A loose review of an event I attended this evening focusing on the launch of Avid Media Composer 4.0, Avid's mainstream digital video editing tool. At two thousand plus dollars it's not for everyone. But for anyone interested in a career in video and especially feature motion picture editing, it's the gorilla in the living-room.
A lot of technical stuff was presented but I've chosen to talk about a few features that I thought were particularly interesting and useful, including an open plug-in format that allows Avid to ingest media directly from AVC, P2, SxS and other solid state camera media cards without converting it to the Avid MXF file format - saving time and space on your drive.
Media Composer now allows you to store files it's using anywhere on your computer, but there are risks involved. The tracking feature allows you to stabilize the picture on the frame and it automatically resizes the image so it completely fills the width of the frame. The remarkable thing about this stabilization tracking feature is that instead of the standard practice of using one or several bright spots in the frame as reference points for holding the image in the same location, it uses the entire screen. This is better because, depending on the footage, reference point objects, usually very bright points of lights, like reflections off shiny objects, can be blocked from view during capture. Not a problem now.
The last new feature I mention is the ability to place clips on the same timeline with different frame rates. Something Apple has been able to do for a number of years. Avid says it does the conversion in realtime, faster and with better results than Final Cut Pro. There's certainly enough settings to adjust to make it so. Providing you have the time and money to figure it out.
Showing posts with label avid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label avid. Show all posts
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
#143 Steve Audette
I attended an Boston Avid User Group meeting which was held at WGBH in Boston. The speaker, Steve Audette is a veteran producer and editor on programs such as Nova and Frontline. He is an excellent entertaining and informative presenter with a lot of valuable insights into editing.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
#122 Thoughts while I edit
Here are a few thoughts that have been distracting me as I hunker down and edit my film.
In case I didn't go into enough detail in the show, or worse, if all that detail confused you, let me explain a couple things.
In one segment I'm talking about the "Fishbowl" of podcasting. It's a term that has the same currency among podcasters as kleenex has within the general public. With podcasters, the fishbowl syndrome means we have created a world that is not only unique, but separated from most people. Information gets in, but nothing is getting out. And because it's comfortable there's a risk no one inside the fishbowl will make an effort do something about it. This is the same experience every avid hobbiest has, the difference is that podcasters, participating in a "social" media, where communication means community and community building, there is an evangelical weight on their shoulders.
Another term used a lot, ad nauseam really, is "monetization" which I'm not sure is a real word. Apple's dictionary doesn't recognize it. Monetization's intended meaning within the podcasting/social networking community is the process of converting you podcast/social media into a money making machine. Essentially turning your hobby into a job. That sounds like a terrible idea when you put it like that.
What makes some people roll their eyes when they hear it is that the constant request for "how to" monetize is becoming a cliche. There are a lot of facets to podcasting, and monetization is a valid piece. But it's importance is often/sometimes inflated beyond it's real stature in this emerging medium. And, I have come to believe that the fact that the con people feel this way, and the pro people continually request "how to" points to the fact that no one knows how to.
It's like the get-rich-quick telethons on weekend and early morning TV. Never the same guys, always a different method.
Links mentioned in this show:
In case I didn't go into enough detail in the show, or worse, if all that detail confused you, let me explain a couple things.
In one segment I'm talking about the "Fishbowl" of podcasting. It's a term that has the same currency among podcasters as kleenex has within the general public. With podcasters, the fishbowl syndrome means we have created a world that is not only unique, but separated from most people. Information gets in, but nothing is getting out. And because it's comfortable there's a risk no one inside the fishbowl will make an effort do something about it. This is the same experience every avid hobbiest has, the difference is that podcasters, participating in a "social" media, where communication means community and community building, there is an evangelical weight on their shoulders.
Another term used a lot, ad nauseam really, is "monetization" which I'm not sure is a real word. Apple's dictionary doesn't recognize it. Monetization's intended meaning within the podcasting/social networking community is the process of converting you podcast/social media into a money making machine. Essentially turning your hobby into a job. That sounds like a terrible idea when you put it like that.
What makes some people roll their eyes when they hear it is that the constant request for "how to" monetize is becoming a cliche. There are a lot of facets to podcasting, and monetization is a valid piece. But it's importance is often/sometimes inflated beyond it's real stature in this emerging medium. And, I have come to believe that the fact that the con people feel this way, and the pro people continually request "how to" points to the fact that no one knows how to.
It's like the get-rich-quick telethons on weekend and early morning TV. Never the same guys, always a different method.
Links mentioned in this show:
Saturday, October 4, 2008
#116 Do I like Avid?
It's been a couple weeks since graduation, so I've decided to catch you up with my plans for the coming year. I've got some additional podcasts in the works as well as ideas for this show. you can look forward to more interviews in the near future.
This is an unusually long show and I'm loading a lot of news on the front end, so if you want to skip that, jump to 10:40 where I start my eval of Avid.
My film, Handmade in America is still in process. I'm screening it with a number of people at school over the next few weeks, to find out how I can make a good film look and play better. I'm conscious that meeting the graduation deadline required me to skimp on some quality features, and while I don't want to dedicate the rest of my life to this story, I do want to look back on it knowing I did the best I could given my current abilities. I already see the need to do some pick-up shooting.
Even though I'm out of school, CDIA has a very open approach towards it's alumni, encouraging continuing connections and mentoring between former students and faculty.
I can spend a lot of time validating the time I spent in school, learning this craft, but I'll put that off for another time. I do want to bring to your attention a series of articles by Mike Jones of Digital Basin about whether it's worth your money to go film school at all. His first post was dated Monday Sept. 08, 2008 and continued for 4 more posts up to Wednesday Sep 17, 2008.
