DAVID LEITNER REPORTS FROM THE FINAL CUT PRO X UNVEILING

By Scott Macaulay

While I was following the premiere of the new Final Cut Pro X at the Las Vegas FCPUG Super Meet Up at NAB Tuesday night via Twitter (and posting some of the best tweets below), David Leitner, d.p. and editor who is reporting for us from the conference, was in the room. I got him on the phone as he left the presentation, and in this audio interview he talks about native editing, the changes in the UI, the “magic” of Apple, the price, the shortcuts built into the app, the new capabilities of the timeline, the color matching, the OS requirements and more… He even managed to get some quotes (of sorts) from Apple’s Phil Schiller and, if you read the tea leaves here, you can speculate on the future direction of this new iteration of the program.

Key quote: “It’s $299, you download it from the app store, there’s only one version, and my teenager is now using the same software as Walter Murch. I think that’s astonishing, I think it’s disruptive, and I think it’s creating several more generations of Final Cut Pro users.”

Apologies for the audio quality. This was via cell phone in a noisy room. Normally I’d transcribe and run as a print interview, but given the huge interest in this presentation I’m going for the speed afforded by Sound Cloud. Listen here or download and transfer to your iPod. Total run time: 17:25.

David Leitner on Final Cut Pro X by FilmmakerMag

Read Leitner’s Day One findings from NAB here.
Photo by Apple.… Read the rest

APPLE ANNOUNCES NEW FINAL CUT PRO X AT NAB

By Scott Macaulay

“Something as revolutionary as the first version of Final Cut Pro when introduced in 1999.” That’s how the new version of Apple’s editing software was announced at the Final Cut Pro User Group Super Meet Up at NAB tonight. The new version of FCP has been hinted at for months, and after several prominent editors were shown a demo — and made to sign NDA’s that apparently only allowed them to leak words like “awesome” — the post production community has been awaiting its official unveiling. Many thought it would appear this summer alongside the release of the new OS, Lion, but days before NAB Apple took over the FCPUG Super Meet Up, booting all scheduled presenters and personalities (including Kevin Smith) for what became the hottest invite at the conference.

So, what’s new in FCP 10? Here are some notes, reactions and a few raves from the event as they’ve streamed invia Twitter. And click here for a excellent first hand report from inside the room by David Leitner.

— a new build, “from the ground up” (This presumably allowed Apple to skip FCP 8 and 9.)
— 64-bit.
— in-built rendering
— you can edit while importing
— Content Auto-Analysis checks for image stabilization, etc. People and shot detection on import as well as automatic non-destructive color balance. (HT: MacRumors)
— “Looks like iMovie/ Smoke type interface and it’s black! No longer white.” — Walter Biscardi
— “My tweet stream is divided into 2 camps: Wooo! the new FCP is like iMovie, & Crap! the new FCP is like iMovie.” — @mikeconaty
— iMovie seems to be harming Apple. If there was no iMovie to compare FCP X to, no one would think it was “iMovie Pro” — @thepeatgroup
— “Apple is really pulling out all the stops with FCP X. 64-bit, OpenCL, linear float processing, background rendering, tons of automation.” — @nicedissolvepro
— “Vastly improved linking. Keeps content & secondary assets together all the time. Magnetic timeline prevents you from colliding clips.” @dbax
— “Inline precision editor”: makes standard edits (roll, ripple, slip) easier by dynamically expanding … Read the rest

FINAL CUT PRO AND THE ROAD TO NAB

By Scott Macaulay

Okay, I’m not on the road to NAB… but David Leitner is, and he’ll be filing reports from the conference here at Filmmaker. Look for his pieces beginning tomorrow or Monday. There are other sites to follow as well. Koo will be attending NAB for the first time and posting interviews, write-ups and news over at No Film School. Phillip Bloom will be attending as wIll Vincent Laforet. For many, the big news will be (the rumored) announcement by Apple of the new Final Cut Pro. If you’re not following all the tech blogs, here’s the low-down: at the last minute, Apple has reportedly taken over the Final Cut Pro User Group Supermeet , booting out already-booked presenters (including Kevin Smith), and commandeering the event for itself. The reason? Again, if all this is true, it must be to premiere the long-awaited Final Cut for this group of professional editors. The rumors are flying. It’ll be “awesome,” the interface will be completely redesigned, there may not be tape I/O, there will be multi-touch… Or, as an NDA-compromised Mark Raudonis from Bunim/Murray Productions (who has seen the new Final Cut but can’t give details about it) says in the interview below, using a Wayne Gretzky metaphor, Apple will “skate to where the puck will be.”

