Category: Metadata

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Metadata

How Tracks evolved from function to Metadata

While watching the LAFCPUG “X Night” videos I noted that Michael Wohl advises that “all edits should be in V1” and not doing that is a sign of a failure to commit.  Similarly reviewing some FCP 1 release videos, they once again (and again from Michael) seem to advocate a mostly single track approach.  That would certainly parallel historic ways of working with video or film where only one track, or an A/B configuration was standard.

I think the use of tracks has evolved since then. One of the reasons that people became concerned when Final Cut Pro X took away the traditional track layout was simply because those tracks have become valuable metadata. A typical audio example might be

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Item of Interest Metadata

Metadata looms large at IBC

Metadata looms large at IBC http://t.co/gUiIvHX I’ll be teaching Metadata & Asset Mngmnt #dvExpo dvExpo.com code SFC11 to save money.

As expected, metadata is going to be a dominant topic at IBC, whether identified as such, or under the heading of Media Asset Management (MAM), because all media management is done using metadata, which is why I’ve combined them in my Using Metadata For Production and Asset Management day at DV Expo. (Check out my other sessions at DV Expo.)

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Interesting Technology Item of Interest Metadata

Can a computer Predict a Hit Movie or Song?

Can a computer Predict a Hit Movie or Song? http://tinyurl.com/3g8ovfk If you mean profitability, yes. Fascinating use of neural networks.

This is a long, and not new, article that rambles through a fascinating story of how a lawyer, “Mr Pink”, “Mr Brown” and “Mr Bootstrap” collectively cracked the code for predicting the profitability of movies, TV shows and (separately) another team shows the likelihood of whether a song is going to be a hit.

The specifics of how they achieved both breakthroughs is interesting: have the computer software (usually some sort of neural net) analyze existing successes – music or movie.  It then analyzes new music or movie proposals to determine whether it is likley be be a hit (music) or how much money it will make at the box office (movie).

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Item of Interest Metadata Presentations The Business of Production The Technology of Production Video Technology

My DV Expo Topics

My DV Expo topics

9-5 September 20 Basic Tech for Producers (and recent Film School Graduates)

In this session, technology expert and DV magazine contributor Philip Hodgetts will cover the technological choices in production and post in a non-geeky way to help producers — and others without a technical background — make good technology choices for their productions. From formats to software choices; selecting cameras to creating Web video; designing graphics that will work and much more.  PRICE: $195 ($245 after Aug 31) Click here to register now.

9-5 September 21 Using Metadata For Production and Asset Management

Metadata is becoming increasingly important throughout the production cycle–from camera to asset management. In this session learn about the types of metadata in use; how each major NLE (Final Cut Pro 7, Final Cut Pro X, Premiere Pro CS 5.5 and Media Composer 5.5) handles metadata and how we can use that metadata to speed postproduction and VFX. Once post is done, assets need to be management through through distribution and repurposing. What tools are available, how are they used and how do they fit into the metadata structures promoted by SMPTE and other standards bodies.  PRICE: $195 ($245 after Aug 31) Click here to register now.

9-5 September 22 Avoiding Postproduction Nightmares

Post expert and DV magazine contributor Philip Hodgetts details the most common (and costly) problems inadvertently created during production that will be “fixed in post.” From color correction to audio, and editing to the final QC pass on deliverables, he’ll not only reveal the tricks of the trade that he’d use to save your production, but also explain how you can avoid these costly issues in the first place. PRICE: $195 ($245 after Aug 31) | Click here to register now.

In the light of full disclosure, I certainly expect to be paid but I always deliver good value. There will be some overlap between the Basic Tech and Avoiding Postproduction Nightmares sessions as they both seek to make the technology understandable, but with a different focus to each day’s class.

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Interesting Technology Item of Interest Metadata

Smile, You’re On Everyone’s Camera

Smile, You’re On Everyone’s Camera http://tinyurl.com/5w2p4qb

The article is about ubiquitous facial recognition spurred by a report of a new app for police that allows facial recognition at five feet away. To be clear, many consumer still cameras, and some software, does facial detection: that is there is one or more faces in the picture. Some even recognize when people are smiling, but they do not identify the individual. Apple’s iPhoto and others try and do facial recognition but my experience to date is that it’s been very hit or miss. Apple purchased a Swedish company last year to improve it’s facial recognition technology.

