HD For Indies

I'm taking my own advice - I'm getting back to my roots, spending more time on research and less on keeping track of the daily news for the community benefit.

What am I doing?

A hint: since last week I've been busy doing a lot of testing with a Mac Pro on loan from Apple, we did a LOT of work with it before it had to go back. Learned lots, collected and are tabulating many thousands of data points of interest for the kind of stuff I'm, uh, interested in.

Yeah, that.

Late, wordsmithing low priority after final sprint of 3 looooong days of intense mouse & keyboarding. While I don't want to live there, Production Land is fun to visit every once in a while - it has been a Caffeine and Loud Music Day, MUCH was accomplished.

-mike

Labels: blogs

...isn't happening.

Busy.

Good stuff.

You'll see.

But busy, blogging back burnered.

-mike

Target to only sell Blu-ray players in stores - Engadget: "The decision, which Target and Sony are due to announce tomorrow, doesn't include Target's website, Xbox 360 HD DVD drive, or HD DVD movies, so it's not a particularly huge win for Blu-ray, with even Target saying things like 'We are not proclaiming one format vs. the other as the preferred consumer technology.' Still, coupled with Blockbuster's decision to only stock Blu-ray discs, it looks like the format war might be fought and won at the retailer level, not by consumers."

$300 TiVo HD Unboxed and Fondled (Verdict: Hell Yes!) - Gizmodo

TiVO finally got their act together enough to get a viably affordable HD TiVO out on the market. Consensus: good stuff.

Talking to a friend of mine about consumer interfaces today, he was talking about asking a guy in the set top box world why, in a world of iPhone, AppleTV, TiVO, Vista, OS X, and other pretty slidey smoothly animated user interfaces, set top box interfaces look like 1982 ass.

Boils down to this: set top boxes come from cable companies. Cable companies go with lowest cost provider. Hard cost per unit to make a good UI? I dunno, maybe $10-$20? Plus dev costs. Cable companies don't want to pay that, so therefore they don't offer it, so therefore we don't have it.

Companies like TiVO offer a better UI, but we see where the market values that - TiVO is in dire trouble as a financial entity.

My friend idly pondered about the market opportunities these things create for other players - look at the creamy smooth UI on AppleTV, or in my Blu-ray player, aka PS3. I realized the PS3 should be my preferred HD playback device for the following reasons:

1.) It supports 1080p which my 1080i HD DVD player doesn't (and my HDTV DOES support 1080p, I made sure of that), and

2.) The UI is slicker on the PS3 than it is on the HD DVD player - in part because there are plenty of juevos to push pretty pixels around - since it is primarily a game machine, making nice menus is child's play for it.

More Info

Official page: TiVo | TiVo HD

Engadget review roundup: TiVo HD review roundup - Engadget HD

Bonus fun thing: YouTube - Microsoft Surface Parody

Some tidbits as Red gets closer to shipping (hopefully in a month or so, give or take a week?) Soderbergh is probably shooting right now as I write this in Spain on his prototype Reds, Jim Jannard posted on RedUser.net last night:

Steady progress... - Reduser.net:

"We are making steady progress getting the camera ready for production. As we stated previously, some features will not be enabled with the 1st cameras shipping. All updates will be done as features are enabled through a download and USB or Compact Flash to the camera. It is really easy. Slip in the card, turn the camera on, and say 'yes' when it asks you if you want to upgrade to the new software.

We are very, very happy with image quality at this point and still think we can improve some as time goes on.

This has been (and still is) a huge undertaking. It is a project worthy of our best effort. We appreciate everyone's patience. We do not expect another schedule slip at this time (things can change).

Jim"


later in that same thread:

Steven Soderbergh starts shooting in Spain in 8 hours. He is flying without a net (no backup plan). Just RED ONE's. He will be recording 4k REDCODE RAW to Compact Flash. Wish him (and all of us) luck.

Jim


Somewhere along the line, I missed when Rodney Charters, cinematographer on "24" said about the Red One:

I have had the opportunity to test he RED ONE camera over the past few weeks, including direct comparison to the same film I shoot on '24'. All I can say is that I am totally amazed. Revolutionary might not be a strong enough word to describe what RED is doing.

Then recently, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (writer/director and cinematographer on Crank) said:

Film is dead. And by the way, so is video. The word is getting out that RED is the future, but for us it is right now. After holding these bad boys in our hands and putting the cameras through the full Neveldine/Taylor acid test our faith in the mad scientists at RED labs is unlimited. We're committed to RED for every project we've got in the pipeline."

Mike's Comments: OK, that Soderbergh is willing to shoot with prototype Red Ones without an alternative plan speaks very highly of his faith. Soderbergh has been a strong digital advocate for quite some time, and after projects like 3 Ocean's 11 movies, Traffic, and Solaris, he can pick whatever he wants.

Rodney's comments are high praise indeed, coming from a highly placed professional in the field. That he compares it directly to film and is still very impressed bodes very well indeed. That he historically shoots film, and still likes Red, is VERY encouraging.

Neveldine and Taylor are strong digital advocates (Crank was shot on F900 if I recall correctly), and I don't know what their film shooting history is or isn't, but seeing the pictures of one of the guys roller blading with a Red One tells me a lot about their gung ho attitude.

Technically, if shooting to 8 GB Compact Flash (I'm guessing at the size Soderbergh is using, dunno) at 24fps (presumably at 27 MB/sec according to Graeme's last statement I saw on the matter, lets go with that for now) allows for a hair over 4 1/2 minutes of footage per CF card. Lame by video standards, but a reasonable short load for a film camera. That's a short load, but considering you can carry a fistful of them for a day's narrative shooting, or have all the media you need for the afternoon in your shirt pocket, that's not bad! Oh - and don't forget, that's 4K res footage you've got in your inner jeans change pocket.

Bigger ones to follow in time, Red RAM to follow in time (64GB solid state, should yield about 36 minutes of 24p footage).

This makes me itchy to start playing with a Red as soon as humanly possible.

: )

-mike

Labels: Red

Apple - Support - AppleCare Protection Plan for iPhone

Attention fellow iPhoners - you can buy AppleCare that will cover out to the end of your 2 year AT&T contract for an additional $69. Two years from date of purchase I think, or activation. In any case, ends when the contract does, NOT an extra year beyond from when you purchase it.

For more info, see the AppleCare FAQ, which makes frequent mention of the iPhone.

At one point, accidental damage was most definitely going to be in there as well, but it got yanked from the plan late in the game. Booooooooo, Apple.

Also, Bluetooth headsets are starting to ship out to customers.

Labels: iPhone, OT

Writeup from Creative Cow on SAS RAID from Dulce Systems:

Does 250ish MB/sec writes, 360ish MB/sec reads in fault protected 8 drive array setup - nice!

The Before Scenario:

"As so many of my clients use SATA drives on their editing systems (both AVID and FCP), I started to test out some of the Raid protected SAS solutions. I was initially disappointed. On one hand, they were inexpensive, and they were fast. On the other, they were difficult to set up, they never warned you that a drive had failed, they had too many rules for what you could do and not do, and when it came time to rebuild your broken RAID, it was a manual process. For those of you familiar with older working RAID solutions from Apple, Medea, StorCase and HUGE Systems, this was just unacceptable."

The After Scenario:

You click on "Quick Function/Quick Create" and select "RAID Level 3."Another menu that says "64 bit LBA", and a menu that says "Volume Initialization Mode/NO Init", click on SUBMIT, and in FIVE SECONDS, the RAID 3 drive array is there. I then deleted the RAID by clicking on "RAID Set Function/Delete RAID Set", and created a RAID 5, using the same few keystrokes.

IN FIVE SECONDS!!