Presenting something that’s so radically different in front of a group of established editors is a ballsy move, explains Walter Biscardi:

Regardless of whether you applaud this move or not (I’m in the “or not” category) let’s take a look at what this means for Apple and Final Cut Pro. In the parlance of Las Vegas, Apple has gone “All In” for this one event. There is no Apple booth on the show floor. There is no Sunday Apple Marketing event. There is no ANYTHING from Apple other than a complete takeover of one of the largest paid gatherings of video editors at NAB. In other words, just one shot in front of an audience of the very people who will make or break the product and presentation.

This isn’t an iPhone, iPod, iPad, iAnything

… Read the rest

CAMERAS AND GEAR AT SXSW

By Scott Macaulay

I used my iPod Touch to shoot some short interviews at the SXSW trade show and Screenburn exhibits. (It’s the first time I used the iPod Touch instead of the Flip. The quality definitely isn’t as high, and there’s some drop-out and stuttering going on here. But the new iMovie, released to coincide with the iPad2, works on the iPod Touch, and while it’s not amazing it’s still pretty cool — despite occasional crashing and some difficulty scrubbing clips.)

Below are comments on the Panasonic AG-AF100 and Red Rock Micro’s DSLR rigs.

… Read the rest

SXSW SNAPS, DAY ONE

The first day at SXSW, the 4th floor. “What’s this line for?” I asked the woman standing next to me. “No idea,” she said. But it wasn’t a line for anything. The crowd was just there. And as I pushed my way through, it slowly started to dissipate. It was like one of those highway slowdowns, where the memory of congestion lingers after whatever caused it.

If you’re going to sponsor a festival, at least do something useful, like this rolling Samsung display of panel times, schedule changes and social media activity.

When you check into SXSW, you’re given three things: the catalog, your badge, and a punch card giving you one free Macallan single malt a day.

I have wished there was one of these guys — except promising Blackberry repair — at Sundance.

Lonelygirl15 creator Mesh Flinders at the Austin Convention Center. Several years later, has anyone done viral narrative video better?

Well known publicist Jessica Edwards, left, is here at SXSW as a director. She’s made Tugs, a documentary short about the New York City harbor. At right is Austin filmmaker Heather Courtney, whose documentary Where Soldiers Come From, world premieres here.

Austin human signage.

The Paramount marquee before the premiere of Austin filmmaker Aaron Burns’ blacktino. (Filmmakers, remember that when you go all e.e. cummings with your titles your signage will invariably be wrong.)

On my way to the premiere of Source Code, the line at the Apple pop-up store was around the block. Afterwards, still a line and they were still selling new iPad 2s.

A tiny Tiny Furniture reunion: at the Film Opening Night party at Buffalo Bills, actor Alex Karpovsky and producer Alicia Van Couvering.… Read the rest

DETAILS ON APPLE’S NEW IMOVIE FOR IPAD2

By Scott Macaulay

Apple announced the new iPad 2 today, and with the announcement came a new iMovie for iPad. The iPad itself is thinner, has a faster processor, has both front and rear-facing cameras (although the still camera is not of iPhone 4 quality), and can be outfitted with a new and very cool protective covering that snaps on via magnets and can be folded for use as a stand. As for iMovie, Jobs said at the keynote that with its precision editor and touchscreen interface multi-track audio “you can really edit a movie on this thing.” I’m not sure I’d go that far, but it’s definitely cool to see this added functionality to the iPad. (Unfortunately, the new iMovie won’t work on the existing iPad 1.) There’s also a dock connector that outputs HDMI in 1080P from, said Jobs, any app, which is a feature I’m sure many independent filmmakers looking at apps as possible distribution outlets might be interested in.

