“As we look at the results, here were the things that stood out for me - all the times were closer to one another than the last test. True, Compressor still took the longest, but it definitely closed the gap. Both it and Episodes times fell and were more consistent this go around (notice neither had an extremely long run as they did before). Visual Hub’s time did increase, which I expect, though not very much.”

“In an overall quality comparison, I also thought Episode came out looking best, followed by Visual Hub and Compressor. There is a sharpness to the image (both video and gfx) in the Episode Pro encode that the other two don’t have (again, check out the full screen to really see the difference).”

I recommend that you read the full Mac Encoder Shootout Redux article here. Thanks to Andy for listening and revisiting this test!

Gone is the Avid DS Nitris naming, henceforth the product is referred to simply as Avid DS. Gone also is the proprietary hardware acceleration, instead v10 will lean on an off-the-shelf AJA Xena 2K Dual Link HD card for capture and display. Formats now supported include 720p at 23.976 fps, as well as 1080p50 and 1080p59.94. DPX can be conformed at HD, 2K, and 4K resolutions, and realtime up/down converts are possible. Avid Interplay integration is now in place, and in addition to the Symphony based color corrector, there is now a realtime secondary corrector. Finally, options for LUT support are a boon for film projects. These and a host of other improvements all come despite the fact that Avid has reduced the turnkey pricing of DS v10 + HP workstation + 8TB storage to below $60K.

FreshDV was a part of the initial conference call that announced this latest update, and Avid has kindly granted us permission to post a recording of that call here. So check it out if you are a DS Nitris user and wish to get up to speed quickly, or simply want to learn more about DS. You can download the attached mp3, or simply subscribe to our podcast feed in iTunes.

UPDATE: Long-time Avid user Scott Simmons has posted a few thoughts on this update as well as the exclusion of native Red .R3D support.

To listen, subscribe to the FreshDV podcast feed.

Red One behind the scenes photo by Stu Maschwitz of Prolost. Used with permission.

“…on the Macbook Pro, the Turbo264 was the clear winner, coming in at realtime for the encode for both versions. Surprisingly however, Visual Hub came in second at fairly close to real time. Both Episode and Compressor did about the same coming in at 2 to 4x depending on the encoder and setting. Interestingly enough, each took a great deal longer on one encode, but not the same one (compressor struggled with the iPhone clip, while Episode choked on the Apple TV one). Arguably, I can guess that both Episode & Compressor are doing multi-pass encodes by default, while Visual Hub is doing a single pass. I’m not sure about Turbo as its offloading the encode process to the external DSP, but i’ll throw a guess that it’s single pass until i learn otherwise.”

It is very important to note that this test relied only on default templates for each tool. The author made no attempt to establish a baseline set of encoding options and settings, so the results shouldn’t be read as a definitive answer for which tool is the best performer overall. To the authors credit, he makes this clear…it is a shootout of “quick and dirty” default settings only. While it’s an informative test in that regard, I wish he had also performed a comparative test with identical settings for each tool. Perhaps it will be revisited in a future article…

UPDATE: Andy has expanded on his encoder research by performing a more comparative test and taking time to optimize each software solution. You can read about his findings here.

Part 1 was a 15-minute introductory video that discusses the basic qualifications, job description and overall tasks a director is responsible for in a production.

Part 2 deals with the script revision process, both in pre-production and on set. Whether a script change is sparked by a creative choice, a budgetary concern, or to fix a shooting problem, the Part 2 video segment covers the basic protocol and tangible essentials of how you can handle this in your next production.

Part 3 digs deep into the pre-production responsibilities of a Director and Assistant Director. Joe and Kendal discuss the process of breaking down a script by scenes and shots, assigning scene numbers, and building the day to day schedule. They show a sample script breakdown sheet and other necessary forms. Independent filmmakers by and large seem to have the attitude that planning doesn’t matter…but as Joe says in the video, pre-production should be 80% of a project. These tips and techniques will help you get a handle on the planning and pre-prod process, and help you come in under budget and make your shooting schedule.

Part 4 deals with daily production schedules, timesheets and the venerable callsheet…Joe’s “most beneficial information you can generate.” Joe and Kendal discuss planning, accountability, and working with the other members of a filmmaking crew to effectively reach the common goal…completing the project on time and budget.

