Adobe Premiere, Apple, Apple - Final Cut Pro, Avid, Biscardi Creative Media 13 comments

Because you asked… More on our Switch to Avid MC6

By on March 27th, 2012

Our short and sweet blog post yesterday about switching to Avid MC6 for our broadcast work touched off a flurry of requests for yet more information on our decision.   Folks want to know “what specific features did it have that the others didn’t.”   “Can you break it down feature by feature, why you made the switch?”  ”You seemed so gung-ho about Adobe early on in your switch.”

Honestly I can’t break it down like that.  For almost 6 months now we’ve had one edit suite running MC6 and one running Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 pretty much full time in each room.   FCP 7 has been used in both rooms as necessary and I’ve also been cutting with Adobe CS 5.5 primarily on smaller projects.   So this has been a real solid test.   Three rooms cutting real projects with real clients in the room.

In a situation like this, you don’t compare “feature by feature.”   You compare, “how does this work with the client looking over my shoulder?”   Is the system efficient, can I do everything from FCP, what is the client experience, does the system service all of my needs?

Real world, client over the shoulder experience, Avid’s strength is the performance of the software in our FCP based infrastructure.   What that means is my entire facility was designed to support Final Cut Pro.   Mac Pros, AJA Kona video I/O boards, Small Tree Ethernet based shared storage system and a slew of third party hardware and applications.   When we dropped Avid Media Composer 6 into that infrastructure with the appropriate AJA Kona drivers, the system didn’t miss a beat.   We were truly stunned that Avid’s support of our hardware was that good.   Tape capture and mastering are more efficient and more accurate than what we ever had with FCP.   Overall performance of the Avid MC6 software on the same exact machine as FCP7 is much faster.

In comparison, Adobe Premiere Pro causes all sorts of playback and audio issues on output to our external monitors.   This led to less than desirable client experiences in the edit suite.    As long as the client wasn’t in the room, we would leave the external monitor turned off, but even there audio playback issues still plagued the system.    See when I first started testing and posting about Adobe Premiere Pro, it was all from my 27″ iMac at home, so there was no external monitoring.   At first the output seemed to work pretty well, but then things kept getting wonky and we could not get output to ever work consistently across multiple workstation.

And all of us were disappointed, to say the least, that tape capture / tape mastering is abysmal in Premiere Pro CS 5.5 with tape still being a very large part of our day to day workflow.  Yes, the world is going digital, but we have a lot of shooters who still shoot tape and we have thousands of hours of tape on our shelves that get used for documentary and news projects.  Lack of audio controls in the Source, track assignments and a lot of other small things created stumbling blocks and inefficiency in the workflow.  Our overall feeling is that Adobe has got a lot of advanced features that nobody else has, but the basic core editing experience leaves a lot to be desired and at the end of the day, we’re storytellers and need a solid core editing tool.   Yes we are aware that Adobe is most likely going to introduce CS6 soon and with any luck some of these issues will begin to be addressed.   Premiere Pro will still play a part in our facility on smaller projects and potentially an independent documentary.

But right now, after so many months of using both systems in our core FCP infrastructure, Avid MC6 just performs so much better.    It’s actually a more limited toolset when you consider that we purchase the Adobe Production Premium suite that comes with all the other applications, it seems like a waste to spend that money on just one tool.   But it makes you appreciate the tool for what it is.   One hell of a very fast storytelling machine.   Yes there is frustration because we have to “un-learn” a lot of our FCP mindset and re-think our workflow more with Avid than a transition to Adobe Premiere Pro.   But that’s just learning which buttons to press.

So there you go, that’s more of our reasoning on taking Avid MC6 to all of our broadcast work, in a nutshell there’s more of a comfort factor bringing the product onboard for broadcast.    This was probably the biggest decision I’ve had to make in my career after almost 12 years of keeping Avid OUT of my facility.    But Avid truly did listen to what we told them and opened up the software to a world of possibilities by letting me simply drop it into an existing infrastructure.

 

 

Apple - Final Cut Pro, Avid, Biscardi Creative Media No comments yet

Moving 2nd season and a new series to Avid Media Composer 6

By on March 27th, 2012

After lots of testing and comparing, we’ve made the decision to move two original series to Avid Media Composer 6.   PBS series “This American Land” is starting up Season Two next week and in about a month or so we’ll be kicking off a new original reality series.

Over the past for months or so, I’ve had one of my editors working primarily in Adobe CS 5.5 with  another working in Avid Media Composer 6 to really see how they operated in all sorts of situations.   Short stories, longer form, news features, etc…   My editors and I struggled to come up with a definitive answer as to which we should use for “This American Land” as that’s the first broadcast series to fire up for us again since we dropped Final Cut Pro.

What it really came down to is just how well Avid Media Composer works with our existing Final Cut Pro infrastructure.   Mac Pros with AJA Kona boards connected to a Small Tree Communications 48TB shared storage system.   It’s interesting because as many of you know, Avid required their own hardware until just this past November.   As I reported previously in my CreativeCow.net article, Avid’s software works incredibly well with all our third party hardware.   Even the shared storage works brilliantly without any sort of Avid / Unity based control.