More on the iPad 2 and video from Ars Technica:

A 1GHz dual-core A5 processor will power the iPad 2′s 1024×768 display. Though the screen’s resolution remains the same, Steve Jobs said the iPad 2 would be able to support 1080p video out and mirrored video through an HDMI adapter, which Apple has priced at $39. However, the iPad 2′s video codec specs top out at 720p, so it’s all but certain that the 1080p output is only upscaled 720p.

The long-awaited front- and rear-facing cameras have been added to the iPad 2, with the rear one able to record 720p video and the front at a VGA resolution. The iPad 2 will be able to get service on either AT&T’s HSUPA or Verizon’s EVDO network, but customers will have to choose one carrier or the other. Unfortunately, the iPad 2 won’t be able to act as a hotspot like the iPhone 4, and no mention was made of support for either carrier’s faster LTE networks.

Further details come from Robert Scoble, who was at the keynote and filed an audio report. He said, “The new Garagebank and iMovie … Read the rest

WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS, 2/20/11

By Scott Macaulay

Here are a few things in my Instapaper this week.

In GQ, Mark Harris looks back at “The Day the Movies Died” and the preeminence of easy marketing over original ideas. An excerpt:

Such an unrelenting focus on the sell rather than the goods may be why so many of the dispiritingly awful movies that studios throw at us look as if they were planned from the poster backward rather than from the good idea forward. Marketers revere the idea of brands, because a brand means that somebody, somewhere, once bought the thing they’re now trying to sell.

YouTube has a contest for non-profits making videos.

Boing Boing considers outside filmmaker Neil Breen, “real estate magnate turned sci-fi auteur.” His latest:

I Am Here….Now (trailer) from Cinefamily on Vimeo.

At Shadowlocked, a useful and detailed exploration of the major studio policies on take down notices and YouTube.

Via Paid Content, a report from a publishing industry invite-only “Roundtable on Tablet Subscriptions” held in London. The publishers’ number 1 demand? A reduction of Apple’s just-announced 30% tariff on iOS-delivered content? No. “A fair business partnership” is #4. #1 is:

1. Censorship of content

Freedom of speech is the basis of the media’s existence. Publishers cannot agree with the practices of technology companies that interfere with editorial decisions on what to put into a digital publication. So we appeal to Apple to change its rules and practices that led to the rejection of apps in some European countries regarding content considered legal and appropriate in those countries.

Like a ton of people, I linked to the fantastic reverse-zombie Dead Island trailer this week. A bona fide viral sensation, the trailer has now prompted a movie deal in which the film will embrace the backwards-chronology style of the trailer instead of the more normal forward gameplay of the game title itself. Reports Drew McWeeney at Hitflix:

Techland, the Polish developer for the game, has got to be dancing in the streets right now. This is a game that had been delayed and that had fallen off the radar after being

… Read the rest

WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS, 1/16/11

By Scott Macaulay

A quick, commentary-lite version…

Joseph Conrad wrote a science-fiction novel.

“Young and Restless Never Gets Old” — Dennis Lim in the Times on Gregg Araki.

Big tech news this week: Google announces that it won’t support the H.264 codec and the HTML5 video tag in its Chrome browser in favor of its own WebM codec. It’s all very complicated and tech-y, but Google’s argument is that they’re supporting “open standards” by backing a codec without royalty issues. Problem is, Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s IE both use the H.264 format and the short-term victor is likely to be Adobe, whose Flash will be required to convert video encoded in H.264. (But not on iOS devices.) More from people who can explain it better than me. (I’m waiting for Koo to weigh in on what this means for web videomakers.)

Good Hollywood Reporter article on Netflix, it’s business model, and the status of its studio content deals.

Cindy Sherman profiled in The Guardian.

In the London Review of Books, Slavoj Zizek on Wikileaks.

Long Rick Moody interview in Used Furniture Review.

