Blog Archives

As many of you may know, I write a monthly newsletter covering Final Cut Studio. (Sign-up for your FREE subscription here.) We are now in our sixth year of publishing, each issue generally runs around 40 pages. For many years, …

Recently, Apple released an update to its ProAps frameworks. These are behind-the-scenes utilities that provide shared resources used by all the applications. The new revisions are available via Software Update. In Apple’s announcement, they indicated that one of the things …

Over at KenStone.net, David Saraceno has written a new article on “Reinstalling OS X and Final Cut Studio the Right Way.” The first part of his series has been posted: “How To Create A Bootable OS X Firewire/USB Install HDD”. …

In case you missed it, MacWorld ran an interesting article stating that 9 of 10 documentaries nominated for Oscars this year were edited using Final Cut Pro. You can read the entire article here.

Recently, there’s been a big flutter on the web about whether professional video can be encoded using the H.264 codec. The reason is that the H.264 license agreement essentially states, in part, that the H.264 codec can only be used …

The Casual Mafia released their newest original sketch ‘The Everyday Ninja’. It’s a common story about the trials and tribulations of a ninja forced from his clan and made to suffer the everyday life of a 20-something guy. Click here …

One last report from London’s Broadcast Video Expo 2010. As I was leaving the Object Matrix booth, I met Paul Phillips, the U.K. Managing Director for Active Storage. When Apple decided to get out of the RAID business a few …

Often, the best new gear is hidden in the corners and back areas of a trade show. As I was walking the aisles of the Broadcast Video Expo in London last week, I discovered a company called Hocus Products. They …

This is a continuation of my series of Film Notes – promoting interesting films or productions. If you want to tell the world about your film – let me know and I’ll share the news. Larry LIVE BROADCAST TO SMART …

Several times a week, I get a note from a Filmmaker asking for help promoting their work. After struggling for a long while to find the best place to do this, I finally decided to post these here – under …

I mentioned Tools on Air in an earlier blog post, but now I have an audio interview to go with it. Tools on Air describes itself as “A TV Station on a Mac.” Currently, they are only distributed by NMR …

I’ve been invited by Dublin City University and Institute of Technology – Tallaght to present two days of seminars in Dublin this weekend. * The session on Saturday is designed for students and new users. * Sunday is for more …

Tucked in a small corner at the Broadcast Video Expo 2010 in London was a brand-new product designed for independent producers to help them shoot in 3D — BinoRig. They were displaying a prototype of a camera mount that allows …

I’m spending the week at Broadcast Video Expo 2010 in London (well, Kensington Square, if you want to be specific.) This is the UK’s largest show focused on video production gear. If you listen to the Digital Production Buzz tonight …

I’m getting ready to head to Scotland, England, and Ireland for a two-week series of Final Cut Studio seminars. (You can read about where I’m going and what I’m discussing here.) When I’m in London, in addition to speaking at …

Tonight, on the

Today, Apple announced its new tablet – the iPad. Which is great for watching videos, but not so great at creating them. For that, we still need laptops and tower computers. With that in mind, I’m up in San Jose, …

Adam Connell, a long-time reader of my monthly Final Cut Studio newsletter, sent me the following: I recently downloaded and tried out 10.6.2 on my ‘experiments’ mac, a 17″ MBP 2009 edition. On exactly the same HDV and XDCAM sequences …

These thoughts have been bubbling around my head for the last few months, but developed into an article as I was trying to learn Mocha from Imagineer Systems. They were also the philosophy behind my recent book for Focal Press: …

Sigh… I really didn’t want this to happen, but my November Final Cut Studio newsletter won’t be out till December… and I didn’t want you to worry about missing your issue. I’m currently in the midst of editing two series, …

It’s Thanksgiving in the US this week, where many of us take time off to visit friends and family. To give our staff some time off, we pre-recorded our podcast – the Digital Production BuZZ – this week. And, as …

[Update: July 15, 2021. Adobe discontinued Adobe TV several years ago. Today, I got a letter from the folks at Digiarty, makers of VideoProc, with a link to their article on why Adobe TV, and the Creative Suite software, died. …

Sorenson Media released Squeeze 6 today. Normally, I put product releases in the Latest News section of the Digital Production BuZZ website, but in this case, I have a bit more information about this product which I want to share …

Recently, Philip Hodgetts began writing about “The Death of Advertising” in his blog. His thoughts resonated with me because, like many of us, I’m looking for ways to reach new customers, and to help other companies reach new customers through …

This morning Apple announced a plethora of new hardware, some of which looks pretty interesting — as long as you aren’t interested in editing video. You see, Apple removed the FireWire port from the MacBook – again. A few iterations …

Tonight, on the Digital Production BuZZ, Mike Horton and I interviewed Brandon Miller, producer and filmmaker of a soon-to-be-released film titled “Homeless in Los Angeles.” In many ways, Brandon is like the other young independent filmmakers we talk with on …

