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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Quick Links

Review of Sony FS700 part1 live! | Philip Bloom | Blog
Philip posts the first part of his video review of the Sony NEX-FS700:
The review is broken up into two parts. This one focuses on initial impressions and the super slow motion function.
Part two is coming shortly in the next couple of days and focuses on the pros and cons of the camera. It's advantages and limitations, an examination of the image and it's low light performance..


Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 | Antony Bolante | MacWorld
Another review of Premiere Pro CS6:
With the introduction of Prelude and SpeedGrade—not to mention the advent of the Creative Cloud—it’s tempting to define Premiere Pro CS6 in terms of a larger video workflow. [...] CS6 extends the performance gains of CS5 to a wider range of users, particularly mobile editors with the proper laptop configuration. But what makes CS6 a worthy upgrade is its focus on enhancing its raison d’ĂȘtre: more fluent video editing.


After Effects CS6 (11.0.1) update: bug fixes and added GPU and 3D renderer support | Todd Kopriva | Adobe
Update to After Effects released:
We have also been working with several providers of plug-ins, codecs, and hardware devices to assist them in updating their software to fix some errors and crashes. Please take this opportunity to download and install updated codecs, plug-ins, and drivers from these providers, as relevant to your work. For more information about plug-ins for After Effects CS6, see this page.


Ray Tracing in After Effects CS6 | Stu Maschwitz | Prolost
Stu likes the Ray Tracing updates in After Effects:
The ray-traced 3D renderer is the first major update to AE’s 3D capabilities since they were first introduced in 2001–2002. AE was way ahead of most of its competition (except flame, of course) in bringing 3D capabilities to a compositing environment. At the time, adding 3D layers to a dedicated compositor was a somewhat controversial move. But now it’s hard to imagine compositing without a 3D environment, and After Effects has been lapped several times by its competition in 3D features. So I’m happy to see true 3D geometry finally spinning in my AE viewport.


Shocking development from ADOBE with CS6 | Philip Johnston | HD Warrior
Philip continues to struggle with the CS6 update:
When you load up Encore CS6 from the dock you do not have any buttons or templates rendering the program useless, this is shocking from such a so called professional company hard on the heals of Apple’s FCPX.


updates for Adobe Media Encoder, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Prelude, and SpeedGrade | Todd Kopriva | Adobe
Other software updates in the CS6 suite:
The best way to check for updates is by closing all Adobe applications other than Adobe Bridge, and choosing Help > Updates in Adobe Bridge; this ensures that all processes related to Adobe video applications have been quit and can be updated safely.


Photoshop CS6: Fixing overexposed video footage | lynda.com tutorial | YouTube
Richard Harrington demos using Photoshop to adjust video:
This Photoshop CS6 tutorial discusses how to fix overexposed video footage using Levels and Vibrance adjustments.
This specific tutorial is just a single movie from chapter five of the Editing Video in Photoshop CS6 course presented by lynda.com author Richard Harrington.


Bill Holshevnikoff on Lighting & Shooting | ARRI | YouTube
A video tutorial from NAB:
Bill Holshevnikoff has been lighting and shooting award-winning broadcast, corporate and documentary programming for over 20 years. At NAB 2012, he talked about some recent experiences using LEDs and his approach to creating a naturalistic look for lighting sets, products and people.



Take A Look At USPS Stamps For Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, John Ford & John Huston | The Playlist
Cool new stamps - for those that still use them:
Legendary filmmakers Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, John Ford and John Huston have all been given their own stamps, issued this week, as part of the Great Film Directors (Forever) series. If none of those names are familiar to you, go hit IMDB, check out the top rated movies for each filmmaker, add 'em to your Netflix queue and then get back to us in a few weeks.


Park Bench | James Drake | Vimeo
Nice video shot with the Sony NEX-FS700:
Another stunning day in Colorado.
Shot on Sony FS100. Edited online in Adobe PPro CS6. No grading straight from camera.
AbelCine Pastels profile.


Sony PMW-F3 Picture Profile Test | Doug Jensen | Vimeo
Shooting an interview; what you can accomplish with two Sony PMW-F3's and a dolly:
These shots are excerpts from a two-camera interview that fellow F3 owner Rick Boghosian and I shot using a Picture Profile I created called VORTEX-Q. No grading or other image adjustments were done in post.


