The present and future of post production business and technology

I probably have mentioned that we’re working on a documentary about Bob Muravez/Floyd Lippencotte Jnr in part because we wanted demo footage we “owned” (so we could make tutorials available down the line) but also because I wanted to try it in action on a practical job.

I start work in prEdit shortly – nearly started today, so it looks like Friday now – but already we discovered some ideas that have now been implemented in the 1.1. release.

Along the way I’ve learnt a lot about how well (or not) Adobe’s Speech Analysis works. (Short answer: it can be very, very good, or it can be pretty disappointing.) As prEdit is really designed to be used with transcriptions I also tested the Adobe Story > OnLocation > Premiere method, which always worked.

Well, from that workflow it became obvious that speakers (Interviewer, Subject) were correctly identified so wouldn’t it be nice if prEdit automatically subclipped on speaker changes. And now it does.

If multiple speakers have been identified in a text transcript, prEdit will create a new subclip on import at each change of speaker

It also became obvious as I was planning my workflow that we needed a way to add new material to an existing prEdit project, and to be able to access the work from historic projects to add to a new one.

New Copy Clips… button so you can copy clips from one prEdit project to another open project

Now that I’m dealing with longer interviews than when we tested, I needed search in the Transcript view.

Search popup menu added to Transcript View.

That led to one problem: adding metadata to multiple subclips at a time. Previously I’d advocated adding common metadata to the clip before subclipping in prEdit (by simply adding returns to the transcript) but if it comes in already split into speakers, that wasn’t going to work!

Logging Information and Comments can be added for multiple selected subclips if the field doesn’t already have an entry for any of the selected subclips

Because you never, ever want to run the risk of over-writing work ready done.

And some nice enhancements:

Faster creation of thumbnails

Bugfix for Good checkbox in Story View

prEdit 1.1 is now available. Check for updates from within the App itself. And if you work in documentary, you should have checked it out already.

Comutational Photography? http://gizmo.do/d9DyaV Some new cool idea from Adobe. Nice concept piece (not software announcement)

Re-adjust focus in post. Nice technology. Watch the video.

‘Interoperable Master Format’ Aims to Take Industry Into a File-based World http://bit.ly/bvF6Vk

A group working under the guidance of the Entertainment Technology Center at USC is trying to create specifications for an interoperable set of master files and associated metadata. This will help interchange and automate downstream distribution based on metadata carried in the file. The first draft of the specification is now done based on (no surprises) the MXF wrapper. (Not good for FCP fans, as Apple has no native support for MXF, without third party help).

Main new items: dynamic metadata for hinting pan-scan downstream and “Output Profile List”:

“The IMF is the source if you will, and the OPL would be an XML script that would tell a transcoder or any other downstream device how to set up for what an output is on the other side,” Lukk explained.

The intention is to bring this draft spec to SMPTE, but first, ETC@ USC is urging the industry to get involved. “We need industry feedback and input on the work that the group has done thus far,” said ETC CEO and executive director David Wertheimer. “Anyone who has interest in this topic should download the draft specification and provide feedback to the group.”

RT @iDiyas: Apple patent opens new frontier for gaming-documenting http://bit.ly/a7si9G

I’m not even sure why this interests me, but it does. Taking “action snaps” from your game at crucial moments and making them into a cartoon. Now Apple patents a lot of ideas that don’t make it into products, so this may never come to anything, but it is interesting.

Imagine an Enhanced Reality game – where extra elements are overlaid a live camera view – and getting a comic record of the adventure.

The Future of Picture Editing http://bit.ly/aNRLVA

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Zak Ray when I travelled to Boston. I like people who have an original take on things and Zak’s approach to picture editing – and his tying it to existing technologies (that may ned improvement) – is an interesting one.

