After two days of pouring over the entire online manual and editing with Final Cut Pro X I have to say there are things I love about it that I’ve always wished Final Cut Pro had (performance, integrated metadata support, background processing), and things that are deep disappointments (lack of XML import/export, lack of multitrack audio editing, splitting tracks, exporting stems). Final Cut Pro X is like a precocious teenager that still has some growing up to do before they are ready for the adult world, but they have prospects, and we simply have to take a wait and see attitude. I can’t depend on it for mission critical work, however, I will use it for editing and see what it can do, and over time, and as it evolves, it might become part of my professional workflow.

I like the product and I think Apple did more things right than wrong. We have to take a moment to pause and reflect this is a version 1.0 product, not 10.0 like the splash screen states. But the things that are missing are not consistent with the hype, and there lies the rub. It’s possible that the way this product was released at the same time support for the current version was dropped may have done huge damage to the brand among professionals, but on the other hand Final Cut Pro X bring excitement and sizzle to the majority of people editing everything besides professional productions that require complex workflows and resource sharing. This much larger group is the future. Sophisticated editing has become democratized. Apple is betting on the new generation. When it comes to shareholder value and market share, there is no room for nostalgia or catering to the old ways. Leave the pros in the dust, their days are numbered, at least that’s the message I hear through Apple’s actions. Apple can say they support professionals, but their actions say otherwise, and as Aristotle reminds us in The Poetics, character is revealed through action. It’s clear that the future lies in tens of millions of individual editors, not in tens of thousands of professional editors. I’m sure many of the missing pro features will be added.

Here are three interesting threads I’ve been following this week:

Larry Jordan: Ain’t Nothing Like It In the World

My response to Larry’s blog post:

Larry, this post has been very useful and thought provoking. While Final Cut Pro X has a slick interface and provides sizzling performance, I can’t imagine using it in a professional environment. Without the ability to place audio in individual tracks for exporting to a sound editing and mixing application, without multi-cam, without the ability to import legacy Final Cut Pro projects, without EDL or XML export for transferring work I can’t take it seriously in a professional environment. This resets the clock back to version 1.0 and it’s a travesty. [PAUSE] sip on Apple Kool-Aid [PAUSE] Final Cut Pro X is revolutionary, it’s awesome, it’s what we’ve all been waiting for! 64 bit performance, background rendering, new interface, none of this could have been done in an evolutionary way the way Adobe does with their applications, Apple is about revolution and what Apple tells us we’re going to like, we’re going to like, and two or three versions later, we’re all going to say, why did we not do it like this all along?

Philip Hodgetts: What are the Answers to the Unanswered Questions about Final Cut Pro X?

My response to Philips’s blog post:

At the end of the day, I think much of the anger and frustration is ultimately about the gap between what works today (Final Cut Pro 7) and what is promised (some future version of Final Cut Pro that supports a professional workflow). In this interim many of us will have to continue using Final Cut Pro 7 with no idea how long this gap is going to be with our work, our livelihood now depends on an unsupported product. Imagine the outcry if Avid did the same thing to their users? But Avid would never do this, their editing applications are their livelihood, on the other hand, Final Cut Pro is a tiny sliver of Apple’s business, and so given this fact we have plenty of justification in being concerned, it’s hard not to feel as a professional and educator that the rug has been pulled from under me and there is no soft landing in sight.

DVinfo.net: FCP X Now available to buy and download from App Store.

One of my contributions to the discussion thread:

Goes to show that in the wake of all the hype, reality is now setting in. This is becoming a fascinating case study in expectations, and the meaning of the “Final Cut Pro” brand. It’s a risky strategy to kill off an old product, replace it with a completely different one, and call the new version “awesome” as if it was the second coming. As “iMovie Pro 1.0″ FCP X is brilliant. As the next version in the Final Cut Pro line? It’s ludicrous. It’s going to take the hyperspace edition of the reality distortion field to fix this situation…

In some ways this break between the old ways of Final Cut Pro and what would have better been called iMovie Pro 1.0 gives us all a chance to re-evaluate our choices of editing tools. I started on Avid, perhaps it’s time to take a look at where they are at, I stopped using Avid with the introduction of Final Cut Pro 4.5 in what now seems like ancient times. This might also a good time to see if Premiere Pro is worthy of this role, since Adobe has a good track record of evolving applications and not leaving their professional users out in the cold as they evolve their products (I’ve been using Adobe Photoshop since version 1.0).

The time has come to look around and play the field, for no matter what happens in the future, one thing is for certain, Final Cut Pro as we know it has come to the end of the line, it is a dead product with no support. We have to consider the tradeoffs of jumping over the chasm between where we are with Final Cut Pro 7 and the promises that Final Cut Pro X will grow up fast enough to meet out needs and fulfill our desires. For now I will continue editing my mission critical work with Final Cut Pro 7 and experiment on short projects with other tools and see what happens. The day Final Cut Pro 7 stops working due to an OS X update or new hardware incompatibility will force a change, but for now, it’s still smooth sailing with a lot of underlying anxiety that comes with editing on a dead platform.

Video from Abattoir Rising, a work-in-progress documentary by Audrey Kali

Documentary Video Boot Camp, January 2009, Photo by Anne Marie Stein

The four sessions being offered this summer are:

• June 6 – 10: Documentary Video Boot Camp with yours truly.
• June 13 – 17: Producing the Documentary with Maria Agui Carter
• June 20 – 24: The Documentary Camera with Stephen Maing
• June 27 – July 1: Editing the Documentary with Bill Anderson

For course descriptions and instructor biographies visit the Documentary Filmmaking A-Z page on the MassArt web site. You can register by calling MassArt Professional and Continuing Education at 617.879.7200. You are welcome to contact me if you have specific questions about the Documentary Video Boot Camp.

There’s something for everyone: Get your feet wet with Documentary Video Boot Camp, hone your camera skills with The Documentary Camera, learn the ins and outs of producing with Producing the Documentary, study the art of editing with Editing the Documentary, make a complete short film from concept to fine cut (with a public screening in the Fall) in Documentary Project Studio, or take your editing skills to the next level in Advanced Editing with Final Cut Pro. Each of these classes provides a special opportunity to learn from practicing filmmakers who not only have a breadth and depth of professional experience, but are also passionate teachers who will challenge and inspire you to learn and grow in ways not easily done on your own.

MPFV230 The Documentary Camera
Instructor: Steve Maing
Meets: Jun 28 to Jul 2, M-Tr,9a-5:30p
1.5 cr. $614 Info/Register
Have you already taken Introduction to Video Production, Documentary Video Boot Camp, or the equivalent? Now take your camerawork to the next level with this class! Learn how you shape your film through the camera, and how that shapes the message. The week will include daily hands-on exercises, viewing and critique, and a segment on on-location sound.

MPFV232 Editing the Documentary
Instructor: Bill Anderson
Meets: Jul 6-Jul 9, Tu-F, 9a-5p
1.5 credits, $449 Info/Register
This workshop uses exercises to cover all stages of post production for both documentary and dramatic film editing: capturing media; logging; first cut; revised cuts; sound (production, effects, and music); visual effect; color correction. Familiarity with Final Cut Pro is helpful but not required.

