Blog Archives

This week a vigilant member of our Final Cut Pro community alerted me to a video on YouTube that he thought might be mine – but wasn’t on my site. I clicked the link and went directly to a recently …

I’ve been reflecting on all the hype surrounding Cloud-based file storage recently. To hear some industry pundits describe it, the Cloud – where we store our data on servers located outside our office or home – is the most incredible …

[Image courtesy Apple Inc. Click for enlarged view.] Apple this evening provided a “sneak peek” at the next version of Final Cut Pro – now called “Final Cut Pro X” at the NAB SuperMeet in Las Vegas, Nevada. The new …

‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE SUPERMEET I’m writing this at 9:50 PM from my hotel room at the 2011 NAB Show (National Association of Broadcasters) in Las Vegas, Nevada. In less than 24 hours, we will know what the next version …

I was happily answering questions from my latest Final Cut Studio newsletter which released this morning – you can sign up for it here – and getting ready for NAB, when, WHAM! The ProVideo Coalition publishes a rumor that Apple …

A tribute to Bernie Gribble, ACE, from Julian Semilian.

A few days ago, I wrote about my frustrations in finding archiving solutions that work on the Mac for protecting our video assets. (You can read that blog here — some of the comments are VERY interesting!) The day after …

It shouldn’t be this difficult. NOTE: This blog grew out of my webinar last week on how to archive Final Cut Pro projects. If you are interested in archiving, click here to learn more. The process of creating films and …

[ The following article was taken from my FREE Final Cut Studio newsletter for February. Subscribe here. ] The release of any new hardware is exciting; as we saw last week with the release of the new MacBook Pros. However, …

So, there I was. Feeling pretty darn good about being able to share some news about the next version of Final Cut Pro, when Greg Clarke, over at Intelligent Assistance, sends me a link to the movie he just created. …

… and it’s a jaw-dropper. Last week, Apple invited a few folks, including me, to a short meeting in Cupertino where they previewed the up-coming version of Final Cut Pro. While I am under NDA and can’t talk about what …

I get a ton of press releases every day. Many I post to the Latest News section of the Digital Production Buzz, so that you can keep up with what’s going on in our world. Others I just trash. But …

Google threw a potentially huge monkey wrench into the world of online video when they announced recently that they would no longer support H.264 in their Google Chrome web browser. Just when the world seemed to be coming together around …

The following is taken from my free, monthly Final Cut Studio Newsletter. Subscribe here. I’ve had the pleasure of testing a variety of truly high-speed RAIDs over the years, and I’ve spent a lot of time worrying about whether I …

The good folks at Accusys sent me an 8-drive RAID to test recently. (You can read my review of their ExaSAN A08S-PS unit in the next issue of my newsletter; coming out later this month.) However, what I want to …

A year or so ago, I wrote about a problem of digital media slowly "evaporating" when a hard drive is powered down and stored on a shelf. You can read the first article here. The solution is to refresh the …

MUSING: LOOKING BACK TO LOOK AHEAD NOTE: I first wrote about this in my blog, but got so many favorable comments, I want to share this with you here. Also see my blog for more comments about this. In wrapping …

I’m reminded of the story of three blind men describing an elephant. None of them can see the truth, so each has to describe this huge beast from their own, very limited, perspective. What brought this to mind was a …

This morning, Apple quietly announced that it was discontinuing the XServe – which is the high-end server for XSAN and other networks – on January 31, 2011. For folks that need servers, Apple recommends that you use either a new …

Tonight, on our podcast the Digital Production Buzz, we announced The BuZZ Shout-Out! No one needs to tell you that finding work these days is hard. That’s where The BuZZ can help. We want to help jobs find you. Here’s …

[ The following musing is taken from the October issue of my Final Cut Studio newsletter. This free monthly newsletter is starting its seventh year of publishing. Sign up for a FREE subscription here. ] It’s been at least a …

Sigh… In my webinar yesterday on Automating Compressor, I provided a link to an open-source X.264 codec which can be used with Compressor. The problem is I was linking to an older version. The current version of the codec is …

I’m a member of the IMUG mailing list, which has lots of interesting discussions on media, gear, and life. This morning, Carey Dissmore, Principal of Carey Dissmore Productions, Inc. and a co-founder of the IMUG, sent out a post that …

Yesterday, MacRumors posted that “Final Cut Studio Update Scaled Back and Delayed.” Naturally, this sent seismic tremors throughout the Final Cut community. (Personally, I’ve lost count of how many times one rumor site or another has cried that Final Cut …

[Updated June 12, 2016, about six years after I first wrote it. I believe this now more than ever. Updated Jan. 3, 2021. Even in a world of online training, I think these thoughts still hold true.] I’ve been thinking about …

Our podcast, DigitalProductionBuzz.com, is the Official Podcast of Digital Video Expo for the third year in a row! Digital Video Expo 2010 is in Pasadena, CA, from Sept. 28 – 30. We are creating three special programs – LIVE – …

