9-5 September 20 Basic Tech for Producers (and recent Film School Graduates)

In this session, technology expert and DV magazine contributor Philip Hodgetts will cover the technological choices in production and post in a non-geeky way to help producers — and others without a technical background — make good technology choices for their productions. From formats to software choices; selecting cameras to creating Web video; designing graphics that will work and much more.  PRICE: $195 ($245 after Aug 31) Click here to register now.

9-5 September 21 Using Metadata For Production and Asset Management

Metadata is becoming increasingly important throughout the production cycle–from camera to asset management. In this session learn about the types of metadata in use; how each major NLE (Final Cut Pro 7, Final Cut Pro X, Premiere Pro CS 5.5 and Media Composer 5.5) handles metadata and how we can use that metadata to speed postproduction and VFX. Once post is done, assets need to be management through through distribution and repurposing. What tools are available, how are they used and how do they fit into the metadata structures promoted by SMPTE and other standards bodies.  PRICE: $195 ($245 after Aug 31) Click here to register now.

9-5 September 22 Avoiding Postproduction Nightmares

Post expert and DV magazine contributor Philip Hodgetts details the most common (and costly) problems inadvertently created during production that will be “fixed in post.” From color correction to audio, and editing to the final QC pass on deliverables, he’ll not only reveal the tricks of the trade that he’d use to save your production, but also explain how you can avoid these costly issues in the first place. PRICE: $195 ($245 after Aug 31) | Click here to register now.

In the light of full disclosure, I certainly expect to be paid but I always deliver good value. There will be some overlap between the Basic Tech and Avoiding Postproduction Nightmares sessions as they both seek to make the technology understandable, but with a different focus to each day’s class.

Because it’s before Final Cut Pro X ships, I’ll be drawing from my last year of fairly accurate researching and writing about Final Cut Pro X and merging it with the recent preview to give you the best preparation for the upcoming release.

While you’re there, check out the rest of the other upcoming Final Cut Pro X webinars at Final Cut Pro X Webinar Central.

Working with Effects Inside Final Cut Pro X
Presented by Kevin McAuliffe

Media Management Inside Final Cut Pro X
Presented by Brent Altomare

Color Correcting Inside Final Cut Pro X
Presented by Ben Brownlee

You absolutely need an Exhibits pass – going to NAB without one will make the trip much less worthwhile. Good news is I can offer you a code to get a free one:

Simply register at http://bit.ly/NABSM08 to get the discount automatically, or at http://www.nabshow/register using the code SM08

Even better, that code will also give you a $100 discount off any education package, including:

• SMART Pass (all-access!)
• Conference Flex Pass (access to all Conferences except Post|Production World)
• Post|Production World

Professionally, I’ll be doing some special reports for the Digital Production BuZZ NAB shows, focussing on trends and overview, which you’ll also find here at the blog in more detail, and more opinionated!

I’m delivering two special, in-depth sessions for the Post|Production Conference (for which you can get $100 off using the code above):

• Tuesday April 12, 10am-1pm:  In Depth: Future of TV: How to Grow and Monetize an Audience
• Wednesday April 13, 10am-1pm: In Depth: The New Now – How to Grow Your Production or Postproduction Business

Socially, I’ll be enjoying catching up with friends generally but specifically at the MediaMotion Ball on Monday night (for the last time at the Sahara), and Supermeet on Tuesday night. Of course there are many other events on these two nights, but this year I’m going to focus on socializing in one place, instead of spreading myself thin.

Wednesday night – in a remarkable change – has nothing booked in, so I’ll be socializing freelance style. Thursday night is traditionally a “farewell drinks” session at the Monte Carlo Brew Pub from around 6pm on.

On the show floor. Obviously I’ll hit the bigger booths to check the latest announcements but we already know Avid’s current release and I don’t expect anything public from Apple at, or around, NAB. (I’m sure the new FCP will be shown in private meetings but I’m not privy to those.) But really, the booths that interest me are the ones in the back aisles, around the edges of the show: those little 10×10 booths which is where the new exhibitors and small companies end up. That’s where I expect to find innovation.

I’ll be looking for metadata management of all kinds, but specifically checking on SMPTE BXF implementations and speech-to-text technologies. I want to hear of any archiving solutions, particularly solutions that are targeted at smaller facilities, even as small as single-person facilities.

