Neil Sadwelkar's musings on Digital

DaVinci Resolve on Windows

2012-01-17T18:50:00.000+05:30

Yes, you read that right. DaVinci Resolve on Windows.

Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, which has been available on Linux, then later Mac, then recently a free Resolve Lite version on Mac… is now available on Windows 7. On Windows too there is a free version - Resolve Lite - and a paid version ($ 1000 or about Rs 70,000). if you have a full Mac version, then that dongle works on Windows too.

So what's the big deal, and the downsides on DaVinci Resolve on Windows?

First, a well-endowed Windows workstation with nearly the same spec as a MacPro or new iMac can be assembled for somewhat less money. But, more importantly, faster GPUs are available for Windows than for Mac. Like the GeForce GTX 580, Quadro 5000 and Quadro 6000, none of which are available for the Mac, yet.

But before you go out and get the cheapest Acer or Dell or assembled PC to run Resolve on, take a look at Blackmagic's spec on the workstation where they have qualified mainly two systems. HP's Z800 and SuperMicro's SuperServer.

The document is called

DaVinci Resolve 8.2 Configuration for Windows

and its here...

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/media/3198982/resolve_win_config_guide_2012-01-17.pdf

If you explore the costing on these machines, you will probably find they cost nearly as much or in fact even more than a MacPro. Check for your self.

But still, these workstations come with more PCIe slots, and more wide PCIe slots so its possible to have more than one GPU, a Blackmagic card, eSATA or SAS card and even one or two Red Rocket cards to make a Windows based Resolve a more powerful machine. Like you can do 3D grading in 4k! And, you can use USB 3.0 for faster storage. USB 3.0 also lets you use the Blackmagic Ultrastudio SDI in place of a Blackmagic HD Extreme card. This is external so one PCIe slot saved.

If you need a basic Resolve on Windows setup, Blackmagic has now qualified a beginner Asus motherboard with an i7 CPU so you get get started for considerably less than with a workstation.

The only downside of Resolve on Windows is that many Mac-specific codecs may not work on Windows. And Windows cannot write or render to ProRes. But if you're working with Red or DPX, then you're good to go on Resolve on Windows.

But what is Resolve?

For those that don't yet know, DaVinci Resolve is a software version of the DaVinci colour correction system that's in almost every telecine suite in Mumbai. Pixion, Prime Focus, Famous, Avitel, Shemaroo… you name one and most likely they use DaVinci for colour correction.

So, if you're an ad film maker who (still) shoots on film, waits till it gets processed, and then runs the negative through a telecine machine at nearly any post house in Mumbai… your film 'gets' its look on a DaVinci.

Some years ago this company was sold to Blackmagic who make video capture cards that work with FCP (and with Premiere Pro and now Avid Media Composer too). Blackmagic took the capabilities of the entire DaVinci colour correction system and put that into a software version - using the power of the computer's CPU and graphics card to do exactly what earlier took nearly a hundred kilos of electronics to achieve.

Unbelievable? Well then, just 15 years ago, 1 terabyte of hard disk space would have weighed about 500 kilos, but now comes in under half a kilo, and your mobile phone has more processing power than an entire desktop computer of 15 years ago - the progress of computers has made DaVinci shrink to a software.

So, the software Resolve can do everything that a 20 year old Resolve hardware could. And yes, the DaVinci hardware in telecine suites in Mumbai is practically the same as what was sold two, yes two decades ago.

If you're in the market for a Windows based colour grading system, and probably have one of these workstations lying around, and would like to experiment, let me know.

Alternately if you want a turnkey Windows Resolve grading system too, drop me a line.

Alexa post - Log-C, LUTs, best practices

2011-11-17T18:20:00.000+05:30

I've got three calls since morning from editors in prominent post houses - one with offices in LA, Vancouver, New York... yeah, yeah we know... and another with offices in Bandra, Andheri, Chennai, London…

Complaining that Alexa footage looks 'milky and low contrast'.

I had written earlier about struggles in digital movie-making

http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2011/05/struggling-with-digital-movie-making.html

And on Arri Alexa Avid workflow

http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2010/12/arri-alexa-avid-workflow.html

Some details on the Alexa camera itself here…

http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2010/05/arri-alexa-digital-movie-camera.html

Here are some simple facts…

The Arri Alexa camera can shoot 'linear' (technically called Rec.709) which looks 'normal'. Or as LogC which looks 'milky and low contrast'.

LogC gives you more latitude. Which, depending on the calibre of the cinematographer, means, he can mess up the exposure and you fix it in post, or he can shoot amazingly and you can change the 'look' and better it in post.

On the set you can shoot LogC (milky) and yet monitor Rec709 (normal). So, many people get fooled into believing what's on the monitor is being recorded.

LogC need to be converted before you can see them normally.

Avid has no method of doing this logC-linear ('milky' to 'normal') conversion.

In FCP you can get Nick Shaw's plug-in for $ 30 (Rs 1500) and apply it to all clips.

But it is 8-bit and not for production.

Alternately you can download a LUT for the Log-C to Rec709 conversion from Arri's web site. Google 'Arri LUT generator' and you'll find it. And also Arri's excellent white paper on how it all works.

You can also use Resolve, or the free Resolve Lite to do this conversion. Download it for free from Blackmagic's web site, struggle with it for a few hours, and then get an expert to do it for you.

Best of all, if you're shooting for TV, and you really don't want to mess with this Log-C business, just shoot linear or Rec709.

About the data coming out of the camera (can't call it 'footage' any more)

Alexa shoots HD 1920x1080 on memory cards - called SxS cards.

or it can shoot '3k' to a Codex digital recorder.

or it can record out to as video to an HDCamSR VTR on to HDCamSR tape.

On memory card it shoots Quicktime movies in the Apple ProRes4444 format.

On the Codex it shoots ArriRAW files that have to be converted before you can edit them.

Copying all this data to WD, or Seagate or LaCie disks is a risk. A drive fails, you need to reshoot. Period.

There are two kinds of people - those who have had to reshoot because of a hard disk failure, and those who have yet to reshoot because of a hard disk failure. Carry a piece of wood to knock on from time to time if you are the latter.

Or, hire someone to do data management for you. Whatever you decide, don't let the post house manage your data. And never leave your data on someone else's hard disk. It is vastly easier to browse, copy and use anyone's data in a post house's shared hard disk - than it used to be in the 'film and video tape' days.

For data storage on movies I'm currently working on - Canon7D, Red, or Alexa, TV or cinema or commercials - I'm currently using RAIDs from Sonnet, G-Tech, and Maxx. All are good. And safe. I also advice backing up to LTO tape for long term storage.

On backup for all this media, I've written about this a while ago, but the basics remain the same…

http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2009/12/backup-for-tapeless-media.html

In terms of disk space…

Shooting HD as ProRes4444 uses up about 140 GB per hour of shoot,

ArriRAW does it at 10 GB per minute, or 600 GB per hour.

ArriRAW has more resolution and latitude than ProRes4444, but at a cost.

There's only one Codex recorder that can shoot ArriRAW, in India, so far.

If all this sounds complicated, it really is just a bit. If you'd like peace of mind, do all that I've recommended and you're safe.

Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve - the real deal

2011-11-17T13:35:00.001+05:30

Blackmagic announced yesterday the immediate availability of Resolve Lite 8.1.1, the free version of DaVinci Resolve colour correction software for the Mac. The free Resolve Lite has been around for many months now, with limitations. One being that you could use only 2 nodes, meaning effects or layers, and that you could work on at the most, an HD timeline.

The new Resolve Lite 8.1.1 breaks the node limitation, but the HD limitation remains. Still, you get a full-blown colour correction tool that used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars just a few years ago, for free. Just download and use. To give your movie a professional 'look', to be a colour correction extension to FCP and Avid systems. Seriously professional tools, now easily accessible by anyone.

In forums and web sites, dismay is being expressed by 'pros' who lament the fall in value of the work of colour correction, and Blackmagic's 'ruining the market' for this hallowed area of post-production. Whichever way this thing goes from here forwards, here is my take on the real deal in this move by Blackmagic.

Film and video post houses of 5 years and older, have their fill of Autodesk Lustre, Quantel iQ, Baselight, Nucoda, and other systems. For film based colour correction, they employ DaVinci and Pogle systems tied to telecine machines. The total number of such entities in India would not be over 100. And the world over, maybe 500 or so.

Resolve may or may not sell to these few.

Smaller post houses have lower end systems from Filmlight, Quantel, Autodesk, and Scratch. These would be in the thousands the world over, and maybe a few hundreds on India. And then there are the Avid-FCP-Smoke shops.

Resolve may or may not sell to these too.

