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…

The Visual Effects Society (VES) announced the winners of its 10th Annual VES Awards tonight at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The annual event recognizes outstanding visual effects artistry in 23 categories of film, animation, television, commercials, special venues and video games.

BenQ America Corp. today introduced its new MW860USTi and MP780 ST+ interactive short-throw projectors with ultra-short-throw ratios of 0.37 and 0.49, respectively. Designed to provide teachers and students with the ultimate interactive experience in any classroom setting, the versatile teaching tools feature BenQ’s second-generation PointDraw™ interactive projection technology with dual pen support.

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.

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.

SPY, a FotoKem company offering creative finishing services for commercials and feature films, has opened a new studio in Santa Monica, Calif. SPY: LA extends the capabilities of its main facility in San Francisco, and will specialize in VFX based commercial productions. SPY: LA began work in December on a number of visually compelling spots for such clients as UPS, Asics, THQ/UFC, Hillshire Farm and Canon. The new West Coast locale is within FotoKem’s award-winning sound studio Margarita Mix.

Since their first day of production back in 2001, crew members of the hit reality television series “The Amazing Race” have counted on Anton/Bauer® products to power them through even the toughest geographic and weather conditions.

Full Compass Systems, a national leader in professional audio, video, lighting, A/V and musical instrument sales, has selected Jim Ripp as its new Assistant Sales Manager.  Ripp has a wide range of sales and management experience related to the music industry and will be a solid addition to the Full Compass Sales team.

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.

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.

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 program.

This is a great event for finding out where we are at, and where we are heading in our industry. At past events many new technologies have been “previewed”. Sony’s F65 camera and OLED monitors are a good example of this. Since this event is attended by many of the luminaries of our industry, manufacturers also use it to fine tune their products based on feedback they receive here. (Check out Adam Wilt HPA Tech Retreat at last year’s event)

I will be attending this year and posting updates here to the “Editing Post” blog. If you can swing it, you should be there also.

Disclaimer: I’m attending the HPA Tech Retreat on a press pass, which saves me the registration fee. I’m paying for my own transport, meals, and hotel. No material connection exists between myself and the Hollywood Post Alliance; aside from the press pass, HPA has not influenced me with any compensation to encourage favorable coverage.

The HPA logo and motto were borrowed from the HPA website. The HPA is not responsible for my graphical additions.

Thomas Fletcher has made the Fletcher Camera & Lenses 2012 Comparison chart available to PVC readers as a downloadable link. The Fletcher Camera 2012 Comparison Chart looks at 14 different cameras available on the market for various stated aspects and average daily rental rates.  Canon, Phantom, Weisscam, Red, Alexa, and Sony all are included with various ranges and models.  Download your quick reference today!

After two years of planning HTV will launch on February 2 offering viewers a range of channel options, including education and training videos, product information, global news and events plus peer videos submitted by Hasselblad photographers worldwide.

Createasphere’s Spring Entertainment Technology Expo - the top gathering of entertainment and media professionals, technical innovators, and content experts on the West Coast showcasing emerging media trends in production, post, animation, VFX, advertising, and streaming content - announced renowned cinematographer and Oscar nominee Jeff Cronenweth, ASC as the keynote, Visions of Oscar: Jeff Cronenweth, ASC,  How Collaboration and Talent Gets The Story Told.  The keynote will take place on March 1st at LA Center Studios.

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.

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. In this article, I’ll give a first look at the app, define what it is (and what it isn’t), and extrapolate about what this can mean for video editing in the short, mid, and long term. Of course, I’ll include those two quotes that intrigued me so much.

Blackmagic Design today released Desktop Video 9.2 beta 1, a software update for its capture and playback products that adds broadcast monitoring support with the new Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 update.

Due to changes in camera technology, it’s now become possible to colorgrade on set instead of having to transfer it to another facility. Many DIT’s are using systems that empower cinematographers to apply the 3D color space on set.

Recently I attended the 11th annual San Francisco Supermeet. Beyond some great lectures by some great speakers, there were a variety of different hardware manufacturers and software companies to show off their latest innovations to a very engaged crowd.

