Author: Philip

Visiting the Intersection of Technology and Liberal Arts

Post author By Philip
Post date November 17, 2013

Apple frequently talk about being at the “intersection of Technology and Liberal Arts” but we rarely experience that other than through their hardware and software. Thanks to the encouragement of our friend Cirina Catania, we (Cirina, my partner Greg and myself) experienced theÂ Invisible Cities Opera in LA’s Union Station. That’s a really unusual place to stage an opera, and indeed this was a most unusual artistic experiment and experience, involving large amounts of production skills – staging, singing, etc – and some amazing technical chops from Sennheiser and Bexel (Burbank CA).

Apple Pro Apps The Business of Production

Final Cut Pro X is as important to Apple as Media Composer is to Avid!

Post author By Philip
Post date November 11, 2013
18 Comments on Final Cut Pro X is as important to Apple as Media Composer is to Avid!

Many people “worry” that Apple will abandon their professional applications (Final Cut Pro X, Aperture and Logic Pro X) because they don’t make much money for the company. Ironically, the same argument can be made about Media Composer: it is not core to the company’s primary business . In reality it’s more likely that Avid would abandon (or sell) Media Composer than Apple is to get out of the professional creative tools market.

Assisted Editing

The problem of “new wine”

Greg and I will head out for a long walk when we want to consider some big picture concept. Our most recent walk challenge: how do we fit the concept of Keyword Ranges in Final Cut Pro X, into the more traditional NLE model. As well as reminding me of the Biblical warning about new concepts into old models (at least metaphorically) there were interesting lessons along the way.

Distribution The Business of Production

Forbes says the cable model is unsustainable and unpopular

Post author By Philip
Post date October 29, 2013

The Forbes article,Â Cable TV Model Not Just Unpopular But UnsustainableÂ starts with a putative outline of a cable business: essentially “keep hiking the rates, have terrible service”! Finishing with this “goal”:

Â If all goes as described, we should be able to consistently deliverÂ customer satisfaction levels that rank among the lowest of any industry.Â

Now that’s not a business model I’d want to emulate!

Interesting Technology

Software that recognizes mood!

Post author By Philip
Post date October 28, 2013

Software that recognizes mood is apparently used in call centers – could be used to derive metadata for pre-post logging (and story derivation). Â Imagine a keyword collection for “happy” or “stressed” or whatever mood happens to be demonstrate in the audio content. I’m not sure if the technologies are related butÂ AffectivaÂ have demonstrated emotion-detecting software in the past.

With speech-to-text, keyword extraction, mood extraction the basic logging of reality and documentary could be done in pre-post and handed to the editor.

The Business of Production

Survey says: Corporate Video Projects More Popular than Ever

Post author By Philip
Post date October 24, 2013
2 Comments on Survey says: Corporate Video Projects More Popular than Ever

There’s been a lot of discussion about what sort of professional videos work being done, that isn’t directly involved with Movies or network/cable Television. Well, SCRI has released an overview of their Digital Media Production Trends report. What’s important when reviewing these types of survey results, is to examine who was surveyed, and what they were asked.

Video Technology

Mavericks bonus: OpenCL on both my GPUs!

Post author By Philip
Post date October 23, 2013
1 Comment on Mavericks bonus: OpenCL on both my GPUs!

Buried in John Siracusa’s excellent review of OS X Mavericks is this little gem:

Modern Macs withÂ integrated GPUsÂ get some nice improvements in Mavericks. Any Mac with Intel’sÂ HD4000Â graphics or better can now runÂ OpenCLÂ on the integrated GPU in addition to the CPU and any discrete GPU.

It’s that little bold bit that makes it special! With OpenCL increasingly taking up the load of general computer processes previously forced on the CPU, the more we can take advantage of the GPU power already installed.

The Technology of Production Video Technology

Thoughts on 4K for production and distribution.

Post author By Philip
Post date October 23, 2013
6 Comments on Thoughts on 4K for production and distribution.

I have conflicting thoughts about 4K for production and distribution. At one level I’m convinced it’s being pushed on us by equipment manufacturers when there is no real demand: at another I know from experience that there are some non-obvious advantages to 4K. But one thing is clear: the push to 4K is not about a push to improved quality.

General

Breaking Bad “Helped by piracy”

Post author By Philip
Post date October 21, 2013

According toÂ Breaking BadÂ creator Vince Gilligan is the latest to speak to its brighter side. “[It] led to a lot of people watching the series who otherwise would not have,” GilliganÂ tells the BBC.

Business & Marketing Item of Interest The Technology of Production

The Terence and Philip Show Episode 61: Apps and Workflows

Post author By Philip
Post date October 8, 2013

In this episode Terence and Philip discuss the way the App Store works and the issues that arise for developers; business models and compatibility between versions in Media Composer; in-app purchases; Adobe panels; Flash; Creative Cloud; app interchange formats; reporting; and app ecosystems.