So, combined, the 'high to mid end' market numbers in the thousands maybe 2-3 thousand, maybe more, definitely not more than 10,000. The world over. Okay, 20,000 tops.

Now, coming to the hordes of documentary, small TV commercial, TV serial, and budget film-makers, these number in the millions. FCP itself has sold over 2 million seats worldwide and in India maybe over a hundred thousand. Avid, Premier Pro, Vegas and other NLEs are a smaller number but I could guess them to be a million together.

So there is this 3 million strong 'indie post' market for Resolve Lite. Many of these Resolve Lite users will go in for some Blackmagic hardware as a video out for their Resolve. Either a HD Extreme 3D, or an Intensity card, or a Thunderbolt equipped Ultrastudio. So Blackmagic opens up another avenue for hardware sales. Even if only one-fifth of this market dabbles in Resolve, its a great number. And it can only increase, unlike the multi-crore 'pro' post houses.

Unlike software which can be easily 'shared', hardware is strictly one per system. And it helps that Blackmagic hardware is now compatible with Avid as well as Premiere Pro. And, of course it supports FCP 7 which may have been discontinued by Apple, but it still works for most movie-making situations.

The move to make the Resolve software free, and now, add almost all features in the free version, is therefore, basically a business move by Blackmagic. It may dismay the few thousands (even tens of thousands) of 'pro' users, but it could mean a windfall in business for Blackmagic. By making the software that runs on their hardware, rather than depending on other companies' software (like FCP, Avid and Premiere Pro) alone, Blackmagic have done nearly what Apple have been doing for nearly a decade now.

But what happens to the actual job of colour correction, imparting a 'look' to a movie. And what about the human who does this all. Will the software being free or economical (the full featured unto 4k version also costs only about $1000 or Rs 60,000) devalue this once prized occupation?

I think quite the contrary. Look at other trades.

Editing, which could only be done on large Steenbeck systems and even Avid systems costing almost half a crore rupees (over $ 50,000), can now be done on laptops costing under a lakh rupees. FCP changed that. But editors still make as much (or as less) as they did in the mid nineties when costly Avids ruled.

Sound designing which can be done on even less endowed PCs and Macs have not led to sound engineers being paid less. or their craft in any way devalued. In fact, my sound friends who travelled in buses and trains own some fancy cars now.

So, if anything, this so called 'commoditzation' of technology, does create the impression that anyone can own the means of making movies. Only in the short term. Initially everyone and his dog go out and buy or download these 'cheap' software, and try their hands at using it. Once they see how hard it is to be creative and operate something, they develop a greater value for the man behind the machine.

I am firmly convinced about this and I've seen it happen over and over again.

So, in the coming months brace yourself for some abysmally colour corrected movies by amateurs who've just downloaded Resolve and are trying to make their shots look good. But after that, there will be colorists who will own their own Resolves and movie-makers will queue up to work with a specific colorist. Then they will not bother with what software he or she uses, they will go by what they see on a screen.

For colorists this is a boon. For once, they can own their own grading system for a sum that's less then many of their daily or weekly earnings. And now, they can finally be paid for their skill and not for the cost of the equipment. The 'take home' package for independent colourists just got bigger. Wait and see.

More on the Canon EOS C300 - the FAQ

2011-11-17T13:28:00.000+05:30

The Canon EOS C300 announcement left many a question unanswered. Until now. Canon has put up a FAQ on their Cinema EOS camera systems.

Canon Cinema EOS FAQ
http://learn.usa.canon.com/resources/misc/cinemaEOS_faq.shtml

There's some very interesting explanations on latitude, dynamic range, ISO, 8-bit vs 10-bit, and other such geek stuff. Interesting read.

The new Red camera - Scarlet X

2011-11-05T14:38:00.000+05:30

Scarlet X with LCD touchscreen viewfinder

Scarlet X as the new Red camera announced yesterday, will ship on Nov 17, 2011. Yes, for a camera company that's known for intricate shipping schedules, systems in Beta, slipping delivery times, this shipping on Nov 17 is also a big story.

And the price too. At $ 9,750 for the Canon mount version, and $ 11,250 for the PL mount version, it severely undercuts the F3 and the yet to be released Canon EOS C300. Alexa, Sony F65 will also feel the heat, but only somewhat.

As far as features go, the Scarlet X…

Has a HDRx mode to offer up to 18 stops of latitude.

Shoots at 5k resolution at 12 fps

4k at 1-24 fps

2k at 60 fps

1k at 120 fps

Widest variety of frame rates - 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 47.96, 48, 50, 59.97

The 47.96 is an interesting addition for 'dual rate NTSC 24fps'

It uses a Redcode RAW at 440 Mbps or about 50 MB/sec which is comparable to HDCamSR or SR lite in data rate. About 3:1

It shoots to SSD and has a Canon or PL mount. And supports Red's own LCD touchscreen of the Bomb EVF as viewfinders.

The full spec on the Scarlet is at Red's Scarlet page

http://www.red.com/products/scarlet

The Canon C300 won't ship till 2012. And the just announced 4k HD-DSLR even later. Canon has some breathing space to probably massage their pricing, and even add features. Maybe a 100 Mbps codec, more features through software etc.

It's going to be an interesting 2012 for cameras, and editing stuff from those cameras. At about this time next year, who knows what we would be making movies on.

The new Avid Media Composer 6

2011-11-05T13:59:00.001+05:30

Just after the Canon EOS C300 announcement came the announcement by Avid on their new Media Composer 6 editing software.

Broadly, here's what's new...

New interface but not radically new
Fully 64bit so better use of RAM and faster performance especially for large projects.
Works with other hardware like Aja Kona, Blackmagic Decklink, and, of course Matrox
Better Stereoscopic 3D workflows
5.1 and 7.1 outputs and mix within MC
ProRes encode and decode on Mac
New DNxHD 444 codec for high quality RGB444 workflows
AVCHD and Red Epic native support
Colour grading with Artist color panel
Purchase stock footage online from within MC 6
AvidFX and Boris in all versions

And,
Nitris DX will be available at a lower price of $ 5500
Symphony 6 will be a software product for $ 6000 and will work with the same third party hardware from Aja and Blackmagic.
This might mean some competition for Smoke on Mac.

The full specs on Avid's home page here...

http://www.avid.com/US/products/media-composer

Pricing at $ 2500 (about Rs 1.4 lakhs)
Crossgrade from FCS any version to be unending at $ 1500 (about Rs 85,000)
Upgrade from older versions to be $ 300 (about Rs 17,000)

So, this is a whole new and improved MC 6 with definite performance improvement over past versions. But the changes are not as radical as the FCP-FCPX change which may have put off some editors.

There are huge new features which it is hoped editors will embrace and use more effectively. Actually some of the features even in earlier versions of MC made it foray into finishing systems territory, and this new version continues this trend.

This version of Avid works with the Aja Kona and Blackmagic, so for users with a Mojo SDI that could not work with HD without the pricey MojoDX, can now run Avid with the Aja Kona at $ 2000 or a Blackmagic HD Extreme at $ 1000.
For more details on third party hardware support for the Avid MC here are links...

Aja's web site on the use of MC 6 with Aja cards...

http://www.aja.com/news/index_article.php?id=162

Blackmagic's page describes the use of MC 6 with Blackmagic cards...

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/avid

Canon's new EOS C300 video camera for film-makers

2011-11-05T12:51:00.000+05:30

A couple of days ago, Canon made big news about new products that will affect the way movies get made and edited.
Canon announced a new video camera the EOS C300.
A blow by blow account is here...
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/03/the-canon-hollywood-event-liveblog/?sort=oldest&refresh=0

This is a video camera that Canon has built after studying the response to the 5D MkII, 7D and their range of HD-DSLRs. These were actually cameras that were intended to be still cameras that could shoot movies too. But ended up being used as video cameras for docus, ads, even feature length movies.
The EOS C300 is made as a movie camera first. It will be available in early 2012 for about US$ 16,000.
More information will be available as we go along, but from the announcement, highlights of this new camera are...
Super35 equivalent sensor
8.3 Megapixels resolution
No auto settings, everything manual all the time
LCD screen, XLR inputs included
Rolling shutter effects reduced
MPEG-2 50 Mbps Full HD (MPEG2 422@HL) codec not H.264
So FCP/Avid should be able to do playback without conversion
Canon log gamma to stretch dynamic range
Up to 60 fps for slow motion
'True' 24fps, not 23.98fps
PL mount and EF mount versions
New '4k' lenses to match the camera
Built-in cooling system

As usual, Vincent LaForet has made a movie with this camera and its available for viewing here...
http://vimeo.com/laforet/mobius720
and a behind the scenes video of Mobius
http://vimeo.com/31526888

More on the C300 as information is out, but the $16-20k (Rs 8-10 lakhs) price tag will not affect the 5D MkII and 7D crowd, but it could end up challenging the Sony F3 and maybe the Alexa. Let's wait and see till after Jan 2012.