Is it early 2012? It is and Apple has kept its promise with an update that takes Final Cut Pro X to 10.0.3. The promised features are there as well including what looks like an interesting and well thought-out multicam implementation. Broadcast monitoring is there too but it’s labeled as a beta implementation though if the drivers are there it should work. And they said it couldn’t be done but it has been: there’s now a way to easily move a Final Cut Pro 7 project to Final Cut Pro X that’s made possible by an updated XML and a 3rd party software product.

AJA is now shipping its US$1495 Io XT, AJA’s first Thunderbolt device which I covered in detail when it was first announced in September 2011. Some of you have asked me whether the Io XT is the same as the prototype code-named “Riker” product that AJA showed at NAB back in April 2011. The answer is no. This article will explain why the Io XT is not Riker, review the currently-available Thunderbolt audio/video i/o devices I’ve covered so far (including the Pegasus Thunderbolt RAID), and clarify William Riker’s involvement in the Pegasus cover-up, as well as that of Leo Laporte, who recently declared Thunderbolt to be “D.O.A.” and “too late” on MacBreak Weekly. Even though neither is true, I think Leo had a very good reason to say those things.

As many ProVideo Coalition readers may recall, I have written about disk arrays from PROMISE before, although the last time it was primarily to be used with a computer with an eSATA port. Now that all Mac computers (except for the MacPro tower) use a Thunderbolt port, many are looking for a disk array which will have the appropriate connection and that will be at least as fast as what they got previously with eSATA. In this article, you’ll find my results with the Pegasus from PROMISE, used both with a Mac Mini and a MacBook Air. You’ll also find PROMISE’s official position on journaling or non-journaling with this device, since this was not previously documented anywhere to my knowledge.

Livestream today announced a new plugin for NewTek TriCaster™ that provides a streamlined workflow for live content producers. The plugin was developed using the NewTek TriCaster SDK, and provides H.264/AAC encoding, one click HD 720p multibitrate encoding, along with playback compatibility for iPhone® and iPad® – all without the need for an external encoder. The Livestream plugin is pre-installed when the TriCaster is upgraded to rev.4. Registered TriCaster owners may upgrade by visiting register.newtek.com. To learn more about the plugin or watch a demo video of how it works, visit: Livestream.com/tricasterplugin.

Westcott is excited to announce it has received two Professional Photographer Hot One Awards for 2012. Westcott has been producing umbrellas since 1899 in both the golf and photo industries. It’s no wonder that their most recent umbrella addition was named as one of the winners of the Professional Photographer Hot One Awards for 2012. This 7’ Parabolic Umbrella launched in March 2011 featuring three different styles - Diffusion (#4632), White/Black (#4634) as well as Silver/Black (#4633). In the months to follow, Westcott added Parabolic Umbrella Kits that included a stand, mounting bracket and Parabolic Umbrella of the buyers’ choice. Each Parabolic Umbrella has a street price of $119.90. Each Parabolic Umbrella Kit has a street price of $149.90.

As we mentioned awhile back, we’ve been busy the past year and a half creating an extensive, multi-course video training series based on our popular beginner’s book After Effects Apprentice. Each course has two or more movies that are free for all to view; we’re re-posting those videos here on PVC to make sure you don’t miss them. In this movie, shows how to alter your basic shapes using dedicated shape effects.

With a mind of a genius and the spirit of a rebel, Evan Schechtman is one of the most accomplished post professionals in the business. Through his thirst for knowledge and contempt for establishment, Schechtman has transcended his career from owning his own post facility to becoming one of the most sought after minds in the industry. I was able to catch up with Schechtman recently who talked about how he started Outpost Digital , his partnership with Radical Media and why Autodesk’s Smoke is the answer to the question, “What’s next?

Here’s another summary of the last week or so of news on After Effects—with assorted tutorials, scripts, plug-ins, demos, 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.

Harrison Ford, the venerable actor who immortalized Han Solo and Indiana Jones, will receive the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) 2012 Board of Governors Award. Ford will be honored during the 26th Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards gala here on February 12 at the Hollywood & Highland Grand Ballroom.

JVC Professional Products Company, a division of JVC Americas Corp., today announced the DT-X71 Series of portable ProHD LCD monitors. Ideal for field and studio applications, the new seven-inch AC/DC monitors offer 1024x600 resolution with a 160-degree viewing angle – and can display 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p video signals at a variety of frame rates.