“What Should I Use?”

People are constantly writing and pinging me to ask “What should I use?”   Well the answer is truly, “Any of them.”    Your tool of choice is going to be predicated on many factors including your skill level, the type of work you produce, your typical turnaround time for a project, how large / small your projects are and the type of editorial environment you’re working in.  Of course, the choice of tool to use is not always yours, especially if you’re a freelancer or an employee of a company.

First off, let me say that if you’re researching tools by reading articles, blogs, and tests from websites that are dedicated to a particular tool or system and you’re reading that “This tool is the one you MUST use or you’re not a professional” or “If you can’t get on board with this future, you’re hopeless” or “That other tool is so bad, you MUST use this tool or you’re not a professional” then take whatever is on that site with a grain of salt.  Or looking through the website you can’t find anything negative written or shown about that particular tool or system, take everything on there with a grain of salt.  A website that supports Adobe is going to downplay Avid and Apple for example and vice versa.   You’ll get some great resources to use that particular tool on the site but you won’t get an unbiased opinion of the good, the bad and the ugly.

There is not a single tool in our industry that is perfect.  Let me say that again, “NO SINGLE TOOL in our industry is perfect.”  Everything we use has compromises somewhere.  When those compromises and short comings are pointed out via comments or Twitter and folks react personally and attack the messenger, well I just don’t have the patience anymore to deal with that.  “Fanboy syndrome” seems to have gotten stronger in the age of Twitter and name calling has just gotten so much worse it’s not worth the time or effort to try and correct some of these folks.  That’s why we’re thankful for the Block feature on Twitter.   So when reading articles, benchmarks, tests and reviews, just be aware of where the messages are coming from and the agendas being served when you read both the good and bad about products.

Let me also say this.  The use of any tool does NOT “make you a professional.”  Your skill level in performing the task as an Editor is what makes you a professional.   Put a lousy editor on any editing system available today and what do you have?  A lousy editor.  There is no absolute truth that any tool or tools available today will “make you a professional.”

If you say you’re “proficient” with a particular tool, you darn well better mean it.  At a recent Atlanta Cutters meeting, Editor Alan Bell remarked that when he interviews a potential editor who notes “proficiency” in a tool, he asks whether or not they own it.  If you don’t own the tool, particularly as a freelancer, then how can you be proficient at it?   Being “proficient” doesn’t mean just playing around with the tool a couple of times when you had access to it at a job or in school.  You need to own the tool so you can use it in your downtime to keep improving your skills.  I found that to be a very interesting observation and a question I’ve added to my job interview list of things to ask potential employees.

For you freelancers out there, it’s imperative to know both Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer today and for the foreseeable future.  The vast majority of “Editor Needed” job postings are still dominated by these two tools, particularly Avid.  Still a lot of Final Cut Pro 7 editor requests out there too.   If you are looking for freelance and / or full time employment, especially in larger markets or larger gigs, you would do well to know Adobe and Avid right now.

If you are working on your own, for a stand-alone corporate department or some situation where you don’t have to interface with the “outside world” you can pretty much cut on whatever you feel comfortable with.  By “outside world” I mean delivery to networks / distributors, feature films, sound designers, post houses, etc…. where you have to share your projects / media with other companies to complete your projects or even to bring elements into your own project.  If you just work within your own space and you control everything from ingest to final output in your own workspace, pick the tool you feel most comfortable cutting with using the OS you prefer.  It’s really that simple.  The tools have gotten so good in the past few years that all of them pretty much do the same thing, they all do it a bit differently and some add features that many users would never use.

Some run only on Mac, some only on Windows, some on both.   There are people cutting weddings and corporate projects on Apple’s iMovie for example and they look great.   So for working completely on your own, with no outside interfacing, just pick what feels comfortable to you and your skill level and includes all the necessary tools to get your job done.   If you get paid to do this work, then you are, indeed, “a professional” no matter what anyone else tells you.

If you DO have to interface with the “outside world” then you will want to get a feel for what the “outside world” in your area is using.  You want to be compatible with the companies and artists you will be working with to ensure the smoothest completion possible to your project.  Yes it’s possible to convert a lot of things to other formats, but the Post process always goes easiest when you can stay within the same sandbox.   Especially when you have a quick turnaround or you’re up against a deadline.  Keep in mind your “outside world” will vary.  Around me in Atlanta we’ve got a lot of Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid companies so that’s one reason we have those two predominant in our shop.

The NLE’s today as I see them.

Avid

If you want to get into major broadcast, episodic, reality programming and feature films, Avid is still the King of the hill.   When you look at companies like Bunim-Murray or Original Productions that have hundreds of editors with many working in collaboration on reality series, the established workflows that these companies have invested with Avid are VERY difficult to change.  And if the product works for their needs, why should they change everything just because some new tool has come along?   So you, as a freelance editor who wants to get in with these types of companies, feature films or show, are going to have to invest time and money to learn Avid.

The good news is the tool is more affordable and flexible than it has ever been and the communication between the company and end users is much more open than it used to be.   I still have not upgraded our systems at Biscardi Creative Media from Avid Symphony 6 but from what I’ve read and heard from editors I respect in the industry, Media Composer 7 is a good step forward from Media Composer 6 and 6.5.   It seems they’ve made the most gains in their native format workflow which is a great thing to see.

