Recently, I attended an excellent HD Workshop & Mini-Expo presented by Digital CONNtent Creators http://www.digitalct.org/ at Tripeg Studios in Hamden, CT. This event was very informative and I am still amazed by how rapidly the technology in our industry evolves and grows. There is no question that in order to survive these changes you must understand and embrace them, so thanks to Keith Larsen and the rest of the crew that put this show together. This November marks my 25th anniversary in this industry and throughout my career I’ve witnessed the many changes in the tools we use to do...
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...
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...
Well I don't know about the clothing optional part, but it's definitely a good gig for the right person with good Final Cut Pro skills..... http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/tfr/1250992268.html...
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 BAC Colorant 02 32 64 128 B1-Black - 20 1 - Y3-Deep Gold - 5 – 1 Why do you need 18% grey? Well it helps to keep your eyes neutral while you edit and color grade...
Tim Robinson is the Corporate Video Editor for Pride Mobility Products Corp. Makers of the Jazzy Powerchair, Scooters, Lift Chairs and other mobility products! At our company we’ve been strictly a PC world. When the new head of IT asked us, “Why don’t you guys run macs? My daughter’s graphic design school runs nothing but macs!” We had to explain his predecessor strictly prohibited using macs because his IT staff could not “support” them. Before he even finished the sentence “What if we bought you guys…” we excitedly shouted ‘YES!’ The transition was not easy for both IT and later...
If I am waiting for a plane or waiting for the distance between Connecticut and California to shrink, I sometimes recall past experiences. This was supposed to be the goal of this blog, but the present seems a lot more interesting. So we'll take a break from the hustle and bustle and recall a few unique experiences. One can always learn from the past. I am somewhat methodical in my, er, methods, so I'll go sequentially... 1994 My first solo shoot. Having accompanied several shooters on about a dozen trips both in the OR and other settings, it was time...
Andreas Kiel of Spherico Film Tools and Björn Adamski of MXF4mac have been cooking up a totally awesome P2 metadata editor called P2 Flow that will now send all kinds of useful information to FCP. I have been fortunate enough to see a sneak peek of it in action and I got permission to show you all as well. I hope you are as excited about it as I am. Some caveats, this is a work in progress, some features you see may or may not make it in to the final version, this is meant as a proof of...
EDIUS has a lot of tools / utility shipped with it. Utilities to import P2, XDCAM and others types of content. One of these utility is called K2 CONNECT. K2 Connect is a software interface to the Grass Valley Mediaclient or servers. and one of its functionality is to provide FTP access to the content of the server, so multiple EDIUS can download copies of the K2 content to the EDIUS local storage, edit them and send back the edited piece to the Server for playback. this feature is extremely useful, when stand alone servers are used and that you...
There are three elements to a good media project. 1. A Good Story 2. Good Images 3. The Right Music A good story should tell itself. Don't allow yourself to force parts together that don't fit if the dialog isn't there. Use narration to bridge caps and make connections between thoughts, but only if needed. Good images are well lit and composed. They tell a story all their own. The right music is probably the most important of the 3. You can set moods and generate emotions with the right music. You can set the pace of the story with...
Here we go, first entry in my cow blog.... let's make this one about a product that is gaining a lot of momentum in a lot of different places, different workflows... I am going to talk about GV's EDIUS which is now shipping version 5.1. EDIUS is not the most powerful editor in terms of editing feature set, although you will find the Multicamera, trimming, effects, color correction and so on like on a lot of good editors out there. it's a little bit like comparing MS's Excel with Apple's Numbers... Numbers is not as powerful as Excel but the...
The usual edit bay (we used to call them edit bays back when an online editing suite resembled the bridge of the Enterprise. Today an edit bay resembles a computer desk - results may vary - consult your pharmacist)…The usual edit bay may or may not have a window. Very often the only light is dimmable track lighting, perhaps a lava lamp and the soothing red glow of the mouse. My particular office is just that - an office - in which we happen to do editing. Office Half of my Office Edit Bay Half of my Edit Bay Lately...
A long time collegue, Tom Clifford, http://www.directortom.com/ , taught me years ago the power of the transcript. It is the single most important step in producing an unscripted, interview based video. Anyone who has had to shutlle back and forth through hours of raw footage, trying to cobble together some kind of a message, will certainly appreciate the advantage of a timecoded transcript. The most obvious benefit is having the client highlight the important points and strike the irrelavent and erroneous ones. Now you have a timecoded list of all the pertinent statements to digitize and work with, saving you...
