finalBUG Xmas Diner
25/12/08 17:21 Filed in: fun
I love the final BUG christmas dinners. through a strange twist of fate we meet in an office where there wasn´t even an internet connection. Our host was having problems with their provider!
Needless to say the hard core final BUG people turn up. But then there are the people who never come to meetings but as soon as they get a whiff of food they are suddenly banging down the door. So new faces as well.
Got to talk to a crazy bunch of people, from producers, directors, editors, animation freaks and even a Nuke expert.
Many thanks to Matt Lehitka from Die Republik who provided us with a kitchen, an amazing location and good company.
www.dierepublik.com/
fcp tech support for "The Heat of Jenin" in Berlin
This is a project that I can hardly enter in the "SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY AS EDITOR" part of my site. For the simple reason that I didn´t edit it. Grrrr :-)
Amazing stuff. The Heart from Jenin is the story of Ahmed Chatib, a Palestinian boy shot by Israelis whose father decided, within twelve hours, to donate his son’s organs to six Israeli children so as to save their lives.
My job was to provide technical support for Saskia Metten who´s job it was to edit the film down from 60 too 90 minutes for DVD release.
Truly inspiring stuff to see how this woman fought for every frame in this film and that with a tool that she didn´t really understand 100%. Coming from Avid to FCP Pro for the first time, Saskia can already leave most seasoned fcp editors in the dust! Going beyond the tools to tell a truly inspiring story.
eikon-film.de/Synopsis
Respect.
Edit on set with RED in London 0908
Behind the scenes at WCD shoot with on set post.
Once again had the pleasure of working with Marc Berger for World Contraception day. This time in London.
This time it was Kelly Osbourne´s turn in front of the camera.
It is always a pleasure working with Marc, he is simply one of the kindest and most considerate people I know. He was filming with his brand new RED camera and Cook lenses.
We had a workflow which worked but didn´t flow. But then it was the first time and we we´re going from 4096 x 2048 to 384 times 216 for internet delivery. Working with proxies, media manager, crimson, cineRED and back to fcp gleuing the whole thing back together. Crashing all over the place in FCP whilst working with the proxies. Not to mention minor sync problems later. Madness. It reminded me a little of getting a roll of film out of a camera into a developer tank in one of those light proof bags.
Can´t remember the last time I learnt so much. Raring to go for the next one....
Big shout out to Lori our amazing producer. set hands Steve and Jim and Dave the studio manager from Fishtankstudios.
Looking forward to a FCP update that simplifies this crazy workflow. not for the faint hearted :-)
It is also quite unusual for me working on set. Although I suspect that this will happen on an increasing basis. At the very latest when my own RED camera arrives. :-)
Glad to be back in Berlin though because London is very stressfull.
Will be editing more "Wissens Hunger."
And of course training @ Bilgi
IBC and FCP super meet Amsterdam 0908
A total of 700 users turned out. Easily the
largest gathering of FCP editors in Europe to
date. The whole show was hosted with great aplomb
from Michael Horton (founder of the LAFCPUG) from
LA California with his amazing side kick.
.
Sponsor promotions, tips and tricks from the filed. Workflow’s and behind the scenes look at post production.
Kicking the show of representatives from different user groups. LA, Boston, Italy and of course Berlin Germany. Saying hello to the crowd.
The biggest gathering of FCP users on the face of this planet to date!
Network, Learn and maybe even win something in the raffle.
All taking place at Westergasfabriek Gashouder
On Sunday, September 14, from 5PM until we can’t take it any more
Of immediate interest to FCP users Paul from Apple announced at the Super Meet, that there will be an FCP update that will allow native RED 4K footage to be edited on a 2K timeline! We are speculating that this update will be similar to the FCP update from 4 too 4.5. i.e. something like FCP 6.5!
Afterwards the program there was a Raffle with many happy winers. Yes I won the Magic bullet Suite 2008! Many thanks to Beth at Magic Bullet.
.
