standard DVI monitors. The one connected to the Mini DVI port is not coming on. We even switched the cables in the back of the machine and only the regular DVI port is putting out an image to the monitors.
Now we're going to have to come up with another workaround. If you have a "special monitor" (i.e. Apple LED Display) that requires a "special DVI port" because you don't want to pay the licensing fees for regular DVI, why don't you create an adapter cable the OTHER way around? Regular DVI to the Mini DVI required by the Apple monitor?
Recently a thread in the Apple Color forum had somebody remark that if you're delivering to the "Big Boys" such as Discovery and PBS you really should have external scopes in your shop. It's also been suggested that external legalizer boxes really should be used as well when delivering to the high end networks.
The true fact of the matter is, the scopes in Color are very accurate, to the point that I don't see any differences on an external scope when we do have one. The Broadcast Safe in Color is good enough for "the big boys." We have delivered about 66 episodes of "Good Eats" in HD to the Food Network, not a single rejection for video quality, and have now delivered two HD programs to PBS. No external scopes, no external legalizer. Just FCP to Color to FCP and out to tape. In fact, about 20 or so episodes of Good Eats was color graded ONLY using FCP's 3-Way CC, Broadcast Safe and Levels filters. All of those were legal.
If you can afford an external scope and want to drop $12,000 to $20,000 for a good Tektronix scope, then by all means have at it. We actually could afford one if I really felt I needed it, but I personally would rather spend that money on something more useful to our day to day operation, say like 3 FSI color reference monitors to replace our aging CRT monitors.
But as far as being perfectly broadcast legal and delivering to the "big boys" of broadcast, the tools within FC Studio are perfectly capable of delivering a legal product in the hands of an operator who knows how to use them.
As usual, the guys at FSI keep adding in more and more features based on user input and the latest round of updates have a couple of especially neat updates. And of course, these are free to all current owners of FSI monitors, just download the update from the website.
EBU Gamma. True 2.35 EBU standard gamma setting for the monitor for anyone delivering material to european broadcasters. Yes, 2.4 is mighty darn close, but because of a request from a European user, they decided to make the monitors go exactly to the European gamma spec.
Timecode Display. The monitors themselves can now display on screen timecode pulled directly off the SDI feeds using LTC, VITC 1 and VITC 2. So no more having to turn on the TC display via a tape deck or a camera, the monitors themselves can now display on screen TC. I've actually asked for a few improvements to this feature already.
NTSC Setup. You can set the monitor up to 7.5 IRE if you're working on SD material that requires 7.5 delivery.
Scope Position. Now you can put the scopes in any of six positions instead of just having it in the lower right.
Active Boundary Marker. This is really really neat and it took me a moment or two to really figure out what they had done here. Because the monitors have the ability to show full resolution video without using up the entire screen, it can be difficult to tell if you're missing any lines of image in the picture. For example, in 1:1 SD mode on any of the monitors. You see black on the top and bottom of the image because it's sitting in the middle of the monitor so if there are any lines of resolution missing in the image, you can't tell because it'll just look like the black border around the image.
Turn on the Active Boundary Marker and a line is placed 1 pixel above and below the image frame. Now you can see where the edge of the image SHOULD be. If you see black between your image and that line, then you're missing image information.
And of course there's more stuff in the latest updates, but these are some of the highlights that I've noticed so far. Very cool stuff!
After seeing the FSI monitors and all their features at the first demo, I suggested to Dan Desmet they should create a video version of their user manual to make it easier to understand everything. Well that conversation led to the new How To video manual that was launched on the website last week.
Ok so the "official 18% grey paint" is something like $80 per quart and up. Thanks to this tip from Dan Desmet at Flanders Scientific, here's a really REALLY close knock off of that color for a lot less.
You want Sherwin Williams SW 7071 color.
The one to get is Duration Home, Extra White Matte Base, 6403-63925. The BAC code should be
The National Science Foundation has issued a press release announcing the launch of the new series Science Nation along with taking the new website live. Biscardi Creative Media is providing all post production for the series which has reunited principal Walter Biscardi, Jr. with multiple CNN colleagues.
Biscardi Creative Media is proud to have helped launch a brand new series for Dykstra Media called "Science Nation." The series of science stories are slated for air on Discovery Science in the near future.
Post Production Supervisor Walter Biscardi, Jr. coordinated all the elements necessary to launch the stories from Graphics, Animation, Music and editing. Editor Roger Mahr is cutting the entire series with lead Producers Kate Tobin and Peter Dykstra. The series utilizes all formats from DV to DVCPro HD.
Executive Producer: Peter Dykstra
Lead Producer: Kate Tobin
Post Production Supervisor: Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Graphics Package design: Brian Little
Editor: Roger Mahr
Original Theme: Patrick Belden
This problem has been around at least two years since we started using Encore CS3.
Create an Encore BluRay Project on a Mac. In our case, a Mac Pro Octo 3.2 machine running the latest OS, Quicktime and Encore CS4.
Save that project.
Open the project on a second Mac that contains the BluRay burner. In our case a Mac Pro Quad 3.0 machine running the latest OS, Quicktime and Encore CS4.
Get the error message, "This Project was created in Windows and cannot be opened."
I posted a query in the Cow Adobe Encore forum, but no responses so far. I'll let you know if I get anything.
Haven't called Adobe Tech Support because the last time we tried that, they could not figure out why I didn't have any Windows Machines in the shop so how could the project possibly have been created on a Mac? They're not very helpful in my experience.
So I'm just letting you all know, Encore still does not have anything to make you "Come for the BluRay, Stay for the Flash." Fortunately we do have NetBlender's DoStudio in here for real BluRay projects and it works flawlessly.
I spent the day at the FSI offices last week getting a chance to really chat with Dan, Bram and Johan about the monitors and learning about all the features. Their offices are also in the Atlanta area so I took the opportunity to get some instruction on these monitors at their offices.
I knew these things were full of features but I didn't realize just HOW many features and how much end user control they have. I really don't expect the feature set at the price point, but these guys are doing it and it's great for all of us in need of a good LCD monitor.
Scopes are becoming a standard now on the LCD panels, but how would like those scopes and audio meters displayed? There are something like a dozen choices from the type of scope you want to see, the values you want to see (Luma, RGB, etc), where you want it on screen and even how many channels of audio you would like to see. Oh and embedded audio via SDI which is really sweet on a field shoot. You don't need to tie into the sound guy's audio output, you can just plug a headphone into the monitor and get the clean sound from there. (you can also do this with analog). Oh and how about scopes that are active via all inputs including DVI?
Markers that can be displayed in pretty much any frame size and either as lines or transparent or solid mattes.
Pixel Mapping so you can see your image pixel for pixel, on any of the displays.
Control over pulldown, as in you can have the pulldown smoothed out or you can see it frame for frame with the judder.
Classic Blue Only mode for those who just don't want to give that up when switching out from CRTs. :-)
I'm especially loving the 5 user preset keys now that I'm figuring it out. Basically 5 user controlled On/Off buttons to activate my 5 most used features, such as Scopes and Markers. AND 5 user profiles so when we start having more editors using the suites, each person can have those function keys pre-set however they want.
And I saw just how ridiculously easy the Auto Alignment procedure is to re-calibrate the monitor at any time. Turn On Monitor. Let it Warm Up for 30 Minutes. Connect the Probe to the FSI Alignment Converter. Connect the Converter to the Monitor. Hit "Auto Align." Grab a coffee and come back 20 minutes later.
Can you tell I'm really liking these monitors? A true color accurate monitor that we can all afford? And best of all, the 30 day money back guarantee, which is one of the reasons why I feel so comfortable recommending them to anyone reading this. If you truly don't like it, then return it and you're not out any money so you can go get something else.
