Blog Archives

An overview of the recent 7.1 update of Adobe’s Creative Cloud video applications.

Recently, at the Supermeet at IBC in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, I was asked by the show organizers to discuss: “Is Final Cut Pro X Ready For Professional Use?” In thinking about this topic, I realized that this answer is more …

One of the promises Adobe made when it went to its new subscription pricing was to make much more frequent updates to all their software. This evening, less than five months after the initial CC release, Adobe emphasized its promises …

Thoughts on how to plan an interview, work with guests, and ask the right questions to get the most out of any interview.

[ This article generated a lot of technical comments. Be sure to view the comments in this blog to learn more. ] Updated: June 15, to reflect a variety of technical comments from readers. On Monday, Apple gladdened the hearts …

This afternoon, at the 2013 Adobe MAX, Jacob Rosenberg, Chief Technology Officer and Partner at Bandito Brothers gave a presentation showcasing the history and projects of his full-service media company.

This evening, at the Adobe MAX conference, I had an extended on-the-record conversation with Bill Roberts, Director of Product Management for Video and Audio Solutions at Adobe.

This morning, at the seventh annual Adobe Max conference, Adobe announced new versions of its products – all focused on the Creative Cloud and shipping June 17.

Recently, I’ve been writing blogs about the challenges to editing as a career: Can You Still Have a Career in Editing Thoughts on the Ten-Worst College Majors But there is always room for one more creative person in our craft, …

I’ve been thinking a lot about careers in media recently. It started with a recent blog I wrote, called: “Can You Still Have a Career in Editing?” which generated a LOT of comments, both pro and con. Then, I was …

In cleaning out my In-box as I dig out from the NAB Show, here are a small flock of completely unrelated thoughts; some from NAB, some not. – – – The week before the 2013 NAB Show, I had an …

This morning, the folks at Sorenson Media announced the release of Sorenson 9. I had a chance to chat with them a few days beforehand to get their take on the new version. The latest version of Squeeze sports several …

UPDATE: Monday afternoon (4/8) our podcast, Digital Production Buzz, will interview Bill Roberts, Director of Video Product Management for Adobe. You can hear this interview LIVE at 2:00pm Pacific Time. Learn more at NABShowBuZZ.com This evening, Adobe revealed the next …

Three emails got me thinking today. The first was from Jack Reilly, of Future Media Concepts who is organizing Post-Production World at NAB. He’s asked me to host a Hot Panels session Wednesday at NAB on The Future of Editing. …

My first blog – A Whole Lot of Unrelated Stuff – was extremely popular. So, here’s the next edition. TABLE OF CONTENTS FCP X: Export a Batch of Projects FCP X: A Faster Way to Delete FCP X: Revised Alert …

The end of a year is a good time to look back and reflect on changes over the last twelve months, which is how this blog starts. Then, I included some of your comments. In my newsletter, I invited readers to …

One of the problems with writing a weekly newsletter is that, while it is easy to write detailed articles of a single subject, it is hard to write about interesting things that don’t require a lot of space. But every …

I have a new blog on Post Magazine called: “Don’t Waste Your Money on Faster Storage.”  You can read it here: www.postmagazine.com/Post-Blog/2012/December/Dont-Waste-Your-Money-On-Faster-Storage.aspx I get a lot of questions about what’s the “fastest” storage – and I wanted to explain that …

What are RAIDs, SSDs, or The Cloud? And how do you use them to get the best performance from your editing system? This article explains what you need to know.

This evening, I was speaking – remotely – with the Arizona Final Cut Pro Users Group. And I was asked, as happens often, “Does Apple still care about professionals?” This is a hard question, because the answer is changing. But …

The fever of excitement surrounding the launch of a new Apple product is the envy of every other consumer company in the world. Rumors, gossip, and eager anticipation create a potent mix for marketing.

To get right to the essentials, the reason behind the update is speed – and more speed. Sorenson showed me charts that compared the new Squeeze versus the old Squeeze and, depending upon the video format involved, speeds were 2 to 5 times faster than earlier versions.

Posting copyrighted music to YouTube can lead to embarrassment – even when you are legally entitled to do so. YouTube’s Content ID often causes problems with royalty-free music, as this article explains.

Larry Jordan released a new version of Final Cut Pro X training that includes closed captions. Shortly after the release, Allan Freeman wrote, both to say thanks and take us to task. So here’s why we created closed-caption training.