Despite what people report and the industry wants us to believe, Tape is far from dead in our workflow.  We have shooters who still have beautiful cameras that shoot tape and of course we have to master everything to HDCAM for delivery.  Tape controls are just so rock solid with Avid, even better and more precise than we ever had with FCP.

So ultimately both myself and my editors felt most comfortable moving our broadcast workflow for these two shows over to Media Composer 6.   We’ll certainly keep y’all updated on how things roll as we move forward.

Me setting up Avid in our shop, never thought THAT would happen!

Adobe Premiere, Apple, Avid, Biscardi Creative Media, DaVinci - Resolve No comments yet

Biscardi Creative seeking Freelancers in Atlanta / Gwinnett County

By on March 26th, 2012

Biscardi Creative Media Seeks Local Freelancers in the Atlanta / Gwinnett Area

Biscardi Creative Media is currently seeking multiple people to for freelance production positions at our facility.  It’s possible that some may lead to a full-time position in the future.  We are seeking a range of positions, however in particular we are looking for editors skilled in reality programming.

Some of the skills we’d like to see include the following:.

Pre-production:
Research, database population

Production:

Data Wrangler, Production Assistant (logging), Story Producer.

Post-production:
Video editing (Reality and Scripted Series), assistant video editing, motion graphics, compositing, audio editing, sound design, media encoding, color enhancement.

Not required but added bonus skills:
3D modeling, 3D animation, still photography experience, audio recording.

This is the most-used software at our facility:
Avid Media Composer 6, Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5, Final Cut Pro 7 (not “X”) used primarily for revisions to older projects, After Effects,  Davinci Resolve, Photoshop, Illustrator, Pro Tools HD, Adobe Media Encoder, Compressor, CatDV, Telestream Episode.

General requirements:

  • Friendly, easy-going personality, trustworthy, professional
  • Creative, patience for quality, problem solving skills
  • Willing to work on a production crew in studio and on location
  • Experience in Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, and/or Final Cut Pro 7
  • Experience in After Effects and/or motion graphics production
  • Must be local with access to Buford, GA.  This is NOT a job for remote freelancers.
  • Prefer someone with availability to work Monday through Friday.

What we need from you at this point
We’ll need to review examples of your work. This is required. YouTube, Vimeo, and/or Flickr links are fine.

We’ll also need to know what you’d like to expect in terms of financial compensation, based off your available time and skills set.

Please answer the following bullet points, as applicable, when responding to this inquiry:

  • What is your name, email address, and current city of residence?
  • What is your strongest suit from the “general requirements” listed above?
  • What software are you strongest in? How many years?
  • What production skills do you have? How many years?
  • What post-production skills do you have? How many years?
  • What is your strongest Editing discipline (Reality, Scripted, Music video…)
  • What kind of audio skills do you have? How many years?
  • List links to your demo material we can review.
  • List an example of a problem-solving skill you’ve experienced in the past.
  • What hours during the day can you work? Which days during the week?
  • Please list any awards or extra info about your work experience.
  • If you’ve worked with Biscardi Creative Media in the past, please note the project description.
  • Please list any appropriate references.
  • How did you hear about or know of Biscardi Creative Media?

Please do not call us regarding this inquiry. All inquires for this position should be emailed directly to randy [a t] biscardicreative [d o t] com. Feel free to attach a résumé to your email as well.

And to be clear again, these positions are NOT for remotely based freelancers.

Adobe Premiere, Apple, Apple - Final Cut Pro, Avid, Technology 9 comments

It’s not a Mac – Windows Testing Part 2A

By on March 14th, 2012

This is just a quick update than full blown testing, hence the “Part 2A” title instead of Part 3.

I left the Dell running all Monday night and it finally downloaded the Adobe Production Premium CS 5.5 package.  Installation went fine, then installation of the AJA Kona LHi drivers and the AJA Adobe CS 5.5 plug-in went perfectly fine.

After all installations everything appeared to work just fine, we had image from the system to our Flanders Scientific monitor via the Kona LHi.  And that was about the extent of it for today.   A new television pilot is occupying my days right now so as soon as I get that done, I’ll get busy with the Dell.

However, there IS a new wrinkle to our testing.  I was approached by another company to test out a fully customized Windows system.   We’re working out the details over the next couple of weeks and once everything is finalized, I’ll update with the details.   Will be nice to have two Windows systems to compare and contrast.

That’s it for now, short update!   More testing soon!

Adobe Premiere, Apple, Apple - Final Cut Pro, Avid, Random Thoughts, Technology 12 comments

It’s not a Mac, Our Windows Testing – Part 2

By on March 12th, 2012

UPDATED 3/12 with pricing information.

Well today, I cracked open the boxes on our new Dell Workstation.   If you missed Part 1 with the backstory and disclosure, you can catch up here.   As noted yesterday, the machine and monitor provided by Dell are ours to keep, however, there are no rules on what I report in our testing.  

