This business is about making content that people want to see. But I believe the key to all of it is relationships.

Making it Happen

When I was NAB, I’d made it a point to put relationships over exhibits I wanted to see or workshops I wanted to attend. That’s hard to do with all that gear candy. But I maintained that commitment and came away with a few simple thoughts: there are people I met or knew a little bit online that I would call and trust with my budget, vision and project. There are others that are a level deeper and will remain friends for life. Then there is the sector of people who I will never work with; I was disregarded, blown off, and otherwise ignored.

The best part of it? Those that are cool, I WANT to work with them. And even if their work isn’t as great as the other guy’s work, because they’re cool, invested in people more than product, and fun to be around; I’ll hire ‘em.

Take away? You never know what kind of vibe your sending. That vibe speaks way louder than the level or amount of work you have.

Getting it Watched

I believe relationships are at the core of the non-fiction stuff I do. If an audience can connect not just with the story, but with the character in the story then it’s accomplished. If they can walk away feeling connected to the character they’ll feel connected to the story. More often than not, the what IS the who. The story, the location, the cuts, the color, the sound; all just tools to help you reveal who the character is and keep the pacing going. But the relationship between the audience and your subject is where the connection with the content really happens.

Take Away: Connection is people to people- that’s always gonna sell more than pretty shots.

Tags: philosophy, Production

This is only really part of the workflow, but I just tested it on a small project tonight and it works! Cineform put up this post a couple days ago about conforming selects from FCP via XML using ReMaster. I saw it and thought, well, Premiere exports an FCP XML…

I’m VERY excited to say that it works! I had a 5 minute nested project that I edited in its native HDV .M2T form. I exported the project to an FCP XML then using the instructions on Cineform’s site, imported the XML into ReMaster.

What does this mean?

The currently accepted professional format for VFX (so I’ve read) is .DPX. This is also the preferred format for Davinci’s upcoming Resolve (so they told me at NAB). This now means you can edit in FCP, Avid, and Premiere and conform your files directly from your timeline to Cineform .DPX files for use in your VFX application or Resolve. A side benefit is being able to utilize First Light to adjust any bad white balances or lighting issues and during the process apply any looks as desired.

It also means you have Cineform’s damn good telecine and pulldown removal for your multi-format/frame rate files. Those nasty little projects you take on that make you pull your hair out. I’ve talked with many editors that have said, “yeah, I can edit this 60 stuff in my 24 timeline. But now what?” Well, this is your answer.

It also means you’ll save transcoding time of ALL clips prior to onlining by allowing only the files used only in the edit to be conformed and also saves time by being able to edit natively in your NLE (take note Premiere DSLR users).

Avid users I suspect will skip the pre-Resolve conform step as Resolve will more than likely take the .MXF files straight from Avid. But there are a whole crop or Premiere and FCP users that can really benefit from this. The caveat is that you need at least Neo4K for .DPX output. But I can do it for you as well And even grade it if you want.

Now, I’m surmising this will work based on how Cineform files already interact with every application and how Resolve specs out. Once I get a copy, I’ll test forthwith.

Tags: cineform, color correction, resolve, tech, workflow

I had a five hour drive down and back to a family reunion this week so I took the opportunity to do a little mobile work. I spent a good chunk of time organizing and doing some initial cuts on the first of 3 short docs for a local church in town.

Part of that process was project management and organization. Boring I know, which is why I want something that’s painless to use, does the job well and efficiently and is actually enjoyable to look at and move around in. It’s a necessary part of the production job if, like me you do everything or most of everything and don’t simply edit or motion or something. So I’m going lay out quickly two tools and how I use them. Both currently are free.

Adobe Workflow

The first of which is Adobe Workflow- available in Adobe Labs. It runs on Adobe Air. It’s attractive, straight forward and fun to use. I use it as my central hub for my projects. It’s not the most detailed or all-encompassing program, but it functions really well for me.

Here’s why you should take a look at it:

You can break down a given project into steps: storyboarding/pre-vis, filming, editing, graphics etc. You can break it down as fine as you want and set how many hours or days you think each step will take- good for estimating bids keeping a tally on your time. You can’t track progress I process like full-blown management tool, but hey, this is free- and for each step in the workflow, you can add notes, additional documents, resources and links.

The links are my favorite part really- and why it’s the “hub” of my work. You can add, local and internet links. So as I create new documents for each project like work files, schedules, reports, release forms, requests, whatever; I add a link to the project. You’ll notice I added a separate block for Project Links- these are my global project files. I can still add separate project files if needed at different points in my workflow.

This acts as my one-stop when finding all my files. I’m not like “where did I put that?” because I added it at the time of creation. I’ll typically have a global project folder on my HDD for each project but between master Premiere, AE project files or spreadsheets, scripts etc, it keeps me from having to click a billion different folders to find all my stuff.

Adobe Story

I’ve been using Adobe Story off and on for the last year unlike Workflow which I’ve used solid for the last year and half. It’s a script-writing program through and through. The new version packaged with CS Live adds a bit more than the previous version I’ve been using. This is also my one complaint- although it comes with a desktop app, it’s built around internet connectivity. I’ve been working on it all day in the car though so that’s not too much of a bother.

Here’s why you should look at it:

The obvious is script options. You can see in the above photo. You have both the 2-column A/V/Doc script and the film script. They give you a few other categories as well, like character, synopsis, general. I like these because when I’m writing, I’ll typically have a scratch doc somewhere that’s my free-flow thoughts, worked-out ideas, or whatever, that’ll work into a form an structure. This let’s me do that but in a more structured way.

It’s again, a one-stop interface for my scripts and film projects. I’m currently working on 4 different projects, 2 of which have 3 shorts for each. I can flit back and forth as I need to based on thought process and don’t have to open up a ton of different windows again to find my stuff.

Finally, it’s collaborative (which is how they’re pitching the product) via online project sharing and you can export to text, word, .pdf, and Final Draft. All good things. Oh, and again, it’s free for at least the first year. Nothing else in the CS Live package, I’m interested in right now so we’ll see what happens when they try and bill be for it I suspect, I’ll have enough projects invested in it that I’ll keep it…unless it’s like thousands of dollars a year or something.

So two free tools that make my life a little bit easier. Check ‘em out if you feel curious and try them yourself. My two wishes: I could open the applications from the resource panel in Workflow and both applications interfaced stronger with the rest of the Adobe suite.

Tags: adobe, tools, workflow