March Meeting Review

We had a pretty good turnout for our March meeting at WHMB-TV40 last night. We improvised a bit on the projector screen, but I don't think it ended up being to much of an issue. Needless to say, solutions are already in place any future meetings we have, either there or elsewhere.

Mikey Bouchereau drove up from Louisville to be with us this month to show off some Motion skills. His demo went from the pretty simple (working with some common behaviors) down to the nitty gritty (rigging and publishing to FCP X). In response to a question, Mikey quickly threw together a Generator for putting an image/video inside text. He was nice enough to send the file to me, and he even put some spit and polish on it in the form of an installer! You can download the zip file here, run the installer, and then open FCP X. Look in the Generators Library and you'll see a new category there - Made By Mikey. In there you'll find the Drop Zone Text generator. Add it to the timeline in FCP X and have some fun. Mikey even added some extra controls to it... I'll let you discover those on your own. If you have any questions, just ask them here on this post. Remember, you can right-click on any effect/transition/generator and choose to open it in Motion so you can see how it was built, or modify it to fit your needs.

One of the many looks you can achieve with Mikey's Drop Zone Text generator in FCP X.

I then talked about my experiences, both good and bad, and often frustrating, with the Go Pro Hero 3 Black Edition. A quick summary: fun camera with very short battery life; nice picture with daylight, not so much in low light; use a safety when using the suction cup on the side of a car; slo mo at 120fps is really fun.

I then talked showed a little of Boris Continuum Complete for FCP X. It's a very large package at a pretty large price. There is definitely a place for it as it has a lot of tools that aren't available anywhere else right now. They released an update to the package yesterday. I have yet to download it, but I'm hoping it address a little bugginess and some speed issues that I experienced.

We finished the night off with the raffle including items from Red Giant, CrumplePop, motionvfx, Noise Industries, Artbeats, Pond 5, and PeachPit Press.

I hope to see everyone at our 10th anniversary party in April!

Meeting Locations

Our March meeting location has been set... Indy FCPUG member Rob McGreevy of WHMB-TV in Noblesville will be hosting us at their facility. The drive will be a little further for some, but don't let that keep you from what will be a good meeting. They have a nice open space there, and the seats are really comfortable. Click for directions.

Our April meeting will be held at Launch Fishers, a new co-working space on the northeast side of Indy. It's located in the basement of the Fishers Library, but has been remodeled and is a pretty cool space. Here's a Google map to help you find it. Dan Montgomery from Imagine Products will be there showing off their new software, including ShotPut Pro 5, we'll review any newsworthy announcements from NAB, and it will be our 10th anniversary party, with a few extra raffle items and some pizza.

So that's what's coming the next couple months. Hope you can join us at these two new venues as we search for a permanent home.

March Meeting

We just had our February meeting, but we're all ready for our March one!  I'll be showing off the Boris FX Continuum Complete plugin inside FCP X. This is a serious set of plugins, and a lot of them, so we won't be able to look at all of them in depth, but I'll show you a few that I'm already using quite a bit.

We'll also talk about the GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition, see some footage, and talk about some of the key features as well as it's shortcomings.

A location hasn't been set yet, but it will in the next week or two, so keep your eyes here so you don't miss out! Hope to see you there!

February Meeting

Our February meeting will be taking place on Tuesday February 26th from 7-9 pm. We will be meeting at Duncan Video in Carmel. Here's a link to Google maps in case you aren't familiar with them. Special thanks to Martin Nault for hosting us!

Our main presentation will be given by Randy Thompson from Cameras & Crew on the Atomos line of video recorders. We'll also talk a little FCP X and Motion.

Hope to see you there!

January Meeting Cancelled

Unfortunately we need to cancel our planned January 22nd meeting. Late last week I was informed that due to a new stricter security policy at FOX59 we would no longer be able to meet there. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find another location that can host us...yet. I'm sure I will, but the timeframe is a problem now. So we'll skip January and look forward to starting our meetings in 2013 on February 26th.

December Meeting Gift Exchange

What a great meeting to finish of 2012! We had a "gift exchange" by going around the room and sharing a piece of software, hardware, a website, a tip, whatever... something we find useful that others might get some use out of. We had some great "gifts" and lots of really good conversation. As a gift to you, here's a list of everything that was mentioned - Merry Christmas!