Today was simply setup the computer day, nothing to report on Adobe Premiere Pro today as it was not possible, we couldn’t get it, more on that later.

Now I do have to clarify one thing I said in the first entry.  I HAVE actually used a Windows machine professionally, but only sparingly.   A few years ago we purchased an HP workstation with a BluRay burner specifically to run NetBlender’s DoStudio BluRay authoring program.   I forgot about it because we don’t use it all that much.   But that was a pretty basic system, all it needed was the BluRay burner so I went with a basic $1500 HP workstation that came standard with wireless internet connection.

For this system, I basically relied on Dell.   They approached me with the idea that they are serious about the creative industry.   I figured I would let them assemble what they felt was a top of the line video production workstation.  They did ask me for ideas and I sent them the specs from the last 12 core Mac Pro I purchased.   I generally buy the fastest Mac Pro out there with at least 24GB of RAM though usually more with a very beefy graphics card.   Most everything else is stock on the machine.  I expect the machine to be able to perform for at least 3 years when I purchase a desktop.

The system I received is as follows:

Dell Precision Mini Tower T5500

Dual Quad Core Intel Xeon 2.4Ghz Processors (Eight Core)

48GB RAM

nVidia Quadro 4000 Graphics card with single DVI and Dual display ports

2 – 1TB SATA drives, 7200 RPM

1 – 256GB Solid State Internal Boot Drive

16X Optical DVD Bur

Internal Media Card Reader (standard camera media cards)

Windows 7 Professional

Belkin 3 port FW 800 PCI Card

Roxio Creator Starter Kit.

Adobe Production Premium CS 5.5 (via download)

U2410 UltraSharp monitor

The pricing for this is quoted as $6400 from Dell, but that was with the original Quadro 2000 card.    I’m not sure how much the 4000 adds to the total.

Completely missing was any sort of a User’s Manual either on CD or printed.   The HTML version I found online was not very inspring or useful.  A PDF would have been much more helpful.

The RAM was increased per my request and the nVidia card was changed per my request.  The original card was the nVidia 2000 which is not very useful for video production.   The Quadro 4000 is the least you want for video production on the PC.  The cards just go up from there.    Ok, let’s take a look around.

It looks plastic, but the chassis is actually sheet steel all the way around, and it feels pretty solid from the outside.   Up front, we have Mic input, headset output, 2 USB ports (USB 2.0) along with the Media card slots and the DVD burner.

On the back are a slew connections from 4 USB Ports (USB 2.0), Ethernet, classic PC Mouse and Keyboard ports, classic Printer port and an eSATA port along with 6 PCI slots.   You can see the single DVI and dual Display Ports on the nVidia Quadro 4000 card.   

One thing that surprised me is the lack of USB 3.0 ports.   I thought that would be standard on a workstation for media production and is one of the things that really sets the Windows workstations apart from the Mac Pro.   But it isn’t and I didn’t notice that when the original specs were sent to me.  The other thing I missed is the lack of Wireless internet connectivity standard, that has to be added.  It was standard with our HP machine and it’s always in our Macs so I never even noticed that it wasn’t included on this machine.   The wireless use really only comes into play in the initial setup anyway, but it would have been nice as a convenience.    The single Ethernet port is an issue in our configuration at the office because we use one port to hardware to our office internet and a second port to connect to our SAN.   I’ll be adding a Small Tree Ethernet card to the machine soon.

Keyboard and mouse are very UNimpressive.   Honestly feels like the most cheap, plastic keyboard and mouse one could buy.      The mouse isn’t all that big a deal because we use the Wacom Intuos Tablets throughout our shop and it won’t be used, but I can tell I’m going to replace the keyboard with something better.   It feels like it’ll break within a few months of daily use and the clicking noise will drive me crazy.

The Mac keyboards have transitioned to metal keyboard with very quiet keys that feel better to the touch and are quiet in daily creative sessions.  The acrylic top of the Apple mouse is very smooth to the touch with the metal bottom, it feels more substantial.

Access to the inside of the chassis is very easy, too easy in fact.  I accidentally popped open the side twice when I picked it up.   You slide back a tab on the top of the machine (pictured below) and the right side of the machine swings down and off.   When picking up the machine, twice my hand pushed that tab back and the side fell off.   Now that I know, I’m more careful.

When you compare the inside of the Precision T5500 (pictured below) with the inside of a Mac Pro, it’s definitely much more convoluted and it was here that I really came to appreciate the design of the Mac Pro interior, which is almost as elegant in appearance as the outside.   This definitely looks like it was designed by an engineer who would never have to open the box up.  The Mac Pro is designed to be very easy to access with most everything tucked out of sight.

It’s kind of ugly, but definitely functional.   All those blue plastic elements you see represent sections that can be moved or removed to access various areas inside the machine as you’ll see in the next photo.