Canon also announced the future development of a full frame still camera capable of recording 4k movies at 24P with M-JPEG compression.

The still-under-development 4k capable Canon still camera

There's also the announcement by Red on a new camera, but more at it happens.

Steve Jobs leaves behind the Mac, and his 'touch'

2011-10-06T10:19:00.001+05:30

Steve Jobs - farewell.

A few hours ago, Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, ex-CEO, and creator of the Apple Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad - devices that sold in the hundreds of millions - left us. His devices and ideas forever changed the way the common man uses a computing device often even to make a living.

There are several tributes celebrating the life of this extraordinary man - at All Things D, GigaOM, Macworld, and even a live webcast at live.twit.tv.

I'd like to reminisce on how the Apple and Mac affected us in India over the years.

When the first Apple Mac was available, it sold in India for about 4-5 times (right, US $ price multiplied by 4 or 5) due to the combination of some ridiculous taxation, and human greed.

Two of these - Mac SE and Apple II - along with Imagewriter and Laserwriter printers and software like MacDraw, Aldus Pagemaker, and others, costed over Rs 6 lakhs in 1986. But with just these two machines, we designed and executed the entire Discovery of India Exposition at Nehru Centre in 1989 - it stands to this day.

In the early nineties while the PC struggled to show graphic images, and play sound smoothly, the Mac shone in these areas. Almost all ad agencies in Mumbai had Mac computers, and even a job description called 'Mac operator'. When one needed an artwork changed, one had to have a 'Mac operator' or you couldn't. For the world's easiest to use computer I've always found this queer.

Avid Media Composer was the first widespread editing system on a computer - an NLE on a Mac. In the early nineties Avids first replaced Steenbecks and Acmades for feature film editing, and then went on to become the main editing platform even for ad film and TV work. Replacing 'cut to cut' systems like the RM 440 and RM 450. Renu Saluja was probably one of the first editors to embrace this new way of working while many held on to their Steenbecks.

After Avid, Media 100, Cosa After Effects, and many other software made an editor's life easier, and edits looked better. All of these only ran on the Mac. The DVision and Premiere briefly threatened the Mac and many in India especially those who sold alternative editing systems like edit* spread the word that "Apple company is closing down".

Steve Jobs had then just left Apple and started another computer company - NeXT. The first NeXT computer was an innovation. Black and cube shaped with an optical drive. CMC at Cuffe Parade had one, and they ran some animation and CGI software on it. We did a spinning Earth animation for the Nehru Planetarium. Watching that on a 20 inch colour monitor was a dream. We drank to celebrate that day.

In the mid nineties with built-in ABVB boards that the PowerPC 9500 Mac could handle, Avid got more affordable and my friend Adi Pocha bought one. It was a beige Mac with a very fast CD-ROM drive, 56 MB of RAM, when most PCs were 4 or 8 MB. And a whopping 18 GB hard disk space. This was Avid Media Composer on a Mac in 1996. Anand, Peter, and me worked on hundreds of commercials TV shows (Sorry meri Lorry, Suno suno tring tring tring, etc) in the next 5 years or so.

Avid briefly announced that the Mac version would not be supported and then back tracked and made new Mac versions. Truevision, ABVB, and then Meridian versions of Avid Media Composer with a variety of names MC400, MC800, MC1000, MC 9000, Film Composer. And a variety of 'resolutions' AVR3, AVR6, AVR 75 and even 77 which gave way to ratios - 1:5, 1:10 and finally 1:1.

Avid managed through all this confusion, to protect their market share, mostly on Macs. Discreet edit* briefly threatened Avid as it was PC-based hence India-friendly, but Discreet pulled the plug on that.

In 2000, in an Avid dominated universe of editing systems, Apple shipped Final Cut Pro. Apple's own editing software. With no easy way to interface the new Firewire based DV cameras, FCP quickly caught on. For me, it was a life saver. I was stuck in Dubai shooting with a DV camera with nothing but Meridien Avids on rent at US$ 350 per hour.

A friendly Mac dealer gave me an FCP 1.0 box, and another friendly ad agency artist let me use his Mac (then a G3) at night to edit my capsules for CNN and Sony. For nights on end I used this new easy to use software. My livelihood depended on it then, so cribbing about bugs and how different it was from Avid was not an option. $350 per hour for Avid, or free for FCP, the choice was easy.

But even in the early 2000s editors like me couldn't afford to own an editing system. An Avid in 2000 cost more than an apartment at Andheri West. So I bought an apartment instead. Many years later, a kind Mac reseller (called PCS) gifted me a used 'buy-back' PowerPC 9500/132 as the Mac was known then. It barely ran FCP, but enough for me to explore it thoroughly and help many a Mac reseller support an FCP system.

The iPod was introduced by Apple in 2000, the first music player by a computer company. In India it was a disaster. Slow internet, no iTunes store, Firewire port so only Mac connectivity - and a very small Apple Mac population did the iPod in, for India. A dealer once told me that Apple gave a prize to anyone who in 2001 could sell 30 iPods in one month. Today most Apple retailers even in India probably sell that many in a day or even an hour on weekends.

FCP on a Mac was the first editing system that practically anyone could own. My friend Abhinay bought a system in 2002. Using this, his company RDP produced over a hundred TV commercials, many of which were edited by me - first on a G3, then G4, the G5. As Apple made machines that were affordable and even replaceable every 2-3 years.

In later years the price of Apple systems dropped significantly in India as Apple india participated in their sale. Anyone could own and Apple, so everyone who could afford it, did. And since anyone could own an editing system because of FCP, many movies looked like anyone could have made them.

2007 saw the iPhone, again not very popular in India at first as it was locked and not sold here. I got one because someone I knew had one but didn't like it so sold it to me cheap. In later years I got the next models as well.

Eventually I got an editing system in the shape of an iMac, another Apple computer that was affordable. Then a Powerbook, a MacBook Pro, another iMac, yet another MacBook Pro and another iMac.

In Apr 2010 on a trip to the US just in time for the iPad's release, I had a niece book me one which I got the day it was released. It was shipped while I was still in India so my nephew simply couldn't resist just looking longingly at the box. I let him open it before I got there, and he promptly jumped into his car and got himself one.

Such became the power of Apple's product that people just longed to own them. Apple stores, all over the world, added to this 'hook' that customers experienced. If you walked into an Apple Store, touched, felt, used a machine. You just bought it. Or at least some software, accessories, something.

With no formal management training, no market surveys, no product testing in the marketplace, none of the 'safe' methods of making and selling products - Steve Jobs still managed to turn Apple around. From bankruptcy in 1996 to more money than many countries in 2011.

Wherever Apple goes from here - and there is reason to believe that it will continue to do well - one thing is for sure. Even in faraway India, Apple managed to touch the lives of many tens of thousands of creative professionals - editors, photographers, sound recordists and engineers, graphic artists, CGI artists, architects, bridge builders and space engineer… the list goes on. And for many millions of common people who own an iPod, an iPod touch, a iPhone or an iPad. Apple is part of their daily lives.

Alvidaa Steve Jobs. Friend, wherever you are, you and our creations will touch and be touched by people and be remembered for many decades. We are fortunate to have lived in your times.

Avid and FCP for just over a lakh Rupees

2011-09-26T08:03:00.000+05:30

Apple is still selling Final Cut Studio 3 which contains Final Cut Pro 7, Motion, Compressor, Soundtrack Pro, Color.DVD Studio Pro. For the price of about Rs 60,000 or maybe lower, this is still a good bargain.

The price of Avid Media Composer, (software only) on the other hand, is Rs 1.4 lakhs.

But, for a very short while, you can get both for substantially less.

Avid has a special offer for Avid Media Composer in exchange for your FCP number, for less than Rs 60,000. So, if you buy FCP 7 now, give Avid just the number of your FCP, you can have an Avid and a FCP for a little over Rs 1,10,000.

Avid's offer ends Sept 30, 2011. You need to give them a valid FCP license number. Not the software, just the serial number.

More details here…

http://www.avid.com/US/specialoffers/fcp-mc-promotion?elq_mid=4875&elq_cid=5743052

Or, just get in touch with Real Image or any other Avid resellers in your area.

And by the way, it is possible to run Avid and FCP on the same system.

If your requirement is to be able to capture from tape and play out to a VTR or monitor, you need hardware. The Mojo SDI will work in Avid but not FCP. And Mojo does not support HD. Blackmagic cards support HD and work in FCP, but not in Avid. So also Aja cards.

