Friday, October 23, 2015

Editors' Panel: I've Landed a Project, Now What?

Award-winning editors discuss strategies for tackling new projects

Once October rolled around, it was time again for our annual discussion panel of editors talking about the non-technical side of editing! This year's discussion was centered on strategies for tackling new projects once you've been hired for the job.

Our panel of award winning editors included Zack Arnold (Burn Notice), Yvette Amirian (Whale Wars), Dan Lebental (Iron Man) and Scott Storm (The Amazing Race). Editor Norman Hollyn (Heathers, Wild Palms) moderated the discussion.

As always, this event took place at Key Code Media in Burbank. Thanks guys! Stay tuned for links to videos of the event...

Friday, July 31, 2015

Visual Voodoo with Blackmagic Design

Demonstrations on the Latest Features in DaVinci Resolve and Fusion Studio

The Editors' Lounge held on Friday, July 31 at AlphaDogs in Burbank was a night dedicated to the latest versions of Blackmagic Design's flagship studio software: DaVinci Resolve 12 and Fusion 7 Studio.

Blackmagic Design announced DaVinci Resolve 12 at NAB 2015, and Product Specialist Fred Beahm gave one of the first demonstrations of the new software and its new features. Fred is a member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild and Affiliate Member of American Cinema Editors, and has numerous editing credits to his name. DaVinci Resolve 12 features an updated UI and expanded color-correction tools, as well as new powerful editing, audio, and compositing features.

Blackmagic Design announced Fusion 7 Studio in late 2014, and recently announced the upcoming Mac and Linux version of the popular VFX software. Product Specialist Rony Soussan has over 25 years experience as a 3D digital artist and VFX compositor, and he is active on the Blackmagic Design Fusion user forum. Fusion Studio 7 features powerful toolsets for 2D and 3D VFX compositing, motion GFX design and animation, and 3D stereoscopic conversions.

In addition, Blackmagic displayed a number of their hardware products.

Friday, June 26, 2015

ACES for Editors and Colorists, plus The Monitor Shootout!

Presentations on ACES plus the Best Reference-Grade Monitors

The June Editors' Lounge held a night dedicated to educating the post production community about ACES, the Academy Color Encoding System, as well as the latest in state-of-the-art, reference-grade monitors.

ACES
How do you get the entire creative team from the set, through editorial, post and archiving to speak the same language when it comes to color management and file interchange? ACES is the answer!

Alex Forsythe, Academy Technical Lead, ACES Project, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, opened with a presentation about what ACES is and how it works, with a focus on editorial and post. He was followed by Digital Intermediate Colorist Trent Johnson of Deluxe Culver City and Editor Shelly Westerman, who discussed ACES' real world application. The duo collaborated on The Wedding Ringer, a film that employed ACES throughout the creative process. Also present was Screen Gems Head of Physical Production, Glenn Gainor, and the group discussion was moderated by Documentary Producer Steve Tobenkin. The evening was filled with great questions and detailed answers; guests gained real insight into ACES and learned how ACES will impact their work.

Monitors
The Editors' Lounge Monitor Shootout presented multiple reference grade LCD and OLED monitors from Dolby, Flanders Scientific and Sony. These color-critical screens were lined up in a row under controlled lighting conditions while displaying the same HD content, so that attendees were able to move from monitor to monitor and evaluate them in a way that can't be done at individual trade show booths. Company representatives were on hand to explain features and answer questions.

In addition, Sony set up a BVM-X300 OLED monitor which played HDR 4K material at native resolution — the stunning images were a definite hit!

Friday, May 29, 2015

Editors' Lounge Spring Fling

RE:Vision FX, Venera Technologies and VFX for Editors

The Editors' Lounge May event presented an evening of demos and discussions focused on a variety of solutions for editors and small post facilities.

Lori Freitag, Training and Content Manager for RE:Vision Effects, demonstrated some of their most powerful and popular plugins for modifying and manipulating video imagery, including DE:Flicker, RE:Match, ReelSmart Motion Blur, and Twixtor. From fixing problem footage to creative enhancements, Lori showed how the RE:Vision toolset can meet any challenges.

Fereidoon Khosravi, SVP Business Development Americas for Venera Technologies, presented information about their file-based automated QC tool, Pulsar, including a new pay-per-use version offering a cost effective solution for smaller facilities and independents. Pulsar offers a wide variety of checks and automated toolsets that integrate anywhere along your workflow.

Editor Brady Betzel also stopped by to talk about 3D modeling/animation for reality television, with an emphasis on toolsets for editors like Avid F/X Tools, Adobe After Effects, and MAXON Cinema 4D.

Friday, March 27, 2015

2015 Pre-NAB Discussion Panel

12th Annual Panel on all Things NAB 2015… and Beyond

To prepare for NAB 2015, the Editors' Lounge once again put together a stellar panel to talk the usual talk about industry trends and NAB predictions. Except that—this year—the discussion veered away from tech and got really interesting by delving into more personal topics affecting all editors: health and safety, long hours and low pay, and the difficulty of advancement.

Our favorite journalist Debra Kaufman once again moderated, and the exceptionally well-rounded panel included editor / fitness advocate Zack Arnold, colorist Terence Curren, editor Carsten Kurpanek, producer Bernie Laramie, and post producer Mark Raudonis.

Friday, February 27, 2015

Tapeless Post Production

File-based Solutions from Cinedeck and Wiredrive

In light of the continuously diminishing role of videotape in modern TV and film production, we invited two vendors to share their tapeless post production solutions at the February Editors' Lounge event.

Wiredrive is a secure, scalable platform for collaborative decision-making that offers automatic preview generation, search features, a variety of sharing options, delivery confirmation, review-and-approve, and more.

Cinedeck is a direct-to-disc video recording system, compatible with a very wide variety of camera sources—recording to numerous native formats—and capable of encoding to all of the popular professional codecs.

In addition, associate producer Howard Brock stopped by to present a case study of how Cinedeck was used as an integral part of the production/post-production workflow for the television series Anger Management. Watch the video of his presentation to learn more.

Friday, January 30, 2015

Audio for Video Editors

From Media Composer to ProTools: How to Get the Best Out of Your Audio

The January Editors' Lounge kicked off 2015 with a special focus on audio, particularly geared towards video editors.

Veteran audio mixer Erik Valenzuela discussed how editors should manage their projects for a seamless handover to an audio mix session. Of particular note was an exploration of common pitfalls and errors in audio track assignments and audio editing decisions, and tips on how to avoid or correct them. Erik was joined by AlphaDogs' own Curtis Fritsch for an overview of the best practices for QuickTime reference files for a ProTools mix, including format size, etc.

Scott Wood, Avid ProAudio Sr. Solutions Specialist, also stopped by the Lounge to talk about a number of audio topics, including a look at Media Composer's built-in audio tools and plug-in capabilities, identifying common audio challenges like identifying sync issues, and more.