Blog Archives

It’s Thanksgiving in the US this week, where many of us take time off to visit friends and family. To give our staff some time off, we pre-recorded our podcast – the Digital Production BuZZ – this week. And, as …

I’ve been asked to speak at the upcoming Association of Video Professionals (AVP) conference – January 28 – 30th in Los Angeles. I’ve had the great pleasure of speaking to this group before and have always found them to be …

Apple announced a new video format, dubbed iFrame, specifically to improve the import and editing of HD images. Apple’s support site states: The iFrame Video format is designed by Apple to speed up importing and editing by keeping the content …

During our recent summer seminar series, I got a lot of requests to provide more opportunities to meet with editors. We decided to take that to heart for September – and have created a variety of ways, and places, to …

Sorry to have been so quiet the last couple of weeks. With the release of Final Cut Studio 3, I had two book projects to finish. One I turned in last Saturday and the other I need to complete by …

Apple is making my life difficult. The latest release of Final Cut Studio is named Final Cut Studio. This is the same name as the release of Final Cut Studio with Final Cut Pro 5. Now I spent a LOT …

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 …

Because of all the news related to the new Final Cut Studio release, we are changing our coverage for the Digital Production Buzz tonight to focus on all the news. I just finished talking with Richard Townhill, Director of Video …

Apple announced the latest version of Final Cut Studio (version 3) this morning! Consisting of six applications (LiveType did not survive the update), you can get more details here: http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/ From Apple’s Press Release: Apple today announced a significant update …

I got a note today from Gabe Cheifetz, head crumble at CrumblePop, about a new Final Cut filter that they’ve just released. Their press releases reads: CrumplePop today announced the availability of CrumplePop Reflector, a set of high quality reflection …

If persistence counts for anything, Michael Cinquin should get an award. By day, Michael is a free-lance editor and colorist. However, by night, he likes writing Final Cut utilities. Over the last couple of months he’s written me several times …

Ron Diamond, with EditGroove Software, sent me an email this afternoon. In addition to providing some free raffle prizes for my upcoming seminars, he is also offering a discount on it – more on that in a minute. If you …

Tomorrow, June 12, marks the end of analog television broadcasting in the US. Tomorrow, all over-the-air transmission becomes digital. I’m all in favor of technology and change, but I wanted to say good-bye to an era. I got my start …

I just upgraded one of my Final Cut Studio editing systems from 10.5.6 to 10.5.7 using the download from Apple’s website. Since then, I’ve discovered some problems with LiveType. I’m still looking for a work-around, but none of the usual …

During the Digital Production BuZZ coverage of the 2009 NAB Show, we conducted more than 200 interviews and created 37 NAB News Briefs. Here is a list of companies and guests, and the News Brief they appeared in. (Due to …

As the Official Podcast of the 2009 NAB Show, the Digital Production BuZZ produced 37 live news casts, and 12 hours of live programming and interviews. These were syndicated to more than 25 websites and reached tens of thousands of …

At 9:00 AM this morning, the 2009 NAB Show opened the doors to its trade show, the crowds rushed in, and the Digital Production BuZZ went to work. After two days tuning our systems, we were in full operation today …

Today we discovered just how big a show the 2009 NAB Show really is… Yup – it’s huge. We had reporters covering as much as we could and we still felt that we could have used another 40-50 people. Still, …

Well, even though it looked like I was a few cables short of a complete production studio yesterday, I managed to get everything connected. And the booth looks great — even though the rest of the show floor is covered …

The 2009 NAB Show asked the Digital Production BuZZ to be the Official Podcast of the 2009 NAB Show.  And, after a LONG night of driving, we arrived! Led by producer Cirina Catania, we’ve brought a staff of 15 to …

I posted this a couple of days ago to the Latest News section of the Digital Production BuZZ, but this is a big enough deal that I wanted to mention it here. When Data Robotics first announced Drobo, it was …

My friend, Nate Adams over at Media Distributors tipped to me a new asset management system being introduced by Media Distributors at NAB. Now, I know that the concept of a database for tracking assets can cause many people’s eyes …

Shur Harewood sent me a reminder this morning that April, 2009, is the tenth anniversary of the release of Final Cut Pro. In a 2002 press release Apple wrote: Since its introduction in April 1999, Final Cut Pro has become …

Brian Gary has written an interesting review of the CalDigit VR RAID. More important than that, he’s also started to take a closer look at the whole process of archiving media – something I’ve been writing about for a while. …

Mike Horton asked me to remind you to attend the Final Cut Pro User Group SuperMeet if you are attending the 2009 NAB Show in Las Vegas. Personally, I’m looking forward to showing the world-premiere of a brand-new musical plug-in …