What's 3G you say? The replacement for Dual Link HD. Instead of two cables, you get the full 3G HD signal down one cable. I honestly had never heard of it until we ordered our new Flanders Scientific monitors and they were talking about how their monitors offer only 3G and not Dual Link because Dual Link will be replaced in the near future.
Biscardi Creative Media has been selected to provide all Post Production services for a new series revolving around Science. The first run will be 15 weeks with an additional 35 weeks possible for 2009 and further expansion in 2010.
I posted this originally in the Apple Color Forum but through I would share here as well....
Just had an all-day demo of four Flanders Scientific (FSI) monitors here in the shop. Overall extremely impressed and yes, you CAN have an accurate monitor for $2,495. I'm not going to go into full details as Nick Griffin will be publishing an article shortly on everything we saw here today but basically....
LM-2450W (24") and LM-1760W (17") look as accurate as my Sony CRT Multi-format monitor. Excellent blacks, excellent whites and good solid color throughout. The 24" has an option for the ND Filter which I'll be getting, but you don't necessarily need it. The 17" is simply the cheapest monitor I've seen out there that I consider accurate enough to recommend. Honestly can't believe there's a monitor this inexpensive and this high of quality.
The LM-2430W (24") and LM-2130W (21") are considered "grade 2" monitors and while extremely accurate, the viewing angle is tighter. Also, when I put up a scene that was completely black on one side, you could see some light spill coming in from the edges. This is a limitation of the panel itself and the prices are lower, accordingly. These would be great editing monitors and could be used for final mixing if you don't have the budget for the 2450W.
Are they as accurate as the $10,000 and up LCD's? Probably not, though I would love to see a side by side comparison, I would not be surprised to see them look really REALLY close. One great thing about them, 30 day money back guarantee so if you don't like it, send it back no questions asked.
I'm ordering 2 of the 2450W's and one of the 1760W's for our shop so if anyone wants to purchase my Sony PVM20L5/1 and/or my PVM14L5/1 just shoot me an email. As soon as the FSI's are here, I'll ship them to you.
If you want to know more about the specs, just click on the yellow banners throughout the Cow or look up Flanders Scientific. They're a locally owned company right here in Atlanta, super nice guys to boot!
To paraphrase a famous author, "I have seen the future of shared storage and his name is Ethernet."
Last month we invested in the new Final Share system from MaxxDigital and after some tweaking, we now have 16TB of shared storage supported a high definition workflow with 6 workstations all running Apple's ProRes HQ in high definition, both 720p and 1080i. And actually it's not "workstations" in the traditional sense of the word, since we're running ethernet, we can connect any Mac computer to the array.
So in our case, we have three Final Cut Pro desktop workstations and three iMac's all connected. In our testing today we configured the three FCP workstations to capture approx. 3 hours of 720 and 1080i ProRes HQ material each. As that was happening, all three iMacs were playing back 20+ minute clips in Quicktime Player in a loop. After all the capturing, we had all three FCP workstations set up with 90 minute timeline playing in a loop while the iMacs kept playing their clips. We left it all alone for several hours and all way still playing. 6 streams of high definition from one storage array and all via simple ethernet cable!
We plan to use the iMacs both to allow Producers to review footage immediately upon capture and also for Assistant Editors working on upcoming series. Once the footage is in the system, anybody can access it at any time and since it's not Fibre Channel, I don't have to invest in top of the line desktop editing systems for the assists.
Watch for a full article on this system coming up shortly, but wow, this thing really works and it's really affordable!
Editorial has been completed on the new business television pilot developed by Biscardi Creative Media, ideaWercs and Arriving with BB Webb. BCM Principal Walter Biscardi, Jr. served as Director, Editor and Post Production Supervisor on this project.
Additional credits include Brian Mead for logo design, Aaron R. Stewart for graphics design and Brian Little for opening title design. The episode was produced in 720p HD. More details will be provided as the series moves towards full production of Season One.
Biscardi Creative Media recently delivered an introductory project for an upcoming feature-length documentary about River Blindness disease. Produced by Gary Strieker and Cielo Productions, the project was a 10 minute overview of what the disease is and a brief look into some of the preventative measures being implemented by The Carter Center.
The presentation, "The Crab and the Fly" was shot in 720p HD in multiple locations in Africa and Latin America over a two year period. Editorial was performed by Aaron R. Stewart and the final presentation was delivered on 1080i BluRay disc using BCM in-house BluRay authoring & publishing tools.
The feature length documentary is scheduled for completion by mid to late 2009.
Biscardi Creative Media principal, Walter Biscardi, Jr., will be Directing the Pilot episode of a new business television series. Being developed jointly by BCM, ideaWercs and Arriving with BB Webb, the series will feature success stories and inspiration from women in the business world.
"I'm honored to be launching this new series as the Director and have always believed that editors make great directors," notes Biscardi. "As an editor you know what you want to see and what you wish you had when cutting the show together. Knowing what will make the show better in Post helps me in making sure we get everything we need, and then some, in the studio and on location."
Production is scheduled for late October, 2008 with all editorial scheduled to be completed by early December, 2008. The series is tentatively scheduled to go into production by the 2nd quarter of 2009.
Biscardi Creative Media is creating an original lifestyle television series. Developed by BCM principal, Walter Biscardi, Jr. the series will be presented to major U.S. networks by a production partner.
The series re-unites Biscardi with actress Cynthia Evans who played the lead role in BCM's "The Rough Cut" short film, and Producer Sharon Collins who worked with Walter in the Environment Unit at CNN. The Pilot is scheduled for production in mid October 2008 with editorial slated for completion by late November 2008.
BCM has completed all color grading for the feature film, "Keepsake" from Stormcatcher Films.
Shot on location in Virginia, the film was Directed by Paul Moore and shot over a 24 day period. D.P. Todd Gilpin did an incredible job with setting up the look of the film. He created a very rich canvas from which Colorist Walter Biscardi, Jr. was able to create an incredible palette of color. Biscardi worked closely with Moore, Gilpin and Producer Scott Tanner to bring out the gritty details and haunting images of the fight for survival.
Keepsake is the first feature film project for Biscardi Creative Media. The film will debut in Oct. 2008 in Hollywood, California.
For more information about Stormcatcher Films visit http://stormcatcherfilms.com/site.html Tools used: Color, Final Cut Pro, AJA Kona 3.
BCM is proud to have recently completed a fund-raiser for the Preeclampsia Foundation. When we started this project, we honestly had no idea what Preeclampsia is or what it can do to pregnant women and/or their babies.
From the Preeclampsia Foundation website: "Preeclampsia is a disorder that occurs only during pregnancy and the postpartum period and affects both the mother and the unborn baby. Affecting at least 5-8% of all pregnancies, it is a rapidly progressive condition characterized by high blood pressure and the presence of protein in the urine."
Ultimately the condition can lead to death of the mother and/or the baby in some circumstances. Editor Aaron Stewart and Artist Walter Biscardi, Jr. worked with Producers Pat Etheridge and Cindy Beckler to create the 24 minute feature presentation and an 8 minute preview. The preview version was featured at a major fundraiser in Washington, D.C. with 500 copies of the feature presentation given to the audience.
To learn more about Preeclampsia visit http://www.preeclampsia.org/index.asp
Tools used: Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, After Effects, DVD Studio Pro.
Biscardi Creative Media recently completed a series of animated elements for EyeOn Creative. The animations are used in short video presentations for children that all feature a Christian theme. Artists Walter Biscardi, Jr. and Aaron Stewart worked with EyeOn editor Roger Mahr to develop and complete the animations for four videos. Tools used: Photoshop, After Effects, Final Cut Pro.