In Part 5, the discussion transitions to the role of a Director and A/D in the casting and auditioning process. Joe talks about how he likes to run an audition and help faciliate the process, as well as what to look for in an actor’s audition. They also talk about making the offer to your actors, further table reads, and what to look for in the performances. These tips and concepts will help you better cast the roles in your next production.

Watch all five segments in the playlist below or at FreshTV, and please stay tuned for the next installment of this extensive series.

If you enjoyed this tutorial series, please tell a friend or post the link in your favorite forum. Thanks for watching.

For more cool tricks that you can do with Compressor, check out our previous coverage of various post-production slow motion techniques.

Finally, it looks as though some of the original ProAppTips video tutorials are now hosted over here. Check it out for Apple/FCP specific tutorials on Sub-Frame Audio Editing, saving Bins/Favorites, tips on mixing Multi aspect ratios, Editing non-standard FCP codecs and more.

View the video embedded below, or high-res at FreshTV. You can also download an iPod/iPhone compatible version via the attached link, or simply subscribe to our Audio/Video podcast feed.

Thanks for the following companies for their support in making this test possible: Resolution Digital Studios, Zacuto, Schumacher Camera, Fletcher Chicago, Abel Cine NY, Lakeview Productions, and Midtown Video. Stay tuned at FreshDV for our test results.

“To get to the Red Importer dialog box, you simply double click on any clip in the Premiere Pro Project Panel and the Red Importer Dialog window will open (normally double clickin on the Project Bin sends that clip to the Source Window). There are various settings, but the one that you will use most often is the Global Settings. Here you select your Frame Size like 2048×1152 and then tell the importer how you want it to treat that video. You have various settings like Full, ½, ¼, 1/8, and so on. For my 17” MacBookPro , using ¼ for 2K and 1/8 for 4K as a “working res” was an excellent editing experience for a laptop dealing with 2K files. Remember, these are not proxies, since Red uses a different encoding method for their R3D files, scaling down the video still keeps the picture very clean - not the typical scaled artifacting you would normally see with other encoding methods.

For example, once you select “Apply Global settings” , this will tell the Red Adobe Importer that whenever it sees a 2048×1152 clip to treat it as 512×288. You’ll need to set up a Preset in Premiere Pro and set your frame size to 512×288. Again, when you export, you simply tell the Exporter to change the Frame Size to 2048×1152.”

You can watch a 2-minute intro video (QT link) or a 20-minute overview of the entire workflow (also QT). There are obviously certain caveats and limitations, at this point the importer plugin is a beta. But this is very promising stuff both for spot-checking shots in the field and editors back at the studio.

(Tweet via Jason Diamond)

“After the lighting is completed the actors come back and rehearse with the camera, and then the scene is shot. Once the director has the takes that he/she wants, the crew should immediately drop into blocking mode to block the next shot. The sequence should always be:
(1) Block
(2) Light
(3) Rehearse
(4) Shoot
(5) Repeat until wrap
Find out which actor marks are in the shot and pull them before the camera rolls, or replace them with tiny pieces of black tape so the camera won’t see them as marks.”

He also discusses how to properly slate a shot, the proper way to handle lenses, and why you should never run on set. This is a good primer for those learning the role of a camera assistant.

For more information on the role of a First AC (and focus puller), watch our three-part series entitled The Art of Pulling Focus. One, Two, Three. In it, career 1AC Bob Sanchez talks about the tools and techniques he uses on the job, and wraps up with a fly-on-the-wall demonstration of his unique method of pulling focus with a speed crank.

Part 1 was a 15-minute introductory video that discusses the basic qualifications, job description and overall tasks a director is responsible for in a production.

Part 2 deals with the script revision process, both in pre-production and on set. Whether a script change is sparked by a creative choice, a budgetary concern, or to fix a shooting problem, the Part 2 video segment covers the basic protocol and tangible essentials of how you can handle this in your next production.

