Quintessential Studios' Weblog

I started the day by looking at a “live” event production truck. A great deal, but it’s mostly standard definition equipment. I’m still considering it but I have to justify the costs. Maybe someone will partner up with me.

Next, I met up with a twitter contact who was in town from Baltimore, http://stratatekstudios.com. I met with Charlie Anderson. He was in L.A. for a couple reasons, a shoot for Under Armour and a premiere of a feature he shot. We exchanged stories or how we got into what we’re doing and where we want to end up. Check out his work and hire him if you need a DP or RED tech.

Next I was off to Allied Post Audio in Santa Monica for their monthly LAPPG meeting. Woody there runs a top notch shop and has an awesome post production meeting. It’s by RSVP and limited seating, so you have to be quick or you won’t get a spot.

I arrived early to volunteer and help setup for the event. Jesse, an intern there, who is going into USC’s Directors Master Program, (now there’s someone you should get to know, was there and he explained what he was up to. It was nice to get a young perspective of the industry. Quite refreshing. Also there were Candice and Wendy. All great people.

Soon Wes Plate, founder of Automatic Duck arrived and I explained that I had so many of his keychains that I felt obligated to follow him on Twitter.com. He said to check out the video on the site about how they’re made. It’s here: http//www.automaticduck.com/keychains/ , well it’s supposed to be

Wes gave a great presentation on all their products. I learned a lot about Avid, FCP and AE workflows.

Before he went on, Aaron McNally from Moviola presented and I learned a LOT about compression and video capture of cameras. Really wish I would have recorded that presentation. It was that good.

Before the presentations and during the breaks and after the meeting I meet the following great people:

Von Thomas, of Digital Tech NYC/LA a new Red One owner and renter of such.
Kent Luck, independent editor
Jay Miracle, editor of Hearts of Darkness documentary — BTW, Jay is looking for a great titler for a non-profit gig, an hours work. Let me know if you’re interested….
Heather Konkoli, Producer of TV Guide Channel’s InFANity show.
and David Buller, a promo editor for Fox TV.

Tuesday night I met Marty over at Brins & Sawyer. She’s great too.  I highly recommend their store!  Service is awesome.

Hi All,

I hope everyone is doing well.  This Thursday, I’ll be on The Digital Production Buzz, a video production, post production and distribution  podcast.

http://digitalproductionbuzz.com/LiveThisWeek/

There’s a live on-line chat during the show too.

So tune in!

My first introduction to Larry Jordan was a just over a year ago at the March 2008 LAFCPUG Meeting when Larry gave a “Converting HDV to ProRes 422 – and why you want to” demo. It was a fantastic demonstration and communicated clearly and precisely. Larry’s communication skills carry over to a variety of media.

Larry is the quintessential FCP guru having authored a few books on the subject and countless tutorials and articles. He puts out a monthly newsletter STUFFED with Final Cut Pro and related information. (Sign up for his newsletter here: http://www.larryjordan.biz/nxlttrs.html.) He also is the voice of the Digital Production Buzz, a weekly podcast on digital production, post production and distribution.

Larry Jordan travels the world with his Power Up with Final Cut Pro seminars and they grow every year. Luckily for us in Southern California, he spends a lot of time here and there are a lot of classes to attend. If you’re looking for a class to take on FCP, I would highly recommend you check his class schedule here: http://www.larryjordan.biz/training/index.html) and find one to attend. In fact, if you’re not 100% satisfied, there is a money-back guarantee. You can’t beat that! If you can’t make one, maybe order a DVD or book.

The worth of the Digital Production Buzz has been noticed by NAB and they are the official podcast for NAB. You can (should be able to) get them below:

NAB News Briefs (April 18-23, 2009)

Digital Production Buzz

BuZZ Shows (Ongoing)

Digital Production Buzz

Being a So. Cal man, the closeness of Red headquarters finally got the best of me and I made a trip to Lake Forest, CA in hopes to get first-hand looks at the goings-ons.

After all, Jim Jannard stated yesterday (http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?p=396316#post396316) that new developments for the Scarlet and the Epic were afoot and some of the details would be released at the Red User NAB party (http://www.redusernab.info/).