Well, we've got our HP workstation up and running with DoStudio's Trial Version now installed. The Trial version is the complete application with only the commercial replication features turned off.
First impressions are this thing is definitely NOT DVD Studio Pro or Encore. This is a very serious tool along the lines of Apple's Color compared to the 3 Way Color Correction filter in Final Cut Pro. There is a learning curve as a lot of programming is manually done rather than simple drag and drop type of operations. This feels more like a professional authoring tool and less like a toy. Don't get me wrong, I love DVDSP and it's simple drag and drop functionality, but it's nice to essentially have almost endless possibilities open to us and forcing us to actually learn what we're doing. Anybody can drag and drop, but it's nice to be able to get your "hands dirty" and go under the hood to see how to really operate authoring software.
In just one day, we've been able to get a nice main menu and chapter selection pop-up menu already underway. A little snag on the pop-up where we can get it to pop-up but it's not going to the various chapters like we programmed. NetBlender's support has been great to work with so far and we've uploaded the project file for them to poke around and see where we went wrong. I'm sure it's operator error as we've been using the software all of about 6 hours.
One big thing that is missing as of right now is an "Undo." This is reminiscent of Final Touch before Apple purchased it and turned in to Color. Final Touch did not have any sort of Undo so you had to be very careful of what you were doing. NetBlender tells me that Undo is a feature that will be added on this fall with an update and we're already looking forward to it! :-)
The big adjustment is that we have to essentially "forget" the DVD mentality. There are so many different possibilities in authoring BluRay that you have to design the menus and even the overall flow differently. Still wrapping our heads around this, but using this software definitely calls for more planning and thought than just hurry up and get it done.
So many of you have read of our failings with Adobe Encore trying to create BluRay discs. Today we start a new chapter in BluRay authoring by transferring all our needs to NetBlender's "DoStudio."
NetBlender has instituted a really neat month to month licensing option that's approx. $250 per month to use the software. This is truly a month to month deal. So I can activate it for September for $250 and then sign up again in December. There's no extra fees, nothing. They have several plans for 6 months, 12 months or you can outright purchase the software if you want. But in my case, we plan to produce maybe 10 BluRays all of 2009. Probably in batches of 3 or 4, so I might spend $1,000 total next year in the licensing fees, which is significantly less than $8,000 for the permanent license. So to start out, I can just go $250 per month which is easily charged back to the client per job.
The only caveat to this software is that it requires a Window machine, and we're a full blown Mac shop here. So I did what I swore I would never do..... purchased an HP Workstation loaded with Vista. Of course, the sad thing for me is this is a fully loaded workstation for less than $1,700 and I know that if I created a fully loaded Mac Pro it'd be around $5,000 or more. So that's one good thing, I guess!
One really neat little gadget I added on is a 160GB "pocket drive" that slips into the bottom of the HP machine. We'll use this to transfer the large MPEG-2 files and graphics files from our Macs to the HP. Neat idea to essentially put a portable drive that slips in like a USB stick.
So that's Step 1 - get an HP Workstation! I went by NetBlender's recommendations and picked up the following machine:
- HP Pavilion Slimline s3500t PC - Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit) - Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q9300 - 3GB DDR2-800MHz dual channel SDRAM (1x2048,1x1024) - 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9500GS, DVI-I, HDMI, VGA adapter - 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive - 802.11 a/b/g/n Wireless LAN card - Blu-ray DVD writer/player & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner - 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, headphone port - No TV Tuner w/remote control - None (Integrated 5.1 capable sound w/ front audio ports) - Microsoft(R) Works 9.0 - No additional security software - HP keyboard and HP optical mouse - 160 GB 5400rpm HP Pocket Media Drive
- HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
I'll give you folks regular updates as we move forward with this new BluRay authoring tool!
I'm really happy to report publicly for the first time that we'll be providing all post production for 3 feature length documentaries that are currently destined for major film festivals and network HD broadcast in 2009 and 2010. We can trace at least part of this announcement to our investment in BluRay and in-house self-publishing of the high definition discs.
Yesterday a sample 9 minute version of the first of the three proposed documentaries was presented to the Carter Center here in Atlanta. Among the people present were both hollywood executives and an executive of an international television network and most importantly, President Jimmy Carter. It has been Mr. Carter's mission to eradicate major diseases to impoverished areas of the world and in this particular presentation, the story was Guinea worm and its debilitating effect on people, especially the very young. I'm going to be very honest and say that for the first week I had a very difficult time cutting the piece and had to walk out of the suite multiple times a day to get away from the screams of the little girl who serves as the primary focus of this presentation. It was a natural sound story told through the stories of the man who oversees the eradication program for the Carter Center and the volunteers on the ground. All in all, it presents a very powerful emotional punch.
In order to present the project properly, we authored and created a BluRay disc and the production company purchased a Panasonic DLP HD projector for the event. Actually that part is kind of cool because now we have full access to a large format DLP HD projector anytime we need one. In addition to the presentation disc, we duplicated 20 BluRay and 30 DVD copies for all the board and associated personnel to take home. All packaged in proper DVD and BluRay cases with full four color sleeves designed in Photoshop and printed on our own laser printer. The discs themselves were printed on our new FlexWriter IV DVD duplicator / printer.
The fact that we were able to deliver and present the project on BluRay made an immediate impression before the viewing even began. At the conclusion of the presentation, the accolades for both the story and technical quality of the presentation were overwhelming. We will most likely debut at least one of the documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival and it is very likely that all three documentaries will appear on a major international H.D. network in 2009 or 2010. The narrator will be a major hollywood star or potentially several stars, talks are already underway.
What we were able to accomplish by not only jumping in to the BluRay authoring realm, but also the duplication and finishing was to allow our client to look incredibly good in front of a very demanding audience. It's because of this ability to not only tell the story on screen, but deliver it in the highest possible quality anytime, anywhere, that we were granted the offer to be a part of these three documentaries and essentially have one edit suite already fully booked for 2009.
BluRay self-publishing is here and it works.
Equipment used:
Apple Final Cut Pro, AJA Kona 3, Apple Compressor 3, Adobe Encore CS3, FastMac BluRay Burner, Panasonic BluRay Duplicator, FlexWriter IV DVD Printer, HP LaserJet 3000 Printer .
Biscardi Creative Media is proud to announce the completion of "Jayne's Café" featuring Jayne Olderman, owner of Red Warrior Records. Looking for a unique way to present her songs to a wide audience, Jayne created the concept of an unplugged 'café.'
"Jayne and I have been working together for a long time and when she mentioned this project, I immediately jumped in and said we'd like to produce it at BCM," notes Walter Biscardi, Jr., Principal Biscardi Creative Media. "Our challenge was to be able to shoot it well in a very small studio space. There's very little room for lighting and the ceilings are only 9 feet tall and we had up to 6 people for each song and 2 camera operators, so it definitely made for some tight quarters."
DP Clay Walker setting up the lighting
Director of Photography Clay Walker created the overall lighting design and shot with an HVX-200 in standard DV mode while 2nd camera operator, Cheryl Collins, shot with a DVX-100B. "The decision to shoot in DV was predicated by both the budget and Jayne's decision that this was to be a YouTube only project so high definition was not needed. This also allowed for easy matching between the 100 and 200," said Biscardi.
A total of 8 performances were recorded in one day using two primary setups for guitar and piano based songs. A real challenge in Post Production were the live recordings and trying to match up the various takes. "When we first met on this I requested that the performances be recorded in advance and the singers lip sync to make for easier editing over multiple takes of the song. But Jayne insisted that they be recorded live during the taping. Of course with live piano, live guitar and live singers, each performance of a song came out slightly different so trying to match up the singers with various takes was definitely tough at times."
