Production Gear

Yeah, yeah, I promised in my last post that I would only have one RED post.  I lied.

After a request for a RED Wiki, we threw one together here!

What’s in it so far?  Nothing.  This will be an experiment to see if the community can fill this up with valuable information, no flame wars, no exaggerations, etc.  If we can get a valuable tool working, we all win.  If no one adds to it...we’ll remove it.  It’s up to you.  And Mike, and Adam and Art I guess.  Graeme Nattress want to contribute?

Like this site needed just one more RED post.  While perusing one of my favorite sites today, engadget, I came across this article about RED being used as a Telecine:

As if the much-hyped RED ONE camera didn’t have enough going for it already, it looks like it could soon be put to use for a slightly unexpected but most welcome task: capturing Super 8 film. That’s apparently possible thanks to what’s described as a “pre-prototype” rig that employs a RED ONE camera and a Moviestuff Workprinter XP system which, thanks to a direct interface to the RED’s GPI input, should allow you to do up 30 single frame captures per second in the RED’s 4K mode. As the On Super 8 blog points out, however, there’s still some “optical wizardry” needed to sit between the RED and the workprinter, but we’re guessing those Super 8 die-hards should be able to take care of that little detail before too long.

That’s the last RED post from me…

It’s highly likely that you’ve heard of Digg.  In fact, we have a Digg button on most articles, and have been “dugg” numerous times in our illustrious first 42 days of being online. 

The code monkeys here at PVC (namely me), have been working feverishly to bring a Digg-like clone to the professional video market.  Let’s face it, as valuable as Digg is, it’s really for the general consumer market and short of doing searches, there are no categories for the Professional Video person.  So we created PVC-it.  Yeah, yeah the marketing people weren’t exactly up all night with that one (again me), but hey it works pretty well, and it’s cool.

So here’s the idea:
Click here every day to see what others have voted for.  Heck, check several times a day to check out the top video stories across the web.  That’s right, when you see a story on any pro video site, PVC-it and it will alert others to click on over.  As with Digg, users will need to vote on current stories, or upcoming stories.  Once a story gets at least 5 votes, it moves from “upcoming” to “published”.

As a community member, it’s up to you, in addition to the great writers here, to scout the web and highlight the best stories, whether on the PVC itself, StudioDaily, DMN, Creative Cow...anywhere.

If you’d like to get the code to place the PVC-it button on your site click here in the PVC FAQ in the forums to get it.

*Update* When you first register you have the luxury of right-clicking a special link which will place the PVC-it bookmark in your bookmarks folder.  From then on when you are on a site with and there’s an article you want to PVC-it, you simply click that bookmark link and it will open a browser window (under) your current window so you can add the article to PVC-it.  If you’ve already registered, you can go into “profile” and do the same with the bookmarklet. 

Every year for the past 11 years or so, I have made the trek to NAB.  For several years, myself and a couple of friends/co-workers used the trip as an opportunity to ride our motorcycles from San Francisco to Vegas.  Nice ride, and something to look forward to every year.

Despite having to pack intelligently for a motorcycle ride, but remembering to pack, suits, shoes, etc for the show, I always ended up coming back from NAB with more than when I left.  You see, I’m a bag person.  “Hello my name is Scott, and I have a problem”.  There’s something about the ability to pack my expensive gear, neatly, safely, and oh yeah, stylishly.  Folks who know me, know I will usually return home from NAB with at least one Porta Brace, Kata or other such bag.  That of course always made the ride home an exercise in packing proficiently.

Why would a reasonably bright person buy products, then attempt a cross country trek on a motorcycle?  Because you can get some incredible bargains at the show.  No, I’m not talking about buying a new switcher for your studio (although they’d be happy to take your oder).  Instead, I’m talking about walking up to a booth and asking them if they’re selling their monitor they’re using for the show on the last day of the event.  I’d suggest walking up to Kata and Porta Brace, but you’ll have to race me to their booths so don’t even bother. 

You see, what I do every year is think about what I’d really like to get a screaming deal on, then find the booth and convince them to sell the show floor demo at a great price.  The argument is simple for them, after a week long event on their feet, dealing with Vegas, cabs, and crowds, they want to go home.  Exhibitors aren’t allowed to pack until the show floor closes on the last day, and they usually have a plane to catch.  Do they want to pack that monitor, bag, tripod, and then have to fill out the GES forms and more, to get it shipped home (and pay for shipping of course).  You see, this is a great opportunity to grab a deal.

First day of the show, pick out what you like and simply ask if they’re selling at the end of the show.  But remember, Porta Brace is off limits until I’ve had my pick!

Let’s face it, we all saw the Blu-Ray battle won some time ago.  Perhaps a far more interesting battle is heating up between rivals Microsoft and Adobe on delivering content via a graphical open run-time platform or via a web browser.

Adobe has tremendous distribution in Flash technology as it’s nearly everywhere.  Microsoft’s Silverlight leverages the graphical ability of their browser.  Adobe’s Air, is a distributable runtime platform that’s no longer in beta as of this morning.  You can download it here for Windows and Mac.

*Updated*

While perusing the net this evening I ran across something interesting on Tim Sneath’s blog.  Never been there before but was searching for Silverlight and MTV.  Actually trying to track down a rumor that Microsoft is offering Silverlight around and folks - prominent folks like MTV, are passing in favor of Flash.  So as I read his blog post about Silverlight and MTV I then clicked over to his example, which is Jackass 2.5 the movie supposedly being hosted by Limelight Networks and Microsoft.  Well, interestingly enough, it’s Flash.  Hmmmm.  Looks like I have more digging to do.

We’ll be watching this very closely as you can imagine not only here, but also in our soon to launch WebDevCoalition.  For more info, check out BetaNews.com

As a disclaimer - Adobe is paid advertiser of this site, and Microsoft isn’t...yet.  (maybe never now)

Best may be piling it on too much for certain.  Never heard of it, now that may be likely.  Vara Software has been one of my favorite companies since I first encountered VideoCue.  If you don’t know VideoCue, go to their site right now and download it.  It’s an entire TV studio in an inexpensive package.  In fact, I often use the teleprompter alone when necessary.

Ok, enough love, but they do have a new product that does have me equally excited, and it’s called ScreenFlow.  It gives very good flexibility in creating screencasts, tutorials, etc.  You can use your built-in iSight (Mac only folks) and also bring a window of yourself into the mix where necessary.  I downloaded the demo and created a brief tutorial on a SSD MacBook Air.  Yes, only the 1.8 processor, and the software still worked flawlessly.  Needless to say, I whipped out the plastic and you’ll have a full on demo here shortly.