Avid is still, today, the strongest tool for a multi-editor workflow where two or more editors are working on the exact same project and even the same project file.  Nothing out there beats that today and that is a reason why so many of the “big shows” and films still use this tool today.   For instance Alan Bell has 4 or 5 Assistant Editors working with him on his current film project.  Avid allows them to all to work on the same project at the same time.

Avid is a cross platform software running on both Windows and Mac.  

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe raised more headlines for their move to 100% Creative Cloud Subscription model to have access to the software than they did for the tool itself which is actually a shame.   All I will say about the Creative Cloud is that I have had it over a year now, we run it on 5 workstations and I flat out love it both from an access to software and cost effectiveness standpoint for my company.

Premiere Pro itself made a huge leap in efficiency with release of Premiere Pro CC (i.e. PPro 7.0)   The bulk of the re-design centered on making the interface smoother with less clicks required to do tasks, removing “annoyances,” overhauling the “under the hood” media management and overall operation.  The overall application is noticeably faster than CS6, media management now allows the user to easily locate any media if it goes offline or is moved, and many of he extra steps editors had to do to perform tasks have been eliminated.  Premiere Pro handles more formats natively than any tool I’ve ever tested, in the same timeline or as part of a project.  We have literally had 7 different formats and 3 different frame rates (or more) in the same timeline and PPro does not hiccup.

Adobe has released over 100 updates to the application since it’s release in June 2013 thanks to the subscription model.  The tool works well for both small and very large projects.   Communication between the end users and the company is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.  The vast majority of changes in both Premiere Pro CC and the subsequent updates have been a direct result of feedback from the users and those changes come pretty quickly.   That has really been the strength of the Cloud / Subscription based model.  The tool is being updated very very quickly now not just with new features, but tweaks to the interface and operation to keep making it even more efficient for the end user.

Put together as a part of the suite from Adobe Creative Cloud, Premiere Pro is a very solid editing tool in a powerful Post Production suite. It’s our “go-to” NLE for Biscardi Creative Media since mid 2012.

Adobe Premiere Pro is a cross platform software running on both Windows and Mac.  

Autodesk Smoke 2013

Without a doubt, this is a very powerful editorial and finishing tool in a single app.  Particularly for editors working with quick turnarounds yet still want to use all the “tricks and tools in the toolbox.”  It’s also the priciest of those I’ve tested despite a major price drop to $3495.

I’m going to be honest and say I have yet to add this tool to our toolbox simply because of the price.  When I first started testing it I had visions of replacing FCP 7 in all workstations with this because it is so fast.  But at $3500 each workstation for 5 workstations in my shop, it wasn’t practical at the time we made the switch from FCP 7.   I may add one copy of it in 2014 but that will all depend on our hardware purchases this year

Autodesk Smoke 2013 is Mac only.  There is also a much more expensive Linux version available.

Apple Final Cut Pro X

Final Cut Pro 10.1 update was released just before Christmas and I honestly have not had a chance to properly test it as my home 27” iMac went belly up during the Holidays.    So I didn’t have a proper system to test it with.

But early indications from independent editors, bloggers and writers are that Apple has come a long way with the product and have greatly altered the project structure so projects are handled more similarly to traditional NLEs.   That’s huge because that was the original deal breaker for me and my company that drove us away from the product line.   There are also apparently gains in the multiple editor on a single project workflow.

Again, I cannot speak first hand to these changes yet, but it sounds like the product is moving forward.   If you check out Scott Simmons (@editblog) and Art Guglielmo (@artgug) they’re both independent editors and have been writing extensively about testing 10.1.  I hope to get some time later this month to seriously test the new changes.

“Editor Needed” job posts for FCP X editors are few and far between at the moment but with the 10.1 updates appearing to be aimed more squarely at the “traditional NLE” workflow, in particular the multi-editor workflow, it will be interesting to see if the adoption rate of X increases in 2014.   We have the tool in our shop, we have yet to use it for a project because no client has requested it.

Final Cut Pro X is Mac Only.

Sony Vegas

I know absolutely nothing about this tool and how it operates but I do know one thing.  People who use Vegas, LOVE it.   If you’re on Windows, and you’re in a self-sustained eco-system, it could be something worth checking out.

Sony Vegas is Windows Only.

So What Do You Recommend?

If you ask me right now, “What tool would you recommend I own?” it would be the Adobe Creative Cloud hands down.   There’s no suite of tools available today that can compete with everything Adobe offers under that one cloud price.

In terms of editorial, as a company at Biscardi Creative, we’ve found that Premiere Pro blends the best of new technology & ideas while maintaining the traditional NLE workflow.  Individual editors can configure the workflow based on their own editing and organizational styles.

I was essentially able to take our proven editorial workflow we’ve been using for 11 years and transfer it to Adobe Premiere Pro but got a huge efficiency jump thanks to the native format editing.  We have not converted any footage from its native format in over a year, we edit everything natively mixing and matching all manner of materials in a single timeline.   The time savings has been in the hundreds of a % over our old workflow in Final Cut Pro 7.  We can turn around projects in hours instead of days, days instead of weeks, weeks instead of months.  Converting 200+ hours of raw material to ProRes in FCP 7 is a thing of the past so we can jump right into the edit.  We’re even mixing PAL and NTSC in the same timeline without issue.

