Author: Philip

Categories
The Business of Production

Avid does the opposite to Motley fool analyst’s advice

Just weeks after Motley Fool analyst Anders Bylund wrote:

The company just published preliminary results for the first quarter. $152 million in sales fell far below the $160 million expected by Wall Street analysts. Management sees a GAAP operating loss of $15 million, which would be the weakest result since the spring of 2009.

The culprit of Avid’s disappointing numbers is a 30% year-over-year drop in sales to the enthusiast market. That’s where Avid sells tools for making music and movies to amateurs like you and me, helping us make and manage media with somewhat simplified versions of the professional tools. That’s a price-sensitive market that doesn’t play well with attempts to ratchet up gross margins. I’m surprised that Avid didn’t see that backlash coming.

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Categories
Item of Interest The Business of Production

Episode 46 of The Terence and Philip Show

Episode 46 of The Terence and Philip Show: Resolution – how much is enough and will we adapt to higher frame rates. http://t.co/BBZ0N5GE

Terence Curren and Philip Hodgetts discuss the importance, and relevance of resolution and frame rates. How much is too real? How will higher frame rates be distributed in the home market?

And yes, another 3D rant!

Categories
Apple Pro Apps Assisted Editing

7toX for Final Cut Pro 1.0.10

Version 1.0.10 has just been released – thanks to the folks at the Mac App Store for granting an expedited review process! The main feature is that it fixes the offline media bug from version 1.0.9, but here’s the full list (including the fixes from 1.0.9):

• Bug fix for incorrectly seeing media files as offline
• Bug fix for multiple keyword collections created for keywords containing a comma (bin names containing a comma are replaced with a semicolon)
• Bug fixes for XML exported from Premiere Pro
• Bug fix for multiclips containing Motion projects
• Bug fixes for certain multiclip structures
• Bug fix for XML exported from REDCINE-X PRO
• Bug fix for media file paths with “illegal” characters

Categories
Item of Interest Solar Odyssey

Today I spent on board Ra

Today I spent on board @RaSolarOdyssey. She’s a beautiful vessel and a near-perfect first day on the water for my future home for summer. Follow the journey at The Solar Odyssey.

Categories
Assisted Editing Metadata

My first test with our “metadata tool”

So, as I think I’ve mentioned, one thing we’re doing for Solar Odyssey is to find a way of entering metadata at the time of shooting, and then use time of day to match metadata and media. Metadata logging doesn’t require the accuracy that synchronizing cameras or double system audio does – for that you need Timecode.

June 14th’s shoot day was the first day I started to use it, once I got a better understanding of how it works. So during the day I logged (knowing I’d made mistakes along the way) the day’s shoot, using a web browser interface to the online web application that does the logging.

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Categories
Business & Marketing Item of Interest

The Role Of ‘Perceived Value’ in music is Small

The Role Of ‘Perceived Value’ In Music Is Small And Fading Fast http://t.co/l9RtFLsZ

The basic premise is that the power of “perceived value” can make charging for music a better proposition than giving it away for free, based largely on a comment from an indie artist. (Quote follows in the article)

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Categories
Apple Pro Apps Assisted Editing

7toX for Final Cut Pro 1.0.9

While we released this yesterday, I’m getting a bunch of reports that online media is reporting as offline in FCP X. Please do not upgrade until we can examine the cause and (likely) put out a bug fix as 10.0.10.

The latest release of 7toX for Final Cut Pro includes:

• Bug fixes for XML exported from Premiere Pro
• Bug fix for media file paths with “illegal” characters
• Bug fix for multiclips containing Motion projects
• Bug fixes for certain multiclip structures
• Bug fix for XML exported from REDCINE-X PRO

 

Categories
Assisted Editing Solar Odyssey

The Road to Ra: Observations on Haiku production

At this time I should be well underway with Solar Odyssey but as the boat is not yet ready, I find myself shooting “the road to Ra” or how it all came together after the deadline!

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Categories
Solar Odyssey

Why my posts have slowed

I recognize that the frequency of posting has slowed, but when you’re in production with a constantly floating starting point it takes time. Given the delays for Solar Odyssey we’ve been shooting as if we had already started. It may become part of the show, it might be a special, or it might end up on the metaphoric cutting room floor.

Today’s video blog was shot with an NEX 7 from the passenger seat.

http://youtu.be/TPWJbdRfRRI

While this one and those previous were shot with a GoPro Hero.

http://youtu.be/Tyzn7KEO9zI

We can go back to the GoPro or stick with the NEX 7 approach. Which do you think works better?

Categories
Item of Interest The Business of Production

Copyright’s stakeholders don’t “fit in a room” and must include the public.

Copyright’s stakeholders don’t fit in a room and must include the public, by definition http://t.co/W16xWNZK

People like the MPAA’s Chris Dodds (who only opens his mouth on the topic to lie) and now Hollywood Super agent Arri Emmanuel want to sit down in a room with “the government” and “Silicon valley” to craft a “deal” on copyright. What they consistently miss is that every one of us has a stake in this: we’re consumers and producers of material. The group formerly known as the “audience” are no longer passive consumers of whatever  the metaphoric “Hollywood” wants to hand out.

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