PCI cover on the right swings out of the way to get to the PCI slots (it actually swings out even further than this.)  The hard drive on the bottom left drops down out of the way to get to the RAM.  Even the Dual Processor riser comes completely out of the machine to make for easier access to the RAM and PCI slots.

One more surprise is how flimsy the system feels when the side cover is off.   Working with the inside of the machine generally requires laying the machine on its side and back up again.   When I laid it down, I could feel the machine torque a little, that is it twisted a bit.  The steel frame is not rigid because the metal is pretty thin.   For those who have never used a Mac Pro, it’s made from a very rigid metal frame that has no give at all, with or without the side cover on.  Grabbing at two corners of this machine, I could easily twist it around a bit when the cover was off.  I’m sure it’s nothing to be really concerned about, it just surprised me because it felt so rigid with the cover on.

Speaking of the inside, I absolutely positively hate the design of the PCI card area.   I kind of understand what they were going for, but this design creates quite the annoying workflow for the end user.  As I said in the description, Dell included a Belkin 3 Port FW800 card, but it came separately so I had to install it.

This involved…. go around to the back of the machine to unscrew the PCI slot cover.  Yes, this is on the outside back of the machine.  I’ve never seen the screws on the outside.

Lay the machine its side and remove the PCI Cover to access the PCI slots.  Again, it swings back even further than this, I just didn’t get a picture of it.   Install the card, close up the cover.

Then stand the machine up and go back around to the back of the machine and screw in the card.

I get what they’re doing, no screws to fall around inside the computer.  But coming from a Mac Pro perspective, it’s annoying to have start outside the machine, go inside to set the card, then go back outside to secure the card.   The no tools PCI locking system Apple has works so nicely that it kind of spoils me.   Again, I get what Dell has done here and I guess this way is much better than screws falling inside the machine.   Something to get used to.

And unfortunately, that’s pretty much where Part 2 of this journey is going to end.  I had hoped to start testing out Premiere Pro CS 5.5 today, but during a 6 hour period, the software would not download from Adobe’s site.   The Adobe Installation Assistant kept hanging at about 3/4 completed on the download even after repeated restarts with the computer.   It’s not an internet issue because I downloaded the Mac version again on my iMac today and that worked in about 20 minutes.   On the PC, it just would not work so all I could do was poke around with the machine and from what I could tell, the solid state boot drive made it quite snappy.   Power On / Off were extremely fast.   I did add the Stardock app to create a Mac OS styled dock to replace the Windows task bar.   But that’s pretty much it.

From an appearance perspective, the Dell is not much to look at, but then there isn’t a single PC I’ve ever seen that is nice to look at like the Mac Pro.   Of course the machine is destined to sit in our machine room, so who cares what it looks like on the outside so long as the performance is there to meet our needs.    The next steps will be to try to get Adobe Premiere Pro downloaded and then install an AJA Kona LHi into the machine and see what happens when it gets into production.   I’ll update with Part 3 as soon as we’re able to get this thing running with the software so we can start properly evaluating this thing.

Adobe Premiere, Apple, Apple - Final Cut Pro, Avid, Random Thoughts, Technology 5 comments

“That doesn’t look like a Mac” (hint, it isn’t)

By on March 10th, 2012

Two boxes showed up today and one of my employees says, “That doesn’t look like a Mac.”

Nope, that’s a long way from a Mac.   That’s a brand new Dell Precision workstation featuring an nVidia Quadro card.   I’ll post the full details on the workstation once I get it out of the box and set up which will happen later this weekend.

If you’ve been following along in my blogs you know we’re transitioning over to an Adobe / Avid workflow from 11 years of running Final Cut Pro and cross platform compatibility is one of the reasons for the change. If we go with Final Cut Pro X we have no choice but to run Apple hardware and all indications from Apple are showing the end of the “big iron” desktop is coming to a close.   Whereas with Windows and Linux, there are still plenty of workstations to choose from with lots and lots of horsepower for the work we’re doing.   So it makes sense to go with software that allows us to work on both Mac and Windows so we’re never limited by what just one company will provide us for hardware.

Dell?  Seriously?

So of course, I’m a Mac guy and when I made the decision to go for cross platform workstations, my first step was to contact colleagues that have been running Windows for some time.  I have literally NEVER used a Windows machine for work. Since 1993 I have been editing with NLE’s solely on the Apple platform.   I have had PCs in the past for personal use and my wife still has a PC laptop, but I literally have a MacBook Pro, iMac, iPhone and iPad all within arm’s reach as I write this and my company owns about 20 or 30 Mac computers of one sort or another.   It was imperative that I reach out to my colleagues for first hand advice on how to spec out a Windows machine.

I also reached out to all my third party vendors to ensure that our hardware would be compatible with the Windows box.   All of my colleagues overwhelmingly recommended HP and in particular the Z800 model.   Super fast workstation and from all accounts, can put the Mac Pro to shame when running Adobe software in particular.   So how did I end up with a Dell workstation?   Especially when not a single colleague even mentioned the brand?

Rather simple really.   They asked.

