Before I get to the crux of my post, I would like to explain a few terms that a few people might not know about. Here is the progression of a cut as I do it...when dealing with a documentary project that has a script:
RADIO EDIT - Laying out of narration and sound bytes. Just getting things in script order on the timeline.
ROUGH CUT - Filling in the cut with footage. This is also the time that I start to ad pacing to the cut. Adding slates (title cards) where footage is missing and needed.
FINE CUT - Fleshing out the cut with music and more footage. Deal more with pacing as music is added...give breath to scenes and add montages when needed. Start to get into creating the style of the show, creating transitional moments and unique pacing. Sound effects added at this stage. Perhaps adding lower thirds (ID tags for interview subjects).
FINE CUT 2 - Addressing the producer and network notes. More versions as the notes progress.
"A standalone application which prints a list of clips in a bin or markers contained in a clip or sequence. This provides a very useful workflow enhancement when handing off a project to someone else for further work."
"- Displays a list of clips/sequences in a bin or a list of markers found within clips/sequences. - Flexible customisation of columns including thumbnail. - Customise print output with colour of header text and your own company or production logo. - Print marker list to paper or PDF."
As you output your project to tape, or to DVD...whatever. Or before you encode it for the web or DVD...watch it all the way through. Even if you have seen it three dozen times, it would be very wise to watch your project before you do your final output, or an output that is going out to the network.
Why?
Well...one of the other editors here came to me with a big issue...one that I have never seen nor heard of before.
My producer from The Mexican American War and Andrew Jackson is teaching a 4 week workshop. Time permitting I might see if I can pitch in when it comes to the editing phase. Anyway, here is the press release for this event:
HISTORY/DISCOVERY Channel Producer to conduct summer HVX-200/Final Cut Pro workshop at LA's Citrus College
On Wednesday my old G-Raid...the one I bought four years ago...finally gave up the ghost. It had begun clicking over the weekend when I was copying footage to and from it, which is not a good sign. It did this before, when I owned it for about a year. But, I took it to G-tech in Santa Monica and in two days, I had it back in my hands. The same thing happened back then...clicking when copying.
Well, after a few days of the clicking...it decided not to show up on my desktop at all. Nor in the Disk Utility. And the warranty expired. So I cracked open the case, pulled out the two PATA drives and connected them both directly to the computer via a spare PATA firewire case I have lying about. One worked, the other did not. Dead drive. Fine, I relegated it as a Clone Drive for my G5 and tossed the bad drive in the trash.
As you may or may not know, RED is set to announce their new "pocketcam," code named SCARLET, at the upcoming NAB Show. This announcement has generated quite a bit of buzz, and many people, myself included, are looking forward to this camera.
I have a few friends who work on the RED project and one of them has been secretly chatting with me about it. They said that they were impressed with the camera design as it lends itself to being inconspicuous...so that you can get those much wanted candid shots without drawing too much attention to yourself. Unlike the main RED camera that looks like a weapon out of Star Trek, they took a different approach with this camera. My friend snuck a quick snap of this camera with his iPhone and e-mailed the picture to me last night. I'm so impressed with this design I had to post it.
Last week, on Thursday (March 13th for those who really want to know) we needed to output the rough cut of the first show and send it to the network. In actuality it was the SECOND show, but episode one was still being edited...but that's besides the point. So on Thursday I was pulled off my editing of a segment for show one (EP 101) and assigned to cut the tease for show two (102).
"Cut the tease"....sorry, that always makes me giggle a little.
Anyway...this was the beginning of a series of "missteps" that caused a couple complications with the assembly of the show. For the record, we are editing DVCPRO HD footage mainly shot with the Varicam, at 720p 23.98 This footage was captured via the Kona card and not via firewire, as firewire capture throws the audio off sync by two frames...audio leading by two frames. Instead of adjusting the sync on each and every clip we drop in the timeline, we captured via HD SDI from the Kona 3 ensuring perfect sync. Because of this, the Easy Setup we chose was AJA KONA 3-720p 23.98 DVCPRO HD Varicam:
Avid announced today that they will be rolling Avid Express Pro into Media Composer cutting the price of the software version of Media Composer from $5000 to $2500. This means that Avid Express Pro will be discontinued by the end of Q2, 2008 (meaning by the summer). This also means that the software will now be in a more competitive price range with Final Cut Pro. I know that now I will be getting it...as soon as I wrangle up $2500 (I did just buy a new system after all).