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...
If anyone out there needs / wants a Dual Link to 3G Converter, AJA Video Systems has a nice little mini-converter out there. http://www.aja.com/html/products_converters_3GM.html 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. More details soon....
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...
What we need to remember is that at the end of the day what we do as editors is tell stories. It is our responsibility to connect the client and the target viewer with a clear and focused message, because every story has the power to bring about change. Change to the audience and the world around us. We need to make sure that our clients message is understood, and that the viewer is moved to action....
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...
While this is the title of a popular show on BBC, I borrow the name for this post because I have come across some treasures of my own in my soon to be former office/loft/former attic. It is time to relocate my office temporarily. In cleaning up my mess, I have come across boxes of old papers - mostly junk destined for the bin. Here is the first gem, directions for setting up your edit suite. Honestly I neither remember writing this nor doing most of it. How quickly we get used to newer technology! Enjoy: The Finer Points of...
If you grew up in the late 70's or early 80's like I did, you could not go five minutes without seeing one of the now famous spelling commercials on tv. First came the Oscar Meyer jingle: Oscar Meyer has a way of B-O-L-O-G-N-A. Next came Tommy Lasorda spelling relief R-O-L-A-I-D-S. No wonder I can spell so well! The subject of this post, thus, is about the letters (and symbols) that mean a lot to me: Relief from endless mouse clicks and eye movement in Premiere is spelled J-K-L-; Let me explain. Back in the day I was edited a...
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 &...
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...
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 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...
The PCIe (PCI Express) standard will have a disruptive impact on the business and workflow processes in video/production/post production/etc. Leading storage vendors are catching on to the idea as we speak. The industry currently faces technology challenges in dealing with the continual purchasing of storage equipment to keep up with the rising needs of performance and archiving...
I'd like to say I have been so busy catching up on work that I have not had a chance to write new posts. This is partially true. Partially, I took a week to visit my folks in insanely sunny Florida, helped my wife through some medical troubles (no, for the last time, I did not film it) and have in fact been pretty busy at work. Oh, and I discovered I know a lot of people on Facebook. But back to the important topic of workflow. As described in excrutiating detail in previous posts, I make the most of...
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...
We re working on a corporate documentary type of project that involves teenagers who lived through Hurricane Katrina. The project is all shot in high definition and of course, the producer was in the market for some news footage of the hurricane and its aftermath to help craft the story. Looking around the web we found buyoutfootage.com with the most reasonably priced footage, about $450 for 19 minutes of the aftermath rescues and such. The description of the reel describes pretty much exactly what we were looking for with military personnel helping people, flooded streets, the mayor walking around, etc.......
So, day two of the shooting extravaganza went great. We started in the OR with about a dozen people and 4 cameras, then broke into two crews for the rest of the day. I hired two actors to role play about 15 different training scenarios. While we had about 25 pages of scripts, we improvised some new scenes and modified or deleted existing scenes. Overall it was loads of fun, single-camera film style setups. I even did a little acting. As the day progressed from 7:30am call time to 4:30 wrap, people were getting a bit punchy and goofy, and...
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 -...
5/30/2008 SUGAR HILL, GA 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...
Now here's something interesting, the folks over at Silverado Systems have partnered up with Vuze to create a different kind of contest. OpenCut is a completely open-source film competition designed to encourage people to take professionally shot material and edit it in their own way. As there is no "one way" to tell a story, so too can stories benefit from being re-edited and re-told from many different vantage points and perspectives. They have a short film shot on the RED camera with dailies they'll copy over to your hard drive. Then you cut it altogether any way you want...
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. Last Friday he finished cutting his show...strung all the segments together, checked everything before the final render, then...
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 LA’s Citrus College of the Performing Arts is conducting a 4-week summer INTRO TO PRO HD workshop with Emmy-winning HISTORY/DISCOVERY Channel writer/producer/director Jim Lindsay. One of LA’s best-kept secrets for arts education, Citrus has been the home of the Grammy Foundation’s summer “Grammy...
Once we have the actual shot, we can then control the downloading of footage from the camera using Vision Research’s software. Thus far they’ve only released a version that runs on Windows. In order to preserve the Mac-loving image of Simplemente, we decided to run it on a MacBook Pro with Boot Camp. We can then select the ins and outs of any particular shot. Typically the exact moment you want to save is a tiny fraction of that 6 minute take and the rest is a lot of frames with no activity you can delete. The selected portions are...
