New site feature: Glossary

We've now got a Post Production Glossary up and running at the site. This is intended as a reference for our clients and we hope it will give people more of an insight into the post production process and any complex terms we may use. We will be updating it regularly.

If you can think of anything we're missing or spot a mistake, please click on the Feedback link at the bottom of the page. As always, your views are highly appreciated.

Apple software updates

Apple posted a LOT of updates today (or yesterday; I'm a little jetlagged and don't really know what day it is right now). We've got Final Cut Studio updates, plus patches for Leopard AND Tiger.

Mac OS X
Leopard 10.5.1 - The most important fix is the Finder data loss bug, whereby data could be completely lost when moving files from one volume to another.

Tiger 10.4.11 - Safari 3 is no longer in beta - it is now part of the operating system. This may cause issues for some people, as a lot of add-ons are incompatible with the latest version. It also increases compatibility with third party wireless routers and improves reliability when mounting USB hard drives, both of which are very much appreciated by me, having experienced both problems recently.

Final Cut Studio 2
The most important update here is OS X 10.5 Leopard compatibility. I was unaware that it was previously incompatible, having not upgraded yet. It's normally pretty safe to install so-called "point updates" that fix minor issues.

Color 1.0.2 - Better format support, greater roundtrip reliability from Final Cut Pro to Color and back again, better image quality, greater control surface compatibility. All very useful things to have. I have had a LOT of problems with FCP roundtripping (e.g. clips being offline, clips being replaced with the ungraded originals) so I hope this will fix these issues.

Motion 3.0.2 - New format support and improved Master Template performance in FCP. The latter is very welcome for me.

Compressor 3.0.2 - Color space options for certain formats, in addition to the aforementioned Leopard support.

Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 - Sony XDCAM EX support (with a plugin from sony.com), Sony HVR-H1 support, Sony HDV camcorder hard drive support, improved AVCHD support (Full HD and spanned clip support), AVC Intra support (must be transcoded to ProRes and requires a plugin from Panasonic), DVCProHD 720p50 support, new HDV easy setups, 60fps drop-frame support, improved 50p support, Sony BWF metadata support (iXML), and extra interface options.
Please note that Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 projects are not backwards compatible with version 6.0.1.

Soundtrack Pro 2.0.2 - 50 and 60fps support, various effects issues resolved.

DVD Studio Pro 4.2.1 - Native support for extra HDV and H.264 formats for HD discs, improved still image processing.

Cinema Tools 4.0.1 - Pull lists show correct lengths for speed changes, messages included in exported lists, PDF format support for change lists, AL files now match sound timecode, reel and roll names now sort more predictably.

Pro Applications Update 2007-02 - Improved HDV 50 and 60p support, performance improvements for IMX codec, various bug fixes.

Seems like a good set of patches there. Based on the issues reported with Leopard, I'm not planning to upgrade production machines until around 10.5.3 or 10.5.4 which is normally around the time that all of the major issues are resolved and the operating system is finally stable and able to be trusted in a production environment.

If you do have Leopard though, it is advisable to install that patch.

Note: Tiger users must first install OS X 10.4.11 in order to see these updates. I would imagine that Leopard users have to install 10.5.1 in order to see them too.

Offline tools

We've had a lot of requests for this, and it took a while but your wishes have now been granted: we are now offering offline versions of our tools.

This means that you can use them in the field even when you are not near a wi-fi point. It's very easy: you go to the resources section, click the "Offline version" link for the tool of your choice and then bookmark the resulting link in your browser. You can then access the page and all of its functions without needing to be connected to the internet.

Please note that we are constantly updating and improving our tools and often times the changes will not be immediately obvious, so it is advisable to update your bookmarks regularly to make sure you are not running an outdated version.

Footage Calc (offline)
Film Rate Calc (offline)

New tool features

We've updated our online tools to allow you to link not just to the page but specific settings as well. This is great for showing friends, clients or colleagues the results of the calculation without having to get them to give them settings to enter manually.

Just click the "Link to this calculation" link at the bottom of the page you can then copy the location from the address bar on your browser and pass it on to someone else.

The updated tools are here:
Footage Calc
Film Rate Calc

And their mobile equivalents are here:
Footage Calc Mobile
Film Rate Calc Mobile

As always, use the feedback function at the bottom of the page to give us your suggestions.