I couldn't believe it. Well, I really DIDN'T believe it, so I loaded up some media, and yanked out one of the drives. The drive array started to beep, indicating a failure. I opened up the Dulce RAID Console, which indicated that there was a failure. I popped the drive back into the Dulce (with power on - no powering down) - and IT STARTED TO REBUILD all by itself.

This sounds VERY promising, and could be a good solution for a lot of folks. Unfortunately, they do NOT sell bare systems - you have to buy the fully configured card & enclosure with drives.

Mike's Analysis: A 2TB system (8x250GB presumably) starts at $4400, an 8TB is $8000.

Formatted as RAID 3 or 5, this should allow for a usable, formatted capacity of 1624GB for the 2TB model yielding $2.71/GB, up to 6475GB for the 8TB model, yielding $1.23/GB.

Compare this to Apple's fibre channel equivalent cost of a 7TB model for $12,400, pus $500 for the card for a total of about $12,900 for a RAID 50 capacity of 5550GB at a cost of $2.32/GB. The 10.5TB model formats to 8325GB at a cost of 14,300 for a price/GB of $1.71.

There are other differences between the models, but this is a place to start analyzing from for single station utilization.

Sounds very promising, I want to get a review unit.

-mike

Labels: hardware, RAID, storage

Once again it is Friday, time for another exciting round of Blogwad!

Thanks as always to Andy for helping me put all this together.

Acquisition -

Photos: Slingbox beams into CBS newsroom | CNET News.com - "Replaced more than 20 of its cameras affixed to the tops of local bridges, freeways and buildings that use microwave technology to relay video back to the station with smaller cameras combined with a Slingbox Pro."


Cameras -

RED ONE "Acapulco" in use... - Reduser.net - "This is Mark Neveldine (Writer, Director and Camera Operator on 'Crank') giving 'Acapulco' a test drive. He is bad-ass on wheels. Camera as tested weighed about 18 pounds." -Jim

Skew... - Reduser.net - Jim talks about the Red and camera skew, defining the term and explaining how it affects images from the Red One.

Shutter Speed Vs. Shutter Angle at FreshDV - "If you have ever wondered what the difference between the way a video camera calcualate shutter by fractions of a second and the way a film camera calculates shutter in degrees, then this article by Stuart English at Reduser.net is just for you."

Home - EasySlate slating system - "System includes 3 Slates and a Back Focus Chart."


Post -

Final Cut Pro 6 -Yeah yeah yeah, we've seen a million reviews of FCP 6 by now. But Heath digs a little deeper, and shows off codec tests comparing HDV, PhotoJPEG, ProRes, and ProResHQ, as well as a demo of SmoothCam in action. Worth reading/watching.

Daniel Pimley's Homepage - A media calculator for audio-visual professionals. Calculate data rate, file size or duration - handy for DVD projects, too.

Panalog After Effects Plugin - "Implements some
of the panalog conversion functions in AE."

Toolfarm - Plugins, Software Sales and Distribution: All fired up for IBC: The Foundry previews major Nuke release, plus Furnace for Final Cut Pro at Toolfarm.com - "The Foundry will be offering sneak previews of the next major release of its compositing application Nuke."

DOUBLE ULTRA PanaLog4Lin - More Panavision goodies. Was researching and came across this stuff.

Coloring the Fiesta - "Using After Effect to color correct a movie."

Frantic Films to Debut New Software Solutions at SIGGRAPH | Studio Daily - "Along with a new version of Deadline, the company's popular render farm solution, Frantic Films will unveil several new developments throughout the conference."

Transformers Movie - Special Effects - "Hand-rendered metallic uncorkings of real-life cars, trucks and helicopters represented uncharted territory for the gooey-alien experts at ILM, each transformation taking six months to imagine."

Video Podcast: Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 with Jeff Schell - First look at the new Premiere Pro CS3.

Side Effects releases Houdini 9 Public Beta | Studio Daily - "Side Effects Software is pleased to announce the public beta launch of Houdini 9. The new User Interface is easier to learn and designed to match the UI standards of the CG industry."

LITTLE FROG IN HIGH DEF: Sheffield Softworks - NEW PLUGINS - "ELECTRONIC MAKEUP ARTIST and GRAPHIC NOVEL LOOK."

FilmLight Develops Noise and Grain Reduction Software | Studio Daily - "The software relinquishes the need for hardware noise reducers while providing significantly greater control and flexibility."

ProLost: Today's Color Before/After - Stu Maschwitz, creator of coloring tool Colorista, gets hip deep into Apple's new Color application - "It turns out everything I wrote about it after NAB holds true. It is both awesomely powerful and infuriatingly quirky." I concur - amazing power once you're inside it, frustrating limitations encountered.

Motion Controlled Backgrounds on for CG on The Ark | Studio Daily - "Employing motion control for many of the background environments and managing to create and render virtually the entire 1920x1080 short on just his laptop."

NaturalMotion Releases morpheme 1.1 | Studio Daily - "The latest version of its powerful animation engine and tool chain. Featuring new network management and navigation tools, source control support and frame buffering capabilities."

Five Questions with... VFX Supervisor Jean-Marc Demmer, Eight VFX | Studio Daily - "VFX Supervisor Jean-Marc Demmer steps up to answer Five Questions."

Vertus Releases Fluid Mask 3 | Studio Daily - "The new version of Vertus’ award-winning image editing software is the professionals’ choice for rapid, powerful and intuitive masking and high-quality image blending."

ReelFlow 4.3 Released along with Cinema4D Plug-in | Studio Daily - "Fluid and dynamics simulation tool ReelFlow--used on Poseidon, X-Men 3, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Ice Age 2."

A Complete 4K Workflow: Panel Discussion | Studio Daily - Video of the in depth panel discussion. Sponsored by Dalsa, so Dalsa & Codex specific, but GOOD STUFF in there. The Dalsa, SI-2K, and Red all have similar workflow challenges, here's how one vendor pair deals with the challenges.

Building the Perfect HDV Key at FreshDV - "Creative Cow has a great article by Tim Wilson on pulling great chroma keys using HDV formats. Good info."

SCRATCH at the Core of the Creative Bridge Digital Workflow - "Mobile Digital Lab & Theater is housed in a 36 foot custom digital trailer with ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH Data-Centric Workflow Solution at its core."

We interview Michael Buday from Syncvue - How SyncVue and Skype can be used for reviewing footage over long distances.


Apple -

AppleInsider | RBC report weighs in on Apple's iPhone, iPod roadmaps - "Apple Inc. may be planning to manufacture 8 million iPhones before the end of 2007, ahead of second-generation models that reportedly include more storage capacity and brandish higher-resolution displays."

AppleInsider | Multi-touch video iPods to arrive in August - "Apple is preparing to launch a next-generation video iPod in August that features a touch-screen panel similar to the iPhone, according to DigiTimes."

Three Best Notebook Drives for the MacBook Pro - "250GB 5K Notebook Drive versus The Two Fastest 7K Notebook Drives."

iPhone Widget List - The Master List of iPhone Widgets and iPhone Applications - LOTS of widgets!

SeeqPod Music - Online music search/player that works great on the iPhone.

Sideloading Comes of Age - "Weeks after the iPhone's debut, there’s finally time for reflection, perspective, and even (gasp) rational thinking."

AppleInsider | Apple iMac makeover appears ripe for summer, says firm - "There's an 80 percent likelihood that Mac maker Apple Inc. will set aside a day this summer to introduce a complete redesign to its signature iMac desktop line, analysts for Piper Jaffray investment research said this week."


Other -

One Llama | Discover Music - Another online music finder and player, but with a visual twist. Find new music graphically!

15 Must-Have Freeware Programs for Filmmakers | Free Geekery - Free and useful apps from Pre to Post.

Five Ideas That Will Reinvent Modern Computing: IMAX At Home - News and Analysis by PC Magazine - "Cluster computing for projectors."

