News - Training - Insight
March 9, 2015
In This Issue
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Popular Past Webinars


COMPRESSION


Faster Editing in Final Cut Pro X

- - - 

Upcoming
Events

Webinars will resume in mid-March

WELCOME BACK!

Larry Jordan
I'm sorry I wasn't able to release a newsletter last week. My travel to London for BVE and my teaching schedule in the UK made it impossible to write that issue. However, by way of apology, I brought back two video souvenirs for you this week.

A question I'm getting more and more often these days concerns why Final Cut sees our hard disks as cameras. I've got the answer for you in this issue. Plus an update to using Spatial Conform for re-framing images in FCP X.

As you'll read in my blog, we finally figured out why we were having so many problems with video streaming. We are currently working on determining the best solution. More on that in a minute.

NAB this year is shaping up to be really interesting. In our Short Notes, I have a product pre-announcement that I find very exciting. Also, thinking about NAB, we have a special code to get you in FREE to the Exhibit Hall. Details below.

March is going to be a very busy month for us, with exciting news to share with you over the next few weeks. Just need to finish dotting the "i's" and crossing the "t's". I'll have more for you next week.

GET INTO THE 2015 NAB SHOW FREE!

Generic newsletter bullet As I mentioned in the Welcome, here's your free registration code to this year's NAB Show, courtesy of the Digital Production Buzz:

LV4883 Register here.

This code gets you onto the exhibits floor free - this is normally $150. Click "Register here" and enter the code during the registration process. (Feel free to share this code with your friends!)

This will be the seventh year The Buzz is covering NAB -- I'll have more details on our plans as the show gets closer.

LARRY IN LONDON

Buzz newsletter bullet Thinking of trade shows, I had a fun time in London.  In addition to presentations at BVE Expo, Ravensbourne College and the Guild of Television Cameramen, we assembled a special edition of the Digital Production Buzz with news and interviews from the show.

Listen to our entire show from BVE 2015 here.

BVE 2015 Special Reports

Producing BVE 2015 (two separate interviews)
    Dan Sacchelli - Commercial Director
       Watch 
       Listen

New Cameras from JVC
    John Kelly: General Manager EMEA
       Listen

Panasonic Responds to Increased Competition
    Nigel Wilkes, Group Manager/EMEA
       Listen

New Digital Recorders from Atomos
    Jeromy Young, CEO
       Watch
       Listen

New Lenses from Schneider Optics
    Jim Marks, Cinematographer
       Watch
       Listen

CueScript - Pick the Right Prompter
    Michael Accardi - CEP
       Watch
       Listen

Audio-Technica - Pick the Right Microphone
    Rodrigo Thomaz, Product & Training Specialist
       Watch
       Listen

Projects this large take a lot of help. I want to thank Debbie Price for setting everything up, Lindsay Luebbert for handling on-site event management, Michael Powles for shooting all the videos and Brianna Murphy for editing everything so nicely.

I look forward to returning next year. 

SHORT NOTES


Accusys caught my attention with a product pre-announcement this last week. They will be showing a sharable Thunderbolt RAID at NAB in April. This means multiple computers can connect to the same storage via Thunderbolt, rather than using FibreChannel. This could support data rates at up to twice the speed of 10-gigabit Ethernet, without the costs of a switch, while using simple Thunderbolt cables.

Link: www.accusys.com.tw/products/thunderbolt-storage/a16t2-share-new.html

Small notes bullet My last issue featured examples of how to use Photoshop for image retouching. Tom Thornton wrote in to remind me about GIMP 2.8 as a free alternative to Photoshop.

The GIMP website says: "GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages."

Link: www.gimp.org

 

WEBINARS ON HOLD FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS

Generic newsletter bullet
What I learned at BVE in London was that the reason we are having so many problems with video streaming is that, while we have a streaming server - Wowza - we don't have sufficient bandwidth to support more than 3-4 viewers at a time.

Bandwidth requires a CDN (Content Distribution Network). We are currently looking at alternatives, including LiveStream, Amazon, Akamai and Groovy Gecko.  For this reason, we are holding off doing new webinars for a couple of weeks to give us time to research alternatives and get one of them installed.