MPFV208 Producing the Documentary
Instructor: Maria Agui Carter
Meets: Jun 21-Jun 25, M-F, 9a-3:30p
1.5 Credits, $449 Info/Register
From defining the parameters of a producer’s responsibilities to learning how to maximize production dollars, this is an invaluable crash course in how to take a film from idea and proposal to reality.

MPFV217 Documentary Projects Studio
Instructor: Yours truly
Meets: Jul 13-Aug 31, Tu, 6p-10p
3 Credits, $908 Info/Register
A studio course for students who want to produce their own short documentary and already have basic camera and editing skills. Through weekly milestone meetings you will be guided through the phases of research, planning, production, post-production, and distribution of a short documentary

MPFV218X Advanced Editing with Final Cut Pro
Instructor: Janet Gilmore
Meets: Jul 31-Aug 8, Sa & Su, 10a-4:30p
1.5 credits, $524 [Info/Register]
This course takes an in-depth look beyond the introductory level at the art of editing using Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Techniques will include motion effects, compositing, project management and finishing techniques.

MPFV225 Documentary Video Boot Camp
Instructor: Yours truly
Meets: Jun 14 to 18, M-F, 9a-4:30p, optional editing lab, Th, 4:30p 8:30p
1.5 credits, $614 [Course Full]
An immersive, hands-on experience for beginners who want to dive into learning the fundamentals of video documentary. Exercises, screenings, discussions, and critiques will expose you to a range of storytelling, aesthetic, and artistic issues. This class is currently full, however, it will be offered again during the January 2011 inter-session.

Check out additional Film/Video courses at MassArt this summer. What better way to spend one or more weeks this summer?

Just this morning I put together a DV-16×9-Anamorphic sequence with source material I shot with a a Canon PowerShot TX1 (720/30p, Photo-JPEG), Sony HVR-Z1U (1080/60i, HDV), and Sony PDW-F350 (1080/60i, XDCAM HD), in addition to DV media (480/60i, DV Anamorphic) that matched the sequence settings. Some formats require good unlimited-RT performance (a faster machine) than others, but on the new generation of Macs mixing media formats on the timeline works quite well.

The Photo-JPEG clips showed up with Orange (Unlimited RT playback) along the render bar and while this format might not be played back in real-time without dropping frames, it’s better than having to render to play back. The XDCAM-HD and HDV footage showed up with Green (Real time preview) along the render bar and it played back perfectly without rendering. So you might see some stutter, depending on the format and the system. On my MacBook Pro (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) all three “foreign” formats played fine on the DV-Anamorphic timeline. Of course, once you introduce effects like a dissolve and a foreign format, you will have to render for full-frame-rate playback, but I was still able to preview (with some stutter) dissolves between the Photo-JPEG and XDCAM-HD footage on the DV timeline.

If you’ve not yet upgraded to Final Cut Studio 2, what are you waiting for? The upgrade is well worth the $500 (some vendors sell it for as low as $450) upgrade price. And add to that that Final Cut Studio adds Color to the mix, a professional level color grading application that used to sell for way more than the cost of Final Cut Studio, this upgrade is one of the best values ever to come from Apple. Another new feature of 6 worth looking into for high-end work is ProRes, a high quality format which makes a good choice as a mastering format or common format when mixing various video formats. ProRes is a 4:2:2 component format that does not mungh the color of materials originally shot in component formats the way DV and HDV does.

So start mixing media and defy the old wisdom of sticking to a single format. Now that Final Cut Studio 2 has removed the multi-format media editing barriers, you can shoot with whatever digital format you want, shooting each aspect of your project with the camera and format that’s right for that particular shoot, and all your archive and found footage from various sources call all be mixed in with ease. Viva La Difference.

Thanks to Josh Snider for asking me the question that led to writing this post. Many of my blog posts originate as my answer to a question posed to me, so I encourage you, dear reader, to send me your questions.

Detailed session descriptions follow:

Web Video 2.0: Delivering Your Video Online
Friday, March 07, 1:00PM – 3:00PM, $25.00
Video on the web is hotter than ever and the excitement is moving beyond YouTube and into corporate web video, web-based episodics, delivery of films directly to viewers, and new applications of video never before possible. Through examples, demonstrations, and discussion, you will learn how you can make web video work for you. A practical how-to approach will provide you with an understanding of delivery options (e.g. progressive download vs. streaming), compression and format tips (codec and player choices), video sharing and streaming services, and monitization strategies. This session will be of interest to producers, directors, videographers, editors, and site designers who want to deliver video online and/or integrate video into their web site. Back by popular demand, this follow-up to last-years sold-out session has been updated with new material and examples to reflect the latest tools, techniques, and trends.

Art of the Interview: Strategies and Techniques for Better Video Interviews
Saturday, March 08, 9:00AM – 11:00AM, $25.00
The interview is a fundamental element of most documentary films, many video blogs, and event coverage. Through video examples and interactive discussion this session will provide you with practical strategies and techniques you can apply to your work and includes coverage of how and why to use interviews. You will learn how to: choose the right interview style (e.g. walk-and-talk vs. formal sit-down), choose a form of address (e.g. first-person vs. third person), prepare for an interview, put your subjects at ease, conduct an interview, and more. A discussion of how technical components (camera, sound, lighting, environment) influence the results is included. Designed for both beginning and intermediate documentary filmmakers, videobloggers, and event videographers. For an in-depth exploration of lighting for interviews, consider attending the “Interview Lighting” session that follows later in the day.

Interview Lighting: Professional Results On A Tight Budget
Saturday, March 08, 1:00PM – 3:00PM, $25.00
A demonstration and discussion of several approaches to lighting interviews ranging from low-budget existing light and one light techniques to classic three-point lighting using professional fixtures. Session covers: review of lighting fundamentals, survey of popular lighting fixtures and kits, screening and discussion of practical examples covering aesthetic issues and technical trade-offs, and suggestions for putting together a kit based on your specific needs. This session provides an excellent follow-on to “The Art of the Interview” earlier in the day. Prior attendance to “Art of the Interview” is helpful but not required.

I hope to see you there.

External SATA drive
LaCie d2 external drive via FireWire 800 interface,
LaCie d2 external drive via FireWire 400 interface, and
Mac Book Pro internal SATA drive (5400RPM).

While performance among various drives and interfaces is bound to vary, I think the test confirms that unless you’re using a RAID, the fastest single disk performance you’re going to see with a MacBook Pro is with an external SATA drive.

Notes: Xbench 1.3 used for tests, units in MB/sec; Hardware: MacBook Pro (Santa Rosa) w/ Fujitsu 5400 RPM SATA internal drive and SIIG eSATA II two-port EXpressCard/34 interface card; External SATA: Western Digital Caviar SE 2 SATA 7200 RPM drive w/ 16MB Cache in PowerSpec enclosure; External FireWire Drive: LaCie d2 Firewire Drive (internal: Western Digital IDE 7200 RPM drive w/ 8MB cache). All file systems HSF+/Journaled.

Need fast, cheap, reliable storage for video editing on your MacBook Pro? Tired of paying a price premium and performance penalty with external FireWire drives? Tired of dropped frames with that USB external drive? Want to be able to move a project between the laptop and a PowerMac or MacPro and keep it on a fast SATA drive? Several interface cards are available for the MacBook Pro to interface with SATA drives.

