1@patInhofer @piersg @quintessential I’d agree with that – Cineform and DnxHD are the best cross platform mastering codecs.

If you saw a cryptic headlong for this post – the first line above – I apologize.  I have my Twitter account set to post to the blog when I post “new”, that is not a reply to someone. Even then I catch the tweet when it posts, tidy the headline and expand the post with a little commentary. (more…)

Three NLEs, three approaches to 64 bit. http://t.co/v0ye0xEy Episode 38 of the Terence and Philip Show.

In this episode Terence and Philip discuss the different approaches to updating their NLEs to 64bit modern architectures, with a particular emphasis on Media Composer 6, Avid’s just-released 64 bit update to the venerable Media Composer.

It’s a really good question. When an application needs to move from 32 bit to 64 bit, there are many approaches, but one thing is certain: all the code has to be 64 bit, including any dependencies or plug-ins. By dependencies I mean where the application relies on OS frameworks or libraries, such as QuickTime or AVI or other OS level service.  All these must be 64 bit or the application can’t compile to 64 bit. So all three companies had some rewriting to do, but because of their histories it’s actually different for each app.

Even though Premiere Pro is the most modern app of the three (Premiere Pro, Media Composer and Final Cut Pro) having been completely rewritten ahead of the 2003 release, it still largely depended on AVI (Windows) and QuickTime (OS X) for media handling. Neither have been adequately rewritten for 64 bit: AVI because all development stopped in 1996 (the zombie format that will not die) and QuickTime because Apple decided to transition to AVFoundation for media handling in applications, after attempting a partial rewrite of QuickTime as QTKit in 64 bit.

So, Adobe decided to write their own media engine so they could go to 64 bit without the external dependencies. (Premiere Pro still imports and plays QuickTime media by use of a complex workaround.) Most of Adobe’s code is C or similar with only an OS level wrapper around the cross platform code. So it’s “true” Cocoa on OS X because the interface is a heavily subclassed Cocoa frameworks (subclassed to make it look like an Adobe app, in the same way many Cocoa frameworks are subclassed in FCP X for its unique look).

Avid also decided to rewrite all their code from scratch, but instead of one big hit, they have been progressively rewriting their code for the last  three or four releases, if not longer.  You can write the code and have it compile into a 32 bit application (MC before 6) and then when you have all the app ready in 64 bit, you recompile it into 64 bit. Avid did not need to radically change the application, although there are two very major changes from the original code base. Avid Media Architecture was Avid’s approach to the multiplicity of non-tape sources, and it was all new code ready to recompile to 64 bit when the main application did. Avid also appear to have changed their approach to hardware interfaces with Media Composer 6, integrating a hardware abstraction layer so that third parties can integrate with Media Composer without needing to make any changes to Media Composer code. (Previously the Media Composer code needed to be rewritten to talk to each piece of changed hardware.

Apple had to rewrite because their media engine – QuickTime – was only partially rewritten to 64 bit and was lacking most of what the Pro Apps team needed for a modern video application. The solution to the media engine was AVFoundation originally created as the media frameworks for iOS and ported back to OS X with 10.6.7 and Lion,  which is why FCP X requires 10.6.7 or later.

Adobe relies on its own proprietary media engine. Avid relies on its proprietary media engine.  Final Cut Pro  X relies on AVFoundation, which only exists on OS X and iOS and is very, very new to code to0. (This was the likely reason that broadcast video out was delayed, because they had to wait for AVFoundation to be finished before BMD, AJA etc could even start work on drivers no longer based on QuickTime.)

All are really 64 bit, but they’ve taken different paths to get there, as they had different needs.

I was a little shocked to find people posting on Twitter and Facebook that they had tried to import Final Cut Pro 7 XML into Final Cut Pro X with the new “import XML”. That would be like opening a Word document and complaining that it didn’t translate from Spanish to English while opening the file.

By itself, XML tells you nothing. It is a generic term that tells you as much about the content as having a “Text” document tells you about the content. As I wrote four years ago for KenStone.net XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language.  You may be familiar with another markup language: HTML, or HyperText Markup Language.  In HTML only the WC3 consortium can add new tags because it is not extensible. On the other hand XML is “extensible”, meaning  anyone can extend it to mean whatever they want it to mean.

