Blog Archives

Apple’s ProRes Captures Nascar

nascarIt seems like Apple is weaving it’s way into the fast these days.  As announced last year, NASCAR Media Group  is preparing for a transition to HD, which will include a move into a new 40,000-square-foot facility in Charlotte  North Carolina. The transition will also mark NASCAR Media Group’s move to an all Apple ProRes workflow.  NMG is the primary television production company for the sport of NASCAR, is using Macs and 16 AJA Kona 3 cards for ingesting the 150 hours of multi-camera footage shot at each race. An additional 18 Kona 3 cards are used for editing playback in NMG’s 10 edit bays, as well as to handle duplication and new media, and to support field operations for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series.  This polishes their existing DIVArchive System by adding this new Apple Interface. 

“Bringing DIVArchive and Apple together in a unified environment will make it easy for producers and editors working in Final Cut Pro to restore content from anywhere within the system including the datatape library,” said Jeff Lowe, managing director for media and broadcast technology at NASCAR Media Group. “The flexibility of DIVArchive and our close partnership with Front Porch Digital are key to simplifying our production process and helping to secure our valuable media assets while at the same time supporting higher quality new programming by giving our staff even easier access to thousands of hours of historic clips in our archive.”

Final Cut Studio 3, the Pro’s Weigh In

scalesWell, here we are again.  Final Cut Studio 3  has been out long enough now for people to have had the chance to get their spoonful of Apple’s new post production package.  What are their thoughts?  Well, as we know, e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e has an opinion (unfortunately) and rather than read the tumultuous ramblings of college students or editing wannabes  I thought it would be a breath of fresh air to hear what actual studio based editor’s and facilities had to say about it. 

Editor Jonathan Moser (www.flashcutproductions.com) recently purchased the new release and commented:  

“It’s not that there are any ‘knocking it out of the park’ features in the new FCP, it’s just well thought out enhancements and new features with increased dynamic interoperability between Studio’s different products. Again, Apple scores more in vision and image than Avid, whose new releases also incorporate increased functionality and versatility, but with much less fanfare…and that’s been Avid’s image problem vs. Apple’s the entire time. Avid was and is an editing company, Apple is more of an event creator, though FCP is and will remain a solid product that will continue to get increasing market share.”

LA-based television producer Tor Johansen also commented on the new release:

“Logistically, I’m excited to see Apple working off of their own timeline with this release. This whopper of an update comes out smack dab in the middle of…nothing. No NAB launch, no surprise announcement at the WWDC, and no ‘one last thing’ at the MacWorld keynote. It gives me more confidence in the shipping product, that it was put out when it was ready, not according to some fading industry calendar.”

Adam Luckwell, CEO of London’s Unit is also keeping close tabs on the new Final Cut package.

“We are obviously eager to use the latest upgrades and believe there will be great improvement to workflows. With the new Studio, Final Cut Pro brings improvements to some of the most frequently used tools and features, such as the powerful and easier to use speed tool, as well as the new ProRes codecs, offering the ability to create higher quality exports but at low file sizes.  As well as improvements to existing features it also has the addition of new functions that will make both an editor and client’s life more productive. The new easy export function is an example of one of these, allowing users to set exports rendering out in the background while they are able to carry on working. This could seem like such a small change but in the commercials and advertising sector where approval mpegs are common place it will be especially useful.”
 
He also commented on the much more streamlined integration between Final Cut Pro and Color, which he believes will cut down on the prep work previously needed between the two.

 “This will impact positively on prices as it means less man hours getting a project ready for the grade and will be especially useful in the case of long-form.”

It’s all interesting to hear, and although I haven’t officially commented yet since I’d prefer to take the full package for more than just a test drive before I way in, I did blog on my initial thoughts last month which were mixed.  However, to reiterate some of my feelings, I think Apple has certainly taken some good steps here, but more assertively I have agree with editor Jonathan Moser :

“…Apple scores more in vision and image than Avid, whose new releases also incorporate increased functionality and versatility, but with much less fanfare.  Avid was and is an editing company, Apple is more of an event creator, though FCP is and will remain (and I’ll ad in, ‘for the most part’ ) a solid product…”

I’ll leave it at that for now.

Motion 4 signifies the end of Shake

Shake_4With the release of Motion 4, packaged with Final Cut Studio 3, it seems like Apple has officially dropped it’s high end software program, Shake. First off, I wish to say that Shake is an excellent program, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. High end films such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Dark Knight have all used Shake in their post production workflow. The real perplexing issue here is why has Apple abandoned such a well used and respected program. It seems like Apple is in the business of telling people what they want rather than listening to what they want. Meaning that rather than take an already solid and well-groomed program and expand with it, they bury it and try to force people to use their new Motion 4 instead. Now Motion has had some upgrades, the most notable and obvious being the ability to work in 3D textures and shadowing, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why that means dumping another popular and successful program. It’s almost as if they think that we’ll just start using Motion instead, when really Motion hasn’t had, nor has it earned, the respect of serious professionals. With other programs available, such as the very popular After Effects for example, my guess is that people will simply use programs like that more rather than start learning a new program that’s clearly at the beginning stages of it’s professional wannabe surge. And with these other programs having solidified their reputation on the market, Motion has a long way to go to get any real attention from the serious players.

Having said all that, I certainly don’t want to take away from the abilities of Motion or Apple’s attempt at pushing it up toward the next level. The new Motion 4 is a step in the right direction, and Apple has begun the stage of trying to make it a viable choice for those consummate professionals. However, the way Apple seems to be conducting it’s business tactics to achieve this, is just plain arrogant and foolish. For a company who waged the excellent marketing behind the iPhone and has since taken 28% of the cell phone market with this ingenious ploy, this is a rather disappointing setback and will not bold well for their PR.

Final Cut Pro 7…finally

finalcut_studioWell, it seems that on the heels of Avid’s recent award by the Amercian Editor’s Association   Apple has released it’s new NLE system with a proposed large addition of codec’s and workflow upgrades.  FCP has generally faired well on the market grabbing an apparent 50% of the share of systems used, but it has always been regarded as a second tier editing platform to the majority of big wig editors and studio’s, who seemingly prefer Avid.  Apple isn’t giving up, and really why should they with the split on the market share what it is, so here come Final Cut 7.

One of the biggest upgrades will be to Apple’s ProRez codec, which was much needed in my opinion.  Apparently Apple added a ProRes 444 format at the high-end for compositing, effects, and digital cinema work.  Among other additions there is also improved XML metadata support for footage that is round-tripped through third-party software, which I’ll believe when I see it, as well as proper 4k support.  FCP7 will be packaged with Studio3 so of course Motion has it’s upgrades as well, the most drastic being the ability to support three-dimensional effects, including 3D shadows and reflections, depth-of-field control, and individual glyph adjustments.  Color & Soundtrack were given upgrades but nothing dramatic other than “isn’t this neat…” type fuctions, although Color now supports 4K cameras which is a plus.  And for the love of God, I won’t even bother discussing Compressor which has to be Apple’s worst attempt at conversion software.  The only possible upgrade to that program would be to ride the DeLorean back in time to when Apple was in pre-conception for it and eliminate all the headshrinkers involved.

Although all of this hasn’t hit the stores yet, when it does i’ll be eager to get my hands on the full FCPS3 to see what it can do.  I don’t expect much from Motion, never have,  After Effects still holds the consumer roost when it comes to most anything involving motion graphics.  Motion has always been used for simple, yet effective, CG’s that don’t need a lot of twindling or specific assets, but FC7 could  finally be what Apple’s been looking for to put them over that professional hump.