In addition, our archival storage needs dropped dramatically because of the native editing.  30 minute episodes of the PBS series “This American Land” used to average 1.2TB of media per episode to archive.  The latest season averaged only 400-500GB per episode.   So we’re now able to store more episodes on fewer archive devices.  This applies to all projects across the board.

The tight integration between all the apps in the Cloud, particularly Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro really makes changes and revisions so incredibly easy.

The cross platform nature of Adobe is huge for me as a business owner.  I have almost almost infinite freedom to design and purchase computer systems for the software because I can shop both Mac and Windows.    I’m not limited to any particular computer maker, operating system or internal / external components.   As our workflows evolve over the next few years, this will be big as I will probably start to make “strategic purchases” to put “big iron” where it’s absolutely necessary and put smaller and more nimble systems where we don’t need absolute full power.

I feel completely comfortable trusting my company in Adobe’s hands because they have to make and maintain really good software in order for their business to be successful.  Cost, performance & flexibility put Adobe ahead of the pack at this time in NLE evolution for my money.

Final Thoughts

So those are my thoughts, what we’re doing at BCM and what I would recommend today.  Take what I say under consideration but don’t use this as your ONLY determining factor to decide what’s right for you.  Your situation, your needs and your workflow will determine which of the tools that are out there today will work best for your needs.

For my money and workflow, the storage and RAID system mean so much more than just the NLE or computer.   You need to spend time and money wisely on your media storage because oftentimes that has more to do with your system speed, efficiency and stability than anything else you’ll purchase.

Good luck and here’s hoping for a very successful 2014!

Walter

The post NLE Kick Off 2014 appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Today we had our incredibly awesome friend Ron Anderson in the shop to test out the workflow from both Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro using a native workflows into Resolve.   The man is a colorist extraordinaire who has gone back to his roots on Davinci with the Resolve.

In Premiere Pro I cut a 6 minute piece using all the raw native files from XDCAM 422 HD 1080i / 29.97.  That is all the files are .mp4.   From there I created an XML file to send the project over to Resolve.

Resolve 8 read the XML perfectly and allowed us to select which of the 9 cuts in the original project we wanted to open.  But once selected, it could not recognize the media.   In fact, we tried to add the .mp4 files to the Media Pool in Resolve, but no go.

In Avid we had a native DNxHD timeline / files which of course refer back to MXF native files and could not get Resolve to read those files either.  Reading up on the Avid support boards, it looks like we need to purchase a $500 plug-in to make Resolve read the native MXF files.

In the end, we seem to have come up with a very simple, low-tech way around both of these problems.

For Premiere Pro, since we have the AJA Kona boards, simply play out the PPro timeline into another Kona system or into the AJA Ki Pro to create a ProRes file in realtime.   Send that file into Resolve, use the automatic Scene Detection in Resolve to slice up the timeline and grade.

For Avid, simply export a ProRes Quicktime and again, use the automatic Scene Detection in Resolve to slice up the timeline and grade.   When Avid supports the AJA Kona, this could be even simpler.

So for the moment, ProRes files are the simple workaround for getting both Premiere Pro and Avid native timelines into Resovle at our shop.

UPDATE 9/4/11

Thanks to Richard Harrington and his “Moving to Adobe Premiere Pro” Facebook Group, I have a good workflow suggestion.

Use Project Manager to create a new project of just my final timeline

Compile that media into a folder.

Drop that folder into Adobe Media Encoder and convert all the footage to ProRes.  This only converts the actual footage used in the piece rather than all the raw media like would be required in FCP prior to editing.

Relink the timeline to the new ProRes footage

Now create the XML to send the timeline to Resolve.   This allows me to send a timeline with all the raw clips and even include handles where necessary.

I’m going to test this tomorrow but if Richard says it works, I’m sure it does.  Thanks so much for his help!

UPDATE 9/6/11

Ok, have tried this process and while it does work, it’s a bit ugly at the moment.

I created Trimmed Project from the final timeline.

The created a new watch folder and made the ProRes files.  I set the format to 1080i Interlaced ProRes to match the original footage setting at the proper frame rate of 29.97.

Media Encoder created the new ProRes files.

I moved the ProRes files from the Watch Folder back into my Capture Scratch Folder.

But the relinking the media part had to be done manually, shot by shot.  There was no “Relink Media” type of command in the timeline, it had to be done in the bin using “Replace Footage.”  I had over 100 shots that each had to be done individually so it was a bit time consuming.

BUT the shots did automatically update in the timeline as I replaced them. Correct In / Out points and everything looked good.

The one caveat here is that the Media Encoder only does the first two channels of the digital audio, it does not include channels 3 and 4 which in my case, there is one interview that the good audio is on Channel 3.  So I’ll have to manually convert that audio from the original timeline.

So the process does work, it’s just a bit convoluted at the moment.  I figure the time offset for the immediate editing still outweighs the time spent at the end to make the conversions.   This is definitely something I would like to see Adobe automate moving forward along the lines of FCP’s Media Manager, but obviously better!