In the show, I mention a video host called Vimeo that I'm considering using to post screencasts. Blip TV is similar one that comes to mind. Anyone had experience with either of those, or recommendations of others?
And as far as a host for future sites and blogs, I've committed to BlueHost, a name I've heard other podcasters refer to positively. I've looked at a lot of different hosts, read comparative reviews and I feel that, at least on the basic level, they're more or less the same in terms of features offered. So, in the absence of any clear direction, I'm going with what's appeared on my radar.
Check out the Ruff Cutz Film Festival. I submitted and have recently been added to the films screened at this event, taking place at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University in Waltham Massachusetts, in the middle of November. I don't know much except that CDIA is a sponsor, they're encouraging films that are rough, which mine is, and it's inexpensive to enter. I'll be there and let you know about it.
The remainder of the show is spent sharing my thoughts about the pros and cons about using Avid.
Bear in mind, I'm approaching this from a beginner's perspective. As far as I'm concerned, I'm standing on the edge of the learning prairie, the mountains are nowhere in sight and I have no idea if I'll reach the sea on the other side.
So a lot of my concerns and ideas are limited by my exposure and use of this program. I don't think this negates the usefulness of what I've got to say though. I think this program is really, really weak for the beginning user. There was a time when the only way you could learn this software was from the cocoon of the production company that had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for each Avid workstation. Anyone who was chosen to learn this tool had the benefit of a seasoned professional editor, as well as their own years as assistant editors, watching in the shadows.
Experiences like that can still be had, but they aren't the norm anymore. At the midpoint on the user curve are people such as myself, people who want to produce their own independent films with a small team of people. Bootstrap filmmaking. This is where Final Cut Pro and Premiere have taken the lead and Avid is lagging behind. I think Avid has a lot to offer today's independent filmmaker, but I think they're shutting people out by raising the learning bar too high at the point of entry.
I'm going to check out the book by Diana Weynand, Final Cut Pro for Avid Editors. I haven't been able to find any books for people who use Final Cut Pro and want to use what they know to learn Avid, but I have found a few sites. Avid's site has video tutorials geared towards FCP users, Editing Organazized has a useful blog post about how specific editing actions are invoked in either program, Final Cut Pro to Avid and the Avid Community site also has tips and tutorials.
I'm committed to this course regardless of wolves, snowstorms or bandits, so any helping hand you can lend would be kindly appreciated. Thankye.
This is an unusually long show and I'm loading a lot of news on the front end, so if you want to skip that, jump to 10:40 where I start my eval of Avid.
My film, Handmade in America is still in process. I'm screening it with a number of people at school over the next few weeks, to find out how I can make a good film look and play better. I'm conscious that meeting the graduation deadline required me to skimp on some quality features, and while I don't want to dedicate the rest of my life to this story, I do want to look back on it knowing I did the best I could given my current abilities. I already see the need to do some pick-up shooting.
Even though I'm out of school, CDIA has a very open approach towards it's alumni, encouraging continuing connections and mentoring between former students and faculty.
I can spend a lot of time validating the time I spent in school, learning this craft, but I'll put that off for another time. I do want to bring to your attention a series of articles by Mike Jones of Digital Basin about whether it's worth your money to go film school at all. His first post was dated Monday Sept. 08, 2008 and continued for 4 more posts up to Wednesday Sep 17, 2008.
In the show, I mention a video host called Vimeo that I'm considering using to post screencasts. Blip TV is similar one that comes to mind. Anyone had experience with either of those, or recommendations of others?
And as far as a host for future sites and blogs, I've committed to BlueHost, a name I've heard other podcasters refer to positively. I've looked at a lot of different hosts, read comparative reviews and I feel that, at least on the basic level, they're more or less the same in terms of features offered. So, in the absence of any clear direction, I'm going with what's appeared on my radar.
Check out the Ruff Cutz Film Festival. I submitted and have recently been added to the films screened at this event, taking place at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University in Waltham Massachusetts, in the middle of November. I don't know much except that CDIA is a sponsor, they're encouraging films that are rough, which mine is, and it's inexpensive to enter. I'll be there and let you know about it.
The remainder of the show is spent sharing my thoughts about the pros and cons about using Avid.
Bear in mind, I'm approaching this from a beginner's perspective. As far as I'm concerned, I'm standing on the edge of the learning prairie, the mountains are nowhere in sight and I have no idea if I'll reach the sea on the other side.
So a lot of my concerns and ideas are limited by my exposure and use of this program. I don't think this negates the usefulness of what I've got to say though. I think this program is really, really weak for the beginning user. There was a time when the only way you could learn this software was from the cocoon of the production company that had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for each Avid workstation. Anyone who was chosen to learn this tool had the benefit of a seasoned professional editor, as well as their own years as assistant editors, watching in the shadows.
Experiences like that can still be had, but they aren't the norm anymore. At the midpoint on the user curve are people such as myself, people who want to produce their own independent films with a small team of people. Bootstrap filmmaking. This is where Final Cut Pro and Premiere have taken the lead and Avid is lagging behind. I think Avid has a lot to offer today's independent filmmaker, but I think they're shutting people out by raising the learning bar too high at the point of entry.
I'm going to check out the book by Diana Weynand, Final Cut Pro for Avid Editors. I haven't been able to find any books for people who use Final Cut Pro and want to use what they know to learn Avid, but I have found a few sites. Avid's site has video tutorials geared towards FCP users, Editing Organazized has a useful blog post about how specific editing actions are invoked in either program, Final Cut Pro to Avid and the Avid Community site also has tips and tutorials.