Hello everyone ! I've been doing editing since the last 3 years, I've heard and read a lot about the subject and even though I still consider myself a newbie, I believe that the editing software we use has NOTHING TO DO with the quality of a movie. Editing is the art of puting video sequences at the right place at the right time. In my mind, even with Windows Movie Maker, people like Terry Rawlings or Pietro Scalia for example would still create a masterpiece ! If there's something that bugs me is when I see people arguing about...
Recently I was asked to make a video loop to play on the hotel television system during this week's convention. No problem, I had already begun receiving videos. The format requirements were simple: DV tape, DVCAM tape or authored DVD. In reality, I received videos in the following formats: DV tape, Authored DVD, Windows Media, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, H.264, DIVX - all the usual suspects. In most cases this is not a problem, Premiere Pro 2.0 will import just about every format. A few files had to be converted to another format due to the wrong audio frequency (32 vs...
No, that's not the name of a new company - but it sounds good actually. I actually was thinking of the term "go fast boats" as used in the Miami Vice movie(it has been on HBO in a loop). Basically fast racing boats used for smuggling. This week was a go fast production week. Monday - Pack my gear, print Google maps of two hospitals and a client's offices in Massachusetts. Fuel up the Wagon Queen Family Truckster (Saturn ION) for a mere $30, and hit the road. I also hit the library to stock up on books for my...
In Part 2 of this series, I gave you some thoughts on setting up your shop. If you missed that part or Part 1, links are at the bottom of this article. Now that the doors are open, the furniture and equipment is in, we need to get the word out so you can really get your company running and building. Just because you’re open, doesn’t mean people are just going to find you. Congratulations! Hopefully by now you’ve finished off that bottle of champagne, grape juice, coffee, or whatever it was you used to toast your new company. The...
This is Part 1 of a 4 Part series on Starting and Running your own business in the creative industry. We start out this week by asking, Are You Ready? Are you really ready to step out on your own and become your own boss? Before you say yes, consider these thoughts. Recently I posted a blog entry detailing the wonderful experience we had upgrading our facility with fellow Creative COW leader Bob Zelin. An unexpected response to that entry was someone who found the setup of our facility somewhat overwhelming. He was questioning what would he need to start...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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....
This is something i wrote in another forum about Phenomenon apple s new compositor. it s sad. i trouble shoot fcp daily...actually..a lot more than that. they do such a sh*t job of making apps. really they do. I have NO faith in any major app they release with the spotty work they have done since i got into their proapps fcp 4.5 was THE most stable fcp ever, 5.0 went down the hole, 5.1 showed a resemblance of coming back to ok, and to say that i ve been happy with fcs2 and all that has happened around that...
Ongoing discussion at the Apple FCP forum. I am in a pickle. And goes to show that even people who are FCP Gurus and forum leaders aren t infallible. OK...the situation thus far. I needed a MacPro 3.0Ghz that was to be included in a Tiger SAN network running XSAN. The new MacPros...the one I ordered, do not come with Tiger installed, they come with Leopard. In fact, they are designed to work with Leopard and Apple highly recommends AGAINST installing previous OS versions on the newer machines as they might not function properly. They are designed to work with...
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. Well now...
(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. First off, lemme get into the specs of the...
While I have never traveled as much as I did in 2000, my job continues to send me on a few different kinds of trips. Recently I received a new laptop, with the hope that time spent locked in a metal tube 5 miles up could be a bit more productive than reading the latest Harry Potter book. Oh yeah, we are out of new Harry Potter books, which is a good thing because those things are heavy. We selected the Dell Vostro. For the price it is a good value. Core 2 Duo, 2gigs ram, 160gig 7200rpm...
While I am on a plane to New Jersey (business purposes), I thought I d take a little time to make a quick post. I am taking a little break from editing the documentary trailer. Things are slow going and the deadline was extended, because of a couple reasons. First off, I have a LOT of interviews to sort through for quote. And second, because a script is being written while I do this, and it isn t done yet. But the script will really be just a guide, one that I can add to, subtract from...change. Typical stuff, but...
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...
When Steve Jobs was giving his keynote speech for MacWorld 2008, my buddy Jared and I were standing in the CalDigit booth, both of us staring at our iPhones...parked on the MacRumors site and reading the announcements as they came. That s right...we BOTH had our iPhones out. Wy didn t we just look at one and conserve the other s battery? We were excited. WE ARE MAC ADDICTS! And last year the keynote was exciting. But, with each announcement, our excitement faded. iPhone update? OK...cool. Now I can make my icons dance. Now what? Oh, I can find where...
