New Stuff - Cool Stuff
August 25, 2014
In This Issue
Become a Member
All Kinds of Cool Stuff
FCP X: Convert Managed Media to External
Video: Create a Hold Frame in FCP X
Review: 1 Beyond Copy Utility
Review: PreRoll Post
Video: Conform Video in FCP X
FCP X (v.10.1.2): Complete!
Top 3 Lists
Compressor 4.1 Training
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WELCOME BACK!

Larry Jordan It's been an incredible week, but, before we get into the details, I need to apologize to Terry Cullen, CEO of 1 Beyond Inc. for misspelling his name in last week's newsletter. Sigh... sorry.

Thinking of incredible weeks, last Monday night I was backstage at a Montgomery Gentry concert, and I have the photos to prove it. (More in a second, see below.)

I also have five new articles for you this week, including two new product reviews and a very interesting article on how to convert managed media into external media in Final Cut Pro X.

I am totally fascinated as I explore the new world of tape-based archiving.  There is an entire world here that I never understood clearly that I am enjoying learning more about. I am working on several new articles to help us understand the benefits and challenges of using tape for backups and archives.

In the meantime, school starts next week in our neighborhood, and I'm heading back to teach at USC. As well, my company's online, distance education classes start in a couple of weeks for the State of Alaska.  If you are interested in getting your class involved in our online training (regardless of what state you are in), send me an email and I'll send you more details on our program for education.

There's plenty of cool stuff happening and I'll do my part to keep you informed.

BACKSTAGE AT MONTGOMERY GENTRY

Eddie Kilgallon is a songwriter and keyboardist for Montgomery Gentry, a major country band. He also shoots and edits almost all the band's videos for YouTube and their website - which is how we got acquainted.

Eddie is a long-time reader, subscriber to my Video Training Library and "asker-of-many-questions" as he worked with Final Cut to turn out an endless array of behind-the-scenes webisodes.  (In fact, Eddie was posting video to the web starting in 2005 - long before the term "webisodes" existed.)

Anyway, while we have corresponded for years, we have never met - until this week when he invited me to attend a Montgomery Gentry concert in Lancaster, CA. While Lancaster is close when compared to, say, Nashville, it was still a two-hour drive. But, I was fascinated to learn more and off I went.



To make a long story a bit shorter, Eddie is a great guy! He escorted me backstage for the concert and while Eddie was on stage, whipping the crowd into a frenzy, I hung out with Elliott Parry running the monitor desk for the performers. (Here he's running an Avid Profile 48-channel mixer with custom audio mixes for each performer. During the show I found myself listening to the mix for the lead guitar.)



Here's another shot of Elliot at work. The performance was at the Antelope County Fairgrounds. (Click either picture for a larger image.)

After the concert, Eddie invited me back to the band bus where he and I were joined by Troy Gentry as we talked about the challenges in creating compelling music videos that actually showcase the talent. I'm still thinking about our conversation and hope to write  up my thoughts for next week's issue.

What? Oh, yeah, the concert was great and the band sounded wonderful. But there are LOTS of pictures of the band. How often do you get to see the gear? My point exactly. Cool blinking lights always win. (... what do you mean, I need to get out more?)

SHORT NOTES


Thinking back to the quote last week talking about newspapers being the "mobile devices" of their day, Robert Lawrence sent me this photo illustrating everyone nose deep in the latest mobile device.

FXFactory announced the release of Kinetic Badges, a vector graphics library accessible directly from Final Cut Pro X. Animations built into the product allow you to easily bring each element to life. Here's the link.

Small notes bullet Andreas Kiel, head honcho at Spherico, writes:

Here something which might be interesting for your readers. It's the PDF for one of my apps - X-FX Handler. While the app might not be of interest for the majority of users, the PDF will be. The intro explains in detail how templates are organized, what options you can use and their appearance in the FCP X Effect Browser.

Maybe it's interesting for you as well. Here's the link.

LAST WEEK'S WEBINAR: STILL FRAMES AND SPEED CHANGES IN FINAL CUT PRO X 

Generic newsletter bullet Last week's webinar covered virtually every speed change we can make in Final Cut Pro X: freeze frames, hold frames, constant speed changes, variable speed changes, conforming and lots of special effects.

It was an interesting session - and well worth watching. Click here to download your copy.

THIS WEEK'S WEBINAR: MOTION 5:
KILLER EFFECTS IN 3D SPACE 

Generic newsletter bullet This week, we are diving off the deep end into the wild world of 3D space in Motion.

Now, before you duck and run for cover, Motion makes 3D, well, not "easy" exactly, but understandable - with plenty of options to do cool stuff without requiring the math skills of a rocket scientist.

In this session, I'll introduce how 3D space works in Motion and provide a variety of simple-to-moderate effects you can create on your own.

Once you understand how 3D space works, and how easy it is to create templates you can use in FCP X, you'll find lots of ways to use it in your own projects.


Register here -- it's FREE!

There's a limit of 100 seats for each webinar and the last several shows were sold out. So, sign up before seats are gone this week, too. I present this twice: 9:00 AM and 12:00 PM - Los Angeles time.

Anyone can attend the live presentations FREE. Subscribers can watch webinars at any time, as part of their membership!  Become a subscriber today. 


FEATURED BUZZ INTERVIEW

Buzz newsletter bullet This week's featured Buzz interview is with a composer and musician: Tom Seufert.

This week, the Buzz had a music theme. Tom is the creative director of Visual Music, a boutique music house that creates music for advertising and webisodes.

We had an interesting conversation about creating original music vs. production music, and whether original music is affordable anymore.  Tom has some great thoughts.

