Future, The

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 then saved out to a hard drive using Vision Research’s proprietary Cine file format.

I wrote two articles for the Final Cut Pro User's Group Supermeet at NAB. They appeared in the SuperMag magazine. Here's part one of the second article looking at Simplemente's work with the Phantom HD camera:

Rune Hansen and Monica Reina at Simplemente in Mexico City recently acquired a Phantom HD Digital Cinema camera from Vision Research. We got to shoot a bunch of slow-motion footage and then worked with it in Final Cut Pro to create demo reels for theatrical projection. We needed to accomplish all of this in the space of about 48 hours.

The Phantom HD’s claim to fame is the ability to shoot uncompressed, high speed footage at up to 1,000 frames per second (fps) and up to 2K (2048x2048 pixels) resolution using a special CMOS imager. It accepts standard PL-mount 35mm cinema lenses and is also capable of capturing in standard and HD resolutions from 1 fps all the way up to 1,000.

...and it pains me to say it. But it is the truth and I have to call it like I see it.

The past three days I have been trying to restore an old project. It's a decently complex project with green screen, tons of cuts, P2 footage and tape footage. I have not been able to get FCP to reconnect to anything properly wihtout going through file by file. This process should have taken a day at most with the recaptures and p2 reimport, instead I am on day 3.

I usually have excellent luck with Media Manager and XMLs, but this project is truly testing my patience. Also, i am totally bummed out by it all.

All the plugins are old and I have new versions of the fxplugs now which don't translate, the P2 media is giving me fits (it comes in fine, but won't reconnect to the timeline) and the things that do relink are relinking to wrong items sometimes-but-not-all-of-the-time. ALso, there were some rendered materials that I have as self contained movies, and they are playing back improperly in FCP now. It's just a low down dirty mess.

Ok, to start, I've been reading about Shane's exploits for a long time on lafcpug here and now on his blog and he's had some interesting rigs involving rubberbands (i seem to remember that was you in a g5 with a rubberbanded set of drives) and now his latest macbeast.

Well i've had my mac pro since about a month or so before the octos came out. And Since then I've added a HDD a few times, which started first as a place to put media, than it was a third drive to put music and project files on. then it was another drive which i raided with the other 500 inside to create a 1tb raid 0 setup. I repartitioned 1 drive to install leopard on 1 part and keep music and projects on another.

So at this point I'm up to 4 drives, and 1 optical drive and the stock 2 gigs of ram (i know...i know)

So I have set my sites on jobs when I graduate. It's pretty clear I'm not going to be inducted to the orphanage as their newest lead compositor straight out of college, not that it hurts to dream mind you, but it certainly hurts to expect such things. So I've been focusing on a much more realistic vacancy: Roto Artist.

In this day and age many pundits criticize the public for not sacrificing certain aspects of their lives for the preservation of life as we understand it. Pundits also criticize the government for not asking people to help constrict the world's voracious appetite for all things that keep us comfy and cozy. Oil, water, food, medicine, natural resources, energy and all of the natural driving forces of these times for some of which we have a finite supply. Since I am now joining the "punditry" by writing here and pretending I know something about something, I'd like to shout out my concerns and criticisms and ask for sacrifice.

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 the COW, I wouldn't be the person I am now. So thanks! Ok lets begin shall we?