Friday, October 30, 2009

Plug-ins, Pixels and Pumpkins

A Look at Tools That Take Your NLE to the Next Level... and Then Some!

Just in time for the Halloween witches and spooks, the October Editors' Lounge shaped up to be a ghoulish treat. We featured a full lineup of plugins that can extend your NLE and add polish and pizazz to your projects.

Toolfarm's Michele Yamazaki demoed Continuum Complete from Boris FX, while GenArts' Todd Prives showed off their latest Sapphire plugins. Marco Paolini from Digital Film Tools demonstrated various plugins including Composite Suite Pro, zMatte and Tiffen Dfx Filter Suite. To round out the evening, effects editor Jan Lucas showed off how to use Imagineer Systems' mocha for Final Cut to pull off some amazing tracking.

The evening was a great success and we would like to thank all of the vendors and demonstrators for their time and generosity.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Sony XDCAM II: The Sequel!

Sony is Back and Showing off the Latest in XDCAM Workflows and More!

Our Sony XDCAM Event last year was a jam-packed evening, and the September Lounge promised to be no different. Guests came to see the latest updates to the XDCAM lineup and hear from experts about improved workflows.

Sony's Mike Desroches showed off the new XDCAM PDW-F800 camera featuring 24p 1920x1080 4:2:2 and the companion PDW-F1600 deck. Discussion included current TV productions using XDCAM. Editor Jess Bushyhead demonstrated the latest XDCAM workflows for the Avid. Bunim/Murray Productions VP of Post, Mark Raudonis, discussed Final Cut 7 XDCAM workflows. Finally, Gabriel Dimitri of Matrox explained how their MXO2 works with realtime XDCAM outputs. As an added bonus, Gary Mandle from Sony dropped by with the latest BVM-L231 and PVM-L2300 HD monitors.

Friday, August 21, 2009

World Premiere Demonstration: Final Cut Studio

Apple is Back and Showing off What's New in Final Cut Pro, Color, Motion and More!

People saw it here first! Apple was back in town with a whole slew of updates to Final Cut Studio and they came to the Editors' Lounge to show them all to a record-breaking number of guests. Over 115 attendees came and saw the new features in Final Cut Pro, Color, Motion, Compressor, and Final Cut Server and took advantage of the rare opportunity to talk to the brains behind them all.

That's right, a bunch of Apple Pro Video Product Managers and Representatives were there! Steve Bayes, Sr. Product Manager Final Cut Pro, Color, ProRes and Cinema Tools, Charles Meyer, Product Manager Motion, and Luke Tristram, Sr. Product Manager Final Cut Server and Compressor, were all on hand to discuss, demonstrate, and answer questions. Learn more from the source about Final Cut Studio.

It was an amazing evening for everyone, and AlphaDogs would like to say thanks to everyone from Apple who made it happen, as well as the folks from AJA Video Systems, Key Code Media, and GenArts for their invaluable assistance.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Adobe CS4 and FORscene

Integrating Adobe CS4 Production Premium and FORscene into Your Post Workflow

Forbidden Technologies founder, Stephen Streater, joined us live from London in a dramatic demostration of FORscene, their web-based video post-production software. Full-featured multi-user reviewing, logging and editing tools can be accessed via the web from anywhere in the world. Learn more about FORscene.

Adobe returned to the Editors' Lounge with a more in-depth look at Production Premium CS4. Adobe Digital Workflow Specialist and 20-year film/TV veteran, Kevan O'Brien, demonstrated how you can seamlessly integrate CS4 into your post-production workflow. Highlights included: the latest tapeless formats like RED, P2 and AVCHD; importing projects from Avid; using Speech Search for speech-to-text conversion; Photoshop and after Effects integration; multiple video delivery options like Blu-ray discs and Flash for web. Learn more about CS4 Production Premium.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Let's Talk NAB!

The 2009 Post-NAB Discussion Panel

Back by popular demand, the 6th Annual Editors' Lounge NAB Discussion Panel was transformed from the usual Pre-NAB Fortunetelling Session into a Post-NAB Play-by-Play Analysis and "Post" Mortem.

