Local Tv Hero

Like my exhaustive over-long DAW shootout a few months ago, I’m now doing the same with my editing software. I’ve been a Final Cut Pro editor for years, but I gave Premiere Pro a shot back in 2009. Despite cutting a music video with it, and even liking some of the features, I found the CS4  experience to be clunky and buggy. It wasn’t hard to stay with FCP.

Flash forward to to the release of FCP X (and all that went with it), and a lot of folks are taking a serious look at Premiere again. I’ve begun playing with the new version and I’m amazed that I can pull T2i footage off the card, right into Premiere – no transcoding needed. To be fair, you could do this in CS4, but it didn’t always work (at least for me).

With CS5, the Canon footage played with little effort on my MBP. Again, I’m taking footage right off the card – I haven’t added color correction, fades or attempted to composite anything yet.

For now, I’m getting reacquainted with Premiere, and thanks to lynda.com, and it’s training series for FCP editors making the transition, I’m digging it so far. If editing Canon’s version of AVCHD doesn’t bring my laptop to a crawl, I can see the benefit of switching to it. I can’t count the hours that I’ve spent waiting for transcodes. I often shoot several commercials in bulk over a few days, then edit over several weeks. I batch-transcode with Red Giant’s “Grinder”, and that experience can be like watching paint dry, not to mention the crazy big file sizes associated with converting to ProRes.

With the added benefit of Photoshop and After Effects integration, this could be a no-brainer. It will take working through a project to see if I’m my cutting in FCP will be final. (yeah, I went there…).

Amongst all of the other projects and stuff I have to get to, I’ve been trying to put together a PC for the purpose of capturing HDMI video for editing. I was given an old PC to resurrect, but after opening it up, the age of the machine won’t allow for it. I’m now locked into building a new system.

I’ve been out of the loop for awhile, so I’m researching the current crop of PC motherboards. The main requirement is a PCIe slot for the Blackmagic Intensity Pro capture card. I was given the card today, so I can spec out a board, chip, memory and case. As always, price is a consideration, which means this has to happen with little or no budget.

*sigh*

I have to admit – I’m more than a little intrigued by the Intensity Pro card, and can’t wait to get it into a system. If for no other reason than to see how performs. If successful, the info gleaned here may be useful on another project of mine. The box says that multiple cards can be installed to control multiple cameras, so it’s worth investigating.

It’s shaping up to be a fun side project. I’ll keep you posted on it’s progress…

I’ve been DAW hopping for most of the year, and have written extensively about it. I’ve grown tired of Logic and it’s extremely slow development. It’s competition (Reaper, Cubase, etc) have all surpassed it with new features and workflow improvements. Add the colossal f–k up of the Final Cut X release, and my faith in Apple has been shaken. Logic users are now holding our collective breaths to see if Apple will butcher it in the same manner.

While waiting for Logic X to arrive, I began testing the waters of the competition, and I spent 6 solid months with Reaper during the Alpha and Beta test cycles. The truth? I like(d) it a lot. Reaper is a powerful program, but I find that, at times, it can get in the way of creativity, mostly because of it’s power and sheer number of choices. An oft written refrain on the Reaper forum is “I just want to make music and not code a program”.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

That brings me to Studio One. I was excited by it when it was released over a year ago. However, it was too limited at the time (no AU plug in support was huge for me), so I passed and took a “wait and see” position.

Thankfully, PreSonus dropped a bomb 2 weeks ago with version 2 of Studio One. The biggest selling point for me was the Melodyne integration. Melodyne is THE ultimate in pitch correction software. It will correct damn near anything without the dreaded T-Pain effect (unless, of course, that’s what you’re after).

I’ve been a Melodyne user for years, but I often reach for Auto Tune because, frankly, I’m lazy. Melodyne requires some work, and a small dose of music theory. In short, you can do more harm than good if you don’t know what you’re doing. The bigger Melodyne issue for me is with the plug-in itself. It runs “in tandem” with your DAW, making file management tricky. It’s easy to lose the pointers to your corrected files if you work with multiple drives.

To solve this issue, Celemony created the ARA protocol for Melodyne and partnered up with PreSonus. ARA provides internal two way communication between the plug in and the host. The bottom line is it’s now easier to use. If you’re not interested in S1, but want the Melodyne integration, fear not. The ARA protocol will appear in other hosts early next year. PreSonus is getting the head start.

As you can tell, I’m a bit excited about S1, and I’ve been test driving it a great deal. Yesterday, I decided to use it for voice over recording and audio sweetening on a commercial spot I shot recently. Let me say that the workflow for video post is well… awesome is the word I’d use… It’s much faster than Tools, Logic and Reaper.