Someone at Dell has been following along with my transition from Final Cut Pro to the Adobe / Avid workflow and saw that I was talking with my VAR to get a demo PC workstation to test in our facility.    Dell reached out and that led to some conversations back and forth which led to them offering to let me test out one of their Precision workstations along with a copy of Adobe Production Premium CS 5.5 for Windows.     Well that was a no-brainer for me and it makes things a little easier for my VAR.   He didn’t have to assemble a workstation just for me to test and Dell gets feedback from us in a real-world Post situation during a 12 week test.

Then things changed a little further and requires me to make a full disclosure so everything is out in the open.   The Precision workstation is no longer a demo machine, the workstation is now ours to keep, whether we like it or not.   This was wholly unexpected and something I never would have asked for because it would be unreasonable to ask a computer company to simply give away one of their top of the line products just to have it tested out.   But as the folks at Dell told me, they are serious about the creative industry and want to get their products into the hands of Post professionals in real world situations and get honest feedback.   They want it here for much longer than 12 weeks.

The Rules.

Rule Number One: There are NO RULES. Yep, that’s the agreement.   I am free to blog and write about this machine exactly as I see it.

I would not have it any other way.    If there were strings attached to this offer, the machine would not be here. If there’s one thing I’m most proud of, is the fact that my product reviews are my honest opinion.   If I don’t like something, you’re sure as heck going to know about it.   I made that very clear with Dell when we spoke.

So what you’re going to read and hear from me in the coming weeks will be my own words, my own opinions. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.     So pull down on the lap bar and keep your hands inside the car at all times.   This is bound to be an interesting ride…….

Adobe Premiere, Apple, Avid, Technology 3 comments

Apple OS X “Mountain Lion” coming this summer

By on February 19th, 2012

Apple has recently announced that a new OS is already on the horizon for the Mac, OS X Mountain Lion.   If you watch the overview video on the website, it does a nice job of presenting the basic features of the OS and how it draws a lot of features from the iOS devices.   I’ve seen a couple of early articles that make a big deal out of the fact that that new name is just OS X, not Mac OS X.    I honestly don’t care about the name, I think this is more about Apple recognizing that OS X Lion was not quite ready for prime time and instead of updating it, they’re replacing it with a new OS.

But after watching the video overview, I am very intrigued by how easily it shares information with the iOS devices.

Right now it is pretty easy to share information from your iPad / iPhone apps in the form of emails and PDFs for the most part.   As in, you create a document or a drawing or information on your iDevice and then send it to someone on a Mac as a PDF, JPEG or email to share.   But for many iOS apps, you can’t share the original document to be edited with the same or similar app on the Mac laptop / desktop.  There’s usually a workaround that you “bring the file into this other app on your computer, make the changes, then you can send it back to the iPad where our app will read it.”

But if Mountain Lion is going to be bringing iOS elements to the desktop / laptop realm, this can open up exciting possibilities for the creative professional.   Will it soon be possible for…

A) Much tighter integration between iOS Apps and Mac Desktop / Laptop apps?

B) iOS Apps to be able to run on a Mac Desktop or Laptop?

 

Let’s start with A)

If you watch the video on Apple’s site, the answer to the first question is a resounding “Yes.”   Sure these are some simple tasks and everything shown revolves around Apple apps or games.  But it does make me wonder about professional apps.

We know that Adobe and Avid already have iOS apps.  And there are some professional apps on the desktop / laptop that allow you to control them via an iDevice.   But what if you could interact with another creative artist from anywhere via your iOS device or vice versa?

I’m working with an After Effects artist and I need to see their comp to work out a timing issue, I pull up the Adobe Interface app on my iPad, log in to their computer and their comp opens up.  I simply click on an area of the interface and that goes full screen on my iPad so I can inspect and work with that area.  The changes are happening in realtime on the artist’s computer.

I meet my client for lunch to review a project and I leave my Avid timeline up on my primary computer back at my office.   At the restaurant I pull up the Avid timeline on my iPad and we have a full project review while eating, even creating a new timeline and revisions before dessert.  When I get back to the shop, all of my changes are there waiting for me.    Reversely as I’m on the way to meet the client I realize I forgot to change out the credit roll, I call the shop and ask one of my editors to make the change for me.   As our lunch starts, the project I open on my iPad has been revised with the new credit roll.

How about an application that makes proxy files in the field of your entire shoot allowing you to do a complete rough cut on your iDevice which then opens up in the application of your choice back at the shop.  Sure the iPad or iPhone might be a little small to work with, but add the Airplay option and you can work on a larger screen.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.   Give the pro developers enough time and we could eventually move towards seamless integration between the “computers” and “iDevices” allowing near realtime collaboration for artists no matter what software / task they are trying to accomplish.