Take your final timeline, tell Premiere Pro to make a duplicate project from that timeline and convert all the raw media to the format of your choice.  ProRes, DNxHD, MP4, whatever you want for your final output.

A big thank you to Richard for steering me in the right direction on this and showing us how the pathway works.

The post Working out kinks PPro & Avid to Resolve appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

The more I work with Adobe Premiere Pro the more I just don’t understand that mentality.   Why wait?  Premiere Pro already includes the “missing elements” of FCP X and so much more it can’t do.

Here’s what I was doing today.

What does that equal?   Very nice realtime editing on a system that I would never expect to have so much.   Since I don’t have to convert to ProRes, I’m working with much smaller and efficient files directly off the Canon DSLR cameras.  I’m also working with Photoshop layers using opacity changes and such.   Here’s a look at a portion of the timeline.

So you’re looking at a scene from our recent Atlanta Cutters Meeting.  First, there’s two layers of 720p/59.94 HD video from a Canon DSLR.  It’s just one layer playing above the other, no picture in picture, I just lined up the two cameras.

Directly above that is the first layer of the ATL Cutters bug which is set to 15% opacity and stays up there for the entire 22 minute presentation.

Directly above is another Photoshop layer of the solid orange lower third with the solid ATL Cutters logo.

Directly above that are two layers of Premiere Pro generated text.  Ken’s name and the atlantacutters.com website.  Ken’s name has a drop shadow on it while the website layer again runs the entire 22 minutes of the presentation.

You see there’s a solid red line above the timeline so all of us who are conditioned in the Final Cut Pro mentality would expect that means the system has to render.   Not in this case.   Premiere Pro plays the timeline in full realtime, all layers playing  so I can keep editing, no stopping, no blue “Unrendered” screen.  Nothing.  Just drop the files into the timeline, pretty much any digital format, and go.

Off a single LaCie Rugged Drive connected solely by FW800 on an iMac.  Very impressive.  It’s very nice to not have to choose “Play Base Layer Only” so I can at least play the timeline for a client.  Now I can leave the entire timeline in its full format and we can just keep editing.

What’s the biggest project I’ve moved over to Premiere?  Our 2nd feature documentary, Dark Forest Black Fly, which has over 4000 clips with around 200 hours of material.   We’re in the rough cut stage and the documentary transferred over seamlessly.  The only thing that didn’t come over were the rough texts which my editor created using the “Outline Text” tool in FCP.   If she had used the regular Text Tool, then they would have transferred over as well.

I’ve read in multiple forums that “Premiere Pro has trouble with large projects.”  Based on this project transfer, I don’t see that.  Not sure how much larger of a project I can test than that.   I am definitely getting much more realtime playback in that project as well vs. what I would get in FCP, even using the ProRes codec.

Now something else Premiere Pro has is a feature called Dynamic Link which essentially allows all the apps to work together seamlessly.   Here’s a neat example of that I literally stumbled onto today.   Adobe Media Encoder is the equivalent of what you would find in Compressor.   But here’s something you would never be able to do with Compressor.

From within Adobe Media Encoder I can access Sequences from Adobe Premiere Pro projects.  “Big deal?” you say?   “I can do that from FCP by simply doing “Send To > Compressor.”   No, you can’t do this…..

I launch Adobe Media Encoder by itself.   Nothing else on the system is running.  From within Adobe Media Encoder, I select “Add Premiere Pro Sequence.”

This brings up the Adobe Premiere Projects on the right, and you can see I’ve selected the ATL Cutters July 27th mtg project which in turn brings up all the Sequences to choose from.

I can pick and choose any of these Sequences to Queue into the Media Encoder.  In fact I can select Sequences from as many projects as I need, without ever opening any of them.  This is pretty darn cool.  No need to open a project, no need to “Export” or “Send To” or even make reference movies.   The encoder works directly off the Sequence information.  A very small thing but shows just how tightly the entire suite of apps are tied together.

Add to that the fact that the current “missing features” of FCP X (including XML, OMF, audio track assignments, proper video output, capture / edit to tape controls) are already there along with the suite of products Adobe already offers, in my opinion Premiere Pro today far outperforms what FCP X can do, today.  Now if we wait 2 to 5 years (depending on which expert opinion you read) FCP X might be a really great editing tool.   But Premiere Pro and Avid will be 2 to 5 years improved as well.

So in my opinion switching to Premiere Pro today is the same as someone waiting 2 years or so for FCP X to add all the missing features.  So when FCP X does finally catch up to Premiere Pro / Avid today, they will already be two years further down the road with a wealth of input from former FCP users.  Looking forward, Premiere Pro (and Avid) has nowhere to go but further up from where it is today.

My editors are so excited about this switch that they’ve already begun training on the tool and we are going to accelerate our move to the platform.   I think we will end up with Premiere Pro being our primary editing tool with at least one, maybe two Avid Media Composers if they ever get the AJA Kona board working with that system.   And yes, I still have Smoke for Mac to play with and you never know, that might end up as a finishing system for us.

So there you go, the latest update in our new paradigm of editing for Biscardi Creative Media.  I will do a video blog this coming week on color grading in Premiere Pro.