CinemaTech: 60Frames Entertainment: Model for a New Kind of Studio? - "Brent Weinstein, head of United Talent Agency's digital division, is starting a new venture called 60Frames Entertainment, and has an initial bankroll of $3.5 million."

Disney movies on Xbox - "About 35 Disney movies, including 'Aladdin' and 'Armageddon,' are now available on the MSFT Xbox. There had previously been 192 movies from Warner Bros., Paramount, Lions Gate, and New Line, and 179 TV shows available on Xbox."

LITTLE FROG IN HIGH DEF: Lies I tell you. LIES! - More like lies that editors tell everyone.

“The West Side” - Another experiment in self-distribution at FreshDV - "Is this the new way for indies to garner attention and make a name without necessarily getting into a film festival? Is the online viral effect enough for a young filmmaker to build a reputation?"

CinemaTech: What's the Economic Value of User-Gen Content? - A look at the "economic potential of user-generated content and the impact that UGC content could have on established media companies as it competes with their big-budget movies and TV shows for viewers' time."

Film Studies 101 - Very cool mosaic poster built from historic movie frames.


Updated Articles -

Drive Failure Article Updated - Anybody interested in keeping up with what to do if a laptop drive dies, I've updated the article on my misadventures.

Labels: blogwad

This page has a relatively low-res version of Medina Lake's video shot on the SI-2K. Some nice exposure and depth of field in this piece. It does bring to mind a quote I heard about another single CMOS, RAW wavelet recording, tapeless recording camera: "Not film, not video, something else." That was in the context of viewing a 4K projected image in a theatrical environment, this is merely a medium res downloadable QT file. But depth of field and contrast/color holds down to almost any watchable resolution.

2008 should be a very exciting year for independent content, indeed.

-mike

Got a press release from FantasticFest today (reproduced below).

It is a local, home-grown, but very international film festival. Last week I watched the HD DVD of The Fountain (also on Blu-ray), and it is an amazing film, vastly underappreciated....and I saw it at FantasticFest in years past with both Darren Arronofsky (the director) and Clint Mansell (the music coordinator) in attendance.

I unfortunately missed Apocalypto with Mel Gibson in attendance last year. And, of course, Pan's Labyrinth - I saw it first at FantasticFest well before the theatrical release. But you get the idea - some AMAZING films are shown at FantasticFest....FIRST. The biggies are held to the last minute (sometimes we don't even know what we're going to see until we sit down), but the FF is WELL worth it. Here's some (more) of what will be showing this year:


(Austin, TX) As promised, we have a new crop of thoroughly engaging, incredibly fun new films to announce this week. We have a BUNCH of cool stuff that we are not yet at liberty to divulge; these we will unleash in the August 15 announcement. For now, whet your appetite on the following cinematic treats:

Exte: Hair Extensions
"Exte is transgressive art/horror genius Sion Sono's (Strange Circus, Suicide Club) entry into big-budget, star-fronted Japanese studio filmmaking, and neither his signature nor his spirit have been washed away by the influx of yen." (Mitch Davis, Fantasia). Customs agents stumble across a giant crate of human hair, destined to be used as extensions for trendy Japanese civilians. They are disgusted, but revulsion is eclipsed by horror when they discover, in the centre of this mountain of hair, a single dead girl, whose organs and even an eye have been removed, presumably for black market sale. This premise sets the tone for one of the most unexpectedly bizarre, subversive and yet still effective J-horror masterpieces ever made.

A Dirty Carnival
A beautifully shot, multi-layered story of a mid-level charismatic gangster and his attempted rise to greater power within the organization. Punctuated by moments of tender emotion as well as visceral violence, A Dirty Carnival is a "total package" film, blending an engaging story and characters, beautiful cinematography, and wild, brutal action sequences. Andrew O'Hehir from Salon.com says Dirty Carnival "elegantly repurposes bits and pieces of various mob classicsŠ might be this season's must-see for fans of Asian genre film."

End of the Line
Director Maurice Devereaux live in person!
WINNER: Audience Award: DEAD BY DAWN FILM FESTIVAL (Edinburgh, Scotland)
In this unsettling and creepy thriller, Karen (Ilona Elkin), a young nurse who works in a psychiatric ward, boards the last subway train of the night only to have it stop suddenly in the middle of the tunnel. As those around her are brutally murdered, Karen and a handful of survivors must face supernatural forces, homicidal religious cult members, as well as their own fears and suspicions of Armageddon, in order to survive.

Finishing the Game
Following his groundbreaking indie hit BETTER LUCK TOMORROW as well as studio ventures ANNAPOLIS and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT, director Justin Lin returns to his roots with FINISHING THE GAME, a rollicking comedy spoof about this egregiously exploitative search for Bruce Lee's stand-in. Documentarians capture the absurd, hilarious and sometimes disturbingly true-to-life (but decidedly fictional) audition process as a motley assortment of candidates vie for the role: a former-TV-star-turned door-to-door salesman, a Bruce Lee knockoff named Breeze Loo and some guys who don't even look Chinese, much less like Lee.

Sex And Death 101
Roderick Blank (Simon Baker) is a successful modern man, content with his personal and professional life. However, a week before his wedding to a suitably stuffy fiancée, Roderick's perfectly planned existence is upended by a mysterious e-mail containing the names of every woman he has had sex with and, eerily, every woman he will have sex with in the future. He is stopped in his tracks when he meets a femme fatale (Winona Ryder) who targets men guilty of sex crimes against women. Co-staring Patton Oswalt and directed by Daniel Waters, writer of the cult hit HEATHERS!

Wrong Turn 2
Director Joe Lynch live in person!
First-time helmer Joe Lynch directs the eagerly anticipated follow-up to the 2003 sleeper WRONG TURN! Taking place shortly after the events of the original film, a group of six contestants are thrown together for six days in a simulated post-apocalyptic wasteland due to their participation in a reality television show called The Ultimate Survivalist: The Apocalypse, hosted and produced by former marine Dale Murphy (Henry Rollins), in which the winner will walk away with $100,000. Located in a remote part of West Virginia, the contestants soon discover that what they really are fighting for is their survival - against a family of hideously deformed inbred cannibals who plan to ruthlessly butcher them all.


The Last Winter
The Last Winter is a visually breathtaking, wholly nightmarish ecological horror film that is smart, informed and frightening. When one of its protagonists questions whether the act of drilling for fossil fuel is any different from graverobbing, it's impossible not to get shivers by the ramifications, nor is it a stretch when the oil team find themselves haunted, hunted and cursed for their actions. Award-winning writer/producer/editor Larry Fessenden continues on the unique path he's carved for himself with such previous philosophically provocative quasi humanist horror features as No Telling, Habit and Wendigo.

Retribution
Aren't we all sick of J-horror by now? From The Ring to Ju-On and beyond it doesn't matter how good these movies may be, there are just too many of them and they just aren't scary anymore. Is there anything anyone can do that's new with this genre? Yes, actually. Leave it to Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Cure, Doppelganger) to dredge up the bloated, water-logged corpse of the J-horror trend from the bottom of the river and to chop it up into something evil that slithers into your brain like a maggot worming its way into your brain. (New York Asian Film Festival)


Hell's Fever
Winner of the Melies d'Argent at the Rome Fantafestival 2006
Christmas time. A group of students steal a considerable amount of money from the local Campus. They flee through the snowy woods, in what the locals refer to as the "heartland of the Beast". They seek shelter in an abandoned mine only to end up facing a gruesome threat.

Ange
One evening, Octave, a doll repairman of about 30, is at a country fair and discovers ANGE (Angel), a girl born without a spine and thus condemned to spend her life as a circus freak in a steel scaffolding. This chance meeting is destined to upset the young man's life and force him to confront the voices that haunt him day and night...