Now to B)

Thanks to the incredible Prolost Blog, I found the great storyboarding app for the iPad, Penultimate. And while you’re there reading that article, be sure to check out the rest of his blog for lots of incredible tips, I’m very jealous and will have to start writing more, but I digress… :)

This is an awesome storyboard app that really plays to the strength of what the iPad is all about.  Instead of sketching on paper or having to use a full blown graphics app like Photoshop, I can very easily and quickly do thumbnail sketches of what we’re going to shoot.   We can erase and make changes on the fly right there on set.

Now I can share those sketches via PDF files to anyone, but it would be so awesome if Penultimate was also available on my Mac.   I’m the field with my crew and there’s a question on the upcoming shot.  The DP doesn’t remember the scene being described that way, he thought the camera was going to move completely differently with a wider angle.   So I send the storyboard sketches to the Executive Producer who opens them up on their laptop, changes the sketches and then pushes them back up via iCloud.   This takes a matter of minutes and we’re done because we’re using the original files and not PDF shares that we have to talk about, I make the changes on my end, send the changes for review, etc…..  If we can both use the exact same app, things just move faster.

There are a lot of very useful apps on the iDevices that would be even more useful with allowing instant collaboration between them and “computers.”   Yes there are many apps that can interchange with computer based software, but wouldn’t it just be easier if you can just work in that exact same app across the board?     Scripting, logging, TimeCode readers, etc….  Movie*Slate comes to mind.  It does make very nice PDF and HTML files to share across multiple users, but if I could open that same app on a computer, I could go back in and very easily enhance the quick logs on another computer and output them once instead of bringing the logs into Pages, reformatting them and then typing.

So while others might be concerned, for whatever reason, that “Mac” was dropped from the OS X name, I’m very intrigued to see how this new merging of the portable and desktop based OS will make our future workflows more efficient and even more portable than they are today.

Of course there’s always the flip side where one has to wonder how the merging of iOS and OS X will affect the professional applications we all know and love today…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adobe Premiere, Avid, Biscardi Creative Media 4 comments

BCM to go with an Adobe / Avid combination for Post

By on January 12th, 2012

After months of testing, playing, discussing, testing, playing, and then discussing some more, we’ve decided that Biscardi Creative Media will support both Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer workflows moving forward.

What we found as we went through the testing is that there are positives and negatives to both systems so it’s really hard to just choose one.   As my editors got to playing with both systems it became clear that for certain workflows, one tool works better than the other.   So why limit ourselves to JUST one or the other.  Put both tools in the toolbox and utilize the most efficient tool for the job at hand.

With Adobe, it still feels too much like it was “designed by an engineer” and not by editors.   If you go with the Adobe keyboard presets, it’s not all that intuitive if you’re coming from FCP or Avid.  Switching to the FCP presets makes things a bit better, but things like track assignments, stereo vs. mono tracks and other functions throughout the app that should be simple, sometimes are a bit convoluted.   Such as not making it all that easy to adjust your audio before placing the material into the timeline, FCP was much easier with the multi-tabbed Source window layout.  The more you play with Premiere Pro, the more you “forget FCP” and adapt your workflow to the new tool.

The biggest hit against Premiere Pro now out on the forums is the sometimes tremendous render times at the end of a project.   This is mainly due to the fact that Premiere Pro can utilize just about ANY format natively, and in realtime during the edit.   The price you pay is that at the very end of the project, you must render the entire timeline and depending on the raw formats, timeline settings and other variables, it can sometimes add up to a significant render time that far exceeds anything we saw in FCP.   This can definitely be a scary prospect when you’ve got a tight deadline to get something out the door.

Now the absolute positive about Premiere IS the ability to edit in just about any format.  I had a timeline with RED 4k, DVCPro HD, HDV and a few others and the darn thing just played.  No need for conversion, no waiting, no special formulas.   This is fantastic for shorter projects and we’ve especially found it useful for creating sizzle reels and pitches for networks.   I recently cut a 6 minute sizzle reel using YouTube videos, H.264 HD files, ProRes and an MPEG-2 in about 4 hours flat because I didn’t have to convert anything.   I even had time to design a quick logo and make lower thirds.  That was fast.

Adobe has gotten a ton and I mean a TON of feedback from newly converted FCP users and hopefully they’ll be able to combine the legacy of the underlying horsepower of their system with making the system more editor centric and less engineer centric as the product line moves forward.  They have been truly open and honest about listening to the end users.   I expect great things of Premiere Pro over the next few years.

Avid Media Composer 6 just far exceeded anything we expected from the third party support perspective.  AJA Kona Boards – Work.   Small Tree Ethernet SAN (NAS) – Works.   Tape capture and mastering – Solid.

The biggest thing to understand with MC6 is that while the AMA features do work, they tend to bog down the system very quickly.  AMA is Avid’s attempt to edit non Avid footage natively.   You can bring the footage into the project and you can edit with DVCPro HD, ProRes, DSLR footage natively, sort of.   Start putting these clips into the timeline and your system can crawl to stop.

