Thanks Lisa. Yeah, agreed, there are many things that can feed into it. Glad you’ve found some stuff that helps.

-I was diagnosed with celiac last year, and starting about 3 months after going on a strict GF diet my depression started getting much, much better. I think there are multiple causes/sources including complex trauma–in other words, I think depression is likely going to be an occasionally vocal guest for the rest of my life, but the frequency and intensity are both WAY down. So I guess my larger point is: don’t forget to rule out possible medical causes like celiac, Hashimoto’s, etc.

If you’re Batch Transcribing, you can quit Premiere once all the files are uploaded (also, you should update to Transcriptive Rough Cutter, free upgrade, which has more efficient Batch processing). However, if you quit, you’ll need to go to the Jobs List and manually link the transcripts to the file. If you quit Premiere, obviously that quits TS as well and it can’t sync the transcripts to the files. However, it doesn’t impact the transcribing process since that’s happening in the cloud.

Sorry, just saw this. Unfortunately, no, not sure why it wouldn’t be generating the SRT out of Premiere. Probably a question for the Adobe forums, since it’s happening when Premiere is rendering.

Yeah, need to do a blog post/video on that. Short answer is to export the Adobe captions as plain text, import that into TS, and use the Alignment feature to sync the words to the video. If you’re going from Transcriptive, export SRT and import that into Premiere. Our one big request to Adobe last year when we knew they were working on it, was to give third party developers an inter-change format (JSON) to import/export transcripts with timecode per word. We got plain text and SRT. Not helpful. Anyways, should be a blog post with more details soon.

My track is settings are as follows: Format: Subtitled, Style: None, Styling Options text engine: European and East Asian. Ligatures are selected.

Any help is much appreciated!

Hi Alain, Sorry… just saw this. Can you contact me at jim@nulldigitalanarchy.com? Would love to get a bit of your footage and test it out. We have seen it work really well in some cases, but we’ve mostly tested it with proper names. But feel free to reach out, it’d be great to figure out what’s going on and get it working for you. Best, Jim

We do technical marketing videos, so always tons of technical terms, brand names, etc. Some pretty simple, but still, the Glossary entry does not seem to connect with the AI transcription process – ever. Same terms over and over again, across multiple projects, but still, no joy. As if there is not learning whatsoever.

I’d love to be proven wrong on this, trust me!

Cheers

For Big Sur, please try this build:
https://www.digitalanarchy.com/downloads/flickerfree_21_FX3.dmg

It is not Apple Silicon compatible yet. We expect that in a couple weeks. The above build is Intel only.

You can always go here to find the latest builds and betas:
https://digitalanarchy.com/demos/psd_mac.html#d9

Hi Dexter, Sorry for the delay, missed this question. Adobe finally gave us the ability to work with a multicam sequence. It’ll be in the next version coming out this week or next. If you want the beta, just email cs@nulldigitalanarchy.com. Again, sorry for missing this originally.

Hi Matt, Thanks for the update. We probably need to revise the blog post, it was written a while ago. Can you reach out to me about TS moving the Time Marker around? It shouldn’t be doing that, so I’d like to understand what’s happening. Email me at jim@nulldigitalanarchy.com

Hi Mike, Whichever one renders faster by itself should be first, probably.

Although it might not make that much of a difference since both plugins are accessing multiple frames. Honestly, I’d render out a 3 second clip wiht one first, then the other. Whichever order goes fastest, that’s the answer. Sorry, not that familiar with how Neat renders, so not sure of the answer. But the guidance is really aimed at normal pixel pushing plugins. If you’re doing a ‘look’ type plugin, well now FF might have to render that 21 times (21 frames with the Look applied), but the Look plugin is only going to need FF rendered once. Whereas, what’s better… rendering a plugin 5 times over 21 frames or rendering a plugin 21 times over 5 frames? Doing a short test will probably give you the most accurate answer.

2.0 can run in 2019 and v1.5.2 will run in 2018. We’re looking at allowing 2.0 to run in 2018 but it will be missing some of the features that are available in 2019 or later. Adobe added some things that allow us to things in 2019 that aren’t possible in 2018.

Hi Benji, We’re looking into it. Trying to figure out if it’s doable using the Panel API in a way that would work for folks. It’s high on the list if we think we can do it.