While I was there I stumbled upon a few secrets….

Those of you familiar with my blog and relationship with Ted from Red will understand how I was able to pierce the veil of secrecy, so tightly wrapped around the RED compound.

I’ll just cut to the chase:

First was that RED was working very closely with Apple on a new codec that would blow ProRes and Redcode out of the water and that that codec would be included in Final Cut Pro 7, the major component to Final Cut Studio 3.

Next, while there has been much talk about Apple and RED dis’ing NAB, they were both going to be in LV.  RED to be at the REDUSER Party and Apple at the Final Cut Pro User Group, where each company would unveil their much anticipated products.

As you may have deduced by now, I wasn’t supposed to come across this information and a chase soon ensued.  I don’t know why all of my dreams worth remembering include chase scenes but they always do.  With a quickened heart pulse, I awoke and realized that not only was I dreaming but that it was also…

April Fool’s Day!!!!

First is iMovie 09.

The presentation by Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro and iMovie creator Randy Ubillos was really outstanding.

It had long-time Final Cut Pro gurus ooing and awing and asking, “Can you put that on Final Cut Pro?”

If you don’t already have iLife 09, I would highly recommend getting it.

iMovie 09 has some incredible features like animated maps (which used to cost thousands of dollars or crazy amounts of hours to achieve) and instant filters and transitions.

iMovie 09 was designed (really) for prosumers using formats like HDV and AVCHD. You can also output to FCP XML, so if you need a way to convert your AVCHD, this is a good solution.

iMovie has additional “detail” editing, which lets you dig down a little deeper into a timeline-like screen. It allows you to easily throw something together or get as fancy as you want to be.

See http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/ for more details.

Next is an incredible announcement from Maxx Digital regarding Final Share.

Did you know that it IS possible to edit compressed HD (ProRes422HQ and DVCProHD) on a regular old iMac and playback the footage on a networked MacBook laptop? Not a MacBook Pro, mind you, just a Macbook.

That’s right, you can create a shared SAN storage system on a G5 and have 20 cheap-o iMacs as workstations sharing files.

“Holiday-whosie-whatsit?”

The folks at Maxx Digital and the “big” brains at Small Tree have figured out a “loop hole” that makes this possible. And it’s a CHEAP solution.

And you know I like that word!

Bob Zelin, a well known Creative Cow moderator and video engineer, flew in from Florida to share the news to the LAFCPUG on Wednesday night. The system is called the Maxx Digital “Final Share”. The complete Final Share system basically requires a stand-alone G5 Mac Pro, a Small Tree four-port Gigabyte network card, a 24-port switch and a RAID disk system. That and a few OS X network setting tweeks and you’re good to go.

It’s a little bit more technical than that (but not really) so I won’t go into too much detail right now. I’m going to review the demonstration footage later and try to layout the exact details but for now consider that you can have a great networked solution for around $5,000 – 6,000.

Also, here’s the homework if you want to learn more:

LAFCPUG Meeting Agenda (currently here: http://www.lafcpug.org/user_schedule.html but will probably later be here: http://www.lafcpug.org/past.html#anchor2009) states:

“7:50PM – 8:25PM – Final Share – Bob Zelin

“Video Engineer Bob Zelin is flying into LA to show off Final Share from Maxx Digital. What is Final Share? From Bob:

“I will be discussing and demonstrating Maxx Digital Final Share. Final Share is a very simple shared storage solution for Final Cut Pro that works with uncompressed SD and compressed HD (ProRes422HQ and DVCProHD). The appeal of this product is that it is very inexpensive, and requires absolutely no management or administration once it is setup. It uses conventional ethernet cables, instead of fibre connectivity. The only software interface is Apple File Sharing. There is no custom software, nor are there any client “licenses”.

“Maxx Digital will provide a MAC Pro Server with a Maxx Digital Disk drive array, and a second MAC computer that is running Final Cut Pro, in addition to the specialty ethernet equipment that makes this stuff work. With this equipment, I will be able to demonstrate playback of RED camera footage at ProRes422HQ footage over an ethernet cable. I will bring along my MAC Book laptop, and be able to instantly demonstrate being able to connect my MAC Book to the shared storage system, and be able to playback full ProRes422HQ footage right on my laptop. I will invite anyone who would like to bring up their MAC laptop to the stage to be able to instantly connect to this system, and play the same footage. All I have to do is go into System Preferences>Network, and assign a static IP address for that computers ethernet port.

