News from Here & There

Adobe Soundbooth CS5: Short Review and Speech Transcription comparison
Christopher Breen at MacWorld takes a look at Soundbooth CS5 and is woefully underwhelmed:

If you’re considering upgrading to the current version from Soundbooth CS4, don’t bother. There’s not nearly enough new here to justify the purchase.

Unfortunately - or maybe indicatively - he doesn't mention Soundbooth's speech recognition function and whether it's improved from CS4. I had been under the impression that this feature might have been improved; though that perhaps was wishful hoping on the part of other people. For those not following, Soundbooth will take an audio track and attempt to transcribe it, adding the text to the video tracks and making it possible to search for clips based on what is said. It's an incredibly useful feature for documentary filmmakers - if it works.

Over at the Information Technology Forum blog Marcia Gulesian has compared Adobe Soundbooth CS5's performance with Dragon Naturally Speaking 10, and found they are both wanting, but it's an interesting little comparison and insight into the functionality of both products.
MacWorld: Soundbooth CS5
ITFBlog: Speech transcription with Adobe Soundbooth CS5 and Dragon Naturally Speaking 10



Harvard student goes to Cannes
Harvard film student Andrew Wesman made a 21-minute short movie called "Shelley" as his senior thesis, and nearly didn't even submit it:

It didn’t even occur to Wesman to submit “Shelley’’ to Cannes until the last minute. He was staring up at a movie poster on his wall for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,’’ which bore the logo indicating that it had been an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival. “It made me think, ‘Why don’t I submit mine to Cannes?’ ’’ he said.

So he Googled “Cannes’’ and discovered that the deadline for the student competition was that day. Unfortunately, the Post Office was closed and a courier service told him it would cost $80 to send it overnight.

The Boston Globe: Harvard film student gets his shot — at Cannes



More Final Cut Pro Filter updates
FxFactory 2.1.5
05/14/2010 High-performance visual effects for Final Cut Pro, Motion, Final Cut Express and Adobe After Effects. (Demo)
What’s New in this Version
- FxFactory now supports Adobe After Effects CS5 (version 10)
- Yanobox Nodes 1.0 is a new generator that combines text and graphics into beautiful animations.
- Luca Visual FX Light Box 1.0 is a new set of filters and generators.
- FxFactory Pro 2.1.5 includes five new plug-ins, including the “Synthesizer” plug-in in the “NI Stylize” category. This update is free for all existing FxFactory Pro 2 customers.

SupaWipe 1.0.2
05/19/2010 The coolest object transitions for Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express. (Demo)
- Performance tuned for Leopard, templates recall bug fixed. Recommended for all SupaWipe users. Free update for all licence holders.



Hurt Locker Producer goes Ballistic
The producers of The Hurt Locker are out to find the people who downloaded their movie and take them to court. Redacted@Redacted.com emailed Nicolas Chartier to complain, and got a pithy email back:

I hope your family and your kids end up in jail one day for stealing so maybe they can be taught the difference. Until then, keep being stupid, you're doing that very well.

I think the producer should have been more diplomatic - or maybe ignored the email entirely. On the other hand, the emailer did not just "politely register his disapproval" - as he claims; he actually threatened a boycott:

I will not view, rent or buy any films produced wholly or in part by your company. I will urge my friends and family to take the same actions.

Note that Chartier was banned from the Oscars for email sent to solicit votes for the film; clearly the guy needs to be kept away from email.
BoingBoing: Hurt Locker producer: criticizing our lawsuits makes you a moron and a thief



Zeiss Cine Newsletter
If you're interested in the Zeiss cine lenses, you might want to go and register for their newsletter as they claim they will be sending out a Cine newsletter today: Zeiss Newsletter Registration

And there's a blog post with some pictures comparing some Zeiss lenses with Canon lenses. It's a stills comparison, so not 100% helpful, but better than nothing...



DV Culture has a White Balance Here T-shirt
It's funny! Cute! And $20!! But if you can afford such humor, go for it!
DVCulture: White Balance Here Tee