Anything that gets your mind busy on something else can be helpful. Something to take you out of the ugg, into the immediacy of the now, sometimes is good when the future is daunting…

Hi Glen,

Yeah, it’s sad so many people misunderstand the nature of depression that they think ‘growing a pair’ or sheer will power is the way to get through it. It’s just encouraging people to repress it which helps no one. I’m glad you were able to work through it!

It’s so important to keep talking about depression and anxiety so that others – people like my dad – can get an idea of what it does to you. It’s not just ‘feeling a bit glum’, it’s a dark hole that takes time to climb out from.

I can always feel when my depression is approaching, like a dark cloud, as my anxiety levels rise and my mind goes over and over and over things that I’ve seen/read in the news and online. I find it very difficult to find a balance between being a part of this world and being interested in what’s going on, and finding it all too difficult to acknowledge.

I hope it’s OK to mention, when you were talking about medication you have said “…monitor your state of mind when you initially start taking them. If it makes you feel worse stop immediately” but this is extremely bad advice – you have to ‘come up’ and ‘come down’ from these kinds of medication over many weeks/months and stopping abruptly could make things a lot worse for you mentally (bad dreams, thoughts of suicide, even physical symptoms like worse heart palpitations and sweats etc). Better advice would be to speak to your doctor about a plan to come off them asap, but never go cold turkey.

Thanks for your words. I’ve been in a good place mentally for a while now, but I will always know what it’s like to suffer and think it’s fantastic when we can find ways to discuss it and help one another.

Anyone going through it now – there is more light in the future. When, who knows, but it’s there! You’re on the dip of the rollercoaster but it will go back up again, and it’s absolutely worth pursuing.

As a life long creative, I’ve never filtered the world around me, I let it all come in. It’s this process that makes my art and my business thrive. But, it’s what also drives me into the ground sometimes like a pile driver hitting a 70 foot H beam.

I won’t stop filtering and I won’t stop feeling bad most of the time. It’s the path I’ve actively chosen and to cope with the down feelings is part of the deal.

My life is good, work is good, resources are invested and working for me so it’s not all that bad. But there are days…

Then use transcriptive as normal with all tracks except for one muted (if you have multiple audio tracks).

I am always so happy when people talk about the struggle. In 1986, when my brother chose to end his life, there was no one to talk to. No resources for us to utilize. Instead we packed up & moved away. It was many years before I learned to start dealing with it.

One thing I always refer back to is my husbands saying to me. "You lean toward the darkness because it's familiar & comfortable. You have to fight to get to the light."

Thanks Jim for helping to be a part of the light.

Adam thanks so much for letting me know about that. I’ll definitely check the brokenlightcollective.com website out. Let’s fight this damn thing!

Hi Meredith, Thanks for sharing! I hear you, I think women, generally, are much better listeners than men. I’m not always immune to the desire to want to fix everything, and I know better. But I think it’s tough for most people. We’re not really taught how to deal with mental health problems and bringing about more education was part of the reason for the post. Some of the ‘right’ things to do can seem somewhat counter-intuitive. So explaining not only what the right thing to do is but WHY, I think is really important. Glad you found the post helpful! Thanks again for telling your story.

Hi Ellen, Yes definitely! Glad you found it helpful.

My every interaction with you has made me glad for you existing in the world with me.

Hey Dan, Thanks for the post. I agree, it’s not just a ‘creative’ thing, but sort of framed it that way as that’s one of the labels I identify with.

I disagree with the Dentist analogy though. Have you ever been in therapy and had a ‘oh, that thing I’ve lived with since I was 12 doesn’t happen to everyone? I don’t HAVE to live with it?’ moment? It’s kind of amazing. So much better than a root canal. (trust me, I know on both counts :-)

I think a lot of people go into therapy without actually committing to therapy. This is probably a bit more common with men. You have to be vulnerable. You have to be willing to talk about stuff. You have to be willing to cry. Women get to cry, men don’t. Fuck that. Crying can be an amazing release. Going to therapy is only hard if you’re too ‘tough’ to be vulnerable. Sometimes being courageous means being able to feel. Feel the heartbreak, the sadness, the joy, all of it. Too often men are told to pour concrete and tequila into their wounds and keep going. Sometimes you need to keep going, but if you can’t take the time to stop, reflect, and do the work of healing… that becomes toxic. You never heal. It’s just an open wound that keeps giving pain to you and everyone around you. When you truly allow a wound like that to heal, it’s the best thing ever. Much better than going to the dentist, IMO. ;-)

One of the things I talk about in my new circle (Veterans) is that we need to consider mental health treatment like going to the dentist. No one wants to, it’s definitely not fun to go thru, but it’s essential to healthy living.

