Kicking the tires on Final Cut Pro 7

By now anyone who has ever heard of Final Cut Pro has heard that Apple shipped Final Cut Pro 7 as part of the new Final Cut Studio on July 23. It wasn’t the total FCP reboot that many had hoped and consists mainly tacked on new features. The early word was that it probably should have been called Final Cut Pro 6.5 (and I agree) but you can’t make a splashy new release with only half a number advancement can you? I had some time over the weekend to kick the tires on FCP 7 there are some very nice features that have been added to this release. The true test will come when I install at the office and pound it hard for days on end (which won’t be for a while as I won’t be between projects for a couple of weeks) but for the little project I’m working on at home it’s working well thus far. Here’s an early observation on some select features where I was able to kick the tires.

CineForm CineDDR is an HDCAM SR for the masses?

CineForm recently announced its new CineDDR product. What exactly is CineDDR? I’m still trying to wrap my head around exactly what all the CineDDR system might bring to a post-house but basically it looks like it is being position as a somewhat “software” based alternative to an HDCAM SR deck. A software based anything alternative to an expensive hardware product will almost always have a substantial cost savings and CineDDR vs. HDCAM SR is no exception.

Subtleties of the Slate video

Here’s a fun little video from Vimeo called Subtleties of the Slate. It was made by Inspiration Studios and is quite a hoot for those who’ve worked the set. It makes me long for those long days of a dry erase pen with the big powder puff taped to the end. Thanks to Jason Wingrove and James Shen for spreading this around Twitter.

Short video of Ted Shilowitz talking about (and holding) a Scarlet

ShotsandCuts posted a link up via Twitter tonight of RED guru Ted Shilowitz talking about the RED Scarlet. He is also holding a unit in his hand in what I believe is one of the few videos of a Scarlet in human hands for all the world to see. The video was apparently taken in Munich, Germany on July 6, 2009. The website says this is a prototype unit and it does look a lot like the ones they had under glass at NAB but who knows if this will resemble the final form factor or not. Since Ted says in this video they are “targeted for fall timeframe” then we might see it all this year! Take a look at the video here.

You’re never too old (or too smart) to learn something new

If you’ve never heard of FXPHD then you’re either new to this whole film / video / production / post-production world or you just haven’t been paying attention. I’ve been following the course offerings for quite a while now but have never signed up for a term ... until now. The July 09 term is starting this week and I am very excited.

The Basics of Avid Media Composer for a Final Cut Pro Editor

What follows in this article is not a debate of Avid vs. Final Cut Pro or a conversion document that says you should move from Final Cut Pro to Avid Media Composer, but rather a step-by-step guide for anyone new to Avid (or curious about the software in general) to launch the software and perform a few basic functions. It will be geared more toward the FCP editor, but a lot of the basic functionality is the same in many non-linear editors. I won’t compare and contrast various Avid and FCP features as that’s not the focus of the article though I will point out the Avid equivalent of a number of FCP tools. And if you’ve never edited with a NLE application before then consider this primer a way to get your feet wet in Avid Media Composer 3.5.

Page 1 of 1 pages