I'm committed to this course regardless of wolves, snowstorms or bandits, so any helping hand you can lend would be kindly appreciated. Thankye.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
#114 Panic on Day Zero
Day Zero - Project Due
It's fitting that this show, which is about the final day of my film project for the Film program at CDIA at Boston University ends with a lot of energy and emotion, because, up 'til now I've been holding it in, quite well I think.
I wouldn't say I lost it, but it was close, it was more like clawing my way back onto the cliff edge that I was sliding off. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I only want to say that over these past 4 weeks the excitement and fun of editing and completing a film has completely leached away to frustration, stomach gnawing stress and all other kinds of unpleasant feelings due to having too much to do in way too little time. In the end I have to confess to dreaming too big.
I'm not apologizing for that, nothing I've experienced so far will change that about myself, but I have learned that I never want to do a film this way again. We'll see if I can hold true to that promise.
Today was a race against time, right up to the wire to complete color correction and titles - how many times have I talked about getting those two things done.
I seem to have gotten on a rag about various features of Avid, GUI in general, but Titles really took me for a beating. In the end I had to bail on using titles in Avid and did something quickly in Final Cut Pro. Don't do this at home, it's very, very painful and time consuming. Bringing an exported Quicktime file from Avid into FCP requires that you render the entire timeline and the titles will have to rendered each time you tweak them. But it was necessary to meet the deadline. I would be better to know how to use the tools within Avid. I'll let you know how difficult that really is in the next few weeks, once my head clears and I can approach learning it with a little more time.
I also plan to do a review of working in Avid, talking about the pros and cons. I know that most people listening are not using Avid, maybe not even using Final Cut Pro, but it is an industry standard tool, for the present, and I would like to give the benefit of my experience, as painful as it sometimes has been, so that you know where it sits in the pantheon of NLE gods.
Tags:
Avid, FCP, FCS, titles, color correction, transcode, tape transfer
It's fitting that this show, which is about the final day of my film project for the Film program at CDIA at Boston University ends with a lot of energy and emotion, because, up 'til now I've been holding it in, quite well I think.
I wouldn't say I lost it, but it was close, it was more like clawing my way back onto the cliff edge that I was sliding off. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I only want to say that over these past 4 weeks the excitement and fun of editing and completing a film has completely leached away to frustration, stomach gnawing stress and all other kinds of unpleasant feelings due to having too much to do in way too little time. In the end I have to confess to dreaming too big.
I'm not apologizing for that, nothing I've experienced so far will change that about myself, but I have learned that I never want to do a film this way again. We'll see if I can hold true to that promise.
Today was a race against time, right up to the wire to complete color correction and titles - how many times have I talked about getting those two things done.
I seem to have gotten on a rag about various features of Avid, GUI in general, but Titles really took me for a beating. In the end I had to bail on using titles in Avid and did something quickly in Final Cut Pro. Don't do this at home, it's very, very painful and time consuming. Bringing an exported Quicktime file from Avid into FCP requires that you render the entire timeline and the titles will have to rendered each time you tweak them. But it was necessary to meet the deadline. I would be better to know how to use the tools within Avid. I'll let you know how difficult that really is in the next few weeks, once my head clears and I can approach learning it with a little more time.
I also plan to do a review of working in Avid, talking about the pros and cons. I know that most people listening are not using Avid, maybe not even using Final Cut Pro, but it is an industry standard tool, for the present, and I would like to give the benefit of my experience, as painful as it sometimes has been, so that you know where it sits in the pantheon of NLE gods.
Tags:
Avid, FCP, FCS, titles, color correction, transcode, tape transfer
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
#107 Roughcut on the run
Day 14 Editing
Day 13 Shooting
Day 12 Driving home through heavy, sticky traffic
I'm still pulling together the entire story of my film, still in rough cut mode. I'm just beginning to set boundaries and eliminating individuals wholesale, because the film isn't long enough to include more than a certain number of faces and voices. I don't know what that number is, but I've already eliminated 1 of 4 key interviews I did with potters. I found that when I introduced each person at the beginning of the film, one individual didn't fit. It was an odd experience that I had never had before and I it hit me like a vague itch as I was assembling the cut. It was completely apparent when I saw it full blown, along with my class, during the screening I reported on a few episodes ago.
It's one of those gut feelings you need to cultivate. As painful as these choices are, I know that hanging on to scenes, footage or characters that don't move the story ahead is like driving full speed ahead into a mud-hole. And nobody wants that.
Wise or not, I chose to give up a night I would otherwise be editing, in order to attend a series of talks at school by professional editors and filmmakers. Jay Rose was one of the highlights, as was Michael Phillips of Avid. The main message was geared towards the younger students, about finding your way into the media business, even if it means being a coffee toting intern. The critical thing to achieve is contacts and develop a set of work references that will lead you to your ultimate goal.
Five speakers, they all said the same thing: Be persistent and persevere.
The next day I used my evening to take some hirez stills at Sawmill Pottery, Dot Burnworth's studio. I have great interview footage of Dot, but I had to leave early the day of the shoot and got very little B-roll, particularly of her work.
One of things I realize I must, must, must do going forward, whenever I finish a shoot, is right away, within 24 hours at the most, review the footage. I didn't and a lot of time passed before I reviewed it. When I did and realized I had little to no B-roll (poor planning and poor execution) and by then it was too late to arrange a 2nd shoot. The best I could do was take digital stills and use them in a pan and zoom effect. I haven't tried this in HD before, so I will have to see how well it works. It better work, because I'm counting on B-roll to hide a lot of jump cuts.