So?

Get in touch with me and I can suggest how best to configure a system for FCP and Avid.

Final Cut Pro X update 10.0.1

2011-09-23T20:14:00.000+05:30

Some days ago Apple released an update for Final Cut Pro X. 10.0.1. This remedies some of the features missing in Final Cut Pro X (FCPX). Mainly, XSan compatibility, XML import-export, and other features.

There's a detailed discussion on this along with statements from Richard Townhill from Apple at postmagazine.com, the full article here.

There's also a link to Apple's whitepaper on FCP X for FCP 7 editors.

This is also an interesting read.

But one of the significant takeaways from these two is that you still cannot and probably will not be able to open FCP 7 projects in FCP X. Not even via XML like we used to be able to open FCP 7 projects in FCP 6 via XML. That isn't supported.

The 24@25 PAL film workflow is still not supported, so if editing feature films in India is what you do for a living you can continue with FCP 6 or FCP 7. Or, if you happen to have an FCP 6 or 7 licence, you can buy an Avid Media Composer 5.5 for under Rs 60,000.

Premiere Pro too doesn't support the PAL 24@25 workflow that we in India use for editing feature films shot on 24fps and edited via a telecine to video.

If anyone is absolutely interested in editing feature films shot on film in FCP X, there are workarounds by doing telecine to HD files. This is especially good for low budget films shot on 16mm film. It is possible to edit and finish all picture post within FCP X.

But FCP X is not the same as FCP 7 or anything else. Its a whole new way of approaching the job of editing. Many lament its radical departure from FCP 7 and earlier versions. But I feet FCP X is not as different from other editing systems, as manual film editing on Steenbeeck and such systems was from non-linear editing.

And if we made that transition two decades ago, we can make this one now. I'm trying. And I urge anyone who's keen to do so too. FCP X is available as a free 30 day trial now. So what's the harm?

IBC 2011

2011-09-08T22:45:00.000+05:30

The International Broadcasters Conference (IBC) begins in Amsterdam today. Part of this is a large - about 5 times as large as NSE Goregaon in Mumbai - exhibition that opens tomorrow and runs till the 13th Sept at the RAI complex in Amsterdam. This exhibition shows the latest in TV, video, film, broadcasting, webcasting and other allied fields.

As in previous years, I'll be there. But this time I won't be representing any post house, or manufacturer. Just myself. Roving around finding out the latest, and sniffing out trends that will affect the way we make movies, show them, and how audiences will 'consume' the stuff we create.

In the lead up to the expo, I've been in chatting with people in media out here in India. And overall many say they are gearing up for changes. Quite far reaching changes in the way things move in this field. And some are still living in denial and believe there's still business in post as it stands today.

Post, or post-production, which used to be done out of large facilities like Pixion, Prime Focus, Reliance. These, and others are closely observing the evolution in movie-making. Large, well appointed multi million dollar central machine rooms, proprietary systems - hardware and software - and other such expensive installations are being upstaged by small economical desktop systems that people own and use to create entertainment. The Rs 1 million ($ 20,000+) VTR being replaced by the memory card reader that costs under Rs 500 (US$ 10) even in Bandra.

The revolution that happened in IT some decades ago when large mainframes were upstaged by desktop PCs. Huge tape storages were replaced by floppies at first, and hard disks later. This seems to be the trend that's nearly happening in post production - of films, TV shows, and commercials.

Broadcast - where one central entity sends entertainment out on cable or satellite... to homes which wait for it to arrive. Is gradually being nudged by webcast - where entertainment is always available for anyone to watch anywhere, any time.

This is still in its infancy in India because of our slow Internet connections and not so widespread use of broadband. But this new method of 'broadcast' is poised to forever change the way the public receives programs - movies, songs, TV shows, shorts, etc.

I've seen cabbies, and elevator operators ('liftmen') watch movies or parts of movies, or just songs, on their mobile phones. In their free time. Maybe these are downloaded at the present time, but they'll soon be streamed when bandwidth scales.

People acquire and share movies via software like WhatsApp and see them or show them around to an audience that is increasingly getting used to watching entertainment whenever they have the time, rather than waiting for it to show up on their TV sets.

Digital is making rapid progress in quality while getting more and more economical to use. This has given birth to movies which get made at a very low cost. Where otherwise the cost and complexity of using film made it near impossible to make a movie that one had thought out in one's head. 'Stanley ka Dabba' has been a trend setter in this space and many more movies will follow suit in the coming years.

Film projector based theatres are giving way to digital projectors playing entire movies at high (2k, soon to be 4k) resolution with digital surround sound. And being digital, the movie looks as good three weeks later as it did on the first day.

So watch this space for the next week as I report on the latest, the greatest, the fastest, smallest and cheapest - tools for storytellers as Avid likes to call it. Tools which help us draw people into a darkened room, take money from them, and make them laugh, cry, and forget their daily lives. Within the end of the decade we will be doing it differently, far far differently than our forefathers did for almost a century.

Count on it.

FCP X cannot (yet) do 24@25 film editing

2011-07-11T08:30:00.000+05:30

This is to clarify FCP X's capability, or lack thereof, of some workflows being used in some parts of the world. Specifically India.

FCP X is not currently capable of doing a feature edit in the 24@25 method with an EDL or cut list as the final output. Or even if you need to make an OMF for sound at the end of the edit.

One can, however edit a feature on FCP X. Something shot digitally where the final output for release can be made from within FCP X.

FCP X may not support some of the tape based workflows in use in TV here. But FCP X is still an editing system. So, with some third party help for managing tape, FCP X can still be used in TV shows.

On '24@25 editing'

A lot of editors in this part of the world still edit feature films...

...shot on film at 24fps (yes, there is such a thing as 24fps)

...transferred to SD video at 25fps (4% fast, but frame count intact)

...captured into FCP as 25fps, conformed to 24fps using CinemaTools and edited at 24fps.

After editing is complete, EDLs are made for the DI process, or cut lists for manual negative cutting.

India releases close to 800+ feature movies a year using this method. Editing is done on FCP or Avid Media Composer, but I don't have figures for percentage of each.

So, for these features, FCP 6 and 7 are adequate and will continue to be so.

FCP X currently lacks any feature that would make this 24@25 editing possible.

And then there's Television, 300+ channels in 20 languages. TV is largely dominated by FCP. And TV is still largely SD, with channels requiring a DigiBeta or Betacam tape master. For these workflows too FCP X can be used for the editing, but a third party app like Media Express would need to be used to make the tape outputs.

After observing some editors I've encountered here, FCP X may actually be a better choice as it really is simpler than FCP 6-7. No easy setups to mess up, no frame rate issues. Media is managed by FCP so no maze of Capture Scratch folders. Colour correction is automatic. Clip organization could be automated too. Rendering is background so less time spent making masters.

Apple FCP X remedies?

2011-07-07T21:18:00.000+05:30

Apple to Allow Additional FCP 7 Enterprise Licenses and More on FCP X

Is the headline and there are some issues that Apple has seemingly assured users would be fixed. Particularly the ability to be able to still buy FCP 7. I'm not sure if these assurances really amount to much, or frankly, are even necessary. And, in the absence of a real time frame for implementation, I'm putting these down as, like they say in our Government, "in due course".

So here are the assurances and my observations (in italics)

1. FCP XML in/out is coming via 3rd party soon…no FCP 6/7 support project support coming ever it seems…

If XML in/out is supported, then porting FCP 7 projects to FCP X should be easy/possible. I've been working with FCP X for a few days, doing real edits. I see no reason for going back to FCP 7 for real editing, if you're really happy working in FCP X. Also, opening an FCP 7 project in FCP X has no real utility for me after the FCP 7 project has been delivered. But for some people its necessary to be able to open old projects.

2. Ability to buy FCP7 licenses for enterprise deployments coming in the next few weeks…

This will be applicable only to those who have a volume licence and wish to add more seats. Individual users still won't be able to buy FCP 7. In India it doesn't matter as most FCP seats in India are obtained from a supplier called 'Bit Torrent' and most Indian FCP users obtain their 'licence' from a volume licence source called Serial Box.

3. FCPX EDL import/export coming soon…

This should be helpful. But I don't think all features in FCP X can be supported in an EDL.

4. FCPX AJA plugins coming soon for tape capture and layback…capture straight into FCPX bins.

You don't need to capture to an FCP bin. If media is added it will show up in the Event library. In any case Blackmagic's Media Express v3 application that's free with any Blackmagic card is vastly more useful than FCP's log and capture window.