Droomtijd
In a work-driven world where time is the ultimate dictator, a mysterious sandman spreads chaos and confusion. Even the best employees of the system get infected by his wondrous dream powder and lose sight of the once so dominating clock. Alex Deprins, future employee of the year, becomes one of those 'victims'. In his dreams he comes into contact with a strange new world, where a lady in red captivates his heart. Once awake he has to make a difficult decision. Does he stay in his familiar, but deadly rule-bound world or does he seek the road to salvation in his dreams?


The Fantastic Fest website has been updated with trailers, photo stills, links and more comprehensive write-ups for each of these films. We will be announcing the final slate of films on August 15, with the screening schedule, party list and guest roster to follow in early September. Be sure to log in to our website and set up your account. Once the festival begins, you can write reviews, create a schedule, rate films and communicate with filmmakers and festival programmers. We highly encourage everyone to become a part of the Fantastic Fest B-side community.

Festival badges are still available, but we expect them to be sold out before the festival begins. If you know someone who is considering attending, hustle them along, or they may miss out!

In other news, we announced this month our induction into the esteemed Melies European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation (see fantasticfest.com for more details). We are also one of the three founding members of NAFFA, the North American Fantastic Festival Alliance, along with Dead Channels in San Francisco and Fantasia in Montreal.

About Fantastic Fest

Fantastic Fest is an eight-day festival of the best new sci-fi, horror, fantasy and genre films, as well as choice classic and obscure cult titles from all over the world. The festival director is Tim League (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema). Programmers include Harry Knowles (Ain't It Cool News), Kier-la Janisse (Big Smash, Cinemuerte), Matt Dentler (SXSW), Todd Brown (Twitchfilm.net) and Paul Alvarado-Dykstra. Festival co-chairs are Paul Alvarado-Dykstra and Tim McCanlies (screenwriter, Iron Giant). The 2006 festival premiered over 60 features and 30 shorts. Fantastic Fest is co-sponsored by Ain't It Cool News and the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema South Lamar in Austin, Texas. Dates for the 2007 Fantastic Fest are September 20-27, 2007. All screenings take place at the Alamo South Lamar.

Fantastic Fest is a supporting member of the Melies European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation as well as a founding member of the North American Fantastic Festival Alliance

Additional information can be found at FantasticFest.com.

Labels: FantasticFest, film festivals

Anybody interested in keeping up with what to do if a laptop drive dies, I've updated the article on my misadventures.

Labels: case study

Jim Jannard of Red Digital Cinema emailed me this late last night - here's ISO 500/1000/2000/4000 chip chart images done on Saturday (July 14th). Jim said:

We have come a LONG way in the last two weeks. Amazing stuff."


Proof in the pudding - check it out for yourself.

Late after looooong day, I'll analyze/comment/etc. tomorrow.

Labels: Red

Yep, it has only been two days since the last one, but the goal is to have them every Friday to give you something to mull on over the weekend.

Here's what has happened in the last couple of days. Regular "other" blogging taking a back seat while I work on other things...like getting my primary laptop back up and running.

How They Did It: Live Free or Die Hard | Film & Video - "Wow, your CG cars looked so nice in that shot. Well, there is no CG car."

Warner's second thoughts: Total HD pushed back until 2008 - Warner: "There is no expiration date on the viability of this concept, so we're not in a rush to do it. We'll do it when it makes sense and when it's right."

Ultra HD (2K and 4K): Cinematographers’ Perspectives - Opinions from several cinematographers and an FX artist on the Ultra High Definition movement.

ADS Pyro AV SDI2DV Capture Device - Honest review of the less-than-impressive device.

Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition - External dual-display device gets upgraded to Digital Edition.

60-Second Q&A: Alexander Buono, Producer/Cinematographer, BSF Film, Santa Monica, CA - How they shot a feature length documentary on the HVX200.

NHK Develops 33-Million-Pixel Imager - 8K by 4K "Super-Hi Vision!"

HD Projection Technology Shines Bright - JVC and Gennum making "significant advancements."

EditShare Adds Final Cut Project Sharing - Handles any format, no workflow interruption, and new protection features.

HD Data Recording Goes Portable - Mentions Codex Portable, DFR4K Digital Field Recorder, and the RaveHD Cube.

Studio Daily Blog Sony offers rebates on HDV lineup - "$300 discount on the venerable 1080p/24p HVR-V1U, HVR-Z1U, and the HVR-A1U cameras. Also available is a $100 rebate on the HVR-M25U HDV VTR, a $100 rebate on the LMD-2030W 20″LUMA HD monitor, and a $150 bonus rebate on LMD-2030W monitor and HVR-V1U or HVR-M25U VTR joint purchases."

HD for Indies Updated Articles

Just the my laptop drive died article - looks like a dead drive, probably not Software Update related (just happened at same time), at this stage I've ordered another drive to try a board swap (thanks to reader advice). If that doesn't work, THEN data recovery service.

iPhone -

Quicktime Pro, Components, and the iPhone ... at Podcast Academy - Some helpful info on optimizing video for the iPhone.

DLO | Store | iPhone gear - Nice cases for your iPhone. ALTHOUGH - my Jam Jacket is getting a little stretched out - I take iPhone out to put it in the dock to recharge and look purty on my desk, but it is getting loose at the top and bottom edges (by top and bottom of screen edges) - like a pair of shorts that the stretch-um was gotten worn out.

Thanks again to Andy for organizing this, I just tweaked and edited a bit.

-mike

Labels: blogwad

UPDATED TUESDAY - see bottom

OK, I don't want to be too alarmist, and I DO NOT have a definitive reason why this is going on, but here's the deal:

1.) I ran Software Update on my MacBook (original Core Duo 2.0 GHz model w/2GB RAM and upgraded hard drive)

2.) Shortly thereafter, it locked up - clicked on an email, and the machine beachballed...then the clock stopped updating (I always have it display the seconds so I can ALWAYS tell if something is stalling the processor - if the seconds aren't advancing).

3.) hard reboot - I got a bizarre, Windows looking black screen with big fat white letters and a few random red squares saying press ctrl-alt-delete...EEK, not good!

4.) rebooted, held down option - made sure was set to OS X not Windows via Boot Camp (I have a Windows partition on the box)

5.) rebooted again, saw for the first time ever the grey Apple screen with a darker grey circle and slash - egads, I don't know exactly what that means but it CAN'T be good.

6.) rebooted holding down shift key for Safe Boot Mode - it got to grey screen, showed circle/slash, then grey Apple logo as expected....then cycled back and forth between those interminably. This was on hard line power.

7.) Shut down, prepping to to do FireWire Target Disc Mode to do a remote Disk Utility run at it.

So I have ZERO proof that Software Update has anything to do with this, and I don't know whether it was or wasn't on 10.4.10, but the new QT, iTunes, and Security Update were just installed (at least, shoulda been, assuming it worked).

It could just be something went ker-flooey with the unit by chance today after having done Software Update and has nothing to do with it.

But JUST IN CASE, maybe holding off for a day or two and see if there are any other similar reports. As of this moment, my primary machine, my MacBook, is out of operation (and gee, I'm down to 4 Macs! Oh, the horror....but I'll struggle through...but all my email and access to it is on that box...grrr...)

I'll update as I learn more, just thought it'd be good to put a cautious warning out there.

-mike

3PM update - crap, when _I_ have to call somebody for Mac help, it is BAD - I've been everybody's Go To guy for decades on Mac stuff. So I call who I think might know more - Torrey Loomis of Silverado Systems, whom I buy all my own Mac stuff from now. I describe symptoms, he says it is rare, he's seen it once in connection with a Windows/Boot Camp partition setup. He says it is probably hard disk related. "Logical or physical problem?" I ask, he says not sure, recommends Disk Warrior.

