Breaking The First Rule Of Non-Linear Editing, Part Two

Our story so far:  Our intrepid editor and geek just spent about $7000 on a new editing computer.  To try and save money, he bought the HP Z800 without a DVD drive or video card.  When he finally tries to install the BluRay burner...)

“bump.”

Whaaaat?

Breaking The First Rule Of Non-Linear Editing, Part One

When last we spoke, I had announced my intention to break The First Rule Of Editing - to actually upgrade my editor in the middle of several ongoing productions.  My reasons were threefold:

* Against all odds, I had the money;

* My 4-year-old dual-Pentium Dell XPS600, which had been rock-steady, had suddenly become pretty flaky, with USB ports disappearing and reappearing at unpredictable times - and when your keyboard, mouse and ShuttlePro are all USB devices, that can be a bad thing;

* And as a Adobe Creative Suite CS4 user, the demo of the upcoming Abobe Mercury engine in combination with new-technology CUDA video cards and a hot Windows machine is quite impressive.  Check it out.

For the last ten years, I have made something of a specialty out of taking inexpensive, low-to-midrange computers and making DV editors out of them. Back in the days of the Canopus DVRaptor, I could take the puniest machine, add RAM and a hard drive for media, and build a pretty functional editor (by the standards of the early 2000’s) for less than $700.  I built more than 50 editors like this over several years, but times have changed.  The budget this time was going to be a whole different beast.

Happy New Year, or…

We all love “first rule” stories, don’t we?  While only slightly less cliche’ than “Top Ten” lists, there is usually a seed of truth to be learned in the “first rule>“

To wit, here is my “First Rule Of Non-Linear Editing:”

Never, NEVER, NEVER update your editor in the middle of a project!

Of course, the problem with this axiom is that any reasonably-busy editor might never get around to updating their hardware or software.  Circumstances worked out for me that I picked the beginning of January to replace my aged Dell XPS600 dual-Pentium system, even though I have several DVD projects stretched out in front of me.  The trigger points were:

I had the money to do it now;

The Dell, which has been a stalwart performer for over four years, has suddenly gotten flaky;

And also, this demo of the potential in the upcoming Adobe CS5 when coupled with a hot Windows computer, the new Mercury playback engine and a CUDA video card.

Quite plainly, it’s time.

Details to follow!  Happy New Year!

Time Just Slipped Ahead A Bit

It was over a year ago when I reviewed the Roku Netflix player.  A few months later, Roku added access to the Amazon streaming-rental service, and in the middle of last summer Major League Baseball showed up as a channel on the Roku.  I love it when early-adoption is rewarded like this, because it so rarely is.  Look for the pioneers by the arrows in their backs, or so it is said.  I consider the Roku the best $99 I ever spent at Amazon, hands down.  But far beyond being a great way to catch up on “30 Rock” episodes, the Roku is becoming something much, much more.

I confess it:  I’m a geek.  And in the halcyon days between the turn of the century and 2004, I was addicted to TechTV.  Leo LaPorte is, in my view, the best pure tech communicator of our time, able to seamlessly bridge the yawning chasm between the newbies and the power users.  I managed to have TechTV it routed into my office at work expressly to watch “Call For Help” in the afternoons - it was almost like geek grad school.  I learned more about Photoshop in Leo’s five-minute segments with Bert Monroy than in any of the several CompuMaster classes I have attended.  And of course, “The Screen Savers” with Leo and Patrick Norton was geek heaven.  Of course, money rules the roost, and apparently Paul Allen needed more of it than TechTV was providing. His Vulcan Ventures decided to sell TechTV to Comcast, who then folded it into G4, where it disappeared not long after.

Leo LaPorte and his TechTV colleagues didn’t take this lying down, of course.  Leo started the TWiT network (TWiT stands for “This Week In Tech"), which grew from a weekly audio podcast to an actual multi-camera video production over the last four years, and has added about a dozen other programs as well.  Another “Screen Savers” regular, Kevin Rose, went on to co-found the Digg website, and is one of the principles in another online video venture called Revision3 (which, coincidentally, now employs Patrick Norton as a host on several programs.) And the aforementioned Bert Monroy hosts a Photoshop-themed show on Revision3 as well.

Why am I blathering about this?

