Andrew Kimery
Forum Replies Created
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[Shawn Miller] “Wow, that bad… there used to be five or six ISPs in town, now there are two. It would be nice to hear the inside story of how it got that way. I know what happened in broad strokes, but the details have got to be interesting.
EDIT: I meant to ask if your doc had been released yet.”
The doc has not been released yet. AFAIK they are trying the festival thing now but it should come out this year (I’m not totally in the loop on it as I had to leave the project early due to prior commitments).
The details are interesting (and many times just flat out unbelievable that it’s actually playing out like this). The most troubling thing is that in the relatively near future our ISPs will be a single point of connection for nearly all forms of media and communication and users are about to be on the losing end of the battle. What started out as egalitarian and user driven is now being being carved up, walled off, and extorted by gatekeeping media giants (both old and new). We are in the Information Age which means controlling the creation and distribution of information/data (whether it’s a phone call, a web page or a video-on-demand) is where the power lies and where the money is to be made.
I’m going to dismount from my soapbox before I rant the night away, but I’ll leave with one last tidbit; A crazy thing to think about is that it’s 2017 and most Americans have a wider choice of dial-up ISPs than broadband ISPs.
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[Shawn Miller] “Even worse, we pay the highest rates for broadband access in the world. How much do you pay for a 20Mbps connection? In the US, the average is around $50.00 a month.”
I recently worked on a doc about Net Neutrality and ISPs in the US and the situation is beyond a train wreck. While watching the interviews, as well as doing my own research because somethings get pretty complex, I had to get up and take a break at times because I got so steamed learning how screwed up things are.
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[Shawn Miller] “Yup, all we would need is a landscape where there are more than a handful of high speed internet providers, and common sense net neutrality principles codified into law. ☺”
Someday… hopefully. ????
[Simon Ubsdell] “I thought things were bad in the UK, but if you’re having issues with tiny file sizes like that you really do have problems.”
Not transfering files 1 gig in size, but 1 gigabit per second, symmetrical Internet speeds. Speeds usually associated with fiber connections though I believe cable Internet can now hit 1gig speeds (but not 10gig AFAIK).
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The article, especially the headline, isn’t very clear. “GeForce Now” is a game streaming service (like Playstation Now and the defunct OnLive service). You aren’t playing the game on your Mac, you are basically logging into Nvidia’s servers and playing the game via remote desktop. If you have a fast, low latency Internet connection then it’s fine, but if you don’t then the lag is going to be annoying as hell.
Microsoft uses it’s cloud computing service, Azure, to help render AI and GFX for Xbox One games (thus freeing up some load from the local CPU/GPU) and Adobe has floated the idea of cloud-assisted rendering for AE coming to CC subscribers. So it is possible, but to Tero’s point, I don’t think this works well editing for a couple of reasons.
1. Many programs use the GPU for basic operation so having a strong GPU locally is still worthwhile (which is why Apple doubled down on GPUs in the nMP).
2. For editing you also have to figure out how to transfer the media. If I want someone to remotely render something in AE or a CG program I just have to send them the data from my project and they send back the rendered media. If I want someone to remotely render something in my NLE I can’t just send them my project file/data I have to send them the media too which complicates thing if it’s a big project (ex. sending 90min of ProRes HQ for someone to render out remotely).
If we reach a point in the US where data caps don’t exist and 1gig up/down is common place (or even 10gig up/down is affordable) then these problems obviously are reduced. Another possible alternative to a ‘cloud GPU’ is hooking up an external GPU, but IIRC MacOS currently doesn’t support that feature.
EDIT:
Of course the other thing related to this is the Avid Everywere/Adobe Anywhere solution where all the media is stored on a ‘big iron’ server and users just remote into it. That’s obviously a more enterprise level solution at this time. -
[Bill Davis] “The “weight” in this case is the rasters we all need to manipulate. The old view was that bigger and bigger rasters need more grunt to push around. But that’s the exact opposite of the trends towards proxy and similar reference file editing. “
As I’m sure you know offline/online has been around for a really long time. It’s not new. Though it seems to be going in cycles:
We offline/online SD.
Computers/storage hit a speed and price point where many (most?) can work with online quality SD throughout editorial.
HD comes around and it’s w-a-y bigger than SD.
We offline/online HD.
Computers/storage hit a speed and price point where many (most?) can work with online quality HD throughout editorial.
4K/6K/8K comes around and it’s w-a-y bigger than HD.
We offline/online 4K/6K/8K.
Computers/storage (will eventually) hit a speed and price point where many (most?) can work with online quality 4K/6K/8K throughout editorial.Apple’s relatively recent focus on making a solid offline/online workflow in their NLE goes hand in hand with their main desire to make thinner, lighter, and quieter hardware. Apple used to brag about making the fastest computers in the world, now they brag about making the thinest. Just because Apple focuses on thinner, lighter and quieter doesn’t mean that slightly thicker, slightly heavier, slightly louder, but more powerful machines are passé. Maybe one could change one’s workflow around in order to suite Apple’s whims… or maybe one could just buy a computer that suits one’s needs better than anything Apple sells (which is doable when most of one’s software is OS agnostic).