Day 13 Shooting
Day 12 Driving home through heavy, sticky traffic
I'm still pulling together the entire story of my film, still in rough cut mode. I'm just beginning to set boundaries and eliminating individuals wholesale, because the film isn't long enough to include more than a certain number of faces and voices. I don't know what that number is, but I've already eliminated 1 of 4 key interviews I did with potters. I found that when I introduced each person at the beginning of the film, one individual didn't fit. It was an odd experience that I had never had before and I it hit me like a vague itch as I was assembling the cut. It was completely apparent when I saw it full blown, along with my class, during the screening I reported on a few episodes ago.
It's one of those gut feelings you need to cultivate. As painful as these choices are, I know that hanging on to scenes, footage or characters that don't move the story ahead is like driving full speed ahead into a mud-hole. And nobody wants that.
Wise or not, I chose to give up a night I would otherwise be editing, in order to attend a series of talks at school by professional editors and filmmakers. Jay Rose was one of the highlights, as was Michael Phillips of Avid. The main message was geared towards the younger students, about finding your way into the media business, even if it means being a coffee toting intern. The critical thing to achieve is contacts and develop a set of work references that will lead you to your ultimate goal.
Five speakers, they all said the same thing: Be persistent and persevere.
The next day I used my evening to take some hirez stills at Sawmill Pottery, Dot Burnworth's studio. I have great interview footage of Dot, but I had to leave early the day of the shoot and got very little B-roll, particularly of her work.
One of things I realize I must, must, must do going forward, whenever I finish a shoot, is right away, within 24 hours at the most, review the footage. I didn't and a lot of time passed before I reviewed it. When I did and realized I had little to no B-roll (poor planning and poor execution) and by then it was too late to arrange a 2nd shoot. The best I could do was take digital stills and use them in a pan and zoom effect. I haven't tried this in HD before, so I will have to see how well it works. It better work, because I'm counting on B-roll to hide a lot of jump cuts.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
#106 Rough Screening
Day 16 & 15
I'm quite busy using all available time editing my film. My podcasting solution is to record summaries every couple days and posting them. I'm counting down the days until I have to hand in the project and this show is the second one in the series, days 16 and 15.
Even with this clever idea I still am a little pokey posting these as I still don't have much free time to edit and even write this meager blog post. The days I'm talking about are not in sync with reality, which I think would be much more dramatic, but since I'm not getting paid to do this and my paying job doesn't subsidize my podcast, I'll cut myself some slack. Once the deadline passes and I can walk out my front door and see that big yellow circle in the sky, I'll have time to post them in short order AND finish that symphony I've always wanted to write.
How is it I have time to write this now you say? Well, here's an Avid life lesson. I'm using a G4 Mac, about 1.67 megahertz, 2 gig of RAM and a fast 500 gig Firewire 800 external drive. I'm using Avid Media Composer two. It does the job well enough, I've only been cutting up to now, but I'm dreading working with effects.
Whenever you connect your connect the drive with your media and project file infromation into another computer, Avid will reindex you media when it is launched. Sometimes, like on an Intel Mac Pro workstation with a fast SATA drive, memory, processor etc., it can index pretty fast and only keep you waiting a few minutes. Sometimes more. On a computer like mine, a lot, lot more.
I don't know what I did, since I didn't disconnect my drive and launch my project off another system, but after a taking a couple hours for lunch I turned the drive back on, relaunched Avid and voila, indexing. As long as it takes to write this, maybe post this.
Just be careful to budget time for this kind timewasting, and keep the mylanta at hand.
In this show I'm reviewing the our class screening. There were 4 films shown. Two are essentially done, one is a narrative, excellent, another is a trailer for a documentary, also very very good. One class member was MIA, turns out he never got the date for the screening. His film, a narrative, is pretty much done as well. The other person in the class showed a portion of her film, which is being edited by another class member and plans to show a trailer at graduation.
My film was not complete, I had put together about 70% of it, no really, more like half of it. Still it was 20 minutes long. I'll explain why in the show, no need to get into it here. I got a lot of constructive feedback and was raring to dig in the next day, but it didn't work out that way.
You'll have to forgive Day 15's segment. I've tried a number of things in Soundtrack to help it out, but I couldn't combat distortion which is due to wind on the mic. I argued with myself to take it out completely, but, for the sake of documenting my progress, I left it in.
I'm quite busy using all available time editing my film. My podcasting solution is to record summaries every couple days and posting them. I'm counting down the days until I have to hand in the project and this show is the second one in the series, days 16 and 15.
Even with this clever idea I still am a little pokey posting these as I still don't have much free time to edit and even write this meager blog post. The days I'm talking about are not in sync with reality, which I think would be much more dramatic, but since I'm not getting paid to do this and my paying job doesn't subsidize my podcast, I'll cut myself some slack. Once the deadline passes and I can walk out my front door and see that big yellow circle in the sky, I'll have time to post them in short order AND finish that symphony I've always wanted to write.
How is it I have time to write this now you say? Well, here's an Avid life lesson. I'm using a G4 Mac, about 1.67 megahertz, 2 gig of RAM and a fast 500 gig Firewire 800 external drive. I'm using Avid Media Composer two. It does the job well enough, I've only been cutting up to now, but I'm dreading working with effects.
Whenever you connect your connect the drive with your media and project file infromation into another computer, Avid will reindex you media when it is launched. Sometimes, like on an Intel Mac Pro workstation with a fast SATA drive, memory, processor etc., it can index pretty fast and only keep you waiting a few minutes. Sometimes more. On a computer like mine, a lot, lot more.