And we need to talk about it with our friends and colleagues in the same way. No one should EVER be mocked or minimized for seeking mental health treatment – it should be a shared (if unpleasant) experience. “Dude, sucks you have to see the dentist (psychiatrist). But you gotta do it, because the alternative sucks so much worse!”

One thing that maybe needs to be a part of the user group experience is the peer support group. A regular group that meets not just to dive into the hardcore geek details of a render or new plugin, but a group that supports each other emotionally, with shared experiences and wisdom.

We all have stories we share about an After Effects project gone right, why don’t we our stories of that job that got away, and how we coped with the loss?

Definitely true about anti-depressants. There are a bunch of them out there and some make it worse. Wellbutrin _really_ didn’t work for me, but I know people that think it’s great. Just your body chemistry or whatever. Glad you’ve been able to make progress with depression. Thanks for posting!

Steve, thanks for sharing. Yeah, listening and not judging are required no matter what. Sometimes that’s all you can do and, as you said, sometimes that’s all that’s needed as they work it out for themselves.

I’m mid-50s and was diagnosed with depression 10 years ago. I was fortunate to see a therapist and eventually we worked out together that I have Borderline Personality Disorder, and I’ve probably had it since I was 7 years old. It’s all about rejection and feeling you’re not part of the world. Suicide or self harm is common but personally I’d struggled to contain my anger when I was younger.

Getting the support and discovering this diagnosis was the best thing I have ever done for my health. For decades I had wanted to be like everyone else and spent many dark and unhappy years trying to be ‘normal’. Now I take my whole self with me wherever I go. I know my Dark Passenger is always there (on the bus as you put it) but accepting that does help to deal with it.

I want to give something back to others and, through my workplace, I mentor a couple of people with depression. But we have to be careful as it affects everyone differently and we’re not counsellors or therapists. Just listening and not judging is sometimes all it takes. The good thing is, we can all develop that skill.

Medication didn’t work for me but Cognitive Behavioural
Therapy has. So has stoicism, meditation/mindfulness and exercise. But the things that work best for me are the things that – unknowingly – I had naturally turned to earlier in my life: music and reading fiction. I know the music that can change my mood or release some of my anger; disappearing into a good book can be an escape from the real world. Spending time in the countryside, alone with nature helps me every time.

It’s been said that all we humans need to make us happy are small acts of kindness, both receiving them and making them. It’s not something that comes naturally to me, to engage with strangers but I’ve been making the effort recently. Simple things, like smiling and saying good morning, or paying for the person behind’s drink in the coffee shop (don’t look to see who they are first, just do it). Accept that not everyone will know how to react to kindness (which says it doesn’t happen enough) but you will feel better about yourself and connected to the world.

To anyone suffering with depression. Don’t suffer in silence, share your story and there will always be someone willing to listen.

Thanks Joy. Yeah, I think that’s the piece many people don’t realize. If folks get one take away from this, I hope it’s a better understanding of that.

You’re welcome! Happy to help on all fronts. :-)

It might be of benefit to you to do some research into your ‘shadow’ and possibly find a Jungian therapist (it would seem the negative thoughts are deeply repressed and unconscious elements coming to the fore). https://scottjeffrey.com/shadow-work/

This morning, your email headline has me perk up as I’ve been down in the sludge of depression and finally being active to pull up.

Thanks for your work on more fronts than I expected.

It’s amazing to read such a heartfelt examination of depression, especially from a toolmaker, who’s creating and selling useful utilities to simply make our work easier.

There’s a lot to unpack here. As someone who has gone into depression and found very rapid and effective strategies to lift out of it, I’ll nitpick and enhance a few of your thoughts.