And yet, despite such modern wonders as Avid Media Access and the Mercury Playback Engine, modern NLEs remain fundamentally unchanged from their decades-old origins. You find your clip in a browser, trim it to the desired length, and edit it into a timeline, all with a combination of keys and mouse (or, if you prefer, a pen tablet). But is this process really as physically intuitive as it could be? Is it really an integrable body part in the mind’s eye, allowing the editor to work the way he thinks? Though I can only speak for myself, with my limited years of editing experience, I believe the answer is a resounding “no”. In his now famous lecture-turned-essay In the Blink of an Eye, Walter Murch postulates that in a far-flung future, filmmakers might have the ability to “think” their movies into existence: a “black box” that reads one’s brainwaves and generates the resulting photo-realistic film. I think the science community agrees that such a technology is a long way off. But what untilthen? What I intend to outline here is my thoughts on just that; a delineation of my own ideal picture-editing tools, based on technologies that either currently exist, or are on the drawing board, and which could be implemented in the manner I’d like them to be. Of course, the industry didn’t get from the one-task, one-purpose Moviola to the 2,000 page user manual for Final Cut Pro for no reason. What I’m proposing is not a replacement for these applications as a whole, just the basic cutting process; a chance for the editor to work with the simplicity and natural intuitiveness that film editors once knew, and with the efficiency and potential that modern technology offers.

It’s a good article and a good read. Raises the question though – if Apple (or Adobe/Avid) really innovated the interface would people “hate it” because it was “different”?

Powerful new transcript workflow tool – paper cuts without the pain – from Intelligent Assistance (my day job). http://bit.ly/9nQv07

We just launched prEdit, our pre-editing tool for developing paper cuts (a.k.a. radio cut) from transcripts. prEdit:

• Lets producers or editors cut transcripts into selects in seconds
• Adds and updates log notes with auto-complete logging fields
• Previews the video for any clip, subclip, paper cut or section of paper cut
• Exports to Excel spreadsheets and Final Cut Pro, or Premiere Pro Sequences

“prEdit marks a new generation of postproduction tools,”  say I. “Video editing by text is a whole new way of working that will take weeks out of developing a paper cut.”

prEdit is available now from AssistedEditing.com and carries an MSRP of $395, discounted for an introductory special to $295 until August 31st. The prEdit workflow is described at http://assistedediting.com/prEdit/workflow.html and a video overview is available at http://assistedediting.com/prEdit. The first 80 seconds provide an overview.

The video is now available at YouTube  http://youtu.be/3fV388QsVVA?a

XDCAM continues to take over low cost acquisition http://bit.ly/cRUGBz JVC, Sony and Canon have XDCAM cameras, and now a standalone recorder.

The new FS-T1001 Camera Mount XDCAM EX recorder records to SxS in the same format as XDCAM EX devices for maximum compatibility. I guess it could also work with the SD card adapters for SxS that are available.

XDCAM EX is now the most popular (of new cameras) recording format: JVC’s GY-HM100 works with the 35 Mbit version; Canon’s XF305 and XF300 cameras works with an MPEG-2 codec identical to the 50 Mbit/sec version of XDCAM and of course Sony has the EX-1 and EX-3 recording XDCAM EX format.

Affordable acquisition formats have settled into two camps: the XDCAM EX world of 35 or 50 Mbit/sec long GOP MPEG-2 or the AVCCAM/AVCHD world of “long GOP” H.264 MPEG-4. H.264 is approximately 4x more efficient than MPEG-2 for the same bitrate, but H.264 takes more processing power to decode.

$9.99 Video editing app for iPhone 3GS http://bit.ly/choXm9 Only for video shot on the phone but for newsgathering or mobile video blogging, it would be perfect.

Features:

• Use the onboard camera from within the App, or import h.264 video or pictures already saved in the Camera Roll.
• Edit with VeriCorder’s unique, multitrack, patent-pending editor.
• Send smaller files ( < 10MB ) by email, or share larger files with your computer over a WiFi networks.
• Export completed video projects into the Camera Roll, for simple posting on YouTube or MobileMe accounts.
• Software includes a multitrack audio editing suite, with advanced features, including volume curves, sound mixing, gain control and more.

By now you’ve likely been exposed to news from NAB – at least I hope so. If not head over to Oliver Peter’s blog and read up on what you missed. Rather than rehash the news I’d like to put a little perspective on it.

Digital Production BuZZ

The little show that I co-created nearly five years after a successful five years with DV Guys (although I was only managing editor for the last 3 years of that show) has now been the official NAB Podcast for 2009 and 2010. Big props to Larry Jordan, Cirina Catania, Debbie Price and the amazing team they put together for NAB 2010. I filed some special reports, which you can hear among the more than 70 shows the team pulled together in the six days of NAB.