The eSATA II 2-Port ExpressCard-M interface card from SIIG, and the Tempo SATA Express 34 from Sonnet make it possible to connect two SATA drives directly to your laptop. This allows you to buy fast and and inexpensive bare SATA drives and the enclosure of your choice and fashion your own drive systems.

If you don’t fancy being your own system integrator, the G-SATA drive from G-Technology might be the choice for you. It comes with a PCIe interface card for your desktop computer) with two SATA ports and cables (if you’ve got an older Mac with PCI or PCI-X, there’s a range of cards you you can use). With the one of these ExpressCard SATA interfaces you can take the G-SATA or other SATA drives on the road. The G-SATA may be initialized as two individual drives or configured as a software RAID 0 (striped) for the best video and audio editing performance or RAID 1 (mirror) for data security and the the peace of mind knowing that if one drive fails, the other still has your precious data.

If you’re assembling your own drives (my preference), I suggest using SoftRAID, an excellent utility for creating RAID 0 or RAID 1 volumes in software. SoftRAID features a very well thought-out interface and excellent technical support. Although a Hardware RAID solution provides better performance and plug-and play simplicity, the SoftRAID solution is good when you want to move media to a pair of portable drives in the field without special hardware. Each approach, Software RAID-1 and Hardware RAID-1 has it’s place.

Filmmakers Collaborative will present a full day conference at Boston University on Friday, June 1, 2007 consisting of master classes, panel discussions and keynote speakers focused on new technologies and the opportunities they create for film and media makers. A must-attend for cutting edge learning and networking opportunities for media, film, and video professionals throughout New England. Registration closes May 30, so register now! No walk-ins. For more information, call Filmmakers Collaborative at 781-647-1102 or visit the conference web site. Sessions include: Camera Seminar; Film Production Tax Incentives; Demystifying Digital Formats; Copyright Issues; Networking & Box Lunch; Welcome; Opening Remark; Where in the World Is Your Audience Now?; The Social Media Game; Making Content Interactive; Guide to resources on the web; and Case Studies.

Click To Play

Beth Kanter also blogged about, the meeting, and her post also includes a video she made.

If you’re interested in exploring this topic further and you live in the Boston area, I’m doing a session called “Champagne Production Values on a Beer Budget” at the 17th Annual Pro Video show on Saturday, March 10th at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. More info is available in my previous post about the show and the two sessions I’m doing there.

Colophon: I made this video from video fragments shot with a Canon PowerShot S410, digital photos shot with the Canon 10D, and audio recorded with an M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 and a pair of Conference Grabber boundary microphones. The video was edited in Final Cut Pro 5.1.x on a laptop on the train down to New York. I also grabbed some images from Flickr when I had a hole and no material to fill it. I recorded continuous audio, but only shot short video segments. In editing I had to sync up the video shot with the S410 with the audio track. Becuase the S410 records audio, it was easy to sync things up, using he S410’s audio as a reference. It’s a pain, but since the boundary microphones were closer to the speakers (one at each end of the table) and are also better mics than what the S410 offers, the better audio made it worthwhile to do what is called in the industry, “double system sound,” recording image and sound in separate devices.

If you live in the Boston area you will not want to miss the 17th Annual Pro Video Show sponsored by The Camera Company to be held Friday and Saturday, March 9-10, 2007 at Stonehill College, in Easton, Massachussetts (Exit 17B off Route 24). This annual event provides local media makers with the opportunity to check out new equipment, talk with fellow media makers, and attend a wide range of workshops and seminars. Yours truly will be presenting two of the seminars, “Delivering Video on the Web” and “Champagne Production Values on a Beer Production Budget.”

Here’s a description of my seminars:

Delivering Video on the Web
Learn how to make video available on the web, earn money with it, take a look at how it can be delivered to devices and web browsers, and examine the opportunities and challenges it presents. The launch of the video iPod, availability of video on iTunes, the explosion of viral video, Google’s purchase of YouTube, and the amazing quality of shows on blip.tv are all part of a tectonic shift in the media distribution landscape. Television producers, independent filmmakers, communications specialists, advertising executives and entrepreneurs will all learn how to benefit from the tremendous opportunities made possible by delivering their video on the web. Cost: $25. Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 12:00 NOON to 2:00 p.m.

Champagne Production Values on a Beer Production Budget
Video production budgets are tighter than ever, and the increasingly saturated media environment demands that your video must stand out from the rest. In this seminar, you will learn about the strategies, creative elements, and production tools that together deliver what viewers and clients often describe as “high production values.” Practical discussion and examples help you apply cost effective methods right away, resulting in champagne production values on a beer production budget. Cost: $25. Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Other workshops and seminars scheduled at this time (subject to change) include:

• Audio for Video (Sennheiser, David Missal)
• Planning a Production (Teja Arboleda)
• Editing Aesthetics (Eric Scott Latek)
• Apple Final Cut Studio, a Complete Workflow, (Alex Kaloostian)
• A Practical Comparison of DV, HDV & DVCPRO HD for FCP Editors (Alex Kaloostian)
• Docudrama (Eric Scott Latek)
• Final Cut Pro—The Next Step (Ed Krasnow)
• Lighting For Video Film Style (Tom Musto)
• Making History! Profiting from Biography and Same Day Edit Presentations (Hal Slifer)
• P2/Apple Work Flow (Bill Kennedy and Raj Lad, Panasonic Broadcast)
• Meeting of The Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE)
• HD Outdoors (Trevor Gowdy)
• Digital & HD 101 (AJA Systems)
• Adobe Premiere Pro Basics “Crash” Course (Eric Scott Latek)
• Digital Asset Management & Workflow (Focus Enhancements)
• Reflecmedia (Bogen Imaging)

Please keep in mind that all workshop attendees must check in at the Sally Blair Ames Sports Complex (main exhibit location) at least 15 minutes prior to class.

For more information call 781.769.7810 or visit The Camera Company web site. Seminar listing subject to change.

The New England Chapter of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) held its Annual Digital Production Showcase (which has become a mid-winter tradition) on Wednesday, January 17th at WCVB-TV’s studio in Needham, Massachusetts. My photos from the event are available on Flickr. In addition to being fed sandwiches and piping hot New England clam chowder (very appropriate given the cold snap) attendees had a chance to experience hands-on demos of the latest digital production tools in a collegial atmosphere. I thank SMPTE/New England for hosting such a delightful event in which I can catch up with what’s happening in the realm of digital production.

While vendors had lots to show, the really interesting conversations were on the show floor, abuzz with speculation of what vendors might be unveiling at NAB in Las Vegas this year. This year the show had more exhibits than ever before, and while the emphasis of the show is video post production and non-linear editing, I took delight in checking out several new cameras.

Marty Feldman from The Camera Company showed me the new HVR-V1U, Sony’s first entry into an affordable entry-level progressive scan HDV camera, it sports three 1/4″ CMOS chips. Also in the Camera Company Booth were two other popular HDV camcorders, the Canon XH-A1 and the JVC GY-HD250. The HD250 is a much needed upgrade to their ProHD line-up featuring 720/60p recording, HD SDI and component out, and a decent battery connector for Anton-Bauer batteries. The cheesy add-on connector that’s available for the earlier GY-HD100 was very fragile to put it politely. With the 250 the camera line has grown up

Vendors know that many sophisticated people will be kicking the tires at this event, so they send out some of their more knowledgeable representatives for this show, it was a good evening for getting answers to tough camera and post-production questions.

