Oiling the Wheels for the Next Wave

A little bit of a rest period post-madness, so have managed to upload a few more recent works:


Our future nursing professionals! From the NUS Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies (Did you know we have an up-and-coming Nursing Undergrad, Masters AND PhD programme in Singapore?) Very classy piece and good interviews and footage to work with. Wasn't on set for this but I was told by my crew that the selected student-talents really did their homework (the preparation definitely shows in the delivery of the soundbites) and were a joy to work with during re-enactments with their positive attitudes. Kudos! When you have clients who really take ownership of their videos, the editor gets great footage to work with and the videos shine.


An Opening Video I did for the Singapore Sports Awards. Took me a while to experiment with and come up with the style but once I locked down what I wanted to achieve, making it happen was a smoother affair. Shortlisted the most dramatic stills and went for it. Clients had some footage, mostly news coverage sort, so we felt it would dilute the impact. That's where we boldly suggested going with just the stills and creating the story from there. Had a hand in crafting the pitched concept and this was one of the rarer projects where we managed to run the pitched copy almost 100% (tweaking it slightly to suit the photos we have to play with). Pretty happy with the final result - a "blockbuster movie trailer" of sorts. Kind of ran contrary to the initial brief/what they're used to previously - didn't use any video footage and kept it really short. But hey, clients' feedback post-event was that this really fired up the audience and set the mood - Mission: Accomplished!

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With the breathing room created during this downtime, I finally got myself down to my TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) doctor. Was following up for some other issue but with a few pokes and prods, she found out my back was actually too abnormally tense. I'd thought it's because I've been so busy that I've not gotten my weekly dose of gymming/exercise for 2 months running. It turned out that it was due to the long stretches of long/late edits leading to really late dinners, causing poor digestion which led to the pulling of the back muscles.

And that was how I ended up undergoing my first acupuncture session! Having gone through it, I'd say it looks scarier than it really is. Though there were some really strange and awkward sensations when she poked the needles in to the sorest of spots.

In any case, I'm glad she identified that problem because I felt better immediately after! No more sore back. Now, THAT'S a big thing for editors who sit in their chairs for more than 10 hours daily. And now, I'm finally restarting my exercising... and hope to get back on some sort of routine. Got to keep the most important piece of "equipment" chugging along nicely.

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!

ReelSpam [or 'What I Was Up To For The Past Few Months']

Been a while since I popped in but it's been a busy few months [and months to come]. Highly productive season working with new clients who've come our way. Doing pretty fun videos. Currently in the process of uploading the newly completed ones to our YouTube channel. Meanwhile, here are some of the latest works that I've edited.


This is a highlights reel containing footage from the 20 short vignettes I've cut for the 1-Altitude Gallery. Beautiful footage shot on the 5D. It was great fun cutting these 20 videos and giving each of them a unique theme/mood/rhythm. A little bummed I wasn't able to be on shoot since my crew had so much fun running about like tourists - but those videos weren't gonna edit themselves!


Client came back to us after we did a good job for them on our first collaboration - the first video really made the APAC office stand out among their global counterparts. So, they decided to take our concept further and commission a Part Deux using the same actor, animation style and premise. This one is on Cloud Computing and we worked with our animation partner to create something fun.




Finally uploaded the other Youth Olympic Games videos I've edited. I guess you could call these 'mini narrative-documentaries'. Worked with our regular freelance director on these and we pieced together the stories, while setting a specific mood for each piece. Because all these videos were screened at the same Olympic exhibition venue in Suntec Convention Centre, the last thing we want is all of them having the same generic treatment and style. Somewhat bucking convention, these videos were not LOUD and "MTV-ish" - as some might have readily associated with youths and sports. Instead, they're dignified and contemplative.

We're currently juggling 7 projects [and more KIV ones to come] through 2010 and into early 2011. Just wrapping up one for Sentosa... moving onto an overseas shoot next week... working with some old clients, clients who came back to us after moving to another company and new clients from new markets. A mix of branding, marketing, corporates, pro bono and TVCs; private, agency and government. Plate's getting pretty full... but we'll make it work. Somehow ;)

Also started working with PluralEyes on a recent project which we shot on the 5D, with audio coming from the Zoom H4N. Apart from some small workarounds that were needed, I was pretty impressed with the ease of syncing. We had more than 6 hours of interview footage, which was synced quite beautifully using PluralEyes. Kudos! Deep appreciation for that tool - good stuff at very reasonable price. Check it out at http://www.singularsoftware.com/pluraleyes.html

Meanwhile, I've also taken up small freelance gigs for a Microsoft vendor producing customer testimonials. Currently, it's been subtitling work - taking local versions and adding English subtitles for the international market. But as with ALL edit jobs, it's never "just" a "simple subtitling job". I've learnt a few new things along the way when it comes to versioning things since I had to work around updating text information on graphics and videos which are already mashed together, as they come to me in .WMV or equivalent files. Every video is different and requires its own set of troubleshooting. I'm a devout MacHead... but hey, like many others, I got my start in Microsoft. I just found something better and am sticking to it ;) Besides, this is strictly business!