“To my knowlege, this is the first time that anyone can have shared storage for very little money, and absolutely no education on complex networking, SAN enviornments, or IT background. ANYONE can do this. And it’s cheap!”

Then go to these links for more info:

* http://maxxdigital.com/shop/index.php?cPath=117

* http://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/257/110

* http://blogs.creativecow.net/blog/794/high-speed-san-via-ethernet-its-true

* http://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/media_san.php

If you want to talk to a Maxx Digital representative to get hooked up, call 714-374-4944 and don’t forget to tell them that Quintessential Studios told you about ‘em!

LAFCPUG Meetings are filmed and available for video podcast via iTunes. Check http://www.lafcpug.org/About_klickTab.html for more info.

If you’re just into film, you might ask yourself, “Why would I be interested in the National Association of Broadcasters?  Although for a lot of editors, their work is in broadcasting.

Broadcasting covers a lot of ground.  The term itself has come to have many meanings.  Normally people consider it to mean radio and TV transmissions.  NAB Executive VP, Chris Brown, on a recent Digital Production Buzz interview explained that the NAB show has expanded to now include New Media.

A look at the NAB Super Sessions (http://www.nabshow.com/2009/education/supersessions.asp) shows that there are ones dedicated to such topics as: “Creating in the New Media Landscape”, “Mobile Video”, “The New Content Paradigm”, “Cool Gadgets, Hot Content” and “Generations – Media Consumption Habits and Preferences”.

NAB this year is so big that it is in four buildings comprising 900,000 square feet of exhibits! I love trade shows and especially ones that are about things I love. This event sounds like and amazing event. It’ll be my first and I’ll give a complete report on what I was able to see, when I get back from it! I will, of course try to twitter updates while I am there. (http://twitter.com/quintessential)

New areas at NAB this year are the 3D Pavillion and the Content Commerce Pavillion. You might be interested in the Post|Production World Conference at this year’s NAB Show which is April 18-23 in Las Vegas.

Have you ever been? For a taste of what the 2009 NAB Show has to offer, check out the Post|Production World Conference details, including 7 different Adobe, Apple, Avid and Mac Certification Courses: http://www.nabshow.com/2009/education/postproduction.asp. Man there is a LOT to this show!

In an effort to help people out in these dire economic times, the NAB show has given out a promo code for free exhibit passes which includes entry into the Keynote address: NAB Free Exhibits Passport Code: TP01 Please pass along and visit http://nabshow.com/passport to redeem! This is a $150-$200 value! You could use your savings and upgrade to see some great sessions!

I’ll be there. Hope to see you there as well.

Okay Folks! I worked a deal for you!!

If you call the number below (818-842-6611) to register for the Los Angeles August  6th and 7th HD Expo P2 Camp and you use the promo code “Quintessential” you will save 20% off of the regular price. That means your total registration will be $480. That’s even $69 cheaper than the “Early Bird” special!

So, even if you miss the Early Bird Special, you can get this discount, if you call to register and use the promo code “Quintessential”!

Hurry and register by phone. This offer may not last that long!!!!

<img src=”

Call and use the promo code Quintessential

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To learn more about P2 Camp:
http://www.hdexpo.net/education/p2/index.html

It was officially announced at this last March’s HD Expo that HD Expo will no longer be called HD Expo. They are going with a new moniker, Createasphere.

Createasphere seemed to me more of a social networking site that HD Expo was a part of. I say that because after attending last year’s HD Expo in Burbank, I was invited to join the site and it was an industry related social networking site. But it turns out that they are going to do all of their business under the new name.

If you want to get a head spin, checkout the footer of one of the HD Expo website pages: “Copyright © 2009, HD Expo, LLC a division of All rights reserved. HD EXPO, High Def EXPO, Virtual HD EXPO, HD EXPO Workshops, Createasphere, High Def EXPO Workshops, VariCamp, P2 Camp, ColorCamp 101, and Lighting, Filters & Gels for HD are all trademarks of HD Expo, LLC.“ Now that’s a lot of names to mess with!