Rachel Farley and Jayne Olderman perform "He Made Woman." Pam Kennedy, Tiffany Milagro and Rachel Little back the duo up.
In the end, the live performances were the right call. "Jayne was absolutely correct to insist on the live recording as we did get some really great performances from the singers."
Jayne's Café is being rolled out over the next few months on YouTube, currently the live recordings of "Real Life" and "He Made Woman" are uploaded along with a previously produced commercial for "Love Big," which was also directed and produced by Walter Biscardi, Jr. The performances can be found here:
http://youtube.com/user/mightymusemusic
Equipment / Software used: Panasonic HVX-200, Panasonic DVX-100B, Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Color, ProTools.
We're experiencing a sudden Memory Error issue with Final Cut Pro that has led to bad renders. The issue has been happening on my Mac Pro for about three weeks now and it started happening on our PowerMac G5 Quad 2.5 yesterday. I also checked with a client in New York who is experiencing the same issue.
When working on a project and attempting a render, we sometimes get the following error.
Most often this error pops up if the system has been running a while, four hours or more, or I'm rendering out a full episode of 22 minutes or longer. Generally the error appears about 75% in to the render.
What then happens is the render actually keeps going, but the renders are all screwed up. Partial lower thirds, graphics in the middle of dissolves, graphics from somewhere else in the project.
As far as we can tell this issue started after installing QT 7.4.1 on all the systems. We have plenty of RAM on all the systems and the projects we're currently editing were all edited last year on the same systems, we're just revising them now. Checking to see if anyone else is experiencing these issues. Here are three examples.
The Lower Third should have a transpararent black bar and her name above the title. Also, it added a freeze of the person from earlier in the soundbite.
The Lower third should have her name above the locator and a transparent black bar behind it.
The words "West Virginia" appear in the middle of this transition at the end of a 27 mintue episode. West Virginia is part of a Photoshop graphic that appears approx. 2 minutes into the episode, FCP added it in the middle of the transition.
So after dropping NAB once then reappearing, Apple has decided to join Avid and skip the NAB show floor altogether. This is an incredibly disappointing decision for a company that supposedly supports over 800,000+ Final Cut Pro users and countless other pro-apps users.
NAB and IBC are the two shows each year where professionals, such as myself, can get the opportunity to see and try out the equipment and software we're all going to purchase for the coming year. People like myself spend thousands of dollars on these purchases and I have always found NAB to be particularly useful in making those purchasing decisions. No matter how much I read up on all the new releases from companies, there's nothing like actually seeing the product in action, even if it's a prototype.
Now apparently Apple feels they don't need to make the effort to present their products to the very professionals who are supposed to line up and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe millions, on their products over the next year. This is very disappointing and makes me wonder about Apple's commitment to the professional application market.
The consumer market is doing quite well with the iPod, iPhone and the incredible lineup of iMac and notebook computers (MacBook Air excluded). All of Apple's latest updates and efforts seem targeted more towards this market than the professional market.
Witness the recent 7.4 update to Quicktime that caused incredible havoc to many users of Final Cut Pro and Motion, two flagship pro-app products from Apple. Then Apple rushes out some sort of ProKit update yesterday but doesn't explain what it is supposed to fix, just that all users of Final Cut Pro should install this.
Maybe it's just me, but it seems more and more that software, OS and Quicktime updates are geared more towards iTunes, AppleTV and consumer apps than the Pro Apps.More often than not, these updates cause harm to the pro-apps. Considering I have my entire financial future tied to the un-failing performance of these pro-apps, this is a bit of a concern.
I'm not a consumer who can let a computer crash if an update messes up my quicktime player. I'm not a consumer who can let a computer get unstable if the latest OS update does something to my iTunes player. I'm not a consumer who cares a whit about the thinnest and most overpriced laptop on the planet.
I'm a video and film professional who requires stability and support at all times in order to earn a living. A computer crash can cost me thousands of dollars and lost clients. An unstable system can shut down my facilities for days at a time.
I fully expect companies like Avid and Apple to have a presence at the largest gathering of video and film professionals in the world. Apparently both feel it's not necessary for them any longer. Oh Avid says they will be at the show, but I guess you'll have to know the secret handshake or the code word to locate someone. I'm not sure Apple will have any presence outside of the SuperMeet.
So where does that leave us? Adobe, Autodesk, and Media 100/Boris FX are the three names that I recognize on the exhibit floor list and I am definitely going to check out all of them. They are taking the time and money to show up and I feel it's only right to see what they have to offer. I've always spent so much time at the Apple booth each year, I guess this will give me the opportunity to see what I've been missing.
Media 100 was my tool of choice until 2001 when I switched to FCP and I know they have lost a lot of market share, but it's time to re-visit them. Adobe has come back strong with Premiere on the Mac and from what I gather, it's essentially like FCP only with an incredibly tight integration between the entire Adobe pro line-up. Adobe has a long history with professional apps and support so I will definitely spend some quality time with those folks to really see Premiere again. Autodesk is one company I've never worked with, but they usually have a pretty cool booth, so it'll be fun to see what they have to offer.
As someone who was only weeks away from upgrading two of our workstations to brand new Octo Core Macs, this announcement gives me reason to pause on that decision. I want to make sure I still have solid commitment from Apple to support the Pro-Users out there as much as they want to support the consumers.
I guess NAB just isn't that important to the companies anymore. That's a shame because it's pretty important to this professional earning a living using their equipment.
Peter Wiggins has released his newest creation for Final Cut Pro called SupaWipe! Ok, we've all had to create sliding graphics in order to create custom wipes. You know, you do an edge wipe underneath a graphic that you slide over the transition to make it appear as if the graphic is actually doing the wipe.
Well, this is what SupaWipe does all as one transition! Peter supplies you with a bunch of preset graphics like an airplane and construction tape, but the really really cool thing is, you can use your own graphics. Anything you've created and it will create the transition using that graphic.
This is incredibly cool and what a timesaver! Especially when you want to tweak the transition time, no more sliding the graphic around to make sure the wipe stays underneath. Now the graphic and the wipe are married together and the transition is always timed perfectly.
Thank you Peter! If you haven't downloaded the FREE 15 day trial, what in the world are you waiting for?!
http://www.supawipe.com/
Note this ONLY works in FCP 6.0.2!! So be sure to check your version before downloading.
So you want to work more efficiently in Final Cut Pro? Well I have just the answer for you, Tabs! Yeah, those things you see in the corner of every window. They can make your life so much easier if you would only use them. Here, let me show you how in my newest tutorial!
For those of you who followed my blog about the issues with the Primera Bravo II DVD Replicator printer, you know that I purchased a DiscMakers Medley unit to replace it.
http://blogs.creativecow.net/node/330
Well, while DiscMakers claimed the print quality of this unit would be equal to the Bravo II, in reality it isn't. This is disappointing because they both feature the same printing unit from Lexmark. The difference appears to be in the Bravo II drivers as there are many more options available to the user to achieve incredibly sharp text and good solid colors. What was printed as a solid color on the Bravo II is a mottled mess on the Medley as it is just not capable of printing a very tight dot pattern, even at the 4800dpi print setting. And this is using the exact same 300dpi TIF image and exact same DVD stock that was originally printed on the Bravo II so we're comparing apples to apples here.
On the upside, the Medley does reproduce the correct colors on the disc from the original file with minimal tweaking. That was a major issue with the Bravo II as we would have to throw the colors and shading out of whack in order to get acceptable color results on the Bravo II.
As a straight replicator, the Medley performs as expected, absolutely no issues there. But if you are looking for a very high print quality, this definitely would not be your unit. Print quality is decent, but not something you would want to present to demanding clients.