Clearly others already have better technology and it has been pitched for law enforcement work for a long time. However, it’s the postproduction implications that interest me. If we can have a software tool identify all the people in our footage, at lest to the stage of identifying each instance of the individual. Reading through the article it is likely the name could be discovered or derived from Facebook or other social network or public record. At worst the person would need to be manually named only once.

For a metadata-based application each clip could be tagged with the person’s ID for as long as they’re in the shot.

We would end up with ‘bins” for each individual.

Identifying people in shots is Derived Metadata and then can be used as input into other smart algorithms to take more of the boring out of post.

There are a lot of other interesting applications and implications of this increasingly popular (and capable) technology.

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Apple Pro Apps Item of Interest Metadata

What did UPS just deliver? The first copies of my new book.

What did UPS just deliver? The very 1st copies of my new FCP X metadata book, Conquering the metadata foundations of Final Cut Pro X. Amazon shortly. PDF is $4.95 under the Books menu above!

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Item of Interest Metadata

Show me the (meta) data

Show me the (meta) data http://tinyurl.com/5ts48nw

Given that Final Cut Pro X is so heavily built on metadata, I thought this article was relevant. Although Godin is talking about the metadata we leave behind as we work or play across the Internet (and our purchase history), it helps with the understanding of what metadata is, in a broader sense.

In any case the conclusion is very relevant:

Data about data is more important than ever, and being on the side of the person creating that data is a smart place to be.

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Apple Pro Apps Metadata

Why did Apple base Final Cut Pro X on Metadata?

Last September, in my What should Apple do with Final Cut Pro article, one of the bullet points was:

Better media and metadata management.

Right in with 64 bit, all processors used and the use of the GPU. I immediately qualified myself:

Ok, there probably aren’t that many people clamoring for better metadata management, but it’s a significant part of better media management, and crucially important for the future of automation in post production.

Then toward the end of that article, under the heading of what I thought that Apple should do, other than what everyone expected, I said:

More metadata automation. Well, part of me hopes they won’t because that’s my field, but it would be nice to see source metadata being used to auto-populate Titles or Master Templates (like iMovie for iPhone does).

Truthfully, I was indulging in some wishful thinking. I still don’t think we’ll get – at least not with Final Cut Pro X v1 – auto-populating titles or Master Templates, but I am very pleasantly surprised how far Apple have “come around to my way of thinking”.

OK, let’s call it parallel development then, as I’m fairly sure that Apple had their metadata-centric rewrite well under way by the time I was writing, but it is gratifying to have one’s position validated. For a company that didn’t really show much sign of “getting” metadata with Final Cut Pro 1-7, they have certainly embraced it for Final Cut Pro X.

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Assisted Editing Metadata

prEdit: Edit paper cuts without the pain with any type of transcript!

I’m incredibly proud to announce that prEdit – our paper cut editing tool for Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro users – has been updated to version 1.5 with some great new features.

prEdit 1.0.x required the transcript to be generated in Adobe Premiere Pro or Soundbooth; or be processed through either of those applications to lock text to video. While prEdit 1.5 still supports that workflow, it now also works with:

Text, DOC and RTF formats that have timecode at (least) the start of each speaker. More frequent Timecode entries will make the text/video match more accurate.

3Play Media’s JSON format, also available from Media Silo, is supported and has absolute word accuracy. We recommend the JSON format for new transcripts in the future, for now prEdit works with what you’ve already got. (3Play Media also offer more conventional formats with the JSON format, so you can have multiple options for the same transcription fee.)

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Assisted Editing Interesting Technology Item of Interest Metadata

Semantic Text Startup for Textual Analysis

Semantic Text Startup for: Cliff notes, keywords, key points and important facts derived from raw text. http://tinyurl.com/5sr5myk

One of the technologies I’ve been following, because I think it’s relevant to my goals with Assisted Editing (to take the boring out of postproduction). One piece of the “boring” is deriving keywords and concepts from spoken word (transcribed, of course).

Technologies like this, and others developed for the Library and Archivist industries, are becoming very sophisticated.

In an Assisted Editing context, the extraction of keywords (particularly) from a “chunk” of transcribed spoken word (let’s say an interview for a documentary), removes the need for a human to enter the keywords.

Having keywords is valuable because you can search for all instances of the keyword (to find common themes), which is something prEdit really does well, whether you’re going to build the initial outline manually in a tool like prEdit or Final Cut Pro, or use an Assisted Editing tool to get to a rough first assemble.