The Editblog on PVC
Scott Simmons was born in rural West Tennessee and didn't really realize that movies and tv had to be made by actual people until he went to college. After getting degrees in both Television Production and Graphic Design he was in one of the early graduating classes at the Watkins Film School in Nashville, Tennessee. During that time at Watkins he discovered editing. While most of his classmates in film school wanted to be directors, Scott saw real career opportunities in post production and took a job as an assistant editor after completing fi...
Read More
By Scott Simmons | April 13, 2009
I love music documentaries. From Gimme Shelter to Metallica - Some Kind of Monster they are always a lot of fun to watch especially when it's about music you like. Then you've got your classic underdog docs like Murderball and The King of Kong. Combine them together and you've got Anvil! The Story of Anvil, a documentary about the biggest heavy metal band to never make it big. I've been reading about this film for a while and it looks like it's going to hit theaters on April 10. Enjoy the trailer above and enjoy the film when it comes to your town.
Read More
1 Comments
Blu-ray drives offered from MCE just no playback in OSX
By Scott Simmons | April 10, 2009
So we all know by now that Steve Jobs called Blu-ray a "bag of hurt" and that Apple doesn't officially support Blu-ray on the Macintosh. Yes we can author in Adobe Encore and burn with Toast. You can even back-up data galore onto Blu-ray data discs and mount those in the Finder but if you want to watch a Blu-ray movie then you got to look elsewhere because Macintosh doesn't support that. One option for the Mac is a Blu-ray drive from MCE. If you've got a Mac Pro or a G5 tower then you've probably got a second optical bay just waiting for something to be shoved into it!
Read More
5 Comments
Some guy's "Trip to RED" video posted online and then removed
By Scott Simmons | April 08, 2009
Whooo Hoooo!!!!! Today I got my first ever "takedown" notice for a blog entry! I guess if you write about and cover any industry that deals in product launches and trade secrets for long enough then you will eventually post something that someone doesn't like. Usually it's just an opinion of some software or a certain hardware product but every now and then you might be posting something that really shouldn't have been posted in the first place. Apparently that's what happened yesterday when I posted a link to a video that a recent new Twitter follower had posted of an event at RED headquarters. Apparently he wasn't supposed to be videoing this event as some powers-that-be at RED asked for the video and links to be removed. The video really didn't show that much especially now that the RED ONE is out in full force in the world. But hey, the last thing I have time to worry about or mess with is some lawyer with too much time on his/her hands harassing me for linking to some other dude's illegally obtained video. So off the link goes. Of course with the Internet these days, is any video really gone for good?So I got a new Twitter follower recently and as I was poking around his website and I saw this link to 4 new movies. One of those links was titled RED HQ. From Nathan's RED HQ entry:I got to go "somewhere near LA" and check out the inside of Red's HQ, where the RED ONE camera was born. They showed us a couple of 4K movies, and offered hands on training with the camera and post software. It was insanely cool. In addition to that, I also went to Mexico, which has some interesting shots. Also check out the still images from the trip Right Here.Nathan posted a video to some time he spent at RED's headquarters (or some other very official RED looking event). The camera wanders around and shows RED ONE cameras, parts and pieces, a big projector on some scaffolding as well as what looks to be Red Leader Jim Jannard himself discussing the camera in an informal setting, cigar in hand. I don't know anything more about the footage than what is on the poster's website but it was kinda fun to wander around the place. Anyhoo ...
Read More
0 Comments
Make your FCP color correcting just a little easier
By Scott Simmons | April 07, 2009
You may have never thought of using a trackball as a cheap substitute for a control surface when color correcting in Final Cut Pro but you can. At least you can use the functionality of a Kensington Expert Mouse Trackball to make using Colorista or the stock FCP 3-way color corrector to keep you hands off of the mouse. I wrote a little piece over at Studio Daily called Poor Man's Control Surface that explains just that.