I have just noticed that exporting a still image from a DVCPro HD 720/60 timeline in FCP 6.0.2 yield a choppy, pixelated mess. Definitely wasn't the case with FCP 6.0 and I don't think it was a problem in 6.0.1 either.
I also noticed that the images are not being exported in the true DVCPro HD aspect ratio either. Generally when you export an image, it will show up in another application at the same 960x720 frame size as the original, but upon opening the image in Photoshop or Preview, the image is now 1280x720. I would expect this if I was using ProRes, but I'm not, we're just using DVCPro HD as the codec all around.
Just an FYI for folks. I've sent off a feedback form to Apple
Biscardi Creative Media provided primary post production for the feature story, "Green Evangelicals" airing on The Weather Channel's "Forecast Earth" tonight. Artist Walter Biscardi, Jr. worked closely with Producer Bruce Burkhardt and The Weather Channel production team to bring the story together.
Using Final Cut Pro 6 with the AJA Kona 3 capture card, Biscardi integrated BetaSP, DVCAM and DVD material into an uncompressed, widescreen standard definition timeline. He also created original graphics and motion graphics in Photoshop & After Effects. The Weather Channel added all final lower thirds to the show.
"This was our first project with The Weather Channel," notes Biscardi, "and it was a great experience with a good workflow between our shop and the network. Since we're all on Final Cut Pro, I was able to deliver the story on a very small hard drive that would fit in your pocket."
This was also a reunion of sorts for Burkhardt and Biscardi having formerly teamed up at the CNN Enviroment Unit on the program "Network Earth."
For more about Forecast Earth: http://climate.weather.com/ontv/thisWeek.html
For more about Biscardi Creative Media: http://www.biscardicreative.com
For those of you, like me, frustrated with Final Cut Pro 6.0.2turning on Snapping when you try to Option+Click a clip, Apple has a workaround. Actually, the FCP team steered me to it. Read this closely:
Ensure Snapping is turned OFF in your timeline.
Hold the Option key as you select and begin to drag either Audio or Video of the clip
As soon as you are dragging the edit point RELEASE the Option key.
Did you read that last part closely? I didn't the first time and it didn't work. So Option Click your clip like normal, start to drag and RELEASE the Option Key. This does work, I just tried it.
So thanks to the Apple team for steering me to that and yes, it is public information, I just never looked.
While spec'ing a new Mac Pro (8 core) system today, I found that RAM is now available at 3rd party sites. At www.crucial.com it's almost 50% less than Apple's pricing.
4GB RAM at Crucial - $269
4GB RAM through Apple Store with Mac Pro - $500
www.edgetechcorp.com has the same RAM for $229, though they only list the 3.0ghz as the top of the line machine, not the 3.2Ghz so I would check with them before purchase.
Other World Computing (www.macsales.com) has their own RAM for $249.99
Nice to see the 3rd party sites have caught up with the new Mac Pro's as Apple has always charged a premium for their RAM. Personally I purchase all our RAM from Crucial as it was recommended to me about 4 years ago and we've never had an issue with their products.
In response to a query in the Final Cut Pro Basics forum, here's an example of why we would use more than one video track in FCP. This is an older project from 2003 hence all the video is offline, but it shows 17 track of video in use. Why? Because there is a lot of compositing and overlays going on to create an urban / gritty look requested by the Producer. When I get a chance, I'll pull a screen grab of this scene, but for the moment, as best as I can remember, here's what is going on in the area highlighted in yellow.
Track 17 is a Film Leader type of element overlayed on the video
Track 16 through 5 are all graphical elements created in Photoshop
Track 4 is a still image overlayed on top of the logo and hands element below
Track 3 is a film flash
Track 2 is a logo element provided by the Producer
Track 1 is a video element shot by the Producer slowed to 50%
The reason for all the photoshop elements is we like to very often have the main graphic full opacity so you can read it, but also subtly mixed in around the rest of the video frame.
Now if you look at the very head of that timeline you can see how Video Tracks 5 - 2 are Nested items "Donner B-Roll with Frame and Way Donner SOT with frame" Each of those nests are actually 6 video tracks so if I didn't nest them, I would have used 24 tracks of video to create that effect. Nesting allows me to easily place those video frames around the screen without having to drag 6 tracks at a time.
As soon as I have time, I'll pull a screen grab so you can visually see what's going on.
So there's been a lot of talk on the forums lately about Magic Bullet Looks now being available for use in editing systems and I'm even going to try it out shortly myself. But for those of you with Final Cut Studio 2, keep in mind you have probably the most powerful color grading software available for desktop computers in Color just sitting there. Yeah it's not perfect, there are some issues to work around, but I have to admit, even with the issues, the end results are nothing short of stunning.
I thought I would share some before / after shots of a recent project I did that featured all archive (read Old) material. BetaSP, BetaSX, DigiBeta, DV, DVCAM, HDV were all used in this project that was ultimately delivered on DVD for a special event and also the Web. As a piece focusing on the natural beauty of the American West, I felt it was extremely important to bring this project into Color to take advantage of all the color controls I would have. Especially the ability to essentially 'clean up' the image and 'wipe away' the dirt.
Sure I can show you what Color does with our HD projects, but those look pretty darn good before we even get to color grading. Making a bunch of archive material in multiple formats look good, well that takes some work. The project run approx. 6 minutes and was able to grade the entire show in about 3 hours. It would have been faster but I really spent a lot of time tweaking the skies and greens.
If you want to see the whole piece, just go to http://www.biscardicreative.com/sampleworks.htm
and then click on "Apple Color Comparison" under Corporate.
And of course, if you want to learn how to use Color, just pick up my DVD! Fresh from the Creative Cow Master Series - Stop Staring and Start Grading with Color!
At long last, my traning DVD for Apple's Color is now taking orders! If you've been staring at this incredible color grading software for a while, it's time to start using it! "Stop Staring, Start Grading with Apple Color" is what you need to get going.
Here's the sales page with all the details and an incredibly cool trailer. It's my absolute pleasure to bring this title to you guys!
Jonathan Demme's new documentary, Man From Plains, about former President Jimmy Carter had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 7th, 2007. The film received a two minute standing ovation and will next be presented at the Toronto Film Festival with the Carters in attendance on Monday, September 10th.
The film is an intimate two-hour portrayal of the 39th President set against the backdrop of Carter's Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid book tour.
Biscardi Creative Media, located just outside Atlanta, Georgia provided extensive production support for this project working with Producer Gary Strieker, The Carter Center and Demme's production team at PostWorks in New York. BCM turned around hours of archival material in both standard definition and high definition.
"We're honored to have been a small part of this very important project about a man who has been such a champion of human rights and health issues," said Walter Biscardi, Jr., Principal, Biscardi Creative Media. "It was a bit hectic here with four different formats of material and literally hundreds of hours of footage to sift through, but with guidance from Demme's team, Gary Strieker, our team was able to turn around all the footage to make the deadline. We wish the film much success as it moves forward and look forward to future projects with The Carter Center."
The film has been picked up by Sony Classic Pictures and is slated for release in October.
For more information about “Man from Plains:” http://www.sonyclassics.com/jimmycartermanfromplains/index.html
For more information about Biscardi Creative Media: http://www.biscardicreative.com
For more information about The Carter Center: http://www.cartercenter.org/homepage.html
So I just have to pass along this wonderful experience we've had and it really underscores the tremendous community we have here at Creative COW. For about a year I've been contemplating an upgrade to our facility to make it more efficient. When I started in 2001 I had one edit suite and hoped to add a 2nd one at a later date. In 2003 we expanded to that 2nd suite and I was eventually able to get a full sized rack unit to hold all my tape decks, my computer and some storage.