The post Transitioning: An update on our new Paradigm appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

When I get an email from Dan Desmet at Flanders Scientific asking “do you have any time available?  I’d like to show you something” I always MAKE the time.  One of the awesome benefits of being literally 15 minutes away from FSI is we get to see a lot from these guys.   It’s also a great chance to get together for lunch, or dinner in this case.

Well, what he had to show were three truly incredible monitors, one of which you already know about,the LM0950W (WOW!)  and the other two they are letting me spill the beans a day early.   FSI is releasing two new monitors at a more affordable price range for everyone.   These are 1080 Native monitors with the following standard connections: 3G/HD/SD-SDI/Component/Composite/DVI-I.    Yes, you read correctly, 3G is standard on these new monitors and these are 1080 native display monitors and they accept 4:4:4 and 2K sources.

Let me first say, my photos don’t do the monitors justice quite honestly but I was a bit rushed and took what I could.   But here’s what the 3 larger monitors look like sitting in my suite, you can ignore the old 0750W there at the bottom.

The LM-2140W and the LM-2340W are priced $2,495 and $2,995 respectively.  That’s the 2340W on the left and the 2140W on the right with the original LM-2461W in the back.   The 2461W is what I use every day in my Edit 1 suite at Biscardi Creative Media.

First off, I have to say wow, on the connectivity at this price point.  Very sweet.   Second, wow on the image.   Is it identical to the $4995 priced LM-2461W?   Well, no, but then they’re not designed to be.    These are designed to very high quality, very cost effective monitors for those who either don’t need the absolute best color critical picture of the 2461W or who simply can’t afford to drop $5,000 on a monitor right now.

When you take $2000 off the price of the top of the line 24″ model, something has to give.  In this case, the Color Fidelity Engine that powers the absolute “correctness” of the 2461W is absent in the new models.   So you will notice that the 21 and 2340W’s are slightly warmer than the 2461W.  The image displays a little more red overall and a touch of purple in the blacks.

Now comparing the 1760W to the 2140W, what you’re gaining is an extra 4″ of real estate.  Doesn’t sound like a whole lot but there’s a definite difference in terms of the viewing experience plus remember, it’s now a 1080 native display vs. the 720p native of the 1760W.   And of course FSI has gone ahead and made the 3G option (about $1,500 on the 1760W) standard on the 2140W.

Both monitors come with LED backlighting which means there is no warmup period so the colors are accurate from the time you turn them on.  This also decreases the weight dramatically as well, just 9 pounds for the 2140W, 10 for the 2340W.

Could you actually do a color grade on these monitors and submit it to a broadcaster without fear of rejection?   Well if you know what you’re doing in the color grade process, sure.   I sat there with these monitors in my suite up against the LM-2461W and it was clear that the 21 / 2340W’s were warmer as I said originally.  But, if I didn’t have the money for the 2461W or the need for absolutely color critical judgement, yeah, it would be no problem to do a nice color grade with it.  Would a broadcaster reject your work solely because you did a color grade on this monitor?  I would highly doubt it.  If they do, it would be because of the operator who did the color grade……

LM-2340W foreground, LM-2461W background

These monitors will definitely fill a great need, particularly with the economy the way it is around the world, for those of you who need a really really good monitor, but maybe not the “best” monitor.

FSI re-defined the standard of the “best” monitor out there by giving us a super high quality, color critical monitor for just $4995.   Now they’ve done the same by bringing us two incredibly good options at a much more affordable level for everyone.  Something that is “good enough” to meet your needs yet much better than other monitors at the same or even higher price point.

Keep an eye on the Flanders Scientific page tomorrow morning because not only will they announce the new 2140W and 2340W, Dan hinted you’ll find special introductory pricing too.

The post FSI launches the affordable LM-2340W & LM-2140W appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5

This has been installed both on my home machine (27″ iMac) and our testing Mac Pro at the office which also includes the AJA Kona 3G board. Early testing shows that the workflow is remarkably similar to Final Cut Pro and in fact Adobe even includes preset keyboard remapping for Final Cut Pro 7.0 and Avid Media Composer. The new AJA 9.0.1 Plug-Ins for CS 5.5 are working very nicely and Premiere is talking to our SAN. So it’s essentially plug-and play to get going with the system.

Is it perfect? No and the Adobe reps I’ve been talking to have been very upfront about the good, the bad and ….. well nothing’s ugly so far so that’s a good thing. The most difficult part of the workflow is that Adobe might actually give us TOO many choices and settings.

For example, there is no direct equivalent to “Easy Setup” in Premiere so you do have to through several menus and settings to get your Project set up correctly. However, those Project Settings remain with the Project. So to create an “Easy Setup” you simply create multiple Project Templates with all the settings as you’d like them for various projects. So I create a “720p / 59.94 AJA Project” which has all the settings for a 720p / 59.94 project using the AJA Kona board for Capture and Playback. When I have to do a project using those parameters, I simply Duplicate the project and my entire system is set to work. That’s an elegant workaround and with the multiple workstations in our shop, I can create all the Template projects on one machine and share them with everyone else. By the way this was a great tip given by the book “An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro,” which you can find on various websites and even iTunes for download.

