Studio Monthly articles from July 2006

Studio Monthly archives from July 2006

Not ready for the close-ups.(editor's note)
July 1, 2006... Dick Wolf, the Law and Order-franchise king, recently noted in Variety that iPods and similar personal viewing devices will force production techniques to change. "I may be completely out of my mind," said Wolf, "but I think people don't even...

What's my flow.(quick cuts)
July 1, 2006... CHRIS ZAPARA Zoic Studios Culver City, CA WHAT WE DID Blew up a starship and its neighbors with a rogue nuclear warhead on the SciFi Channel's Battlestar Galactica HOW WE DID IT Working from the script line, "The...

Grass Valley gets into the mix.(DETAILING YOUR STUDIO)
July 1, 2006... Borrowing features, functionality and technology from its own lines of switchers and mixers (the Kayak, for instance) for the broadcast market, Grass Valley is extending its Pro AV Line with the Indigo AV Mixer. Indigo combines mixing,...

XENA 2K warrior princess.(DETAILING YOUR STUDIO)
July 1, 2006... AJA's latest XENA 2K capture card for Windows XP lets you ingest and output full-raster 2K files of any format within the PC NLE app of your choice--no rendering necessary. XENA 2K includes HDSL support, a 4-lane PCI-express bus interface, a...

Flex HD.(DETAILING YOUR STUDIO)
July 1, 2006... Panasonic unveiled at NAB the AJ-HDX900 multi-format DVCPRO HD camcorder that records 100 MB/s HD images in 11 different formats. A step above its popular predecessor, the AJ-SDX900 DVCPRO50 Cinema camera, the HDX900 adds the DVCPRO HD codec...

Turbo boost.(DETAILING YOUR STUDIO)
July 1, 2006... In order to pump up the productivity of Adobe Premiere Pro 2 and Adobe Production Studio, Matrox has developed the Matrox RT.X2 for real-time native HDV and DV editing. RT.X2 gives you access to an MPEG-2 4:2:2 l-frame codec to capture other HD...

Imported foie gras.(DETAILING YOUR STUDIO)
July 1, 2006... Before Automatic Duck's delectable plug-ins, FCP users had to jump through a lot of hoops when importing Pro Tools and Avid files. The company's new Pro Import FCP 2 now lets you import OMF files and 24fps sequences from Avid into FCP,...

LCD for the long term.(DETAILING YOUR STUDIO)
July 1, 2006... Feeding the desire for bigger and better flat-panel displays that also go the distance, JVC introduced the GM-H40L2GU, an upgrade to its 40-inch, high-definition LCD monitor line introduced last fall. The monitor accepts multiple format signals...

Tasty Bluefish.(DETAILING YOUR STUDIO)
July 1, 2006... Bluefish444 has added EDL support for Symmetry, its Windows-based integrated software for digital intermediate acquisition, review and play out. With the addition of EDL CMX 3600 support, you can import EDLs generated from a range of apps and...

Quantum leap.(DETAILING YOUR STUDIO)
July 1, 2006... The move to a file-based workflow makes most people quake--where's the backup? Quantum's latest data tape, the SDLT 600A Professional Video Drive, gives you the benefits of a file-based workflow plus the peace of mind that comes with physical...

Small Tree blazing.(DETAILING YOUR STUDIO)
July 1, 2006... Small Tree has introduced BlazeFS, a new remote file-sharing system built for Macs that works with the company's high-performance networking products, 10 Gb Ethernet and InfiniBand. BlazeFS works as if you're accessing files on a local disk but...

Alienware MJ-12 7500a: more vim for your vid.(ROI reviews)
July 1, 2006... Computers are incredibly versatile machines that can do just about anything. Yet one size doesn't fit all, especially if your tasks require the maximum amount of horsepower. That's certainly the case with video production, where you can always...

Disc Makers Elite2: meet your new robotic assistant.(ROI reviews)
July 1, 2006... If you want to run off a disc or two, it's not a problem. All you need is a computer with one or--preferably--two recordable drives. But what if you regularly run off tens or hundreds of copies of a project from a single disc? You could be...

Edit and create subtitles in Apple FCP in a language you don't speak.(how)
July 1, 2006... STEP 1 BEGIN TO INPUT TRANSLATIONS BY PICKING YOUR TAKE I always do this while I'm on location, the evening of the shoot, with the translator who helped conduct the interview. Capture the interview into FCP and lay it on the timeline....

Create the "Pleasantville" effect in Avid Liquid.(PRODUCT MANAGER TUTORIAL)
July 1, 2006... STEP 1 SELECT THE CLIP YOU WANT TO MODIFY Open up the Color Correction Editor and select the clip you want to modify in the Liquid timeline. The selected clip now appears in the Master Viewer. Note in what was the source monitor, you can...

Illusion, image and dehydration in Vegas: tradeshow exhibits don't tell us what we need to know.(issues)
July 1, 2006... Every year I leave the NAB convention thinking I've lost weight. Miles of walking the Convention Center isles and Las Vegas streets, combined with missed meals, give me a little definition. Or so I think. A day or two after returning home, my...

Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes: a location-rich travel show shot in HDCAM and HDV for the Fine Living Network led one production team to create a conform guidebook they now can use on all future projects. The show's director and executive producer shows you how they got there.(TECHNIQUE)
July 1, 2006... Last March, my team at 24fps Productions began a ten-month journey to create a travel show in high-def for the Fine Living TV Network called Any Given Latitude. The show uniquely combines three primary, often disparate travel priorities: local...

Roll with it: can't get a grip on the latest and greatest camera support launched at NAB? We tracked moving camera systems at the show and found lots of new twists on old themes for both field and studio production.(TECHNOLOGY)
July 1, 2006... LOSMANDY SPIDER DOLLY This first product is not new by any means, but it continues to be refined and is one of my favorite moving camera tools on the market today. The Spider Dolly by Losmandy is a simple idea that begs the question, "Why...

UV Phactory: speaking in volumes.(STUDIOS ON THE RISE)
July 1, 2006... WHAT'S THEIR GIG? It's strange, sometimes, how careers take shape. Who would think, for instance, that studying to become an architect would lead to owning your own post house? But that's exactly what happened to Scott Sindorf and Damijan...

Dealing with animal talent.(WEIRD BUT TRUE TALES FROM THE STUDIO)(Cartoon)
July 1, 2006... Tom Beland is a cartoonist based in Napa, CA. He is also the creator of the Eisner Comic Industry Award-nominated series, True Story: Swear to God, published by AIT/Planet Lar, www.ait-planetlar.com. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...