5. XSAN support for FCPX coming in the next few weeks…

XSan will be free with MacOSX 10.7 Lion, so this is really good.

6. FCPX Broadcast video output via #Blackmagic & @AJAVideo coming soon…

This is good and needed.

7. Additional codec support for FCPX via 3rd Parties coming soon…

Depending on which codecs. FCP still needs to be able to directly import 'orphan' AVCHD .MTS and XDCamEx files that are delivered without the correct folder structure. Very common in India. And, Premiere Pro and Avid MC 5.5 can directly work with AVCHD .MTS
8. Customizable sequence TC in FCPX for master exports coming soon…

Lukewarm. Why do you need sequence TC when you don't have edit to tape. And Aja's and Blackmagic tape output utilities can do ETT. You can always export as QT from FCP X and modify the exported QT's timecode in CinemaTools or QTChange. Then do ETT with Aja VTRExchange or BM Media Express.

9. Some FCPX updates will be free some will cost…

Let's see the free and let's see the cost. Once again, Indian users are used to 'managing' software costs.

How FCP X will really matter to India

2011-07-03T21:10:00.001+05:30

I bought and downloaded FCP X the day it was launched. And now I'm reading the manual and watching training videos to get the 'funda behind' FCP X. It's taking time because FCP X is a whole new app. It does a whole new set of things in totally new ways. Its almost like how I made the transition from Steenbeck to linear tape editing to editing on a computer (first Avid, then FCP)

My preliminary observation is that FCP X is meant for the 'new editor'. The person who will shoot a movie on a tapeless camera. Someone who finds bins, sequences, master clips and their tenuous connections very hard to fathom. Who doesn't bother with Easy setups, settings and all those 'pro features'. I come across many such because they call or write me with some rather basic questions.

So FCP X is for that newcomer who needs to quickly and easily put together an edit and output it to a modern distribution format like web video, DVD, Blu-ray or a variety of file formats. Such a user probably doesn't even know or care about what a DigiBeta or HDCamSR is.

And such users are in the millions, while the pros are only in the thousands. These 'new age pros' make documentaries, corporate films, AVs, small commercials, news capsules, even wedding videos. Some of them are really accomplished film-makers or directors who have no time or patience to learn the intricacies of editing on a computer. But they do have editing sense. And have gotten sick of waiting upon 'pro editors' and their fusses about systems hanging and crashing and all the jargon.

But as I ponder on the impact of FCP X on large post facilities and workflows in India, and particularly in Mumbai here is how it breaks down.

FCP X can not capture from, or output to tape, so all our DigiBeta and Beta based workflows which form a major part of advertising and TV in India, cannot work with FCP X. But you can edit an ad film if it was shot tapeless and you're OK with mastering out of FCP as a file.

FCP X does not have the 24@25 film edit workflow that FCP 7 and earlier versions do, so you can't edit a feature film, shot on film and needing a cut list or EDL on FCP X. But you can edit a feature that's not shot on film and does not need an EDL or cut list.

FCP X cannot make an EDL, so if your workflow involves going to Smoke/eQ etc via an EDL, then you can't use FCP X. Not even XML is possible. With the addition of a $ 500 plug-in from Automatic duck you can make an AAF from an FCP X timeline if you're really desperate.

FCP X does not (yet) support capture cards like Blackmagic or Aja, but that will change soon.

Apple has a FCP X FAQ up at their site explaining some of the changes in FCP X.

http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/faq/

But how much of an impact is all this to post and TV in Mumbai? India and Mumbai are somewhat of a 'special case' as far as FCP is concerned. Here's how...

I went over to a large post house in Bandra. There, out of 7 FCPs, 5 were FCP 6 (not even FCP 7), and two were FCP 7. The two FCP 7 licenses were not purchased, but…

Then, over to Khar where another international post house has about 3 FCPs and many more Avids. The FCPs here were some on G5 systems, and some on Intel. They also have a 'broadcast division' and some asset management thing with as many as 16 FCP systems. As far as I know none of these FCP licenses are purchased, but…

At a TV channel in Andheri East, there are 21 FCPs for internal channel work. This is largely tapeless. so maybe they can use FCP X. But their 21 FCPs licenses are not purchased (at least that's how it was when installed, maybe they've gone and got licences now) so even they are probably on 'free FCP'.

At a TV channel at Malad, they have 20+ FCPs all licenses purchased. Their VP told me that they are watching FCP X closely. Maybe at a future date I may go over and do a small workshop on how FCP X works out for broadcasting. I believe it does.

At the hundreds of 'hole in the wall' small studios at Andheri's Adarsh Nagar and Aram Nagar, I've not come across too many FCP boxes. In fact many post houses here don't even know FCP comes in a box. The Apple dealer usually 'bundles' FCP with the MacPro purchase.

Apple in India usually turns a blind eye to this and emails to their Sales heads normally don't elicit any response. Apple sells a system anyway, so what if the software isn't exactly paid for.

So, what impact can FCP X have to a land where tape still rules, where film editing is still SD based, and FCP software is totally free for many if not most users?

In the near term, for institutional customers, the impact of FCP X will be practically nil. They will persist with FCP 7 for 1-2 years more till their existing hardware breaks down and new hardware doesn't support FCP 7.

After introducing FCP X, Apple discontinued selling FCP 7. This doesn't matter to India one bit as most resellers and customers are stocked up with FCP serial numbers. And FCP 7 disk images are very easy to come by. So FCP 7 will be available in India approximately forever.

But over the next few months, individual film-makers will go out and get MacBook Pros and iMacs, and use FCP X by themselves. They will turn out good looking movies. As FCP X does some really advanced colour correction, and handles defects like camera shake, and adds pretty advanced effects quite easily.

These individuals will quickly find out that if they apply themselves to learning the reasonably easy interface, they probably need not go to finish their movies in Smoke or eQ or Resolve. And so will emerge the new film-maker, armed with a machine, a software and a will to excel. That's how far I think FCP X will go.

As for Apple, where they sold probably (by my wild guess) only about 1 FCP license per 10 Mac system (sold for editing) In India, they will now sell one FCP per machine sold since FCP X is really hard to pirate. In any case at $ 300 Apple is not likely to bother with FCP X piracy when they didn't bother when FCP 6 or 7 at $ 1000 - $1200 was brazenly pirated.

Some users will crib and turn to Adobe Premiere or Avid Media Composer, both easily available 'for free' in India. Then they'll find that these are also complicated and not without their own shortcomings. So if you've got to learn something new, why not learn FCP X.

By the way if anyone in India had to really choose between paying...

FCP X for Rs 13,000, or FCP 7 for Rs 55,000, or Adobe Premiere for Rs 85,000, or Avid Media Composer for Rs 1,40,000, and if that person wasn't a 'pro' who had some definite affinity to any of these, then its clear to see which one will come out on top as far as sales numbers go.

So that's the impact of FCP X in India. Largely 'free users', old arcane workflows, not-so-new machines, will skip FCP X. And a new breed of movie enthusiasts will embrace FCP X and drive the aforementioned 'pros' out of business. Wait and see.

FCP X !!!

2011-06-22T08:30:00.002+05:30

When you launch FCP X it says FCP 10.0 So it is ver. 10

And after it launches which is rather fast, by the way, you get a first look at the interface.

So...

Lots to learn. Lots to figure out. Need more time.

Check my earlier posts for more info and some other's reactions.

Getting FCP X

2011-06-22T08:19:00.002+05:30

I've bought it already and its getting downloaded as I write. Along with Motion and Compressor.
Till then, here are some first reactions by experts...

Steve Martin's first look
Gary Adcock's first look
Larry Jordan's reaction

My copy is nearly here...

Final Cut Pro X released!

2011-06-21T23:57:00.006+05:30

One of the most discussed, slammed, hotly debated, praised but still, most eagerly awaited version of Apple Final Cut Pro, or FCP, was released just a few hours ago. About 6 pm out time. Larry Jordan's newsletter said 5.30 am. I take that to be PST.
Some important differences from the past...
FCP X will be available as an online purchase on the App Store for $ 299
Motion is $ 49, and Compressor is $ 49.
There is no mention of Color, DVD Studio Pro, or Soundtrack Pro. But from reading the specs it appears that some features of all these are rolled into FCP. I can't say for certain which features are in and which are out till I use FCP X.
There is also no mention of Cinema Tools, or of 24fps editing (24@25) in PAL. So, maybe this feature along with Keycode support for film editing has been dropped.
There is no capture from tape except DV, DVCam, DVCPro over Firewire, and that to only capture now. So if tape is still in your life you need to use Aja's VTR XChange tool or Blackmagic Media Express, both of which are rather capable compared to Apple's Log and Capture tool.