The obvious way around this is to simply convert everything to DNxHD.  We have found this to be an incredibly painless and efficient process with Avid so that’s what we’re doing with all of our Avid projects.   The conversion happens by simply “Importing” the footage.  No “Log and Transfer” type of operation necessary.  Just grab the clips and “Import” and Avid will convert all the footage based on your Import settings you establish in the preferences.  Quite simple actually and we find the process happens faster than Apple ProRes conversion process.

Now the only unknown is to see how well Avid can transition from a big box company to a software predominated company.  That’s a big change to the open architecture so we’ll have to see how they make that work.

Now the other big reason why we are making this transition to both Adobe and Avid at this time is the cross platform nature of both applications.   As we are at the point where we need to start upgrading our older Mac Pro systems, these software platforms give me the option to transition over to Windows if I should so choose.  I would never change over my Mac to Windows overnight as that would be silly, but simply have the Macs work alongside the Windows machines as we need to upgrade and replace.

So for us, being an independent Post Production facility, we have found no reason to simply settle on either Avid or Adobe at this time.   We’ll simply use the best tool for the job at hand.

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Thank You Dan Desmet

By on December 18th, 2011

I remember the very first time I spoke with Dan Desmet. Id never met him, but the voice was so familiar and I just couldn’t place it. And then I remembered, the scientist from Lilo and Stitch. Dan could have easily been the voice actor for that role. Especially since he was talking a lot of technical data on the phone, he could have been describing the new version of Experiment 626. I knew I liked him right away.

Dan Desmet shows off the FSI 9 monitor at our Open House in March 2011.

Many of you know Dan and his son, Bram, as the two of the principals of the company Flanders Scientific which has made many of our professional lives much better with their array of incredible monitors. The company was started with a very simple idea, make a better product, make it affordable and then listen to the customer for new improvements. This simple idea has led to one of the most successful companies I’ve ever been associated with.

But here’s what I know about Dan. His incredible warmth. The man loved to laugh and his laughter would fill a room. A visit with Dan was never just about business. Oh sure we’d chat about the latest thing they had going on, what features would we like in their products and whatnot. But more-so, we just talked, usually over a simple meal at a local Italian restaurant. Stories of growing up in his native Belgium. His surprise when a certain Simpsons character started showing up in his email box after they named the company. I learned more about Dan and his family than pretty much anyone outside my own family. More than anything else, we laughed. He really enjoyed life and it was pleasure to share a meal with him. And of course we talked a lot about family.

The real story of Flanders Scientific is not about technology at all, its about family. A small family company built on hard work and dedication to a passion. Its about doing the right thing, doing it the right way and treating those around you with dignity and respect. Doing it the right way applied even to the business structure. While Dan was certainly the face of the company when it started, from day one it was never designed to be run solely by one person. It is a true collaboration with all members involved in the design, creation and support of the product line. Anyone who has spent time with Bram, Johan or Yoke know just how incredibly smart these folks are and what good hands the company is in. They have some incredible products coming down the pipeline to carry on Dan’s legacy. This is why all my monitors come from FSI and will continue to do so.

In many ways, the story of FSI is a continuation of the immigrant story begun by my own grandfather in the 1930s. A simple tailor from southern Italy, he went through Ellis Island and settled in Poughkeepsie, New York where he married my absolutely incredible grandmother. He started a tailor shop, personally built his own home and then added a much larger home to the front when his son married my mom. I was incredibly fortunate to grow up with my grandparents as a part of my life. They taught me that my word and my name were the only two things I had that were worth anything. If you break your word, your name isn’t worth the paper its written on. Ive always strived to live up to my grandparents very simple, yet very important lessons.

At our Open House March, 2011

Dan was cut from the same cloth as my grandparents. In fact the entire Desmet family is what I call old school and it’s why I respect them so much. They are the perfect example of all that is missing in today’s business world, particularly the American business world. They’re smart, they’re passionate about what they do, they work hard, and their word is their word. They have pride in their work because the business was built up on their own, as a family. And they’ve done it with a lot of laughter. Laughter and love. You can’t help but smile and laugh when youre around this family because they simply enjoy life. Dan not only built a great company to carry on his legacy, he left us a wonderful family to share in his love.

And if I may, from a business side, Dan and the entire FSI family has always been there to lend a hand or help out in any way. When we first met, I was working out of my house, yet Dan and Bram treated our facility with the respect that a top shelf broadcast shop would usually garner. We had the first of our many Italian lunches and the first stories of growing up in Belgium and of course a lot of laughter. When we decided to open the new shop, Dan was the first to sign on and be a presenter in our vendor showcase. Heck Bram helped install the overhang outside the building for the open house.

Bram & Larry attempting to get the outdoor awning up as the rains fall at our Open House March 2011.

When the Atlanta Cutters was an idea, Dan said, “What do you need from us?” and FSI became one of our first sponsors. Whatever ideas we have going on, Dan and Bram are always the first to say, “we’re there, just tell us when to show up.”   They’re good people and you just don’t find many people, let alone companies, that do the right thing anymore. I even tried to convince Dan to move the company even closer to our new shop so we could head out to lunch more often, I guess I’ll have to work on Bram now.