There was also talk among some Final Cut Pro editors that they are tired of rendering hell and are ready to switch to some of the real-time alternatives now available on “the other platform.” As editors mix different media types on the timeline these days, the time wasted rendering is becoming a serious productivity issue. More than one editor I spoke with expressed their disappointment that Apple has yet to address this issue and is apparently more concerned with iPods and iPhones than creative production.

1 Beyond was at the show pleased to offer Final Cut Pro editors an alternatives with the Matrox Axio running on their HD Octoflex eight processor workstation running Windows XP. When it comes to HD editing, and you start to compare prices and performance, the Axio solution is in the same ballpark as Final Cut Pro on a Mac Pro with a Kona 3 card but offers better real-time performance.

Why has it taken Apple so long to deliver a true real-time solution? There were no significant announcements at NAB from Apple last year regarding Final Cut Pro. Will Apple at NAB this year finally unveil the long-rumored next version of Final Cut Pro? Will it finally address the problems of real-time performance, color correction, and media management? Apple’s acquisition of Silicon Color and Art Box leads me to speculate that Apple may have something interesting to show. In the meantime, with deadlines looming, some editors tell me they are at the point where they would rather switch that wait. Personally, I’m going to wait.

In addition to their line of P2 cameras and decks, Panasonic had on hand their amazing BT-LH2600W 26″ LCD and BT-LH1700W 17″ LCD monitors. Although the blacks are still not as good as you will find with professional CRT monitors, these LCDs come very close and do a good job of simulating the color response of SMPTE phosphors. These monitors have a useful function that will superimposed a Waveform monitor display over the image. They also provide dual-rate SDI HD or SD inputs, component input (Y, Pb, Pr) as well as a PC RGB input. Most critical viewers will prefer to use a Sony BVM or PVM series glass CRT, but since CRTs have been phased out and sell on eBay for more than their original selling price, these LCD monitors from Panasonic are really looking good as a flatter, more environmentally friendly alternative.

With digital production comes the need to manage lots of storage, with high performance and reliability. I saw two RAID storage solutions that meet the needs of small to medium sized-facilities. 1 Beyond was showing off their Intelliraid C-XPR providing fiber channel performance designed specifically for video that allows you to work with 30fps, uncompressed, 1080i video without skipping a beat. Another storage option is the Terrablock from Facilis Technology. Francis Albert, president, founder, and former Avid guy, described it as a high-performance fibre channel storage soulution that can be shared between Linux, Windows XP and Mac OS X clients running a range of NLE applications. Their 12D model can support 10 clients over 4Gbit fibre and in terms of real-time performance is cpable of serving two clients at a time playing 24P 10-bit 1080 video, or a single client running 2K DPX at 24fps.

In comparison to the many new storage offerings like the two above, Apple’s XServe RAID is looking mighty long in the tooth. Why does Apple do that? They introduce an amazing product, market the hell out of it, sell a bunch, and then forgets about it for sometimes years? Sometimes I think Apple is like an ADD teenager that gets very excited about something and and then moves on to the next crush.

Tom Talbot of Rule Broadcast Systems showed me Anycast with Sony’s new add-on board that allows it to switch high definition, as well as mix HD and SD sources. Anycast provides cost effective switching of multiple cameras for covering live events and now with the ability to bring HD cameras into the mix, is an even more compelling offering for people who need to switch multiple cameras but are working on a very tight budget. Also in the Rule both was Sony’s F350 XDXAM HD camera, which I’ve had the pleasure of shooting with and I’m very impressed with the amazing image quality, in spite of 1/2″ chips and the MPEG-2 recording. With excellent image quality, variable frame rates, progressive scan, Blu-Ray disk recording, ENG form-factor, and the ability to put good glass on it, the F350 offers a compelling middle ground in-between the crowd of low-end camcorders with the fragile and problematic HDV recording format and the higher-end 2/3″ professional camcorders. I have to say I really like the XDXCAM HD disk format in lieu of tape idea.

David Talamas had the amazing little Zylight in his booth (which I raved about in my NAB 2006 post), along with the elegant Sound Devices 744T digital audio recorder and the JVC GY-HD250 which he’s very pleased with. The JVC has done well for them, and customers are constantly amazed with the picture quality, as long as you take the time to create a look for the camera. JVC has not yet figured out that they really need to tweak their default look. One of the reasons filmmakers are so happy with the DVX100 and HVX200 from Panasonic is that right out of the box they look great. The JVC can also look very good (I shoot with one now and then) but you have to tweak the settings.

WCVB-TV was a gracious host and in addition to providing a spacious location for this event, was taking attendees on tours of their facility. There was much more to see, including the latest offerings from Autodesk, Grass Valley’s portable news room, Panasonic’s DVCPRO HD cameras, decks, and P2 players, Avid’s product line, Harris-Leitch, Quantel, Telestream, and more.

InstantHD works with several target applications: Adobe After Effects (version 6.0 and later), Premiere Pro (PC, version 1.5 and later), or Apple Final Cut Pro (version 4.5 and later). It offers a clean interface with several controls: Input Size, Output Size, Filter Type, Sharpness, Quality, and Antialiasing.

Overall I’d say it does a good job with antialiasing, this is well demonstrated with the example frames that Red Giant has on their web site (it’s the same playground footage that comes with the downloadable demo). On the other hand, if your footage looks good to start with (for example, well lit, properly exposed, shot with the DVX100 in 24p advanced with vertical detail freq. set to “Thin”) then the results are very close to what you can accomplish with a good scaler, for example, the one in Final Cut Pro.

Below are are two DVCPRO HD 720p frames upconverted from standard definition DVX100A footage (plus the original frame for reference). The footage was shot in 24p advanced and ingested into a 24p timeline. It was shot in Squeezed Mode, w/ Cine Gamma, Cine Color Matrix, Detail settings in the middle, Vertical Frequency Detail set to ‘Thin’. The first is a clip that was upconverted with Instant HD using these settings: Best Quality, Sharpness=3, Quality=10, and Antialiasing=2. The second clip was upconverted with Final Cut Pro through simply scaling the image in the Motion Tab (with the Sequence Setting Motion Filtering Quality=Best).

InstantHD.jpg (JPEG from DVCPRO HD master, 16:9 flat, 1280×720, 210.6K) ScaleFCP.jpg (JPEG from DVCPRO HD master, 16:9 flat, 1280×720, 205.6K) Original.jpg (JPEG from DV SD original, 16:9 squeezed, 720×480, 233.3K) Note: there is slight image quality loss going from the original DVCPRO HD frames to JPEG, but it’s really insignificant when it comes to comparing these results.

There are two downsides to the Instant HD plug-in: Final Cut Pro does not allow plug-ins to rescale the image, so the documentation from Red Giant takes you through an awkward two-step process using two sequences, one as the source and the other as the master. Second, the plug-in requires you start with progressive scan footage, so if you’re converting from interlaced footage, you’ll need to de-interlace first (you’ll want to use a smart de-interlacer, not just one that drops the odd or even lines, remember, we’re upresing and we want to preserve as much detail as possible). InstantHD also takes a long time to do its thing, more than 10x real-time on my single processor PowerMac G5, while straightforward scaling right in the timeline with FCP only took 2.4x real-time.