ShotList - an awesome iOS app that is a huge help when on a shoot. Keep track of what you have done, rearrange the schedule, and never miss another shot. A new version was recently released that added .xls import/export, printing via AirPrint, email .pdf file, and support for Retina Display iPads, iPhone 5, and iOS 6.

Disksomnia - software to prevent external hard drives from going to sleep.

Use FCP X 10.0.6 (and newer) feature of multiple viewers to help match colors between shots. By making a compund clip of one clip, it is saved back in to the Event Library. With the Event Viewer open, find the compound clip in the Event Browser. Then in the timeline, find the clip that you would like to match color to it. It's also very helpful to have the video scopes turned on. Use the Settings pull down in each scope to set to Vertical orientation - this makes it much easier to see the scopes while you're adjusting the color of the clip in the timeline.

Duplicate a clip in the timeline and place it above the original. Change the blend mode in the clip on top to overlay. This adds a darkening effect to the clip, which can be handy if you have brighter spots like a sky that need to be brought done a little.

NAS drives can be very advantageous to productivity as your files are available everywhere. The Buffalo NAS, Seagate, and Iomega were all mentioned as having similar features.

A couple of websites for the DIY'ers out there - Indy Mogul and The Frugal Filmmaker.

A Canon user was feeling a bit jealous of all my love for the Nikon DSLR cameras, so his gift was one he'll be opening this spring - the firmware upgrade for the 5D MarkIII that will allow clean output via HDMI.

For those fighting with parking meters in Indy, download the iOS app Parker. It will let you pay the meter, extend it, find available parking spots, and use the GPS to help you find your car at the end of the day.

If you're looking for a small, affordable HD video camera, the Canon XA10 could fit that need.

If you're a documentary filmmaker, you might want to put some polish on a pitch for your next film and submit it The Pursuit of Truth, a new reality show from Vince Vaughn and Glenn Beck.

OmniGraffle is a Mac and iOS app that can be used for shot diagrams, among many other uses.

Fotodiox sells DSLR accessories, but was mentioned specifically for the lens adapters for Sony NEX5 cameras.

Edelkrone makes some high quality DSLR rigs to make going handheld a much less difficult task. Thay also have a new slider coming December 12th.

Hand Held Hollywood is a great site to keep up with all of the video production based iOS apps that continue to be released.

The new, thin 27" iMac with Core i7 processor and Fusion Drive.... yeah, I thinnk we'd all like one of those to appear under our trees!

Videoblocks.com is a great source for affordable stock footage, music, sound effects, motion backgrounds, and After Effects templates. Their annual subscription is an especially attractive option.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog, or TUAW, is a great source for news on all things Apple.

Do you like some of the features of the GoPro, but like others of the Contour? Well, the Sony HDR-AS15 might be what you're looking for. It's an extremely small packing that comes with a water proof housing and several mounting options. It has a built in wifi server, so you can use a iPhone or iPad to control the camera, but more importanly, they can be used as viewers and controllers of the camera.

Digital Heaven is a great source for Final Cut add-ons for both 7 and X, including several free effects.

DigitalRev TV is a great source for camera info, but what makes it unique is Kai, the public face that hosts their large library of videos of camera comparisons and reviews. A great sense of humor and light heartedness makes these fun and easy to watch, but don't be fooled - the information is valuable and spot on.

Fstoppers, a video blog for creative professionals with reviews, gear, and a great blog.

Photography and Cinema is an online store for video accessories, rigs, dollies, and more.

This paint pole adapter is a must have bit of kit if you have a GoPro, Contour, or the aforementioned Sony, or use off camera flash. The adpater attaches to the end of a paint pole and allows you to position the camera/flash in places otherwise unreachable - extremely high or way out in front of you.

Need a good way to remove scrims or filters from the front of a hot light? Take a clothespin apart, flip it around, and put it back together.

Scotch tape is a great supply to have around.... to remove specular highlights from shiny items, such as mirrors and chrome trim. It's a great alternative to dulling spray.

Need a rig for your RED camera? Check out Wooden Camera.

December Meeting

Our last meeting of 2012 takes place tonight at FOX59. One of the topics will be a Christmas inspired "Gift Exchange" segment, where we'll go around the room and give you a chance to share something that might help others.... a piece of software, hardware, tip or trick, website, podcast, whatever. Shouldn't be too difficult, and your participation may be exactly what someone else needed to solve their problem.