Buy Disk Warrior 4 (required for Intel Macs) online, takes maybe 7 minutes from Google search to installing - NICE. Can buy online and download and they'll mail a disk, and they IMMEDIATELY (none of this multi-hour wait crap) email a serial # - VERY good for oh-god-I-need-it-now scenarios. Kudos.

Unfortunately, it isn't helping at the moment - even after booting laptop in FireWire Target Disk Mode, THEN connecting FW cable, THEN booting host Mac, and writing all this while I wait for it to boot and maybe mount....doesn't mount, and DiskWarrior can't see it so can't do beans.

Reset the PMU at this point on this list of "things to try just in case they help" - I don't even know if these Macs have PRAM to reset with the Vulcan Nerve Pinch key command (option-command-P-R - takes a large handspan....)

After that I try a normal boot and get something new - a grey blinking folder with a "?" in the middle - guessing it can't find a bootable drive. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek.

Held down VNP as described above, after a minute or so it rebooted, so I'll interpret that as Parameter RAM (PRAM) was reset...but after that, couldn't even get it to Target Disk Mode...

Drat and damnation - next step - I'll pull the drive and use my SATA to USB 2.0 converter cable kit to see if that helps it be visible...

Did that - pulled the drive out, connected my USB 2.0 to SATA adaptor, and...it didn't show up, and DiskWarrior didn't see it. Touching it, can feel it spinning up, then spinning down after a brief run. Not good.

Next step - recovery services. Anybody have a data recovery service for Mac laptop drives that has a better success/price ratio than DriveSavers? Egads, this is, I believe, the 3rd laptop drive I've had go bad over the last 3-4 years. Sigh. Long hard day, many other unpleasantnesses going on also.

Just talked to DriveSavers, with my vendor's discount, I'd still be paying $1350 to $2160 if they get all the data I want off (which should be doable, it was all working until it went totally kerflooey). OUCH that is not cheap. Last backup? I've found my pre-NAB disc image, I'm looking for a newer one...

So going back to the original topic - I don't have a reason to believe Software Update had anything to do with this. Appears to be a drive gone bad.

-mike

TUESDAY UPDATE - ...so I ordered a new drive and it arrived over the weekend. I had planned to try a board swap to see if that helped. I'd noticed my older laptop drive hadn't mounted when I plugged it into my little USB 2.0 to SATA adaptor, so I tried again just to make sure I hadn't missed an opportunity to fix the apparently bad newer drive. Turns out for a laptop drive to show up, you need to cold boot or reboot. So I got the old drive to show up fine. So then I repeated procedure for the failed drive. During that process, I heard it make a little noise (I had most of the machines in the room off, not common). So I replugged it and leaned in close - uh oh, whirrrrr-click, whirrrrr-click, whirrrrr-click...sounds like Click Of Death to me. It made that sound several times and then spun down. Didn't show up on reboot in any utility as there being any drive there at all.

So I don't think a board swap is going to help.

So I hooked up the just-purchased drive and did a low level format (mapping out bad blocks by using the Zero Write option in Disk Utility, which DOES take hours) and headed out for the evening. When I got back, I mounted my most recent disk image backup (not nearly as recent as I'd like) and used SuperDuper to copy it to the just purchased laptop drive. That worked overnight.

Now I'm debating whether to even try the board swap, Just To Be Sure, or whether to just put the working drive into the laptop, having it download all the mail it can to try to get sync'd back up, updating all the software, etc. Right now, my most recent and correct address book, contacts, and email or on my iPhone - I hope when I reconnect it won't lose or do anything funny to those.

In any case, the next step will be to analyze what I've lost, what I have backups or pseudo-backups of (for instance, my NAB pics are all online at lower res), and decide what if anything I REALLY need and find a cost effective data restoration facility in that case. Thanks VERY much to everyone that has sent in suggestions, I'm going through those today as well online (not checking Comments mail on the iPhone, too much!).

Thanks to all for their helpful suggestions, I'm getting ready to start sifting for recovery service options. I swapped out the logic board between old/busted drive and new drive of same model, no joy. Durn.

Now I'm going to rebuild my laptop with the new drive that has the older backup/restored image on it. But it isn't as new as I'd like.

-mike

Labels: case study, hardware, iTunes

Apple - Support - Downloads - QuickTime 7.2 for Mac

Apple - Support - Downloads - iTunes 7.3.1 for Mac - among other things, can stream photos from any Mac (yay!) - so maybe I DON'T need to upgrade the onboard 40GB drive....

EDIT: Yeah - look CAREFULLY before leaping:

MacFixIt - The QuickTime 7.2 disaster: Breaks all CFM apps on Intel-based Macs (Office, Photoshop CS2) for some; Problems playing Flash:

Appears to break all CFM apps on some Intel-based Macs (Office, Eudora, older Photoshop versions) Representing one of the most serious issues ever associated with an incremental QuickTime update, QuickTime 7.2 appears to cause functionality problems -- particularly an inability to launch and crashes -- with Carbon CFM (Code Fragment Manager) applications on some Intel-based Macs.


Owie. Check your apps before updating!

Labels: AppleTV, iTunes

Apple: No BS iPhone Review - Gizmodo

Wow. I was going to write something like this, and this is exactly along the lines I was thinking.

Except theirs is better, longer, more in depth, and (especially deep sigh) funnier than what I would have written.

I acquiesce to Jason Chen/Brian Lam. I am depressed and humbled about it, but I do so.

: (

I seek to write this well, this long, this funny, this right.

I at least hope it took them a really, really long time to write. And something got cramped. SOME suffering for their Craft.

>: )

(Using smilies is probably not supporting my case for good writing, but they amuse me anyway this late at night. They stay for now.)

Seriously, this is the best read on iPhone to date - 13,500 words on it.

And funny - with references to iPhone=teenager's first Playboy and AT&T=Yeti vagina in the first 5 minutes of reading how can I NOT keep reading? (And I'm still reading at 2:42:17 AM CST no less!)

Respect.

Props.

I'm going to go keep reading...

-mike

UPDATE - I've searched to find they address the ringtone issue (you can't load your own, even from your own song library - LAME!), but I thought of this today - you can't use it as a modem, neither via Bluetooth or USB connection. I figured this would be one of the many v1.1 software updates....but then it occurred to me....maybe that was a deal cut with AT&T, and NOT Apple's shortcoming - what if AT&T said DON'T let them do it, because our data plan is unlimited $20/month? If Apple lets you use it as a modem for general purpose computing, the usage would skyrocket (unlimited enhanced EDGE speed Internet access on my trusty Blackbook whenever/wherever I wanted? AND it could pick up WiFi on-the-fly as available too? I'd use it LOTS. And I could see AT&T fearing that, that it'd hose their usage/pricing expectations (a valid business consideration on their part), and MIGHT have therefore mandated Don't You Dare.

a.) If so, BOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I know it'd require they boost their infrastructure capability above and beyond phone user profile usage, but still, as a consumer.....feels sucky and bullshitty.

b.) From a valid business perspective, they could offer that modem capability as a pay-to-unlock or a monthly fee....

c.) ...but again, that'd feel cheap/lame, considering I'm ALREADY paying $20/month for "unlimited" (Right? Their word!) data access - and I'm supposed to pay again, to check the same email and surf the same web pages, just over a cable (or Bluetooth) to my other device I own? Super lame. Like, false-pretenses-for-war caliber lame.

IF (and remember, this and the ringtone issue are IF not fixed or will be fixable via Software Update within a few months) I'd have to agree with the writer's assertion about AT&T=..........

....but if these two features are unlocked/enabled and all works as hoped for, then AT&T would smell like, um, roses...

So if he covered this, oops apologies I just haven't gotten that far in the article. If not, hey, at least I had ONE original thought on the subject.....