I don't know what I did, since I didn't disconnect my drive and launch my project off another system, but after a taking a couple hours for lunch I turned the drive back on, relaunched Avid and voila, indexing. As long as it takes to write this, maybe post this.
Just be careful to budget time for this kind timewasting, and keep the mylanta at hand.
In this show I'm reviewing the our class screening. There were 4 films shown. Two are essentially done, one is a narrative, excellent, another is a trailer for a documentary, also very very good. One class member was MIA, turns out he never got the date for the screening. His film, a narrative, is pretty much done as well. The other person in the class showed a portion of her film, which is being edited by another class member and plans to show a trailer at graduation.
My film was not complete, I had put together about 70% of it, no really, more like half of it. Still it was 20 minutes long. I'll explain why in the show, no need to get into it here. I got a lot of constructive feedback and was raring to dig in the next day, but it didn't work out that way.
You'll have to forgive Day 15's segment. I've tried a number of things in Soundtrack to help it out, but I couldn't combat distortion which is due to wind on the mic. I argued with myself to take it out completely, but, for the sake of documenting my progress, I left it in.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
#105 Subclipping Hell
Subclipping is a necessary part of organizing your project, creating structure. Doing that will allow you to rip through your media as you pull the story together. With the deadline I have, about 3 weeks when I recorded this show, what I feel I really need to do is begin editing, but that would be disastrous and lead to chaos with the amount of footage I have to work with.
Editing
I'm using Avid over FCP. I've chosen to use Avid for this project even though I have more experience using FCP. I've discovered a few drawbacks that could negatively affect meeting the deadline.
Finally I have begun editing the footage, starting with discrete topics, keeping a general story order in my head. I find this process works for me. Once I got enough footage cut together I moved the contents of these sequences into a single timeline sequence to see how well everything pulled together to tell a cohesive story. It's still incomplete, but I'm very encouraged.
Editing
I'm using Avid over FCP. I've chosen to use Avid for this project even though I have more experience using FCP. I've discovered a few drawbacks that could negatively affect meeting the deadline.
Finally I have begun editing the footage, starting with discrete topics, keeping a general story order in my head. I find this process works for me. Once I got enough footage cut together I moved the contents of these sequences into a single timeline sequence to see how well everything pulled together to tell a cohesive story. It's still incomplete, but I'm very encouraged.
Friday, August 8, 2008
#103 Wk75 DVD Authoring
Well, at last, the final week of classes. I talk about compression in DVD Studio Pro and Color Correction in Avid, including some suggestions for improvement on the DVD authoring class.
I'm finally out of my lethargic funk too. I have 30 days to complete the edit, pick up a couple shots and finish the film. I'm way behind, so I'm making plans and thinking focused.
I'm finally out of my lethargic funk too. I have 30 days to complete the edit, pick up a couple shots and finish the film. I'm way behind, so I'm making plans and thinking focused.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
#99 Wk73 DVD Authoring
Another new module and the final one of this Program. This week plus two more and I will be done with school, but not with my film. Finishing the film will be my priority once school is finished. It's sort of like graduating and then having to go to summer school, or cleaning up after the prom. Or something.
There's no time to rest though, until I finish my film my stomach is going to be churning and adrenaline is going to be pumping.
This final class is shoe horning in two ideas, DVD Authoring and Color Correction. We're using Apple's DVD Studio Pro for the authoring and we're looking at color correction in Avid, which has superior tools for the job over Final Cut Pro. Not so Color, Apples newest tool in the Final Cut Suite. I address them all in this show, including reasons why Color, which is the deepest and richest of the three tools for professional color correction, should not be the first thing you reach for when you correct color. Take a look at the T L Cooper Eclipse, an expensive sophisticated keyboard/input device that allows you maximize the color correction workflow. There's a great review of using this tool at Ken Stone's site. In the show I refer to Pitch Black, Titanic and the Lord of the Rings series are good examples of using color throughout a film to evoke place, mood and time.
Macaela Vandermost is the instructor for this module. She introduced the idea of color correction at the beginning of the class, because we're going to be spending a full day on Saturday, the last day of the class, learning about color correcting in Avid. A lot of people in class felt they should get an overview of color correction in FCP and she kindly obliged. Color Correction is a difficult concept to grasp and it's even harder to do well, so getting an introduction at the beginning of the class and then more in depth instruction at the end should make it easier to get it.
We spent the entire class Tuesday looking at color correction and Thursday we did a quick run through of using DVD Studio Pro 4 to author a DVD. Classes for the remaining module will go into depth on the critical aspects of authoring, such as compression, creating menu navigation and menu graphics and developing an efficient workflow.
There's no time to rest though, until I finish my film my stomach is going to be churning and adrenaline is going to be pumping.
This final class is shoe horning in two ideas, DVD Authoring and Color Correction. We're using Apple's DVD Studio Pro for the authoring and we're looking at color correction in Avid, which has superior tools for the job over Final Cut Pro. Not so Color, Apples newest tool in the Final Cut Suite. I address them all in this show, including reasons why Color, which is the deepest and richest of the three tools for professional color correction, should not be the first thing you reach for when you correct color. Take a look at the T L Cooper Eclipse, an expensive sophisticated keyboard/input device that allows you maximize the color correction workflow. There's a great review of using this tool at Ken Stone's site. In the show I refer to Pitch Black, Titanic and the Lord of the Rings series are good examples of using color throughout a film to evoke place, mood and time.