The most refreshing part of testing CS 5.5 is the openness and willingness of the Adobe team to admit that they still have things to be improved and they are listening to what editors have to say. I have heard stories of their development team literally watching the editors work through screen sharing to learn the “why” and “how” editors work in their daily sessions. That’s pretty neat.

Oh one last thing, Adobe Premiere Pro is cross platform so I have purchased one copy of Windows 7 Professional for installation in a new clean drive on our Test Mac Pro system. I want to see how this works out because this will open us up to working with freelancers and shops in town that might be Windows based, thus giving us an even larger pool of shops to work with. Much more testing to be done, but early testing has been great.

Avid Media Composer

Honestly don’t have a lot to report just yet as it is being installed on our testing Mac Pro at the facility. What we have done is to install a clean hard drive inside the machine, which we actually partitioned so we can install a clean copy of Snow Leopard on one side and the Windows 7 on the other side.

I wanted to ensure that we don’t create any issues by having Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5 and Avid MC all installed on the same drive. Most folks I talked to said they always installed FCP and Avid on separate boot drives, so I followed that advice. This way if we have any issues or crashes I don’t have to wonder if anything is being caused by the other apps. So this will be installed by itself on the drive to ensure we are only testing that software, that workflow.

Of immediate concern to me is that there is no support just yet for the AJA Kona Board. Avid did hint at NAB that support is coming and a recent exchange on Twitter states that Avid is listening. So hopefully we will hear something official in the near future. Secondarily, I’m not sure how / if it will work with our Ethernet SAN. That will be even more crucial than the Kona testing. I’ve been told that Avid doesn’t like third party storage that much, so this will be a good test. The guys from Small Tree Communications happen to be coming to our shop next week so if we do have any issues, they are going to be right there to investigate.

I’m excited to be testing this out actually because this brings me full circle back to the very first NLE I learned back in 1993 / 1994 when Avid was introduced to CNN. And from my conversations with Avid at NAB 2011 and subsequent communication since, Avid is truly listening and responding to years of complaints about being a very closed and hard to work with company. As with Adobe, I’ve heard more from Avid reps since April than I ever heard from Apple in 11 years. More to report soon.

Autodesk Smoke 2012

Autodesk was kind enough to send us an evaluation copy of Smoke 2012 which is something I’ve always known about, really like the interface, but have never had the opportunity to put my hands on. It’s not installed anywhere yet as this will be the last software we’ll be testing. It’s a very new software to me to I want to spend time with Avid and Adobe first, then we’ll test Smoke. Not sure it will be the primary editor for us, but it could very well fit into a finishing role for some shows and series.

It does accept interchanges with both Adobe and Avid so I’m most interested in how well handles the myriad of codecs we get and does it like mixed timelines / mixed formats? We’ll find out soon, but I’m really REALLY excited to give this a test drive!

So that’s the basic update for the moment. On a personal note, I have to be very honest and say that the FCP X roll-out has actually made me re-think some of my overall support of Apple in general.

At a recent event (I think it was the WWDC) Apple reps said they’ve heard from many consumers that they would love to tablets to be their primary and sometimes sole computer device. Well how can that be if Apple has decreed that Flash will not be supported by the iOS devices? Sure it’s a “legacy” format and can cause “performance issues” with the tablets, but since Apple says it’s so, they don’t appear on the iOS devices and we simply accept that. With the iPhone, sure I don’t care because that’s primarily a phone, but if the iPad is supposed to be a “primary computer device,” I don’t think so.

I have visited hundreds of sites that incorporate Flash one way or another and it’s incredibly annoying when you can’t use the site, so I have to pull out one of our computers just to use that site. I hate Flash as much as Apple does, but that doesn’t mean I won’t visit a site that uses it. Try planning a cruise on your iPad, for example, and you’ll find that most major sites like Princess.com use Flash to display their cabin layouts when you go to select a cabin. Sure the world will probably be going HTML 5 soon but how many years away are we from that? In the meantime it would be nice for the iOS devices to support Flash if I as the consumer who bought the product would like to use a Flash enabled site.

With Final Cut Pro X, Apple did the same thing with third party capture cards and tape formats. Because Tape and Capture Cards don’t fit with the “modern workflow” model Apple dropped all support for them natively inside the application. Without that support for tape formats, I cannot make a living in our workflow.

The same apparently applies to “legacy projects” too. As in “You will not be able to open old projects because we say so.” Apparently Final Cut Pro X is only for “Modern Projects” and cannot be sullied by “Old Projects.”

So I gotta say, while I was really looking forward to whenever the iPad 3 comes out, I’m starting to get very annoyed with “You Can’t Do That Because We Say So” and the “You Will Do It Our Way” attitudes from Apple.

That’s not really “Thinking Different,” that’s “Telling You How To Think.”

With Final Cut Pro X, that was Apple “Telling You How To Edit Video.”

Does any of this remind of you of a certain 1984 commercial from an upstart company? Only now that upstart is directing the minions…….

I’m gonna take a close look at that new Galaxy Tab from Samsung and other tablet options out there that don’t close off part of the internet experience just “because they can.” Also going to take a really close look at Windows 7 when it’s installed on that machine because I have some hard-core Mac fans who are telling me “it’s good.”