Here is the Kona KBox mounted on the back of my IKEA "rack." I had to add an extra piece of wood to the side, but the 2U rack brackets fit nicely.
Now...onto TIME MACHINE. In my MacPro I have 5 drives. The system drive is in Bay 1, I have three Seagate 500GB drives in the other 3 bays. One stands alone as a work drive, where I store show exports, imported footage and other odd and ends that I transfer to the server. The final two are RAIDED as RAID 0 and I use them to capture media too before I transfer it to the XSAN.
I have a fifth drive installed in this MacPro. The fifth drive resides in the normally empty second optical bay. It is connected to the computer via one of the two spare SATA connections on the logicboard (accessed by removing the fans) and a 3.5" to 5.25" adapter kit. I use this drive as my TIME MACHINE drive, since I am using Leopard. Already this has saved my behind.
The official title of the History Channel Series I am working on is STRANGE HISTORY. The stories will mainly deal with taboos, cultural and sexual, and strange cultural practices from around the world. There, now you know.
The first week there I was working on one of the rental systems. Because my computer hadn't come in yet and because they didn't play on renting my system for a few weeks yet. Now, this rental system was a bit lacking. Sure, it had the Octo Mac 3.0Ghz and a LARGE Mackie Mixer (that you would find on an Avid system) with 16 channels, 4 of which we use. Two for FCP, two for the deck...oh, 5...one for the microphone (temp VO). It had a Kona 3 card, was on one of those HUGE editing desks, was nestled in a rack, and had big HD LCDs. Not color correctable ones, but an early model Sony Luma series that was fine for producers to look at. The computer monitors? Lacking....WAY lacking. 17" square LCDs...brand I haven't heard of. SMALL, to say the least. I suffered on these for two weeks. The third week I was on my system. The rental didn't start on it until THIS week, but I wouldn't allow myself to suffer any more.
What makes me like it more is the fact that I WORK in broascast TV, and must adhere to those rigid standards. Frankly, it can be a bit tiring. I mean, make the colors look good, make it not look to hot, but when I get a show kicked back because I am .02 above 100IRE...that pisses me off! What about my content? Oh, yeah, the networks have hacked that to death with their notes and there are structure rules to follow and then we get to the show timing, and my head REALLY swims when it comes to the technical mathmatical crap that we have to know about video levels. Sometimes I just want to make a good story that people will enjoy.
Last December I was asked to edit a trailer for a documentary. This trailer would be used to solicit finishing funds. And while they couldn't pay much, they could pay. Since I wasn't doing anything in January and halfway thru Febuary, I took the job.
The client asked how they should deal with the payment I said that I would like half up front, and half when I deliver the final. That sounded fine to them, so I received half the payment and the tapes to begin editing.
I worked on the project for about 3 weeks, and delivered a rough cut. Then I waited...and waited...and waited. Finally two weeks ago I received word from the director (the guy who hired me). The producers partnership had split due to philosophical differences in the way they wanted to approach the documentary. So not only was it on hold, but it might be shut down altogether. At least the one that I was asked to edit. The producers might end up with separate docs...but for me, the project was done.
Here it is. It took me a while to get this post up because...well, I am beat. I spent last weekend finishing the desk...and taking the remaining wood and unused scraps to make THREE bird houses...well, help my daughters make them. Kids demanding their dad's time...how can I refuse? So that was Saturday.
But I am jumping ahead a little. The computer arrived on Thursday, Feb 28...a day ahead of schedule. I jumped for joy at work when my wife called. And when I got home from work...and after a quick meal...I put my full attention onto this machine. Installing three 500 GB Seagates into the spare drives, yanking out the fan to access one of the SATA ports on the logicboard and installing a small drive into the empty optical bay (this I am using as my Time Machine backup). I replaced the stock ATI 2600 card with the x1900 XT card. You heard about that mess last time. OK, bouncing ahead again.
OK...the good news is that the ATI X1900 XT card works in the new Mac Pro. All that was needed is for the firmware update to be run on it. The bad news is that this update cannot be run on the current machine. The machine will say "this update is not needed," which is complete crap! What you have to do is find someone with a PREVIOUS Mac Pro, like the April 2007 model, have them install the card and run the update. Then the card will work. That is exactly what I did...I had my buddy Patrick Sheffield run the update and BOOM...it works. And it works well.
If you have ever wanted to uninstall Final Cut Studio (FCS), for whatever reason, doing so was a bit of a challenge. If you are like me, you don't know where all of the components and extras that FCS installs are located, or what half of them are even called.