3D Everywhere

Whether it’s Panasonic’s “Lens to Lounge” or Sony’s “Camera to Couch” 3D was everywhere. Everywhere except actually being able to do something with all the 3D content we’re being pushed to produce. I’m aware that the top grossing movies last year were 3D and 3D movies perform better than 2D. I just don’t see that as being relevant to my universe where I don’t distribute my work through a major studio to 2000 cinemas.

So short of that, where’s the outlet for all the 3D? YouTube plays 3D (but is incredibly hard to monetize). The Blu-ray 3D spec is finalized but no shipping players, burners or encoders are available.

While I have no real quibble with the cinema experience – although films need to be designed for 3D, and shot with 3D in mind, to be successful 3D experiences (and few are) – I am very skeptical about 3D in the home, at least for the next couple of years. The problems of the glasses – I multitask a lot of the time while watching TV, what about visitors, or preparing dinner? – and the very different nature seems to limit the future of 3D in the home to those who have dedicated home theaters and dedicated, monotasking viewing time.

The missing Apple

Of course, if you’re a regular reader you’ll know it came as no surprise that Apple wasn’t at NAB. They don’t do trade shows any more so it was highly unrealistic to expect anything at NAB this year, next year, or any year. When they have something to announce, they’ll announce it.

You’ll also be aware that I believe Apple is doing a lot of what they need to do with Final Cut Pro to make it the “awesome” release that Steve Jobs tells us it will be. Maybe 2011 some time, but more likely early 2012 for the next awesome Final Cut Studio release. Or whenever Apple is ready!

Avid Media Composer 5 and editing in the cloud

The new management (current management) at Avid certainly appear to be spot on track. Media Composer 3.5, 4 and now 5 have all been great releases. As more of the work this management team are pushing comes to the public, the more I see the company back on track.

In fact hearing “interoperable” and “openness” sprinkled regularly into the press event and marketing materials seems slightly out of character from the old Avid, but is very welcome. Direct editing of QuickTime media, HDSLR or RED media via AMA for quick turn-around content is a huge advancement. Improvements to audio filters (and eventual round-tripping to a future version of ProTools) are long-standing requests from Avid’s customers. Even the “expensive” monitoring (output only) requirement has gone thanks to support for an MXO Mini for monitoring. (I wish that was an option back in January – it would have saved a client of mine about $18K!)

While only a “technology demonstration” at this point, Avid’s “edit in the cloud” (i.e. over the Internet or from a Local Server) looks like the real deal. Scott Simmons has a review of the demo over at Pro Video Coalition. Avid is back and we like it.

Adobe CS5

I doubt there’s much to add to Adobe’s CS5 announcements. The Mercury Engine is a major step forward in performance and it will take the others a while to catch up. To be competitive Apple would have to rewrite FCP to 64 bit and then implement Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL to deliver that level of performance (and that’s what I expect they’re doing). Adobe’s platform-agnostic code (at the core) has made it easier for them to move to 64 bit, and tight integration with Nvidia’s CUDA engine, on top of some mighty software optimizations, gives the performance boost.

The whole Master Collection is a must-have for post production for After Effects, Encore, Photoshop and Illustrator alone. Premiere Pro is a bonus and could well become the Swiss Army Knife of editing tools as it supports pretty much any format natively.

Pick of the show

The pick of the show for me is, without a doubt, Get: phonetic search for Final Cut Pro. Search your clips for specific words wherever they occur. The exact opposite of Adobe’s Transcription (although that can be boosted by feeding it a script in CS5) Get does not attempt to derive meaning from the waveforms that make up the audio. Instead it predicts what the waveform for your search terms should look like, then goes and tries to match it in your media.

It has certainly set my thinking cap buzzing. What we could do at Assisted Editing with this technology would be amazing – almost delivering my “magic future” for metadata I spoke of at my two presentations. But for now, Get is an amazingly powerful tool that every documentary filmmaker will want to be using.