The debacle of FCP X has caused me to “lift the blinders” that kept me focused solely on Apple and Apple development. There’s a whole new world out there and I am now open to accept the possibilities no matter where that opportunity comes from.

The post Transitioning: Update on our search to replace FCP appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

We have been using the AJA Kona boards for years with FCP so it’s really important to me that the board work with whatever new software we go with. Happily I can now run my AJA Kona boards smoothly with CS 5.5 thanks to the new 9.0.1 Plug-In release.

In this walkthrough I show you how to properly set up the AJA Kona board so you can do some testing yourself. It’s a little different than what I’m used to from Final Cut Pro, but this brings us one step closer to transitioning away from FCP.

The post Transitioning 3: AJA Kona Board with Adobe CS 5.5 appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Variety: Final Cut Pro update draws backlash

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“Can I import projects from Final Cut Pro 7 into Final Cut Pro X?

Final Cut Pro X includes an all-new project architecture structured around a trackless timeline and connected clips.  Because of these changes, there is no way to “translate” or bring in old projects without changing or losing data. But if you’re already working with Final Cut Pro 7, you can continue to do so….”

More than anything else, that is the complete deal breaker for us and confirms what some very smart people have been telling me all along.   In our production workflow we refer back to projects 4 to 6 years old with a need to revise, pull elements from or sometimes complete re-cut using the original elements.  While FCP X can access the media, it cannot access the original sequences and project organization.

As we have discovered, Adobe Premiere Pro opens up legacy FCP Projects very nicely and we know that we can share projects with Avid as well.

——–

“Can I edit my tape-based workflow with Final Cut Pro X?

Yes, in a limited manner. Final Cut Pro X is designed for modern file-based workflows and does not include all the tape capture and output features that were built into Final Cut Pro 7….In addition, companies like AJA and Blackmagic offer free deck control software that allows you to capture from tape and output to tape.”

Many of the documentary videographers we work with still shoot tape, predominately Panasonic DVCPro HD Tape.  The ingesting of tape is not that big of a deal using the AJA capture software, but when it comes time to output, the way this works actually is actually much more inefficient than the ability to lay out to tape directly from the timeline.  If Apple can convince every single network and station that HDCAM tape is no longer necessary, then they’d have their modern workflow, but for now, tape ingest and tape output is still here for the broadcast and much of the professional market.

Adobe and Avid support tape workflows natively.

——-

“Does Final Cut Pro X support external monitors?

Yes. If you have a second computer monitor connected to your Mac, Final Cut Pro X gives you options to display the interface across multiple monitors. For example, you can place a single window — such as the Viewer or the Event Browser — on the second monitor, while leaving the other windows on your primary monitor.”

Honestly can’t believe Apple considers this “supporting external monitors.”  This is laughable at best.  What Apple is actually doing is using my $1500 AJA Kona board and my $5,000 FSI Reference Monitor as a second computer monitor.   The video output quality is marginal at best, AJA calls it “preview quality” in their documentation.

This is NOT supporting an external monitor that I require for accurate color grading of a project.   Supporting an external monitor means allowing me to use two computers monitors via the graphics card while also sending a true video signal via my AJA Video Card (or BMD, Matrox if that’s what you have).   This FAQ in particular tells me Apple truly doesn’t “get” the professional market.

Adobe and Avid support external video displays properly.

——-

“Can Final Cut Pro X export XML?

Not yet, but we know how important XML export is to our developers and our users, and we expect to add this functionality to Final Cut Pro X. We will release a set of APIs in the next few weeks so that third-party developers can access the next-generation XML in Final Cut Pro X.”

Translation: We know it’s important to our users so we removed it from Final Cut Pro X and you’ll now have to purchase it from a third party developer.    Apparently it was so important the APIs weren’t even ready at launch.

Adobe and Avid can export XMLs natively.

UPDATE: An Avid buddy of mine told me Avid does NOT export XMLs natively.  Thanks for the info!

——

“Does Final Cut Pro X support OMF, AAF, and EDLs?

Not yet. When the APIs for XML export are available, third-party developers will be able to create tools to support OMF, AAF, EDL, and other exchange formats.”

Translation: We know it’s important to our users so we removed it from Final Cut Pro X and you’ll now have to purchase it from a third party developer.    Apparently it was so important the APIs weren’t even ready at launch.  (Is there an echo in the room?)

———

“Can I send my project to a sound editing application such as Pro Tools?

Yes; you can export your project in OMF or AAF format using Automatic Duck Pro Export FCP 5.0. More information is available on the Automatic Duck website: http://automaticduck.com/products/pefcp/.”

Wes Plate has been developing incredible plug-ins for pro users so make applications talk to each other for years when the manufacturers wouldn’t.  So what I’m about to say is not a knock against him, he is a business man and I applaud him for creating this and everything else he does for us.

This plug-in costs $495.   So my $299 investment in Final Cut Pro now increases to $794 for a single application and plug-in.

Adobe and Avid export OMFs for ProTools natively.

——-

“Does Final Cut Pro X allow you to assign audio tracks for export?

Not yet. An update this summer will allow you to use metadata tags to categorize your audio clips by type and export them directly from Final Cut Pro X.”

