X Marks The Spot

Ahhhh... between my last post and this post, much has happened. Many projects have been completed, many edit hours churned out and I've added a few new clients to my company and freelance list. Haven't had a proper break for more than a year and a half (but finally, a short beach getaway is coming right up) but those edits ain't gonna edit themselves, are they? :)

In fact, I've been so busy with pre/prod/post that I've not had the chance to upload some of our latest works online.  Though I've managed to squeeze two more new videos online - both fun to work with, on shoot and in post:


TV Commercial for our long-time theater client, Toy Factory, for their "881 - The Musical" production. Heard the musical sold very well and was well-received by the audience - kudos!


Something fun for another returning client, OpenNet. Where do you get such nimble and expressive hands? HINT: Editing develops agility and a good sense of rhythm ;)

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BUT, the Biggest, Baddest, most Bombastic Breaking News of all broke a coupla' hours ago:

FCP X is (finally) here

It's only been a few hours and there has been a lot of online chatter about The X. I've seen the official intro video and read about the features, comments and hot-off-the-keyboards reviews (not to forget, the key omissions). Not being an early adopter of technology (but only staying ahead of the news without burning holes in my pockets), I'm going to adopt my usual 'Wait and See' approach.

Afterall, I am running a fairly stable (though sometimes quirky) FCP 6.0 system on 10.5 Leopard on a 2009 Mac Pro and... it works. I am very familiar with & fairly fast on it. I have more than a few current and pending projects - and lots more that I'll need to be able to tap into in case clients come back (a key omission in The X) - and clients have been coming back to update their videos recently.

The lack of OMF exporting feature in FCP X makes it a definite no-go for me as well. BUT from comments made by editors that Apple Dev team consults with, these "pro" features are currently omitted but not forgotten. Which suits me just fine - shall await a more stable and feature-complete package before making the switch. It's a complete rewrite, so surely, I'm not going to bank on it to be The One on first try (even though many people seem pretty upset by having their expectations shattered after waiting so long... as for me, I have too much patience. I can wait.)

In the meantime, I am grateful for the early adopters and FCP fanatics who had already started editing projects with FCP X mere hours after its release! For they will probably be the ones to stress the system and discover the 101 flaws and bugs that Apple will work on for its next update...

Moving to FCP X would probably be inevitable but does not have to be imminent for my shop. I can see FCP X potentially being very useful around here (once I get up to speed with the new.... almost-everything + the professional features get worked in and stabilized + all my paid plugins get their necessary updates) - we're a small shop and almost all our projects are short-form and not more than 20mins, we work with tapeless formats 70% of the time and deliver tapeless for majority of our clients as well.

I would be lying if I say I'm not equally thrilled AND spooked by the really low price point at US$299.99 - thrilled that for such a low price, I can get a whole buncha bells, whistles, SFX and templates bundled with a spanking new NLE; spooked because now really EVERYBODY can just get an iMac/MacBook Pro and be an editor/run a production house/set up their own internal post-production team. We're already experiencing some sort of stagnation of project prices despite high inflation... so this can be quite disconcerting.

Hardware and software-wise, the barriers to entry have really been dropped low. In terms of experience and expertise? It's probably going to remain difficult to explain the value-add of having an "education" (formal or usually, non-formal and in the "real world", supplemented by copious amounts of good, updated reading/viewing materials online).

In any case, I think many people are still reeling from the shock of finally coming face-to-face with the much-anticipated, spanking new FCP that looks and behaves so differently from its ancestors... hobbling along more like an iMovie Pro/crippled Final Cut Pro.

The release of the news came a little underwhelming but I guess life (and edits) will go on... to bed, I shall. Regardless of NLE, nothing can replace a clear mind when pressing them JKL keys!

Y to the O to the G - Creating [for] the Youth Olympic Games

Finally delivered a big project for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August. We were responsible for all the audio-visuals in the Youth Olympic Village at NTU as well as the 'Blazing the Trail' Olympic Gallery at Suntec International Convention Centre [which is also a competition venue].

All in all, we completed... 3 single-screen AVs [of 4 videos - because one of the screens had 2 stories] and 2 x panoramic AV.

KAPOW! The Phantom high-speed piece we have over at Suntec Convention Centre - a centerpiece that greets visitors to the exhibition and competitions.

Pretty happy with all the AVs, especially the panoramic AV for Suntec - because it was a fairly epic project: 8m-wide screen consisting of purely Phantom high-speed footage which was composited into a custom canvas and also required masking and grading. We also worked with a sound designer to create an original 5.1 soundscape to further enhance the panoramic action. First time working with all these elements [Phantom, custom superwide canvas, DataOn Watchout system, 5.1 audio] - but happy to have worked out some kind of workflow that, well, worked!

Spent many nights transcoding the Phantom footage from .CINE to .MOV [Cinepak] and finally to .MOV [ProRes(HQ)] - but the footage [which I believe went from 12-bit to 10-bit] was really good for grading. So much latitude to work with! Worked especially well for the first Phantom sequence we shot - which we were still figuring out some of the settings - since I was able to correct some of the lighting/hue issues in post.