-mike

PS - and hey, whatever happened to Cisco's iPhone, and the possible deal for VOIP off theirs (or better yet anybody's) WiFi networking stuff? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Thursday AM update - And another thing, don't know if covered in theirs - Jobs called this the "best iPod ever" - it may be the best looking/functioning iPod ever (although see Jonah's Comment about video playlists), but it the iPhone is the least accessory compatible iPod ever as far as I can tell.

Item: power chargers from previous dock compatibility display a warning about compatibility and audio quality - you're supposed to buy yet another car charger with dock connection.

Related Item: My existing Belkin unit that has a headphone jack in the car charger part, so that audio from the dock connection can go to the car...doesn't work right - I get a huge clicking/thumping sound every second or so - totally a no go. I'm guessing has to do with the headphone speaker/switch.

Item: the headphone jack is so tiny, most existing cables can't fit in there.

Item: That doesn't matter, because it is a special three connector zone plug anyway to accomodate the microphone/switch. Speaking of which, mine is constructed such that when the right headphone is in the ear, the microphone hole is always facing AWAY from my face. Is this correct/as designed? Seems backwards and audio quality reducing at first blush - or is it on purpose to minimize breath harshness pickup?

Item: for the "best iPod ever," considering that the video iPods can run s-video and audio out of a cable or dock...where is this capability for the iPhone? It appears we've actually LOST an existing capability - there's no way to play video on a TV out of the iPhone. And for a portable media player, you'd THINK that'd be a gimme. It would appear the dock connector pinouts are different than existing video iPods in multiple ways then. Did we sacrifice that for some other feature? If so, what feature? It better be reallllllly good. (Bitch/moan/whine.)

Labels: iPhone

CNN.com - Lady Bird Johnson passes at 94

This is WAY off topic, but personally relevant - Lady Bird Johnson, widow of former President Lyndon Johnson, passed away not an hour ago. She was at home and surrounded by family and friends - a more loving and gentle passing could not have been had.

People in the public eye are often called inspirational and a good role model, and to my cynical eye I often doubt it, ascribing it to power and placement and a good PR team and saying nice things about them. In short, I doubt (witness some of the recent national leadership).

Not so in this case.

If you aren't of a certain age (or from Texas), you may never have heard of her. But here in central Texas, she is Legend, and deeply beloved by ALL. She came from the humblest of beginnings, and distinguished herself not only by assisting her husband's political aspirations, but also on her own - the Highway Beautification Act was "her baby," and in Texas and beyond we can thank her for the seeding of wildflower seeds along highways - it is a beautiful legacy we get to enjoy every spring. She also was very active in Head Start, started the National Wildflower Research Center (later renamed for her, which she started when she was 70), and many other civic and social improvement projects.

As one of MANY examples, right here in Austin, the Town Lake Trail that I run every day (including today) was something that she spearheaded, something beautiful, and wonderful, and in touch with nature, right in the public heart of the city, a treasure for all and for all time. This is deeply indicative of Her Way.

To me, she was a gracious, kind and gentle soul, good to her family and friends, and she will be deeply missed, and her passing mourned heartfelt. A few years ago I attended an event at the LBJ Library and letters she had written over the years were read by her daughters and granddaughters. I was amazed at the eloquence and natural grace of her writing. Someone who knew her well said that anything she wrote was like reading a well crafted novel. Truly, a woman of vision, grace, energy, passion, kindness, empathy, and a deep, driving sense to do goodwill unto all around her.

I bring this up because she and her family have had a powerful, amazing, wonderful, beneficial impact on my own life, and I am deeply grateful. Odds are you wouldn't be reading this blog (because I wouldn't be writing it) if it weren't for her and her family.

Rest well, Lady Bird.

You have earned it.

You are loved.

-mike

Labels: OT

Hey all - two articles I wrote for DV are now online:

Upgrade Your Images with Audio

I'd written a bit on audio acquisition in this article, where I stated that I basically don't know beans about audio field acquisition, just enough to know that it is important and you should get somebody good to do it.

However, I learned quite a bit researching for the DV article about the plugs, formats, budget considerations and whatnot for audio monitoring in stereo, and now with Final Cut Pro 6, surround (5.1 channel) audio monitoring. This article is really a follow up to my previous DV article a few months ago on building an uncompressed HD workstation. Read all about the various audio outputs that you have or can get, the same 3 tiers of Starving Indie, Moderately Equipped Individual, and Well Equipped Invididual/Small Facility Room. For each, I discuss stereo and surround monitoring options, what the interfaces and options and prices are, etc. I'm really proud of this one.

Similarly, for Windows specific info, I wrote a second article (exclusively available online, won't be in the print edition) here:

Upgrade Your Images with Audio: PC Edition

I discuss the more popular options on the Windows side (see? I DO try to cover The Other Side! :D ) - Avid, Adobe, and Sony's Vegas. I talk about the audio I/O hardware/software options available/appropriate to each, and run down some the Windows specific issues that weren't mentioned in the other article.

One mistake that was made in my own editorial process in that Windows specific article - in Group 3, I didn't come back and mention/recommend Avid Media Composer with Adrenaline, which is an entirely valid and appropriate choice for high end editorial individual/small facility setups as discussed in the article. Tomorrow I'll look into getting that fixed (it is well after midnight after an especially taxing few days).

Another area I don't know as much as I'd like to about is proper room setup for serious audio work - I was pleased to see as a companion piece to the articles I wrote there is a nice long article by Dan Daley (or the MUCH more experienced Dan could very fairly call my articles companions to his!) on how to set up a serious, "for real" audio monitoring environment to get accurate, unbiased sound reproduction. He discusses room dimensions, proper speaker setup, proper acoustic treatment of the room, etc. In my brief skim (I'll read the whole thing just haven't yet) I saw a lot of promising stuff, and already learned some good info on minimal room size to get good, accurate acoustic reproduction, etc.

The Sound of Science: Acoustical considerations for the DIY HD studio"

These three articles should give you plenty to work from to set up your own studio. Good luck, and as always, Comments welcome using the link below.

UPDATE/NOTE: One thing I glossed over and was eventually edited out along the way - YES, an SDI or HD-SDI CAN carry enough discrete audio channels to do stereo or surround - so when mastering, the audio flows with video for multi-channel work (want a multi-channel mix on HDCAM? Dolby E is your answer, but you more than likely can't prep that inhouse and will have to send out to have it done, but it "fits" on two channels of uncompressed audio while mastering). Anyway, point being, while audio DOES flow over SDI or HD-SDI, it isn't likely/viable that you have an SDI or HD-SDI deck, sitting around, all the time, such that you can do your audio monitoring through it/on it. If you've got an HDCAM SR deck permanently attached in the same room, GREAT, the HD-SDI can flow through that and (I believe but would need to verify) has enough audio monitor passthroughs that you could do it that way. While it is technically possible to de-embed the audio from an SDI or HD-SDI stream to discrete analog outputs, other than the Blackmagic HDLink Pro (mentioned in the article), I couldn't find a viably affordable means of doing that. So I skipped it.

OH! And big, BIG Special Thanks and Luv to Craig Negoescu, Stu Maschwitz, and SEVERAL folks EACH from Blackmagic, AJA, Avid, and Apple. I wasn't able to contact anybody specific at Adobe but would have loved to talk to somebody over there, simply because I don't have a good direct connection with them (yet).

If you are, or know somebody who should be my connection at Adobe's video group, I'd love to be in direct contact with someone at Adobe's video group to ping for feedback/answers/etc. to make sure I can get accurate, timely, detailed info out into the wild. And with CS3 purportedly coming out within a couple of weeks....

And OK, I am guiltly of headline pimping on this one, and there is no way to learn "everything you need to know" from three articles, but boy, (I maybe-not-so-humbly think) there is a LOT of useful info in there!