I found the demo frustrating to work with, it crashed several times and also came up with a dialog box more than once complaining that the plug-in was not serialized. So much for the demo letting me get a chance to see how well the software can work for me. I don’t mind the watermarks, however, crashing (PowerMac G5, Mac OS X 10.4.6, Final Cut Pro 5.0.4) and complaining that it’s not serialized and having to re-install the demo several times to run tests really made the trail-run a chore. Add to that the two-step process with the nested sequence, and as far as using this in Final Cut Pro, I was left in a very ambivalent state of mind.

So unlike some of the enthusiastic reviews I’ve read, InstantHD is not performing any miracles. It’s certainly not extracting additional resolution information like the sophisticated uprezing that John Lowry did for the 15/70 IMAX film Aliens of the Deep. His upconversion from HD to film for the giant screen involves sophisticated proprietary algorithms that look at surrounding frames in order to extract additional resolution information which is available over time but not in a single frame. Having seen early clips from the film at the Montreal Science Center theatre, it was hard to believe that what I was watching on that huge IMAX screen was HD video shot with Sony CineAlta cameras (a pair of them with special lenses for underwater 3D) and upconverted by Lowry and then recorded out to 15/70 film. The results are amazing and it’s true, you can actually extract more resolution than any one frame contains. Of course this sophisticated conversion requires a huge cluster of many, many PowerMac G5s cranking away.

Maybe as our workstations get faster we’ll see some sophisticated tools end up on our desktops. I predict that within the year we’ll have quad duo (eight-processor) Intel-based Macintoshes that will arrive with as much fanfare as the original PowerMac G5 dual-processor machines did just over three years ago. With so much power, software tools can do more sophisticated image processing. For now, it looks like I’ll stick with Final Cut Pro’s own upconversion and I continue to look forward to the day that someone really delivers on the promises of “Instant HD from SD footage.”

By the way, the frame is from Log Lines, a short film I directed featuring three fine actors: Danielle Perry (pictured), Chris DeChristopher, and Christine Carron. I still need to finish the editing. Sean Hannan graced the production with his fine camerawork, Tom Robotham assisted him as gaffer, and Chris Boebel wrote the script.

1. The Zylight Z50 is a tiny LED lighting instument that can instantly changes from 5600K to 3200K light with the push of a button and can be programmed to to produce any color you want and you can save you favorites with presets. The devices can be put together and controlled wirelessly. This is a very clever idea whose time has come. Based on technology licensed from Color Kinetics and built around a HD-led (High-Density light-emitting diode) module that packs over 230 high-power elements into a single square inch, making the Z50 the brightest portable LED light available.
2. The most excitement created this year was without a doubt the excitement around the Red Digital Cinema Camera Company booth. Red is a digital cinema camera in development that promises to break the price/performance barrier for high end digital imaging. If they meet their agressive engineering targets, next year we’ll see working cameras on the show floor and what I expect will be some amazing demo footage.
3. One of the most useful tools I saw in Panasonic’s booth for P2 users working with a Macintosh was HDLog from Imagine Products. It can be used for viewing P2 video clips (stored in the MXF format) on the Mac and it will help streamline your P2 workflow from acquisition to editing. HD Log automatically creates log files from the P2 media that include thumbnails, metadata, and links to the video clips. You can use the application edit and add additional metadata, log and select clips, and convert the MXF clips to QuickTime files ready for editing. If you’re working with large amounts of media, the program can work with Imagine Product’s Mac Digital Clip Library, a library solution you can set up on an intranet or the web for IntraNet or Web to share of logs, thumbnails, and video clips.
4. Avid’s Interplay is a media production workflow and content management tool that provides centralized administration of creative, production, and business processes for postproduction and broadcast environments of all sizes. While this space has been fragmented with many vendors, a player like Avid putting a stake in the ground will change the playing field and could have a serious impact on how broadcasters and large postproduction facilities manage their creative workflows. There’s some confusion as to what the entry-level $16,000. system actually buys you, but we’ll find out as time goes by and Avid actually starts delivering solutions.
5. The KONA 3 is AJA’s new top-of-the-line 4-lane PCI Express video capture card for Apple’s Power Mac G5. It supports both SD and HD uncompressed capture and Dual Link 4:4:4:4 HD. It can play back uncompressed 10-bit and 8-bit digital video and 24-bit 48kHz digital audio. The card also supports hardware-based up-and-down-conversion to and from HD and has a live hardware keyer for compositing. There’s an optional rack-mountable 1U panel for the many connections the card supports.
6. Quietly hidden behind a laptop at the Apple booth, yet prominently displayed in the Matrox booth, was the MXO, an amazing little box that takes the DVI output from your Macintosh and converts it to broadcast-quality video. You can use it for frame accurate print to tape or to monitor HD or SD with a component or SDI display, an excellent idea that adds significant new capability to many Macintoshes that can play back compressed HD in real-time, yet don’t have the right PCI bus to support a Blackmagic or AJA video I/O card.
7. Grass Valley’s Infinity Digital Media Camcorder combines the best elements of camera design with IT recording and connectivity technologies. This 2/3″ camera has all of the bells and whistles you’d expect from a professional HD ENG camcorder and instead of using tape or a proprietary tapeless solution, it records to Compact Flash cards or Iomega REVPro disks (a professional version of Iomega’s inexpensive high-capacity REV disks commonly used to back-up personal computers. The camera will be competitively priced around $25,000.
8. Amongst the noisy demos, the shiny PowerMac G5s, and the new 17″ MacBook Pro, in the Apple booth one vendor was quietly showning something critically important as we generate more and more digital assets. Artbox Workgroup from Proximity is an asset management and workflow solution designed specifically for small broadcast and post production companies. The system helps you manage you media assets with a single media catalog that can be shared among multiple users. The system supports workflow management, search, and transcoding between a wide range of formats. They touted project level integration with Final Cut Pro. Now that the industry is almost done with the digital and high definition transitions, I think lots of attention will placed on asset management. For large organizations, there’s Artbox Enterprise that supports many additional features like access to the media catalog from within iNews or ENPS and sharing media beyond a single workgroup.
9. I had already seen this projector, but the images projected with Sony’s 10,000 lumen SRX-R110 4K (4096 x 2160 at 1.85:1) projector designed for large venues were stunning. Unlike a DLP projector, there was absolutely no perception of a grid or pixels, even while close to the screen. The projector offers great contrast (1800:1), plenty of detail in the shadows, clean highlights, and nice color. Is there a digital projector that can exceed the standards of 35mm projection? This comes close. These are the projectors Landmark has been putting into their theaters.
10. Sony’s PDW-F350 HD camcorder is an impressive contender that records onto XDCAM disks and comes in a very attractive price-point at $25,000 sans lens. Sony opted to go with three 1/2″ CCD imagers rather than 2/3″ chips. Users with existing 2/3″ glass can mount their lenses on this camera using the LO32BMT lens mount adapter. In addition to recording in 1080/59.94i, 50i, 29.97P, 25P, and 23.98P, the camera is capable of over- and under-cranking with frame rates ranging from 4 to 60 frames per second. This is the first time Sony has provided variable frame rates in a camera. XDCAM is a strong contender against Panasonic’s P2 cards.
11. Panasonic had many AG-HVX200 camcorders in the booth and although introduced last year, this camcorder was generating a lot of interest, this year they expanded their line of HD camcorders with the AJ-HDX900 2/3″ HD camcorder and the AJ-HPC2000 P2 HD Camcorder. The AJ-HDX900 is pretty much an HD upgrade to the popular AJ-SDX900. As we would expect, the AJ-HDX900 offers cine-like gamma with three film-like modes and shoots in 11 formats and, surprise, it records to tape, not P2 cards (I guess tape is still something customers want, for now). The AJ-HPC2000 is a workhorse HD P2 broadcast camera, and introduces the AVC-Intra (H.264 Compliant) as an alternative to DVCPRO HD in order to double the capacity of the P2 cards. I was disappointed to find out that neither the AJ-HDX900 nor the AJ-HPC2000 offers variable frame rates like the AG-HVX200 little brother or AJ-HDC27H big brother.
12. VFinity was demonstrating their elegant web-based solution for content management, production, and publishing that supports non-linear video editing and multimedia publishing workflows with an end-to-end digital solution that enables creative collaboration and media transcoding, digitizing, and easy reuse of any form of media. Since they have built the system from the ground up using web services and the latest open standards, they don’t carry legacy baggage like some of their established competitors. They showed me a cool demo: Searching for a Final Cut Pro project using their media asset search engine, picking it out from a set of Google-like search results, and then opening the project. Then they showed me the same thing on a different workstation connected to the network. VFinity works with any kind of media and is accessble via a web browser. Looks like an interesting solution for creative media professionals working in corporate, broadcast, and large post facility environments. I know several people involved with the company, so I may exhibit some bias.