I’ve had the pleasure, over the last few months, of working with Smartsound to develop a new plug-in for Final Cut Pro that greatly simplifies the process of adding music to your Final Cut projects. But they wouldn’t let me …

I’ve been a fan of Tom Meegan’s work for a long time — especially when he wrote about it for Edit Well. He principally works at the high-end of broadcast television. Anyway, after my review of Telestream’s Pipeline in the …

Brad Hagen sent me the following announcement: This Wednesday, MCAI presents four experts to address the critical needs of high-end HD Production: Do you really need a DITech? How important is on-set color correction? What are the hidden issues of …

The road to a product review is rarely smooth, but a review that I’m currently working on was especially rocky – mostly due to me – but the back-story is interesting, so I thought I’d share it with you here. …

I’ve gone on record saying that in most cases, shooting 24 fps video material is not appropriate for most situations. I’ve read that the only reason shooting film at 24 fps was selected by film producers in the 1920’s was …

One of the hot topics in my seminars and email is the question of how producers can make money on their projects. Clearly, if they are commissioned by a client, your money comes from the fee you charge. But what …

It snowed four inches today in Dundee, Scotland, at the start of my first UK seminar. Still, we had close to 100 people brave the weather to turn our for our seminar. In spite of the weather, we still came …

Would you like to attend FITC – Amsterdam from Feb 22 – 24, 2009 but can’t get in because some of the events are sold out? As their website says: There is no other event quite like it. The combination …

I get several hundred emails a day — some I keep for each month’s newsletter, while others don’t need to be kept at all. However, many fall into a gray area of being kind of interesting, but … And I’ve …

Bruce Nazarian, president of the IDMA, and I just completed a one-hour special report on the state of Blu-ray technology. We aired the show live yesterday on The BuZZ and posted it this evening. You can find it here: http://www.digitalproductionbuzz.com/Archives/ShowNotes.php?date=2009-01-21 …

This afternoon, Apple released the latest version of QuickTime — 7.6 — which includes updates for encoding quality, reliability, compatibility, and security enhancements. Media improvements include better single-pass H.264 encoding quality, better playback of Motion JPEG content, improved AAC encoding …

As you know, I hope, I host a weekly podcast called “Digital Production BuZZ” that focuses on digital video production, post-production, and distribution worldwide. The BuZZ is currently listened to by tens of thousands of people each month! Each week, …

Philip Hodgetts sent me a fascinating blog post from Justin Evans, who is both a filmmaker and camera rental house owner. In it, Justin suggests that the total number of RED cameras currently in the market exceeds the number of …

The Association of Video Professionals has invited me to speak at their annual conference February 5, 6, and 7 in Kissimmee, Florida. This event offers high-quality training for video professionals taught by some truly outstanding people in our industry: * …

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know when I say that earning a living will be a challenge in 2009. In times like these, folks are saying “No!” first, then thinking about your question later. So, today, while …

A very happy New Year to everyone! May 2009 be better for all of us than 2008. Larry

Here are two blogs worth reading, as you are waiting for the phones to start ringing again after the holidays. First, Norm Hollyn has an interesting discussion on the power of social networking to help all of us get and …

For those of you going to MacWorld, Mike Horton (Head Cutter of the LA Final Cut Pro User Group) just sent me the following. – – – The agenda has now been set for the 8th Annual FCPUG “SuperMeet” to …

Janet Swift, in PR over at Telestream, sent me a note this morning reminding me that last week, after two years of work, Telestream released the Windows version of Episode. Janet wrote: “Episode now supports cross-platform environments, PC and Mac. …

One more thing from Government Video Expo, held Dec 3 – 5 in Washington, DC. Spectra Logic makes equipment for archiving servers and media. More specifically, they make LTO tape drives, which are my current favorite for backing up tapeless …

One of the benefits of attending a trade show is talking to engineers and other product specialists that are hard to meet in any other way. Recently, I took my podcast – the Digital Production BuZZ – to GV Expo …

On February 17, 2009, the FCC has mandated that all broadcasters in the US switch from analog to digital transmission. (As an aside, this does not mean they need to switch to HD, simply that their transmitters originate digital signals.) …

John Bowling, from the City of Houston, Dept. of Aviation, sent me the following. – – – Just ran into a situation that I believe others should be aware of. I use a Mac Pro for editing and wanting the …

While HD Expo is in LA, I’m heading to Washington, DC, with the Digital Production BuZZ to cover the Government Video Technology Expo. We’ll have highlights of the Expo on this week’s show, as well as additional hours of coverage …

I’ve attended, and spoken at, HDFest the last two times it visited LA. Its a great place to see what’s happening in the Indy world of HD. Marisa, the Festival Coordinator, reminds me that HDFest is returning to LA this …