Sponsor promotions, tips and tricks from the filed. Workflow’s and behind the scenes look at post production.
Kicking the show of representatives from different user groups. LA, Boston, Italy and of course Berlin Germany. Saying hello to the crowd.
The biggest gathering of FCP users on the face of this planet to date!
Network, Learn and maybe even win something in the raffle.
All taking place at Westergasfabriek Gashouder
On Sunday, September 14, from 5PM until we can’t take it any more
Of immediate interest to FCP users Paul from Apple announced at the Super Meet, that there will be an FCP update that will allow native RED 4K footage to be edited on a 2K timeline! We are speculating that this update will be similar to the FCP update from 4 too 4.5. i.e. something like FCP 6.5!
Afterwards the program there was a Raffle with many happy winers. Yes I won the Magic bullet Suite 2008! Many thanks to Beth at Magic Bullet.
First ever final BUG award 0808
the home for FCP and friends in Berlin
from final BUG excerpt from Paul Murray and Clemens Seiz
And last but by no means least, if any one still doesn´t get it that size doesn´t mean every thing then check out the Bonsai from Rosendahl. This is a family business, They immediately made us feel at home on there stand. Thanks for the excellent coffee.
So what does this thing do. It is basically a standalone synchronisable portable hard disk recorder. The unit records uncompressed 4:2:2 Pal or NTSC on a standard IDE drive!
Playback and recording capabilities comparable to a large studio recorder. Think about it. You´ve finished editing you´re 10 minute TV program on a budget system. Rather than going with a hard drive to a big fat editing system to play out to a DigiBeta recorder, go direct to the recorder and plug you´re beautiful little Bonsai directly into it! No adaptors breakout boxes required. i.e. you´re renting the Digi Beta recorder and not the complete online edit suite and recorder!
They are working on their prototype with ethernet capabilities for connectivity of more than one Bonsai device. Ideal for Multi-camera editing. Edit files whilst still transferring from the Bonsai to another drive with an FTP program. Even set markers in the future.
They also have a great slogan, “More Play, Less Work”
We got a demonstration. Which blew us away. Bravo.
(Clemens 5 stars/Paul 5 stars)
We are awarding this product the first ever final BUG award for outstanding achievement! Long live hand written Assembly code!
Final Cut TTT London 0608
Went to Paris to trained to be an Apple
Pro Trainer. Four days learning
strategies for teaching students how to work
with Apple´s Final Cut Pro editing program.
Thanks to Ali Sezin for sponsoring this one.
Big shout out to my trainer, Jonathan.Eric
Tyrrell. These days I have the pleasure of
teaching at Bilgi
Apple Pro Training Center. My
firs student as certified trainer got 100%
:-) So Paris helped I guess. The other
participants are to be seen in the photo. I
am the one with the long hair and beard.
Got to be in the paper 0608
This is shamless. But lets face it I am a one man
show and don´t have a lean and mean promotion
department under me :-)
Thanks to Hildy Johnson for the interview.
Paul Murray and Jakob Wehrmann Celebrating The BUG`s June 5th 2008 Attendance at the Apple Pro-Cut World Tour, Berlin.
Berlin (Weltexpress). The recent June 5th 2008 Berlin stop of the Apple Pro-Cut World Tour brought together hundreds of users eager to pick up on the latest developments with Apple Pro Cut Server. The event, housed at the Kosmos on the Karl Marx Allee also featured stands from related industry representatives, too, including JVC, Softon, Stornext, Blackmagic Design. Amongst the bustle was the steady presence of Paul Murray, representative of the Berlin Users-Group. Paul was happy to share with us insights into the BUG, its history, hopes and ambitions, and beyond that, the rapidly changing environment of contemporary filmmaking...
Q. What actually is `BUG`?.
"Final BUG is an informal network of film makers and post production specialists based here in Berlin . We all share one thing in common, Apple Final Cut Studio Pro. There are plenty of online user forums out there which are like a wikipedia of known problems which occur with the programs that we media professionals work with.
