Category: Technology

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General Solar Odyssey The Technology of Production

It’s a Production Haiku called Solar Odyssey

Back when I wrote for print magazines, one of the greatest challenges was writing an article to fit the constrained space. Writing the article was never the problem; whittling it down to the allotted word count took more time than the writing. Cutting away a little at a time to the absolute minimum that will convey the content.

Much like the constraint of a Haiku focuses on both simplicity and structure, the production choices I’ve had to make for Solar Odyssey are the paring down to absolute simplicity. Oh, and invent some new technology along the way!

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Assisted Editing

7toX for Final Cut Pro 1.0.6

Version 1.0.6 of 7toX for Final Cut Pro was released into the App Store today with these changes:

  • Bug fix for XML exported from Premiere Pro
  • Bug fix for XML exported from Inqscribe
  • Bug fix for SD Anamorphic clips
Yes, that’s a different fix for Premiere Pro FCP 7 XML export!
We have also identified (and fixed today) an issue with still images that shows them as black, or as way too short. That fix will be in 1.0.7 almost ready to submit to the App Store. Unfortunately that’s taking about a week these days.

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Interesting Technology Item of Interest

All Hail the Robotic Farmers and Pilots of the Future

All Hail the Robotic Farmers and Pilots of the Future http://t.co/dlOM5NXM

A very interesting article on the increasing computer algorithm use to make landings and take-offs safer:

Fighter pilot Mary “Missy” Cummings saw it coming while landing her F/A-18 supersonic jet on a Navy aircraft carrier — the world-changing disruption barreling toward the present.

Instead of landing the multi-million-dollar machine on the small deck of the ship herself in the 1990s, a computer accomplished the tricky feat for her.

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Interesting Technology Item of Interest

Technorati picks up on our Solar Odyssey Challenge

News site Technorati covered our challenge today with the article Will the Solar Odyssey Sail into a World Record?

In order to qualify for the world’s record, the boat will travel during the day only on electricity that is exclusively generated by solar power. No plugging-in allowed on this adventure! If all goes well, it will be the first time this has ever been done and the crew hopes to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the first solar-powered vessel to complete the Great Loop.

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Apple Apple Pro Apps

Some Final Cut Pro X Data Points

As expected my Monday morning on-the-record briefing with Apple’s Pro Apps team was very similar to Larry Jordan’s the day before. Larry covered the bulk of the content well on his blog post about it, so I don’t feel the need to go over the same data again.

I note Larry’s request for the retention of In and Out points, and that’s certainly desirable. I “banged the drum” (strongly) for selective copy/paste of attributes and was also told the same “the announced features aren’t the only ones we’ll release” response. FWIW, I think FCP X will use a selective copy approach, since you can already select (highlight) just one group of attributes. My interest in the Solar Odyssey project also had me putting in a pitch for sharing an Event to multiple editors working on their own Projects. All we can do is suggest priorities.

But what really stuck out were two data points mentioned in the briefing that Larry didn’t comment on.

There are now more Final Cut Pro X installs than Final Cut Pro 7 installs.

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Assisted Editing Metadata The Technology of Production

Why is temporal XMP metadata so exciting?

There are, in fact, two things that excite me greatly about Adobe’s CS6 Production Premium: temporal XML metadata, and time associated metadata (which Adobe calls “disassociated metadata”). Together they are an exciting combination that has sent my head spinning with possibilities.

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Apple Pro Apps Assisted Editing Metadata The Technology of Production

How do you put more quality on the screen than is in the budget?

Perusing the Final Cut Pro X In Action stories I had two observations: as others have noticed no mention of Mac Pros, and that Leverage has a $1.8 million budget. Only the second has anything to do with metadata!

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Apple Pro Apps Assisted Editing

7toX for Final Cut Pro 1.0.5 hits the Mac App Store

7toX version 1.0.5 hit the Mac App Store last night. This version is free from the Mac App Store and is mostly tidying up loose ends as we find them.

What’s New in this Version

  • Support for XML exported from Belle Nuit Subtitler
  • Support for XML exported from Movie★Slate
  • Bug fix for XML exported from Premiere Pro
  • Bug fix for Crop
  • Bug fix for Position, Scale, Crop and Distort for square pixel video in non-square pixel timelines, and non-square pixel video in square pixel timelines
  • Bug fix for detecting Photoshop clips in a Project

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Apple Pro Apps Assisted Editing Item of Interest

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.4 hits the Mac App Store

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.4 hits the app store. Now Xto7 can support flattened multicam in the current release due to the new XML capabilities in this release – specifically, the presence of multicam data in the Project XML.

The current release of Xto7 (version 1.1.7) already supports this feature when sent 10.0.4 Project XML. Unfortunately, due to the way the two apps support Multicam, Xto7 can only do a “flattened” version. We translate the active angle as an independent clip, losing the Multicam information.

The reason is that FCP X multicam is much more powerful and forgiving than FCP 7’s version so it proved impossible to have any sort of reliable translation as Multiclips back. For example: FCP X supports MP4 media in multiclips; mixed formats in multiclips; mixed frame rates in multiclips; more than one clip in a multiclip angle, etc.  Any one of those items would prevent translation to FCP 7 Multiclips.

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Assisted Editing Video Technology

Sync-N-Link X

We’re very pleased to announce Sync-N-Link X, a completely rethought version of our popular and powerful batch synchronizing application for dual system (separate audio and video) workflows.

When we considered what was needed for this workflow we realized we weren’t facing a simple rewrite, but like Final Cut Pro X itself, a complete rethink. Even better we’ve been able to make it much more affordable, reducing the price from $495 down to $199.99.  Here’s the press release:

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