Part 3 digs deep into the pre-production responsibilities of a Director and Assistant Director. Joe and Kendal discuss the process of breaking down a script by scenes and shots, assigning scene numbers, and building the day to day schedule. They show a sample script breakdown sheet and other necessary forms. Independent filmmakers by and large seem to have the attitude that planning doesn’t matter…but as Joe says in the video, pre-production should be 80% of a project. These tips and techniques will help you get a handle on the planning and pre-prod process, and help you come in under budget and make your shooting schedule.

Part 4 deals with daily production schedules, timesheets and the venerable callsheet…Joe’s “most beneficial information you can generate.” Joe and Kendal discuss planning, accountability, and working with the other members of a filmmaking crew to effectively reach the common goal…completing the project on time and budget.

Watch all four segments in the playlist below or at FreshTV, and please stay tuned for the next installment of this extensive series.

If you enjoyed this tutorial series, please tell a friend or post the link in your favorite forum. Thanks for watching.

We spoke with Mike Nann of Digital Rapids, the company tasked with encoding the video feeds which ultimately end up streaming from NBCOlympics.com. Digital Rapids is one essential link in the video coverage chain…they take the source feeds from 100+ cameras coming in from multiple venues day and night, filter and compress them on the fly, and send every single stream (at multiple resolutions and bitrates) across the Pacific Ocean on Limelight Network’s CDN. Those feeds are then either streamed live from the NBC site, or archived for users to play on demand. Did I mention this was happening LIVE? This podcast interview is my discussion with Mike about how they are accomplishing this massive task.

Download via the attached link, or subscribe to the iTunes podcast feed.

Image by Kathy Zhuang, Creative Commons licensed with attribution.

“If you show the actions of a character, the audience will make their own judgements of who that character is and what they want. These judgements of the characters combine in the audience’s minds to build up their own stories about the ingredients of your movie. One of the tricks then is to let the audience sometimes get ahead of the characters and at other times let them fall behind.”

These are concepts that can be written into a story obviously, but they also can be affected in the edit suite.

However, consider that this concept doesn’t always work in every situation: In “The Dark Knight”, for instance, there was no “show” backstory on the Joker. Typically superhero movies use flashbacks or some way of quickly bringing the audience up to speed on the motivations of the character. In “Dark Knight,” the Nolan brothers had the Joker “tell” his own backstory, the only caveat being that the stories varied wildly upon each subsequent telling, and the overall effect was in fact to “show” his insanity. It’s a refreshing approach that seems to be a hybrid of both “show” and “tell.” Think about these principles as you write and edit your next project.

Part 1 was a 15-minute introductory video that discusses the basic qualifications, job description and overall tasks a director is responsible for in a production.

Part 2 deals with the script revision process, both in pre-production and on set. Whether a script change is sparked by a creative choice, a budgetary concern, or to fix a shooting problem, the Part 2 video segment covers the basic protocol and tangible essentials of how you can handle this in your next production.

This Part 3 segment digs deep into the pre-production responsibilities of a Director and Assistant Director. Joe and Kendal discuss the process of breaking down a script by scenes and shots, assigning scene numbers, and building the day to day schedule. They show a sample script breakdown sheet and other necessary forms. Independent filmmakers by and large seem to have the attitude that planning doesn’t matter…but as Joe says in the video, pre-production should be 80% of a project. These tips and techniques will help you get a handle on the planning and pre-prod process, and help you come in under budget and make your shooting schedule.

Watch all three segments in the playlist below or at FreshTV, and please stay tuned for the next installment of this extensive series.

If you enjoyed this tutorial series, please tell a friend or post the link in your favorite forum. Thanks for watching.

“In today’s world of whiz bang, high-tech, digital editing, the power of the lowly overlap cut has been all but lost in the tumult. I’m sure many of you have heard the term overlap, pre-lap or post-lap before, but you may not know exactly why one would use this technique when creating a sequence. Understanding this subtle, simple and effective tool, which editors pull from their bag of tricks every day, will make you a more seasoned and better editor.”

Photographer Richard Ross has an online photo exhibition entitled “Architecture of Authority” that manages to convey a sense of power and control very well in single images, and even more so when viewed as a collection. If you are looking for innovative ways to show authority in your next film or video project, I highly recommend browsing this collection.