Finally, there was a revolution in Tunisia… and Twitter and Wikileaks had something to do with it. And, following this week’s referendum, a new country is likely being formed out of South Sudan. The Satellite Sentinel Project, a partnership between various NGO’s, including the George Clooney-founded Not On Our Watch, used commercial satellites to monitor the election. (Said Clooney: “”You can go on Google Earth and Google my house. I thought, if that’s the way it is and they’re gonna be able to Google my house, then people who are committing war crimes, specifically the government of Sudan, should be able to enjoy the same level of celebrity that I do. These people are public figures, and we’re gonna take their pictures.”) And, according to the New York Times, the Stuxnet virus is likely a U.S./Israeli-designed cyberwar project designed to disrupt the Iranian nuclear program.… Read the rest

NEW FINAL CUT SUITE RUMORED; iPAD CLIPTOUCH APP RELEASED

By Scott Macaulay

Back in September we asked, “Is Apple Delaying a New Final Cut Studio?” The French rumor site Hardmac reported that the next version of editing software had experience “setbacks” and that, furthermore, engineering talent was being transfered to the iOS department. Now, Hardmac is reporting that a new version of Final Cut Studio “should” come out in March or April. From the site:

Let’s start with Final Cut Suites. AS we reported earlier, all version of Final Cut should be unveiled in March or early April. It should be a substantial update when compared to the previous version, but not sure it could bring all new features expected by all Pro users. Two versions are already running at beta level, one for Snow Leopard, and one for Lion. Some new features will only be available on Lion’s version, due to the changes made on QuickTime layer.

Meanwhile, from Macstories is news of Cliptouch, a brand new Final Cut Server client app that’s popped up at the App Store. From the site:

I believe this is the first native Final Cut Server client specifically designed for the iPad — ClipTouch by Factorial. ClipTouch (which requires iOS 4.2, Final Cut Server v1.5.1 and access to open ports 8821 and 8826) works “out of the box” by giving you access to all your video assets stored in FCS, browse and collaborate on your media taking advantage of the iPad’s large screen and multi-touch functionalities.

You can use the iPad app instead of a review workstation to access your library over local or remote WiFi, 3G and VPN, download and view clip proxies, change the default asset’s metadata and add annotations. ClipTouch works with the standard format of clip proxies, but a compressor is available to achieve optimal results. A search feature is available, together with the possibility to clip the timecode display.

ClipTouch is available for $14.99 at the App Store.… Read the rest

iMOVIE ’11 AND ITS CRITIQUE OF THE MOVIE TRAILER

By Scott Macaulay

Have you ever thought that most movie trailers, with their portentous title cards and triumphant musical scores, could have been stamped out by a computer? Well, Steve Jobs and his software designers at Apple certainly did. But rather than whine about Hollywood’s formulaic marketing techniques, they monetized their critique. Brand new today is iMovie ’11 with a clever and soon to be supremely irritating new feature: movie trailers. Check out this iMovie demo to see what it’s all about.

So, get ready for every holiday card to now feel like a Jerry Bruckheimer promo, with your friends’ sons and daughters racing around their holiday campgrounds like pint-size Indiana Jones and Jonesettes — and scored, in a very clever move by Apple, to pre-cleared music recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra.

UPDATE: When it came time to write this week’s newsletter, I decided to extend this post with some thoughts that occurred after I wrote it. Here’s my revised take in the form of my weekly “Letter from the Editor.”

Clad in his customary black turtleneck and jeans, Steve Jobs took the stage yesterday in Cupertino, California for a new product demo that Apple dubbed “Back to the Mac.” The title worked on two levels. First, after so much attention paid to the iPhone and iPad, Apple was finally announcing some new developments related to its once core business of computers. But, more cleverly, the title referred to Apple’s taking features from its iOS mobile operating system and devices and putting them back into the desktop line. There was a new app store for computers (continuing what theorist Jonathan Zittrain has criticized as a move away from the open internet towards closed systems) and, most impressively, a new line of Macbook Airs with the flash memory and “instant on” qualities of the iPad.

But amongst all the new announcements, one relatively goofy one has gotten a lot of buzz. Apple announced a new version of its video editing software, iMovie ’11, and it’s got a new function — making movie trailers. You know how most trailers, with their portentous title cards

… Read the rest