As host of the Digital Production Buzz for the last five years, I’ve interviewed more than 600 industry executives. I write this Thursday night from my hotel room in Las Vegas. The NAB trade show just ended and during the last four days, I interviewed more than 100 industry executives for The Buzz for our NABShowBuzz.com special coverage.

Autodesk announced a major reworking of the legendary Smoke – “Smoke 2013.” This article provides highlights from the press event announcing the new software.

Apple provides a first look at coming new features in Final Cut Pro X to Larry Jordan.

A first look at Adobe Audition CS6, and how the Digital Production Buzz is using it at the 2012 NAB Show.

Apple updates Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Compressor. Here are the details.

The Digital Production Buzz is getting ready to cover the 2012 NAB Show in Las Vegas. Here’s an overview of what we are doing and the gear we are using for our coverage.

Sal Guarisco sends in a personal story on how he configured an LTO-5 tape drive for media archiving on his Mac.

Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, Photoshop… Composite modes work virtually every where. This video training shows you what they are, how they work, and how to create killer effects.

The Digital Production Buzz is covering NAB in-depth for the fifth year in a row – join us at www.NABShowBuzz.com for all the details.

This last week I was in London — at the Broadcast Video Expo in Earl’s Court 2 in Kensington, doing presentations and recording interviews. Here I share conversations with EditShare, ProTools, Lightworks, and AJA.

[Updated 12/13 with clarification on Promise and more info on the incremental cost.] I needed to buy more storage for my editing system – as if needing more storage for video editing is a surprise or something… Anyway, I decided …

I posted a brief video on YouTube, “Polishing edit skills and books for editors & directors” in which I recommend some books about editing and directors. Perhaps because I was thinking about the recent release of my own book, “Final …

The latest Government Video Expo opened today in Washington, DC, and, as in years past, our podcast, the Digital Production Buzz, has a team of reporters covering the event.

Some interesting news this morning. FIRST Apple has quietly notified developers that it is preparing to offer volume purchases for business customers via the App Store. MacNN has more about this. The significance of this is that volume purchases of …

I get a ton of press releases every day. Many I post to the Latest News section of the Digital Production Buzz, so that you can keep up with what’s going on in our world. Others I just trash. But …

I’m reminded of the story of three blind men describing an elephant. None of them can see the truth, so each has to describe this huge beast from their own, very limited, perspective. What brought this to mind was a …

This morning, Apple quietly announced that it was discontinuing the XServe – which is the high-end server for XSAN and other networks – on January 31, 2011. For folks that need servers, Apple recommends that you use either a new …

Tonight, on our podcast the Digital Production Buzz, we announced The BuZZ Shout-Out! No one needs to tell you that finding work these days is hard. That’s where The BuZZ can help. We want to help jobs find you. Here’s …

I’m a member of the IMUG mailing list, which has lots of interesting discussions on media, gear, and life. This morning, Carey Dissmore, Principal of Carey Dissmore Productions, Inc. and a co-founder of the IMUG, sent out a post that …

[Updated June 12, 2016, about six years after I first wrote it. I believe this now more than ever. Updated Jan. 3, 2021. Even in a world of online training, I think these thoughts still hold true.] I’ve been thinking about …

Our podcast, DigitalProductionBuzz.com, is the Official Podcast of Digital Video Expo for the third year in a row! Digital Video Expo 2010 is in Pasadena, CA, from Sept. 28 – 30. We are creating three special programs – LIVE – …

A couple of weeks ago, I reported on a recent ruling by the U.S. Copyright Office which now allows documentary film producers to decrypt DVDs to gain access to materials on them for their projects. This process, called “Fair Use,” …

I had an interesting discussion with Stacey Parks, CEO of Film Specific, last Thursday on the Digital Production Buzz. Stacey is a world-renowned expert in film distribution and marketing. With the American Film Market 2010 drawing closer (it starts in …

We were deeply troubled to read this week in the LA Times of significant legal challenges to the First Amendment rights of a documentary filmmaker. Joe Berlinger made a documentary about Aguinda v. Chevron, a class action lawsuit filed in …

Well, Apple Insider felt there wasn’t enough stress in our lives so they published a long blog written by Prince McLean titled: “Apple Scaling Final Cut Studio to fit prosumers.” (You can read the entire article here.) Naturally, the entire …

Just a very quick note – as it is now about 11:58 PM – that our podcast, the Digital Production Buzz is located on the trade show floor at the 2010 NAB Show as the official podcast. We are right …