Here’s a cool new plug-in for Final Cut Pro that makes the task of syncing multiple cameras without timecode easy. In the age of consumer and pro-sumer HD camcorders this looks like it could be a real winner if shooting any project or event with 2 or more cameras. From Singular Software it’s currently in beta and a free download.
Can’t take credit for this one and it’s been around for a long time but it’s new to me. Thanks to MacOShints.com for this great tip. I tried it in YouTube and Vimeo with success. Didn’t work for Hulu however. Sure it will work for most video sharing sites. With YouTube HD files make sure you’re watching the video in HD before downloading. Also, some files are downloaded without and extension so you may need to add the .flv extension once downloaded. So here’s the magic tip below….
If you’re using Safari, there’s an easy way to download YouTube videos. Open the page with the movie and press Command-Option-A, which shows the Activity window. If you’re also loading other sites, you’ll see a list of them: scroll until you find the YouTube page and click on the arrow to show details about what is being loaded.
You will certainly notice an element whose size is over 0.5MB (most of the time, over 5MB). Double-click on it (even if it is still loading), and Safari will download it. When the download is over, navigate to the file in the Finder (which will probably be called get_video) and add the extension .flv to its name. Now you can play it with VLC or with QuickTime (only if you have Perian installed).
Interesting interview in the 11/23 NYT Magazine. The entire interview is definitely worth a read but the last 4 responses from the interviewees really says it all when it comes to where we are going with advertising. I think this only bodes well for us at PostOp.
Bastholm: At my company, we’re starting to redefine ourselves from being an ad agency to being an entertainment and technology company. Because that’s basically what we do; we deliver branded entertainment of various sorts through a number of different technological channels. You used to have this monolithic structure where your output was 30-second spots that cost an increasing amount of money to make, and it cost more and more money to put them on TV. That massive money machine is probably going to go away, but I think the money spent on all these different channels, at the end of the day, will probably be equal to what used to be spent on TV spots.
Palmer: I’m not sure it all equals out. I think that for people in the marketing industry, it’s objectively more difficult to get the same results or make the same amount of money as you did before.
Bastholm: Trevor Edwards, Nike’s main marketing guy, had a great quote. He said, “Nike’s not in the business of keeping media companies alive, we’re in the business of connecting with consumers.” That sums up digital pretty nicely.
Rasmussen: Clients are not saying, “Make us ads” or “Make us Web sites,” they’re saying, “Create interaction between our brand and our customers.” That’s our job now.
via The Screens Issue – Multiscreen Mad Men – Advertising in a Post-TV World – Interview – NYTimes.com
Uploaded this HD version of the Intel – Touch of Genius. Using the extension &fmt=22 at the end of the URL you get very good looking video. Appears the new 16×9 player won’t embed however. Click on this link to see the 16×9 version on YouTube.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b1fpn7-c_U&fmt=22]
Handy little video tip from Tom Merritt over at CNET.
As you may know, the record companies are forcing Apple to keep selling a majority of it’s music on iTunes with DRM while over at Amazon, you can buy digital downloads without any DRM. Trying to work with DRMed music in a post world is very inconvenient. Yes we have our ways of stripping the DRM off so we can use it our timelines but it’s a pain and time consuming. One of the reasons iTunes is so popular for music downloads is because it’s a great place to search for music. Amazon is a little more cumbersome to search. So now thanks to a cool script from Advantageous mp3, search for your music in iTunes, run this script and you’ll be taken to the Amazon Music store where you can download and the DRM free music. Great little tool and hopefully someday soon we can kiss DRM goodbye for good. One last thing…requires Leopard 10.5 or higher.
With all the hard work done by Alex Gollner from the Editing Organized blog. He makes it very simple to cut and paste the code and create a new generator for Final Cut Pro. In this case the example is white.
How many times to find yourself selecting Matte>Color and changing the color to white? There’s no way to change the default color but this handy little trick creates a whole new generator with the color white. In the past I’ve just imported a frame of white I created in Photoshop. Follow his very simple instructions here. I think I’ll make one for black too!
With the announcement of the the RED Epic today I’ve been reading the news and found this astounding item from Dorkman’s blog.
“These Epic Brains will record a data-rate of 225 MB/sec — that’s a 625% increase in data rate, and hopefully therefore quality, over Red One.
I complained last time that they shouldn’t be calling a camera Epic unless it basically shoots 65mm/IMAX format — and they’ve answered that. Not only that, but they threw in one more format, one that makes IMAX its bitch.
Technorama 617 Monstro Sensor, 28K resolution, 1-25 fps, $55,000
Yes, you f**king heard me right. I said 28K. And it’ll record at a computer-pulverizing 500 MB/sec.
Red One’s 4K is already four times bigger than your 1080p HDTV. How big is 28K compared to that? Stu Maschwitz did a comparison on his Prolost blog.”
So what does that HD image look like inside a 28K image. Click here or look below. Yeah, that tiny red spec in the middle represents a 1920×1080 image inside the gray 28,000 x 9,334 image. Makes the mind wobble and wonder what sizes we’ll be working with 5 years from now.
Looks pretty sweet. I’ll take 10 please. 
RED DIGITAL CINEMA – EPIC & SCARLET REVEALED
For a long time there was one default application for capturing video from your computer screen on the Mac. SnapZPro has been available on the Mac for many years and while it has served us well it may be time to move on for good.
For the last year or more I’ve been using a program called iShowU from shinywhitebox software. I’ve liked the ease of use and the speed at which it will build my captures after finishing a record. One of the biggest drawbacks for me with SnapZPro is the time it takes to build the file after recording. When deadlines are tight it just doesn’t cut it, especially on long records. Well now there even more reason to make the switch.
With the introduction of iShowU HD, you now have the ability to record in HD, post directly to YouTube and other video hosting sites, record keystrokes, import directly into Final Cut Pro, plus a slew of other new features. The standard version costs $29.95 with the Pro version cost $59.95. For Leopard only so if you’re still running Tiger, you’ve got to stick with iShowU or upgrade your OS. Lots of video tutorials available on their site. Of course there are other choices for screen capturing like ScreenFlow from Flip4mac. ScreenFlow is great for doing screencasts with it’s integrated editing functionality. It’s pricier at $99 too. But for simple screen captures for use in your Final Cut sequences I don’t think you can go wrong with iShowU HD. I’m upgrading today!
Was watching MacBreak Studio last night and learned something I thought was really cool.
How many times are you in a pinch for a music track and don’t have the time to look for or the $$ for a library cut? Now we all know about GarageBand, but when was the last time you opened it up? Well the newest version that comes with iLife ’08 has a cool new feature called Magic GarageBand. If you have a new Mac then you already have iLife ’08. If you’ve got an older Mac then you might need to upgrade to get this new feature. Basically, Magic GarageBand lets you select a genre of music, pick the types of instruments and presto…instant music tracks for free.
Rather than get too much into how it works and what it does, I recommend taking a look at the episode of MacBreak Studio.
I think you’ll be surprised how easy a process it is to create your own music to the desired length you need. Be sure to stop by PixelCorps for more podcasts too!