Until this weekend I have avoided the Media Manager, which has been dubbed the media mangler for good reason. In the past, when you used the Media Manager to do anything, it would produce varying results....none of them the correct ones. It still has issues with SPEED CHANGES, but that is because actual media isn t made. But other than that, its reputation has improved. So, here I am working on a project, that documentary trailer that was shot HDV and that I captured as ProRes and DVCPRO HD. I settled on editing it using the DVCPRO HD captures, because...
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...
One of the things I am known for are my SHANE S STOCK ANSWERS to commonly asked questions. Getting a little tired of typing the same answer over and over, I decided to build a sort of FAQ (frequently asked questions) database and call them Shane s Stock Answers. So when the question came up, I d simply copy and paste my answer. People have often asked if I had a place I stored all of my stock answers...a site they could quickly search through to find what they want. Well yes, as a matter of fact, now I do:...
1/19/2008 SUGAR HILL, GEORGIA 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...
Everyone is talking about the new MacBook Air that was announced by His Jobsness yesterday at Macworld 2008 in San Francisco. I think you ll find that the majority of people s initial reactions are not glowing and positive as is the buzz with most newly announced Apple products. Yesterday was a far cry from the fan fare surrounding the iPhone announcement last year at Macworld or even all-but-forgotten Mac Mini in 05. I m a professional video editor so I m going to be looking at the product from this specific professional point of view and trying to see...
Originally posted on The Editblog . I recently got suckered into a low budget music video. How low budget? The decision was made not to hire an audio person for playback. Without that audio person it meant there would be no audio master made for the song and no timecode slate for syncing later in post. What was the solution? Use an iPod with video and make our own timecode slate! We dropped the audio into a timeline and then applied a timecode generator to a slug for one version of the song and color bars to another. This was...
OK. I am going out on a limb, but I am going to say it out loud and on the World Wide Web. I love MEDIA MANGER IN FCP. I am sure that you are all hearing the sounds of people hitting the floor, but it is true: I think that the Media Manager in FCP rocks. I am a bit sick of people bitching about the MM in FCP but I have to say that I have become a student of it and I have been using it to my advantage. I think that the biggest problem with MM...
This portion of my three-part catch-up blogs focuses on the audio portion of my music video project. I have read many tutorials and seen just about every podcast on how to lip-sync animation to audio in After Effects. Alas, after much trial and error, none of those methods worked. It wasn t until I got a response on Adobe s Audition forums , that I was given a somewhat workable solution. What I wanted to do is have the main beat to the song be the rhythm to the video. And to be over-literal, have a clock ticking to the...
Hey everyone - I just finished my first tutorial here with a new site I am starting ProVideoSchool.com. Please check it out and feel free to comment. (not sure if I can do embeds here so if not, I ll post the direct links. Also, these and future video posts can be seen on my other blog site, www.paulescandon.com/blog) http://www.paulescandon.com/blog/?p=21 http://vimeo.com/313140 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPoeSSVeKis The tutorial is how to achieve a quick and dirty bleach bypass look using nothing but the Final Cut Pro color correction filters....
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...
Before I go into this, if you haven t read Chris Poisson s article here at the Cow on how to capture HDV as ProRes 422 via firewire please do so now. I ll wait. http://library.creativecow.net/articles/poisson_chris/hdv-prores.php ... Alright, let s talk about what I am doing now. I have been hired to edit a 5-10 min Teaser for a documentary...a teaser that will be used as a fund raising tool to solicit more money to finish shooting and editing this documentary. This documentary was shot on HDV at 1080i 29.97 using the Sony VU1 HDV camera...with another one as b-camera,...
Hi everyone - I ve been pretty silent for the last few months because I ve been hard at work on a new Creative Cow Master Series DVD - Internet Killed the Video Star: A guide to Creating Video for the Web. The 4.5 hour DVD will be available very shortly. Feel free to spread the word. Here s the basic description of the DVD: Whether you’re posting video for a client, putting your demo reel on-line, creating a video podcast, or building video training for the web, the Internet is conspiring to keep your work from looking its best....
Ok, so I supose I should start one of these with an introduction to my self, and though I will be talking about me whenever i'm talking here and my experiences, we all had to start some where, and the start is where we are at. So lets begin shall we? First off, if you have issues with bad grammar and possibly bad spelling, than I recommend you leave asap, as I am good at neither. Secondly, I want to thank you for reading the following, and any subsequent entries. If it wasn't for the COW, and the readers at...