It worked pretty well though a bit combersome because there were no patch panels so to run anything to anywhere meant crawling behind the racks, pulling cables, figuring what went where, etc.. Then at the end of 2006 we suddenly needed a third suite which we quickly threw together. Now suddenly we were pulling decks out of the rack, walking them to the third suite, walking drives around, etc... It was starting to get really messy.
So I contacted a few local companies about assisting me in re-engineering the shop to be much more efficient. I can figure out what I need, but really wanted an engineer to come up with the best way to make everything here more efficient both in layout and operation. Didn't really find what I was looking for in terms of personnel and price. Enter Creative COW and fellow COW Leader, Bob Zelin.
It started with a simple email to Bob. Through reading his posts it was obvious that facility design and installation was one of his specialities. I simply asked if he would be interested in assisting me at all. To my surprise he said yes and immediately asked for a full equipment list and a general layout of our facility. What I loved about this process was I kept downplaying what we needed here and he kept insisting on some additional cables and connections that would make our lives easier.
Within about two weeks we had the first drawings and plans from Bob. Again, I was questioning some of his ideas because I thought it was overkill. Three video patch panels? Three audio patch panels? We're a simple, small shop, aren't we going too far here? I'm thinking one patch panel for each should do fine. But Bob, in his own gentle fashion, reminded me that it's easier to run cables once, than to install something and then come back in a few months and say " you know we should add some more cables runs here, there and the other room." It started to make sense, especially after the full drawings for the patch panels showed up and I could visually see what he was talking about.
Two months after we started discussions, we finalized the plans which included: two new full sized rack units; three video patch panels; three audio patch panels; new reference DA; a Gefen DVI/USB extender to allow one computer to move 55 feet from the suite to the rack unit; and I'm guessing about 1,500 feet of new audio / video / control cables. At the same time we decided to upgrade our storage with two new MaxxDigitial SAS/SATA 8TB arrays for the two main suites adding 16TB of new storage. I have to say, Bob's insight and advice during this entire process was invaluable and he really made the plan much better than anything I could have created on my own. In addition, he probably saved me a lot of money from the inevitable mistakes I would have made designing all of this on my own.
Almost immediately our new racks and shelves showed up in about 6 huge boxes. We replaced the small box that was to the left of the original rack with one of the new ones and already the place started looking better.
A few weeks later, the storage and patch panels showed up so we pulled out the original rack and set up the 2nd new rack into it's final position.
Now it's really starting to look good and I get a real surprise from Bob. He's going to personally come to Atlanta to do the patch panel installation. The original plan was for Bob to make up all the cables and ship them to us with instructions. But due to an opening in his schedule, he was able to make the trip himself. I've never met him personally so I'm thrilled, can't wait to see if he's as angry in person as he is on the forums!
He went ahead and shipped up the long run cables to run through the walls which my assistant, Aaron, and I ran prior to his arrival. A messy job to be sure, but I had designed drop wire chases into the walls when we moved into the office thinking they would come in handy one day.
I killed the power before allowing Aaron to play with live stuff. Never let kids play with wire cutters!!!
So today Bob Zelin in the flesh shows up and to my surprise, he's a heckuva nice guy! Well, it wasn't really a surprise, I had spoken to him several times on the phone and he's actually quite funny. A straight shooter to be sure, but a very funny guy. He's not here 5 minutes and he jumps right into work.
After watching Bob for about an hour I was really happy he had the time in his schedule to come up here because while I could have done the cableing myself, it would have probably taken me three days to do what he did in less than 8 hours. As with any installation, there were some last minute issues and questions that needed to be addressed. Moving some audio patch points, re-routing some cables, adding some new cables, etc... were all last minute issues we took care of as the day progressed. It really boggled my mind to see how much cable three edit suites and about 5 VTR's would require to make this shop more efficient.
Before we knew it, lunch time was upon us. It was time to initiate Bob Zelin to the wonders of the Nintendo Wii. It took a few frames, but before we knew it, Bob was throwing Strikes and Spares with the best of them. Check out the professional form on this throw!
It's looking good Ted.... staying away from the gutters.... a little spin to the left..... and it's a Strike!
About the only real tough discussion was when Bob tried to convince Aaron and I to abandon all component and SDI cabling to run everything via Composite video. After all the VHS look is in these days so why spend all this extra money to run these extra cables. Ok, no he really didn't do that, he accidentally forgot to make up the final component / SDI cables for our Kona boxes, but of course, being prepared for everything, he had plenty of video cables and connectors to make up these last few runs on the spot.
Less than 8 hours after Bob started, we had a fully re-engineered facility. Every audio and video output from every device in the shop, from the Konas to the VTRs, passes through the patch panels. We can route any signal, anywhere. All the RS-422 controls pass through their own patch panel allowing all three suites to take control of any VTR in the racks. We have almost 20TB of fast storage for all projects. It's absolutely awesome and something both Aaron and I are not used to. You just get so used to the "moving cable ballet" behind the rack that to have something so efficient is weird.
Look what I made!
I cannot believe what we started in a single room in 2001 has grown to something the really feels like professional Post House. The growth of my business and the work with Bob Zelin can all be traced back to the Creative Cow. Folks we have a tremendous resource at our disposal with thousands of incredible working professionals in all aspects of the creative production field. You know you get answers when you post questions on the forums. Just remember that those same people who answer your questions are also some great people to call upon and hire when you need high quality services. Just look at our transformation in just three months from a decent working facility to a real professional facility.
So Thank You Bob Zelin for all your help in re-designing our shop and Thank You to Ron and Kathlyn for starting such an awesome creative resource.
I've started my in-depth testing with Apple's Color and my first tests show that DVCPro HD 1080i/50 material is a major problem in Color.
Test One: I opened Color and brought in a 1080i/50 DVCPro HD clip to a timeline.
1 - The clip shows as 1920x1080 DVCPro HD and not 1440x1080 like it should.
2 - I cannot select DVCPro HD for the codec anywhere.
3 - I cannot set the Frame Rate to 25. It is greyed out in 23.98.
UPDATE - This was operator error, frame rate needs to be set before adding a clip.
4 - What rendered out was a 10bit uncompressed 4:2:2 file. I could not render out a DVCPro HD File.
Now for this test I simply brought in a single clip, I did NOT export a timeline from Final Cut Pro. BUT I should be able to work with a single clip or clips correctly in Color without having to come in from an FCP timeline. So at least for this test, poor performance from Color.
Test Two: Send To Color a 45 second timeline from FCP. 1080i/50 DVCPro HD timeline.
Frame Rate - 25
Frame Size - 1920x1080, this is wrong. Should be 1440x1080 but there's no way to change this.
Render out the project and Send To Final Cut Pro.
Frame Rate - 25
Frame Size for the clips - 1280 x 1080. This is still wrong, that's the 1080i/60 Frame Size NOT 1080i/50. Should be 1440x1080 and in fact, the Sequence that opens up in FCP IS correct 1440x1080. The clips are rendered wrong.
Image Quality - I'm seeing bad rasterization on any vertical or horizontal lines and an overall degradation in quality from Color. Video has taken a bad image quality hit in the Render from Color most likely due to the incorrect frame size.
Test Three: Same as above, but this time Render out Export to ProRes 422 (HQ)
The Sequence that opens up in FCP is a 1080i/50 DVCPro HD Sequence. This is strange because I chose ProRex 422 (HQ) as the export / Render option.
Clip Properties - 1280x1080. Still wrong. If I'm in a DVCPro HD 1080i/50 timeline, then this frame size HAS to be 1440x1080.
Pixel Aspect - 1280x1080. Wrong.
Image is squished left to right so it fits right inside the Action Safe area. Appears this way on the Kona 3 playback as well. I checked the Distort in the Motion tab and it's set to 0 so no distortion is being applied to the clip.