In the screen shots above, I dropped a reference cut into S1. Imported the audio. Opened the Video window. Set a level on the FirePod and within seconds was recoding my VO. After some EQ and compression, I had it pushed back into Final Cut. I did the final mix in FCP, but next time I’ll mix the entire spot (music, VO, and sound effects) in S1 and print the final mix there.

It’s never been so easy… I haven’t even touched on the music aspects yet. I’m sold, and Apple had better bring the pain with Logic X, or I’m staying with S1.  I’ve already transferred some Logic songs to S1 to mix, and I like what I’m hearing.

As always, your mileage may vary…

I became a Mac user back in 2003, and I’ve never looked back. My love affair with the Apple has been rewarding and filled with an insane amount of creativity… But… I got my hands back inside a PC this morning (it’s a long story) and I have to admit – I’ve missed it.

I’ve done more than my share of self-builds back in the day, and I forgot how much fun it is to be in the innards of a computer. Yeah, call me a geek. I’ll cop to it.

Long story short, I have to get this particular PC up and running so that it can accommodate a PCIe capture card. However, upon closer inspection, it may not be up for the task of streaming HD video, let alone editing. Dell seems to have some proprietary stuff going on in there on the motherboard, so it may be cheaper to build a new one.

Lucky for my son, I don’t give up that easy, and like a puzzle that needs to be solved. I’m on it. The problem with that is, I now have the urge to build again…

So it’s DVI, not HDMI… Why didn’t I think of that? Thank you internet…

I’m really trying here with this blog thing. Can you tell? Good…

Went into IPR today with Tom to discuss the class with another staff member. We’re responsible for the lecture portion of the AV200 class, but the students get the lab from another instructor. This method presents it’s own unique set of challenges to navigate, but so far, we haven’t crashed the bus.

We did, however, need to peek over each others shoulders and share info. During the meeting, we had a chance to look in on a student lab. IPR has, what I like to call, the Audio 101 room, and it’s here that students get a crash course in signal flow. The room is a bare-bones setup with older gear (mixer, outboard gear, etc) that is completely unwired.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Students are tasked to “hook it all up and make it work”. We came in just as a student was unplugging it all, so I didn’t get any pics of that, but it was still cool to see.

Audio 101 rocks. I wish I had a class like that back in the day. For most of the Instructors, it was OJT – all on the fly…

When it comes to DSLR shooting and accessories, it doesn’t take much to get back in the swing of things. I’ve been away from the video end of the DSLR world in recent months, but now that I’m back, I find that my list of wants and needs is right where I left it.

Fortunately for me, I made a few good purchases last year – the Lilliput external LCD monitor being one of them. I’ve only used it a handful of times, but it’s served me well. There is an underlying problem with it and the T2i, as the HDMI connection will cause both the monitor and the camera to lock-up occasionally. When this happens in the field, I have to disconnect everything and start over. I’m not sure why this happens, and I haven’t invested the time to figure it out.

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah… So, I have the H4n, and I need to mount it. I began looking at various mounting schemes online, when it occurred to me that I already had a mounting adapter in my possession – courtesy of the Lilliput. After rummaging through my extra gig bag, there it was. I pulled it off the monitor and before you could call me late for dinner, I had the H4n mounted to the camera.

The biggest problem I have now is how do I mount the wireless receiver to the current configuration. I’m leaning towards a velcro strap, but I’m way into esthetics for that.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Ok… Let’s get greedy…

I now want to mount all of this crap (H4n, LCD monitor, wireless receiver, etc) to my ULTRAcompact™ Rail/Shoulder system – which is currently sitting in pieces in my closet. Ouch. I’ve had my battles with the ULTRAcompact over the years, BUT it seems like a good time to resurrect it – mostly because I now have enough gear to attach to it.

Some of the mounting screws are messed up (from changing configurations every 10 minutes), so I have to order replacement parts. I think it will be worth it. However, the accessory world for DSLR’s has changed dramatically since I stopped looking for stuff (ie – ran out of money), and there are a number of new tasty (better) mounts available.

My system works well, but like anything, could stand a few upgrades. I’d like to ditch the LCDVF loupe for a Zacuto Z-Finder, but yeah… $350 for a viewfinder… yeah… My only justification is that I’ve worn out my LCDVF. I’ve been through 2 magnetic mounting strips, and I’ve dropped the damn thing so many time in the filed that it can now be qualified as battle-damaged. I also hate wearing the strap for it around my neck, but I like being able to take it off the screen at a moments notice.

More than anything, I covet a red stripe lens. What I wouldn’t do or give for an EF 16-35 f/2.8L II USM.

*sigh*

I can dream, right?