I attend a lot of events during the year, as any reader of my blog would attest to, and I do have to say that the HD Expo is one of my favorite ones. I even took a day off of work to attend it.

Because of my prolific tweeting, I caught the attention of one of the HD Expo people and they bumped my registration to VIP. That was a total surprise and highly appreciated.

Hey! If any Createasphere people want to send me to P2 Camp, I’m down for it!

The VIP pass, which is the way to go, in my opinion, let’s you attend all of the seminars during the expo and gives you access to the VIP/Press lounge, were you can cool your heels and grab a snack or drink. Nice perk for a long expo day. It turned out that the parking was completely validated too.

After a year of really getting active with groups and activities, I’ve started to see some of the same people. I ran into more people at this event than I ever have before. I think because this is a really popular event. In fact, at the first seminar of the day, Extreme RED, I ran into my friend Craig (of http://cmieritz.blogspot.com/) who I sat next to in Intro to Pro HD class, last summer.

Other noteable meetups were Mike Horton (LAFCPUG), Thomas (LAFCPUG and DMA/LA), Moy (who I met at the Digital Cinema Society L.A. Green Screen Event back in Dec.) a 16mm filmmaker and two friends from QLogic.

I feel like I know Ted Schilowitz (Leader of the Rebellion at RED Digital Cinema) and Rodney Charters (ASC who works on “24″) already, because I’ve seen so many presentations by them but alas, I’m just a fanboy.

[Funny incident last year: I was standing outside of the Apple Final Cut Server World Tour L.A. waiting for my car at vallet and so was Ted. At the time, I didn't know who he was exactly, even though I had been watching his videos on the Red.com site. I noticed a RED emblem on his bag and I said, "Hey! Are you with RED?"

"Yes."

"Oh cool!" I said, "I will get one, someday."

"Great."

Well, later it dawned on me who he was and I told my wife, "Hey, you remember that guy from RED? Well he's ...."

Okay, so maybe it wasn't so amusing....]

Well, both Ted and Rodney were part of the “EXTREME RED – Decking out the RED One for OUTRAGEOUS results” intensive workshop. Also there was Stefan von Bjorn, steadicam operator; Chris Burket from Element Technica and Cliff Hsui (Pronounced Sue-”E”), Senior VP of Marketing and Technologies, Sim Video.

Cliff showed off some of the accessories they have at their stores for the RED One.

Then Chris from Element Technica presented a TON of accessories, many of which were VERY cool. Definitely check them out if you want to outfit any camera.

Rodney Charters represented the slimmed down RED One user, all packed into a overhead compartment freindly photographer’s backpack by Think Tank (http://www.thinktankphoto.com). He demoed some footage he took in North Korea (which was hard to get) right off of his 17″ MBP.

His kit he took to North Korea:

Think Tank Bag
Cannon 5D MkII
Cannon Lenses
Some flimsy tripod but now replaced with a Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod
Microphone, shotgun.

He also was very hip to:
300 feet wireless HD transmitter an audio component by zaxcom (who make the deva) $1000
Lens baby (Butterfly and the diving bell fame) http://lensbaby.com/ ($250)
Boom recorder ($240 software that allows you to record up to 96 tracks on to your MBP)

VoyagerQ newertech:

http://www.newertech.com/products/voyagerq.php

Stefan von Bjorn: Developed a battery swap mechanism for the RED. Tentatively called “The Swap” (trying for $900 target price.) He has a website called http://redcameraowner.com

A two-minute Scarlet and Epic video (fan made), basically all of the earlier renders in a video.

RED One weighs about 10#
Scarlet s/b 3#
Epic s/b 4#

Ted says: Sensor program is moving along nicely… creation of these new products is moving along nicely… “The 5K sensor is up and running in the lab making pictures now.”

That’s about it for the Extreme Red portion of the show.

Homework places for RED workflow:
REDuser.com
Post houses:
Plaster City
Photo Kem(chem?)
Riot
Key Code Media
Sim Video

In NY: Off Hollywood

I then went to the VIP room and grabbed an apple and some water. Coffee was out and I guess there were sandwiches but they were gone. Wait, didn’t I say VIP was the way to go? WTG VIP!