Here's an excerpt:


Quite bummed about the lack of publicity for the Suntec Olympic Gallery and any mention of this panorama - because I believe it's not something you get to see a lot. Was down at the site to finally take a look at the piece and was happy to see a pair of parents and their young child being mesmerized. After staring at each shot for more than a 100 times while editing, the 'WHOA' factor does wear off fairly fast. So it's really nice to see fresh pairs of eyes being lit up by the piece.

As for the other AVs, had quite a fun time with a pure editing piece: cutting footage of various Olympic Opening Ceremonies and the lighting of the flame. We had access to footage dating back to 1960 [Rome, I believe], right up to Beijing 2008. The footage from Tokyo 1964 was surreal, though... intercutting shots of the released birds with faces of freaked out athletes and having an ominous soundtrack underneath the shot of a wailing baby...

The Flame video, flanked by actual Olympic Torches from the past Games.

[having bright display panels shining onto the glossy HD TV isn't really a good idea...]

We also had 2 pieces profiling local YOG athletes: one which followed a day in the life of a Triathlete and another focused on the sport of Male Artistic Gymnastics and Equestrian. Nice little vignettes that give audiences a little peek into the lives of these young Olympians. Also the first time I worked with DSLR footage and it mixed pretty well when cut with our HDV footage. My director had [too much!] fun overcranking with the DSLR - but it did give a very nice mood to the two pieces.

The 2 AVs are enclosed in their own 'booths' which are shaped like the Olympic rings.

Didn't have the chance to see our works in the Youth Olympic Village though - somehow our accreditation passes weren't processed and so, we can't enter the restricted lands. Ah, bummer - I was looking forward to having some sort of special YOG souvenir.

Moving on, I'm currently working on a series of 20 x 1-min vignettes shot on the 5D for an upcoming tourist spot. Working with really nice visuals coming out from the 5D. We've also just finished a stopmotion piece... with the 5D. As I'm blogging here on a Saturday afternoon, I'm also monitoring the transcoding of 5D footage back on the work Mac Pro - through LogMeIn. This part, I like - since I don't miss inputting timecodes and popping in tapes!

It's Tiger Time!

2009 segued into 2010 without much of a fanfare. I was fairly busy back in December *quickly clicks through iCal to refresh my memory* We had some shoots to settle before everyone disappeared for the year-end holidays and we were on the lookout for an AP to join us since we were booked for more than a few projects due in first quarter of 2010.

We also had two launch videos for the same client, both with short but hard deadlines to meet. Project was awarded mid-December and delivery was January - right after we crossed over the calendar. Which meant the X'mas season was a terrible inconvenience!

Quite a fair bit of prep was needed. Casting was the main task during prep as it was a simple concept which hinged heavily on performance. Both videos required effects finishing as well. Here's an excerpt from one of the videos:



That said, the project went rather smoothly and I managed to spend some time indulging in the festive spirit with some friends - late night suppers, hotpot, BBQ and karaoke!

Once we entered the new year, we had a TVC shoot for Toy Factory, a local theater company. One of our long-term clients, since we also produced the TVCs for their previous annual productions. We were blessed with amazingly bright and sunny weather, which was exceptionally helpful since it was an entirely outdoor shoot and we didn't have the luxury of postponing it to any other day since we were working with a bunch of very busy actors. What if it had rained? Well... we would've had to work out something.

*One lesson learnt during the shoot: If you're shooting with the Letus adaptor, bring enough spare AA batteries! Better yet, always change into a fresh pair of AAs at the start of the shoot, especially if it's rental gear.*

The TVC was shot on a Sony EX3, with a Letus adaptor. Shots came out really nice. Love the colors. I was doing SxS card wrangling on the set. Compared to my previous wrangling experience with Panasonic P2 cards, I find the workflow for ingesting SxS cards much more intuitive and straightforward. Bonus was that the SxS cards plug right into the Expresscard slot in my MacBook Pro. Secure and fast transfer.

Fast forwarding from then on, my iCal has been packed with edits, edits and more edits. Guess my wish is finally coming true! A lot of shifting of schedules, since I plan my own edit schedules around shifting delivery deadlines and various other factors. As always, as a preditor, there is never enough time to edit when the producing minutiae swarms around you.

Had a fairly productive session today, though. It's only the day after the long Chinese New Year break and if not for my backed up edit schedule, I'd have taken it easy [or the day off!]. But duty beckoned and I went in for an overdue color grading. It was also the first project I've fully color graded using http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/categories/product-suites/magic-bullet-suite/ - we bought it at an awesome deal during X'mas [50% off, if I remember correctly].