Playback is very clean and sharp, but the frame size is all wrong so it's useless. Scaling it out to 112% and distorting it just screws up the image.
Workaround for Test Three, works, sort of: Render out from Color to the ProRes (HQ) format.
Send To Final Cut Pro and open the new timeline in FCP.
Create a New Timeline and select the Apple ProRes (HQ) 1440x1080 Preset.
Change the Frame Size to 1280x1080
Change the Aspect Ratio to HD (1280x1080)
Change the Pixel Aspect Ratio to HD (1280x1080)
Say OK.
Copy All from the timeline from Color.
Paste into that new Modified Timeline.
Select All Clips in the new modified timeline.
Remove Attributes > Distort
That removes a 12% distortion on all the clip and at last you see your clips in regular 16:9 resolution, albeit in the wrong frame size, but there you go.
Ah, but you still need to re-render the entire timeline before you can output to tape because I see green "Preview" line above my entire timeline.
Conclusion: Definitely looks like Color has no clue how to handle DVCPro HD 1080i/50 correctly as the frame size / pixel aspect is completely wrong
Test One: I opened Color and brought in a 1080i/60 DVCPro HD clip to a timeline.
1 - The clip shows as 1920x1080 DVCPro HD and not 1280x1080 like it should.
2 - I cannot select DVCPro HD for the codec anywhere.
3 - I cannot set the Frame Rate to 29.97. It is greyed out in 23.98.
UPDATE - This was operator error, frame rate needs to be set before adding a clip.
4 - I could not render out a DVCPro HD File, the option to render out in “Original Format” is greyed out.
Now for this test I simply brought in a single clip, I did NOT export a timeline from Final Cut Pro. BUT I should be able to work with a single clip or clips correctly in Color without having to come in from an FCP timeline. So again, for this test, poor performance from Color.
Test Two: Send To Color a 17 second timeline from FCP. 1080i/60 DVCPro HD timeline.
Frame Rate in Color – 29.97
Frame Size – 1920x1080, this is wrong. Should be 1280x1080 but there's no way to change this.
Render out the project and Send To Final Cut Pro.
Sequence Settings – DVCPro HD 1080i/60. This is correct.
Frame Rate – 29.97
Frame Size for the clips – 1280x1080. This is correct.
Image Quality – Quality is perfect. Same pristine image that went into Color.
Test Three: Same as above, but this time Render out Export to ProRes 422 (HQ)
The Sequence that opens up in FCP is a 720p/60 DVCPro HD Sequence. This is strange because I chose ProRex 422 (HQ) as the export / Render option. Compressor is still DVCPro HD in the compression settings
Frame Size for the clips – 1280x1080 This is correct.
Image quality – Quality is perfect. Same pristine image that went into Color.
Conclusion: Rendering to DVCPro HD and ProRes 422 is pristine in 1080i/60, this is the only DVCPro HD format in my three tests I was able to use correctly.
Test One: I opened Color and brought in a 720p/60 DVCPro HD clip to a timeline.
1 - The clip shows as 1280x720 DVCPro HD and not 960x720 like it should.
2 - I cannot select DVCPro HD for the codec anywhere.
3 - I cannot set the Frame Rate to 59.94. It is greyed out in 23.98.
UPDATE - This was operator error, frame rate needs to be set before adding a clip.
4 - I could not render out a DVCPro HD File, the option to render out in “Original Format” is greyed out.
Now for this test I simply brought in a single clip, I did NOT export a timeline from Final Cut Pro. BUT I should be able to work with a single clip or clips correctly in Color without having to come in from an FCP timeline. So again, for this test, poor performance from Color.
Test Two: Send To Color a 14 second timeline from FCP. 720p/60 DVCPro HD timeline.
Frame Rate in Color – 59.94
Frame Size – 1280x720, this is wrong. Should be 960x720 but there's no way to change this.
Render out the project and Send To Final Cut Pro.
Sequence Settings – DVCPro HD 720/60. This is correct.
Frame Rate – 59.94
Frame Size for the clips – 960x720. This is correct.
Image Quality - I'm seeing bad rasterization on any vertical or horizontal lines and an overall degradation in quality from Color. Video has taken a bad image quality hit with a lot of compression artifacts visible during playback and especially when in pause.
Test Three: Same as above, but this time Render out Export to ProRes 422 (HQ)
The Sequence that opens up in FCP is a 720p/60 DVCPro HD Sequence. This is strange because I chose ProRex 422 (HQ) as the export / Render option. Compressor is still DVCPro HD in the compression settings
Frame Size for the clips – 960x720. This is correct for 720p/60 DVCPro HD.
Image quality – Identical to the DVCPro HD render, which is quite surprising because in the 1080i/50 test, the Pro Res render was very sharp.
I'm seeing bad rasterization on any vertical or horizontal lines and an overall degradation in quality from Color. Video has taken a bad image quality hit with a lot of compression artifacts visible during playback and especially when in pause.
Conclusion: Rendering both in DVCPro HD and ProRes 422(HQ) yielded the same bad, unusable results in image quality. The results of my 720p/60 tests are nearly identical to the issues I was seeing in Final Touch HD 2.6.
When opening high definition projects created and finished in Final Cut Pro 5.1.4, FCP 6 is giving me what I consider a false "Shift Fields" error.
Now the problem with this error is that I know for a fact that the Shift Fields filters was not applied anywhere in any of the HD projects I'm opening. So I have been answering "No" to this message each time and have had no issues with playback of anything in the timeline.
We are not getting this warning when opening a standard definition project.
I have seen some posts in the forums about people getting flickering video playback after converting a project from FCP 5.1.4 to FCP 6 and I wonder if this error message is the culprit? Just wanted to pass that along that I think this is a completely erroneous error and at least in my experience so far, Just Say No!
Me and my big mouth! I innocently asked if the folks at AJA could make a few tweaks to the unit so it could REALLY be useful in the edit suite. I think they took my prototype to heart so it's probably my fault if the unit ships late. I think it'll be worth the wait though, I may never leave the edit suite again!
As noted in the Apple Color forum today, Apple has now extended an offer to all former Final Touch users to purchase a full copy of Final Cut Studio 2 for only $499. This offer was made two days ago. Studio 2 was announced in April and started shipping the end of May.
Oh and where is this announcement? On the Silicon Color Support Forum. A company that no longer exists. I just tried searching the Apple website for Silicon Color and got a bunch of user stories using the old product. I tried searching the Apple site for Color Upgrade and got a bunch of stories about the wonders of Color. So as far as I can find, no announcment of any sort on the Apple site, the actual owners of the product now.
Previously Apple announced a free upgrade to Final Cut Studio 2 for all those who owned Final Touch products AND had a maintenance agreement. When I purchased my copy of Final Cut Studio 2 (full copy for a third system) I asked my VAR if there were any discounts for current owners of Final Touch software. His Apple rep said no.
So many people, including myself have already ordered and received our full $1,299 copies of Final Cut Studio 2. I'm trying to put some sense in the two month delay in this offer from Apple and really can't see any reason for it. Just one more reason for old Silicon Color users to feel shortchanged in this entire episode.
In response to a post on the Creative Cow Final Cut Pro Forum, my choice for a control surface to run all Pro Apps on a Mac is a Wacom tablet. I run a 9x12 Intuos 3 in my suite and I just can't see working without one.
For one thing, carpel tunnel syndrome just doesn't happen with a tablet, so you can work your 14 - 20 hour days and have no wrist pain. Second you get your entire workspace right on your tablet so there's no pick up the mouse and drag a second time if you have multiple monitors. Third, when working with apps such as Motion, Photoshop and After Effects, the tablets are pressure sensitive so the harder you push down, the more ink / paint will come out when using pressure sensitive tools.
