[Craig Seeman]

I do quite a bit of live streaming and as a general rule I do a local recording. On Mac, I record ProRes (or ProRes LT to save some space). That’s really the best workflow for post production.

YouTube will generally convert to 30fps (or 60fps) and you will get duplicate frames coming from 25fps (or 50fps).

Perhaps Apple Compressor can convert to ProRes although I’m not sure if it’ll handle a webm source.

[Craig Seeman]

Not the least bit surprised given Apple’s dropping intel processors and that includes Xeon.

Of interest though is when will an Apple Silicon iMac appear with four rather than two thunderbolt ports and 10Gig Ethernet port. Some may hope it will happen this spring but if it’s closer to fall or later, there’s going to be professionals looking to move up, stuck in a holding pattern.

I think some are hoping that both base model AND higher-end model Silicon iMacs are coming soon.

[Craig Seeman]

Get the used GH5 with a used Metbones M43 to EF speed booster and you’ll have S35 capabilities with M43 to fall back to if you need lighter and longer lenses.

If you want to have a more traditional video camera form with 4K S35 options you may need a bigger budget.

Perhaps a used Sony NEX-FS700R could work for you.

[Craig Seeman]

Perhaps the issue is part of the known Bluetooth issues affecting all M1 Macs but the Mac Mini the most it seems. They will be fixed in Big Sur 11.2.

[Craig Seeman]

Wirecast Rendezvous. Guest logs in using two browsers, Firefox and Chrome, Use one for screen share and one for webcam.

[Craig Seeman]

Using Wirecast, record with Apple ProRes.

Otherwise use Wirecast Pro Blackmagic Video out to an external recorder.

[Craig Seeman]

I’ve had clients who’ve asked me to download clips from YouTube as well. This is what I use.

https://www.4kdownload.com/products/product-videodownloader

[Craig Seeman]

Apple innovated with the trackless and magnetic timeline and great keyword-based organized but years have gone by since then and while they add features generally already existing in other NLEs they’ve long since stopped innovating compared to Blackmagic.

[Craig Seeman]

Sure it wiggles my needle a bit although not in the way Apple’s marketing implies. Perhaps the real utility for me isn’t as sexy.

They seem to be targeting this for the aspirational broke filmmaker who will be buying a phone. For them, this camera might be a possible starter if you can live without the shallow DOF (which isn’t always as critical in some narrative styles) and can work within the ever-decreasing limits phones present. Keep in mind the cost of a 12 Pro Max approaches the ballpark price of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4K as well as many good lower end mirrorless cameras with a much more appropriate feature set. So the phone, as Apple markets it, is really for someone who can’t afford those lower budget cameras in addition to the phone they’re going to own by necessity.

For me, as a solo doc eng style shooter this checks most of the marks. Often enough I’m locked down shooting a speaker at an event or press conference and something starts in the crowd. Being able to pull out a phone and grab the second shot really helps. Being able to do that with up to 5x optical zoom and stabilization that will help my single-handed shooting (the rest of me still has to be focused on my main subject) is really a major boon. Of course, I’ve already done that with my current phone which certainly is good enough but that current phone traded in drops the price for the 12 Pro Max.

There’s always the stuff that happens as you happen upon it and it’s the camera you have with you. That camera just got a bit better. Additionally, it used to be that the big eng type or rigged camera is exactly the wrong camera in doc eng type work where calling attention to yourself won’t have a good outcome. It used to be the DSLR and then the Mirrorless made you look a bit more one of the crowd but, these days, savvy people react to that as well. Of course, they can react to a phone but when a hundred others are also holding their phones (and not mirrorless cameras) your intent is a bit hard to single out. Yes, 5x optical zoom and image stabilization in a jostling crowd helps.

So for an aspirational filmmaker, the phone is still the lowest of low budget given how “real” cameras are getting better/cheaper but for the doc eng solo shooter that Apple doesn’t mention, it’s a valuable tool.

I’m certainly curious to see if Magsafe or LIDAR will have utility for video as well but no one, including Apple, is hinting at those possibilities. Maybe next year’s phone will offer the equivalent of “portrait” mode for a video giving you a bit more flexibility in post.

So the phone doesn’t curl my toes but, yes, my needle wiggles if it’s got a thing you can use because, you know, next year’s phone will through in another wiggle so it’s more about “can I use it this year or what ’till next?” Considering the low cost of the upgrade, why not?

And heck, the low light performance might make shooting my cat at 240fps with the lights off a little cleaner. We all know how important an underlit cat slow-mo video is to a monetized YouTube channel don’t we?

[Craig Seeman]

Color Finale Pro is at 2.2.12

Coremelt plugins were updated on September 15th to 512.13