Read More
7 Comments
Change your default FCP (or any other) keyboard for more efficient editing
By Scott Simmons | April 02, 2009
When it comes to increased productivity and better efficiency while editing, saving time every place an editor can will help increase that productivity and efficiency. And we all know saving time is the client's favorite thing as saving time means saving money. My favorite time saver in Final Cut Pro has been to remap the majority of the default keyboard setup. Since I began using FCP way back around 1999, one of my earliest thoughts was that the default keys weren't very well thought out.
Why do I say this? I first learned non-linear editing on Avid so of course I was used to that keyboard layout. But while you have been able to map Avid keys for as far back as I've been working on it, that hasn't always been the case with FCP. Early versions of FCP did not allow keyboard mapping at all. In fact, the earliest version of FCP didn't even have the ability to JKL scrub! When keyboard mapping finally came along, life in FCP was good. What is so wrong with FCP's default keyboard layout and so right about Avid's? First, think about how you rest your hands on a keyboard. This is assuming that as an editor, you try to perform as many tasks as possible using the keyboard. Many people do not and while there are lot of fast editors out there using the mouse (I've watched a many of them edit) I honestly believe one can work a lot faster the more the hands stay on the keyboard. And this is also assuming you are doing a lot of edit assemble work; the nuts and bolts of good storytelling before the fancy effects work (read: keyframing) begins.
Read More
13 Comments
You read that right, 1001
By Scott Simmons | March 27, 2009
I thought that the link I posted the other day to 90+ Avid tutorials was good stuff that could keep one busy for a few days but this one beats it by a mile:Filmmakeriq.com has a page that has some 1001 links to Adobe After Effects tutorials. This page has gathered links from all over the web and looks to mainly link to video tutorials. With this kind of great resource then the only excuse that one could come up with these days for not learning After Effects is either no time or a desire not to learn it. I have been trying to improve my AE skills but it does take time. That's my excuse! This link came from Filmbot via Twitter. Yet another reason to be a part of the #editingandpost Twitter group!
Read More
0 Comments
A really great #editingandpost community has been established
By Scott Simmons | March 25, 2009
It was just over a year ago when I posted a post that began the "Twitter about editing" experiment. I had signed up for Twitter around a year before that but really never used the service since I didn't have a good group to follow nor did I really know what to talk about. That gave me the idea for the "Twitter about editing" experiment. Little did we know that Twitter would evolve into such a mainstream phenomenon that CNN, Britney Spears and Ellen would cover it and start talking about it. And looking back over those comments to that post, a lot of those people commenting are still there ... Twittering away. So with that, I deem the great Twitter about editing experiment a success. I think it's a success because it it really feels like it puts a group of people together using Twitter for a very useful purpose: communicating about a single topic.
Read More
3 Comments
AMA has great potential
By Scott Simmons | March 21, 2009
As the second part to my "kicking the tires" test of the new Avid Media Access architecture I wanted to try and understand how AMA works as part of Avid media management. In case this is your first time hearing about AMA, it's a new way for Avid Media Composer (as well as Symphony and NewsCutter) to access tapeless media. Currently supporting XDCAM and P2 media, the software natively supports editing these formats with no rewrapping or transcoding. It also allows direct editing of XDCAM and P2 media from their solid state acquisition devices as well as that media off of other hard drives. Avid doesn't have to copy that media over to the usual Avid Media Files folder on local media drives. It is a near instant process when you use the Link to AMA volume command. The first part of this story is available here.
Read More
1 Comments
By Scott Simmons | March 20, 2009
I saw three different Blu-ray related links from ianshepherd on Twitter this morning. I love my Blu-ray discs and my Playstation 3 which sees a lot more duty as a Blu-ray player than a gaming machine. Yes there's the argument that disc-based entertainment is yesterday's technology and Internet delivery is the future. That may be true at some point in the future but at this point in time Blu-ray still looks better than HD movies from iTunes and Comcast HD. Plus, I like to throw that DVD on the shelf. And many of the Blu-ray supplements are top notch. The Dark Knight is gorgeous and the behind the scenes stuff is well worth the investment. And the links: Where we stand on Blu-ray Disc - DVD guru Bruce Nazarian rounds up exactly where Blu-ray stands thus far.Petition to stimulate adoption of Blu-ray Disc publishing - One of the biggest obstacles to Blu-ray adoption are the steep licensing fees to get a disc professionally replicated. I think that a lowering of those fees would a much better adoption of Blu-ray in the corporate world and secondary markets where Internet delivery isn't as desirable.And even more people are joining the IDMA's campaign on reducing the licensing fees. The more the better.
