"Standing Room Only" when Michael Phillips Shows up at Full Sail

JFeliceNY — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:00:00 GMT

It was a Full House at Full Sail when Avid Product Designer Michael Phillips presented Low Budget Filmmaking: Maintaining High Production Value and Increasing the Creative Process. Both students and faculty alike attended the first of what is hoped to be many educational events in Avid's partnership with Full Sail. Phillips discussed his invaluable, real-life experience in producing his feature-length thriller, Jack in the Box, and how the Avid Media Composer toolset allowed him to be more creative and get the look and feel he wanted while saving money.

Bob Russo, Avid Product Evangelist, was also on-hand and discussed the in's and out's of "tapeless" Panasonic P2 and Sony XDCAM file-based workflows.

The session ended with a a discussion of how -- and why -- the new RED camera is being embraced by independent filmmakers.

Editors' Lounge January meeting

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:41:00 GMT

A hundred Los Angeles-area editors, cameramen and other enthusiastic professionals gathered at Burbank post facility, AlphaDogs, Inc. for the January Editors' Lounge. This month the subject was a hands-on demonstration and post workflow overview for the new Sony PMW-EX1 camera, which records a true 1920x1080 pixel image to solid state media.

Jess Bushyhead, a freelance editor, spoke to the packed room about using EX1 file-based footage in an Avid environment. Avid can take advantage of XDCAM proxies, which are small enough to e-mail, and will link back to full-rez media when it arrives. Special thanks to Terrence Curren and Sean Williams of AlphaDogs for this recording of Jess Busyhead's presentation.

Sony rep Michael DesRoches, who has used the new camera in the field, brought a conventional disc-based XDCAM camera for a practical comparison of the merits of the two systems. The EX1 offers higher resolution in a smaller camera for a lower price, but a full-sized over-the-shoulder ENG - with its larger imager - might still be better for some shoots, he explained. A highlight of Michael's presentation was footage from an air show in which the EX1, strapped into the cockpit of a stunt plane, captured aerial acrobatics at 10Gs - which is impossible with a tape camera.

Dave Sconyers of Keycode Media explained the FCP workflow, showing how to convert the footage to QuickTime quickly without recompression. Because of the low bitrate and small file size of the XDCAM footage, he recommends importing all selected takes at best quality.

Sony also displayed a BVM-L230 LCD-based broadcast monitor side by side with a Sony CRT, and competing LCD and plasma displays in another AlphaDogs editing suite.

Many Editors' Lounge regulars attended for the usual spirited blend of food, conversation and real-world discussion of new editing methods and technologies. A few surprise guests attended the meeting as well. Avid Video President Graham Sharp and Avid Technology's new CEO Gary Greenfield took the opportunity to find out what was on the minds of the members, sharing quality time with some of their users and customers.

Events Rewind : Sony XDCAM

"Standing Room Only" when Michael Phillips Shows up at Full Sail

Editors' Lounge January meeting