Finally, I’ll be collecting all those beers people have been promising me all year for helping them out online!

Unfortunately Rich Harrington is unable to make the Boston Final Cut Pro User Group meeting this week due to back problems. I’ve been there and wish Rich all the best.

Good news is that I’ll be pitching in to help. I lack Rich’s understanding of iPod apps for production, so the subject has shifted a little to “Grow an Audience for your Indie Production”, a subject I know well.

Distribution Time: Can You Succeed?
Join Philip Hodgetts, digital media strategist and author of “The New Now: How to grow your production or postproduction business in a changed and changing world“ as he shares how to market your independent project and grow an audience you can monetize. Since the advent of low cost production equipment almost any project can find a suitable budget. However distribution has not been democratized to the same degree. Learn how others have built substantial and profitable audiences for their independent film and video projects and successfully monetized the audience.

Learn the common themes and how you can apply them to any independent production.

“On this occasion his topic was “Growing An Audience for your Indy Production.” Phillip pointed out that a major paradigm shift has taken place. Where once distribution (as well as advertising, promotion and building an audience for that distribution) was the job of a distributor or a network, it now falls to the filmmaker or content creator. Hodgetts presented case histories of creative and successful self-distribution, talked about piracy, blogging, using the internet and tribal marketing, among others.” - John Coleman at MediaBootCamp, San Diego

Twice in OC in two weeks: initially for MCA-I OC with part one of The New Now presentation then back last week for part 2 at OCCMA. OCCMA got part 1 about a year ago.

Philip Hodgetts will join us again for part 2 of his presentation for ways to increase your income in today’s environment. Last year he covered:

* Defining and creating a brand, 
* Your Selling Proposition and how to phrase it Social Marketing.

The New Now, Part 2 goes on to cover:

* Getting more customers and more sales; 
* Advertising (Display Ads vs Search; Adsense, Adwords) 
* Cutting Costs – Producing less expensively (Lower cost, same income equals higher profits) 
* Working smarter, using the Internet better to get paid faster, and 
* Finding your own income.

I’ve got a reasonably full DV Expo Schedule this year with three sessions on compression and web video on Thursday September 30th: Video Compression Options, Web & Mobile Video: Web Video Production Workshop, and Web & Mobile Video: Web Video Production Workshop | Part 2. That’s in the paid conference track, which has 11 days left for discounted registration.  Fun fact: in the audience will be a friend from my high school days I haven’t seen in more than 35 years.

The day before, Wednesday 29th, I’ll be on the main stage off the Exhibition floor with a free presentation “The New Now: Surviving the Changing Biz of Production The New Now — Surviving the Changing Business of Production”.

All the details are at DV.com

Plus, that Wednesday night’s LAFCPUG meeting will include the first public demonstration of our newest piece of software prEdit. I’ll be writing more about prEdit coming up as tomorrow will be the first day I use it on a real project: a documentary we’re producing to find out how better to improve prEdit, but also to have demonstration media we own the rights to.

By the way, you can check my schedule for upcoming events on the Upcoming Presentations link at the top right of the blog. Next presentation will be at OCMA, Orange County on September 21: Part 2 of the New Now presentation. Marketing, sales, working more efficiently and owning an income.

Even though a lot of people register and don’t turn up, that’ll be a very big crowd for this type of event.

This is a custom version of my “How to grow your production or post-production business in any type of economic conditions”, which has been presented in New York in March, and will also be in San Francisco on June 19. (Along with an afternoon session on “Growing and Monetizing and audience for your independent production”.

Your personal brand defines how people perceive you: what work they’ll consider you for, what you get offered. You’ll learn how to manage your brand – and the stories you tell around your personal brand. You’ll learn how to build an internet presence by understanding how marketing, PR and social conversations have changed the business promotion and networking landscape. We will conclude with the top tips on maximizing your business’ visibility on the Internet.

• KNOW WHAT BUSINESS YOU ARE IN – IT’S PROBABLY NOT THE ONE YOU THINK IT IS
• HOW TO CLARIFY YOUR PERSONAL BRAND – WHO ARE YOU, WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR AND WHAT PROBLEMS DO YOU SOLVE?
• UPSCALE YOUR MARKETING, PR AND SOCIAL CONVERSATIONS TO GROW YOUR PERSONAL BUSINESS AND PROJECTS

MAXIMIZE YOUR VISIBILITY SO PEOPLE CAN FIND YOU TO GIVE YOU WORK

Another addition is the calendar of upcoming presentations. Over then next couple of months I’ll be attending or speaking at the Orange county MCA-I Media Camp tomorrow (Saturday June 20). Media Camp is like a Bar camp, itself a reaction to the O’Reilly FOO (Friends of O’Rielly) exclusive, invite-only conference.  A Bar Camp (Foo Bar, get it?) is the opposite. Anyone is welcome, there’s no formal agenda so you make of it what the participants want to make it.