A.C.E. editor Harry B. Miller III (http://imdb.com/name/nm0587823/) over at the American Cinema Editors Blog (http://ace-filmeditors.org/blog/index.html) talks about his experience in editing a feature film with FCP. A nice frank post about the strengths and weaknesses of the application in a tapeless feature film workflow. (thanks to Scott at the EditBlog for the link)...
Well, it was inevitable. Sooner or later I d have to work on a project that was shot with an HDV camera. And now here it comes. It will be a trailer for a documentary on Shamanism. I say trailer with quotes because it isn t like a movie trailer...2 min tease of what the movie is about. No, it is a partially shot documentary in need of finishing funds. So I will be cutting a 10 min mini-doc (do I love those quotation marks or what?) about the subject. And it was shot on HDV. With the VU1. And...
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...
This comes from the Scott Simmons over at the Editblog. http://www.scottsimmons.tv/blog/2007/12/12/quicktip-identify-fcp-filter-in-the-timeline/ I have heard people ask for this all the time, and I didn t know how to do it either. All these things that FCP can do...some people know how to do this, some how to do that. Great thing is that we can share those tips with other. Thanks Scott....
A few weeks ago we drove up to Burbank and shot Outdoor Channel show host Michael Waddell on a green screen for Outdoor Channel Broadband ( outdoorchannel.tv ) and OutdoorChannel.com site tutorials. I shot on Sony HDCAM and composited the pieces together in After Effects. Big ups to Rich Sinatra for virtually creating a copy of our entire site from within After Effects - he did all the dirty work and I just had to tweak some of the changes that have been made to our site in the last few months. Also, John Beattie recorded sound and produced the...
My FULL review of the Matrox MXO and the new 2.0 drivers (which actually came out in April) is up here at the Creative Cow. http://library.creativecow.net/articles/ross_shane/MXO.php...
Here I sit in the online of my latest show, watching someone else do all the work. This show, SURGERY SAVED MY LIFE ( Battleground Miami is the episode title...on Discovery Health) was done the old fashioned way, an offline/online workflow. We offlined on Avid Meridian v11s on G4 s running OS9....all the media on a Unity. Sure, it s old, but it still works and works well. I had very few issues, and really enjoyed being back on an Avid. Well, I cursed at it a few times when I had to do something that in FCP would be...
To edit your version of her latest music video, BOUNCING IN THE CLOUDS. http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/ToriAmos/bouncingoffclouds/ The website has posted FULL RES quicktime files of each camera angle (five of them) in the DV codec. And from the look of it there is a LOT of green screen work for this. So this isn t only an exercise in creative editing of a music video, but also compositing work with green screen. Now, green screening DV, which is a bit of a task, but some good practice nuntheless. Now, I find this to be a BRILLIANT idea. Release the footage to a...
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...
Whew...what a hectic two weeks. The two weeks I talked about two posts ago. But now, that pressure is off. Well, not off, but lessened by QUITE a bit. Met with the director, the lead actor (also a producer) and the main producer on Saturday to look at a rough cut of the first half of the show and talk things over. Overall they liked it. Wondered why a few things were missing, and it was due to it not being in the script and me not knowing where it went. So I took notes and we talked things over...
OK...I haven t posted anything in a while (although I have a LOT to say) because I am busy. And I mean...BUSY. I am working on three projects at once: 1) Discovery Channel show (day job that pays the bills), 2) Short film that I am color correcting and prepping the audio for a mix, and 3) A short film by the same director that I am editing. On the Discovery show, I am entering editing territory I am not too familiar with. CHARACTER driven show...they want to focus on the doctors and their motivations...how life in the trauma center...
Most of you who know me are very familiar with this project that I am working on, but for those of you who don’t, here is a link.. I invested A LOT of my time into this project. I traveled to Sri Lanka with Eric Klein and James Sicignano in early 2005 to document the tsunami that happened in December 2004 - and spent countless hours, with the help of Eric Klein and Matt Bieler, cutting this trailer for a movie that we are still in the process of making. Here is the direct page link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D__yFDBIR_4...
Next weekend I’m going to be travelling to Kansas City, MO to shoot an NPPL paintball event that is going to be broadcast live over the Internet on www.nppllive.com . This is going to be the first time that I’m going to be working an event like this and I’m looking forward to the run-and-gun shoot, edit, and deliver process that we’re going to have going. Basically, the event is streamed live over the Internet with a production switcher that I imagine handles 3 or 4 camera angles. Since there is down time during the day that would normally translate...