-mike

Labels: audio, FCP, Final Cut, Final Cut Studio 2, hardware, NLE, studio

Once again, it is time for another fun-filled action packed round of Blogwad!

I'd like to do these every Friday, but sometimes they slip, especially when life gets crazy busy. So this took until Wednesday - so be it. We'll put together a shorty on Friday and hopefully keep it on schedule thereafter. A new feature of the Blogwad! is a list of articles from HD for Indies that I've updated since they were originally posted. I often write essentially a first-and-a-half type draft and spasticly slam "Post" and within minutes or hours go back and fix the most obvious errors of frothy-blogging syndrome, but I also very often go back and substantially amend, correct, and/or add to prior articles just to have it all tidily in my own place. Unfortunately, unless you go back and check everything, you'd never know.

So at the end of each week there will now be a list in the Blogwad! (yes I like putting it that way) of updated HD4NDs articles so you'll at least KNOW you're missing something good. ; )

Let us begin with a really great chunk of info Michael Horton and crew have put together for our benefit:

Sixth Annual FCP Supermeet

The Sixth Annual FCPUG SuperMeet (Podcast) - 9 Podcasts covering Slow Motion Music Videos, the Red One, Blackmagic Design, and more. LOTS OF GOOD STUFF IN HERE! This would normally be its own post, but I've had some chaos to deal with. Spend an hour or two watching, learn LOTS. Here are links to each and a brief description, thanks (as usual) to Andy for putting these links together, it does take time.

1. - Building the SuperMeet Magazine and Introduction of FCP UG Leaders - Daniel Berube and Michael Horton discuss producing the SuperMeet, building the SuperMeet Magazine and then take you directly to the Palazzo Ballroom for the introduction of FCP User Group leaders from around the world. Some good fun and gives you a taste of what the SuperMeet is all about.

2. - SmartSound Sonicfire Pro 4.5 - Michael Horton welcomes everyone to the SuperMeet and then hands over the mic to Stephanie Joyce of SmartSound who shows off the features of the music scoring app, Sonicfire Pro 4.5 with "Smart Recall" and "Mood Mapping."

3. - JVC GYHD 200 and Slow Motion Music Videos - Craig Yanagi, National Marketing Manager for JVC Professional Cameras, shows off the JVC GYHD 200 with all the bells and whistles attached. Then Craig introduces DP and editor Tim Dashwood of Toronto Canada who shows us how he easily synched the audio for a slow motion (60P) music video he shot using the GYHD 200. Also includes how to use your iPod as a timecode slate.

4. - Red Digital Cinema Camera and the Red Team - Leader of the Rebellion" Ted Schilowitz introduces the Red One Digital Cinema Camera, introduces members of the Red team, announces the Red Pocket camera and discusses workflow with Final Cut Pro.

5. - Sony XDCAM EX, FirmTek, OurStage.com, Automatic Duck, Quantum, and that SuperMeet Feeling - Filmmaker Rick Young of macvideo.TV talks to Sony UK Marketing Manager Carl Pring about the Sony XDCAM EX on the show floor at NAB. Then moves a few city blocks down the show floor to FirmTek where we learn about their storage and host adapter solutions. We then run back to the SuperMeet where Rick talks to OurStage.com, Automatic Duck, Quantum, and then takes you on a tour of the very crowded lobby where over 27 SuperMeet sponsors showed off their toys to the enthusiastic crowd.

Mike's Comments on XDCAM EX: XDCAM EX looks REALLY promising. With fast Macs and FCP 6's ability to transcode long GOP content automatically to ProRes for rendered content (cross dissolves, titled footage, color correction, Motion tabbed, etc.), the editing hindrances of HDV (which is kissing cousin to XDCAM HD, which is a sibling to XDCAM EX just written to different physical media AFAIK) are fading pretty fast. XDCAM EX (I think I heard) is stated (??) to do 35 megabit VBR MPEG-2, which with a full raster 1/2" 1920x1080 imager/s ought to look pretty damn good (so long as the in-camera motion isn't moving at Michael Bay on 6th cappuccino type speeds). BUT....Apple has to support the format first. Actually, Sony has to ship the cameras first, stated to be late/r this year. So here's to hoping by next NAB at the LATEST we'll see an announcement of support and working FCP (7? They grow up so fast, sniff....) for this exciting and promising new format. With the "render back" quality issue addressed in FCP 6, and especially at the $8000 price point and MUCH MUCH MUCH more afforable media, this should be a SERIOUS threat to Panasonic's P2 format and the much beloved HVX200 camera (I belove the HVX's extreme shooting frame rate/size flexibility and color reproduction and P2 workflow, I not-so-belove the P2 media's price point, even after the recent drop).

6. - Blackmagic Design - President of Blackmagic Design, Dan May introduces the Multibridge Eclipse, the Intensity Pro Card and answers the question "What Blackmagic product do I need when working with what media?" He is joined by Philip Hodgetts of the Digital Production Buzz.

7. - Walter Murch Pt. 1 - Sound Mixer and Film Editor Walter Murch takes us through the Post Production Workflow on Francis Coppola's movie Youth Without Youth, defines "Editing," talks about the beginning of his career with Francis Coppola and how he came to use Final Cut Pro. Part 1 of 3 parts.

8. - Walter Murch Pt. 2 - Mr Murch continues our tour of the Post Production process on Youth Without Youth. In this Part 2, he shows us his cutting room in San Francisco, his workstation and how he edits. He discusses the "writing" aspect of editing and reducing the first assembly. We also get to see a bit of his Editing Suite in a "decayed Villa" in Bucharest, where Youth Without Youth was filmed.

9. - Walter Murch Pt. 3 - We move to Bucharest, Romania where the music was recorded, sound fx recording and cutting begins and a three day re-shoot. We then move to the final stages of the movie at Francis Coppola's winery in Napa Valley which doubles as a mixing stage. Walter then takes us on a tour of the human brain where he attempts to answer the question, "Why on earth do we do what we do?" We wrap up with a few questions from the audience.

===========

More Blogwad-y Goodness

Creating Node Trees in Color and the special case of interlaced video (Final Cut Studio 2) - Good hints on the ColorFX room in Color, especially for interlaced video.

Macworld: First Look: From the Lab: Update boosts MacBook Pro scores - Software update increases low performance.

Think Secret - Next-generation iMac tracking for August - Rumors on a slimmer, brushed metal iMac.

Studio Daily Blog - Useful tools for editors - Super Command+Tab!

Cinematical Seven: Tips for the Indie Filmmaker - Cinematical - A few general filmmaking tips.

Like AE? You'll LOVE this! - DVXuser.com - Nice and fun shorts films with lots of motion graphics.

AppleInsider | Apple pushing for multi-touch trademark - Apple calls dibs on "multi-touch."

Going HD Part 4: Beginning Post - Tips for beginning HD editing. UPDATE - Part1, Part 2, Part 3

ARTICLE UPDATES -  HD For Indies posts that have been updated recently.

Working with 24P from Canon HV20 - Updated with Windows product info and notes on IRE clipping.

Steven Soderbergh calls Red One 'camera I've been waiting for my whole career' & will 'change everything' - Updated with Jim Jannard's CML comments.

And, as an added treat (dessert? Ice cream for everyone!) here is:

iPhone News -

Macworld: Podcasts: iPhone - Podcast review of the iPhone's first week on the market.

Macworld: Editors' Notes: The iPod of phones - How the iPhone revolution parallels the iPod, and what that means for future phones.

iPhone SERIAL HACKED, FULL INTERACTIVE SHELL - Hackint0sh - ...and how they did it!

Insurer May Jump in to Cover iPhones - Yahoo! News - No Applecare (yet) leaves iPhone insurance open to third-parties. Mikenote - rumor is AppleCare is coming in 1-3 months, and WILL cover accidental damage, dunno about loss....remember, RUMOR.