Although we also have an online element in the form of a Blog which tells of our meetings and other events of interest. We don´t have a forum as such. Rather our strength lies in the fact that we meet on a regular basis. Discussion, tutorials, networking and Beer. Real people, many of whom are running one man shows hook up. And exchange joys and yes, disaster stories. Thanks to Uwe Ziegenhagen we now have a regular slot in the Club Room at Akademie Der Kunst. We usually meet on the first Tuesday or each month."
Q. What`s the background?...who, how long...?.
"User groups are very popular in America. And have been somewhat slower to catch on in Europe. Final Bug or BFCPUG as it was know in 2003 was the brain child of Jakob Werhman. Jakob had a production company and wanted in on the Apple scene. He found out how to found a user group, and found some partners. Thus the original user group was co-founded by two further people. Pascal von Hasse and Alister Owen.
Meetings took place in Wedding where Jakob had a large loft for living and working purposes. At the begin there was much excitement but after a number of years thing were stagnating. At which point I showed up. Jakob was tired of answering all those mails, not to mention the inevitable my SQL dumps. So I told Jakob that I would try and manage the whole thing for a year. There was even a time when the User group meet at my flat.
These days we have found a wonderful home at the Akademie der Kunst. The same people have been turning up for years and there is a healthy fluctuation of new people. In many ways the stuff that goes on, on the sideline is the most interesting. The user group is after all a network and people will inevitably exchange mail addresses and phone numbers".
Q:And how does Paul get to be in Berlin in the first place?.
"I came from a nice part of town next door to the national television station. Had amazing luck and gained entry to the only film school in Ireland in those days and where, in my final year, I specialized in editing. Back then this meant working on a film editing table with a splicer, chalk and white gloves.
Coming out of Film school, I was unprepared for an industry that had just made the switch to no linear editing. As it sometimes is in small countries I happened to have an uncle who was in the management at the national television station. I could have got a job here but I wanted something a little more exciting. So I worked at any thing I could get until I meet a German woman in a park. Having nothing to lose, I feel madly in love, sold my c.d. collection and moved to Berlin. I reckoned that the population of Berlin was about that of the whole of Ireland so I´d be able to find work. I really thought that I could learn German in 6 months! Back then I didn´t know about Mark Twain´s "The Terrible German Language""
Q: New Developments?.
"Business as usual at final BUG. Our members are all doing their thing and we will meet again at the beginning of next month. Maybe even with some new friends from final-cut-pro.de. The site has changed at least 5 times in the last five years. There is once again a new site in the making. Planned is a site which gives users the option to make a profile with built in video and calendar functions. In other words - a pool of post specialists with their reels online and dates when they can be booked! This can get really geeky with producers looking for freelances on their iPhone in the back of a taxi thanks to the final BUG site! And all this for free. Thanks to open source soft ware such as Plone.
The group can and does get stuck in a quagmire of technical problems. Thus anything that gets people past their problems and actually producing content is supported. Successful collaborations include a Cinemasports event where our members actually teamed up and made films together in the space of 10 hours ( July 7th, 2007). Our films are now available on this website, along with hundreds of others from San Franciso to Sofia. A future Cinemasports and final BUG collaboration is being penciled in for Autumn 2008. We need to be sure about the location before making further announcements. So it`s Work in Progress at the moment. At the Berlin user group, we do get to talk more about film making these days - it`s mostly technical problems. Because the group is about getting past the final BUG. Getting out there and empowering people to tell the story they need to tell.".
Q: And the industry? What`s the way ahead?.
"The best analogy I know for the industry is it´s like a theme park. It used to be really expensive to get in. So there was a select few who worked making films. These days it´s significantly cheaper to get into the theme park. Any kid can make a film for under 1000€ for a camera and laptop. And with a couple of thousand hits over at a video portal such as YouTube he or she becomes a filmmaker.