Apple today announced a series of minor updates to fix a variety of bugs in Final Cut Studio (3). These improvements do NOT include full support for Snow Leopard, but do fix a variety of problems in Final Cut Pro …

UPDATE – Sept. 16, 2010 Yesterday, Apple updated Final Cut Pro to 7.0.3 which, among other things, fixes this problem. You can get the latest version via Software Update. If you are running an earlier version of Final Cut Pro, …

Putch, over at Putch Films, sent me this link on Apple’s website on how the film: Eat Pray Love was edited on Final Cut Pro. www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/in-action/eatpraylove/?sr=hotnews.rss I liked their description of their use of ProRes Proxy and the workflow they …

A couple of weeks ago, I reported on a recent ruling by the U.S. Copyright Office which now allows documentary film producers to decrypt DVDs to gain access to materials on them for their projects. This process, called “Fair Use,” …

I had an interesting discussion with Stacey Parks, CEO of Film Specific, last Thursday on the Digital Production Buzz. Stacey is a world-renowned expert in film distribution and marketing. With the American Film Market 2010 drawing closer (it starts in …

We were deeply troubled to read this week in the LA Times of significant legal challenges to the First Amendment rights of a documentary filmmaker. Joe Berlinger made a documentary about Aguinda v. Chevron, a class action lawsuit filed in …

Last week, on the Digital Production Buzz, we interviewed Evelyn McLellan, a professional archivist for Artefactual Systems. (You can hear her interview here — 14 minutes, MP3 file.) I found the interview to be an excellent orientation to getting our …

This Wednesday, July 14 at 7:00 PM, I am presenting at the LAPPG (Los Angeles Post-Production Group).  This is a great user group, if you haven’t had a chance to attend a meeting, check out their website – www.lappg.com. This …

“When I first got started in this editing business,” he said creaking back and forth in his rocking chair, “editing video took a minimum of two quarter-million dollar videotape recorders – plus a control room – a lot of patience …

In a recent newsletter, I invited readers to send in their favorite iPhone apps for production or post. I thought you might be interested in some of their replies: Ian Hart I find Movie*Slate very handy as I often need …

John Bogdanovich sent me the following note: I just released my 10 DVD series on making concert classical guitars. The project took two years to complete and due to the tiny budget available I was only able to hire a …

Michael Cowan sent me a note earlier today that I wanted to share with you. He was having problems sending sequences from Final Cut Pro to Soundtrack Pro (STP). Since I do this all the time with my own projects, …

Well, Apple Insider felt there wasn’t enough stress in our lives so they published a long blog written by Prince McLean titled: “Apple Scaling Final Cut Studio to fit prosumers.” (You can read the entire article here.) Naturally, the entire …

Here’s another technical question that came in recently. Sourabh asks: I am a huge fan of your newsletters. I see you mention in quite a few newsletters burning an AVCHD disc (on a standard DVD) using FCP 7 that will …

I’m trying to catch up on the backlog of technical questions I get asked each month for my Final Cut Studio Newsletter. So, I’m hoping to address a number of them here in my blog. This question is typical of …

The Digital Production Buzz wrapped up its 2010 NAB Show coverage over the weekend. During the show, our team of almost 30 staff and volunteers interviewed more than 250 people, created 36 seven-minutes News Briefs, and more than nine hours …

Just a very quick note – as it is now about 11:58 PM – that our podcast, the Digital Production Buzz is located on the trade show floor at the 2010 NAB Show as the official podcast. We are right …

In less than 48 hours, the Digital Production Buzz will start broadcasting from the floor of the 2010 NAB Show. (Currently, I’m surrounded in boxes, cables, and packing crates as we get our gear packed up and loaded it. You …

Earlier today, Data Robotics released the new Drobo FS. Drobo is a hard disk RAID family that I like a lot. Last week, I had a chance to talk with Mark Fuccio, Senior Director of Business Development for Data Robotics …

For those of you listening to the Digital Production Buzz last week, you heard that our co-host, Michael Horton, was somewhat, ah, distressed that his laptop died. In fact, it died about 30 minutes before the show started. We did …

Recently, Apple released new updates for Final Cut Studio (3). Pro Applications Update 2010-01 is a revision to Final Cut Studio (2009). This update includes Final Cut Pro 7.0.2, Motion 4.0.2, Color 1.5.2, Compressor 3.5.2, Apple Qmaster 3.5.2 and Cinema …

Adobe Systems has announced that they will be announcing ALL their new CS5 products on Monday, April 12. As a note, we will be covering their announcement on our NAB Special Reports, which you can hear as part of the …

Mark Spencer, a wizard at Apple Motion, just released a new collection for Motion. Motion’s Shape objects are incredibly versatile and powerful. You can adjust their edit points, style them using the outstanding style presets, and animate them with Shape …

PF Bentley sent me the following: My lastest project, HANA KA HOE (THE PADDLE MAKER) is now online at http://www.vimeo.com/10354055 In these days of mass production, native Hawaiian Kalani Delovio, founder of Ohana Paddles, is one of the few who …