As glad as I was to see Mr. Scorcese finally earn a well-deserved Oscar for directing, I was even gladder to see Thelma Schoonmaker earn her third one for Best Achievement in Editing, for her work on The Departed. She also won in 1981 for Raging Bull and 2005 for The Aviator. She was nominated for Gangs of New York, Goodfellas, and in 1971, Woodstock. (I remember that Scorcese was an editor on that as well, credited as Marty Scorcese. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I remember that, in addition to Asst. Director, he was listed...
SUGAR HILL, GA 9/8/2007 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...
Remember your Mentors. I had a few great ones during college, and I believe everyone starting out should have one. Prior to going to college, that is high school, I was not really interested in learning, or reading, aside from the required readings. However a few key instructors in college, even before actual production classes, activated some dormant gene in my brain. Thus a love of reading and learning was born. Prof. Markham - I could be mistaken about his name, it was 17 years ago, but my first semester Freshman year history professor was hated by most of his...
I have become the type of editor that I used to make fun of as an assistant. In fact, I am sure the two assistants we have on this show are making fun of ME as I write this. What is that kind of editor? The one who doesn t pay attention to what drive they are rendering to, or capturing to. The one who when something bad technical happens, is pretty much useless in terms of figuring anything out. How did this happen? I was the assistant who figured all of this stuff out. I knew all the tricks...
I was chatting with an editor friend of mine the other day about this and that...installing updates that won t break FCP, our various experiences with shows that we were/are working on, network nonsense...when the conversation turned to transitions. We were just talking about editing and concentrating on a good story were key, and how many productions/networks try to make shows better by adding fancy transitions. Complaining more like it. We are always asked to make it better or more exciting with cool transitions But, does it really? No...well, they may LOOK cool...I suppose...but does it make the show better?...
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...
A technology company I regularly talk to told me about this cool little tool that can really help keep your Mac Pro cooler by increasing the Fan RPM s inside the box. What s really nice is that the change in RPM is completely silent. It s freeware called SMS FanControl and it s up to version 2.1.2. After installation you simply set the RPM you want for the various regions of the machine. In the case of the Mac Pro there are four regions and the default for these regions are 500 - 600 RPM. The folks suggested I...
Having run out of present day things to talk about, allow me to get back into the groove or recalling past experiences. Summer 1994 We got a project doing a promotional video for a local hospital. The on-camera hosts were Skitch Henderson, former leader of the Tonight Show band, and his wife Ruth. Day one included the on-camera intro, using the trusty TRS-80 powered teleprompter. Being entertainers, they nailed the intros, and we were off to shoot other b-roll around the hospital. At one point we needed a "patient" in bed, so I began my tradition of appearing in videos....
For about 2 months I kept putting off the project I completed today. As with most things for which one procrastinates, the actual work turns out to be not so bad. This project should be a straight forward edit. Client reviewed the TC VHS dubs, wrote accurate times, and sent me the tapes. Only problem is, I did not shoot the video. Nor did I make the time code dubs. 1. The person who made the TC dubs read time-code off the VHS tape - or they set a tape counter and let it run as a superimposed time-code-like readout....
I am sitting on a plane, heading to Florida for a much needed vacation. My parents are excited to show me their canasta skills! This got me thinking about my travel experiences related to video production of course. Let me begin by saying that as many hundreds of airplanes I have been on, it still amazes me that you can strap yourself into a metal tube with wing-shaped gas tanks, and travel at 300-500mph, then land and come to a stop without an explosion. It is a miracle. Now on with the show... Upon taking my job duping tapes, my...
I have been thinking about this for a couple of years. My background is over ten years of still photography experience and only a couple in video/multimedia. After seeing all the assorted multimedia applications with so many bells and whistles, this kid with the camera , who had never put it down, did just that. I moved from Tennessee to Maine and enrolled in a video/multimedia production Associates program because I felt behind and limited in technologies, which I was. Began an internship with a CBS affiliate two weeks into it. Was hired after my first semester. Hardly touched a still camera in Maine. Very...
The first video I ever made was American Money a 3 minute video for 8th grade history class. I did almost no research or preparation, to the point where I was drawing each frame before shooting. Oddly enough I have met producers with the same preparation skills! Seriously, it was one of several school projects using video. Note to reader, this was in 1986 using a video camera attached to a boom box sized portable VHS recorder. The secret to these early videos was in-camera editing. Shoot what you want in the sequence it needs to be and don t...
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....
My tests on DVCPro HD 1080i/60 Material 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”...
My tests on DVCPro HD 720p/60 Material 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”...