Making of Planet Power - a 3D experience starring the BMW S1000 RR | Weisscam
| Vimeo
Behind the scenes of shooting a video about a motorcycle in 3D:
Technical Production and Camera/Crew by WEISSCAM GmbH.
Shot with 2x WEISSCAM HS-2 in stereoscopic 3D



Friday, May 25, 2012

Adobe SpeedGrade Webinar Notes

Yesterday I sat in on a Webinar on SpeedGrade given by Product Manager Patrick Palmer. For those that haven’t heard, SpeedGrade is the color correction tool that Adobe acquired recently and have added to their Creative Suite CS6.


Interface
If you’ve seen other Color Grading tools like DaVinci Resolve or Apple’s Color, then SpeedGrade will seem somewhat similar with it’s primary and secondary layers, color scopes and three-way color corrector. It’s also different in that it doesn’t have some of the unusual interface elements; like the nodes for organizing effects in Resolve.

Does this mean it’s easier to be a color grader in SpeedGrade than in the other tools? While it may be a little less intimidating to use, particularly as it’s interface more closely resembles Premiere than say Color resembled Final Cut Pro, it’s still an extra, complicated step that’s more art than science.

Like other CS6 tools, you have a project panel on the left, timeline at the bottom, and viewer in the middle. Hover scrub is even implemented for thumbnails. You can display scopes in panels and rearrange where the panels are displayed; Patrick said he likes to keep the waveform panel on the left-hand side of the screen.

Getting to SpeedGrade
There are multiple ways to go from Premiere Pro to SpeedGrade. One is the function “Send to SpeedGrade” This creates a folder and copies all of the media to DPX frame sequences. The advantage of this is that it applies Premiere Pro effects, like the Warp Stabilizer, to the footage. However, this process can consume a lot of disk space; particularly if you use ProRes or AVCHD material, where the file size can “blow up.” The conversion can also take considerable time, so while it’s recommended for short sequences of a few minutes length, for long form subjects, you should use another method and export using an EDL. Exporting to an EDL is faster, but has it’s own limitations; it doesn’t copy across effects, and SpeedGrade doesn’t support all of the file formats that Premiere Pro currently does.

Grading
SpeedGrade can handle multiple primary layers - as many as you need - and as many secondary layers as you need. You can add color effects using Look Up Tables, and adjust the transparency of a Look Up Table to adjust the amount of an effect. You can copy looks from one clip to another with the press of a key. Speedgrade does not support curves, but Patrick noted that “a lot of things you can do with curves you can do with the color wheels. “

One interesting interface feature is the idea of a grading track added to the timeline that controls and indicates the length of an effect.

SpeedGrade will let you preview up to nine shots at once, and you can preview different sections of the same clip, though performance may be an issue.

Performance
Playback performance depends on system performance; your GPU etc. Patrick said that he runs it fine on a MacBook Air for designing looks on-set, but don’t expect real-time playback and to get reasonable performance you should set the playback resolution lower (it’s a playback option.)

SpeedGrade, he said, has fantastic realtime capabilities with the appropriate GPU and he recommends nVIDIA 4000, or 5000 cards. For output, they only support nVIDIA cards at the moment; “Blackmagic and AJA don’t work as they are in conflict with the way we use the GPU.”

The control surfaces they support are the Tangent Wave and Tangent CP200 series of control panels. He added that they are looking at adding more support for hardware but they were limited by the fact that they only had six months from acquisition to first release!

Using a Color Chart to correct color

Science Fair
One feature I found particularly interesting Patrick referred to as a “science fair.” Using footage of a Macbeth color chart, SpeedGrade analyzed the footage and worked out the color space correction to get the footage color neutral. This may not get you to your final look, but takes the footage to a neutral color balance and can be especially useful for matching two cameras.

He called it a science fair because he doesn’t expect everyone to shoot a color chart every time, but I don’t know. If the feature actually works, I think I would be willing to shoot a color chart at the beginning of any important shoot.

In Conclusion
I’m pleased that Adobe has added a color grading tool to their suite, and while I’ve seen some mixed reviews of this - virtually - 1.0 release, I expect that they will add to it’s power in future releases. However, the copying and converting across to SpeedGrade process seems to be a time consuming and sometimes troublesome task. For the serious color grader this may not be an issue, but for the average NLE editor who just wants to do some simple color correction, a plug-in that works within the NLE may be a quicker, simpler and easier to use option.