Hardware trends you might have missed

Not many of the main news streams picked up on the trend to multiple cards, or multi-channel cards, this NAB. Obviously 3D capable cards were announced (by AJA and Blackmagic Design) but AJA also announced that multiple Kona cards can co-exist in the one host computer; while Blackmagic Design announced a dual channel card, and Matrox promised a four channel I/O card.

What we’ll be using this multi-channel capability for, I’m not quite sure, as no software supports it, yet. Except, Blackmagic Design used to have a two channel software switcher in their product range (although it seems to be missing from their website right now). A dual channel Decklink card, with software switcher, makes a very powerful and inexpensive studio or location tool with a Mac Pro. Seriously undercuts dedicated switchers from Focus Enhancements or Pansonic.

$999 daVinci

Blackmagic Design almost deserve a post of their own on the NAB announcement (that you no doubt followed here) of the $999 software-only daVinci. Scott Simmons reminded me in a Tweet that I had accurately predicted a dramatic price drop for the daVinci system. What I didn’t predict was how far, and how fast, Grant Petty would drop the price. What I expected to come in at $60K was announced as a turnkey system for $30,000! I didn’t expect the software only version, although in reality, with hardware, monitors, scopes and storage, that’s still likely a $20,000 investment, for what used to be a minimum of $300,000 or more.

This is, of course, consistent with everything that Grant Petty has done with Blackmagic Design. I remember the first Decklink announcement (on the DV Guys show) at under $1,000 and everyone wondered how the industry would cope. Those cards are now much more powerful, and even cheaper, and now we’re going down the same path with daVinci.

Friends, fun and the Future

For me, NAB is as much about friends as it is about the technology. It’s a time when my virtual communities intrude into real space. Once again, NAB proved to be two days too long and four nights too short. With about 20 parties happening Monday night and a similar number Tuesday, we need more nights to spread them over, and fewer days. I was done with the show floor by Tuesday afternoon and there were two days to run.

This year’s MediaMotion Ball was a great social event, as it always is; running into the Adobe party following. Tuesday’s Supermeet broke new ground with the “Three A’s” on stage together for the first time.

I made my contribution to the show via my Supermeet Magazine article, The Mundane and Magic Future of Metadata, which I also delivered as a presentation at the ProMax event and in the Post Pit on the show floor. The Supermeet Magazine should be available soon from Supermeet.com.

The future of post production automation is metadata. Check out the article and tell me what you think.

And that’s my NAB wrap for 2010. Other than to say, worst WiFi experience ever at the Sahara. Expensive and slow. It’s time for broadband to be included in the price of a room, like air conditioning (didn’t use); the Television (only to get the sign up details for the Internet connection); etc.

Throughout the Panasonic and Sony press events we were bombarded with 3D. Panasonic pushing the camera to couch while Sony approaches the concept as Lens to Lounge. Both companies showed examples of their partner’s work in 3D.

Panasonic are at the forefront of the affordable HD production race with the AG-3DA1 camera that is shipping in very limited supplies and has a waiting list. At $21,000 this dual lens, single body camcorder records to AVCCAM and has integrated convergence control.

Sony had many partners in 3D production at the high end but nothing yet in their affordable product lines, although the implication was that these will be coming in the future.

Between the two companies we were exposed to a lot of 3D examples. My thoughts are very subjective but I found that 3D worked well for gaming, sports, particularly the relatively slow-paced golfing footage for this week’s Master’s event. What I found, and my associated confirmed, is that the fast cut concert footage and entertainment features did not work so well because of the slight disorientation at every edit.

While the cuts we use in traditional editing are analogous to the way the Human Visual System works, there is no real-world analog to jumping from place to place, view-to-view in the real world. This leads to a momentary disorientation at each edit, which takes the viewer out of the experience.

The other problem we noted collectively was that we got tired of graphics being “thrown out” of the screen to the audience.

One more thing: 3D content creators STOP THROWING THINGS AT ME! Stop with the gratuitous “in your face” movements. Whenever you throw something like that – like a 3D Bono hand (U2 concert video) or a 3D Graphic or whatever – keep it close to the screen. When things come flying at you in real life you react. With 3D, I react and I don’t react positively to the program.

So, just stop it, OK?

Regardless of my impressions this is the year that 3D hit the mainstream at NAB. Will it still be prominent next year?

For 3D, mark me as skeptical