Not to speak for Shane, but he does a lot of offline editorial during the day and a lot of online editorial at night. I think he’s pretty qualified to understand how well offline quality proxy files can look these days as well as the need for speed so one can work at online resolutions in a timely fashion.
[Bill Davis] “PLUS you don’t have to lug around heavyweight gear or be tied endlessly to a wall outlet at your desk in order to comfortably get your work done.”
Not everyone edits on the go so lugging around heavyweight gear is certainly a case by case basis. Ex. my three monitors, color panel, audio monitors, Logitech Gamepad, and RAID stay on my desk in a comfortable, ergonomic office. When I edit at someone else’s facility it’s typically a similar setup (multiple monitors, sit/stand desk, shared storage on a SAN, etc.,) so going plug free/wireless isn’t an option either. Even when I do edit in the field on a laptop I have to stay near power because laptops can’t handle 8-12hrs of editing on a single battery charge.
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[Oscar Santamaría] “I hope there was a way of “unnesting” them once the edit is locked. If that was possible it would be my way to go. “
Hey Oscar.
I don’t think there is a way to ‘un-nest’ since the nest only resides on Track 1, but un-nesting it would require two additional (one for each lav and one for the boom). Maybe you can though and PPro will just create the extra tracks it needs and ‘shove’ everything down accordingly. Never tried it myself.
“The other option I see is to match frame later and substitute the nested audio with the original files, but this a 90 min (at least) documentary and I don’t wanna put myself into such a nightmare.”
This is what I usually do. I’ll edit using multicam and only cut with audio from the lav and the boom (assuming both are there) and then after I lock the edit I’ll cut just use Matchframe and Overwrite to cut in all audio tracks from the cameras so that the mixer will have everything possible to shape the sound and fix problems. It’s pretty simple because it’s only two key strokes over and over again; Match frame and Overwrite (or replace if there are audio FX you want to keep intact, though in my experience mixers want to start with a totally clean slate).
A few years ago I was an AE on a feature doc cut with FCP 7 and used this method as well, though it was a bit more complicated on that project because of the sheer number of tracks that came from production. The multicam clips (two cameras plus an external audio recorder) would have up to 20 audio channels at times so when it came time to turn it over to audio I had to work out a solid track map for the mixer. Once I did that though it was still pretty simple (Match frame, Overwrite, Match frame, Overwrite, Match frame, Overwrite, etc.,).
Certainly not as elegant as the options you get to visually represent audio in X, but it’s doable especially since you are only working with three audio tracks from production.
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[Dave LaRonde] “Well, think about this. How does a software company that RENTS is software grow its revenue? I must get more rentals.”
Generating revenue is kind of a universal need for any company that wants to keep the lights on. Ex. How does a company that SELLS a product grow it’s revenue? It must sell more of its products.
[Jon Doughtie] “What Daniel said. Don’t rush to anyone’s dot-zero release anymore.”
Not jumping on a x.0 release used to be canon, but at some point in the last few years some people decided that updating at the drop of the hat was fine, then they get burned and complain about it on Twitter. Heck, I don’t download software updates for anything until it’s been out long enough for people to see what bugs it has (and every software update is going to introduce new bugs).
I remember 10yrs ago or so when a QuickTime update (which contained a DRM/security update for iTunes) broke users abilities to export files from programs like AE and PPro. Long story short, the security update rolled out DRM for Apple’s new movie/TV service and the software wrongly flagged exports from AE as ‘illegal movie downloads’. Oops. I think Apple fixed it w/in a week, but it’s a good example of how many aspects of our machines are indirectly connected in ways that might not seem obvious.
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Thanks Charlie. Happy New Year!
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Happy New Year!
My professional goal this year is to work on more documentaries. I worked on three last year (two features and one ‘short’ that was a TV-hour) and I’d like to cut docs 100% of the time but I’m finding that a difficult position to get into.
On the more technical front, I think I’m finally going to get around to really learning X this year. My chops on the other NLEs used in my area or solid so, time permitting, X will mostly likely my professional development hobby this year (of course I said the same thing last year but work kept getting in the way so we’ll see how it goes this time around).
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Right, Apple.com->Mac (which drops you onto a page about the MBP) then scroll down 3/4 of the page to the Pro Apps section to find the link to the FCPX page.
If it was up to me applications would still have their own subheading under Mac. Now it’s just MB, MBA, MBP, iMac, MP, mac mini, accessories, macOS, and compare. And weirdly enough only the MBP page provides links to the Pro Apps. If you scroll through any of the other computer pages there are no links to applications. You have to click on “macOS” (upper right hand corner) and if you scroll down far enough you see links to apps like Keynote and iTunes, but no Pro Apps.
Strangely enough the macOS page that link takes you to is totally different than the macOS page you get if you click the macOS link that’s at the top of the page between “accessories” and “compare”. Basically if you go Apple.com->Mac->macOS you get one page about macOS, but if you go Apple.com->Mac->Learn More->macOS you get a completely different page about macOS.