Most of the complaints I hear about Apple are that they are selling out, in order to push iPhones. No doubt the Apple Pro software has suffered in the shadow of such success but could it just be that Apple have a winner with new software such as, Final Cut Server. Helping colleagues to link up! And `Color`, although it has very clunky integration is apparently great too use!.
`Color` is colour grading software which a couple of years back cost 20,000$. Apple bought the company that made it and gives it away "free" with the new FCP Studio! Once again the theme park entry price drops.
If Apple pushes this one significantly it will be like taking a pot shot at high end color correction tools such as DaVinci. Of course people can sneer at such remarks. But who would have though 9 years ago that Final Cut Pro would be a serious threat to Avid.
So these days it is much cheeper to get in to the fun fair. Which in turn means that there is significantly more competition. But the last hurdle is weirdly enough, convincing people that you´re good even if you´re using cheep tools!.
Which brings me to the question where is this all going to end? Because in the world of animation there are new increasingly popular tools such as Blender. For those who haven´t heard of it, Blender is an open source tool which runs on pretty much any platform and is literally being given away! As of now there are no real alternatives to Final Cut provided by the open source community. But for how long? And lets not forget when there is one it will be more than likely for free".
So, one moral of the story might be, it goes to show what can happen from a walk in the park!
CODA.
Key Websites.
* http://paurray.de.
* http://www.berlinfcp.de/BLOG/
* http://www.adk.de.
* http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/tour/.
* http://www.cinemasports.com.
* Autor: Hildy Johnson
Thanks to Hildy Johnson for the interview.
Paul Murray and Jakob Wehrmann Celebrating The BUG`s June 5th 2008 Attendance at the Apple Pro-Cut World Tour, Berlin.
Berlin (Weltexpress). The recent June 5th 2008 Berlin stop of the Apple Pro-Cut World Tour brought together hundreds of users eager to pick up on the latest developments with Apple Pro Cut Server. The event, housed at the Kosmos on the Karl Marx Allee also featured stands from related industry representatives, too, including JVC, Softon, Stornext, Blackmagic Design. Amongst the bustle was the steady presence of Paul Murray, representative of the Berlin Users-Group. Paul was happy to share with us insights into the BUG, its history, hopes and ambitions, and beyond that, the rapidly changing environment of contemporary filmmaking...
Q. What actually is `BUG`?.
"Final BUG is an informal network of film makers and post production specialists based here in Berlin . We all share one thing in common, Apple Final Cut Studio Pro. There are plenty of online user forums out there which are like a wikipedia of known problems which occur with the programs that we media professionals work with.
Although we also have an online element in the form of a Blog which tells of our meetings and other events of interest. We don´t have a forum as such. Rather our strength lies in the fact that we meet on a regular basis. Discussion, tutorials, networking and Beer. Real people, many of whom are running one man shows hook up. And exchange joys and yes, disaster stories. Thanks to Uwe Ziegenhagen we now have a regular slot in the Club Room at Akademie Der Kunst. We usually meet on the first Tuesday or each month."
Q. What`s the background?...who, how long...?.
"User groups are very popular in America. And have been somewhat slower to catch on in Europe. Final Bug or BFCPUG as it was know in 2003 was the brain child of Jakob Werhman. Jakob had a production company and wanted in on the Apple scene. He found out how to found a user group, and found some partners. Thus the original user group was co-founded by two further people. Pascal von Hasse and Alister Owen.
Meetings took place in Wedding where Jakob had a large loft for living and working purposes. At the begin there was much excitement but after a number of years thing were stagnating. At which point I showed up. Jakob was tired of answering all those mails, not to mention the inevitable my SQL dumps. So I told Jakob that I would try and manage the whole thing for a year. There was even a time when the User group meet at my flat.
These days we have found a wonderful home at the Akademie der Kunst. The same people have been turning up for years and there is a healthy fluctuation of new people. In many ways the stuff that goes on, on the sideline is the most interesting. The user group is after all a network and people will inevitably exchange mail addresses and phone numbers".