David Tamés: What do you see as the role of P2 technology in production and post-production?

Barry Braverman: P2 is Panasonic’s implementation of the SMPTE MXF format, Sony has XDCAM, their MXF format. P2 is a transport stream, very similar to any other transport stream, except it was created by the entertainment industry to facilitate the movement of files through the production process from image acquisition, hopefully, ultimately, through the digital intermediate. Digital cinema, for example, is an MXF format. The idea of MXF is that you have your audio and video, but you also have your metadata which is really at the focus of a lot of our discussion because metadata, accurately tracking metadata, represents for studios and producers a significant potential savings of money, because you can track for example, who shot this, who modified it, who graded it, who composited it, you have a record of access to that clip, which is contained in the metadata which travels along on this transport stream. And it’s effective because there’s no change to the video data or the audio data itself. The data simply moves along the pipe and pulling along all this other metadata which is what we need to facilitate digital workflow.

Tamés: Why did you get involved with P2 technology?

Braverman: I got involved with P2 because it represents Panasonic’s foray into an IT (information technology) based camera, [Panasonic’s P2 cameras] are the first IT based cameras that anybody has really produced. In the sense that we record data onto a card, like you would record a [word processing or spreadsheet] document, or anything else. The good side is that gives us additional capabilities, such as adjustable frame rates but the down side is that we’re not always dealing with a video stream and our equipment and our workflows have always been predicated on a video stream moving from here to there. If you don’t have a video stream, then how do you deal with it?

Tamés: So what kind of challenges does this new approach raise?

Braverman: Many users are uncomfortable making this transition. I think one of the challenges from an image acquisition perspective at the moment is limited storage, of the P2 cards, is probably the biggest, issue. Another challenge, from an operator’s point-of-view, is that since the camera is so quiet, it’s hard to tell when it’s running. Another challenge is archiving. Where’s your backup? This is the really big challenge, you don’t have original tapes to go back to, so that’s another thing you have to provide in your workflow, sufficient redundancy and protection to protect against loss of data.

Tamés: I think the possibility of data loss scares many producers.

Braverman: Early on in using P2 there have been cases of lost data for a variety of reasons. So not only do you need a workflow that has sufficient redundancy in place, you also need to understand when a clip is defective and corrupt, and it does happen. If you’re recording to the FireStore [hard drive recorder], if someone pulls the FireWire cable out, what happens to your show, or your clip? That clip has to be repaired. So any MXF device, including the HVX200, any P2 device, has the capability to repair clips, or disks, or cards. That’s a basic functionality because the transport stream is subject to corruption.

Tamés: Any recording system is subject to failure, videotape has it’s own set of problems.

Braverman: Tape is subject to dropouts, signal level problems, shrinkage, longevity issues. Betacam is stable for about fifteen years, consumer tape is even shorter, in two years you can begin to see signs of degradation.

Tamés: I guess your media is never really safe, no matter what it’s stored on. Clearly, the P2 card is simply a way to move media from the camera to a nonlinear editing station, from which you have to make your own archival backup. So how are we going to preserve our media?

Braverman: I think the biggest part of it is organization, be very careful to name things, name folders, and file folder hierarchy, it becomes really important now because of the use of servers, and locating files by servers, and database search engines, because ten years from now you’re only going to be able to find clips that you adequately and satisfactorily logged today. So that takes time and to understand what database you’re using. That’s what HD Log on the Mac side is intended to get you into, so you can manage [your media]. HDLog can also be used for other things. it’s also a viewer, and it allows you to edit your metadata. While you’re shooting [and attaching metadata to clips] that metadata is forever linked to the clip, it’s never lost, unless you bring it into Final Cut Pro (ouch). FCP and Avid do not currently use this metadata, Avid uses the fields for their own metadata, deviating from the MXF standard.

Tamés: So it looks like HDLog can help you keep track of your clip metadata even if your editing system does not preserve it at this time.

Braverman: The Panasonic P2 Viewer [for Windows XP and Windows 2000] is not as strong [as HDLog], it’s basically a free piece of software that comes with camera. These products are all in their infancy as manufacturers get feedback about how people are actually using them.

Tamés: Are there some things that a P2 workflow is better for than others?

Braverman: The camera works much better in it’s present state for commercials and music videos rather than long form documentaries or events where the camera needs to be running all of the time. That’s the the thing to remember, if you’re rehearsing and doing specified length scenes, then the camera works very well, because then you can anticipate if you have enough room on the card for this shot, but if you’re doing a documentary thing, you don’t know what’s going to happen, it’s a whole different deal.

Tamés: How would you compare Panasonic’s P2 to Sony’s XDCAM?

Braverman: XDCAM requires a playback device, you need a disk reader, a piece of hardware to play it back. Whereas the P2 card requires only a Cardbus compliant card slot. You can buy a card reader at a CompUSA for $30.00. There’s a quantitative difference in terms of orders of magnitude between the [cost of] integrating P2 into an IT based workflow and the integration of XDCAM into a workflow. Having said that, the advantage of XDCAM includes [being able to] offload disks at very high speed, and you can upload them to a server, but you still need a rather expensive disk player. Theoretically out of the camera you can upload through ethernet to a server, otherwise, you have to deal with the h ardware of a disk reader. I love what Sony did with the disk, they are very robust, very well engineered, very resistant to heat and humidity, and actual live moisture, because the disk spins off any excess moisture that builds up on the disk. Either route (P2 or XDCAM) in terms of technology makes sense to me. With the P2 route you have lower capacity to start with, the challenge of P2 is the lower capacity, whereas with XDCAM you have 23 GB on a disk, you have a much higher capacity out of the box.