MacNN | RIM's CEO sees iPhone as "dangerous" - How the iPhone is killing the cell phone business...but it's just so pretty!

iPhone Hacking News Update: iPhoneInterface Tool is Out!! at iPhone Unlocked - For ringtones, custom icons, and potentially custom apps.

Apple: No BS iPhone Review - Gizmodo - 13,500 words. Take it or leave it. Mikenote - and I have to say they start out with potentially very good advice for non-frothy diehard Macnerds - wait. I'll have more to say along those lines soon, I'm thinkin' of a "My first 2 weeks with iPhone" type article to be written. Friday is two weeks. A good quote from the article: "Wait for What?
Look, I'm not saying wait for version 2.0. You don't need new hardware to love the phone; version 1.1 should do it. Wait until Apple updates the software. That was a hard to write, since I'm thumbing through my own iPhone like a teenager with his first Playboy. " Nicely apt metaphor. : ) -mike

Intern Andy Nelson organizes the blogwad from all the stray links of the week and adds his own appropriately pithy/snarky summaries, I pester and organize/edit over his shoulder. Thanks Andy!

I'd also like to say thanks to Geoff Frost, the other intern, whose contributions are not as obviously visible on the blog except for his recent HVX workflow article he wrote and I added onto in my usual pestery form.

-mike

Labels: blogwad

Sony cuts price on PlayStation 3 by $100: Financial News - Yahoo!
Finance

$100 off means $500 for an excellent Blu-ray player (I sent mine out on a Tuesday and got it back by Friday, excellent service response!) with a 60 GB drive and oh yeah - it plays PS3 games!

"'Our initial expectation is that sales should double at a minimum,' Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in an interview."

Welllllll, I'd say that is optimistic, but I'd say it would certainly help sales.

-mike

Hey all - those interstitial Amazon Ads are gone - they were crashing Mac Firefox, they weren't generating much anyway, and Amazon's tech support to address the issue, was, hmm...I'm reluctant to use the full phrase that popped to mind, but "sucked" was in there.

In the meantime, all the content is still there if you would like to support HD for Indies by purchasing the goodies you otherwise would at Amazon through my Amazon Store.

Categories include:
Movies - DVDs, HD DVDs, and Blu-ray - includes a revolving list of bestsellers and is also organized by category.
Books
Cameras
Macs of all types
Software (including upgrades)
Training Materials
AppleTV & iPod
HD Players- HD-DVD & Blu-ray
HDTVs

....and is further subdivided by category once you get to the pages in question.

-mike

Labels: blogs, online store

Jason Rodriguez dropped me an email to let me know the following:

Hi Mike,

Just wanted to let you know we have a new music video from Madina Lake and directed by Dori Oskowitz "in association with Oasis Production Services called "Here I stand" now playing on MTV2. It was completely shot (including all the slow-motion) with the SI-2K MINI camera. It can also be viewed online at:

http://www.mtv2.com/#videoPremiere/1563998


Thanks Jason!

Link for your convenience.

One drag - Windows Media 9 PC ONLY. Can't watch from my Mac, durnit.

-mike

Labels: SI-2K

Steve Gibby and I talk from time to time about what's up with Red (he's very active on Reduser), and what started out as a relatively simple set of tests has grown to a multi-day, multi-camera, couple-of-dozen folks test suite. This will generate a LOT of useful data for Red folks.

Steve has graciously offered to let me post the results of the tests on HD for Indies, so I of course will be keeping right on top of the test results as best I can.

Steve sent me a nice update of what's up with the plans, links are all to Reduser.net:

L.A. REDTest (LART)
Link: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2995
The L.A REDTest (LART), which started out as my concept to get a few guys together to test my camera, has now grown into a huge project involving the team testing four RED One cameras (#8, 13, 17, 19), a huge array of lenses and adaptors, multiple accessories, stabilization units, VXF/green screen, and much more - at a state of the art studio location. The testing team is now 21 independent pros representing virtually every skill set and knowledge base in the digital and film industry.
The thread I started on June 24 on RED User announcing LART has now grown to 18 pages, 174 posts, and 9,681 page views. Through the thread I have periodically updated the team roster, testing parameters, and equipment we will be testing. Here are those key posts of mine:
Page 1, Post 1: Announces the testing, initial team members, and intentions of LART.
Link: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2995
Page 5, Post 44: Updates team and equipment
Link: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2995&page=5
Page 7, Post 61: Expands testing to four cameras, adds VFX/green screen team, announces inclusion of Birger adaptor, ActionCam stabilization unit, and lens expert Chuck Colburn
Link: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2995&page=7
Page 11, Post 115: My further update of the testing team roster, bringing the total to 21 guys.
(FYI - On Page 12, Post 115, Mark Pederson offered to also bring RED 6 & 7 to LART, something I thanked him for, but we won't know until close to testing time if the LART schedule will match Offhollywood's schedule needs for their cameras. Link: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2995&page=12 )
L.A. REDTest is a Co-production of Steve Gibby and Ken Corben. The testing will be directed by Evin Grant.

This independent testing will give us a HUGE bolus of hard test data to work with.

-mike

Labels: Red

Digital Anarchy's Data Animator 1.0

Review of a one-trick-pony plugin for After Effects - do you need to make a 2D/3D animated graph for something? Here's a $500 plugin that does it and does it well with lots of controls.

Digital Anarchy has been making powerful plugins for a long time, they make good stuff.

-mike

UPDATED with Windows product info, see bottom

Similar to Geoff Frost's post on HVX200 production tips, my other intern, Andy Nelson, has been doodling around with a Canon HV20, and I asked him to post his notes on his experiences with the HV20. Below is his article on dealing with 24p. BTW - if looking to figure out how to get optimal results out of the HV20, FreshDV's interview with Bruce Allen (he of recent Cinegear report) has some EXCELLENT specific details on hands on usage and testing on how to get the most out of the HV20.

This is thematically similar to Steve Mullen's recent piece on dealing with the V1's 24p in Final Cut Pro

More coverage to follow on that, but here's Andy's report on the HV20 and 24p, my comments in italics:

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For a thousand bucks the Canon HV20 isn’t a bad little camera, especially after putting some work into getting 24P from it. The HV20 uses HDV, so it only records 60i to tape and adds 3:2 pulldown for its 24fps mode. You can, however, acheive some pretty good results with a reverse telecine to remove the pulldown for full-on progressive beauty. To do this I began by capturing with the Apple Intermediate Codec, as to bypass the temporal compression of MPEG2 that comes with native HDV, and then went two routes for the reverse telecine…(Mike comment - the MPEG-2 compression is from the source HDV, by transcoding to AIC, FCP can process that footage faster, and your recompression/generational losses will be less. This was with FCP 6 not 5.x, BTW)

The Hard Way:
The first way I did this was using Cinema Tools (After Effects or something like JES Deinterlacer will also work ...but using After Effects, with its RGB processing, can clip superwhite and sub-black values - mike). After opening my clip in Cinema Tools, I used the Reverse Telecine button at the bottom of the window. Cinema Tools does not do a “smart” reverse telecine, you have to tell it where to start and what to do. 3:2 pulldown puts the 24P footage down as 60i on tape in a pppii cadence, p for progressive frames and i for interlaced (three progressive and two interlaced, hence 3:2). Essentially, you must tell Cinema Tools what frame of this cadence you are starting with.  The button brings up a window with options for Capture Mode, Fields, File, and Frames. It is quite a process to determine the Capture Mode and Fields options, while File and Frames are rather straightforward.  This diagram from the Cinema Tools manual was helpful...


Capture Mode has to do with the repeating frame sequence of the clip. I used “Field 1 – Field 2,” which means that my footage contains both fields with Field 1 Dominance, as opposed to the other options: Field 2 Dominance, Field 1 Only, or Field 2 Only.