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 we've had a lot of discussions on the Final Cut Pro and Apple Color forums about what can we use to replace the current Broadcast CRT monitors that are EOL? I've not been overly impressed with the current crop of LCD monitors out there. My favorite to date, the Panasonic 1700W and 2600W are both good, but cannot completey replace my Sony CRT Broadcast monitor.
Well yesterday I got a demo of the new TV Logic 24" LCD Broadcast display and I have to say, WOW! I think we have a real contender for CRT replacement at a price that won't completely break the bank. Yes, it's expensive, but it's about 1/3 the price of what I've been seeing touted as a "True CRT Replacement" from other companies. Here's my intial thoughts on the monitor as I reported in the Apple Color forum yesterday. http://forums.creativecow.net/viewforum/223#2
Left to Right: Sony PVM20L5/1, TV Logic 24" with 64% ND Filter, Panasonic 1700W. Note the Sony is closest to the camera so it appears to be the largest display, but the TV Logic actually is.
Ok, first impression. WOW!
They brought in two 24" models, one with a 32% ND filter and one with no filter. I didn't realize you could get an ND filter and it actually does make a difference in the image. Excellent demonstration by the TV Logic representative who spent the first 45 minutes really showing us all the various features and settings using a lot of test patterns and motion tests so we could really see what the LCD can and cannot do.
First off, all the controls you would expect with a professional CRT monitor and a few more. Dual SDI (HD/SD) inputs are standard with loop through, Analog Component, S-Video and Composite are supported. Even 16 channels embedded audio are supported via SDI. Dual Link SDI is an option that is simply unlocked via a password input.
Ok, HD looked spectacular as it should since it's a 1080 native display. Colors were within 1% to my Sony CRT. The Sony was a touch more red, but the TV Logic display can be fully tweaked, we left it at the factory calibrated settings.
I liked the 1:1 option for 720p material. When playing 720p you can have the display up-scale the image to fill the 1080 screen or simply play it back in 1:1 scaling which is a nice option.
Ok, here's what really impressed me. Standard Def playback. They have a 2:1 scaling option that presents high quality standard def playback. Full screen resolution fell apart a bit like I would expect with an LCD scaling SD footage up, but in the 2:1 scaling mode, it was extremely clean. With SD, the colors were spot on to my Sony CRT.
The monitor can be set into an 'interlace' mode that accurately replicates what I see on the CRT both in HD and SD. You can turn this off by using a "Fast" mode but I actually preferred seeing this on. I played back an SD project I finished two weeks ago and could accurately see some of the interlacing issues a Map graphic was showing on the Sony CRT.
We tried the unit out for about 2 and a half hours and I'm just really really impressed with it. I have to say, this really is a potential CRT replacement monitor. I would color grade on it and actually will get a chance to do that shortly.
I'm going to get another one of these units in a few weeks with a 62% ND filter as I found the 32% filter a little too dark for my work. The rep said the 64% filter more replicates the brightness of my Sony CRT. The unit without the filter was just too bright. So in a few weeks I will get one with the correct filter and we'll have it fully calibrated to replicate my Sony. Then I'll write a full review on it.
But WOW! Thanks to Christian Betong bringing these monitors to my attention! List US Price is approx. $8,000.
Left to Right: Sony PVM20L5/1, TV Logic 24" with 64% ND Filter, Panasonic 1700W. Note the Sony is closest to the camera so it appears to be the largest display, but the TV Logic actually is.
For those last minute holiday shoppers, GameStop in introducing an idea that is long overdue. On Dec. 20 and 21 they will issue rain checks for the Nintendo Wii at the standard console price of $250. This will guarantee the holder a console no later than January 29th.
With the difficulty in finding these units at normal times, let alone the holidays, I'm not sure why they didn't come up with this idea sooner. We have one and I have to say it's the most fun gaming console on the market today.
So if you're looking for one for the holidays, it may not be under the tree, but at least your family will know it's on the way. And you don't have to purchase a $650 "bundle" from any other online retailers.
In business you're all about your name. Keep a good name and business flows to your door. Get a bad name and you're looking for a new career. Get a really REALLY good name and from my own personal experience, some people will try and use your name for their own gain.
Now if you're reading this blog, then you're already aware of the Creative COW forums and the really REALLY good thing we have going here. During a recent thread in the Apple Color forum, a user pointed out that a production facility in Los Angeles changed their name to Blue Cow Creative.
Ok, so perhaps they didn't know about the Creative COW forums and it's an honest coincidence. I mean just because something like 10 million+ media people per month read these forums, that doesn't mean everyone in the industry will know about the COW. Well, except as a leader in the Creative COW Apple Color forum, I have seen at least one of the key personnel in Blue Cow Creative participate in the forum...before the name change. So at least by all appearances they must have been aware that a company called "Creative COW" that focuses on the production industry existed.
