It seems that many folks who work in this little biz we call the film and video production industry will be at NAB. And there’s quite a few of those that also have a blog or website of some sort. I’ll go ahead and add a post to the usual batch of where I’ll be at NAB kind topics, not because I think I’m important enough to that it needs to be “known” but more because I think a lot of the events / products / booths that I’m going to see out are things that I think are important to post-production.

There’s quite a few press conferences I’ll be hitting (Avid, AJA, Blackmagic, maybe Autodesk) just to get the bullet point scoop on what these guys are announcing. I haven’t done many press conferences in the past but I thought I’d try and hit some of them this year. I’ve also tried to hit all the camera manufacturer booths and accessory makers as well but this year I’m going to concentrate on post-production as that’s my business.

Monday

Monday is going to be a big day roaming around the show floor. I’ve got a morning meeting set up with Baselight at their suite in the Renaissance hotel to see what they’ve got up their sleeve. They posted a press release on their website earlier in the week that is somewhat cryptic: “There’s something radical and new about Baselight, which signals a new era for colour grading.” I think a lot of people think they will release a Resolve for Mac like version of Baselight but I have my doubts. But since Baselight already does run on a Mac laptop for training purposes it would be possible. UPDATE: about the time I got done with this post I see this information about Baselight on Final Cut Pro! I thing that’s their big announcement. They will have a booth on the show floor (#SL7920) so swing by and check out what they have to offer.

Speaking of color grading there’s supposed to be something coming from Iridas too so I’m going to check them out too. And while it’s doubtful that Blackmagic can have a bombshell quite as big as the DaVinci Resolve for Mac nuke that was dropped last year I’ll be checking out what the latest is with DaVinci too.

Speaking of Blackmagic Design (and other similar companies like AJA and Matrox), I bet they will be showing some Thunderbolt products. If not in a final shipping form maybe in prototype. In fact I bet there will be a lot of vendors that are talking and showing Thunderbolt. It’s such an exciting technology that I think it will be a big buzzword in the South Hall this year. I’m going to keep a “Thunderbolt watch” going with my handy iPhone and post pictures of what I find up on the old Editblog as I find them (I can email a pic directly to post on that platform).

As far as software, it’s safe to say that Adobe will have a Creative Suite update, we’ve already seen the new Warp Stabilizer in After Effects, so everyone should take a loot at that. Avid has released Media Composer 5.5 and recent versions of Pro Tools. Even if you don’t work with their higher end tools it’s always worth a trip through the booths of companies like Autodesk and Quantel to see the direction they are going. I bet they will point toward 3D … in fact that will probably be Quantel’s main topic of discussion.

Monday night I’ll be hitting the Media Motion Ball. It’s going to be a great gathering of creative pros from all over the industry. I look forward to meeting a lot of the people I chat, Twitter, blog and text with on a regular basis but I’ve never see in person or have never met in person. Another plus is that it’s a sit-down dinner. For all practical purposes it’s sold out at this point but it looks like there’s a few tickets trickling out here and there. When I checked this morning there were 4 available.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM I’m teaching the first of two classes at the Post|Production World Conference.

The first In-Depth: Switching to Avid Media Composer for Experienced Editors is going to be a 3 hours tour for those editors looking to move to Avid Media Composer. This class is going to cover a lot of information as there’s a lot to pack into 3 hours when talking about a single software package. We’ll be walking through a Media Composer project but won’t be concentrating on the basics near as much as looking at some of the more advanced editing features.

After the class it’s more time roaming the show floor. Tuesday night it’s the SuperMeet (that is if they let me in)! By now everyone has heard that Apple has taken over the show and will most likely be showing the next version of Final Cut Pro. No matter what your opinion is on the way this different SuperMeet came to be FCP is important to most of us who work in post-production so we are all very excited to see a new FCP. I’ll be there with bells on. Unfortunately it says the event is sold out.

Wednesday

If you were wanting to see Kevin Smith at the SuperMeet then try to put Wednesday morning aside as his presentation has been moved to 9:00 AM in room S222. This is now considered an NAB Keynote Session and it is OPEN TO ALL. I’ve seen word that you can bring you SuperMeet badges, receipts to this keynote to get in. Or you can check out Kevin Smith’s presentation on the Avid stage on the show floor.

I’d love to see the Smith keynote but I’ll probably be prepping my Wednesday morning In-Depth session Music Video Workflows. This is going to be a very fun, very information filled 3 hours class. We’ll be talking about music video production from more of a post-production standpoint but there will be a lot of production related tips as well. If you don’t know about auxiliary timecode and multiclip grouping for a music video then this is a class for you. I’ve got an example of an 80+ take music video to show. It will also be very beneficial if you’re a one-man-produciton-band shooting music videos. I did this same class last year and it was a lot of fun.

I’m not sure what exactly is going on Wednesday evening. I see note of a Tweet up that night and there’s a pinball party that sound like it’s a lot of fun. What are you doing Wednesday night?

Thursday

Thursday will be more roaming the show floor and trying to hit those last minute booths that I either missed or heard something exciting about during the week. One fun thing I have scheduled is a short training session with Autodesk on Smoke for Mac. I’ve never had a one on one session like this since Smoke arrived for the Mac so I’m looking forward to that.

Then it’s a flight home.

As always when talking about NAB, wear comfortable shoes. I hope to see you at NAB 2011!