Author: Philip

Randy Ubillos: Retirement and Final Cut Pro X

Post author By Philip
Post date April 24, 2015
1 Comment on Randy Ubillos: Retirement and Final Cut Pro X

You may have read that Randy Ubillos – Chief Architect, Video Applications at Apple – retired after 20 years with Apple, yesterday. Â I’ve had the great privilege of meeting him from time to time, and offer my hearty congratulations on his retirement, the strongest of best wishes for the future, and heartfelt thanks for largely making my career possible.

The question on everyone’s lips is “how does this affect Final Cut Pro X?” My honest thought is “not much”. There are concepts in Final Cut Pro X that clearly came from Randy’s mind, but so also did the original Premiere Pro (1-4.2), the original Final Cut (Pro) (aka Keygrip at Macromedia), Aperture where he was lead architect, and iMovie 08. There were other apps before that, and the full history can be found in Timelines 2 by John Buck.

Randy was also an important part of the team that developed Final Cut Pro X, but more in the role of supervising architect, rather than as part of the detailed group of Product Marketing, App Design, and App Architecture. The people working in those key roles remain in those key roles, and I sense nothing that would affect, or change the direction Apple are taking with Final Cut Pro X. Final Cut Pro X is in exceptionally good hands moving forward.

As I’ve written before, the tools of creative endeavor will always be part of Apple’s DNA, and therefore I expect we’ll see evolution of the tools over time, but never abandonment. There will always be professional, and consumer level, audio, video and photography apps in Apple’s world.

Professionally, I’ve benefited from (writing an unreleased book about) Premiere Pro; from decades of Final Cut Pro classic; and from Final Cut Pro X. I still prefer Aperture over Photos but I’m keeping an open mind that the metadata functions in Photos will improve. For all that, I simply say “Thank you”.

Finally, a little bit of advice from Randy, on taking “holiday videos” (I may paraphrase slightly):

At each location, take out the video camera and shoot a shot. Now, put the camera away and enjoy your holiday and the location in the present.

Apple Pro Apps Lumberjack

NAB Presentations from the FCPWORKS Demo Room – Mine Included!

Post author By Philip
Post date April 20, 2015

The presentations from the NAB demo room hosted by FCPWORKSÂ are now up, including my Lumberjack System presentation, which I think was the best I’ve ever explained the benefits of Lumberjack.

The full list of presentations is in the FCPWORKS YouTube ChannelÂ and they’re all worth watching, but I’d draw attention to the Direct TV Original Programming presentation (because they use twoÂ of the Intelligent Assistance apps and are a recent convert to Lumberjack, which saved them two days in a 7 day schedule). Likewise FCPX for Indies/Urban CowboyÂ and Mike Matzdorff’s Focus presentationÂ mention how our tools are making their work easier.

My favorite comment – on Twitter – from Direct TV’s Marc Bach is:

Buying your apps is like buying hours of sleep!

Which is, after all, why we do it.

Adobe Apple Video Technology

My Take on NAB 2015

A very subjective take on NAB 2015 because I spent very little time looking at tech! Instead my focus was on the FCPWORKS demo room and particularly my Lumberjack SystemÂ presentation on Wednesday. But, of course, NAB is also about the socializing.

Apple Pro Apps

Final Cut Pro X Updated for NAB

Post author By Philip
Post date April 13, 2015
4 Comments on Final Cut Pro X Updated for NAB

It is the season for updates, and Apple come through with a feature update to Final Cut Pro X and Motion. Many of the new features are common, of course, because Final Cut Pro X and Motion share a common display engine (briefly referred to as the Linear Light Engine in the Supermeet preview, and never heard from again!). This is a solid release, with features I find myself using every day. Compressor also gains an interesting new feature: prepare for iTunes store.

Adobe

Adobe’s NAB Preview is pretty Awesome

Post author By Philip
Post date April 8, 2015
5 Comments on Adobe’s NAB Preview is pretty Awesome

While my personal NLE preference is for FCP X, I cannot live without my (paid) Creative Cloud subscription. Very early in my career I pretty much made a living off Adobe After Effects (v2 through 4) and Media 100 as the de-facto “motion graphics” house in my home town. I’m a constant user of Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and now Muse.

