I’m sitting in the Seattle airport on my way home extremely worn out from NAB 2010. This was my first year attending and I think it’s going to be my social highlight of the year. So I’ll recap a few of my thoughts here. This will probably a longer post.

First of all (I was not the only one to say this), but Twitter simply revolutionized the way this event went for me. Because of existing relationships made throughout the year via this social service, I knew so many people there already before I even set foot in the door. I made over 25 new connections and many of those will be friends for life. I’m positive new partnerships and collaborations will be the fruit of many of these new and now “face-to-face” relationships. I scheduled myself wall to wall. Some fell through and the time between rapidly filled up from tweets that read “@XXXXX Where you at?”- instant meet-up. We shared workflow, stories, drinks, tips, and lives. So here’s to all the new friends I spent most of my time wandering the show floor and Vegas lounges with.

My relationships were’t the only thing to change. My workflow did a complete 180 while at the same time really falling into place. Post-production is one of those industries where there are lots of tools to do the same thing lots of different ways. Sometimes budgets are the limitation, sometimes platforms, sometimes the tool. My workflow has been pretty simple over the last couple of years: I’ve edited in Premiere and gone back and forth between Premiere and After Effects for titles, FX and grading.

As things have progressed, my skills developed, codecs changed, and projects getting more complicated, I’ve branched out a bit from that; sometimes editing in Premiere or Avid and FXing and grading almost exclusively in After Effects. Grading in particular has become something I’ve spent more and more of time on due to what you can make your film or video feel like. After Effects is the most powerful app I have that does the most. So while not ideal, I’ve been doing my grading there using a variety of tools and plugins; each one doing something different that the other tool doesn’t. Well that’s all changed.

Enter Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve software for color grading for OSX. I was able to get my hands on this astounding tool via a Tangent Wave at NAB. This thing is amazing. It does what I’m currently using about 4 different AE plugins to do right now. Now it’s all in one program formerly only available if you happened to have a spare half a million floating around. It is certainly not the most intuitive so I don’t think you’re going to see every independent guy jumping all over this and at a $1K pricetag, really only those serious about their color grading are going to be picking this up when Apple’s Color or Color Finesse is enough for most people. Like audio post, I believe coloring is a far-too-often neglected necessity in independent production. Like audio mastering it really puts the finishing touch on a piece and brings it all together.

At the same time, NAB was all abuzz about Avid’s Media Composer 5’s new AMA plugin architecture that is compatible with virtually every Quicktime format available; including Cineform (my preferred codec)- which is all over and pushing the DPX format to new and better places. See where I’m going with this? Historically (albeit a limited history), digital visual post production was done with DPX files. Resolve being a DaVinci product and the long-time king of all things color is best used with DPX. Adobe Photoshop and After Effects are DPX powered- Mocha is DPX powered…See how this is coming together for me? When I get a copy of Resolve, I’ll be able to talk more about the DPX portion of the workflow here but until then, I am very, very excited.

As to the REST of the products. It was a candy store. I was able to get my hands on every DSLR rig out there, get my hands on an SI-2K, get my hands on the Euphonix Artist series of control surfaces (compatible with Media Composer, Nuendo and probably late this year Resolve). I was able to test and listen to mics in a variety of situations, physically test almost every portable digital recorder, try out multiple lenses and monitors and walk many, many miles acquiring blisters on my feet and enjoying every second. I didn’t get a chance to look at anything related to media asset management because I didn’t give myself enough time.

What would I change about my NAB experience? I would start by getting a hotel closer to the Monorail, wear better shoes and take only a slightly different wardrobe. I really went casual on my exhibit halls day and feel that was a detriment to being considered a serious buyer. I would also probably NOT do Post-Production world but focus on networking and meeting with vendors and post people. PPW was good but I quickly realized I misjudged my skill level in relation to most of the workshops. They were very basic- but I did get some gems out of them. So I would only attend the exhibits and presentations allowing myself time to use NEW products I’ve never heard about or looked at and connect with a few more people.

I think that’s about it. Click HERE for some random shots I got. I have some vid and other photos I’ll try and get cut and uploaded when I get home.

Tags: after effects, audio, avid, cameras, cinedeck, cineform, computers, education, nabshow, premiere, Production, resolve, tech, tools, travel, video, workflow

Audio Setup, originally uploaded by JayFriesen.

I’ve do quite a bit of post audio…mostly on my own stuff. I figured I’d post up what I use.

