[Bob Cole]

I love you Steve but your editor is right. One result (a mispelling) can have two causes. A broken leg can be the result of accident (typo) or design (misspelling). (Better pay that mortgage, if the mob is your banker.)

Labelling something as “misspelled” implies that the typist doesn’t know better. That’s why the word “typo” is so useful, and in this case, more precise. Do you really think your editor thinks “conventoinal” is the correct spelling?

I’m glad you posted this. This incident sounds trivial but it can be a real challenge to find words which correct people without offending them. “Typo” is a great word to use for this situation.

[Bob Cole]

Thank you. That sounds really useful.

If the new PP (or better yet, the next version of FCP) could integrate a human-generated transcript a la Avid scriptsync, and do it well, I would tend to find that more useful than a semi-accurate VR product.

otoh, VR that actually worked on the file level (that is, you don’t have to play the audio into a mic) would be a plus even at low accuracy — just for those occasional searches for a random word or phrase that can otherwise drive you crazy.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I’d be very surprised if this actually worked very well. I’ve used a supposedly great VR product, Dragon Naturally Speaking, to transcribe interviews, and it would only work if I revoiced each line into a mic, because it needed to “learn” a particular voice. That said, Naturally Speaking (ver. 9) did pretty well, but not perfectly, especially for unexpected words. Amazingly, context and grammar seemed to give the software cues which improved the accuracy. Fun to watch it change its mind about the third word in a sentence when it heard the last phrase.

As for percentage of accuracy, it’s not only a matter of percentage. Usability also depends on two more subtle factors: what KIND of errors, and HOW you’re using the transcripts.

What kind of errors:
Human errors are more tolerable to other humans (like myself and probably you) than software-generated errors. It’s an odd thing, but it’s true. Even “professional” transcripts are rarely more than about 98% accurate, but that 2% doesn’t slow me down, because a human made the mistake, it’s understandable, and you can easily “get it.” On the other hand, software errors are so far out in left field that they can really make a transcript hard to read.

How you’re using the transcripts:
If you’re using it to read an immense quantity of material, less than 95-98% accuracy is going to be very tedious (especially because of the TYPE of errors – see above). But if you only use it to find the occasional word with a computerized search, it will be useful at much lower percentages of accuracy.

Would someone enlighten me as to how this VR feature compares with Avid’s similar efforts at text-based editing?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

(delete)

[Bob Cole]

Thanks Todd. That confirms, I guess, that I bought a bad batch of bulbs.

bc

[Bob Cole]

I helped jury an independent film festival once and saw a film about a boy who hears mysterious sounds in his apartment, from a creature upstairs somewhere.

There was only one actor, a teen-age boy. At one point there was a low tracking shot, pointed up at the boy as he walks away, down the corridor. The movement of the dolly was irregular… almost… like it was walking.

I got it! There was only one explanation for the odd movement of the dolly. The camera was in a little wagon, & the wagon was being pulled by a rope attached low to the actor’s leg.

I was not surprised when the credit roll came up:

“Adam Jones did EVERYTHING.”

I wish I could remember the real name and find out how this guy is doing. It was a pretty good little film, and the credit “list” was the best I’ve ever seen.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Or, try explaining to a print-oriented person that “dpi” by itself doesn’t matter in video-land. It can be like talking to a brick wall.

A tastefully-dressed, esthetically sensitive brick wall, of course.

[Bob Cole]

Yeah. Great effort but not the one. Thank you very much though.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Walter, what size tablet do you recommend?

Smaller seems good for minimizing motion needed to get from one end of screen to the other, but bigger seems better when you need to trace a mask in After Effects.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[David Roth Weiss] “James, you obviously live way to close to the Apple Store and your mommy should have told you that Apple products are not impulse items like the candy bars near the grocery store checkout counter.”

Don’t mind David, James — he’s obviously JEALOUS.