Resources
Exporting to SpeedGrade | Learn SpeedGrade CS6 | Adobe TV

Loading and Conforming Material in SpeedGrade CS6 | Learn SpeedGrade CS6 | Adobe TV

SpeedGrade Help | Topics - Adobe




Thursday, May 24, 2012

Quick Links

Canon EOS-1D X Has Begun Shipping to a Select Few [CR2] | CanonRumors
The Canon 4K DSLR may be shipping to some lucky people:
I’ve received good info that production samples of the Canon EOS-1D X have begun shipping to preselected lucky photographers. I’m told it’s for Euro 2012 and Olympic photographers, so they can get familiar with the camera.


FULL review of Sony FS700 this week! In meantime here are some shots I did in SUPER SLOW MOTION | Philip Bloom | Blog
Philip is working on a review, and has posted some footage:
The FS700 is not a replacement for the excellent-image-producing but a wee bit plasticky and frustrating FS100. It’s a model up. Is it worth the upgrade? Have they improved on some of the more annoying aspects of the camera? Will I buy one?! All these questions will be answered by Friday, so stay tuned!

Sony FS700 Forman Birger Mount & 240fps Slow Motion Prototype Tests
| Mark Forman | Vimeo
More slow-mo video shot with the NEX-FS700.



Review: Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 | Scott Simmons | Studio Daily
An in-depth review of Premiere Pro CS6:
Summary: Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 is the biggest and best update to Premiere Pro in years. An interface overhaul, some technical updates and radically redesigned trimming make it, by far, the best PPro yet. It’s not perfect … but really, is anything perfect?


How to Use Noise Industries’ Free Pan and Zoom Plugin with Final Cut Pro X
| J.R. Bookwalter | Mac|Life
A look at a free plug-in for Final Cut Pro X that runs within Noise Industry's FxFactory:
“Pan and Zoom (Auto)” includes two generators -- one that will adjust automatically depending on the duration of the clip, and another that will animate based on a preset time of your choosing. The others, “Pan and Zoom (Keyframed),” allow for more precise and complicated animation that goes beyond simply start and end positions.


The Extra Mile. DSLR Video | Michael Sutton | Wide Open Camera
Doing more for a labor of love:
The drive to, climb up, shoot, climb down, drive back was a good seven hours of our day. The prep and post prep was a good two-three hours as well. Nine hours of our weekend (we both work full time jobs) gone for 10 seconds of our film. Hopefully the final product once complete will be as well received as we envisioned it. It was worth it.


When Mishaps Lead to Magnificence | Ron Dawson | Dare Dreamer
Messing up the audio of a project means time to rethink things:
Then I thought. “I could just edit his re-recorded presentation like any old lecture series. Or, I could take a chance and do something…different.” As I often do, I dared to dream big. It just so happens that the content of Dwain’s presentation generated this incredible imagery. So I thought to myself, “What if instead of editing this like a regular old lecture, we make it a documentary short film?” It’s never been done before and I wanted to be the first to do it.


Litepanels Expands LED Fresnel Line | Creative Planet Network
Fresnel LEDs have been somewhat rare so far, but now LitePanels is showing some:
The Inca 6 and Inca 4 mirror the capabilities of their daylight counterparts in the Sola Series of Fresnels, but will output tungsten-balance light that can be integrated with light from legacy tungsten fixtures. This now allows studios with existing tungsten fixtures to begin realizing the cost-saving benefits of LED lighting today without changing out their whole lighting installation.


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Quick Links

Adobe Premiere Pro basics Tutorials | CreativeCOW
Just starting out with Adobe Premiere CS6? CreativeCOW has an impressive collection of tutorials:
Premiere Pro Basics (CS6 & above): 23 Dynamic Trimming
In this tutorial, Andrew Devis looks at a couple of options that can help you to see your edits dynamically as you edit them. Andrew shows how to use and edit the 'Play Around' function as well as using the 'Loop' function so that the play-head will play a specified amount of time before and after it was placed allowing you to place it over (and edit) transitions on the fly.


ADOBE Premiere Pro CS6 “Not impressed so far” | Philip Johnston | HD Warrior
Meanwhile, Philip has encountered some issues with upgrading to CS 6, including tech support problems; "Why do Adobe employ these people who clearly do not know what they are doing," and hardware compatibility issues:
The Quadro FX4800 for Mac was available May 2009 and there is no mention of this card not being compatible with MacPros pre 2008 other than small print on the Nvidia web site that I have not been able to locate yet !