Moby offers royalty free film music to non-commercial films

Moby is offering royalty-free film music to "independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short."

If you are using it for commercial use, you can apply for an "easy" license with all proceeds being given to the Humane Society.

This represents the third example this year (that I can think of, let me know if I missed anything) of a major artist bypassing a record label. The first was Prince, who released his album Planet Earth for free in a UK newspaper, then Radiohead released their album In Rainbows on the internet for whatever price downloaders were willing to pay.

Life is getting harder for the record labels because the viral nature of the internet means that some established artists are questioning the need for a middleman.

[via HDForIndies]

Alsoft DiskWarrior

Now this is a piece of software no Mac user should be without. I can't count the number of occasions that this has saved my life.

There are a lot of occasions where an external hard drive will become corrupted and refuse to mount or appear in Disk Utility. If it doesn't appear in Disk Utility, you can't use the Repair Disk function to fix it so you might think that your only solution is to wipe the whole disk, losing all of your data in the process.

DiskWarrior can detect disks that Disk Utility can't and it will scan them for errors (you'd be surprised how many errors even an operational hard drive has) and repair them, bringing the drive back into operation again and saving your data. The only times that the software has failed to work for me were when drives had physical damage and obviously the software can't do anything about that.

It's not free but you have to ask yourself how much you would lose if your data was destroyed. It is available here for $99.95 and it is well worth it.

New Tool: Film Rate Calculator

We've just released a new online tool to our Resources section, Film Rate Calc.

This tool enables you to calculate the amount of film required to shoot for a certain amount of time, and vice versa. This is really useful in planning the most efficient use of your film and should be in any script supervisor's toolkit.

We also offer a mobile version for those on the move. It's aesthetically designed for the iPhone but should work on any modern phone browser.

As always, we appreciate your feedback and will use it to improve our tools. Just use the link at the bottom of each page to tell us what you think.

Minor site updates

I made a couple of minor updates to the site last night and this morning.

Firstly, and most importantly, I have fixed the contact form. I had no idea it was broken and I think it had been like that for quite some time. I apologize to anyone who was unable to contact us for that time.

I have also made some updates to the Footage Calc app based on feedback I received through the feedback form that is now at the bottom of every page.

Changes:
* Fixed a bug that caused the wrong resolution to be displayed.
* Added support for ProRes codecs.
* Added support for various Avid DNxHD and Meridien codecs.

We now have a non-iPhone version here.

I am also working on improving browser compatibility on the whole site. I haven't had any reports of incompatibilities yet but I have noticed a couple of areas that could possibly cause issues.

As always, we encourage you to give as much feedback as possible because it enables us to make our services even better for you.

New site feature: Feedback

We've made a minor update to the site today. Every page now has a link at the bottom that allows you to submit feedback about that particular page.

We want to hear from you about how we can improve our site and the online services we offer. We figured that the most effective way to obtain feedback was to make it as quick and simple as possible so you do not have to login, enter any personal details or navigate away from the page. It's very simple.

Please note that the feedback form is for site feedback only. If you want to contact us about anything else, use our contact form instead.

Red Giant releases Magic Bullet Looks

Red Giant Software has just released Magic Bullet Looks, the latest edition to the Magic Bullet family of color correction tools.

What makes Magic Bullet Looks different from other tools is its interface. It doesn't deal with Primary Ins and Secondaries, it follows a very logical model of a camera, starting with the lens, going through the body and coming out at the end.

The genius behind this is Stu Maschwitz, who writes on his blog:

"When you drag tools out from the drawer, an image of a camera appears. Some tools, such as lens filters like Diffusion and Gradient, only operate in one category of the camera. Others, like Exposure, work anywhere in the chain. The camera diagram reminds you that you're building a simulation of how light travels through a camera and is modified by film stocks and post-processes such as Bleach Bypass (neg or print), custom film stocks, and color correction."

As if that wasn't enough, it also offers over 100 look presets for simulating various film stocks and effects. If you've used Magic Bullet Editors, you know how useful these are.

Pricing is $399 or $99 if you already own Magic Bullet Editors or Magic Bullet Suite. If you purchased Magic Bullet Editors on or after April 11th 2007, you can claim a free upgrade here.