October Meeting Review

Our October meeting has come and gone, and if you missed it, you really missed out. Our special guests were Joe Smith from Autodesk and Brian Mulligan, a Smoke editor at Indy's NBC affiliate WTHR. Brian showed us the capabilities and power of Smoke 2013 for Mac, breaking down a few things from his demo reel, from straight forward editing to visual effect heavy and complex motion graphic pieces, all done completely in Smoke. Joe graciously provided tons of pizza, salad, drinks, and desert for all of us to munch on throughout the second half of the meeting.

You can download a full working version of Smoke 2013 and use it for free until the end of December. Smoke is an incredibly powerful platform, and with that it has a bit of a learning curve. A couple of resources you should check out are Autodesk's community forums, called AREA, and fxphd, a visual effects, production, and post production training site. Brian happens to be one of the Smoke professors there.

Brian Mulligan talks Autodesk Smoke.

After Brian wrapped up, I ran through the new features of Final Cut Pro X 10.0.6, which was released earlier this week. The update has a ton of stuff that a  lot of people have been vocal about wanting. Things like a separate viewer for the Event Library, selective attribute pasting, multi-channel audio editing, and chapter markers, just to name a few. One of the great things Apple is doing isn't just reintroducing old features that were in the earlier releases, they are make them better as they bring them back. The Chapter Markers with it's individual frame pin to set the poster frame and the new Paste Attributes window are just two examples of this. It is also clear that Apple is listening to it's users, so make sure you provide feedback to them on things you'd like to see them fix/change/implement.

I completely missed the fact that Apple added 42 new efects, transitions, generators, and titles in the 10.0.6 update - thanks to Alex Gollner (otherwise known as Alex4D on Twitter) for the heads up. WHile you're checking out Alex's Twitter feed, be sure to catch the post with a link to some speed tests he did comparing FCP X to Premiere Pro (spoiler.... FCP X blows it away).

We finished off the night by giving away 2 copies of CrumplePop's Fisheye Fixer, a license of PluralEyes 3, a $100 credit for motionvfx.com, a $500 Artbeats credit, a $100 credit to Pond5, and last, but definitely not least, a Noise Industries plug-in for FxFactory by Yanobox called Moods.

It was a great evening - a lot of fun with a good sized crowd!

FCP X, Motion, & Compressor Updates

Apple released updates to their pro video apps today, bringing some significance enhancements to FCP X in particular.

The FCP X 10.0.6 update includes multichannel audio editing, dual viewers, each having their own scope view, RED camera support including REDCODE RAW editing, 5k image support, redesigned Share interface, multiple range selections remembered in event browser on a single clip, chapter markers, XML update, MXF plug-in support, selective paste attributes function, flexible clip connections that hold still when editing primary storyline, faster freeze frame creation, enhanced drop shadow effect, and more! WOW!

Motion 5.0.5 includes improved anti-aliasing for sharper text, accelerated loading of complex projects, and the ability to have multiple projects open simultaneously.

Compressor 4.0.5 has improved cluster setup, the ability to re-activate additional clusters without re-authentication, and fixes an issue with third-party QuickTime components.

The FCP X update is huge, and again address a lot of concerns many have had since it's debut. As Apple promised, they are addressing those and adding significant enhancements, making FCP X even better essentially every quarter. That's awesome to see, and maybe more people that have been on the fence, for whatever reason, will finally see Apple is serious about this and will hop down to give it a try.

We'll cover these new features at the meeting Thursday night, or at least as many of them as we can. In the meantime, check out Philip Hodgett's blog post reviewing FCP X 10.0.6. He has some interesting viewpoints.

Stolen Gear from Indy FCPUG Member

Indy FCPUG member and Camera's & Crew owner Randy Thompson had a large amount of gear stolen from the Marriott North on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. If you run across someone trying to sell this stuff, or have any info, please contact Randy. Here's his story:

We were at the Marriott north September 25, 2012 doing a show for Kroger and left gear at midnight to return and do breakfast Kickoff at 6:AM to find that someone borrowed my entire sound system: Mackie 16 channel Mixer in a hard SKB case, Processing (DBX 1/3 octave EQ, DBX Compressor /Limiter) in a Gator 4RSP Bag, Press Box (2 HDSDI Black magic DA, 2Video DA, Audio DA), in a gator bag with Patch Panel on the front and Middle atlantic 20 Plug power distro in another gator bag, on the bottom wash a new SKB 8RSP rolling Case with Amp and Drawer with Connectors for everything. Setting next to this was a leprecon 24 channel lighting board. Cables , Microphones, LTI audio interfaces, VGA DA and an assortment of connectors that was thrown in to the Mixer Tray when we turned the room. I know that I usually travel with this racked in a cases to big and heavy to be easily borrowed but with the heart attack I had just redesigned so I can keep working with lifting limits please spread the work hopefully someone will provide me a lead to return my borrowed gear.

