Blog Archives

There are about 85 emails in my in-box this morning with links to a speech I gave at the April Final Cut Pro User Group about my reactions to Apple’s presentation of Final Cut at NAB. While I stand by …

Bill Frank invited me on his radio show this morning – Brainstormin’ KKZZ AM 1400 – to talk about improving video. His show is geared toward the amateur audience, rather than the pros, so I put together a list of …

This week a vigilant member of our Final Cut Pro community alerted me to a video on YouTube that he thought might be mine – but wasn’t on my site. I clicked the link and went directly to a recently …

I’ve been reflecting on all the hype surrounding Cloud-based file storage recently. To hear some industry pundits describe it, the Cloud – where we store our data on servers located outside our office or home – is the most incredible …

[Image courtesy Apple Inc. Click for enlarged view.] Apple this evening provided a “sneak peek” at the next version of Final Cut Pro – now called “Final Cut Pro X” at the NAB SuperMeet in Las Vegas, Nevada. The new …

‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE SUPERMEET I’m writing this at 9:50 PM from my hotel room at the 2011 NAB Show (National Association of Broadcasters) in Las Vegas, Nevada. In less than 24 hours, we will know what the next version …

A tribute to Bernie Gribble, ACE, from Julian Semilian.

A few days ago, I wrote about my frustrations in finding archiving solutions that work on the Mac for protecting our video assets. (You can read that blog here — some of the comments are VERY interesting!) The day after …

It shouldn’t be this difficult. NOTE: This blog grew out of my webinar last week on how to archive Final Cut Pro projects. If you are interested in archiving, click here to learn more. The process of creating films and …

[ The following article was taken from my FREE Final Cut Studio newsletter for February. Subscribe here. ] The release of any new hardware is exciting; as we saw last week with the release of the new MacBook Pros. However, …

So, there I was. Feeling pretty darn good about being able to share some news about the next version of Final Cut Pro, when Greg Clarke, over at Intelligent Assistance, sends me a link to the movie he just created. …

The following is taken from my free, monthly Final Cut Studio Newsletter. Subscribe here. I’ve had the pleasure of testing a variety of truly high-speed RAIDs over the years, and I’ve spent a lot of time worrying about whether I …

MUSING: LOOKING BACK TO LOOK AHEAD NOTE: I first wrote about this in my blog, but got so many favorable comments, I want to share this with you here. Also see my blog for more comments about this. In wrapping …

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 …

[ The following musing is taken from the October issue of my Final Cut Studio newsletter. This free monthly newsletter is starting its seventh year of publishing. Sign up for a FREE subscription here. ] It’s been at least a …

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 …

Yesterday, MacRumors posted that “Final Cut Studio Update Scaled Back and Delayed.” Naturally, this sent seismic tremors throughout the Final Cut community. (Personally, I’ve lost count of how many times one rumor site or another has cried that Final Cut …

[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 …

Apple today announced a series of minor updates to fix a variety of bugs in Final Cut Studio (3). These improvements do NOT include full support for Snow Leopard, but do fix a variety of problems in Final Cut Pro …

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,” …

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 …

“When I first got started in this editing business,” he said creaking back and forth in his rocking chair, “editing video took a minimum of two quarter-million dollar videotape recorders – plus a control room – a lot of patience …

John Bogdanovich sent me the following note: I just released my 10 DVD series on making concert classical guitars. The project took two years to complete and due to the tiny budget available I was only able to hire a …

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 …

The Digital Production Buzz wrapped up its 2010 NAB Show coverage over the weekend. During the show, our team of almost 30 staff and volunteers interviewed more than 250 people, created 36 seven-minutes News Briefs, and more than nine hours …

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 …

In less than 48 hours, the Digital Production Buzz will start broadcasting from the floor of the 2010 NAB Show. (Currently, I’m surrounded in boxes, cables, and packing crates as we get our gear packed up and loaded it. You …

For those of you listening to the Digital Production Buzz last week, you heard that our co-host, Michael Horton, was somewhat, ah, distressed that his laptop died. In fact, it died about 30 minutes before the show started. We did …

Adam Connell, a long-time reader of my monthly Final Cut Studio newsletter, sent me the following: I recently downloaded and tried out 10.6.2 on my ‘experiments’ mac, a 17″ MBP 2009 edition. On exactly the same HDV and XDCAM sequences …

These thoughts have been bubbling around my head for the last few months, but developed into an article as I was trying to learn Mocha from Imagineer Systems. They were also the philosophy behind my recent book for Focal Press: …

Sigh… I really didn’t want this to happen, but my November Final Cut Studio newsletter won’t be out till December… and I didn’t want you to worry about missing your issue. I’m currently in the midst of editing two series, …

This morning Apple announced a plethora of new hardware, some of which looks pretty interesting — as long as you aren’t interested in editing video. You see, Apple removed the FireWire port from the MacBook – again. A few iterations …

Tonight, on the Digital Production BuZZ, Mike Horton and I interviewed Brandon Miller, producer and filmmaker of a soon-to-be-released film titled “Homeless in Los Angeles.” In many ways, Brandon is like the other young independent filmmakers we talk with on …

Trade shows are world-wide and around the year. Digital Video Expo just finished here in LA (Pasadena, actually), and we took our podcast – Digital Production BuZZ – to cover the event. There are really only two reasons to go …

My latest Final Cut Studio newsletter is available! 45 pages – whew! – covering Snow Leopard, Final Cut Studio (3), and a whole host of reader mail. Over 36 articles, tips, and techniques in all! Here’s just a quick listing …

First, Apple releases the hardware. For instance, until the iPhone was released, the best App in the world had no where to go. Next, Apple releases the operating system to support the hardware. Sometimes, in the case of the iPhone, …

For some reason Apple decided not to create a printable manual for the latest version of Final Cut. Even more confusing, the help manual is on-line – which is great as long as you are connected. But, somewhat awkward if …

I installed the latest Final Cut Studio upgrade over the weekend and have been studying it since. Then, I read Scott Simmon’s blog this morning that caused a question to finally resolve itself in my head. The question I am …

I spoke with Richard Townhill, Director of Video Application Marketing for Apple, the day the new version of Final Cut Studio was released. Not only is Richard the public face of Final Cut, probably no one in Apple has more …

I released my July Final Cut Studio newsletter this morning. You should get a notice in your email in a few hours. (Click here to subscribe — its FREE.) However, as this blog reaches a different audience, I wanted to …

Sigh… Some people spend their holidays actually taking time off. I spend it reading up on all the stuff piling up around here. Probably nothing causes more confusion in editing than trying to integrate computer images and video images. I’ve …