Macaela Vandermost is the instructor for this module. She introduced the idea of color correction at the beginning of the class, because we're going to be spending a full day on Saturday, the last day of the class, learning about color correcting in Avid. A lot of people in class felt they should get an overview of color correction in FCP and she kindly obliged. Color Correction is a difficult concept to grasp and it's even harder to do well, so getting an introduction at the beginning of the class and then more in depth instruction at the end should make it easier to get it.
We spent the entire class Tuesday looking at color correction and Thursday we did a quick run through of using DVD Studio Pro 4 to author a DVD. Classes for the remaining module will go into depth on the critical aspects of authoring, such as compression, creating menu navigation and menu graphics and developing an efficient workflow.
Monday, May 5, 2008
#88 Wk64 Editing
Nikki Bramley is our instructor for this module. She was assistant editor on The Price of Sugar and has a lot of experience editing in both FCP and Avid.
I spent this week trying to nail down my workflow with Avid Media Composer and P2 media There was a problem bring in the media. It comes down to a very specific workflow.
I also had technical problems working with Avid due to the presence of the unsupported versions of QuickTime and the Mac OS. She provided me with a table that contains all the versions of Avid, Quicktime and the OS and what works with what.
When you're working on a production system don't update iTunes, it automatically loads the most current version of Quicktime.
You can find information on the Avid forums at Avid, Creative COW and the LA Final Cut Pro User Group
I'm behind on defining a narrative arc. Nikki gave me some suggestions such as creating little scenes or stories within your story. I mentioned that in a recent episode. She encouraged me to imagine and write down what they might be before I arrive at a location.
I took a day off of everything and joined my wife in seeing a knitting superstar speak at the Calvin Theater in Northahmpton MA. Her name is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, otherwise known at the Yarn Harlot. She was very funny and uplifting. Do a search for her name and Northampton and you'll find dozens of blogs that documented the experience.
I spent this week trying to nail down my workflow with Avid Media Composer and P2 media There was a problem bring in the media. It comes down to a very specific workflow.
I also had technical problems working with Avid due to the presence of the unsupported versions of QuickTime and the Mac OS. She provided me with a table that contains all the versions of Avid, Quicktime and the OS and what works with what.
When you're working on a production system don't update iTunes, it automatically loads the most current version of Quicktime.
You can find information on the Avid forums at Avid, Creative COW and the LA Final Cut Pro User Group
I'm behind on defining a narrative arc. Nikki gave me some suggestions such as creating little scenes or stories within your story. I mentioned that in a recent episode. She encouraged me to imagine and write down what they might be before I arrive at a location.
I took a day off of everything and joined my wife in seeing a knitting superstar speak at the Calvin Theater in Northahmpton MA. Her name is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, otherwise known at the Yarn Harlot. She was very funny and uplifting. Do a search for her name and Northampton and you'll find dozens of blogs that documented the experience.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
#85 NAB Conference Pt2: Sunday through Tuesday
Here are the classes I've attended over the last 3 Days
Sunday Classes
Keyframing in Avid
Understanding Podcast Metrics
Long Form editing in Avid (Documentary Production)
Main Title Design for Film and Video (in After Effects)
Mastering Media Management for Avid Editors
Monday Classes
Emerging Web 2.0 Technologies
(walked the show, saw Panasonic)
Broadcast Worfkow on Avid (Documentary Production again)
Tuesday Classes
In Depth PS CS3 for Video
In Depth Color Correction in Avid
Looked at XD Cam at Sony
Blender at Lowell - blenderlights.com
Color Correction and Avid Production. Lots of on lighting in earlier classes
I'm just giving a quick overview of my state of mind and the classes and show booths I've seen. I've included a superficial comparison between Sony's XD CAM and Panasonics HVX200 and newer HPX 170 (arriving sometime in the summer) Also info about the new AVC Panasonic.
Please excuse the pops, I chose not to rerecord so I could get this out quickly.
Sunday Classes
Keyframing in Avid
Understanding Podcast Metrics
Long Form editing in Avid (Documentary Production)
Main Title Design for Film and Video (in After Effects)
Mastering Media Management for Avid Editors
Monday Classes
Emerging Web 2.0 Technologies
(walked the show, saw Panasonic)
Broadcast Worfkow on Avid (Documentary Production again)
Tuesday Classes
In Depth PS CS3 for Video
In Depth Color Correction in Avid
Looked at XD Cam at Sony
Blender at Lowell - blenderlights.com
Color Correction and Avid Production. Lots of on lighting in earlier classes
I'm just giving a quick overview of my state of mind and the classes and show booths I've seen. I've included a superficial comparison between Sony's XD CAM and Panasonics HVX200 and newer HPX 170 (arriving sometime in the summer) Also info about the new AVC Panasonic.
Please excuse the pops, I chose not to rerecord so I could get this out quickly.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
#72 Wk52 Edit Lab III
Doug Plante is instructor for this module, Edit Lab II. He is an ex-Avid employee - Avid is in Tewksbury Massachussets. He is also, according to Howard Phillips, the programs associate director, a FCP god.
This week Doug spoke about the fine points of the rough cut and fine cut
He was all business and was there to see we got to the fine cut done. There's not going to be a lot of instruction in this class. It's all going to come as he works with us individually as we massage our edits.
I had a heck of a time working with Avid, lost a whole class before I moved on to FCP 6. Now I have a problem where I upgraded to 6.02 and the school is at 6.0. and guess what, the file types are not compatible. Can you believe it?
I know, Avid files created between a long list of revisions in that software don't cause a hiccup for Avid users, but FCP apparently is very touchy. But a x.0.2 release? It's enough to make you a hater.