Randy's contact info:
cameras-crew@att.net
317-842-7757 w
317-965-7757 m

Road Trip!

That's right, Indy FCPUG is going on a road trip! We are going to head down to Louisville, Kentucky on October 18th for a very special FCPUG meeting. Don't worry for those of you around Indianapolis, we'll have our regular meeting the following week on October 25th.

The agenda for the first ever FCPUG meeting in Louisville isn't totally set yet.... we'll be announcing it soon. In the meantime, if you or anyone you know is going to be in the Louisville area that night and wants to have a fun evening learning about FCP X and networking, and some post-meeting pizza, get it on your calendar!

Editing Contest

I recently received this in an email and thought someone might find it interesting. I don't know anything about the organization behind it, so if you decide to particpate, might be good to read through the website.

Dear Indianapolis Editors,

Edge your digital razor blades! We challenge you to edit a full length
feature down to 5 minutes. Here is how it works:

1. Pick your favorite public domain movie (http://challenge.90to5.org/movies/)
2. Start up FCP and cut away…
3. Upload your masterpiece and be rewarded with cash and fame!

It's free it's fun and you can win big! Deadline is September 9th - so
hurry up and head over to http://challenge.90to5.org/ or watch our intro
on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4h_MkoobKQ

Happy editing! :D

The 90to5 team

Mountain Lion

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've no doubt heard that today Apple released Mountain Lion, otherwise known as Mac OS X 10.8.

While you try to decide whether you should install it right away or wait, here are a few useful resources for you:

MacWorld – Get Your Mac Ready for Mountain Lion

LifeHacker – How to Make a Mountain Lion Install DVD or USB Flash Drive

ArsTechnica – the definitive Mountain Lion Review (it's 24 pages!)

Roaring Apps – An app compatibility table - make sure the apps you use work with Mountain Lion

And finally, when you're ready to purchase Mountain Lion, click on the icon below and help out our group.

More Meeting Changes

We're changing the meeting schedule around a bit... rather than take August off, we're cancelling the July meeting and moving it to August. Sorry for the meeting changes.... 

June Meeting Change

Due to a scheduling conflict at FOX59, which I was just alerted to this afternoon, our meeting has been postponed one week to July 5th. The agenda is exactly the same - thanks to our special guest Ed Meyers from Canon, who has graciously rearranged his schedule so he could be with us on the 5th.

Hope to see you one week later - July 5th!

June Meeting

I've just received confirmation that Canon will be our featured guest at our June 28th meeting. They will be bringing several cameras, including the C300 and 5D MarkIII. Be sure to join us for all the new info and to get your hands on these cameras.

[updated]

Filmmaker and photographer Tyler Stableford has agreed to join us via Skype to talk about his short film Shattered. There is a chance that he won't be able to join us due to a prior commitment which hinges on the weather there in Colorado, but we're keeping our fingers crossed he'll be able to join us for a short bit. He'll be talking about his experience with the Canon 1D X, which Canon gave him early access to to shoot Shattered, as well as passion - passion for shooting in general, as well as a passion for the subject that you're shooting.

NAB 2012

I'm writing this on my iPad who knows how many feet in the air somewhere over the Midwest on my way home from NAB 2012. At our meeting this coming Tuesday, April 24th we'll be talking about some of the announcements, surprises, parties, and events that made up this years NAB conference. I wanted to do a couple quick shout-outs though here on the blog.

I was extremely privileged to attend this year as a guest and ambassador for Imagine Products. I worked in their booth all week, talking to attendees about the excellent range of products they offer. I met some very nice people that stopped in from all over the world - China, Sweden, Germany, Korea, the Congo, Australia and the UK to name of a few of the more international locations. I had a blast hanging out with Dan, Mark, and Michael from Imagine, and a fellow Imagine Products user who was there with us, Mike from Washington D.C. 