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...
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!...
Hi all! Here are some links referenced by our All Things Apple - Audio Production episode. Jayne Olderman - www.redwarriorrecords.com Patrick Belden - http://www.beldenmusic.com/Home.html Apple Logic - http://www.apple.com/logicpro/ DigiDesign ProTools - http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=2 langid=100 itemid=22700 For collecting royalties: http://www.soundexchange.com/index.html For registering copyrights: http://www.copyright.gov/ And here s a couple of shots of Jayne, Patrick and I at Jayne s Studio during the podcast recording....
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...
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....
I always thought IMDB was nothing more than a huge listing of people and movies, cross-referenced ad infinitum. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon +Ask a Filmmaker+ . Very cool feature....
I have toyed with the notion of having a blog for a while now, but only yesterday did i actually find something worth discussing online...namely Artbollocks, and how it pertains to the video industry. If its a term you are not famiiar with let me explain....It refers to the way "artists" justify what they do by means of pretentious, overly complex and fanciful descriptions validating whatever creative decision they have finally chosen to take. I was reminded of this just yesterday, when visiting a major exhibition of works by an internationally renowned (and for the sake of this blog -...
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...
Life is stranger than fiction, or so they say. And even though my day to day existence doesn't contain much fodder for prize winning television, there are many true stories out there that make for riveting viewing. If the term "documentary" makes you yawn, you might need to shed your preconceived notions of picture slideshows. This genre is full of creativity and artistic expression. In fact, I'd say that watching documentaries is one of the best ways to learn the elusive art of storytelling. So before you go to Blockbuster for yet another Hollywood crafted fable, take a few minutes...
Wow. I just got done listening to music at Stock20.com , and was quite impressed with the quality/price ratio. Only seven bucks for these songs? I don t know how this company makes a profit, but if you need some music, get it from here before they raise their prices! In fact, if you use this address: www.stock20.com/eventdv , you get one free song for opening an account. Hey, don t be slow in clicking that link. Do it now! You can always come back and finish reading this blog later......
Jeff Schell s Premiere Pro workshop, June 9th and 10th (a weekend) looks good. If the class makes enrollment and I can get the time off from work I ll be there. I ve wanted to visit the Pacific NW anyway... http://www.jeffschell.com/class.html...
Like I said earlier, your demo reel has a very short period of time in which to grab a prospective client s attention and convince them that you have what it takes to deliver the goods. So how can you maximize on that short span? 1) Put your best foot forward...ASAP! Make the first 15-30 seconds of your demo reel electric. Your best footage, the best spot you ve ever done, the best scenes from your short film - whatever you re putting in, make it, you guessed it, the best. 2) Customize your reel to match your strengths to...
I returned back home from Las Vegas and NAB on Tuesday night after spending 2 1/2 days in the City of Sin, my last few hours being spent at the wonderful Hofbräuhaus next to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino where I, along with coworkers and friends, downed their great tasting German lager out of ridiculously massive 1 liter glass steins while enjoying what I have to imagine is "classic" Bavarian folk music. After having a few days back home to digest what I saw and learned (not to mention playing catch up on the current show I'm editing for...
Well. I might have bought Logic for no reason (thank god I make music too), But i was relieved to see that they finally got the OMF imtegrated in this version of soundtrack. How many times have I wanted to export an OMF from my FCP timeline into another app (other than Protools) on my mac to do the final mix on some of my projects. I can tell you that there was a huge sign of relief when I saw that the new version of the software was going to make it really easy to import OMF. For those...
It s a relief because the speculation has ended and we can focus on how we are going to use these creative tools in our everyday lives. In my case it s as a film maker and I have to say that I am thrilled. I like to think of myself as a complete film maker. My background is as an editor and everytime I see a release like this, I can t help but think about how much I wish it was all coming sooner. I mean, I m not getting any younger and these are all of the...
As the old saying goes, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk...and that applies to video production skills. Even though you know your level of expertise and are convinced of your suitability for a particular job, how does the client or employer determine whether what you say matches what you do? Even quoting past experience and credits might not be enough to sway a skeptical opinion. No, the true key to recognition is in your demo reel. A demo reel allows a potential employer an opportunity to see your work in action and to judge for...
... at least for this project. While tweaking the markers I had set up in Audition of the demo version of the song, Audition crashed. Like a first-time user, I just glanced at the screen and thought that my changes before the crash were still there and saved the file instead of Save As... . I was using the Spectral Display in Audition to see where the kick drum hit in the audio since I want to make my animation sync with the music. When I looked at the Spectral Display of the audio, nothing was there. So, I reinstalled...