Read More
1 Comments
Missed this one in the 28 Days of QuickTips
By Scott Simmons | March 18, 2009
The View Menu is located at the bottom of the Avid timeline to save different track height configurations:If you make a change to the tracks in the timeline then Avid lets you know by italicizing the current setting title and adding a suffix:You can then save that view with that new name or change it to your own. The same is true for the bin view menu at the bottom of a bin:
Read More
0 Comments
A new feature in Avid Media Composer 3.5 might be the killer one
By Scott Simmons | March 14, 2009
When Avid announced Media Composer 3.5 and the new Avid Media Access architecture the first thing I wondered was how would this new way of importing and using media would work when it comes to one of Avid's strongest features: Media Management. When you designate an Avid media drive the app creates a folder on that drive (either an OMFI Folder or Avid Media Files folder) and all media captured or imported into the software resides in that directory, on that drive. That's one reason Avid media management has always been so rock solid. That and it's just got some damn good database management built in there somewhere. But it's also a reason that many people new to Avid don't like it very much. The fact that you can't drag any old media file right into the application without it having to copy or convert that file first doesn't make a lot of sense to some, at least not until you've had bad media management in your editing application cause a rather large headache and take a lot of time. Avid took a bit of a step away from that with the Import P2 Media function a version or two ago but they have now taken a big leap with AMA, or Avid Media Access.
Read More
1 Comments
By Scott Simmons | March 12, 2009
As we sat for a long while at the end of the edit day recently waiting for either an approval or changes to come down from on-high we killed some time listening to / watching the usual smattering of You Tube videos and Internet clips that are parodies of many of the things editors face everyday. A lot of these clips make perfect sense after an edit runs the gauntlet of an advertising agency approval process or a cut is sent to a client who has no idea what the process is that a television commercial has to go through to get to air. The above clip is the classic Rough Cut Lady Song. In the same vein below is the Impossible Promo Approval Guy:Both of those have made their way around the Intranet for years.
Read More
0 Comments
If you're new to Media Composer this is the link for you
By Scott Simmons | March 11, 2009
With the release of Avid Media Composer 3.5 just over a week ago Avid also released a fully functional 14 day demo. If you've never had the opportunity to use Avid (Avid FreeDV doesn't really count) then this is a great way to try. If you are coming from Final Cut Pro then you need to know you can't just jump right in and understand the differences without some frustration. While very, very similar there are some very distinct differences. One place that Final Cut Pro editors can go to begin to learn the differences in the two applications are some of my Avid & (vs?) FCP articles and links to other Avid/FCP articles around the internet. I know, I need to update the image there that says Avid Xpress Pro but most all of the articles refer to Media Composer as well. Another great place to learn some of the basics of Avid is this list of 90+ tips, tricks and tutorials. It's at 92 right now and looks like it will keep growing so keep your eye on that forum thread. Give Avid a chance and learn the differences (and more importantly, why some of the features are different) between Avid and FCP and you might learn to love Avid too.
Read More
1 Comments
Conforming a multi-layer RED edit with transitions, repos and speed changes is a reality!