I strode the showroom floor and gandered at at stuff. I was on a mission to find a backpack bag and a monopod, so I didn’t see too much, although there was a LOT there.

I think the new slogan for Final Cut Pro should be, “Final Cut Pro, ‘Cause You Don’t Know How To Edit”.

Last night I heard bandied about that Final Cut Studio [2] is a great product because if you don’t know how to do something, like edit or burn a DVD or create a soundtrack or create some motion graphics then you can always do it in FCP or DVDSP or Soundtrack Pro or Motion.  It kind of hit home with me and made me laugh (as well as an auditorium full of FCP users).

It was also commented on the night before at a related event for post production types that people don’t want to learn how to do something, like how to use a piece of software, they just want to use it. 

It is so true, people buy a piece of software to solve their problem.  I can’t do my taxes or don’t want to pay an accountant to do them, so I’ll just buy “TaxBookPro” and that will take care of that.  Just fill in the lines and “Viola!”

How many people never read the manual for a piece of software or hardware for that matter and just start fiddling with it and try to figure it out as they go?  Most, I’d venture to guess.  I’ve done it many times.

I did have some life experiences though that helped me be more manual friendly.  The main one, my parents knew that problems with equipment came from a lack of understanding of that equipment and always made sure that I read the manual for any new household appliances that we got in the house, before I was allowed to use them.  You know, like for the new microwave, it’s good to know that aluminum foil arcs in a microwave or that to cook something shorter than a minute, you should turn the dial past the one minute mark and then to the number of seconds you want to cook for.  Things for the new dishwasher that were good to know: don’t use laundry detergent in it but shampoo would be okay to use or don’t open quickly while in use, wait until you don’t hear the water spinning anymore.

The more I read manuals, the less problems I had with things in general.  I could do things like fix cars, motorcycles and mopeds.  I could raise rabbits and tropical fish.  I could get along better with people.  I could hook up computer parts.

What happened with technical manuals though?  Why were they so hell-bent on being confusing rather than easy to understand?  Why did they have to be so big?  Why were they filled with so many hard-to-understand words?  Was it a technical standard to have a 1000-page manual that sounded erudite to pass as a good piece of software?  Sometimes I think so.

I was lucky in that I didn’t own Final Cut Pro before I started to “read the manual” on it.  I wanted to know how to use the software and I knew I couldn’t afford it at the time, so I took a community course on editing.  I didn’t know the first course was going to be on FCP but it was a requirement for the next which I knew would be on FCP.  Turns out the first class was taught on FCP 6 and the textbook for the class turned out to be Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro 6 by Diana Weynand. The class was very good and covered editing and camera shot principles as well as the technical use of the software. We got to practice on TV series, using scripts to edit and creating our own short. I really enjoyed the class and that’s what propelled me to do all I’ve done and all I’m doing today.

I still consider that I don’t know how to edit or do soundtracks or make DVDs, even though I’m dabbling with the software. But that won’t stop me ’cause FCP is made for people like me!

Okay, okay.  I know I promised you a Norm Hollyn bit on this next blog, but I just wanted to slip another entry in here before that one.  So stay tuned.  How’s that for a “lean forward moment”?

Being active in whatever field you’re interested in will more than likely garner your own fair share of free stuff.  But if you seem lacking in accouterments, read on.

Free movie screenings for writers

Some years ago, I joined the mailing list for Creative Screenwriter magazine.  With this email list, you get invites to many film screenings throughout the year, usually on Tuesday nights.  These are very special screenings because they have a Q & A afterwards, usually featuring the screenwriter(s) of the film.

I’ve been at screenings featuring Rob Zombie, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Seth Rogan Evan Goldberg, Michael Davis, Zach Helm, Nancy Oliver, Gustin Nash, Garth Jennings, Nick, Goldsmith, Jason Reitman, Guillermo Arriaga, Scott Frank, Zoe Heller, Patrick Marbel, Phillip Glass, Chris Rock, Louis C.K., Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, Fredi M. Murer, Don Payne, Drew Goddard, Ari Sandel, Peter Billingsly, John Fusco and Collin Chou.  These have been very entertaining and free!