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...
Well here are some images for those of you who aren t able to be here. I ll give my full verbal breakdown a little bit later... I m too tired to get into it right now......
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...
Well folks, NAB 2007 is upon us and I hope to be able to meet some of you. So if you re going to Las Vegas, here is where you ll definitely find me! Sunday April 15 - Apple Event AM, Panasonic Event PM Monday April 16 - AJA Booth all day, Booth SL6113 directly across from Apple. Tuesday April 17 - AJA Booth AM, Booth SL6113. Creative Cow booth PM, Booth SL2626. Between Adobe and Grass Valley (on your right as you walk to the Apple booth.) Wednesday, April 18 - Presenting HD Finishing in Final Cut Pro as...
Well here it goes, my first post on yet another new blog... Thank you, thank you. Please stop your applause. No, seriously. Okay.. While I ve started many blogs in the last 5 years with only a couple remaining (pretty much just personal/family type blogs) I m always a little hesitant to go all out with a new one - but having a blog on Creative Cow was really appealing to me since I have never had a blog primarily devoted to the industry I currently work in and my professional interests - and those are editing, motion graphics, directing, production,...
We all know how techno-centric our industry is. And how quickly that technology changes. Simply keeping up with all the new capabilities, gear, workflows, software, platforms, etc. can be a full-time job. And gear is critical. We can t do our jobs without it, and we can t do our jobs *well* if we don t know how to best *use* that gear. But.... we re supposed to be creative artists, too. In fact, I d argue that those who find long-term success in this business aren t necessarily those with the most gear, but instead, those who can find...
So I ve been dealing with several issues with an international network that has a primarily European distribution area. We seemed to have everything worked out this morning and suddenly I get a notice from QC that our audio was suddenly rejected as being 8db too hot. 8db too hot! I m completely dumbfounded. How can audio on this show, which was professionally mixed, be 8db too hot? We ve already delivered three episodes and each passed QC with flying colors and suddenly we screwed up this big? Of course I check the timeline first and foremost. Tone is -20db,...
EDIT TO TAPE- A STEP BY STEP GUIDE First off command 0 opens the sequence settings. Type in 00;58;40;00 as your sequence start time for the final sequence you want to output to tape. Click OK. The next step is to layback one minute of color bars at the head of your sequence. You then want to place a program slate after the bars for ten seconds. then put in a two pop at 00:59:58:00 Next you want to set your program start to 01:00;00;00. Type the value 01:00;00;00 in the tap left corner of the timeline to...
So a recent thread in the Creative Cow Final Cut Pro forum about Internal vs. External RAID's got me thinking more about the subject. I'm a firm believer in external RAID's and really don't have any desire to install 3 or 4 drives inside my Mac Pro tower. Let's think about this. Companies like LaCie, Ciprico, Medéa, CalDigit, Facilis and others spend a lot of time in research and development to produce storage solutions that are not only fast, but reliable. Every board, every drive, every switch, everything about that storage solution has been drawn up, assembled and tested by...
I went to another blog that explained the value of rubber keyboard covers for different programs. I thought that is a very novel idea, protection plus all the shortcut key labels. WRONG!!!! As I did a search I find they are only made for Apple products. Why hasn t someone done this for PC s. It seems more and more editing programs are being built for PC s many of which don t even have an Apple counterpart. No one has thought about creating keyboard covers for PC s? That seems really strange. Charlie...
We've discovered an audio issue when using the Panasonic AJ-HD1400. A high end "crackle" is being added that sounds somewhat like sizzling bacon or crackling cellophane when laying back to tape via Firewire. I honestly can't hear it as I have a hearing loss in both ears, but the fine folks at CineFilm in Atlanta who convert our DVCPro HD masters to HDCAM heard it and alerted us. We tested a second 1400 unit and the problem occurred there too so it appears to be an issue with the model line. Panasonic is aware and are currently working on the...
I have a blog now, so I thought I would take you guys and gals into the Edit Suite and let y'all know what we're working on at Biscardi Creative Media. 2/28/2007 , Cutting Episode 4 of the environment series, "Assignment Earth" and this episode focuses on the Mekong River in Thailand. Footage is stunning HD shot by Roger Herr of Atlanta who traveled to Thailand with Producer / Host Gary Strieker. Roger and Gary took a Sony Z1 HDV camera with them because a lot of travel was via very small boat on the Mekong and if they were...