We've previously used Magic Bullet Editors but I find Colorista and Looks much faster and easier to use. The only thing I wish I had was a 3-knob control panel of some sort for Colorista. But alas, I am by no means a professional colorist and the clientele we service do not demand such level of color precision. But nonetheless, color grading is such a value-adding step, that as much as possible [budget and schedule permitting], I'll do it.

Managed to finish the 6-min video in about 4 hours - with the help of absolute silence, minimum disturbances [or breaks] and intense concentration. Since the theme & tone for the video was pink, everything else in real-life looked too blue once I got my eyes off the monitor!

The next video to get the Magic Bullet Looks treatment would be the musical TVC. The footage that came out of the EX3 is already quite close to the look we're going for, so it's more a matter of enhancing and bringing out some of the colors.

What Makes a Mac?

A client of ours asked me for software recommendations for the new Mac they've gotten. They're in the financial education and consulting business and reach out to their clients using web, print and video. They're PC all the way, since they usually outsource their video & audio work.

Not able to find out what kind of Mac they've gotten [Mac Pro? iMac? MacBook Pro?], I emailed them a generic list based on what have worked for me over the years. They don't have an in-house production/media department, so I'd reckoned something not too fancy, since the Mac would probably me a multi-purpose media machine.

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Congrats on moving to the Mac world! What did your company get? Is it a MacPro/iMac or a MacBook Pro?

Not sure what you have in mind for it, but I assume you would want something to handle graphics and some video editing? Here are some software I'd recommend:

Editing:
1) Final Cut Studio 2 [http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/] - around $2588. You can do video editing, motion graphics, DVD authoring, soundtrack, encoding to various file formats

Motion graphics & Graphics:
*Adobe has a whole range of products and bundles [http://www.adobe.com/products/] - depending on your needs*
2) Adobe AfterEffects is very good for motion graphics but you do need to be well-trained to use it fully
3) Adobe Photoshop should be more familiar and very useful for a lot of things - including video work
4) Adobe Premiere is also a video-editing software - can't comment since I haven't used it personally
5) Adobe Dreamweaver does web-building
6) Adobe InDesign does page layout for publishing
7) Adobe Flash for, well, creating and encoding Flash videos/files/sites
8) Adobe Encore for DVD authoring

Utilities
1) Toast Titanium - for CD/VCD/DVD burning
2) Diskwarrior - for checking and repairing of hard disks when things get buggy
3) iShowU - if you need to record videos of things happening on your screen [eg. simulation, tutorials]
4) Microsoft Office - Mac version produces documents that work well with Windows
5) iWork - similar to Office - but more stylish [http://www.apple.com/iwork/]

Useful freeware
1) MPEG Streamclip - for converting non-protected DVDs into file formats you can use
2) Cyberduck - easy to use FTP
3) Flip4Mac - allows you to view .WMV files / pay a small fee to allow you to convert videos into .WMV files
4) SuperDuper / Carbon Copy Cloner - allows you to clone your startup disk into an external hard drive so you can easily reboot when the Mac crashes
5) Tomato Torrent - if you need to access the Bitorrent network for file transfer

And some hardware add-ons:

1) Upgrade to at least 4GB RAM [that's the max for the MacBook Pro - but the MacPro can go higher]. 2 x 2GB RAM for MacBook Pro costs about $120 at Sim Lim.
2) An external Hard Disk to back up your files regularly. Highly recommended. A 7200rpm 1TB drive costs about $198 now and a casing with at least 2 x Firewire ports [very important for speed if you want to do video editing; USB 2.0 is not stable enough] is about $60-$80.

AppleCare
1) Not sure if you've bought the extended warranty - but it's quite handy when certain crucial parts malfunction. The original warranty only lasts for a year but for a few hundred dollars more, it's extended to 3 years in total. You can find a lot of offers off eBay at much better prices than Singapore retail prices.

Hope that helps!

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Not exactly 'consultancy-level' advice, but hopefully it's good enough for new Mac converts!

The External HDDs are going DOWN!

A quick company shopping trip to Sim Lim Square revealed that the price of external HDD has dropped again.

A 1TB 7200rpm 32MB 3.5" Seagate external HDD now costs only $198. A casing with FW400, USB 2.0 and eSATA ports costs about $80 the last time we bought one.

Tempted to buy and build a set for myself now. Well, perhaps when I next secure a biggish freelance job - since prices will surely continue to drop.

At the moment, we're also checking out external monitors for on-location use. Currently waiting on more information for the Ikan V-series 7"/8"/9" LCD Monitors: http://www.ikancorp.com/pages/monitors/index.htm
In order to maximize its usage, we're thinking of using it as an additional monitor for editing. Though we'll probably make a decision only after we get to hold and touch a unit for ourselves.

Meanwhile, here's something I've finished the edit on not long ago:

[I have a quick cameo IN it as well - I don't think I like editing myself]

Mixed DV with HDV footage [with a whole lot of time remapping]. Color graded. Final delivery was on 16:9 SD DVD, for a 42" LCD screen, playing on loop inside an exhibition gallery.