As soon as we have a working solution we'll resume webinars. Also, as I've been doing throughout our journey on setting up live video streaming, I'll write up what we did.

FEATURED INTERVIEW
DIGITAL PRODUCTION BUZZ

 
Buzz newsletter bullet
The Buzz now has its own YouTube Channel!  You can find it here. As part of the Channel, Mike and I put together an intro welcoming you to the channel - which turned out to be quite fun. Watch it here.

Because of the bandwidth issues I just mentioned, we have temporarily stopped live video streaming of the Buzz. Instead, you can watch each episode which we post to YouTube every Friday.  (Audio streaming continues as always, because we are using the Mixlr CDN for audio distribution.)

This week, I want to feature a fascinating interview with Kevin McAuliffe. Kevin is a leading trainer for Avid, as well as an experienced editor in his own right. This week, Kevin spoke with Mike Horton and me about why he's excited about Avid, what Avid has that makes it unique and his feelings on the current "NLE wars."

We don't cover Avid as much as I would like on The Buzz and Kevin was a great guest.

 

Watch Kevin's interview here.

Listen to Kevin's interview here.

Listen to the entire show here.

Watch the entire show here.

I invite you to join us for the live show each Thursday where you can listen and share in the Live Chat. Here's the link.

Thanks to the folks at Take1 Transcriptions, you can also read each show. Written transcripts are now posted to each show page. Read the transcript here.

NEW ARTICLES AND VIDEOS

Generic newsletter bullet
Four new articles this week, along with an update to an existing article. I start with a trouble-shooting article explaining why Final Cut thinks your hard disk is a camera; and how to fix it.

Then, its over to London with my thoughts on the cool technology and ideas I discovered at BVE. Plus, two video postcards from the show itself: a behind-the-scenes look at the gear TV Bay used for its video streaming and a look at some of the highlights from the expo floor.

Finally, when I was in London, I was talking about how to re-frame shots using high-resolution media in Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere. In Final Cut, you need to use Spatial Conform, so I updated an existing article to explain more about how this process works.

It's all included below; plus, I updated our Top 3 Lists. Have fun, see you next week.

ARTICLE: FINAL CUT PRO X
Help! My Hard Disk Thinks Its a Camera!  
 
Everything was working great - then, suddenly, Final Cut Pro X thinks your hard disk is a camera.

While not life-threatening, this is definitely weird.

This article explains what causes this and provides a simple fix to getting everything running normally.


BLOG
Larry's Thoughts from BVE 2015 - London 
 
Logo: Larry's Blog
I had a free day between presentations - so, naturally, I spent it wandering the show floor at BVE.

In my latest blog, I write up my thoughts on what I saw, what I learned and other cool things you should know about.

Read the blog here.

VIDEO: BVE 2015
Behind-the-Scenes at BVE 2015 
 
The folks at TV Bay magazine asked me to join them in their studio on the show floor at BVE for an interview.

So, I figured turn-about was fair play. I brought a camera crew who shot me being shot by TV Bay.

Um, yeah, its all a bit recursive. But this is a cute video postcard of the gear TV Bay was using during the interview.

Shot by Michael Powles and edited by Brianna Murphy, this only takes 62 seconds.


VIDEO: BVE 2015
Highlights of BVE 2015 
 
Thinking of video postcards, here's another quickie: a visual tour of some of the highlights from the expo floor.

This one-minute piece was shot by Michael Powles and edited by Brianna Murphy.


ARTICLE: FINAL CUT PRO X
Spatial Conform and High-Resolution Media 
 
I first wrote this article in 2012, but I updated it this week to explain how to use Spatial Conform to easily re-frame shots using high-resolution media.

I also updated this article with more accurate information on which setting to use for the Ken Burns effect, as well as a variety of other clean-up.

This Inspector setting is surprisingly useful. If you haven't played with this yet, you need to read this article.


LARRY'S BEST TRAINING:  
FINAL CUT PRO X 10.1.x: COMPLETE 
              
This title contains everything you need to learn Apple's
Final Cut Pro X v.10.1.x!
 
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
(It is also current for the 10.1.3  and 10.1.4 releases)


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 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 the members of our Video Training Library. For a list of all our webinars, visit here.

 

Digital Production Buzz Audio Interviews    

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

 


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.