Earlier this week, Red Giant released Offload, a brand new standalone application for reliable backup of footage in the field. Available alone or as part of the Red Giant Shooter Suite, Offload makes the often unreliable and tedious task of backing up files from camera card to laptop and external drives a hassle-free experience. Offload is media and camera agnostic, and requires no additional equipment used in the normal footage offload process.

Here's the link.

Last week, Sorenson Media released the latest version of Squeeze Desktop, their workhorse video encoding tool that will render the highest-quality video and audio files for professionals and hobbyists alike. Manipulate resolution, file output, and other specifications to create the finished video product you need. Use Squeeze to encode videos that you've created in Final Cut Pro, Avid, or Adobe Premiere to ensure that they come out looking as good as you imagined.

Here's the link.

THIS WEEK'S WEBINAR:
AUDIO IN FINAL CUT PRO X

As soon as a new version of anything is announced, I get flooded with questions on whether and when to upgrade.

I first wrote this article in 2007. But,  the release last week of Yosemite gave me an excuse to go back and totally revise this article.

While my basic opinions haven't changed, my timelines and procedures have.

Last week saw a flood of new hardware from Apple, including the incredible new 5K iMac.

Part of my surprise was that I remember - and it wasn't that long ago - that a high-quality HD video monitor cost upwards of $20,000.

So, I wrote an article about the new iMac - what it's good for and when you should consider it.

Lurking in plain sight are a variety of features that you may not have played with; but they can make your editing life easier when you understand what they can do.

Principally designed to reduce clutter and help you find what you are looking for, these tools are worth knowing.

(And, I'll bet there are at least two that you didn't know anything about.)

Here is a quick tip that explains faster ways to control the animation in text clips.

Plus, I show how to create these in Motion when you are designing your own templates for FCP X.

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:

• FCP X: When to Use Optimized, Proxy, or Camera Native Media
• Create a Dual-Boot Mac OS X System Disk
• Why Should Final Cut Pro 7 Editors Consider Adobe Premiere Pro CC?
• FCP X: Manage Projects

For an index of all our articles, visit here.

 

Webinars

• #138: Video Compression Comparison
• #137: Timing is Everything (in Editing)
• #131: Still Frames and Speed Changes

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   

• Kim Furst: How to Become a Successful Documentary Filmmaker
• Drewes and Devereaux: Creating Visual Effects for "The Equalizer"
• Steven Nakamura: Color Grading "Oz The Great and Wonderful"

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

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.

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!

Larry Jordan

Larry Jordan & Associates

P.S. I always love hearing from you. Feel free to write.