Listen to Tom's interview here.

Listen to the entire show here.

Thanks to the folks at Take1 Transcriptions, you can read, as well as listen to each show. Read this week's show transcript here. (You'll also find show transcripts on each Buzz show page.)

FIVE NEW ARTICLES THIS WEEK!

Generic newsletter bullet This week's articles start with a very cool - and VERY non-intuitive way to convert media in an existing Library from managed to external.

Next is a video tutorial on how to create Hold Frames in Final Cut Pro X.

After that, we continue learning more about LTO-based tape backup with two product reviews: a file management utility from 1 Beyond and backup software from Imagine Products. Even if you aren't immediately interested in tape-backup, both these reviews talk a lot about how the Finder makes working with tape harder than it should be.

I wrap up with another video on how to conform video to your project to create super-clear, super-slow-motion.

Plus, as always, I've updated our Top 3 lists.
ARTICLE: FINAL CUT PRO X
Convert Managed Media to External  
 
If there's one subject everyone has questions about, it's media management.

Managed media in Final Cut Pro X stores media in the Library. Easy and simple. But not ideal if you need to share media between Libraries or editors.

But, how do you move media that's stored in the Library to an external folder without breaking EVERYTHING!?!

Well, there is a surprisingly easy way to do this - but you'd never guess how in two billion years! But, boy, is this cool!

VIDEO: FINAL CUT PRO X
Create a Hold Frame 
 
A Hold frame is a more flexible version of a freeze frame.

In this video tutorial, I explain what Hold frames are, how to create them, how to modify them, and how to add speed ramps at the start and tail to provide effects that you just can't create with a standard freeze frame.

PRODUCT REVIEW:
1 Beyond Copy Utility from 1 Beyond   
 
Last week, I took a look at the ThunderTape 2 from 1 Beyond.

This week, I examine the free software utility that comes with it for file management: 1 Beyond Copy Utility.

The key thing you need to know when working with tape-based backup is that the Finder is not tape- aware. In fact, it works really hard to make tape almost impossibly slow.

Utilities like this Copy Utility provide a workaround for the Finder and make tape much faster to use and access.

Even if you aren't interested in buying an LTO system now, this article will tell you a lot about working with tape and the Finder that you probably didn't know.

Besides, if we don't let Apple know we need the Finder to become tape-aware, it won't get fixed.

PRODUCT REVIEW
PreRoll Post from Imagine Products  
 
Imagine Products makes software that we use to capture media from the camera, then archive it when the project is done.

PreRoll Post is a backup/archive utility that is specifically designed for LTO-based tape systems.

In this review, I provide an overview of why this software is necessary, how it works and what you can expect when using it.

Even if you aren't interested in LTO systems, the first section on tape is still worth reading.

VIDEO: FINAL CUT PRO X         
Conform Video for Super-Slow-Motion 
 
"Conforming" has lots of definitions. In this case, it means adjusting a shot in the Timeline to achieve super-clear, super-slow-motion by playing every frame that you shot at a different frame rate in the Timeline.

Many times, we shoot video at a high frame rate so that when we play it back more slowly, we retain the high-image-quality of the original shoot.

Final Cut Pro X makes conforming clips simple - but it doesn't make the controls easy to find.

ALL-NEW AND UPDATED!! 
FINAL CUT PRO X 10.1.2: COMPLETE 
              
This title contains everything you need to learn Apple's
Final Cut Pro X v.10.1!
 
This title includes both:

* FCP X: Workflow & Editing

* FCP X: Effects

 

All in one place, for one great price!

 

Start with initial setup and media management to editing, effects, and output, there's no finer training on the market.

* Need to get started in a hurry? We condensed everything you need into one chapter.

* Need to learn just the new features? We've got you covered.

* Need in-depth training on everything you need to know to become a video editing pro? Start at the beginning and work your way to the end.

You'll be amazed at how much you learn!

THIS TRAINING INCLUDES ALL THE NEW FEATURES IN THE FCP X 10.1.2 UPDATE.

Over 200 movies, more than 22 hours of training! Each movie is laser-focused to get you the information you need exactly when you need it. (The average movie length is about seven minutes.)

One title - everything you need - available right now.

TOP THREE + 1 LISTS 
   
Here are the most popular articles, webinars, and audio interviews for the past seven days across all my websites.

Articles

This list expanded to the Top 4 to add some variety:
For an index of all our articles, visit here.

 

Webinars

This list is based on the webinars watched most often by our monthly subscribers. For a list of all our webinars, visit here.

 

Digital Production Buzz Audio Interviews  

For a list of all Buzz audio interviews, click here. 

BRAND-NEW TRAINING
Learn Apple Compressor 4.1
   
Apple continues to update Compressor with an all new interface, improved compression settings and better monitoring. This application has some much new stuff inside that we went back and re-did all our training for the new version.
  • Better organized
  • More informative
  • Tighter focus on making your images look great.
NEW TRAINING NOW SUPPORTS
COMPRESSOR 4.1.2

These days, everything we do ends up on the web.
Which means that if we don't know how to compress our video to make it look good, all our work during production and post is wasted.

In this in-depth video training, Larry Jordan shows you how to make the most of Apple Compressor 4.1.x.

Whether you are a new or experienced, this training will help you make your media look and sound great!
We are committed to providing the highest quality training at the lowest possible price and distributing it as widely as possible.

From subscriptions to individual downloads to free techniques and articles -- we've got your back.  And there's lots more to come.

Thanks!

Larry Jordan
Larry Jordan & Associates
P.S. I always love hearing from you. Feel free to write.