And that’s true for every type of XML.  In the case of XML for editing applications, the XML represents the underlying data structures from the application. So, we have:

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In the mid 1990′s my Australian company made the decision to purchase a Media 100 system. That remains the best business decision I ever made (and selling it to jump to Final Cut Pro 1 was the second best business decision). It also meant we were migrating from Amiga computers to Macs. Given that I already had a graphic designer on staff for titles, illustrations and animations, I decided to delight clients by having our designer create a full color slick for the (then) VHS deliverables. (Masters simply got descriptive labels.)

Until that point we’d only done black and white printing, and it’s easy to proof what you’re going to get on a B&W laser printer. Not so with color. Color output wasn’t as common then as it is now and we didn’t get the first Kinkos until very late in the 1990′s, so we really only had one choice for our runs of 2-3 covers for each job.

This became a serious problem when – while developing a food product for my parent’s company during the period I managed it (in addition to my own two companies) – we needed a very specific purple on mockup packaging we were presenting to food buyers at the national department store chains in Australia. Cadbury – Australia’s biggest chocolate company – have always used a specific purple in their packaging, and had just spent several million dollars on a campaign that heavily featured this purple. Since the new product was a chocolate variation on a traditional English Christmas Pudding, having the purple match was beyond important. And we got blue-purple, and red-purple: seemingly every color except the one we wanted. (more…)

Shortly after I first arrived in the USA, I was teaching some Final Cut Pro classes for Intelligent Media. It was just before Final Cut Pro 2 was released, which I had been beta testing for some months, but 1.2.5 was the release version we were teaching. At that time it was challenging for new users to get settings right, particularly getting a good match between Capture and Sequence settings, so the first half day was dedicated to teaching settings and making sure they were right. It was personally frustrating because I knew that the about-to-be-releaseed version was much smarter about settings.

As it turns out, Final Cut Pro 2 was released early the next morning, so the first thing I had to do in that second day of class was tell my students that what we had learned the day before was no longer relevant for version 2 because the software had become smarter, and that made it easier for people to use Final Cut Pro and no doubt contributed to its success.

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My DV Expo topics

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.

Here’s a question.  If you enter a new business into a crowded market, would you design it to be as similar to the existing competition, or would you design something different that differentiates itself in the marketplace?

Growing up in Australia in the 1960′s thru to 90′s on Saturday afternoon the average Sydneysider – the biggest city in Australia – could choose from five networks: 3 commercial (7, 9 and 10) and two Government – ABC (think PBS but Govt funded) and SBS (for multicultural entertainment). Typically two of the commercial networks and both ABC and SBS would have some sort of sport. (Soccer on SBS was very “multicultural” at the time!)

The ratings winner was the 10 network because they programmed something that wasn’t sport! Although sports were, and are, very popular, the aggregate non-sport market was bigger!

Although Media Composer wasn’t the first non-linear editing software, it was the first to capture the popular imagination of the industry. It’s interface was very comfortable for editors familiar with both Moviola and tape-based offline editing. That was probably exactly the right thing to do at the time.

At the time.

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The project is not mine, but that of a client where I was called in to see if the “crew” (mostly just one guy) was going to be able to shoot content that will integrate with the existing project.

The thing is that  the rest of the project is HDV, XDCAM, DVCPRO HD, AVC-I, AVCCAM, some SD – so today we add DSLR!

This is not an art project so there’s no big advantage of a “shallow depth of field”. Most of the b-roll is coming from achieve SD video of varying quality, but because it was shot over a long period, without anyone keeping track of formats we end up with this sort of mess. A young and reasonably competent “editor” was on the job but totally unaware of the complications of having every known frame rate and format in the project (except DSLR until today).

Every different format complicates the project and adds additional processing time to bring everything to a common format before starting the edit, including mixing 23.98 and 29.97 frame rates.

And while Premiere Pro and Media Composer (and probably Final Cut Pro X) can deal with all these formats natively, I hope no-one would recommend that as a workflow for a large documentary project. Certainly AMA for Media Composer is a great way to choose selects from the native format and then transcode to DNxHD for the edit.

This is simply madness. Every one of us needs to educate producers and directors that mixing frame rates and formats is going to cost them a lot of money in post production. And then make sure the message communicates by charging what it costs.

RT @zbutcher: Join MediaSilo & Oasis for FREE event in LA http://eepurl.com/cdZ4T

Metadata is crucial in today’s ever-changing, competitive post production environment. New, exciting tools continue to emerge. Trying to sort through it all? Join us for a special event in LA onJanuary 27 @ 6:30.

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