How Mac OSX still *screws* your GH2 / FS100 / NEX footage – A must read!!
| Andrew Reid | EOSHD
Andrew is seeing some sort of gamma shift issue when working with NEX-FS100, GH2 or NEX AVCHD footage. He recommends transcoding to ProRes using the 5DToRGB utility:
I’ve had my suspicions for a while now about AVCHD footage having a different exposure on my Mac to on the camera. When I edit my GH2 and FS100 stuff natively in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 or the new CS6, or preview AVCHD MTS files in VLC Player (Quicktime X still does not support AVCHD) blacks are crushed and the image is darker overall with far less shadow detail than on the camera’s LCD.


Ion launches Air Pro line of HD sports camcorders with a social networking option | Jackie Dove | MacWorld
More small sports camcorders, available in three different models:
Ion Air Pro, the base model for $230, ships with a mini tripod, travel power adapter, USB and AV cables, and a Cam Locker and pouch. The Ion Air Pro Plus, for $290, adds to the previous package a CamLock system, mounting hardware that secures the camera to a variety of bike handlebars, sports helmets, poles, and boards. [...] The Ion Air Pro Wi-Fi, for $350, offers all the elements included in the Plus package and adds a Wi-Fi feature


Roku HD | Matthew Moskovciak | C|Net
Ever wondered what the difference between the Roku HD Streaming Player and Roku LT Streaming Player were? This review does too (though the price's seem off to what I currently see on Amazon.):
The good: The Roku HD is an extremely small Wi-Fi streaming-media box that costs only $60. It offers dozens of streaming video and audio services, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, HBO Go, Pandora, Mog, Rdio, and MLB.TV. PC- and Mac-based media can be streamed via the Plex app. The Roku HD can be connected to HDTVs or older analog TVs.


camRade WS C300 wetSuit (Black) | B & H PhotoVideo
Canon C300 user Paul Antico pointed out this rain shield for the camera which is available for $199.95:
The black WS C300 wetSuit from camRade is a soft flexible, waterproof camcorder cover designed to fit a Canon EOS C300 camcorder. The cover has vinyl windows to view the controls. It is made of a material that reduces noise from wind and rain. The cover has elastic and zipper closures.


Does Your Video Interview Suck? Body Language Tips for Marketing Pros
| Grant Crowell | ReelSEO
Tips for recording interviews:
A good video always feels like a personal invitation. There isn’t anything necessarily bad about shooting an interview with yourself and your guest fully in the picture – professional event newscasters have to do it all the time. What they know is to always first position their body to camera while introducing their guest, and only turn when the introduction is completed.


Manfrotto's Fluid Video Monopod followup

Yesterday's review of the Manfrotto Video Monopod prompted some interesting comments from readers:

Billy May wrote:
"I have 2 Manfrotto 561BHDV1's and use them pretty much everyday... TIP: WD-40 cures the stutter in the ball socket instantly."

Paul Antico of Anticipate Media wrote:
"it's the one piece of kit I use the most, support wise." Paul went on to add that to minimize the judder he: "loosened screws at the base. Minimized it. Could have removed it completely but wanted a bit of stiffness."

John Marc Green writes:
"I shot an entire short film with one of these and a 5D Mark III. it is best used as a replacement for a shoulder rig, not a tripod alternative. It's much better than hand held shooting when you want a "living camera" look but need stable support such as when shooting video with a DSLR and prime lenses. There's a reason Still Motion uses them for shooting weddings. They're great for documentary style shooting also. I've been borrowing one when I need it, but after doing my short film "Lipidleggin" with it, it's on my short list of next gear purchases."

Josh Davidsburg recommends this excellent video tutorial on using the 561BHDV1 from StillMotion:



Note how they hold the camera very close to their bodies for support when using the monopod.

B&H: Manfrotto's Fluid Video Monopod 561BHDV1 [$279.00]



Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Manfrotto's Fluid Video Monopod

As good as in-camera stabilization and FX stabilization software might be, getting a good, steady shot can still be difficult, especially if you’re holding the camera for long periods of time. That’s why tripods are still vital pieces of equipment.

But a good tripod can be large, heavy, awkward, and require large amounts of space to setup. That’s why I’ve been intrigued by the idea of shooting with a monopod. I recently spent some time with the Manfrotto Video monopod, and while I don’t think it’s perfect for all occasions, I can see it as a useful tool for certain situations.