By Scott Simmons | March 09, 2009
It seems like only a year ago that doing post-production on the RED ONE camera was a confusing imbroglio of what to do and what tools to use to do it. There where a lot of options for posting early RED footage as long as you wanted to use Final Cut Pro and/or Assimilate Scratch. Yep, there was REDAlert and RedCine from day one but if you wanted to perform an offline edit and then conform that edit to the raw .R3D files then good luck. Crimson Workflow popped up and helped with that but it still wasn't easy. Now, some year and a half later, RED post is maybe only a morass with a dizzying number of options with terms like debayering, Monkey Extract, native RED QuickTimes ... just a few of the terms that might pop up in a RED post discussion. There really are more choices out there than many of us though we would ever see. Finding the right one can be challenge. For my money it's hard to beat a workflow like we are using at FilmWorkers Nashville with our Quantel eQ. If you are staying in a 1080 world for broadcast or DVD delivery then this is a great solution. Quantel recently released a version of their software that supports the native .R3D RED files. The company has been working on their RED workflow support and now has IMHO one of the best options. They also have a white paper available (pdf link) that outlines their workflow. And they keep moving forward with a recently added ability to conform 2K on the eQ system. Before this update we (and by we I mean more he as in John our eQ artist) had to do a RED conform from DPX files before color grading and while it was totally possible it was a much more tedious process that sometimes involved any number of outside pieces of software actually generating those DPX files. The eQ now gives the online artist access to the RED files with all of the normal input parameters:This is such a timesaver and eliminates the step of creating DPX files. The RED media is imported into the eQ and then, in our case, usually sent to HDCAM SR for color grading on a DaVinci 2K Plus. Yes it's 1080 and not 2K or 4K (the whole resolution thing has been discussed ad nauseam) but for our market it's perfect. But that's only part of what makes this work. The other part comes from Automatic Duck. We all know and love the Automatic Duck world of plug-ins as a great way to get edits into After Effects but they also offer a plug-in called Pro Export FCP that (among other things) will export an AAF file from FCP that the eQ can read. This is so much better than an EDL since it carries across much more information than an EDL-based confrom can. That information includes layers, dissolves, SMPTE wipes, references to external file media, freeze frames and motion effects! Motion effects is a big one since the current method of doing color grading in Apple Color involves taking all the speed effects in your edit, removing those speed effects, doing your color grading and then reassembling those speed effects. Clunky to say the least. Another great thing is all layers are imported intact. This image is of a recently conformed music video:You can also see the image on Flickr with some notes attached. That is a 5 layer music video with repositions, crops, dissolves and speed effects all conformed off of the same list. If that doesn't make a director and producer happy then I don't know what does. More translated information from offline to online means less time spent eye-matching moves and effects. Less time means more money saved. While I don't know all of the ins and outs of exactly what an Assimilate Scratch system can do I do know that it uses an EDL from your editing application so that right there tells you that you are working with only a single video layer with limited transitions and effects translated. There's a great discussion thread on reduer.net titled Scratch vs. Pablo (Pablo is a Quantel's high-end color grading product, among the other things it does) that gives a bit of detail and discussion on a Scratch vs. another Quantel system. Yes a Pablo is very different than an eQ but a good discussion can reveal a lot of good info. Avid recently announced native RED .R3D support in their DS systems. Couple that new DS support with a conform from an Avid Media Composer and that will be another great workflow that will keep a lot of information intact from offline to online. I think that's such an important part of a RED conform that it is often overlooked, being able to do things in the creative edit other than just cuts and dissolves and then being able to recreate those things in an online conform from native RED .R3D files with ease. That has been missing from the RED workflow. If you are doing a feature film with RED then you often don't need many fancy edit tricks but if you are doing music videos or commercial spots that go to broadcast then this ability to conform is huge.This post isn't an attempt to compare and contrast any systems or workflow, only to discuss a single workflow, one that works and one that has made the often confusing world of RED into a very streamlined process that brings clients in the door with a drive full of RED footage and out later with their color graded master tape in hand ... with minimal headaches. We have literally spent hundreds of hours over the last year working with RED footage in a number of different ways to try and establish what is the smoothest, most reliable workflow for a full service of RED post production. While there are many options (many of those that we still do in-house at Filmworkers Nashville on a regular basis) this is one that works and is working well. RED > FCP > Automatic Duck > Quantel eQ v4 > Smile.