The Orange County Media Camp is like that – we’ll all be getting together and talking about/planning etc media production and distribution topics. I guess. I won’t know until I get there.

Then there’s DV Expo coming up In September, and the Professional Video Association’s Conference in January 2010 – more on that later but I’ll be presenting a full day on Final Cut Pro titling and a full day on growing your production or postproduction business.

In between I expect to be doing some presentations in Boston, Connecticut and New York and, depending on timing, other user groups or dealers. These will include a full day on New Media – where we’re going and how we’ll make money; and free sessions on how to benefit from First Cuts, Finisher, and Sync-N-Link. We may do the Growing your Business seminar there as well.

I hope to see you at one of the events. If you read the blog, come and say hello.

The Ken Stone Sessions: Recorded at Ken Stone’s Studio in January 2009, these two interviews feature founding members of the LAFCPUG talk about what the digital video scene was like at the time. We relive the excitement of what can be described as a technological and creative revolution, and give insight into where we’ve been and where we’re going. As well as myself, the interviews feature Andrew Balis, Michael Horton, Ken Stone. Produced by Rick Young.

The Ken Stone Sessions Part 1

The Ken Stone Sessions Part 2

Sync-N-Link for Final Cut Pro demonstrated at the Editor’s Lounge Jan 30, 2009

Online Video: Codecs, Encoding and Compression for Debra Kaufman’s summary of my Codecs, Compression and Encoding presentation for the Digital Cinema Society, Feb 7, 2009. The video is available for Digital Cinema Society members.

The  original presentation of The Assistant Editor: taking the work out of editing (which became First Cuts upon release) at the NAB 2008 Supermeet. 

There is another interview with me by Rick Young from NAB 2009 where I talk about the philosophy of Assisted Editing and my history, called Philip Hodgetts: Digital Video Pioneer.

“Philip looks beyond what is possible to what is necessary.”

Or put another way “Necessity is the mother of invention”. Initially, innovation in my world was driven by necessity. I had production ambitions beyond my equipment budget so found innovative gear that wasn’t part of the mainstream, starting with an Apple ][ based computerized edit controllers for a pair of U-matic 2850′s – real clunkers now. If we’d have had the budget for “regular” 1″ gear there would have been no innovation.

I had serial number 0030 for the Fairlight Computer Video Instrument – a crude pre-cursor to today’s computer manipulation of video images – that let me create visual complexity beyond the scope of the hardware limitations. The CVI was years ahead of its time but I knew, even then, that computer manipulation was the future of hardware. (By way of reference, we’re talking the mid-1980′s, definitely well before 1987.)  Low budget production drove me to adopt innovative technologies that may not have been “ready” for traditional mainstream.

That’s another clue to innovation: stay out of the mainstream. I’m essentially self taught (with the assistance of thousands of my nearest and dearest Internet friends) and went into a production business without having ever worked in film or video production.

One of the great freedoms to innovate with program style starts with a trusting client, and the ability to control the process. Trusting clients, who let you explore unusual program styles, are relatively hard to come by and I was blessed with two. An early 1980′s video for the NSW Coal Association (Australia) was a “two hander” safety video except the lower thirds were “visible” to the actors – bought on by the click of a finger from one actor to re-enforce a point. The fourth wall was not broken in the mid 1980′s, particularly not in training video.

My other innovative client allowed me to explore anthropomorphizing the ‘heart and soul’ of an aged care facility. In a video on correct budget process, I created  a two hander between the budget and administrator of an aged care facility (with only those two actors – all other characters were imagined). 

Innovation usually starts with someone saying “Why not?” Why not give that program style a try? Why not try a new piece of equipment that’s a fraction of the cost but isn’t proven in TV production?