There is no export to EDL, no OMF, no XML. But Apple is likely to get the XML export sorted out.

So, should you or should you not get FCP X?
If you're in the middle of a project on FCP 6 or 7, no. If you don't want to learn a whole new interface, then also no. If your work needs capture form tape or output to tape, then too, no.

If you are editing a feature film shot on 16mm or 35mm, and need EDLs, can cut lists, then forget about FCP X. Not now, probably not ever. You're stuck to FCP 7 for an indefinite period, or till you don't need cut lists or EDLs, whichever comes sooner.

But, if you work with stuff shot on Canon 5D/7D, XDCamEx, AVCHD, AVC Intra, P2 and some other formats, then FCP X offers a vastly simpler workflow than FCP 6 or 7. Direct working with these formats. Background proxy generation, no rendering needed etc etc.

I'm about to take the leap and get FCP X as soon as I can download the GBs needed. I will report as soon as I have more info. Until then, keep checking this space.

More info on FCP X

The original press release is here...

The complete list of features is here...

Philip Hodgetts has an excellent list of fundas
here...

For any queries please write me at
neil (at) sadwelkar (dot) com
Replace (at) and (dot) with you know what. And please, no spaces.

Struggling with digital movie-making

2011-05-28T13:09:00.010+05:30

For the past few months I've been working on setting up and executing a simple and efficient workflow for the post of a delightful little movie called 'Stanley ka Dabba'. This movie was shot entirely on a Canon 7D DSLR camera. I've posted many a post of still cameras that shoot videos right here...

The Canon 7D DSLR camera shoots beautiful and natural stills. And the same sensor shoots HD video. These are saved on CF cards. As Quicktime movies encoded H.264 with PCM audio.

But there are two major problems. One is, the Canon 7D shoots 23.976 fps, not true 24 fps that film in theaters runs at. And the other is that the files have no timecode (TC in short) or reel/source associated with them. HD movie files out of a Canon are called MVI_xxxx where xxxx is a number serially added by the camera.

So what happens is that after one finishes the edit, and needs to send it for further post, like colour correction, VFX etc, there is no EDL based route to sending the edit data onward.

For 'Stanley ka Dabba', I had devised a workflow where I converted the files from 23.98 to 24fps without any frame loss or motion conversion. I then striped all the files with timecode with one following the next, sort of like they were captured off tape. And I assigned a reel name or source for all the files as per the folder they resided in.

Deepa Bhatia, the editor and co-producer of 'Stanley ka Dabba' edited on an Avid Media Composer, I made ALE files for her assistants to import into a bin and then batch imported the original (striped with TC) files from the Canon. That way Avid also 'gets' the TC from the Canon files.

After Deepa's edit, the colour correction happened at Reliance MediaWorks. On the Baselight at Reliance, the Avid EDLs that Deepa made out, perfectly conformed the original Canon files and they were on their way to colour grading within minutes. There was no struggle whatsoever.

So what's with the title of this post? 'Struggling with digital movie-making'. Here's what...

On the same day as 'Stanley ka Dabba' was released, there was another movie released, a horror movie about text messages. This too was shot (partly or entirely) on a Canon DSLR. But they chose to do their post in a different way. They directly imported the Canon files into Avid Media Composer to edit them. No 24fps, no TC.

Long story short, that movie had to be re-assembled manually shot by shot, eye-matched on an Autodesk Smoke system. The post facility concerned, simply couldn't fathom a correct method for reproducing the original edit.

Similarly, there are other post houses which have yet another interesting workflow for Canon files. They advocate (or so I am told by clients who've been there) first transferring all the Canon 7D files to HDCam tape (eeks 3:1:1 colour sampling) or HDCamSR tape.

In a period of nearly extinct and horrendously expensive HDCamSR tapes (after the Japan tsunami-earthquake), this isn't a rather bright suggestion.

I'm getting a bit snarky and sarcastic about all this because, as an editor it bothers me no end that people with no desire to find out new solutions, have such a say in the way post-production is (man)handled.

There are also other struggles and horror stories - with Alexa files, bad colour space conversions, loss of timecode, Red R3D file conversions that take days to get done, Weisscam files that just don't open and many such 'Adventures of a digital rebel'.

In my opinion 'Stanley ka Dabba showed that if one has a story with a heart, a positive attitude, and the ability to take a calculated risk in doing something for the first time, then there is a medium that's waiting to help you tell your story. There are challenges for sure, and shooting Canon is not exactly simple.

So just go to a theatre near you where 'Stanley' is showing, and take a look for yourself. Cinematographers and even DOPs (are they different?) will of course find issues with latitude, resolution, gamma, etc etc.

But you know what. With some 'careful' lighting it is entirely possible to make even 35mm film look flat. And some 'adventurous' DI colour correction can easily make film look synthetic and 'inorganic' too.

About operations on the Canon 7D, not being able to pull focus or aperture, no optical viewfinder (for video), and other whines from movie film cinematographers. I got an interesting insight at a fashion show a few weeks ago at the Leela.

At the head of the ramp during the show, there were photographers taking stills on their DSLRs. How do they focus, without a tape measure, with the artist walking toward them with no 'mark' to stop on, no rehearsal 'for movement'. And stills photographers have to take a frozen moment, so going out of focus is also out of the question.
And with the light at fashion shows they are often shooting at wide apertures, so depth of field is shallow.

Bottom line. Digital 'movie-making' is on it way to replacing the term 'film-making'. These are early days, of course. Those who forge ahead are the positive ones with guts. The rest will whine and sigh and hang on to film with a naive hope that digital is a fad that will go away and one day we will all go back to film.

As far as post production is concerned - editing, colour correction, sound editing and mixing - most of this is digital for a decade or more. Doing post on digital is no more complex than post for film - managing logs, key codes, cut lists, pull lists, making cement joints, Hamman joints, winding and rewinding film on a winder - I'm glad we got rid of all that.

Movieola, Steenbeck, Hamman splicer... digital is vastly simpler than working on these

Red One, Red MX, Epic, Alexa, Canon 5D/7D, AVCHD, XDCamEx, HDCamSR, Viper, D-21, Genesis, ArriRAW, Canon MPEG2 422, AVC-Intra, P2, XDCamHD, Varicam, DVCProHD, KiPro, Gemini, Hyperdeck, Nanoflash, GoPro... the list goes on...

There are a large number of resources and personal experiences for each of these. Forums, blogs, web zines are oozing with information. And simple common sense, along with some basic knowledge of how computers work and store data, also helps. For my part, I've worked hard to be ready for each and every one of these new digital formats.

Store, Copy, Convert, Edit, colour grade, finish, backup, archive, re-purpose into new formats... the whole nine yards.
So digital doesn't have to be struggle, unless you try hard, do the wrong things, or go to the wrong places.

Final Cut Pro X aka FCP 8

2011-04-13T09:55:00.000+05:30

A few minutes ago, at the FCPUG Supermeet, Apple representatives unveiled the new Final Cut Pro, called Final Cut Pro X or FCP X. Details are still coming in as the event is still under way. But the highlights so far...

New interface, quite different

No rendering

All formats native

Enhancements for editing ease

Ease of use for sound

Peaks in timeline

Keyframing done differently

Will detect image volume - CU, MCU, MS, LS etc

Auto colour correction

Many more, will report as I study them

Will be available June 2011

At the App Store for US$ 299

NAB 2011 - Day 1

2011-04-12T09:21:00.000+05:30

NAB 2011 has officially begun. Form the post production, editing, and finishing point of view some of the leading events were...

Baselight showed their Baselight plug-in for FCP. Editors can now grade their shots within FCP itself. In place of effects controls you see the black/grey Baselight interface with its distinctive controls. What you grade can be rendered and output. So you can say, "I'm grading on Baselight". You can also export your grade as an XML to import into a real Baselight on Linux and finish it there.
Baselight plug-in for FCP will be available in a few months for under $ 1000.

Baselight also showed a new and improved grading panel - the Blackboard 2.

Resolve unveiled an update - Resolve 8. This has a multi-layer timeline, just like any editing system. Resolve now imports XMLs and builds timelines without having to import material into it's 'media pool'. It supports OpenCL, so systems like the new MacBook Pro or iMac that don't have Nvidia CUDA graphics, you can still use Resolve. Resolve 8 is free for existing users, and will cost $995 for new users, available June.

And a free version of Resolve called Resolve lite that has the Resolve interface with some limitations on nodes and GPU power. I think this will be the on set tool for most digital workflows in India.

Free is also a smart move as most Indians feel shy to buy software. Even large post houses with offices in Hollywood often do their software shopping at the 'Torrent Mall'.