But I don't hate FCP, I just feel I would benefit from continuing using Avid. I know FCP well enough to learn the rest on my own. But Avid, I'm surrounded by Avid gurus and I want to take advantage of that knowledge.
I know I tend to treat this like a dog with a sock monkey, but I once again discuss the archival problems with P2 footage. You can't keep it on the card, it's too expensive. And the life of the solid state card is unknown for long term storage. Drives are a problem for long term storage. What are we going to do once we have to give up tape forever?
This week Doug spoke about the fine points of the rough cut and fine cut
He was all business and was there to see we got to the fine cut done. There's not going to be a lot of instruction in this class. It's all going to come as he works with us individually as we massage our edits.
I had a heck of a time working with Avid, lost a whole class before I moved on to FCP 6. Now I have a problem where I upgraded to 6.02 and the school is at 6.0. and guess what, the file types are not compatible. Can you believe it?
I know, Avid files created between a long list of revisions in that software don't cause a hiccup for Avid users, but FCP apparently is very touchy. But a x.0.2 release? It's enough to make you a hater.
But I don't hate FCP, I just feel I would benefit from continuing using Avid. I know FCP well enough to learn the rest on my own. But Avid, I'm surrounded by Avid gurus and I want to take advantage of that knowledge.
I know I tend to treat this like a dog with a sock monkey, but I once again discuss the archival problems with P2 footage. You can't keep it on the card, it's too expensive. And the life of the solid state card is unknown for long term storage. Drives are a problem for long term storage. What are we going to do once we have to give up tape forever?
Sunday, December 2, 2007
#61 Howard Phillips Interview Pt.2
The second half of the interview with Howard Phillips, Associate Director of the Filmmaking program at CDIA at Boston University. Lots of talk about the role of technology in creating films and CDIA's goal of developing a filmmaking community.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
#57 Wk41 Directing Actors
Last class in this module, where we quickly edit the footage we shot the previous Saturday and then review everyone's work in class on Thursday.
Capturing to Avid was a lot of trouble, and this wasn't the first time. You need to pay close attention when you capture to your computer, if you want to share your media and project files with other people.
Despite the fact that this was a great opportunity to look at filmmaking beyond the technical issues, there was barely enough time to take it all in. Some issues remain, such as how a director works with the crew. Everyone felt there wasn't enough time to work with the actors as well, or for discussing our experience in general, during class.
I've tred to explain the reasons I think we're often cramped for time and feel we're not getting all the information we need. The most important reason is that there isn't enough class time in relation to the stuff we have to learn. Even with homework and whatever we can find time to do on our own between classes, there's just not enough time.
This is really a bootcamp. There are a lot of ways you could slice the curriculum to get more time at the expense of other classes, but then where would be be? Think of what you would be missing. As it is, there's a ton of topics we're merely touching on. I'm sure people in 2 and 4 year DAY programs feel as though they're not getting everything they want.
There may be tweaks that can be made to the content of this program, but you have to recognize that how you're learning is tied to the structure of the curriculum. As long as the end goal is to train people who have no experience in filmmaking to get a job in the field in 9 or 18 months, we're going to continue to careen through the material at breakneck speed.
This is what I signed up for and I wouldn't change a thing that would affect the final outcome. All the same, it feels good to complain, once in a while.
Capturing to Avid was a lot of trouble, and this wasn't the first time. You need to pay close attention when you capture to your computer, if you want to share your media and project files with other people.
Despite the fact that this was a great opportunity to look at filmmaking beyond the technical issues, there was barely enough time to take it all in. Some issues remain, such as how a director works with the crew. Everyone felt there wasn't enough time to work with the actors as well, or for discussing our experience in general, during class.
I've tred to explain the reasons I think we're often cramped for time and feel we're not getting all the information we need. The most important reason is that there isn't enough class time in relation to the stuff we have to learn. Even with homework and whatever we can find time to do on our own between classes, there's just not enough time.
This is really a bootcamp. There are a lot of ways you could slice the curriculum to get more time at the expense of other classes, but then where would be be? Think of what you would be missing. As it is, there's a ton of topics we're merely touching on. I'm sure people in 2 and 4 year DAY programs feel as though they're not getting everything they want.
There may be tweaks that can be made to the content of this program, but you have to recognize that how you're learning is tied to the structure of the curriculum. As long as the end goal is to train people who have no experience in filmmaking to get a job in the field in 9 or 18 months, we're going to continue to careen through the material at breakneck speed.
This is what I signed up for and I wouldn't change a thing that would affect the final outcome. All the same, it feels good to complain, once in a while.
Monday, October 15, 2007
#53 Wk38 Avid Edit Lab
I'm trying out a new, scaled down intro, whadya think?
Here are a few podcast recommendations in the show:
Podcamp Boston 2 is taking place Oct 26-28 at Boston Convention Center. Registration is free and there's a lot of seminars presented by regular people who have their own podcasts. During the sessions there's a lot of give and take between the audience and presenter, so everyone has the opportunity to contribute their experiences. I plan to be there on Sunday.
The Avid Edit Lab module finishes this week and I've got the highlights. I also have some comments to make about editing and the rocky road Avid has led me on.
We spent about 4 hours in our Saturday class critiquing the films we handed in. Nothing is ever finished, you just pick a point in time and stop. The critique was great, lots of useful comments and everyone was engaged. Two Film projects and eight people, so there was a lot of variations on how the same problems were solved.