Talking about professionalism, I came across an article which I thought was really good for professionals who are doing videos... professionally. Looking through the list, I think we've discovered all these points for ourselves through the years but this guy really covered it in a clear and succinct manner. Recommended Read for everyone who's in the business and is involved in any level of client servicing:
http://www.productionapprentice.com/tutorials/general/this-is-your-work-not-your-art-tips-for-working-with-clients-on-creative-projects/

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!

Colorful Corporate Cuts

Latest TVC I've cut & graded is up on our YouTube channel [and being viralized + broadcasted]:



Was also on set as the EX-3 media wrangler. Between offloads, I was also the 'runner' [quite literally] plus 'waterboy' [drawing sea water using a rope & bucket to flood the ground - hardest & most awesome practical workout I've ever had]. Had a great tan, too, under the blazing sun from dawn till dusk.

Just finished a rough cut of a teen pregnancy drama this week. Good to be cutting something that's not a mish-mash of montage shots and 'archival' footage ripped from some stashed-away DVD from years gone by for a change. Well, those projects have their own place and time but it's a refreshing change to be cutting a dramatic piece with emotions... lots and LOTS of emotions.

Was quite pleasantly surprised by how quickly I got into the material. Guess my mind was happily stimulated, which makes for a nice session. Another nice change from the many mechanical post tasks I had to complete in the past weeks [lots of tiny tweaks to almost-complete cuts, .MOV & .WMV encoding and DVD authoring for final deliverables].

The drama consists of 5 vignettes & a prologue which show the possible consequences of teen pregnancy for teenage girls and will be used in facilitation sessions by our client for at-risk girls. It's not meant to be all didactic and preachy, so the message is communicated through empathy, storytelling and emotions.

By the 2nd vignette, I was feeling quite sad for our protagonist. There is a fair share of crying but this is neither a Taiwanese soap opera nor a Hong Kong soap weepie, so it's not all out flood of tears and bawling of eyes. There is much more power [and realism] in showing restraint.

At the same time, I'm cutting a 12-webisode project for a corporate client, who is using it as training material for their service staff through the entire year. Sounds boring? Not quite, since we've made them into mini sitcoms. Our protagonist in this one is quite an earnest goofball, so I find myself having my 'duh' face on when editing him.

Other things on my editing plate this month and next are a graduation video [this one requires I dig up my youthful enthusiasm], a project that has been more commonly referred to as 'sex skit' rather than its title [nothing scandalous; another facilitation video, this time done in comedy vignettes style] and an interview-led piece on teen smoking [a cause I personally support: be smoke-free, kids and adults alike].

Who said 'corporates' must be boring? ;]

Preditor Alert

Not much on the editing front as I've been busy with the producing side of things. Ahh, such is the life of a Preditor. Though with each project we pitch for and get, it means a few months down the road, there will be an edit waiting to happen.

We've currently got a few interesting projects in the scripting stage. A few even more interesting ones that are pending. Even though our main business has been in the corporate video realm, looking at our reel, we don't exactly stick to the 'corporate' corporate style. Our USP has always been in communication and storytelling.

Sometimes it's a little demoralizing when fancy graphics easily overshadow what should be achieved with solid scripting and editing. I reckon it's not easy to pimp something that works most beautifully when it's somewhat invisible and subtle. In fact, it gets tiring trying to WRITE about how you could achieve so much with strong scripting and editing in proposals because it's so hard to convey something so abstract at that stage. In contrast, a jazzy comp/storyboard is just pure bling that excites people more easily.

But at the same time, I have much respect for motion graphics artists and their craft. They produce such visually stunning visuals that I frankly can't achieve. That is definitely something I should brush up on along the way [like how I need to find that window of opportunity to break open the AVID Media Composer free trial and have a crash course familiarization with it].

With that, here are some more interesting writing to share. Have a read!

Production Jobs and Responsibilities of Crew
Just realized this is a 2-year old article but it's still relevant. Depending on the scale of the project and budget, you could add or minus the number of people and roles involved. This is something we have to explain to clients often: because production costs can indeed vary quite a bit. Yes, there will always be the one-man-shows who charge a package rate from pre to post for the cost of 2-3 days of filming that others might charge.

A very common question over at the Creative Cow forums: How much should I charge? Here are some answers. Not exact-figure answers but guiding questions to help one along:
Typical Hourly Rate For Production & Editing?

Someone else also wrote about the same issue on their blog:
How much should I charge to edit this video?