Avid showed a new version of Media Composer ver 5.5 which allows capture and output via third party hardware, currently only the Aja IO Express.
Avid also offered a FCP cross-grade. Meaning if you have an existing FCP version, you can hand that in and take a MediaComposer software for only $ 995. About Rs 45,000 for an entire Avid... software, of course.

Sony showed a 4k camera... finally. The F65 CineAlta. And they showed a short film shot on this camera at 4k.
And many more new products. Memory based recorders, OLED monitors, and of course, 3D cameras.

Blackmagic showed a Decklink 4k which can play and record 4k over 4 SDI inputs.
I have a feeling we will see more of this with the new FCP whenever its shown (like tomorrow;-). Because otherwise, there's no real use of 4k, as FCP doesn't support it yet.
Blackmagic also unveiled a range of cards and products. Including one interface that works on Thunderbolt. I'm sure there are more in the pipeline.
And there are a couple of HD uncompressed recorders for high quality 4:2:2 HD recordings over HD-SDI or HDMI. With embedded audio. These look interesting even for studio use.

Aja released a 4k mode for the Kona 4 using 4 SDI outs to play back full 4k.

Aja also announced Thunderbolt support for an upcoming product called 'Phaser'

Assimilate announced a Scratch for Mac for $ 18,000 and an on set Digital lab for conversions, preview and other processing on set. $ 5000.

Telestream made announcements on new products. Notable among them being ProRes encoding on their PC products. And enhanced RS-422 support for their Pipeline products. So you can implement a 'Virtual VTR' with a Pipeline and any Mac, even an iMac.

Matrox announced Thunderbolt support for their MXO devices. These are currently connected to systems over ExpressCard or PCIe. What's surprising is that the announcement refers to what appears to be backward compatibility with existing MXO devices using "Matrox Thunderbolt adapters for all MXO2 devices can be purchased as an add-on at $299 US (£199, €249)".

Lots more to come.

NAB 2011 - preview

2011-04-11T13:29:00.000+05:30

NAB starts off in las Vegas in a few hours, at about 9.30 pm India time. The exhibition runs Apr 11-14. And like in previous years, new systems, software updates, 3D, more 3D and possibly some revolutionary stuff is expected.

For those who couldn't make it, a visit to the main NAB web site gives you details and movies that show the show.

In the run up, over the past week or so, some of the highlights and trends to follow...

new FCP announcement expected at 7 pm on Tuesday at the FCPUG Supermeet at Bally's.
Baselight plug-in for FCP that lets you grade Baselight style but inside FCP and send your grades via XML to a real baselight.
Colorfront onset dailies system
Canon and Technicolor will show a color management system for Canon HDSLRs
Adobe CS 5.5 with exciting developments HDSLR workflows
Thunderbolt support will be in many places for sure - Matrox for one
Some new systems (maybe) or announcements from Aja and Blackmagic

Other companies to watch out for
Editshare, Atto, Marquis, SGO Mistika, Quantel, Autodesk, Dolby...

and lots more. I'll relay stuff as I see it, hopefully on a daily basis.

Memory cards for Canon 5D/7D shoots

2011-03-13T12:41:00.001+05:30

For Canon 5D or 7D shoots, for ad films, music videos, promos, or features, people go into long discussions and arguments about disk storage, RAID etc etc. I have always advocated getting as many memory cards as you plan on shooting. And not erasing and reusing any card, till the shoot is over. Even after transferring the card contents to hard disk for editing and post-production.
That way, one has the data available all the time on the original cards, even if any hard disks fail.

But people tell me that this costs quite a lot. I decided to find out.

First, let's see what media would cost before HDSLRs happened to film-making.

400 feet of film costs about Rs 10,000, and runs about 4 mins, so film is Rs 2500 per minute.

With a shoot ratio of 1:10, a standard Hindi film of 150 mins would shoot 1500 mins of film. This amounts to about 340 rolls of 35mm film or Rs 34 lakhs in film costs alone. Processing extra.

A 40 min HDCam SR tape is about Rs 10,000. So for the same 150 min feature, even at a shoot ration of 1:20 (people tend to shoot more with tape than film). One would use 75 tapes of Rs 7.5 lakhs on tape. And one doesn't erase and reuse tapes even after they are transferred to the edit system.

Now, on to HDSLRs (Canon 5D or 7D)

On a Canon 5D or 7D CF cards are used up at about 3 min per Gb. So, if one shot an entire feature of 150 mins, even at a shooting ratio of 1:30, and shot on 8 GB CF cards, one would use up about 190 CF cards.

At jjmehta.com online store,
http://www.jjmehta.com/webshop/index.html?target=dept_19.html&lang=en-us
an 8 GB CF Ultra 200x card sells for Rs 2000. So, if one did not reuse cards, and shot to about 200 cards or 'exposed' 80 hours of video on a Canon 5D/7D, one would spend Rs 4 lakhs.

Rs 34 lakhs for 25 hrs of film, or
Rs 7.5 lakhs for 50 hrs of HD tape, or
Rs 4 lakhs for 80 hrs of Canon HD video.

I think its clear CF cards, as a medium, are way cheaper than HD tape or film. And if one does not erase and use the costlier film or HD tape, what reason is there to erase CF cards that cost 1/30th what film costs.

Come to think of it, if you shot with a Canon exactly like film at a shoot ratio of 1:10, you would need only about 63 cards or spend about Rs 1.25 lakhs on 'rawstock'.

So, I don't get the reason for reusing CF cards. Reuse them after the film is released and you've consolidated all your media, but please, stop shooting an entire feature with 2 CF cards erased and used 30-100 times over.

Autodesk 2012

2011-03-07T18:44:00.000+05:30

Last week, Autodesk released new versions of their Digital Entertainment Creation software line. These are now suffixed 2012, to mean the year 2012. But the software will be available in 2011.

New software released are

in the Animation Solutions line-up, 3ds Max 2012, Softimage 2012, Mudbox 2012, Maya 2012, MotionBuilder 2012 and

in the Creative Finishing Solutions, Flame 2012, Flare 2012, Smoke Mac OSX 2012, Flame Premium 2012, and Lustre 2012

Significantly, all of Autodesk's Creative Finishing Solutions and Animation Solutions software are receiving a refresh at the same time. This is probably the first time this has happened so maybe they have managed to integrate all these groups to work together.

Also significantly, there is no mention of Flint, Fire, or Inferno. So maybe, just maybe, we won't see any more refreshes of these software packages which formed part of IFFFS which ruled in the two decades past.

And, if you see the releases listed on the official Autodesk page linked below, you won't see any Smoke 2012, just Smoke for Mac OSX 2012. If that's true, you can no longer get a Smoke on Linux on its own. You have to get the Flame Premium suite which contains Smoke, Flame and Lustre.

I haven't studied the new features in great detail, primarily because I couldn't readily find a document that details this. But from a cursory study at other sites, it seems that for Smoke on Mac OSX, there are improvements in 3D capabilities.

There doesn't seem to be a specific Smoke 2012 hardware list. They still have the 2011 list on. The only video I/O card supported is still the Aja Kona 3. No support yet for Blackmagic cards. So maybe, there's some new hardware expected that will make this list. Something from Aja, or Blackmagic after all.

As for graphic cards, for Smoke 2011 not one out of Quadro 4000, Quadro FX4800, FX5600, and FX 4500 was completely certified in the 2011 list. The closest is Quadro FX5600 which is 'Supported although not officially Certified in our lab'.

Let's hope Smoke for Mac OSX has wider Autodesk blessed support for graphic cards on Mac OSX.

On the Autodesk online store page Smoke is still listed as Smoke 2011 available online for US$ 16,990 with subscription and US$ 14,995 without. Wonder if Smoke 2012 has a different pricing.

The official Autodesk page is here…

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?id=12410802&siteID=123112

There is an in-depth analysis over at FXGuide.com here…

http://www.fxguide.com/featured/autodesk-2012-software-releases/

Aja Ki Pro

2011-02-07T08:54:00.000+05:30

Last Friday I was to attend and speak at a seminar on Aja, here in Mumbai. It was the start of a weekend, and traffic conditions in the Western suburbs were at an all time disarray. Some said there was a large procession of some kind. Anyway, I got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, ran out of fuel, and eventually gave up trying to reach the venue.

But I had my piece prepared, so I promised the organizers, Genesis Forte, wo represent Aja in India, that I would post it in this blog. Here it is.

Among the most innovative products that Aja makes, is the Ki Pro and it's small sibling, the Ki Pro mini. These are video (and audio) recorders which take input as component, SDI, HD-SDI, or HDMI, along with embedded or unbalanced XLR audio. And record to hard disks or SxS or CF cards. The recorded material is an Apple ProRes Quicktime movie. And you can set up Ki Pro to record as ProRes Proxy, ProRes LT, ProRes, or ProResHQ.