Barry Braverman is a Hollywood-based cinematographer recognized for his work on National Geographic specials, commercials, and music videos.

SoftRAID allows you to set up a RAID 0 or RAID 1. I hope in a future version they will also support RAID 10, which Apple added to their Disk Utility in Tiger.

RAID 0 is striping data over multiple disks for improved performance, RAID 1 is mirroring data over multiple drives for improved realiability and RAID 10 (a.k.a. RAID 1+0) is a combination of striping and mirroring. There are many more RAID configurations, but many require hardware controllers. RAID 1 and 0 is easily implemented with software. I prefer SoftRAID rather that using the built-in OS X Disk Utility RAID feature because SoftRAID offers several advantages. Disk Utility provides a no-frills interface but you have to use the command line interface to rebuild in the event of the failure of a mirror disk, and a RAID configured with Disk Utility is less reliable becuase Apple does not offer error checking and reporting. SoftRAID, on the other hand, provides reports of volume status and the interface makes it easy to create and maintain RAID volumes. A list of differences is available.

I ended up going with the internal solution using the Sonnet G5 Jive internal drive mounting system to save space, but I like the option of later adding four more external drives, which the Sonnet Tempo-X 4+4 SATA PCI Card can supprt, so the Sonnet Tempo-X 4+4 with four internal and four external SATA ports is an excellent choice if you plan to expand at some point to a total of 8 drives of additional storage. Larger capacity drives are another option if you need the space. Prices will vary, below are my ballpark figures. I’ve started with two drives, but plan to add two more shortly, this also played a factor in the decision making process, the ability to quickly expand to 1TB by simply adding two more drives when the need arose.

Note: If you have a newer G5, the G5 Jive will not fit, however, you can use the G5 Jam or G5 Jam Express.

My experience with the current project I’m onlining with Final Cut Pro using 10-bit uncompressed standard definition video is that a twin SATA drive raid configuration is fast enough for playback of rendered video. Don’t expect excellent performance with multiple layers, or uncompressed high definition video, for that you’ll need to configure an even faster RAID.

Once nice thing about putting together your own storage system is you can choose the drive brand you like, I’ve been partial to Western Digital for a long time, but I thought I’d give the Samsung 250MB/SATA/8M drives a try for the first two drives in the internal G5 Jive arrangement becuase they are very quiet and I could take them home right away (being right in the middle of a project), however, they only come with a one year warranty, so maybe the Western Digital Cavair RE 250MB/SATA/16M is a better deal with their 5-year warranty (or the quieter Western Digital Caviar SE with a 3-year warranty) so the next two drives I get are likely to be Western Digital once again, as they have an excellent record in terms of reliability and performance.

If you’re not familar with S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) it’s a technology built into modern hard drives that reports statistics on their performace. Some performance anomalies indicate impending drive failure, so in effect it’s a early-warning system for predictable drive failures. While monitoring S.M.A.R.T. status can’t predict all drive failures, not all drive failures can be predicted, some warning is better than none. It’s unfortunate that you can’t check S.M.A.R.T. status of drives connected via FireWire, only on those drives connected via ATA or SATA. Therefore, SATA drives have this advantage over FireWire connected drives.

Check out SMARTReporter, a great utility you can use to monitor the S.M.A.R.T. status of your SATA drives. More info on S.M.A.R.T. In addition, with SATA drives you can configure a RAID for Mirroring (offering data redundancy for ultra- reliability) or Striping (increased drive performace) using Apple’s disk utility.

So here are the three options I considered, and some of my thoughts on the pros and cons of each. Of course, for ease of transportability, flexibility of interface, and good looking design you can’t beat the LaCie drives, which is why I already have three of them. But when it cames time to add more raw, fast storage for video editing, especially when it comes to capturing, rendering, and playback, SATA drives in a RAID configuration is the way to go. Both the G5 Jive and Granite Digital options are appealing.

• OPTION ONE: INTERNAL SATA Solution using Sonnet G5 Jive: This option allows use of S.M.A.R.T. monitoring and optional configuration as RAID array (using Apple Disk Utility, or better yet, SoftRAID) for faster performance (install one drive in the G5’s internal drive slot, the other three in G5 Jam, includes 3 internal SATA cables, card includes 2 internal SATA cables). Very cost effective, the disadvantage is you can’t take advantage of the hot-swap capability of the Granite Digital solution or the transportability of the LaCie external drive solution. This option consists of a Sonnet G5 Jive internal mounting bracket and cables (99.99), a Sonnet Tempo-X 4+4 SATA PCI Card (189.99) and four 250 MB hard drives (Samsung, Maxtor, or Western Digital) for a total price of $729.94.
• OPTION TWO: EXTERNAL SATA Solution using Granite Digital 4 Drive Enclosure and Sonnet 4+4 SATA PCI Card: Advatange of hot-swap capability, additional trays are only 19.95, allowing to use different drives for different projects. Advantage of S.M.A.R.T. monitoring compared to FireWire 800 external drive solutions. Not easily shared with other system unless it too has the same external drive setup. Note: there are several manufactureres offering nice external enclosures, and both Granite and others offer more sophisticated options with LED monitoring of drive performance. If you’ve got the budget for it, the extra information is nice to have. But this here is a basic bare-bones option. This option consists of a Granite Digital SATA II 4-Bay Hot-Swap enclosure (299.95), a Sonnet Tempo-X 4+4 SATA PCI Card (189.99) four eSATA to SATA Shielded 3 ft. Cables (4 @ 24.95 ea) and four 250 MB hard drives (Samsung, Maxtor, or Western Digital) (4 @ estimated 109.99 ea) for a total price of $1029.74.
• OPTION THREE: EXTERNAL FIREWIRE Solution using the popular and versatile LaCie 250GB d2 External triple-interface (USB 2.0 and FireWire 400/800) drives: This option offers flexibility of transporting drives between systems but you can’t set these up in a RAID configuration using Apple’s Disk Utility (but you can do it with SoftRAID), however, through the FireWire 800 interface there is no ability to take advantage of S.M.A.R.T. monitoring for your drives. This option consists of four LaCie 250GB d2 Ext. USB2/FW400/800 external hard drives (4 @ 219.00 ea) for a total price of $876.00.

I learned how to edit using a Steenbeck editing table at Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco very similar to this one here located at Documentary Educational Resources in Watertown, Massacusetts. While testing the Panasonic HVX200 camera I was struck by how beautiful the flatbed was, especially with the afternoon light coming through the window, so I shot it both as a still frame and a slow panning shot.

Since 1953 Steenbeck B.V. (Holland) has manufactured a full range of film controlling and viewing equipment. Pictured here is a six-plate 16mm flatbed editing table. It can run 1 track of picture and 2 tracks of sound at a time.

Until the introduction of non-linear editing systems, films were edited with devices like this. The process used to require a small army of assistants to keep track of all of the various pieces of soundtrack and workprint (a positive copy of the original negative). With each edit you had to make a splice and tape the splice. If you changed your mind too many times, you had a very messy workprint with spices and sticky tape. You could not afford to do too many effects except for cuts and dissolves. Opticals (any effect that required re-photographing materials with an optical printer like titles over pictures, composites, etc.) were cost prohibitive for independent filmmakers, so rarely would you see credits over picture and most effects shots were out of the question, unless you did them in camera or while shooting.