We only get one chance at this thing we call life. Life is too short for needless drama. Enjoy it, surround yourself with people you truly like, and try to leave this world a little better for those who follow. My life is certainly better for having the chance to know Dan Desmet and to learn from him. Thank you Dan for allowing me to be a part of the Desmet family, its a true honor. I miss you buddy.

I share the Desmet family suggestion to remember Dan with a small donation to the Be The Match Foundation, part of the National Marrow Donor Program that helps patients receive life-saving transplants: marrow.org

R.John, Dan, Walter, Yoke, Bram and Johan in Las Vegas, April 2011 enjoying a wonderful dessert of espresso and gelato at the Venetian hotel.

The official notice from Flanders Scientific is linked here.

Biscardi Creative Media, Random Thoughts, Uncategorized 19 comments

For now, editing is a commodity and less a craft

By on December 1st, 2011

As has been reported recently, CNN laid off 50 staffers, primarily videographers and editors.   Why?   Essentially after a three year internal review, CNN has determined that professional editors are not necessary to craft news stories any longer.   Instead they are expanding their iReport section allowing for more user generated content to be provided to the network, at absolutely zero cost to the network.   Yep, zero cost to the network since these folks won’t be paid.   I could go on about that part of the story, but Stephen Colbert explains it so well in this clip from “This Colbert Report” on Comedy Central.

So we’re at the point in the evolution of Editing (and videography for that matter) from craft to commodity. As CNN says in their release, high quality video cameras and editing software are available to the masses, so they don’t need the professionals any longer. In the corporate production world, this move from professional to consumer / family friends has been happening for quite some time. “My son / cousin / nephew / daughter / friend has a video camera / computer and he/she can do the work for us now. Sorry, but smaller budgets you know.”

Now we’ve seen the same thing happening in broadcast and higher end production as the editing tools became cheaper over the past 10 years. Only for a while there it was actual professionals who left their corporate / broadcast jobs to take advantage of the lower cost tools to strike out on their own. So top notch editors were able to deliver high quality, broadcast and film projects right out of their own homes using desktop tools. I’m proof positive of that starting out in a spare bedroom and then expanding my house where we ran my company for 7 years with three HD edit suites.

I have to have to say, this is the first time I’ve seen a broadcaster literally coming out and saying we’re going to replace professionals with consumers and hobbyists. They save the salaries of 50 professionals and get all sorts of free content, no matter how it’s shot or edited with no regard for sound or video quality. Kind of ironic to see this push to the lowest common denominator at the same time that so many editors are discovering the joys of high end color correction tools. But I digress.

Basically editing is just a commodity right now in the minds of many. The craft is associated with cheap tools rather than the artist using the tool. There are millions upon millions of folks who use word processing software but that doesn’t make all of those millions writers. Writing is a craft that some folks can do and others….. well they can write letters, recipes, but you wouldn’t ask them to write your next script or promo.

It’s the same with video editing. Millions upon millions of people now have access to really good video editing tools, but that doesn’t make them an editor. Earning a paycheck doesn’t make you an editor either. I’ve met “professionals” who have full time jobs that can’t cut their way out of a paper bag. And then I meet kids in school or college that just blow me away with their sense of timing.

True editors are storytellers. Doesn’t matter if you’re cutting a commercial, a training video, a movie or an episodic television series, you’re telling a story. Really good editors seem to be natural storytellers with an incredible sense of timing. When I start a project, I can usually “see” the edit from start to finish within a matter of hours. It’s just second nature for me and it’s something I have a hard time explaining to other people when folks ask me for tips and how I go about editing. A buddy of mine described it that “the editing part is secondary for Walter, he just knows where the story is, but it’s everything else around editing like the technology that has always drawn him in.”

The technology, and the proper way to use today’s technology, seems to be the biggest differentiation between what we’ll call a hobbyist / prosumer vs. a professional editor. Even on national broadcasts I’m stunned at how many interlacing issues I see that aren’t rocket science to do correctly. In the case of our shop, there is not a format we have not had to work with so we’re getting pretty good at solving any problems that can arise from the mixing and matching of the various formats.

So in this short term environment where video editing is equated with the cheaper tool than the artist and anyone can edit at home for super cheap, why in the world would we open a huge new facility? Simple. We’re storytellers and I surround myself with other good storytellers. We are transitioning ourselves from just being a service provider to other clients, to creating our own original content. As we develop these into fully funded projects, we’re going to need room for more storytellers. And as some storytellers strike out on their own, they might need a place to call home for a while. So we want to provide that creative space for other artists because as cool as it is to work at home, I can attest that it’s more fun and creative to be around like minded folks than all alone in your home office.

Long term, the craft of editing is probably stronger than ever. Now that the tools are in the hands of the many, we’ll discover some new folks who just blow us away with their storytelling skills. But short term, many long time professionals could get hurt when editing decisions are based on price alone and not the skill of the artist. Like anything else, with storytelling you generally get what you pay for.

In time, folks will realize that again.