In Final Cut Pro 7 we simply line up the audio by dragging or assigning them to particular tracks, particularly since we send our broadcast work to ProTools.   But what if they don’t fall neatly into a particular type?  And what if I need to put this sound on Track 5 / 6 for full nat sound at this point in the show, but then I have to put it into Tracks 9 / 10 later in the show because I’m just using it underneath?   How do I “Tag” the metadata correctly.

Apple assumes that everything we do falls into neat, compartmentalized categories.  This is rare.  Particularly with documentaries when I’m dealing with 250 hours of material.   I can use the exact same clip as an Interview, Natural Sound, B-Roll and SOT.

Also note that this assignment will happen when you EXPORT the project from Final Cut Pro X.  No way for you to simply visually look at the timeline to ensure everything is correct.   What’s easier than simply looking at the timeline visually?  Apparently assigning metatags and then asking the ProTools engineer, did everything line up?   I would really like to know how many of the professional editors that made up the Beta team really thought this was a good efficient idea?

Adobe and Avid allow you to assign tracks as you’re editing within the application.

——–

So the FAQs definitely cleared up a lot of things for me.  Now I know that if I were to stay with Final Cut Pro X that I could potentially be looking at an investment of $794 to $1,000 (depending on what the cost of the third party XML plug-ins are going to cost) for a single application per machine.   With Final Cut Studio 3 I had a suite of fully functional applications that worked together (for the most part).  Now I will get a “$299” application that rolls in some of what the old suite did, tossed out a bunch of other features & apps and I’ll have to add on OMF and XML support at the very least which will drive the price up at least $500 and possibly another $500 after that.   Of course the price can continue to rise as more features that we use today are added back in by third party developers at a cost.   This will be for each and every machine.   I’m gonna use $1,100 per machine as a nice round number on the amount of money I’d need to spend for this $300 machine that will actually make our production workflow more inefficient with the lack of tape ingest / output natively.

Let’s not forget this “modern new application” will also lock out all of my old FCP projects for good.  I have around 1,000 of them over the past 10 years.

Let’s not forget Apple discontinued sales of Final Cut Pro 7 the same day as the FCPX roll-out so I would not be able to purchase anymore at this time anyway.   Yes a limited number may still be available from VARs but why stick to an application that was “modern” two years ago and is very inefficient in digital formats.

OR

I can spend about $400 per machine and upgrade my Adobe CS 5 to CS 5.5 which gives me pretty much every single feature that Final Cut Pro 7 had and includes Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Audition, Adobe Flash Catalyst, Adobe Flash, Adobe Encore (for DVD and BluRay).   In other words, a suite of products, each specialized to a set of tasks extremely well, working together.   Here’s how Steve Forde describes Adobe’s approach to ripping apart CS4, which was not well received in terms of Adobe Premiere Pro, and created a brand new 64 bit CS5.

“In CS5 Adobe had done a complete rewrite of the guts in Premiere to 64 bit on both MAC and PC, and listened to users about how the application should change – dozens of changes throughout the application to make it ‘just work’.”

They ripped apart the “guts” creating a modern 64 bit, very efficient product, but listened to the users and kept the workflow for the post production community completely intact.   Avid managed to do the same.  Only Apple decided that moving to 64 bit would require a “revolutionary approach to editing.”   

Thanks to the Final Cut Pro X FAQs, I’m convinced we have made the correct decision for my company to move away from the Final Cut Pro platform.  It’s clear that Apple will stick to their path with no looking back while I just need a more efficient tool that fits into our workflow.  Moving to Adobe and Avid will allow us to continue our jobs without an upheaval in the way we tell stories.

Quite honestly we’re all excited about the possibilities moving forward!

The post Apple “X” FAQs, confirmation our move away is the right one appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

I’ve heard from many of you that video playback has been out of sync in the past with CS5 and the AJA Kona.  I can tell you that I had perfectly sync’d playback today when testing out this latest release. We’re running the Kona 3G board on our test system feeding a Flanders Scientific LM-2461W to our Genelec sound system.   Everything was looking really good and in perfect sync.

I’ll post a video blog showing how to properly set yourself up for CS 5.5 playback for those of you transitioning over from Final Cut Pro or any other NLE.

You can download the AJA Plug In here. Scroll down to “Optional and Utilities.”

The post AJA releases 9.0.1 Plug-In for Adobe CS 5.5 appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

I got such a response from the first of our Transition series that I’m really glad to be able to bring you part 2.  The biggest question I’m getting is “how will my Final Cut Pro workflow translate if I go to another NLE?”    For many of you, there are many years of workflow development, keystroke memorization, etc… that you just don’t want to have to be forced to give up.

As in the part 1 of Transitioning, we’re looking at Adobe Premiere Pro. Do we have to re-train ourselves completely or develop an entirely new workflow to use Premiere? I take a look at the basic layout of the two applications and some of the basic features used in FCP to see how they translate over.

This is not a tutorial by any means, but more of a walkthrough to help those of you who are considering whether to stay with Final Cut Pro or transition to something else.

UPDATE: I accidentally edited out one small section of interest. Premiere Pro includes the ability to switch the Keyboard Shortcuts to match those of Avid Media Composer and Final Cut Pro. Nice touch for those switching from either.

The post Transition 2: FCP Workflow in Adobe Premiere Pro appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.