The last 3 months away from here are what I now refer to as “the usual gap”. I start out with the best of intentions – you know, “I’m gonna stay on top of my blog…”, but we all know how these things go.

My blog output is high when the freelance is low, as I have a ton of time on my hands. So, if you follow the logic – if I’m not here, then I’m out there… working.

And so it goes…

I’ve been freelancing at FOX for the last few months. What started out as a 6 week temp gig helping out on a major operational transition, has stretched way beyond the original time frame. It’s not like I’m complaining. If you’ve got the money, I’ve got the time.

After several lean months, the commercial freelance has picked up and I’m shooting spots again. I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed it. This wouldn’t be my blog (and I would be remiss) if I didn’t mention some gear, so I’ll now “brag” about my latest acquisition. For those with a weak constitution and easily offended by such things, please avert your eyes. For those that need to report, prepare to take notes. For everyone else, enjoy…

I picked up an H4n(ext) digital recorder to get better sound in the field while shooting DSLR. I’ve been dicking around with a hodge-podge kludgy system before this, and for the most part, I’ve been lucky. However, it was finally time to do it right.

I was asked about the difference between the original H4n vs the “ext” model. Well, from what I can tell it does 96k and has independent left and right channel level control (only after the 1.72 firmware upgrade). There may be a few other goodies, but if you really want to know – google it. I’m lazy today.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I used it two days ago while shooting spots, and all I can say is DAMN. What a difference. I really have to stop being so cheap. I should have bought one last year, but I’m hard-headed, and I thought my ghetto-rigged solution was a clever bit of engineering. Life is so much easier with the H4n – IF – in addition to rolling the camera, you remember to press the record button on it. Yeah, got burned on a few takes, but the talent was cool. Ok, they didn’t know. I said, “Those were good, but I know the next few takes will be EVEN better…”. Yeah, it sucks, but what are ya gonna do?

I’ve now turned my attention to getting a bigger gig bag. I’ve outgrown my Canon Gadget Bag, and I’m searching for an “all in one” solution. The bag must hold my camera, lenses, wireless pack, shotgun mic, small cables, batteries, laptop AND must be airport security friendly. I’ve looked at a few and they’re spendy, but I’ll narrow down my choices and submit them to my business manager. If she approves, then I’ll order one.

Let see… What else?

Landed a great gig at The Institute of Production & Recording (IPR) co-teaching the AV200 Field, Dialog and FX Recording class with Tom, and I think that’s pretty cool.

All this, and I’m still doing the public television thing. It’s all a bit much, but hey, work hard, play harder.

I leave for an extended vacation in 8 days – after I finish editing…

CBS Sports used the Gravity video as a cold open for the Duke/Miami game near the end of this year’s NCAA season, and I think that’s pretty cool. I got an email from Dan Knight about it, who then turned me over to his management for fulfillment.

They inquired about the tech specs – format, frame rate, etc. The video was shot with my HF-10 – 1920x1080i, 17 Mbps, AVCHD. “Gravity” was my first (and only) experience editing AVCHD natively in Adobe Premiere, and it was a nightmare to say the least. In CS4′s defense, it was more about the AVCHD than anything else. My computer was barely able to keep up with the highly compressed video in it’s native state. In reality, there’s a lot to love about Premiere (so much so that Apple had better take note), but I found that I’m more comfortable with the Final Cut Pro workflow.

CBS wanted the full frame output file (minus text), so that’s what I sent. Like everything these days, file exchange was handled via the “cloud” (Dropbox) without issue.

I actually missed the live airing on TV, but Dan’s manager requested a copy of the clip from the network, and they obliged.

Another fun and unique experience…

Every now and then, while walking the halls at work, I stumble upon something cool. We produce a lot of original programming here, and given that, we work with a number of local artist (musicians, authors, painters, performers, etc).

Today I came upon the audio setup for “Minnesota Originals” (MNO – for short). The music segments for the show are usually done in bulk – recording and taping 8 (or so) bands over several days. The performances are then edited with accompanying interviews and spread out over the course of a season.

Of course the audio setup caught my eye, and after a brief run through by Joe, I was allowed to take a few pics.

It’s a round-about way to record bands, but the setup offers a high degree of options for post. Eight discreet channels are recorded directly into Final Cut, so the editor has options for a rough mix while cutting. In addition, the audio is mult’ed to a separate system (through a MOTU/DigiMAX combo). Those tracks then get mixed by Joe in Pro Tools after receiving picture-lock from the editor, and that mix is re-synced in FCP for the final line cut.

It’s a round-about way to go, but it ensures that show will sound great for air.

I get to “look over their shoulders” for the next show taping. Now that is cool…