So the right thing to do would have been to NOT use the words Creative and Cow in your company name. Especially since it's obvious you've been using the Creative COW website and know about the site's forums and one can logically assume other resources, as well.
Cow? Sure. Creative? Sure. But not the two words together in the company name. How obvious is that? Now this is just me looking in from the outside, but Creative COW is clearly an industry leader, and in my opinion it seems the new blue variety figures it can gain some instant name recognition by putting Creative and Cow together in a new company name. I could be wrong here, but that's what it looks like to me.
Especially a company in Los Angeles. How many cows do you see in L.A.? Maybe if the company was in farm country somewhere, you might almost be able to make some sort of argument that they are playing off the Cows in the area. But even there, the Creative COW has used the trademark for over six years that I know of and has earned a tremendous name in the production industry. I also suspect that the COW will have to mount a legal battle to protect their name
At this point, you might be wondering why do I care?Why am I making a fuss about this? Because I have worked very VERY hard during my 17 year career to build a good name for myself and my company. I have had at least two instances of someone trying to ruin my name and trying to use my company name for their own personal gain. With so much hard work and time put into getting myself to get where I am, the worst feeling in the world is someone coming along and trying to step in and take it all away.
In the first instance the person tried to use very negative statements about me and my work to stop clients from working with me. That took some time to work through but eventually I regained the trust of all but a few clients. In the second instance, my name and abilities were used to sell a project and then the project was taken elsewhere. Not just a small project, a network series. You have to wonder how well the concept would have been received without multi Emmy, Telly, Aurora, Peabody award winning production team associated with it.
Those two instances could have been devasting for me and my entire company.
A name is not to be taken lightly. In fact, it should not be taken at all.
We purchased a new Primera Bravo II CD/DVD Publisher this week because we're doing a lot more DVD's and Blu-ray discs than ever before. The Bravo II is a robot DVD / CD burner and printer which can handle up to 50 discs in any one burning session, fully unattended. Perfect for our situation. We can burn / print DVD's and we can use it in print-only mode for the Blu-ray discs.
The big problem comes in its Mac compatibility. First off, the printer does not work at all using the Primera software in Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard). To use the Bravo II in automated print mode from their own software, you have to run in Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger). To use the Bravo II in Leopard you have to use something like Apple's Preview to do the printing of the discs, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of automated, unattended burning / printing.
Regardless of whether the machine is used in Tiger or Leopard, the printer drivers simply do not work correctly on the Mac. The colors print very muddy and muted instead of the vibrant colors we're expecting. We literally printed over 30 DVDs to test the printer using every conceivable combination of settings and testing RGB vs. CMYK. Bottom line, our $100 Epson ink-jet printer easily out-performed the $2,700 Bravo II.
Primera Tech Support was able to replicate our tests and confirm there is a problem with the Mac drivers. Their solution was for us to use a Windows XP machine instead of Mac. So I picked up a new iMac and installed Windows XP onto that machine since we had no Windows machines in our office. This does work almost perfectly. Still not exactly the colors we're looking for on the DVD's but with a bit more tweaking in Photoshop, we should be able to get the printed images to look as we expect.
The real problem I have here is Primera advertising this as a PC / Mac solution. This machine lists for $2,695.00. The compatibility is described thusly on their website: Bravo II is ideal for printing either one at a time, unique discs or jobs of up to 50 discs at a time. Models include both Windows-based PC and Mac software in every box. Now a normal business owner like myself is going to read that and expect the exact same performance on both a Mac and PC. You would be wrong.
I did not expect the Bravo II to work correctly on Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) since it is so new and there are a lot of issues out there. But OS 10.4 that has been out for over a year? That definitely not Mac support in my book. If we didn't need the machine so badly right at this moment, I would have returned it immediately. Unfortunately, we have deadlines to meet and just had to absorb the additional money for the iMac / Windows XP.
Just a word of warning for anyone else out there considering this unit or anything else from Primera. It does work pretty much as advertised on Windows XP, but not Mac.
Well of course Apple would never say anything in advance, but thanks to the CEO of at&t, we know for certain an iPhone that can run on the 3G high speed internet networks will be out in 2008. No word on the exact date of availability or the cost, but at least it's something. This is what I've been waiting for personally, although I hope the new phone will also have at least 16GB of storage as well.
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!
If you purchased an 8GB version of the iPhone right off the bat, Apple is offering you a $100 credit since they've already cut the price of the phone by $200.
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.
