Bill Davis
Forum Replies Created
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[Oliver Peters] “So let’s be careful about what we consider “the past”.”
The utility, the aesthetic, the magic of film is certainly not past. Just the production process. A handful of directors will still plow those fields for all the reasons in my first sentence … and more.
But the capture of moving imagery for the billion communications purposes it’s useful in – has simply moved past film.
Everyone knows that.
And its disingenuous to argue otherwise.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Herb Sevush] “Nothing I said indicated a desire to return to the past. “
Uh, your post self-described as being about “film editing techniques”.
Films are lovely. Films are wonderful. But Films also are the past.. Film is precisely what was traditionally designed to roll in front of the spark in the gap between carbon rods.
I know what you meant. And I know you likely haven’t touched actual “film” in years, but it still clearly informs how you think. You think in “movies” or in “TV” And that’s fine.
It’s also probably why you pushed back about Mr. Ubillos’s suitability as an industry innovator. Turns out he wasn’t attempting to invent the future folks like YOU wanted, as much as he was interested in inventing one that would work better for editors who needed to do things OTHER than one huge major centralized effort over many, many months.
But just like his very first effort – that simple DV tool to help with Supermac card sales that became Premiere – it turns out what he was interested in doing, a LOT of people (millions and millions, actually) were extremely interested in buying into.
Including legions of folk doing exactly those “films” and TV shows that occupy your time.
So like it or not – his thinking was the major “pivot point” that, over time, largely moved the industry from Steenbecks to Laptops – and ushered individually produced video toward becoming the Lingua Franca of the modern world.
If someone more like you had had sway in all those meetings over the years where Mr. Ubillos did – it would likely be a very different industry today.
We’ll never know.
We both do know, however, that every “film” or TV show produced – there are probably a thousand money making paid productions that are “not film.”
That you still think nearly exclusively about our industry in film centric modes terms is just fine.
But others don’t.
This forum should be for them – just as much as it’s for you – if it’s to remain relevant going forward.
My 2 cents.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Herb Sevush] “Yes, realizing that one of the key designers of NLEs had zero knowledge of film editing techniques and needs, and almost as little understanding of previous video editing workflows, does explain an awful lot.”
Yup..
I feel a new t-shirt coming…
It’s all been downhill since we retired the Carbon Arc!
Oh well.
All I know is that I spent last week re-purposing client video design templates for IGTV. (Instagram TV)
Wide, Tall, or Square. I’m prepping to deliver anything.
It’s a go where the eyeballs are going world.Some battles are worth hanging around to fight, but sometimes the war simply moves on without you.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Now you can see why it was such a fun event to attend.
Knowing the past, typically helps understand the present – and maybe even a bit about the future.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
The challenge with LEDs is that they have a pretty narrow angle of spread.
Even arranged in arrays, they act more like rows of spotlights than a traditional broad source. Which means the larger the soft box you put on them – the farther it has to be away from the instrument order to fill up the diffusion and achieve the “softness” you are looking for.
I’d setup one of your lights in a darkish room. Move it a couple of feet back from a wall and look at the native beam spread. THAT is the max size of a soft box that instrument can properly fill.
You could, I suppose put in a secondary layer of diffusion like the old Westcott soft boxes that were designed for narrow beam hot lights – but typical LEDS just don’t the the output to punch through multiple layers of diffusion very well.
So there’s trade offs to face.
Good luck.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Sorry I didn’t see this back in June.
If you haven’t found anything better, Omni Corp makes a tool called OmniGraffle that’s lets you draw, arrange and set shapes within a grid system. It’s like a mini-CAD tool for Mac users.
It’s really good for breadboard type circuit design, but it’s so flexible it can go WAY beyond that.
I’m half addicted to the thing, and use it for a ton of my spacial design needs. .
There’s a secondary, related site called OmniTopia where users who’ve taken the time to draw industrial standard shapes trade them. There’s at least one for standard lighting industry instruments with shapes for Lekos, Scoops, Fresnels and Fluorescents.
It doesn’t take long to learn how to use – and afterwards it makes knocking together something like an overhead lighting plot, dirt simple.
Hope that helps.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Michael Gissing] “Base 12 it is believed came from a counting system in Mesopotamia.”
Sorry I didn’t see this yesterday. Firmly in the enjoyable holiday read category. Thanks for the post, Michael!
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bob Zelin] “We can even hold Bill Davis hostage !”
Just be prepared for the eventuality that if you take me hostage – Apple might demand you pay THEM to take me back…
; )
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Is it just me – or does it seem like this is the opening salvo in yet another call for the US to (once and for all) switch to the metric system? ????
Happy Fourth of July, everyone!
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Shane Ross] “I barely have time for the family vacation this week.”
Totally understand. But when you DO get around to looking at it, here’s some advice.
Maybe don’t go directly to concentrating X’s core timeline operations to start with, as you might with the typical NLE.
A lot of what makes X tick is how the entire system works together to make the video assembly process flow easier.
If you start with understanding how the program imports — not just content, but the metadata associated with the content — then allows you to add more metadata to frame ranges via it’s keyword system, eventually you’ll come to find that those prep stages are driving HUGE efficiencies into your eventual storyline work.
Even if at some point you have AEs to help with a lot of the prep stuff – understanding how the “system” works will really help you communicate with them about how you like things organized.
The database in X is a blank page. It values being customized for the specific needs of each project. Beginning X editors can get annoyed by having to do what they might see as “extra prep” that other NLEs didn’t need as much.
BUT – the best X editors come to understand that by developing their own organizational strategies that work best for how they think – they can hugely minimize the time between realizing they want a particular shot for insert in their story – and getting that done.
The more you work with the system, the more you’ll refine how you like to tag and call up your shots – and most of us find the the process gets faster and faster, smoother and smoother. Eventually, the distance between the THOUGHT that you’d like to try a different shot here – or a different shot order there – or maybe “that story block might be better a bit later” – becomes a “try it – assess it – keep or dump it” cycle that gets really short and easy.
That’s often when the real fun in X editing begins.
Good luck.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.