I’m not a therapist either. My father was. He was a good one, a Cognitive-Developmental therapist, someone who had a taste Skinner and behaviorism in college, and veered of into human development through a gift professor . He did clinical work with very depressed folks, but mid-life, he moved into the treatment of childhood autism, and became a major force in the field. People with autism have a lot of lessons for us “normal” folk, and we all have a trait or two easily identified with those trapped on the spectrum. I would watch Dad take a tantrumming child and capture him with some neat activity, and when the child got comfortable doing that– Dad would introduce an expansion. There would be some resistance, but eventually, the child adapted, and over time developed a repertoire through adaptation. Dad was training the child to adapt.

I’m not saying clinical depression is a form of autism. I am saying there symptoms in the disease that really respond to similar coping strategies which expand beyond it.

When I create as an editor, I get joy and often bring joy to others. It’s not religion, it’s not drugs, it’s just pure satisfaction serving myself and others, a win-win coming from hard work, thought, and just being well-used. If you practice a faith, you have even more strategies.

“Go somewhere and do something you enjoy. Especially if you can connect with a friend, but I’ve found just being in a place where there are other people helps.”

To me, this is 14-carat gold advice. A selected social nexus is the most important aid to depression of any kind.

So, I joined two Meetups, one for screenwriting, the other for board game design. Game design is incredibly craft like, and crucially interactive with others, and even when I lose a round, I’m contributing my sensibility to something new, and adding wisdom to my own designs, so I love it! It’s something I can carry with me.

Screenwriting, like editing, is a craft that doesn’t age, and enhances my ability in both. In our group, one writer is under peer review each week. That’s huge. I’ve done it. The group gets to spout opinions and what if’s and the like which probably trigger a fabulous bummer in our writer. But next week– one of us is scheduled for the hot seat!

In either case, I’m with people, doing something relevant to me, and helping me experience a reality check. Sometimes folks just need to hang out and talk about the Super Bowl over beer. There are Meetups for that. A thriving meetup is one of the 21rst century great inventions for combatting anomie, the disease of our times, which takes many forms, and sometimes lives. But yes, reading this blog, I’m imagining a therapeutic board game about depression. And of course, it has to be fun. Hm.

These are some of the thoughts your brave blog has inspired. To me, you’ve succeeded in all three of your points.
Now get back to work and play!

Hi Lisa, Thanks for commenting, very good thoughts. I’m sorry you struggle with this as well. I hear you about being around people. Usually it’s beneficial for me but I understand that it might not be for a lot of people. I was really trying to emphasize 1) getting out of the house… not lying in bed or on your couch (maybe walking in a forest, sitting in a secluded park, anything) and 2) connecting with someone… a friend, a therapist, whatever. I’m not sure that bit was written as well as it could have been, so I might tweak it. Again, thanks so much for sharing your experience!

I wanted to add re: suicide that it helps me when my suicidal ideation really starts up to remind myself that I probably don’t really want to die, I just desperately don’t want to feel the way I am feeling anymore and I can’t imagine any way to make it stop other than death.

And also, just my .02, when I am depressed often going out and being around other people makes it immeasurably worse (and sometimes it makes it better, so it’s really hard to know what to do). Seeing other people who appear happy or at least engaged in a meaningful life that they have a connection to can make me feel even more alone, even more defective as a human being.

I appreciate you taking time to share your experience. May it bring more compassion to the world.

It’s all good if you let people know they’re helpbots or whatever. As I mention, they are useful for commonly asked questions. It’s just when you start trying to pass them off as real customer service people that it becomes a problem. I don’t think it’s a good customer experience. Of course, we’ve all had experiences where some outsourced customer service person had zero reading comprehension and knowledge. So if you’re, say, Amazon and deciding between outsourcing to humans that don’t know anything and a chatbot that doesn’t know anything, at least the chatbot is cheaper. But if you’re Audi and trying to sell a car, you’re crazy to entrust your customer’s experience with a chatbot.

Thanks for article and insight, Jim.

Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of products get created and how editors end up integrating them. I think A.I. will change many things but I feel the ‘job killing’ effects are likely very overblown.

Should be done by NAB. Turning out to be more difficult than expected and we also got distracted by Transcriptive. But it’s super high on the priority list, so it’s coming.