There was something peaceful and zen-like about working with pieces of film with which you could see the image. You would remember scenes in terms of what shelf they were on, there was a physical geography to the editing process. The speed and convenience of non-linear editing made the flatbed and film editing all but obsolete. A few filmmakers still use them, and archivists will be handling film for a long time. I would not want to go back to the old ways, though something was lost when all of your media ends up as bits on a hard drive. I guess that’s one reason I like working with transcripts of interviews, the need to have some physical manifestation of the media.

Ironically, this is a still frame from video shot with the Panasonic HVX200, a high definition camcorder some filmmakers would agree is a reasonable replacement for 16mm film.

Profiting from Biography Presentations, Presenter: Hal Slifer, Video Historian (Friday, 10:00AM – 12:00PM, $25.00) Slifer, will share his experiences producing biography videos shown at weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and other family events. Learn how to combine photographs, home movies, and video interviews in the productions and how to sell the value for greater profitability. Slifer will show some of his projects that command upwards of $5,000 to $10,000. Editorial: Digital media tools make it easier than ever to create compelling projects using a wide variety of materials, how you go beyond the tools and go about preparing and creating these biographies is where the secret sauce lies.

Color Correction With Apple Final Cut Pro 5, Presenter: Christopher Phrommayon, Future Media Concepts (Friday, 12:00PM – 2:00PM, $49.00) Phrommayon will demonstrate how to use Final Cut Pro’s color correction tools to both enhance your video images and to create stylized looks. The session will cover use of the video scopes, frame viewer, range checking, and the three-way color corrector. Editorial: Besides sound, a major archilles heel of most independent projects is color correction, this should part of every filmmaker’s tooklit.

Editing Aesthetics, Presenter: Eric Latek, Documentary Filmmaker (Friday, 1:00PM – 3:00PM, $35.00) Drawing upon examples from his own recently completed project, “Sweet Dreams,” a stylistic documentary with a narrative feel, Latek examines the creative and aesthetic aspects of the decision-making process which establishes the pace, mood and tone of any cinematic genre. Topics include shooting for the edit, producing various film looks from video sources, and cutting to heighten dramatic impact. Editorial: I saw Eric give an excellent presentation at a SMPTE meeting a while ago and I was very impressed by his work and highly developed sense of editing aesthetics.

Prosumer HD Cameras: The Filmmakers’ Perspective, Presenters: David Tamés, Kino-Eye.com and Don Berube, Noisybrain Productions (Friday, 3:00PM – 5:00PM, $25.00) The new crop of Prosumer High Definition camcorders are hot, hot, hot. In this panel discussion local filmmakers share their first-hand experiences using these new cameras and reflect on their impact on the filmmaking craft and aesthetics. If you are thinking about acquiring one of these low-cost HDV camcorders, by all means take this class and hear some highly educated opinions. Editorial: Yours truly is involved, a biased recommendation…

Basic Digital Video Workshop, Presenter: Teja Arboleda, Documentary Filmmaker (Friday, 5:00PM – 7:00PM, $25.00) Participants will learn basic technical and creative aspects of digital videography. Bring your own digital video camcorder. Learn how to create shots and scenes that tell stories and express emotion, through instructor-led critique of each participant’s work. Composition and movement theories, including depth-of-field, exposure, contrast, black and white, color, object/subject weight distribution, panning, tilting, zooming, and many other topics will be discussed. An excellent workshop for a beginner looking to dip their feet into the water. Editorial: Teja is a gifted teacher and a very talented filmmaker, this is sure to be an excellent introduction…

The Rise of Citizen Media and Video Podcasting, Presenters: Ravi Jain, ravijain.org, David Tamés, Kino-Eye.com, and Steve Garfield, stevegarfield.com (Friday, 7:00PM – 9:00PM, $25.00) Learn about the latest video podcasting tools and how filmmakers are using this new medium to distribute, promote, and collaborate. Delivering video over the internet has never been easier. Learn how to make this new medium work for you. Editorial: Yours truly is involved, a biased recommendation…

A complete list of Free Semiars and Workshops is available online.

Transcriva transforms the process of transcribing interviews from a tedious chore into a graceful process with an efficient chat-like interface using keyboard shortcuts that is especially powerful when transcribing an interview with multiple speakers.

Any audio file format that QuickTime supports will work with Transcriva, so if you’re working with video you’ll have to export audio files of your interviews to use this application. It does not support the display of video and video time code, however, I don’t see this as a problem for most interview transcription tasks (it’s not too hard to map the times back to the video if you match the audio export with the start of the video at zero minutes). I would venture a guess that if this relatively new program is well received by the documentary community the developers might consider QuickTime video support and time code in a future version.

The audio interface provides two important features: adjustable playback speed and backtrack-on-pause. By adjusting the playback speed you can more easily accommodate either slow or fast talkers to your own pace of typing. Backtrack-on-pause makes it easy to pick up where you left off before you paused the playback, by automatically going back a fixed interval (adjustable between half of a second to three seconds). Being able to restart the audio and play back a piece before you paused eliminates guesswork and makes for faster, more accurate transcription.

All of the critical controls are keyboard-driven including starting and stopping the audio, starting new segments, changing speakers, etc. Since everything can be done with keystrokes rather than reaching for the mouse, I found this made the process easier, quicker, and more fluid, compared to what I’ve done for years, which is to use BBEdit and the QuickTime Player or sometimes doing it directly in Final Cut Pro.

Every time you start a new segment, Transcriva keeps track of the position within the audio file that you started the segment in. When you play back, the Follow-Along feature keeps the transcript synchronized with the audio clip during playback, highlighting the corresponding text section as the audio plays. A text search feature is included, making it a breeze to find specific phrases and unlike a traditional transcript, you can go ahead and listen to the audio surrounding the text. This makes it possible to go through the clip quickly and write sketchy notes, and go back and fill in the whole text if you need it.

When you are done transcribing, you can export the transcript as a plain text or rich text (RTF) file that you can be opened with any standard word processor (e.g., AppleWorks, Pages, TextEdit, Word) or page layout tool (e.g., InDesign, PageMaker, QuarkXPress).

A license for Transcriva is $19.99 (USD) and you can download a highly functional trial version before you buy in order to make sure it’s what you’re looking for. Unfortunately for Windows users who support the Microsoft monopoly, this is a Macintosh only application.

Visit the Transcriva product page for more details and a link to download the application. Bartas Technologies released Transcriva 1.0 in April of 2005. The current version, 1.0.4, released in July, adds support for Spotlight and Tiger and fixes several minor bugs. Transcriva requires a PowerPC G4 or better running Mac OS X 10.3 or later.

Overall this is a powerful and effective tool, I found that with very little practice I was transcribing an interview more quickly and efficiently than ever before. It’s a pleasure to come across a simple and elegant solution to a problem, especially when it’s such a good value for the money. So far I’ve tested it and transcribed one interview with it and have not run into any problems. The one thing I wish the developer would add is support to display a QuickTime movie, since most of the transcription I do is of interviews for the documentary films I’m wokring on.