I was one of the very first people outside of Imagine to get to see and use their brand new software - PreRollPost. Most of my time in the booth was spent demoing it. Some of the comments I received were, "the best thing I saw at NAB", "highlight of the show - can't wait until it's shipping", "Are you kidding!? That price is for everything?!", "Can I give you my money today?" So what was everyone so excited about? PreRollPost is the software component of Imagine Products new affordable LTO archive solution. If you are archiving to hard drives and sticking them on a shelf, you definitely need to check this out. The price of $2999 includes a Quantum LTO-5 tape drive, SAS card, and the software that is very easy to use. Other complete LTO solutions start around $6000, go up quickly from there, and the software that goes with them is, shall we say, not exactly user friendly. 

You'll get a chance to see it in action at our May meeting, as Dan Montgomery will be our guest presenter and showing it off. I hope you can join us to see it for yourself.

I want to give a shout-out to G-Technology. I was at their booth every day at 11 and 3 trying to win a raffle for one of their drives. No, I never won, but I did collect some pretty cool schwag. We featured their drives in the Imagine Products booth. Everyone I talked with at G-Tech were extremely friendly. Look forward to hearing more about them at future meetings. They were also generous as they let me have one of the drives from the booth to give away at our meeting next week. Thank you Pete, Mark, and everyone at G-Tech!

I also want to thank our sponsors, and hopefully some future sponsors, that I got to talk to in the short time I had to cruise around the show floor - AJA, GenArts, Blackmagic Design, Artbeats, CrumplePop, Pond 5, Zacuto, Kessler, Red Giant, Re:Vision Effects, Nikon, Mark Spencer & Steve Martin at Ripple Training, and GoPro.

Thank you all!

The New iPad

Apple announced the new iPad today, featuring a 2048 x 1536 retina display that should make your 1080p and 2k videos look amazing! Pricing remains the same, while the iPad 2 stays around in a 16GB and wifi only configuration for $399. Apple's iPad page has all the details.

The Verge has early hands-on report of the new iPad.

If you want to update or purchase any of the new software, it all requires iOS 5.1, so head to iTunes or the Settings app and update that first. Then come back here to buy the apps (support our group and use the links here... thanks!)

Rather than rehashing what has already been said, you can read Macworld's articles on iPhoto and the updates to the other apps. You can read their article on the new Apple TV as well.

iLife iOS Apps:

iPhoto
iMovie
Garageband

iWork iOS Apps:

Pages
Numbers
Keynote 

Canon Announces 5D Mark III

Canon announced the long awaited successor to the revolutionary 5D Mark II today - the 5D Mark III. The 22.3 megapixel camera is more evoltionary than revolutionary, which is really not a surprise. It was going to be hard for Canon to make a huge splash with this camera after it's predecessor and the recent unveiling of the C300. They did address a number of issues with the Mark II: they've added a headphone jack, exposure and audio levels can be adjusted while recording, the video signal out the HDMI is not downsampled to 480p (doesn't sound like it is a clean signal however), recording time has been extended to a 29 minute 59 second duration, and there is a promise of decreased moire. For still shooters the autofocus mechanism has been totally overhauled with the same one used by the 1D X and has in-camera HDR with a full view viewfinder and faster continuous shot taking (up to 6 frames per second). They've changed lots of other smaller features as well. For a full run down and a spec comparison between the Mark III, the Mark II, and the Nikon D800, as usual, DPReview is the best place to go.

Amazon, Adorama, and B&H are taking pre-orders now, with body only costing $3,499 (a $1,000 price increase over the Mark II). Interestingly, Canon is going to keep the Mark II in the camera lineup for at least 6 months and will be dropping it's price soon by $200-$300.

New Website Feature

I wanted to point out a new feature of the website to you in case you hadn't noticed it already. Right over there to the your left, in the Navigation area, is a new link titled "Apps You Need". This goes to a new page here on the site full of links to Mac OS apps, iOS apps, iBooks, and printed books that you as a video professional may find useful. Each item links to it's respective store (Mac Apps Store, iTunes Store, iBookstore, Amazon, or the company's website in a few cases). By using these links to purchase the items, you help keep our group going. We get a very small percentage back on each purchase, but it it doesn't cost you anything extra.

So when you're ready to purchase FCP X (and you know you want to!), just click on the link here on our website. We've even made it easy for you with the pro apps - we have big icons with the links just a little below the Navigation area.

Thanks for helping support our group!