So if you are interested in the craft of screenwriting, I think you’ll like these too.  But seriously, if you aren’t going to stay for the Q&A, don’t sign up to go.

Conferences Seminars and Expos

Conferences, seminars and expos are great places to learn more about your desired profession and to learn the upcoming changes that could affect the future of what you’re into.  Not only that but also they are great places to network and meet new people.  I make it a point to meet at least one new person besides the booth personnel or company reps whenever I attend a conference or expo.  And what else is important here?  Free stuff!

Filmmaking:

The following film making events were all free via sign up on the web.  Usually you have to register by a certain date to get free admission.

Apple Final Cut Server World Tour 2008 – I attended this event in Los Angeles May 13, 2008.  This was a great event that covered the new Apple product Final Cut Server.  They also went into some great detail on using Motion and Soundtrack Pro too.  At the event they had product booths from about ten vendors.  So mainly they just had fliers and brochures to hand out, but there was free sodas and coffee.

And then the raffle…  my wife wins the iPod nano!

DV Expo – Nov 5th, I went to the DV Expo.  It wasn’t as good as the HD Expo I attended earlier and will talk about later but there were a couple of good seminars and cool stuff to look at/drool over.  There was also some free magazines to pick up.  No free refreshments here though.

At one of the seminars, I won a $210 Viper book.  I have no use for a $210 Viper book so anyone that does, let me know.

HD Expo - Oct 29th, I went to the HD Expo in Burbank.  (This year it’s at the Universal Hilton, March 5th!)  I attended a RED presentation (will again this year too) where we got a great preview of what’s going on at RED as well as a very cool preview of Che, the Steven Soderbergh flick.  Their were TONS of free magazines and a really cool exhibit area.  Parking was validated.

Post Production:

FCPUG SuperMeet – (10.99 and a drive to SF) — This San Francisco version on Jan 7, 2009, was really a lot of fun and covered in an earlier post, so read that one.

LAFCPUG – ($5 suggested donation) — I have attended all of these meetings since March 2008, but was very late to one because I was at another seminar on lighting given by Birns & Sawyer (where they had free beer and snacks!)  They have a great raffle there and if you don’t win, you can most likely get an Automatic Duck keychain!

LAPPG – (Free) — I have recently found the Los Angeles Post Production Group.  Last month I attended their meeting and it was very cool.  It’s a small group only and you have to RSVP right away or else you won’t get in, as I found out the first time I tried to attend.  But last month’s meeting was a presentation by Jay Miracle, award-winning editor, producer and director.  Jay worked as editor on the Emmy-award winning documentary Hearts of Darkeness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, chronicling Francis Ford Coppola making Apocalypse Now.  Very insiteful and full of dirt and secret stories… ooo cool…. and hey, I won a Moviola T-shirt!

DMA/LA – (Free) — Also at the Barnsdale Art Park Gallery Theatre (where the LAFCPUG meets), Ko Maruyama heads up this great meeting of Digital Media Artists.  They have a raffle too.

Pizza & Post – (Free) — As the name implies, there’s free pizza and a talk on post.  This is a new find of mine too and is put on by the Video Symphony TV & Film School in Burbank.  This month’s talk was by Philip Hodgetts of Intellegent Assistant.  There’s some free mags there too.  RSVP is needed for this event.

Miscellanous Stuff

Movie Night w/Mostly Lisa – (http://mostlylisa.com/blog/movie-night/) Won two free iPhone apps while watching Lisa Bettany get drunk watching the Oscars.  (And I don’t even have an iPhone!)

Digital Production Buzz – (http://www.digitalproductionbuzz.com/) Every Thursday 6pm – 7pm, Pacific Time.  Fantastic Digital Video Production, Post and Distribution online radio podcast.

Leo Laporte – Twit.tv, live and recorded video broadcasts for tech stuff.  The ultimate geek-out.

The more I look into events, the more I find and I would swear that if I were jobless, I could survive on the freebies of events such as the above.  This combined with the plethera of eseminars/webinars has given me a wealth of knowledge in the digital film making arena and I look forward to more this year.  I’ll let you know what I find.

–Eric