At almost six and a half feet when fully extended, it's a seriously tall device!

Design
The Manfrotto 561BHDV1 monopod features a very thick and sturdy support arm made up of four extensions. These are released using clip-releases that are easy to release and set; a necessary feature for those working quickly or in tight spaces. Most impressively, it extends to 6 feet and 5 inches tall; taller than any tripod I own.

The three legged base provides a very positive support for the arm on solid surfaces. I didn’t try it in sand or mud and I’m not sure I’d really want to risk it in those locations, though you could probably use a plastic bag to protect it in those situations.

The base joint and feet

The HDV head on the top of the monopod seems to be identical to the Manfrotto 701HDV [$132.99] tripod head, and is smooth and easy to operate. It has a bubble for checking level, though it’s location - you have to look down on it to see it - probably means it won’t get much use while actually shooting, and to be honest, I'm not really sure how useful a bubble level is when operating a monopod. I have a couple of Manfrotto tripods, so I’m used to their design and functionality, and I like their operation. They may not be as good as the high-end tripod heads, but they strike a good middle ground for price and performance.

In Use
The first thing I noticed about the monopod is that the head does not rotate at the top. Instead, the arm itself rotates in the base of the monopod. I have mixed feelings about that.  This means that if you want to do a pan, you have to rotate the entire arm, and this means slipping the arm by releasing your grip slightly on it to allow it to rotate. That just seemed a bit awkward to me. I’ve never used a monopod before, so I don’t know whether having the head rotate on the top of the arm would cause some other issues, but I feel like that would be preferable over having the whole arm rotate. I was still able to operate the monopod without much difficulty.

When panning you have to release you hand to let the arm turn.

The second issue I noticed almost immediately - and this is a monopod issue, not something related to this particular monopod - is that you really need some sort of remote control for your video camera. Since you’re using one of your arms to swing the head, and the other to hold the monopod, it’s very hard to zoom, adjust focus, or even start and stop recording. You can do it with the hand being used to stabilize the monopod – provided you’re not in the middle of doing some sort of camera move.

Finally, this monopod has a detent in the base that keeps the arm centered. The arm will actually stand upright without support on a flat surface if it’s centered on the base; and you’re careful. I found it even did that with a light camcorder onboard. I’m not sure that’s a good feature to use; I’m sure the camera will fall over at some point!

But the problem I found with this feature is that if you are swinging the arm – particularly if you are moving it slowly – there can be a slight jump or shudder as the arm goes into and out of that centered position. The net result can be a shake in your camera move unless you keep the arm perfectly centered, or avoid the center entirely.

That being said, this monopod is relatively light - given it's size - and extends very high, making it possible to shoot with the camera high up for long periods of time. I could hold a camera that high, but not for very long, and it wouldn’t be nearly as stable. Tilting up and down is smooth and easy, and panning mostly worked well, though occasionally I’d be flummoxed by that center detent.

In reading up on the monopod, I discovered others have issues with the base. Some people have talked about tightening it so that it's possible to leave it free-standing with a camera mounted on it - I wouldn't recommend doing that - while others are spraying it with WD-40 to make it looser. Each to their own; there probably isn't a unit made that suites everybody's desires. As this was a review unit, I didn't try either option.

Conclusion
This is a well-made and solid monopod. Considering its size it is not that heavy; particularly compared to a tripod of similar size. Operation is smooth and the tilt head works well. I particularly liked the ability to get the camera up high. My only issue was with a slight judder when moving through the central detent in the monopod base; the weight of the camera, speed and angle all determined how much of an effect that had.

While a monopod does not replace a tripod for everything, I do think it would be a useful addition to your kit. Because monopod’s are difficult to keep level and require you to use one hand to support the monopod, you’ll still want to keep that tripod. But if you’re shooting quickly in confined spaces, or need some sort of support but don’t have room for the weight and size of a traditional tripod, a monopod might be the perfect solution.

B&H: Manfrotto's Fluid Video Monopod 561BHDV1 [$279.00]


Update: I've collected together some comments from readers here: Manfrotto's Fluid Video Monopod followup

Thanks to:
B & H Photo Video, who provided a loner unit for this review.