Now there is a way to do this. Jon Chappell, a contributing member of the Apple Final Cut Pro forums, has developed a small handy little application that finds and removes all the components Final Cut Studio installs. It is called the FCS REMOVER. Now I haven't tested it yet, as I have no reason to remove FCP, but I hear it works well.
IT'S HERE! It was supposed to be delivered tomorrow, but it got here a day early. I was tracking it on FedEx and it seemed to be sitting idle in Fort Worth Texas...it was there for a while. But then I looked up the tracking number just after lunch yesterday and suddenly it was in Sun Valley CA (here in the Valley, close to Burbank Airport) and on the truck to be delivered! I called my wife...she was going to be out of the house from 11:45 to 3:00...and sure enough, that was when the delivery occurred. But then they made another attempt later in the afternoon and my wife was home and I GOT MY NEW MAC PRO!
I raced home from work...as fast as one can race in rush hour traffic...and burst through the door. There it was, in the entrance hall. Too heavy for my wife and kids to move. After dinner I unpacked it and...well, OK...I'll go into more of that later. Posting pics and all...as if you all care. I'm getting a new machine, it is exciting to ME. But I'll post a few pics as to what I installed and how crowded it is inside there.
I love this town...LA. Every now and then I see some character actor in the park or in the store. I cut off Danny DeVito in front of Warner Brothers my first week in town...got an earful. I walked thru the airplace crash set of the new WAR OF THE WORLDS one week before they shot, because the production I was working on was just up the hill on the Universal Lot. During my lunch hour from jury duty I walked into the Bradbury Building where they shot a lot of Blade Runner scenes. Snuck onto the lot at Warner Brothers and walked down the street where they shot Seinfeld.
Then today, I am driving to work on the 101 Freeway, on the Barham pass near Universal City, when I come up behind this semi truck towing a flatbed trailer with a large tube on it. I took small notice, thinking it was some large pipe for some sort of underground irrigation. Then I start passing it as I approached my exit into Hollywood and I look closer and notice that it isn't a pipe, it looks like some sort of rocket. So I speed up to get a closer look and then I see what it is.
Quick update. My MacPro is finally shipping. And it turns out that I will be getting the original machine I ordered. Even though my dealer bent over backwards to get me the older version of the MacPro, I will be getting the new machine. Why? Well, the XSAN we will be getting will be running Leopard, so the fact that my machine will be running Leopard as well can only be good. And this saves me a few hundred bucks too...which is also a good thing.
I am still tracking the progress of the shipment at Apple...building the excitement. And when it arrives I'll to the obligatory unboxing photos, followed by the installing of the accessories photos (Kona 3, x1900XT, hard drives).
In the meantime I finished building the desk. Here is a quick photo of the desk...built entirely from parts purchased at Ikea. Well, except for the shelf, that was bought from the lumber store.
Do you feel driven to making Independant Films? Do you watch art house films...and actually LIKE them?
Then you might have INDIE FEVER. Indie Fever is a crippling addiction that effects people nationwide...heck, GLOBALLY. But don't worry, there is help. The first step is to admit you have a problem. Once you do that, then please visit the Indie Fever website to find out how you can get help.
Well, I am still awaiting my MacPro. Everything else has arrived: Kona 3 with K-BOX, HD10AVA, RAM, X1900XT Graphics card...heck, I even bought the pieces to the desk I intend to build today. I am discussing the arrival of my machine on this thread on the Apple forums. Trying to build tension, and have fun discussions that aren't meant to solve issues.
I'll post desk pics when I get the thing together. I bought various pieces at Ikea, but the design will be unique.
With the most recent Mac OS Update, OSX 10.5.2, the Matrox MXO is now compatible with all Mac models, INCLUDING the new MacBook Pros. Finally.
To get this to work, the following is REQUIRED:
Update to Leopard 10.5.2 Then Update to Leopard Graphic Update 1.0 Then install the Matrox MXO 2.1.1 drivers.
This has been tested by Matrox and according to them, it works. This has always been a thorn in my side, as I try to recommend this great box, only to have to tell people, "sorry, it doesn't work with the new MacBook Pro models."
(Freemont Street light show - I was in Vegas this weekend)
I am on the verge of buying a new edit system for my next project, so I thought that I'd take this opportunity to talk about setting up a good working system. Unfortunately I won't get into exact details on OS versions and QT versions, because that is information that I and others keep closely guarded as this is information we use for consulting. But I would like to explain the general steps and reasons for those steps.