It takes a few days to become acclimated to how a tablet works vs. a mouse, but once you get that comfort with it, you'll never go back to anything else. I set the unit up to the right of the keyboard because it feels more natural that with with my hands and also, it sets up very nicely on our editing consoles that way. Here's a shot of the tablet in my Wally World edit suite.
And in case you're wondering, that's the Bella USA FCP Pro Keyboard to the left of it, I highly recommend that as well. All the keys are color coded to the application and there's a jog/shuttle wheel on there that is a great help when digitizing and even playing back footage on the system.
You know it's been a few weeks since NAB and surprisingly nobody has talked about a nifty little feature of the new Final Cut Studio and how it interacts with the new iPhone. You can actually install a "lite" version of Final Cut Express by putting the install discs in your machine and then connecting the iPhone via USB. Go into the Customize settings of the Installation screen and you'll see a "Lite" option appear. This only shows up when the iPhone is correctly attached via USB so be sure to connect the phone first before launching the installer.
What can you do with Lite? Well by connecting to your media device via USB, you can capture at a low resolution version of the new Apple ProRes 422 codec. For editing it's all straight cuts only, no effects, no transitions, but you wouldn't want to try to do any transitions with an iPhone anyway. You get 2 tracks of video and audio maximum, but for just straight cutting in the field, you don't need any more. Oh and no titles either, but I can't see you needing them in the field with something this small. But after you put together a rough cut, you can save off your cut as a true Final Cut Pro project and then transfer that to your laptop or desktop for your final edit.
Here Peter Wiggins and I look at a project I originally cut on my desktop machine, but I used Media Manager in FCP 6 to re-conform the project to the new ProRes 422 low rez codec on a prototype iPhone. (Don't ask how we were able to try this and get our hands on the iPhone, it took a few days) I have to say, it's not bad and it will certainly be fun to pull out an iPhone on set, connect it up and just start slapping something together! It's a bit small, but the screen is so clean that you can actually read the text and it was not all that bad working with the footage. Course, any phone call you get will interrupt the edit, but the phone will simply hide FCP until you hang up.
I guess it's easy to overlook this nifty little addition to Final Cut Pro 6, but it's pretty cool nonetheless!
As Chi-Ho Lee noted on the Final Cut Pro forum today, Quicktime 7.1.6 has been released in anticipation of Final Cut Studio 2 and you can now read timecode in the Quicktime Player. Wow! Finally! Not sure why it took so long, but here's the proof.
If you click on the running time you now get a drop down box which gives you three choices of the Standard Running Time, Timecode and Frame Number.
Here's the clip now showing the original timecode off the camera tape. VERY cool and now anyone with Quicktime Player can accurately see timecodes without the need to burn in TC windows. Thank you Apple!
On Sunday, April 15 at the NAB Apple Event, I fully expected to see the application formerly known as Final Touch re-released under the Apple name. What I did NOT expect was for the product to re-christened Color and for the application to simply be given away as part of the new Studio 2 package.
A little history here. Final Touch was the brainchild of Silicon Color and was positioned to compete against the likes of daVinci, a very high end color correction tool used for broadcast and feature films for years. Generally a daVinci session goes for anywhere from $200 to $750/hour depending on the facility and artist performing the work. This is also due to the tremendous costs of installing and maintaining a daVinci system which can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Along came Final Touch which brought the tools down to a reasonable $995 to $25,000 depending on if you needed an SD to 2K version of the software. Much like Final Cut Pro did for editors, this price point allowed independent colorists to purchase the software and make a move to independence. Colorists could literally work out of their houses and small offices much like many Final Cut Pro editors have set up shops in their homes, yet still provide the quality and performance their clients demanded.
In addition, Final Touch allowed small Post production houses, like my very own Biscardi Creative Media to add an extremely powerful color correction tool our workflow to better position our shop against the "big boys" in town. One daVinci session alone would cost more than the price of Final Touch HD so it was a cost effective decision to purchase the software.
Now we have Color available to the masses as part of the new Final Cut Studio 2 bundle. According to Apple, there are over 800,000 registered users of Final Cut Pro across the world so that's potentially 800,000 new "colorists" that will be unleased on the world. Much as Editing is an art form, Color is also a very demanding art form. I always make it clear to people in my shop that I'm an editor first who has an understanding of color correction. A Colorist is a very specialized artist who can truly "paint" any scene of a project.
What I fear is that with simply giving away Color, Apple has actually made it very difficult for estabilished professional artists to differentiate themselves from enthusiasts and beginnners. By having a price point of $995, $5,000 and $25,000 Final Touch required the user to invest into an application and allowed the end user to promote something that was not available in every single edit suite out there. Now Apple is going to completely dillute the Color Correction market by handing the tool out to everyone.
While there will be some very talented artists out there who will do some amazing things with their hands on this tool, I fear what Apple has done is really set back the color community much as what happened when Final Cut Pro first came out. The product was derided because a lot of really bad editors made a really good tool look bad. It was cheap and anyone with the money could call themselves an editor, hence we saw a lot of really bad projects come along. I feel we're going to see a lot of bad color decisions being made which will sink the stock of Color among the editing and color community.
A professional grade color tool should require the investment of the user to properly learn it. A price point of $2,500 by Apple would have allowed the company to greatly reduce the price of the application, while at the same time allowing end users to differentiate themselves from the pack of 800,000. In my case, we spent $5,000 for the application and then another signficant sum to bring in colorist Bog Sliga to train us in the use of the product and color in general. This was an investment and a way to set us apart from other shops in the Atlanta area. As noted above, this was a great invesment vs. one daVinci session. By simply giving the tool away, Apple makes it very hard for those of us who have invested greatly in our skills and equipment to differentiate ourselves from the pack, both in the tools used and the rates we can charge. There comes a point where you can't simply keep investing in HD hardware while dropping your rates because the software prices keep dropping.
On the one hand I'll be happy to have three copies of Color when we upgrade. On the other hand, now we'll have to find another way to differentiate ourselves from the pack of 800,000 who now have the very same powerful color tool.
We've arrived in Sunny Las Vegas! Checked in to the fabulous Flamingo hotel which we really used to enjoy for the penquins in the outdoor habitat, but they checked out last year so it's not quite the same. Still gotta love staying in the "original" strip hotel that started it all.
As you can see from the photo we're staying in the top of the line penthouse suite with a classic Strip view, only the best for Cow members!
Tonight will be a little rest and relaxation as we'll be taking in the Jay Leno show at the Mirage and then tomorrow it's straight over to North Hall to get my Speaker Badge.
I'm really looking forward to this show to see what Apple really has to announce for us on Sunday and then see how that stacks up with Adobe's impressive return to the Mac platform. Some things I'm most interested in this year for myself are storage, color correction and special effects / plug-ins. Though I'm going to be quite busy working this year, I hope to be able to at least get out and see what everybody is offering in these areas.
I'll give you guys daily updates (hopefully multiple updates per day) and be sure to watch out for my inaugural "All Things Apple" Podcast on Sunday shortly after Apple's event!
Professional Video Editor, Producer, Director since 1990.
Credits include multiple Emmys, Tellys, Aurora and CableAce Awards.
Owner / Operator of Biscardi Creative Media, a full service video and film production company with about 65% of our work in HDTV. The show you know us best for is "Good Eats" on the Food Network. I developed the HD Post workflow and we also create all the animations for the series.
Favorite pastime is cooking with pizza on the grill one of my specialties. Each Christmas Eve we serve the Feast of the Seven Fishes, a traditional Italian seafood meal with approx. 30 items on the menu.
If I wasn't in video production I would either own a restaurant or a movie theater.