Read More
0 Comments
Yes it's silly but it will remind you about a lot of stuff
By Scott Simmons | March 05, 2009
I remember big, boxy Firewire 400 drive from some unknown company so many years ago that I can't even remember when it was. When I showed it to my SCSI-loving editor/engineer he thought it was nuts and I wouldn't use it for more than one job. Well we see where SCSI went. And I ended up with a lot of Firewire 400 drives after that. And I still have a lot of them. With the new Apple updates this week Firewire 400 is going. It's 800 only now. TUAW has a post with this video embeded and it really reminded me just how many Firewire 400 drives, interfaces and appliances there are out there with Firewire 400. So get your 400 to 800 adapter and keep on working!
Read More
0 Comments
I should have checked that before I uninstalled!
By Scott Simmons | March 03, 2009
If you haven't heard, on Monday Avid announced and released an update to Media Composer (as well as Symphony and News Cutter), version 3.5. It has added some great new features including Avid Media Access (AMA) which is plug-in type architecture for other codecs like P2 and XDCAM, support for stereoscopic 3D editing, a 14 day fully functioning demo and a new software licensing that eliminates the dongle. There's more detailed coverage around the Internet including my article on Studio Daily as well as coverage on Splice Here. After wading through Avid's convoluted update process I downloaded the upgrade and was greeted with this:So I post this post as a warning to all the PowerPC users out there that it appears this new update is Intel only. I also post this post as a lesson to myself to always check the system specs on a new piece of software before installing (and especially before uninstalling!) a new piece of software. After looking around the Avid website I didn't find this:And I post this post as an open letter to software manufacturers: When you finally dump Power PC support from your Macintosh applications PLEASE put this in big bold letters in your software notes and at the top of your web page.
Read More
0 Comments
Turning off the realtime scopes might help playback
By Scott Simmons | February 28, 2009
Quicktip #28 (February 28, 2009) Turning off realtime video scopes for better playbackThe realtime updating of the video scopes that was added to Final Cut Pro a few versions back is very handy: But on occasion I've noticed that having the realtime scopes might affect playback quality and frame rate in the Canvas. It doesn't seem to happen often but if it does then the realtime playback can be turned off in the pop-up menu in the timeline:Some people just find the realtime playback annoying so that might be another reason to turn the realtime playback off as well.
Read More
0 Comments
Promoting certain Avid effects opens a timeline with lots of possibilities
By Scott Simmons | February 27, 2009
Quicktip #27 (February 27, 2009) Promote to Avid Advanced KeyframesIn the old days, to keyframe Avid effects you had to open the effect in the Effect Editor and add keyframes in the Record monitor. This could quickly become confusing with lots of keyframes added to different parameters. Recent releases of Avid Media Composer will allow you to promote a number of effects to Advanced Keyframes. Just look for the promote to advanced keyframes button in the corner of the Effect Editor:Clicking this button will open up the keyframe editor that has a timeline for each parameter in the effect. The image below shows the ever useful 3D Warp:With the advanced keyframe editor open you can turn on different effect parameters and twirl down the disclose triangle and see animation curves that will be familiar to anyone who has done animation keyframing via curves before. Right+click (or control+shift+click on a single button mouse) on a curve and there are many more options for working with the curves and their keyframes.
Read More
0 Comments
Send instructions to online from your Avid offline via EDL comments
By Scott Simmons | February 26, 2009
Quicktip #26 (February 26, 2009) Making EDL comments in an Avid EDLIf you are sending an edit to online via an EDL you can add comments for the online editor that can appear in the EDL. First select a clip you want to add comments via Segment mode:Then click on the edit sequence name above the record monitor and choose Add Comments...:Type in your comments in the Comments window: Those comments will show up in the EDL: If you can't see the comments make sure the Comment box is checked in the Comments tab under EDL Settings.
Read More
1 Comments
Any Saved Avid Effects and Titles Show up in the Effect Palette
By Scott Simmons | February 25, 2009
Quicktip #25 (February 25, 2009) Access Custom Avid EffectsAny titles you have generated in Avid or custom effects you have saved to a bin will show up in the Effect Palette for use just like any other Avid effect:These are available in the float Effect Palette as well as the tabbed Effect Palette in the main project window.
Read More
0 Comments
DBA Createasphere