All my audio work is done in Nuendo 4.
My D/A converter and audio card is the RME Multiface.
I listen through KRK RP5s (Love ‘em).
I do vocal work with a Blue Bluebird Mic through RME Quadmic Preamps.

Adobe doesn’t export OMF so I export a QT file for the video and each edited track (from Premiere) independently in .AIF. So consequently, I structure my timeline in Premiere so each like scene/character is on it’s respective track.

It works out fabulously for me.

Tags: audio, computers, Production, tools, workflow

If you’re an independent, if you’re on a budget, if you use high-dollar equipment or software of any sort, you’re going to need to troubleshoot. It’s unavoidable- things WILL happen. There could be an update to any piece of software; there could be an addition or removal of a piece of gear; there could be an outside project; there could be a failure; and there’s ALWAYS people involved. An infinite number of issues could cause catastrophic failure of your system and then…it’s man vs. machine.

I’ve spent a lot of years troubleshooting: computers, A/V, video, audio, radio, ISDNs, signal flow, code, and other infinite amounts of other things. In fact, for one job I had, the first question I was asked when being interviewed by the Engineer-in-Charge was: “if “X” happened, how would you fix it?” This was for a broadcast audio gig and it was a question not about running the board, the software, broadcast levels, compression philosophy, mixing etc., but about troubleshooting.

Are you receiving me?

The first part of this series about troubleshooting is on signals. In media, everything is a signal: a data stream from your HDD to your display or your camera to your tape, to converters, back out again to your monitor or whatever. Signal is everything. I worked a job just out of college where I was testing new broadcast video hardware. New gear was always coming out so were constantly writing and using new test procedures and frequently those procedures were 20, 40 and 80 pages long of steps:

34. Connect line to C to source A and scan for signal.

35. Connect source D to line C and scan for signal.

You get the picture.

Signal flow at it’s very core is sends and recieves. What is sent is received. You simply add a whole lotta things in between BUT the signal is still sending and recieving in and out of those things. Consequently, each send and receive point is a location for failure. The line itself can also be a source of failure but 99% of the time it’s your send/receive point.

Let’s take for example audio (the same can be applied to video and data): a singer fills the stadium with her voice from the stage. Let’s say it’s a fairly large venue, here’s a possible signal path:

Mic – cable – snake (large cable containing mulitple connections) – mixing console – cable – amplifiers – cable – speakers.

That’s seven send and receive points! That doesn’t include any routing internally and externally to and from the board. Each one of those send/receive points is a source of failure. But each point is simply sending or receiving signal. So while you’re setup may look huge and intimidating, it is at it’s core, sends and receives.

Troubleshooting the Signal

The following are some very basic guidelines that put to work the concept of sending and receiving. Every set up has it’s nuances but here are some general guidelines:

1. Check your source- is there actually signal being sent?

Questions include: Is it on? Is it plugged in? Are there batteries?

2. Follow the flow- Start at the source and work your way to the problem. Do you have signal at each point you could lose it? Example: connections, extensions, routing, consoles, monitors, splitters, displays, amplifiers, anything between what’s going in and where it comes out. You want to eliminate everything from where the signal comes in to where it goes out. This process also helps by identifying things like bad cables.

Ways to check this: Start by plugging something directly into the source. Example: audio mic directly to speaker or camera directly to monitor. If that works, start by moving down the line testing each send/receive point in the same manner adding one point of connection after the other until you come to the point that the signal is no longer being sent.

3. Search- Remember that research that sucked in highschool, sucked in college and still sucks today? Google, books, forums, blogs and *gasp* the manual. If the first two steps don’t work (which can take a while to go through). Try this option, you may have missed a setting, switch etc. (depending on what you’re using) that you’ll only find out about by reading on a blog, forum or in the manual. The manual is usually a great place to start.

And if all else fails…

4. Ask- You do this AFTER you have exhausted the above options. This will avoid embarrassment on forums, in chatrooms, over lunch, on Twitter etc. as well as angry friends, family and maybe co-workers. Available options are the aforementioned social platforms as well as the manufacturer of said equipment, a more knowledgeable friend or co-worker or the paid professional expert that costs a lot of money. Chances are he or she will probably do what you failed to in steps one and two.

These are simple steps but I can’t count how many times I’ve walked somebody through these same steps only to isolate the issue and get it resolved. Sitting down and thinking through your signal path will not only save time and money but you’ll gain knowledge and experience every time in the process and I’ll take that any day.

In Part II, we’ll look at some of the common causes and ways to Venkman those freakish ghosts of that occasionally show up in our rigs.

Tags: computers, signal flow, tech, tools, troubleshooting, workflow