Usually the Time Lapse preset works but it’ll depend a bit on how you’re shooting. Rolling Bands 4 is also a good preset to try (it works for rolling bands flicker but is a good all around starting point)

For Panasonic, I’ve found the HG1080 setting is what works with the Intensity Shuttle. Let me know if that works… I think there’s also a Blackmagic utility/program that’s good to test with. If you can get that to see the camera, Wirecast should as well.

We’ve been using it since I wrote the post and it works well. It IS an inexpensive, consumer camcorder so it doesn’t handle low light very well. But otherwise I’ve been happy with the picture quality that’s output. Actually, we have two other higher end Panasonics and they all work great. You definitely get better low light performance when you go up in price.

All our installers, as well our website which they call, are signed on both Windows and Mac. We are very up-to-date with our certificates.

This is something most new antivirus systems looks into. Sign your applications and it is more likely that it won’t get detected.

Please keep this in mind when buying a 980 card. I went with the 4GB EVGA and it’s perfect, but it was the only one I could find with a 2x6pin connector.

Well, what I WAS talking about (the post is 4 years old) was mainly the hype around the 5D mark 2 (and still cameras generally), which was what most people were using. Pointing out that while they’re great for some things, they aren’t video cameras and had some serious shortcomings when shooting video. There’s still some truth to this for most photography-centric DSLRs, although they have improved a lot. And of course there are cameras like the C300, C500, etc. which are technically DSLRs but with features that are critical to someone shooting video, so as a consequence those are great for shooting video. Anyways, the main point was that still cameras can shoot amazing video, but be aware of their shortcomings for that type of shooting.

:)

LOL, well now I am like – what is this anarchyjim guy talking about.

That said, you’re not hip, trendy, cool, or even skilled just because you have a DSLR and shoot video with it. Your video does not magically look better because it was shot with a DSLR. Unless you spend a lot of money on expensive shoulder rigs, follow focuses, and similar add-ons, you’re pretty much stuck shooting carefully planned low-motion scenes on a tripod. Even then, your “gorgeous” shallow depth of field will easily ruin your shoot when you get back to the cutting room and realize that your subject moved an inch and dropped out of the narrow band where things stay in focus. It’s 2016 as of this comment and DSLR continuous auto-focus is still either non-existent or at least problematic. As long as you can work within the severe restrictions and can afford the accessories, it’s great, but it will never be a good substitute for a camcorder.

Here’s the thing that aspiring filmmakers considering a DSLR should think about: an older video-capable DSLR will cost you about $300-$400 used while the newer models start around $650 and go way up from there. Instead of that, what if you got this: a $250 Canon R700 camcorder, a cheap $30 tripod (a Targus one from Walmart is fine), a few utility clamp lights (about $30 for 3 large ones) with “daylight” temperature CCFL 26W bulbs ($7), and a $40 powered shotgun mic (the Movo VXR40 on Amazon works great). That’s under $400 in equipment, the same cost as ONLY a used video DSLR, but you have a real camcorder that can do 1080p at 24p/30p/60p, a shotgun mic for much better audio, and some decent flexible lighting that can easily make your video look “pro.” Lighting and audio are the two huge things that make the difference between amateur and pro appearance, and all the DSLR awesomeness in the world won’t compensate for that.

If you have $2500 to blow, why get a Panasonic GH4 or some other DSLR with all their limitations when you can get a Sony FDR-AX100 camcorder for $1700 (current retail) which has a large 1″ sensor, loads of manual controls, and records true 4K video at 24p/30p and spend the remaining $800 on lights, tripods, sliders, mics, props, a better computer, whatever!

I apologize for the long-winded rant. I could go on and on about this subject but I’ve said my piece. I’d just like to see this DSLR video trend put to rest. Thanks for sparking the conversation.

That’s great. I haven’t tried one but may do so. I think the trick, regardless of the chair, is ‘active’ sitting, where you’re forced to slightly engage your muscles and do a bit of work. Versus what we normally do… just falling into the chair and letting it completely support us.

Yeah, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. But most of us are invincible until we’re not, so we ignore good ergonomics until we have a problem. But I’m hoping to encourage the conversation so maybe a few more folks take it seriously before they have to.