Editing with Final Cut Pro X

You probably already know of Philip Bloom from his DSLR adventures. He recently asked seven professional editors to talk about their experiences with Final Cut Pro X. It’s a fascinating read, including the growing list of comments at the end of the article. Check it out here.

Q and A with Bunim/Murray’s Mark Raudonis about their recent Avid switch

Back in January news broke that reality television producers Bunim/Murray were switching their post-production facilities from Final Cut Pro to Avid Media Composer. This probably didn’t come as a great shock to anyone who follows post-production as the release of Final Cut Pro X had left many people (especially those in the broadcast world) a bit stunned at its lack of broadcast features. There was a lot written about this subject but I had a few more questions so I spoke with Bunim/Murray’s senior vice president of Post Production Mark Raudonis as he has been the public face of this switch. Our Q and A follows.

Any Way You Want It

On this week’s MacBreak Studio, I show Steve Martin from Ripple Training how to build a rig in Motion 5 in order to provide more creative options for the Final Cut Pro X editor.

Another week in After Effects

Here’s another summary of the last week or so of news on After Effects—with assorted tutorials, scripts, demos, documentaries, and more. Please note that these roundups are for quick review and comparison, and that there is almost always vital information from the originating authors at the links provided—and often free presets, projects, or stock footage too.

Expression Shorts - Numerical Readout

With this Expression, I will show you how to feed numerical property information into a Text layer. Great for HUD numerical readouts that show coordinates or just various position info.

Gear In 60 Seconds – Nauticam NA-60D

Here’s another FreshDV Gear in 60 Seconds video, on the Nauticam NA-60D housing for Canon 60D DSLR stills & video. In this case, we used the housing to get some wild trick shots for a short narrative film. Watch me jump off a waterfall in the video below…

Redrock Micro’s ultraCage for the C300

At the 11th Annual San Francisco SuperMeet, I was able to actually lay hands on the Canon EOS C300 which was a thrill considering it’s all anyone has talked about since November.

Kicking the tires on the Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 Multicam update

As we all know by now Apple released their promised update to Final Cut Pro X that added multicam. It’s only been a week and there’s already a lot of articles and tutorials about how this new feature works. I sat down with it some over the weekend to kick the tires and see how it performed. What follows are some thoughts, notes and observations as I was working with it. I was especially curious as to how it might work for music videos.

(2) Comments: • Most recent comments by: Scott Simmons, brucesharpe,

25 Camera Angles in 25 Minutes

Steve Martin (Ripple Training) and I just completed a tutorial on multi-camera editing for the Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 update. In that tutorial, we used 5 camera angles from a 5-camera music video greenscreen shoot we produced, plus two other angles: one for clean audio, one for some motion graphics.

(4) Comments: • Most recent comments by: Mark Spencer, Craig Seeman, Mark Spencer, Craig Seeman,

Revisiting the RED workflow, Smoke 2012 style

My love affair with RED Digital Cinema began in 2007, when my brief stint as demo artist in the NAB RED booth turned into a regular gig at events and trade shows. When I joined Autodesk as Product Designer to help bring Smoke to the Mac, I was quickly assigned to construct our first RED workflow. Back then, building a RED workflow meant exploring unchartered territory, but since then things changed rather quickly in the last couple years.

Avid now lets you edit video on your iPad for US$4.99. Should you?

I was privileged to find out a few hours in advance of the public announcement of Avid Studio for iPad, since Avid contracted me to translate and localize the press release, as fortunately they often do. There was something about this press release that really intrigued me. It wasn’t so much the specific advantages that Avid Studio for iPad has over other editing apps for iPad, like offering both Storyboard and Timeline views in a single iPad app, or being able to import source material from anywhere inside or outside of the iPad. It was more the fact that the announcement was coming from Avid, and the spirit of the two quotes that appear at the end of the press release.… more »

(4) Comments: • Most recent comments by: Allan Tépper, Conzza, Conzza, Conzza,

Customizing a Title in FCP X

On this week’s MacBreak Studio, I show Steve Martin from Rippletraining.com how to give the Final Cut Pro X editor greater creative control over their titles thanks to the publishing features in Motion 5.

If You Make Your Living In Post, Don’t Miss The HPA Tech Retreat

The Hollywood Post Alliance is a trade association that promotes the exchange of information between post production professionals. They host several events throughout the year that help us stay on top of our game. The biggie is the annual “Tech Retreat” February 14 - 17, 2012 in Indian Wells, California (near Palm Springs). Unlike NAB which is the grandaddy of all things film, television and radio, this event focuses on the issues and technology that we face in post. For an example of the rundown this year, check out their extensive more »