ProRes is described later in this piece, below.

The source for the KiPro could be almost any camcorder that has an HD-SDI, or HDMI output. So basically the Ki Pro or Ki Pro mini let's you record at a quality higher than the camera's own compressed recording does.

Two prime new candidates for using the KiPro with, are the new Sony F3 or Panasonic AF 101. The combination of Sony F3 or Panasonic AF 101, with Ki Pro or Ki Pro mini can challenge the Arri Alexa on quality and price.

But this is not what I was going to focus on. This much is well known about the Ki Pro or Ki Pro mini. I had some alternate uses in mind for these recorders.

Low res video assist recorder

Many TV Commercial makers use the video assist to do a rough cut before the film gets processed and telecined.
In place of a video assist recorder, which is usually a DVD recorder, a DV or HDV recorder, both of which are cumbersome and linear. You can use a Ki Pro or Ki Pro mini, to record the assist video as ProRes proxy. Which is good enough quality. A 250 Gb HDD in the Ki Pro records over 11 hrs. And shots are one per clip, so capture before editing is quick and easy.

Backup recorder

If you shoot with a Alexa, it records ProRes 4444. These files are large and hard to edit on slower machines. So you can attach a KiPro which can record ProRes HQ as a backup. Or ProRes Proxy for low res editing.

And if you are recording as Arri logC, you can take a linear video out via HD-SDI and plug that into the KiPro. So you're ready to edit with smaller files which are linear and not low contrast ones that the Alexa records.

I know I know, log files need to be colour corrected before they can be used, but try telling that to a client who's in a hurry.

The last two uses I mentioned, would need some care to ensure that time code is kept the same on the main device and the Ki Pro or Ki Pro mini.

Green screen recorder

You may have shot the rest of your film on a small EX1 or EX3 or even Canon 5D or 7D - in XDCamEx, AVCHD, DVCProHD, or HDV, But if your film has green or blue screen, (chroma key) you may run into problems with recording that on those cameras. That's more to do with the recording in these cameras, not the cameras themselves.

Chroma Key shots need clean edges for keying. Compression in those cameras makes the edge around objects hard to key. Recording as full 4:2:2 10bit on the KiPro or KiPro mini can give you cleaner keys in post. So better to shoot chroma shots as ProRes or ProResHQ in a KiPro for better keying.
Even the keying needed for by a Colourist for secondary colour correction works better if the media is ProRes or ProResHQ.

Main recorder for HD television shows

Over the next few weeks or months at most, leading TV channels in India will transition to HD. In general, all channels will no longer require producers to submit tapes for HD programming. Some will, instead, accept finished shows and rushes as files - ProRes HQ.

So it may even be a good idea to use the Ki Pro as your main recorder even if you shoot P2, AVC-Intra, or HDCam. Editing is instantaneous, the editing machine doesn't need any capture card, and best of all, handing over of all rushes is easy.

Telecine recorder

When you need to telecine film to video in a format that's ready for delivery, like Apple ProRes that many TV channels need, the Ki Pro is a natural choice. You can even connect audio from a sound follower and embed it, so you can even get Dolby 5.1 audio along with video, all synced and ready to go.

Ki Pro

Can be carried like a recorder or portable VTR, or attached to a special exo skeleton and placed under a camera on a tripod. It has a removable 250 or 500 Gb Hard disk, or a SxS card slot to record video on.

Ki Pro Mini

Attached behind a camera like JVC, Sony, P2 etc, and records higher quality that the camera can. especially for the new Sony F3 or Panasonic AF101 that shoot XDCam and AVCHD respectively.

For those who don't yet know ProRes is a format invented by Apple for use as a high quality 10bit movie format but providing nearly uncompressed quality. Disk space and disk speed requirements are modest and feasible with ProRes. There are 5 variants yielding differing levels of quality while taking up different amounts of disk space.

ProRes is 10-bit, many other codecs are 8-bit.

Data rates for various variants of ProRes
ProRes 4444 - 330 Mbps 37.1 MB/sec at 1080p24
ProRes HQ - 220 Mbps 24.7 MB/sec at 1080p24
ProRes - 145 Mbps 16.5 MB/sec at 1080p24
ProRes LT - 110 Mbps 11.5 MB/sec at 1080p24
ProRes Proxy - 45 Mbps 5.1 MB/sec at 1080p24

Capacity of hard disks and cards.

Ki Pro records to hard disk or SxS card.

250 Gb hard disk
- 692 mins of ProRes Proxy - 11 hrs 32 min
- 318 mins of ProRes LT - 5 hrs 18 min
- 225 mins of ProRes - 3 hrs 45 min
- 150 mins of ProRes HQ

500 Gb hard disk
- 1384 mins of ProRes Proxy - 23 hrs
- 637 mins of ProRes LT - 10 hrs 37 mins
- 450 mins of ProRes - 7 hrs 30 mins
- 300 mins of ProRes HQ - 5 hrs

16 Gb SxS card
- 44 mins of ProRes Proxy
- 20 mins of ProRes LT
- 14 mins of ProRes
- 9 mins of ProRes HQ

32 Gb SxS card
- 88 mins of ProRes Proxy
- 40 mins of ProRes LT
- 28 mins of ProRes
- 19 mins of ProRes HQ

Ki Pro mini shoots to CF card

8 Gb CF card
- 22 mins of ProRes Proxy
- 10 mins of ProRes LT
- 7 mins of ProRes
- 4 mins of ProRes HQ

16 Gb CF card
- 44 mins of ProRes Proxy
- 20 mins of ProRes LT
- 14 mins of ProRes
- 9 mins of ProRes HQ

32 Gb CF card
- 88 mins of ProRes Proxy
- 40 mins of ProRes LT
- 28 mins of ProRes
- 19 mins of ProRes HQ

FCP problems with illegal FCP

2011-01-21T10:24:00.000+05:30

This is what a legal copy of Final Cut Studio 3 or FCP 7 looks like. Have one?

Of late I've been shown many instances of FCP projects that don't link back to digital files, dropped frames even with fast disks, media files present but showing as offline, and the dreaded 'General Error'. In extreme cases, projects get corrupt too.

This seems to be happening a bit more often in recent times than previously. And, most important of all, I have not been able to duplicate or recreate these issues any any of my systems. At home, or systems I've installed by myself at friend's edit suites.

So what's going on? Is FCP 7 to blame? I think not.

One observation that I made with every reported case is that these issues happen in systems that do not have a valid FCP license. Meaning their FCP is cracked, not paid for, completely illegal.

Some FCP users are not even aware that FCP had to be paid for. I found this out when I asked to see the box containing the original software disks. Why, even a large post house on Mumbai's upmarket Linking Road had many FCP systems without a license. Come to think of it, even TV show producers and possibly TV channels use FCP without licenses.

In another post house at Bandra I studied 5 systems and tried to recreate one particular issue with FCP 7. I could not. The systems functioned flawlessly. Users there often could not even remember the last time their systems last crashed or hung. Reason? All 5 systems had licenses which were not only valid, but registered over the 'net with Apple.

So my surmise.

If you have paid for and purchased Final Cut Studio ver. 3. And you have registered your license on the Internet with Apple. You have nothing to fear. Your system will work without a hitch. And not exhibit any of these issues.

If, however, you have 'borrowed' FCP, and not registered it, or have otherwise cracked it, then beware. Apart from being illegal, this is a defective method of operating FCP. And it will catch up with you somewhere, sometime.

But it still doesn't add up. So what if its 'cracked FCP', it still has to work right?

Well, not quite. I think some person somewhere made a copy of the original FCP disks on to a hard drive. This copy, somehow got corrupted while being copied from disk to disk. And these corrupted copies are with some persons somewhere in Mumbai. And these defective FCPs are doing the rounds. Being used to install FCP over and over again.

Conclusion.

If you are an FCP system user and don't have a box with the original software and DVDs, please go out an buy one. It costs under Rs 50,000 and is worth every Rupee. Many many individual editors and small production houses in India have bought one. In fact I dare say, more people in India have actually bought FCP than have not. Be one of the good guys.

And no matter what your dealer, reseller or friends tell you, there is no FCP demo, no FCP evaluation, no 30-day trial. You pay money, you get a copy, you use it. That's how it works.

Even if the system that's being used to edit your films is borrowed, or hired, ask to see the license. And have it registered over the internet in your presence. And you will see for yourself, whatever FCP problems you had will simply go away.

Installing software without a license, is software piracy. Pirating software and pirated software are completely illegal.

Sometimes pirated software is defective as well.