Adobe have done an excellent job of creating a great set of creative tools, and they’re ramping up this NAB with some cool technology. I’m only going to touch on the things that excited me in the preview briefing, but there will be a lot more previewed at NAB and probably more in the release than they discuss.

Item of Interest Lumberjack

NAB 2015

Post author By Philip
Post date April 7, 2015
2 Comments on NAB 2015

Another NAB is nearly upon us. This will be my 18th consecutive show, although last year I was in Las Vegas but never made it to the show floor! This year I can’t avoid it as I’m doing a panel on the Digital Production BuZZ show Monday morning, and attending some press conferences/meetings on the show floor.

Most of the time I’ll be in the FCPWORKS room. On Wednesday 12:30 I’ll be presenting the definitive Lumberjack System demo, based on logging the presentations in the room itself! I’ll be testing out an OWC Thunderbay MiniÂ Â to hold the media from the event. The whole week’s presentations will be interesting but if you want the definitive word on FCP X – check out the keynotes by Apple folk Monday and Tuesday.

Sunday eveningÂ you can find me at the #postchat meetup at Â O’Sheas starting 8pm Sunday evening, then on to the KISS mini golf event sponsored by Filmmakers of the Inland Empire.

Monday afternoon I’ll be contributing to Scott Simmons’ Post Production World session on Moving Metadata from Production to Post. ThatÂ evening will be mostly at the FCP X Guru meetup at the Hard Rock Cafe and Tuesday evening Greg and I will be at the Supermeet of course. The definitive party list is at Toolfarm.

Hope to see you all there. If you spot me, say hello.

Assisted Editing

Assisted Editing featured in Light Iron ‘Focus’ Event Videos

Post author By Philip
Post date March 19, 2015
1 Comment on Assisted Editing featured in Light Iron ‘Focus’ Event Videos

My day job is with both Intelligent Assistance, and Lumberjack System. Intelligent Assistance was featured at a recent event on theÂ Focus workflow hosted by Light Iron. The videos have just gone up.

Intelligent Assistance’s involvement starts about 10 minutes into the first workflow video.

And the mention of my Conquering Metadata book is in Part 2 at 3’40”

Random Thought

Here’s to the Next Thirty Years!

Post author By Philip
Post date March 17, 2015
4 Comments on Here’s to the Next Thirty Years!

For several reasons I’ve been thinking about longevity, health and “work”. One take-away from my recent family reunion is that I have a damned good genetic heritage, and with a little care I can reasonably expect to be healthy and productive for at least another 30 years.

When I look back 30 years it’s the beginning of 1985. That’s before digital video; before the Internet; before ATMs; before Amazon; and in Australia you had to get to the bank between 10 am and 3pm Monday to Friday! Most of what I do on a daily basis was simply not possible thirty years ago. The Macintosh was only announced a few months earlier.

The world has changed a lot, and will change even more in the next thirty years. My challenge is how to optimize myself for that period of my life.

The Business of Production The Technology of Production

Sync-N-Link and the Evolution of Workflows

Post author By Philip
Post date March 6, 2015

Sync-N-Link is a specialized app used on productions that shoot picture and sound on separate devices, with matching time-of-day timecode. What we discovered in talking about it a few night ago, is how Sync-N-Link has been at the forefront of evolving workflows over the roughly six years the two versions have been in release.

Item of Interest The Technology of Production

Focus: Our Story

For anyone who hasn’t been hiding under a rock, you might have noticed that Focus released this week, and edited on Final Cut Pro X. For Greg and I it is the final chapter in a story that started with an email and subsequent phone call in December 2012. We worked closely with the editorial team to make our software tools meet their needs. What I didn’t realize until recently is that my little bookÂ Conquering the MetadataÂ Foundations of Final Cut Pro X had a role in this story too.