Ideas for the Apple iPad in post-production

With Apple’s announcement of the iPad there’s been tons of articles, tweets and blog posts about this upcoming piece of hardware. There’s also been tons of ink spilled about just how this little device could be useful in the filmmaking process as well, some right here on this site. I had decided not to write anything at all about the iPad since pretty much everything had already been said. But I got to thinking how this device might integrate more with the post-production side of the filmmaking process while on a flight the other day ... so I made some notes.

Adobe Community Leaders Summit

Last week, Adobe invited a variety of well-known people in the industry to come get a closer look at what they’ve been working on, and to provide feedback on their direction. To Adobe’s credit, this was no “preaching to the choir” session; many of those invited were FCP and Avid editors, and several current users gave Adobe personnel an earful both publicly and privately. It was also made clear to us that no specific product versions or release dates were being discussed, and that we couldn’t repeat anything that had not already been mentioned publicly (reminds us of the old Zen Buddhist saying “Those who know don’t say; those who say don’t know"). However, this event gives us an excuse to aggregate into one place a number of emerging technologies Adobe has already murmured about, for those who haven’t had the chance to keep up…

Quicktip: Identify FCP filter in the timeline

One question I hear often is asking if there is a way to tell what filters are applied to a clip by looking at the clip in the Final Cut Pro timeline. The answer is yes. You must first turn on the Toggle Clip Keyframes button in the lower right corner of the timeline, or use the keyboard shortcut Option + T:

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.

The Editblog is a top 50 blog for Moviemakers according to MovieMaker

I was happy to see that MovieMaker magazine has named the Editblog as one of the 50 Best Blog for MovieMakers! This was exciting for me as I’ve been reading the magazine for years and think they have very good taste . To welcome any new readers that might come via MovieMaker we’re going to dig back through our nearly 5 years of articles, tutorials, tips, rants, videos, links and such and repost some long lost pieces.

UPDATE: MovieMaker now has a special 50 Best Blogs link for a one year subscription for only $6. That’s $1 per issue and a third of the regular subscription rate of $18.

Avid Media Composer 101 courseware translated/localized for Latin America/Spain

After many months of teamwork, the Avid Media Composer 101 courseware is now available in a translated and localized version for Latin America & Spain. As a result, many Avid MC101 students in those areas can now benefit from having this courseware in their own language. My friend Rubén Abruña of iLevel and I had the honor of receiving this contract from Avid in 2009. The first draft of our translation/localization was initially used in September 2009 at an Avid training event in Santiago, Chile, South America, both to teach a group of new students, as well as to generate feedback from certified Avid instructors from the region. In this article, you’ll see the behind the scenes of this project, which combined our knowledge of the techie video terms in each language, as well as that of the regionalisms and political debates that surround this type of a project.

My 2010 Wishlist for Final Cut Pro

Peter Wiggins posted a Top Ten Wish List for FCP in 2010 over on his blog recently. Then in a tweet he asked: What is yours? Years ago I posted what could have been called my FCP wish list in two Editblog posts: Bottom 10 Final Cut Pro ...tips? and Bottom 10 FCP Tips ... revisited. They read just like a Final Cut Pro wishlist. So with those in mind here’s my Wish List for Final Cut Pro in 2010. Some are revisited right from the Botton 10 FCP Tips, some echo Peter’s. Everyone who has used FCP for any length of time are bound to have their own.

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