Why not try and drive revenue during the quieter periods by making our own programming? If we’d been wildly successful in production we’d have had no quiet periods. Instead we had excess production capacity so we decided to innovate by creating our own programming that we would sell. This was probably more business innovation than technical or creative, but we partnered with a local association to produce videos and training manuals, that paralleled a national curriculum taught in 76 TAFE colleges (think US Community College and you’ll be close) but had no teaching resources. We never sold fewer than 52 of the packages and the revenue sustained us through many of those quiet periods.

In 1994 we were an early adopter of Media 100 – leaping whole generations of technology into the digital non-linear world. I’d fallen in love with the concept when I saw my first Avid about a year earlier, but Media 100 offered price advantages and I could finish broadcast quality on it.

That was the first NLE in Australia’s sixth largest market and it was five years and four Media 100′s later before a single Avid was sold into that market. Digital post became the mainstay of the business, along with effects creation since we could do high end effects in Media 100/After Effects that would otherwise have cost thousands of dollars.

In 1995 I purchased my first modem and discovered the Internet. Specifically I purchase the modem to get access to the Media 100 User Group email group. Suddenly I was no longer the “oddball outsider” in the Newcastle market, but par of a wider movement worldwide among other early adopters of NLE.

By 1997 I’d learnt enough from my peers that I wanted to share that knowledge. At the time I was very into non-linear learning but did not feel that “interactive software” was ready for mainstream adoption at that time. So the Media 100 Editor’s Companion was a two volume non-linear book, with built-in easel because there’s never enough room in an edit bay. 

If we’d been so busy with work in 1997, we’d have probably never followed through and put in the effort. However, because we did, we gained US and Canadian distribution and invitations to speak in those countries. Ultimately the 2001 move to the US was as a direct result of writing that book, which was a result of buying the modem!

That attempt at innovating the training manual also led, indirectly, to being part of the beta program for Final Cut Pro version 1 in early 1999. By now the technology had moved forward and we innovated with the DV Companion. Although we didn’t realize it at the time, we had invented an Electronic Performance Support System – the only one ever applied to creative software. They are essentially a software coach that’s there when you need it, with information delivered in a floating palette in text or video form.

However, because hard drives were small and video codecs inefficient, the only way to deliver > 3 hours of video in the DV Companion, we had to create them as sprite animations within QuickTime. Sprite animations, a.k.a. wired sprite movies, are part of the QuickTime toolset that most people have never heard of. It wasn’t until 2004 before we could move to all video (screen capture content) but in 1999-2004 we were able to innovate and provide video support when no-one else could, because I understood what was possible, although rarely done, with QuickTime.

If the Intelligent Assistants had been incredibly successful, we probably wouldn’t have continued to innovate and create a central resource for post production called the Pro Apps Hub, although it may have happened anyway, as I have a low threshold of boredom.

Ultimately we had to abandon the Pro Apps Hub software: part of the development environment was not moving forward to Intel OS X and that was clearly the future of OS X. Besides, by this time there were a lot of great FCP and Boris training content available and I’d rather be doing something no-one else was.

One of the highest compliments I can pay someone is “You ask great questions.” It is the question that frequently leads to innovation. Back in 2000 I was working on editing a documentary for friends in Sydney and realized how little of the footage ever ended up in the final cut. I wondered if it would be interesting to make that available, but my own sense of aesthetics dictated that this would mean generating custom edits based on search criteria.

We explored that a bit, going as far as demoing an early attempt at QuickTime Live! in early 2002 before leaving it on the back burner until a friend asked if that could be adapted to working with metadata. Just over a year later, in August 2008, we released the first of our Assisted Editing software tools. There’s a lot more innovation to come in that field.

Another great question we got asked was “How can you charge for podcasts?” That question ultimately ended up as the technology called klickTab that is used by Open TV Network. There is more innovation to come there too as we bring the technology to the book business.

Naturally I think both the current businesses – Assisted Editing and Open TV Network – have great potential and room for continued innovation. But if for some reason they don’t take off, then there will be more innovation, pushing the boundaries of what “needs to be done” regardless of whether or not it’s possible. Charging for individual items in a podcast feed was “impossible” until we did it. Building a first cut of a documentary from log notes was “impossible” until we did it. They needed to be done. And by we, I mean my ever smart, partner, Dr Greg Clarke, without whom most of this would not have been possible.

Video Symphony are in Burbank, on Magnolia near the Burbank Town Center mall (just off 3rd street). The event is free as is parking. More details in their California Video Production blog.