Well, tonight I updated my Roku box, and guess what appeared on my TV set?  Real, legitimate Internet broadcasting, in the form of the TWiT network, Revision3, Blip.tv, a Flickr channel, Pandora radio, and others - all looking and sounding pretty good on a 40” LCD.  (And I have a severely lame 3-megabit-on-a-good-day AT&T DSL connection.) So, in effect, I got my TechTV back, albeit in a much more fragmented way.  It remains to be seen if any of this can pay for itself, of course, but for now I’m a pretty happy geek.  And I can see my already-constrained broadcast television viewing time getting even smaller - and even though I have to work in the morning, it’s cruising up on 1AM here in the Midwest and I’m sitting here watching Tekzilla, a Revision3 program that is a fine successor to “The Screen Savers.”

One more thing - if Leo and his pals can do this...why can’t we?

Interesting times.  (PS:  The same Comcast cable system that bought and then buried TechTV is now in talks to buy a large share in - of all things - NBC.  Stay tuned, kids.)

“Paranormal Activity” - The Little Indie That Did

This week’s paper edition of Entertainment Weekly has a cover story on the production of Paranormal Activity (the article doesn’t seem to be available online yet.) This is the $11,000 indie horror film that has, at last count, grossed over $84,000,000 - Eighty-four MILLION dollars.  Talk about catching lightning in a bottle.  Was it shot on a Red One?  No, the slightly less expensive Sony FX1.  Was it edited on a Mac on Avid or Final Cut?  Nope, it was cut with Sony Vegas on a Dell.  The article contains a pretty interesting breakout of all the other expenses:

Miscellaneous camera, tape, mics, batteries - $1000
Actors - $1500
Travel, accommodations - $1000
Catering (groceries and Pizza Hut) - $500
Red Bull - $100
Baby powder - $3

I’d have to say that Paranormal Activities is the poster child for payback on an investment!

And you thought YOU had your hands full…

One-man bands have a hard life, it’s true.  Thinking about composition, color, lighting, audio, content, and whether you are going to get your car towed from the illegal parking spot can really wear on a shooter.  However, other folks are the real overachievers here.  My buddy Mark Suzsko Suszko (sorry dude) sent me this link of a guy that simultaneously - and singlehandedly - sails a 24’ sailboat (in pretty high winds) while flying a kite with a video camera attached!

If you can forgive the egregious overuse of the Enya music, it is a pretty amazing clip.  Have a look.

What’s the craziest shot YOU ever got?  Post it in the comments!

Focus Enhancements FSH-200 Solid State DTE Recorder

Isn’t tape dead yet?  The tenacity of the recording medium that first recorded video in the mid-1950’s is pretty impressive, especially lately.  Almost a dozen hard-drive and solid-state recording devices have come to life since the turn of the century.  The assets these formats bring to the table are formidable – most have no or many fewer moving parts than a tape drive, and all offer almost instantaneous access to footage.  However, all of these challengers to the crown share one huge negative attribute – they are, on a minute-by-minute basis, from a dozen to a hundred times more expensive than recording on a tape.  And how do you archive with them?  A field tape is its own archiving solution.  Still, the appeal of the upsides of non-tape recording are pushing more and more production companies into hard-drive and solid-state recording.

Monsterpod: Stick Your (small) Camera Almost Anywhere

I love gadgets, especially useful ones.  That love is doubled when the device is reasonably priced.  And gadgets that are useful, reasonably priced and related to video put me over the top.  So you can imagine my interest when a fellow member of a video discussion list turned me on to the MonsterPod, which fills all three categories well.

At first glance, the MonsterPod looks like an orange and black nylon-mesh suction cup, with a 1/4” tripod screw mounted in the middle.  It’s once you flip it over that you find the magic ingredient - a large blob of what looks like orange Silly Putty, what the MonsterPod makers call “PodGoo.” You wouldn’t think something this seemingly simple could stick to just about any surface - but you would be wrong. 

Basically, applying the MonsterPod involves shaping and bending the cup and PodGoo to conform to the rough contours of the surface you want to stick your camera to.  And the list isn’t limited to just flat surfaces - the MonsterPod sticks to poles, rocks, dashboards, cement, you name it.  As long as the surface isn’t wet, made of fabric, too greasy or too dirty, it’s a good bet that MonsterPod will adhere to it, at least for a while.  A good firm press - even on vertical surfaces or upside down - will fasten the MonsterPod in place.  The makers recommend a maximum 10 minutes of attachment at a time, but as long as it isn’t overloaded I can see the hold lasting longer.

Page 1 of 13 pages  1 2 3 >  Last »