The entertaining and informative panel featured the usual suspects: Lucas Wilson (guru of D.I., RED and other post-solutions), Mark Raudonis (VP of Post for Bunim/Murray Productions), Howard Brock (Emmy™ winning editor and President of Runway, Inc), and Terence Curren (editor/colorist, founder of AlphaDogs, Inc and vocal member of the Editor's Curmudgeon Guild). The discussion was moderated by Debra Kaufman of StudioDaily.com.

The panelists were in rare form with a very lively discussion. Attendees who weren't able to go to NAB this year were treated to unique perspectives on the significant products that were shown (and what was missing from the show floor), and what this all means for the coming year in post-production.

If you were unable to attend the event, you can watch selected highlights online here, here, here,
here, and here courtesy of StudioDaily.com.

Friday, March 27, 2009

The Craft of Editing


A Moderated Panel Discussion with Editors on Their Craft

The March 2009 Editors' Lounge was a very special event featuring a moderated discussion with a panel of distinguished editors. Editors representing all the major fields of their craft from film to reality television to online editing and more, were on hand to discuss the paths they took to become the editors they are today and talk about the craft of editing. The overflow crowd had the oppurtunity to ask questions afterwards.

The discussion panel included 2-time Oscar™ nominated film editor, Billy Weber, seasoned finishing editor and colorist, Terence Curren, veteran reality-television editor, Glenn Morgan, and Emmy™ nominated trailer editor, Carol Streit. The discussion was deftly moderated by Debra Kaufman of StudioDaily.com.

If you were unable to attend the event, you can watch the Editors' Discussion Panel: Careers any time online. Check out other event videos on the Editors Lounge Vimeo Channel.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Storage Options: Which One Is Right for Me?





A Full Lineup of Storage and Backup Solutions on Display for Your Evaluation

Networked storage solutions. Automated backup systems. Hi-speed data transfers. Firewire. eSATA. USB2. Aaack, there are so many different options! How do I know which solution will fit my current needs? Will it efficiently scale with me over time?

The Editors' Lounge heard your cries, and invited vendors from all over to set up shop at our place so guests could see see their products and services up close and personal (and do a little comparing, too). Avid's Unity, Apple's XSAN, Facilis' Terrablock with Cache-A's LTO-4 backup, CalDigit's HDPro and CalDigit VR, Tandberg Data's RDX QuikStor and LTO Tape, LaCie's 4big Quadra, Rimage's Producer 7100N, Archion's Synergy HDu, Sonnet's Fusion DX800RAID and Fusion F2, Maxx Digital's Evo2 HD and Edit Vault, and StorageDNA's DNASync-ISAN were all on display.

Instead of round-robin presentations like past Lounges, attendees were free to wander from room to room, focusing on those systems and solutions that most interested them. By all accounts the evening was a resounding success, and the folks at AlphaDogs would like to extend thanks to all of the vendors who participated. An extra special thank you goes to Key Code Media and J-KAM Digital for helping make the event possible.

See video highlights of the event, courtesy of AlphaDogs (please note the page might not load properly in Firefox).

Friday, January 30, 2009

Digital Vision, Matrox and More!

Film Master, MXO 2 and Sync-N-Link Product Demonstrations

Welcome to the 6th year of the Editors' Lounge!

Eliot Milbourn from Digital Vision returned to the Lounge to demonstrate the latest release of Film Master, now with native RED R3D support. Guests were impressed with how this amazing software integrates with Avid MXF and DNxHD workflows for grading and image enhancement at resolutions up to 4K. To learn more about Film Master, visit Digital Vision.

Additionally, Gabriel Mitri from Matrox was on hand to show off their MXO 2 — a full-featured I/O box for Final Cut Studio. This amazing device offers full-bandwidth 10-bit HD SDI in a very portable footprint. Plus, Gabriel discussed how the original MXO integrates seamlessly as a monitoring device for both Avid and Final Cut systems. Visit Matrox to learn more about the MXO family of products.

Finally, Philip Hodgetts from The Assistant Editor premiered his brand new tool for Final Cut. Sync-N-Link brings the functionality of Avid's Auto-Synch to FCP, with additional sync features to streamline your workflow. You can learn more about Sync-N-Link at The Assistant Editor.

See video highlights of the event, courtesy of AlphaDogs (please note the page might not load properly in Firefox).