Monday, May 21, 2012

Notes on Adobe Prelude Webinar

Last week’s free Adobe webinar of Adobe Prelude featured Wes Plate, Product Manager for Meta Data workflows. Wes started by explaining the history of Prelude’s development. Prelude evolved from a pilot project for BBC and CNN who shoot lots and lots of video and needed a file based interface geared towards journalists, camera people, producers and assistants, for logging footage before going into post-production. Such a tool would feature creation of searchable temporal metadata in a friendly interface geared towards non-editors. The resulting tool, Prelude ingests file-based materials (i.e. it will copy and convert them to another format) and it can be extended by partners to support different media management systems. It does not work with tape.

Availability
Prelude is included in Production Premium, Master Collection, and the Creative Cloud. While it’s not really sold separately, it is available through their volume-licensing program, and the licensing minimum is just one license. So you can buy just one copy; for $399


Interface
The interface resembles Premiere. There is a Project Panel in the upper left that lists ingested assets. A viewer panel in the center lets you view a single selected clip, or multiple selected clips as thumbnails. A simple timeline appears at the bottom of the screen. It is possible to do a simple assembly edit in Prelude, but it’s rough cutting tools are very basic. Prelude is not intended to be an editing tool but to allow a producer to assemble a simple order of clips.
To the left of the Timeline panel is the Marker Type panel. This is used to add temporal meta data to clips.

Working in Prelude
When ingesting clips into Prelude, you can choose to copy to a new location, you can verify the copy, and can also transcode to another format. You can copy to multiple destinations at the same time with different options. While ingesting, you can still interact with the program. Partial ingesting is also possible by selecting the in and out point in a clip; but this function does require Adobe Media Encoder to process the clip.

Wes explained the difference between importing and ingesting: Importing occurs when the file exists on the local system. Ingesting means the file is going to be copied, then imported. Premiere Pro only does importing, it doesn’t do ingesting. For that reason, you might want to use Prelude to copy files from cards to your system.

They have implemented Hover Scrub in Prelude to let you select portion of a clip. You can do this when viewing multiple thumbnails in the viewer. You can also use the playbar and press the i key to set the in point and the o key to define the end.

Two metadata tags appearing as different colored lines

Logging inside Prelude
Prelude supports two types of meta data – static; which applies to the whole file, and temporal, which applies to part of the file. The Metadata panel is used to edit static meta data such as the camera used.
Temporal meta data is created using the Meta Type panel. You literally can play the clip and press the button at the appropriate time to indicate a different type of metadata. You can type in a commnet/tag for the metadata, and the tag will appear as a colored line in the timeline. By default this line ends at the end of the clip, but you can shorten it to indicate that the tag only applies to a period of the clip.

You can use the subclip tag to indicate a sub clip. These will appear as separate clips in the Project panel.
One interesting feature about Prelude; while you can do much of this with the mouse, it’s also possible to control playback, the insertion of tags, and the actual comments for the tags using the keyboard alone. This was described as being for “high pressure situations where you are trying to log a lot of footage.”
You can also create your own custom markers; for example for Good and Bad takes.

Rough Cuts
Creating a Rough Cut creates an empty timeline; you can then drag clips from the Project into the timeline. You can rearrange the clips, but there’s no trimming tools, multiple tracks or effects. You can, of course, use sub-clips to trim a clip before putting it into your rough cut.

Once completed, the Send to Premiere Pro function sends the Rough Cut to Premiere Pro for editing. While selecting this option will launch Premiere Pro, Wes recommended that you have Premiere Pro running because it makes it run faster and potentially avoids “a bit of a hiccup.”

Changes to comment markers made in Premiere Pro flow back to Prelude.

An interface created by one partner that uses the iPad to create metadata about
content for importing into Prelude

Extendibility
The project panel is a local file that contains a list of the assets in the system. If you have a media asset management system you can use ActionScript to create your own panel that works with these asset management systems. Custom Markers can also be created.

Wes demoed a version that had been customized by one company. He also demoed an graphical iPad interface which created Meta data that can be exported from the iPad then imported into Prelude.

Q&A:
What about OnLocation functionality? Prelude is not meant to be the replacement for OnLocation. It doesn’t read camera feed, or tape; it’s a new application for off-loading rather than monitoring.

Any limitations to ingesting to a network storage solution? No. Just bandwidth

Can you export a rough cut to FCPXML? FCPXML came out fairly late in this release and “they’ll be listening to customers.”