Q:And how does Paul get to be in Berlin in the first place?.
"I came from a nice part of town next door to the national television station. Had amazing luck and gained entry to the only film school in Ireland in those days and where, in my final year, I specialized in editing. Back then this meant working on a film editing table with a splicer, chalk and white gloves.
Coming out of Film school, I was unprepared for an industry that had just made the switch to no linear editing. As it sometimes is in small countries I happened to have an uncle who was in the management at the national television station. I could have got a job here but I wanted something a little more exciting. So I worked at any thing I could get until I meet a German woman in a park. Having nothing to lose, I feel madly in love, sold my c.d. collection and moved to Berlin. I reckoned that the population of Berlin was about that of the whole of Ireland so I´d be able to find work. I really thought that I could learn German in 6 months! Back then I didn´t know about Mark Twain´s "The Terrible German Language""
Q: New Developments?.
"Business as usual at final BUG. Our members are all doing their thing and we will meet again at the beginning of next month. Maybe even with some new friends from final-cut-pro.de. The site has changed at least 5 times in the last five years. There is once again a new site in the making. Planned is a site which gives users the option to make a profile with built in video and calendar functions. In other words - a pool of post specialists with their reels online and dates when they can be booked! This can get really geeky with producers looking for freelances on their iPhone in the back of a taxi thanks to the final BUG site! And all this for free. Thanks to open source soft ware such as Plone.
The group can and does get stuck in a quagmire of technical problems. Thus anything that gets people past their problems and actually producing content is supported. Successful collaborations include a Cinemasports event where our members actually teamed up and made films together in the space of 10 hours ( July 7th, 2007). Our films are now available on this website, along with hundreds of others from San Franciso to Sofia. A future Cinemasports and final BUG collaboration is being penciled in for Autumn 2008. We need to be sure about the location before making further announcements. So it`s Work in Progress at the moment. At the Berlin user group, we do get to talk more about film making these days - it`s mostly technical problems. Because the group is about getting past the final BUG. Getting out there and empowering people to tell the story they need to tell.".
Q: And the industry? What`s the way ahead?.
"The best analogy I know for the industry is it´s like a theme park. It used to be really expensive to get in. So there was a select few who worked making films. These days it´s significantly cheaper to get into the theme park. Any kid can make a film for under 1000€ for a camera and laptop. And with a couple of thousand hits over at a video portal such as YouTube he or she becomes a filmmaker.
Most of the complaints I hear about Apple are that they are selling out, in order to push iPhones. No doubt the Apple Pro software has suffered in the shadow of such success but could it just be that Apple have a winner with new software such as, Final Cut Server. Helping colleagues to link up! And `Color`, although it has very clunky integration is apparently great too use!.
`Color` is colour grading software which a couple of years back cost 20,000$. Apple bought the company that made it and gives it away "free" with the new FCP Studio! Once again the theme park entry price drops.
If Apple pushes this one significantly it will be like taking a pot shot at high end color correction tools such as DaVinci. Of course people can sneer at such remarks. But who would have though 9 years ago that Final Cut Pro would be a serious threat to Avid.
So these days it is much cheeper to get in to the fun fair. Which in turn means that there is significantly more competition. But the last hurdle is weirdly enough, convincing people that you´re good even if you´re using cheep tools!.
Which brings me to the question where is this all going to end? Because in the world of animation there are new increasingly popular tools such as Blender. For those who haven´t heard of it, Blender is an open source tool which runs on pretty much any platform and is literally being given away! As of now there are no real alternatives to Final Cut provided by the open source community. But for how long? And lets not forget when there is one it will be more than likely for free".
So, one moral of the story might be, it goes to show what can happen from a walk in the park!
CODA.
Key Websites.
* http://paurray.de.
* http://www.berlinfcp.de/BLOG/
* http://www.adk.de.
* http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/tour/.
* http://www.cinemasports.com.
* Autor: Hildy Johnson