I’ve been asked to speak at the upcoming Association of Video Professionals (AVP) conference – January 28 – 30th in Los Angeles. I’ve had the great pleasure of speaking to this group before and have always found them to be …

Apple announced a new video format, dubbed iFrame, specifically to improve the import and editing of HD images. Apple’s support site states: The iFrame Video format is designed by Apple to speed up importing and editing by keeping the content …

As part of the interviews we did during Digital Video Expo 2009 last week (click here – www.dvexpobuzz.com – for details), I spoke with Philip Hodgetts, who was presenting a conference session on client management and finding work. Given all …

Trade shows are world-wide and around the year. Digital Video Expo just finished here in LA (Pasadena, actually), and we took our podcast – Digital Production BuZZ – to cover the event. There are really only two reasons to go …

If you are looking for something free to do tomorrow – Tuesday, Sept. 29 – join me at the South Coast Plaza Apple Store at 8:00 AM for a two-hour FREE presentation on the new Final Cut Studio (3). The …

One of the questions I am constantly asked is “what’s the best digital video camera?” The problem is that while I understand video formats pretty well, I don’t shoot very much. So, I don’t have the experience to pick a …

Larry Jordan and Mike Horton are bringing the Digital Production BuZZ to DV Expo – Sept. 22 – 24, 2009 – at the Pasadena Convention Center. Visit the show floor – check out the latest news – stop by our …

If you are anywhere close to Orlando, Florida, join me for WEVA 2009! WEVA (the Wedding and Event Videography Association) is holding their annual Expo at the brand-new 26-acre Hilton Orlando, in Orlando, Florida, from Sept. 14 – 17, 2009. …

During our recent summer seminar series, I got a lot of requests to provide more opportunities to meet with editors. We decided to take that to heart for September – and have created a variety of ways, and places, to …

In an article posted to it’s KnowledgeBase, Apple announced: “The versions of Final Cut Studio and Final Cut Express listed below are compatible with Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard.” Final Cut Studio 2 Final Cut Studio (2009) Final Cut …

Several notes on compatibility with Snow Leopard that are of interest to Final Cut editors: * Panasonic P2 drivers don’t work with Snow Leopard. Some cards *may* not work either. Check Panasonic’s site for details. * Sony EX1 cards seem …

My latest Final Cut Studio newsletter is available! 45 pages – whew! – covering Snow Leopard, Final Cut Studio (3), and a whole host of reader mail. Over 36 articles, tips, and techniques in all! Here’s just a quick listing …

First, Apple releases the hardware. For instance, until the iPhone was released, the best App in the world had no where to go. Next, Apple releases the operating system to support the hardware. Sometimes, in the case of the iPhone, …

Sorry to have been so quiet the last couple of weeks. With the release of Final Cut Studio 3, I had two book projects to finish. One I turned in last Saturday and the other I need to complete by …

Apple recently posted PDF versions of the manuals for all the latest Final Cut Studio applications. You can find them here: http://support.apple.com/manuals/#professionalsoftware To see the latest manuals, scroll down into the list, don’t click the icons at the top. Also, …

Apple is making my life difficult. The latest release of Final Cut Studio is named Final Cut Studio. This is the same name as the release of Final Cut Studio with Final Cut Pro 5. Now I spent a LOT …

For some reason Apple decided not to create a printable manual for the latest version of Final Cut. Even more confusing, the help manual is on-line – which is great as long as you are connected. But, somewhat awkward if …

I installed the latest Final Cut Studio upgrade over the weekend and have been studying it since. Then, I read Scott Simmon’s blog this morning that caused a question to finally resolve itself in my head. The question I am …

I spoke with Richard Townhill, Director of Video Application Marketing for Apple, the day the new version of Final Cut Studio was released. Not only is Richard the public face of Final Cut, probably no one in Apple has more …

With the release of the latest version of Final Cut Studio, I’m already working on a detailed look at it for my next newsletter. However, that issue won’t be out for a couple of weeks. In the meantime, Bruce Nazarian …

As you may have noticed, LiveType is not included in the latest round of updates from Apple. I spoke with Richard Townhill, Director of Video Application Marketing at Apple about this and he told me that while the new version …

Because of all the news related to the new Final Cut Studio release, we are changing our coverage for the Digital Production Buzz tonight to focus on all the news. I just finished talking with Richard Townhill, Director of Video …

Apple announced the latest version of Final Cut Studio (version 3) this morning! Consisting of six applications (LiveType did not survive the update), you can get more details here: http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/ From Apple’s Press Release: Apple today announced a significant update …

I got a note today from Gabe Cheifetz, head crumble at CrumblePop, about a new Final Cut filter that they’ve just released. Their press releases reads: CrumplePop today announced the availability of CrumplePop Reflector, a set of high quality reflection …