Can you edit Scarlet 4K? Yes it can be played, but there’s a limitation, they can’t write XMP data, so the footage can’t be logged. They suggest transcoding to an editorial format like ProRes that you can then edit.

Is timecode preserved? Yes. Prelude has a preference to display timecode in the file or timecode that starts at zero.

On Windows, Prelude is 32 bit. On Mac it’s 64.

Why no thumbnails in the Project panel? They get a lot of feedback about that, and they are “listening”

Can you export the logging data as .cvs files? You can export metadata as XMP and open in a text editor. XMP is XML. If you had some good text scripting skills you could create your own

Any rename capability? The files aren’t renamed themselves. You can rename in the Project, and that will be maintained when sent to Premiere, but the files won’t be renamed themselves.


Resources:
Adobe | Prelude Help / Rough cuts
Adobe | Prelude Help / Keyboard Shortcuts



Sunday, May 20, 2012

Quick Links

At the Summer Box Office, a Battle Between Two Ways of Filming
| Jason Apuzzo & Govindini Murty | The Atlantic
Another article about digital vs film and the documentary Side By Side:
A sophisticated and even-handed take on what remains a controversial subject in movie circles, Side By Side looks at how digital technology has emerged over the past decade to challenge photochemical filmmaking. With almost 70 interviews featuring such directors as Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, and James Cameron—along with an impressive array of leading cinematographers, editors, producers, and technical innovators—it seems destined to be the authoritative documentary on this subject for years to come. And if you're curious, Side by Side was shot digitally.


Speedgrade CS6 - First look | Nikolai Waldman | Colorgrader
A look at SpeedGrade; the conclusion seems to be that this is a 1.0 release and you might want to skip it:
The biggest minus is that I can't get realtime playback and I really hope that Adobe will listen to the users and add tools from the other CS products like Video playback from Premiere and masks and tracker from After Effects so CS7 will become a real competitor in the Color grading market. As for now I would rather spend the US$ 999 on another grading software.


Layer Mixer instead of Parallel node | Nikolai Waldman | Colorgrader
A tutorial for Davinci Resolve:
When using Davinci Resolve most of the time you use Serial nodes and in some instances you use Parallel nodes. In some cases Parallel doesn't do the job, instead you can use Layer Mixer.

If you want to have a B/W image and want to keep 2 colors you can do the following.


CCD: The heart of a digital camera (how a charge-coupled device works)
| YouTube
Most digital cameras these days use CMOS sensors, but a lot of this description applies to both technologies:
Bill takes apart a digital camera and explains how its captures images using a CCD (charge coupled device). He also shares how a single CCD is used with a color filter array to create colored images. This video is based on a chapter from the EngineerGuy team's latest book Eight Amazing Engineering Stories


Writers + Directors, Part 2: Working With a Director | Jill Remensnyder | Zacuto
I'm not sure it's accurate to believe that every Director loves the script they are filming, but here's some tips on the writer/director relationship:
What the director needs and expects from you is help maintain their vision for the scope of the film. The director’s vision may not be the same as the writer’s. Don’t fret if you don’t see everything eye to eye- they might just surprise you. After all, they love your script and taking it on as a project is a huge commitment. No one is setting out to destroy your story. (Not intentionally, of course.)


free 3D material options project and tutorials for After Effects CS6 | Todd Kopriva | Adobe
More resources for After Effects users:
John Dickinson has created a free After Effects CS6 project that includes several 3D materials, such as glass, steel, chrome, copper, and plastic. This project demonstrates how to work with the material options and other features in After Effects CS6 to create various looks using the new ray-traced 3D renderer.


Q&A: C-Stands | Stroboist
In praise of the C-Stand:
If you are used to traditional folding light stands, C-stands can look big, cumbersome and a little unwieldy. That's because they are big, cumbersome and a little unwieldy. But they are worth their weight in gold when it comes to multi-purpose usefulness.


The Magic Touch – Controlling FCPX With Trackpad Gestures | Danny Greer
| Premiumbeat
Controlling Final Cut Pro X using gestures with an Apple Trackpad.
Video editor Jason Chong has devised a way to edit his Final Cut Pro X projects by defining custom gestures using the free Mac application BetterTouchTool. Once the gestures have been specified in that application you can perform editing functions in FCPX with a few finger swipes on the Trackpad. Jason has generously shared his custom FCPX gesture presets (download here), so you can quickly get to using this technique in FCPX.