Mike Curtis has written two fantastic articles for DV Magazine that cover audio monitoring options for both Mac and PC editing workstations.

*Upgrade Your Images with Audio - A primer on audio monitoring for (Mac) HD video editors.
*Upgrade Your Images with Audio: PC Edition - A primer on audio monitoring for Windows-based HD video editors.

You’ll find discussion on the two articles as well as a few updates and notes over at HD For Indies.

Sound Dogs has an extensive collection of on-location videos that show how they capture realistic SFX in the field. Several really creative rigs and audio solutions are shown.

Videomaker has a short primer on image sensors for digital camcorders that may dispel some confusion on the tradeoffs between sensor size, quantity, and the lens that is mated with said imager. It’s a quick read, but some may find it informative.

(Via Digital Camcorder News)

The Guardian has an article on a television solution from Phillips that allows you to experience 3-Dimensional content without the annoying glasses.

“The technology works by throwing a different image to each eye and angling them so that one eye picks up one and the other picks up the other. There are in fact eight separate images, the technologists having added more after early users reported feelings of nausea and dizziness.”

Some very interesting things being developed. Here’s the link to Phillip’s WoWvx 3D products.

Zen Films has a quick tutorial on using the DSLR noise reduction program Neat Image to remove grain and artifacting from video clips.

“…first output a clip from After Effects as a sequence of TIF images. Then, in Neat Image (NI) I load in a test frame…and practice getting a good output image using various noise filter settings…Once I’m satisfied, I save the noise profile and filter setting. Now the batch processing can begin…”

Great use of a non-video tool!

In an attempt to further drive awareness and development of the free Open-Source 3D tool Blender, The Blender Foundation has announced another “Open Movie” project. This after last year’s Elephants Dream project which was really more of a tech demonstration than a cohesive film.

Panasonic has recently released an updated version of their P2 viewer software which was only available for PCs. Their latest version is branded P2CMS Or P2 Content Management Software and is available for PC and MAC. P2 users worldwide rejoice, I recently downloaded it and haven’t had a chance to put it through its paces so give me any heads up if anyone encounters problems of any kind. You may download it here.
Continue reading ‘P2 Viewer Comes to MAC OS X’

The high-end film and video Finishing/Grading application Assimilate Scratch now natively supports the REDCODE RAW format from Red Digital Cinema. Scratch allows for use of REDCODE at resolutions up to 4K, as well as allowing for conforming and finishing options at 2K and HD sizes.

Here is a tutorial that explains how to use Sony’s XDCAM Transfer software to prepare XDCAM HD .MXF clips for use in Media 100.

Here’s a neat little free FxFactory plugin for Apple Motion users, it uses Motion 3’s Audio Behaviors capability to generate a dynamic and unique audio meter. Very cool. You can use it in previous versions of Motion, but you’ll have to manually adjust the effect. Get it here. Thanks to The Editblog for pointing this one out.

Incognito is a simple Windows executable that will search through a large number of images in a sequence and tell you which one(s) are missing. It was created to specifically deal with the issue of the After Effects plugin Nucleo deleting images from a sequence. The utility was originally commissioned by Zen Films, and is offered free to the community.

* it’ll check an image sequence and tell you which files are missing
* it’ll copy one image sequence (source) and paste it into another sequence (target), renaming and renumbering to match the target.

Why is this useful?
Scenario One: Well, let’s say I have a composition that’s about 32000 images long, all rendered in HiDef. If I need to make adjustments to a part of the composition, I’ll just render the changed images. Problem: for some reason, the After Effects plug-in Nucleo “accidentally” deletes one image before the start of the newly rendered images - leaving me an image short. It’s a pain in the arse but worse if I have to look through a heap of files to find it. Not any more with Incognito :)

Scenario Two: I’ve broken large compositions into smaller comps to make the projects easier to deal with. If I then want to stitch all the comps together, I can now use Incognito to copy and paste from various comp names into a new final image sequence without manually renaming (practically unworkable) or creating an Uber-composition and re-rendering.

You can get your hands on the executable at the Zen Films blog.

One of the features I really appreciate in Final Cut Pro’s 3 Way Color Corrector filter is the auto white and black point pickers. You can do a simple base grade of a clip or scene very quickly using those tools. But how do you perform that same handy function using Apple’s Color application? Fortunately, Walter Biscardi, Jr. has a short video tutorial up at Creative Cow that explains how to use the Auto Balance feature, and he shows you how to reveal exactly what changes were automagically applied to your shot. Great tip!

 NAB Expo '07 Day 3 Misc 2 [8:02m]: Download
 NAB Expo '07 Day 3 Misc 2 [8:02m]: Download

NAB Show 2007 has come and gone, we have been slowly but surely working through the hours of footage we captured on the Expo floor. I believe that this video is the last of it! Here is part two of our Day 3 compilation.

*We stopped by the Loon Audio booth and got a demo of their beautiful audio boom poles. These are really well thought out designs, constructed of lightweight aluminum and composite materials, and they come fully wired with a unique basemate and wireless “wing” to protect your transmitter.

*Danny at DVTec gave us a quick demonstration of the DV Multi Rig, an affordable lightweight camera support system.

*Greg Prentiss of Anton Bauer gave us the complete rundown on the Elipz 10K Battery and power system as well as the ElightZ, EgripZ, HUBZ and SpokeZ accessories (I personally have used the EgripZ for some time now, and really appreciate the way it eliminates wrist strain when shooting handheld HDV).

Click a Download link above or watch via our FreshDV iTunes Podcast Feed.

Jay Rose has written a fantastic article for DV, he shares wonderful insight and tips for editing talking head interview audio. Here’s a quick excerpt:

“Glottal shocks are reserves of breath, stored in the lungs and released suddenly when a word starts with a vowel (like “andâ€? or “Iâ€?). These words should start smoothly, with the throat open before breath starts to flow. If breath starts too soon, the sudden burst of air makes a click. Scrub slowly through the start of the suspect word. The click will be definite, taking maybe a third of a frame where the word starts. Fixing it is easy. If you’re not concerned with lipsync, just cut it out. If the subject is visible and you don’t want to change the timing, replace it with an equal length of room tone. The subject will sound calmer.”

Most of the time we see tutorials aimed at the video side of things, it’s great to read a useful tutorial with relevant and practical info that can help improve your audio work. Definitely check this one out.

Due to public feedback on the issue, the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting has decided to re-write their controversial proposed film regulations.

“…MOFTB will be reviewing comments. Upon completion of this review, MOFTB will redraft the proposed rules, taking into account input and feedback it has received from interested parties, to more effectively strike the balance between public safety and the needs of filmmakers.

Among other things, the re-drafting phase will focus on meaningfully addressing concerns that sections (b)(ii) and (b)(iii) affected individuals who were not engaged in the type of activities traditionally regulated by MOFTB. These are the sections of the proposed rules that defined the conduct which triggered the requirement for a permit from MOFTB and included such considerations as the number of people involved and the duration of the activity. The redrafted proposed rules will then be published, a new 30-day comment period will be provided, and a public hearing will be held to consider the new proposal.”

I personally am thrilled to see that the MOFTB seems to be genuinely interested in resolving the issues and assisting filmmakers and photographers. It will be interesting to see what changes are made as a result of the groundswell of public feedback.