Last but definitely not least, I've uploaded some of our recent works on our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/intuitivefilms. New works include a docu-drama for the Singapore Sports Council [quite extensive grading on the footage], a short TVC for Skin Inc [working with a 3D graphics and animation company] and a two-TVC campaign for the Tote Board [which I've not been able to catch on TV even though it's supposed to screen alongside quite a few sponsored programs].

Karaoke time with Trekkie Monster from Avenue Q

Special bonus edit given to the client - even though what they needed was a suitable-for-free-to-air-local-TV TVC. We felt this would have been a more effective TVC since it really captures the essence of the musical... BUT due to 'circumstances', we had to go for the more standard-issue one below:



But we're trying to pimp the Trekkie Monster Karaoke online - where there aren't any pesky censorship rules to navigate ;]

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.

Latest Work: Superhero Diaries TVC

If you could, watch it on High Quality on YouTube itself :D

Had the TVC up on YouTube for 2 weeks now - but didn't want to dilute the traffic to our company blog [http://intuitive-films.blogspot.com] - so posting it here only now.

Had quite some fun cutting this one. I was on the set when it was shot [on a soundstage] since I helped in the producing. Also helped to make sure the fireball compositing shot [the frame in the video thumbnail] had enough good takes to work with.

It turned out to be my favorite shot for 2 reasons:

1) The fireball came out really nicely [the cinematographer made a very nifty suggestion to use a dimmer on the key light when he shot so that the fireball > full explosion gives more impact].

2) The actress [for those bopping to the tunes of the 80s, that's Debbie Gibson] held on to her 'look' long enough and with enough intensity, the shot was a good one to hold, with the fireball on a translucent 'add' composite mode.

2b) Extra: the fireball scene then dissolves into a snow scene... ooh, thematic contrast - I likey!

Though I am not entirely happy with the masking on the reveal... still a little rough. And that shot alone probably had 3-4 layers of nesting - ow.

Did quite extensive color grading on this one - using Magic Bullet Editors. Helps that the costumes and make-up were very dramatic and the style was to have rich, saturated colors. Mmm, colors, yes, I likey that, too. Apart from color grading, also slapped on a few filters to get a little bit of the glow and vignetting going. Not to forget the ballistics [and SFX] and a very subtle sound texture which bridged the fireball scene and the snow scene.

Entire TVC was cut, composited and graded in FCP :] Well, the end logos were done up in Photoshop and the music track came from the client's music guy.

Delivered a DigiBeta with 2 x :30 version to the TV station last week... hope to see it on the air soon - all that tweaking is wasted when you only get to see it either as a tiny streaming .flv on the official website or a highly compressed YouTube video!

'Serum City' 2-min short film trailer

Check out http://serumcity.atspace.com/ for the synopsis and production stills.

A 'blast from the not-so-distant past'. 'Serum City' is my graduation short film, produced back in 2006, on which I served as the DP and editor.

This is probably THE definitive inspiration for me to go into editing. Back in 2006, I had worked out my class schedule such that I didn't have to take any modules in my last semester, so that I could concentrate on my short film. And concentrate I did! I turned up at the editing suite almost every day, tweaking with the edit and... tweaking with the edit more. Sometimes with the director and our faculty supervisor; but usually working alone.

So not too long after a grueling week-long shoot as DP [my legs were on fire from standing and climbing every single day - thank goodness my director is a qualified massage therapist!], I started logging and capturing my rushes... then, edited to script... and soon, we hit an 'existential crisis'. The film wasn't working if we were to cut to script. This was... probably in February, when we had to deliver by mid-March.

This led to a complete overhaul of the film structure - scenes were juggled around quite radically, shots were dropped, re-shoots were done [thankfully, nothing too drastic].

As much as it drove me nuts to have to do a COMPLETE re-cut, I distinctively remember being positively reinvigorated, when previously, I was getting quite ho-hum about the film/editing it.

So yeah, that was intense but loads of fun. There was a lot of to-and-fro with the director, so that was a very good process.

Of course, having ~5 other groups of people going crazy in the same edit suite [FCP FTW!] got 'interesting' nearer the deadline, haha. I'm glad I chose to stick with FCP, even though the school had 4 Avid Adrenalines available as well. I enjoyed the ease of use [fire up mac; connect to SAN Network; launch FCP; edit... toggle over to Firefox when bored/rendering/needing help] and being able to work directly with Adobe Photoshop and AfterEffects files from the same machine and network. After that, it was easy to author a simple customized DVD in DVD Studio Pro, or export to various .Mov files.

The one pity is that 'Serum City' never did get a proper screening in any festivals. Feedback from those who have watched it have generally been positive - though the common thing is that it sets people up to propose more ideas and different ways to explore certain themes. Of course, its non-linear narrative has thrown a few people off-track as well. Anyway, a copy or two are available at Library@Esplanade ;)