Please label tapes and disks: An open letter to DPs, camera ops, DITs

Man, there are a lot of high definition formats out in the world today. Just to spell them out would be a dizzying array of letters and numbers. 720p, 1080i, 23.98, 30p ... this list could literally go on and on so I won’t even attempt a partial list other that what I have above. Just take a look at this HD format chart. That’s a lot of different formats and it doesn’t even take into account the different flavors of a particular format that camera manufacturers often come up with on their own.

With that in mind this PVC post is an open letter to all DPs, ACs, camera ops, DITs, anyone and everyone associated with the camera department to please label their tapes and hard drives with the usable, relevant information of shooting format and frame rates, codecs and cameras so post-production will at least have an idea of what is being handed to them.

RED announces REDCINE-X™

RED Leader Jim Jannard today announced a new version of RedCine that they hope to be shipping sometime in August called REDCINE-X. For those of you who have used, or attempted to use, RedCine then you might have watched the video (see the embeded clip after the jump {sorry about the autoplay} or watch the full-rez version here) with quite a bit of shock and awe as it really looks and feels nothing like RedCine. And this is a good thing.

Take the Adobe Non-Linear Editing Software Survey

Adobe has recently posted an online survey about non-linear editing software. The link was floating around Twitter and it’s a great survey to share with the rest of the editing community. There’s a lot of questions focusing on 64-bit support and workflow. It’s great to see Adobe reaching out to the community and hopefully they will take the information to heart as they continue to further improve their video editing offerings. I wish they would have asked about Adobe help and documentation. As I try to learn more about After Effects and actually use Premiere Pro I get so frustrated when you go to the help menu for help and instead of getting a searchable pdf it takes you their website. Rarely do I ever quickly find an answer to a question there without a lot of searching. 

Avid:  Editor or Database?

I’ll admit it, as I have before:  I’m not an Avid guy. Of course, that doesn’t stop my employer from being an Avid house.  We are currently installing an Interplay system, which centralizes all our assets, and allows many different people throughout the plant to preview the video, audio, graphics and such.  As a part of the installation process, all of us who have to edit must get an Interplay tutorial.  I sat through mine this morning, and for four hours I was reminded of a statement I have heard again and again:

“Final Cut and Premiere Pro are great editors with crappy databases.  Avid is a crappy editor in front of a GREAT database.”

Interplay drives that message home - with a sledgehammer.

There are at least three (and maybe more - I’m not sure) ways to tiptoe through the Interplay database.  The one that looks the most useful to me is the Interplay window that lives inside the Media Composer editor.  This window seems to hold the promise of wiping away all of the various bins (except the bin with the sequence in it.) Big step forward, IMHO.  Next is Assist, which is a standalone app that can offer logging on a desktop, which of course requires database access.  And speaking of access, then there is Access (wasn’t Microsoft using that name just a minute ago?), which is the heavy-duty search monster, with Boolean searches that can drill through your pile of video like an Exxon oil rig through the Gulf of Mexico.  Not to mention the several administrator tools, which I will never hold permissions for (and rightfully so.)

And I wonder...three (or more) applications?  Wouldn’t one be enough?

I suppose that an argument can be made for each, but really - how complicated do we have to make our systems?

Of course, I probably wouldn’t mind half as much if I could just graft the Premiere Pro interface onto it.  Is that too much to ask?

Avid has their own pan and zoom tools as well

I recently pointed out three plug-in tools for performing "Ken Burns" style pan and zoom effects on still images in Final Cut Pro. Avid Media Composer has options for doing the same thing. While there aren't as many options (and one of them is the same as Final Cut Pro) there is one that is part of the software package.

Web video: The Top-Ten Things I Wish I Knew About Final Cut Pro…Ten Years Ago.

I don’t know how I missed this video when it was posted back in March at the great editing blog Suite Take ... but I’m glad I found it now! The Top-Ten Things I Wish I Knew About Final Cut Pro…Ten Years Ago

3 tools for panning and zooming in Final Cut Pro

Lumix GH1 camera: surprising responses from Panasonic

As I anxiously await the Lumix GH1 review unit, I want to keep all of you ProVideo Coalition readers up to date with the surprising responses I just received from Panasonic’s public relations department. A few weeks ago, I asked Panasonic several detailed questions which were not covered in any of the published material. I know many videographers who are quite curious about this US$1499 camera with humongous sensor and interchangeable Micro Four Thirds lens mount. The kit lens [14-140mm (35mm camera equivalent: 28-280mm)] is the one Panasonic recommends for video, since it is the silent one, with the very fast autofocus. Although Canon recently satisfied their 5D Mark II owners with a firmware upgrade to allow for manual ISO, aperture, and shutter speed, the 5D Mark II is still stuck at 29.97p ("30p"), with no flexibility to use the variety of extreme framerates that the Panasonic Lumix GH1 offers, i.e. 23.976p ("24p") and 59.94p ("60p")… or 25p and 50p in the European version. That’s why many people are still quite intrigued with the GH1, given its framerate flexibility and attractive price. So here come my questions and Panasonic’s surprising responses, which arrived today.

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