Here are a few podcast recommendations in the show:
Podcamp Boston 2 is taking place Oct 26-28 at Boston Convention Center. Registration is free and there's a lot of seminars presented by regular people who have their own podcasts. During the sessions there's a lot of give and take between the audience and presenter, so everyone has the opportunity to contribute their experiences. I plan to be there on Sunday.
The Avid Edit Lab module finishes this week and I've got the highlights. I also have some comments to make about editing and the rocky road Avid has led me on.
We spent about 4 hours in our Saturday class critiquing the films we handed in. Nothing is ever finished, you just pick a point in time and stop. The critique was great, lots of useful comments and everyone was engaged. Two Film projects and eight people, so there was a lot of variations on how the same problems were solved.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
# 49 Wk34-5 Intro to Avid
I'm running to keep up again. I spent a lot of time recently on a non-class film project for the Huntington Theatre in Boston Mass. We did a promotional film for a play that is running through next week called the 39 Steps, a comedy based on the Alfred Hitchcock spy thriller. It was a lot work in a short time, but I, along with classmate Laura got it in on time and made the client happy, so it was good all round.
This is the end of the Module on the introduction to Avid, but there's another 3 weeks of Avid that follows where we edit our own film. I'm going to spread my comments about Avid over the next few weeks. This week I'll give you a general overview of the program and talk specifically about the user interface and how important it is to organize your files properly in Avid, as opposed to to Final Cut Pro.
We edited the 39 Steps promo in FCP, but it's really difficult to use one program on a job while you're learning a different one in class. There's a lot of lessons we learned, like how difficult it can be for two people to edit one film, dividing up production tasks and working remotely.
I thought you would be interested in the process of setting up for the shoot, so I included that as well as described the equipment we used and why. Towards the end of the podcast I've included a list of things I would do differently, or pay more attention to if we have a chance to do this again, which I believe we will.
Some of the highlights of the post production process was doing color correction, creating and working with a soundtrack and setting the compression values to optimize file quality for posting on Youtube.
This is the end of the Module on the introduction to Avid, but there's another 3 weeks of Avid that follows where we edit our own film. I'm going to spread my comments about Avid over the next few weeks. This week I'll give you a general overview of the program and talk specifically about the user interface and how important it is to organize your files properly in Avid, as opposed to to Final Cut Pro.
We edited the 39 Steps promo in FCP, but it's really difficult to use one program on a job while you're learning a different one in class. There's a lot of lessons we learned, like how difficult it can be for two people to edit one film, dividing up production tasks and working remotely.
I thought you would be interested in the process of setting up for the shoot, so I included that as well as described the equipment we used and why. Towards the end of the podcast I've included a list of things I would do differently, or pay more attention to if we have a chance to do this again, which I believe we will.
Some of the highlights of the post production process was doing color correction, creating and working with a soundtrack and setting the compression values to optimize file quality for posting on Youtube.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
#46 Wk32 - Intro to Avid
This is the first week of a new module where we learn how to use Avid Xpress Pro, in preparation for editing the footage we shoot a few weeks ago. Avid doesn't have the mind share among would be filmmakers as Final Cut Pro does, so I spend a little time talking about it's place in the filmmaking world.
It is the premier NLE and there's always talk about how it measures up against FCP, so I've included 1, 2, 3 different articles comparing the two. A very significant difference is that the companies that produce these programs have very different missions. Apple is all about bringing the professional media experience to the consumer, Avid is focused on the production needs of professional media makers thru it's own post production systems and the many companies it has acquired, like M-box, Digidesign and Softimage.
I've got some details about a project I'm involved in along with Laura, who I've worked with in the past on the genetic fingerprint documentary. We're going to shoot audience reaction to the play, The 39 Steps, that will be running at the Huntington Theater during September and October. It's a lot of work in a short time, so it should make for some interesting experiences.
It is the premier NLE and there's always talk about how it measures up against FCP, so I've included 1, 2, 3 different articles comparing the two. A very significant difference is that the companies that produce these programs have very different missions. Apple is all about bringing the professional media experience to the consumer, Avid is focused on the production needs of professional media makers thru it's own post production systems and the many companies it has acquired, like M-box, Digidesign and Softimage.
I've got some details about a project I'm involved in along with Laura, who I've worked with in the past on the genetic fingerprint documentary. We're going to shoot audience reaction to the play, The 39 Steps, that will be running at the Huntington Theater during September and October. It's a lot of work in a short time, so it should make for some interesting experiences.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
#45 Wk31 - Film Project II
This is the last week of the Film Project II module, which is to say the last week where we can shoot footage that we will edit in 3 weeks.
We don't have anything more we plan to shoot right now, but we may. This week we reviewed our footage and talked about it in light of what we already learned in previous classes and this project. We had problems lighting, but the final footage looked quite good.
There's also information about how to log video, before you capture and I explain how the camera sees compared to how our eyes see.
Next week is another new module where we learn how to use Avid.
We don't have anything more we plan to shoot right now, but we may. This week we reviewed our footage and talked about it in light of what we already learned in previous classes and this project. We had problems lighting, but the final footage looked quite good.
There's also information about how to log video, before you capture and I explain how the camera sees compared to how our eyes see.
Next week is another new module where we learn how to use Avid.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
#42 Wk29 - Fillm Project II
Very short post this week. We're preparing ourselves for a multimodule film project.
This week we're choosing our script and team members. Have to shoot the script and show some footage in another two weeks. Following that we're learning how to edit in Avid, then another three weeks of editing.
This week we're choosing our script and team members. Have to shoot the script and show some footage in another two weeks. Following that we're learning how to edit in Avid, then another three weeks of editing.
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