What Does Your LMS Look Like - - part 1

First off, LMS = Learning Management System.  It's a way for schools, companies, institutions to manage their online classes, courses, training materials.

This is a 2nd version of thoughts I've had for this post, because I just read this quick article:  Online Textbooks Aim to Make Science Leap From the Page.

My favorite quote from the article, besides the fact that it's a digital text book for only $49:

Still, this isn’t your usual technical tome. The pages have some pizazz: they are replete with punchy, interactive electronic features — from dynamic illustrations to short quizzes meant to involve students rather than letting them plod, glassy-eyed, from one section to the next. Audio and video clips are woven into the text.

To relate this directly to video right quick, this is what I mean when I say that video needs to be thought of as just another image rather than some special piece of media.  The technology is, and has been, there, and it's just going to keep getting easier and cheaper.

During 4th quarter I've been developing three clinical training modules for UW's LMS.  Each module consists of at least four "movies" seperated by quizzes.  I'm building the training with a combination of Final Cut Pro, Motion, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Camtasia, and Prezi.  

Gerald Grinter introduced me to Prezi a couple months ago.  Very basically, Prezi is a power point alternative that lets you lay out and display ideas as though you are working on a whiteboard.  I tried it out for 30 days, found it very intuitive and instantly incorporated it into my workflow, and I've bought a 1 year subscription to the software.

In any line of work it's about using the right tool for the job, then using the tool to craft the right product.  (I say this as Gerald's sites tab is up displaying "Getting the Right Tools for....")  Prezi instantly fit into my workflow because of the time it shaved off of building animated graphics in After Effects or Motion compositions.  

And getting back to the article I mentioned above, Prezi is one way to create pages that "have some pizazz."

“We want students to measure a chapter not by how much they read, but by how much they learn.”

“This is a world where students have many devices, and they expect to have whatever they need when they need it,” he said. “But no matter what device they go to, the browser is there, and therefore our textbook is there, too.” For offline use, students can download a digital edition to read on a desktop. They can also print copies if they prefer a paper version.

The point of Learning Management Systems is to make learning accessible; to promote learning.  

§  If a student learns best by reading a printed book, that method is available

§  If a student learns best by listening and taking notes, that method is available

§  If a student learns best by watching a concept or process become fulfilled before their eyes, that method is available

§  And if a student learns best by do, that method is available through interactivity.

The 2nd part of my LMS blog is going to be more about devices and structure, and it's a tougher writeup....drafting now, will post when it's ready.

Scott Bell - - MediaDesignSeattle.com

Mac or PC? non-question

I spent way too much time weighing the options today...PC or Mac?  Mac or PC?  Turns out it doesn't matter.  Get what does what you need it to do.

stuff	17" MacBook Pro	Dell / Alienware
Already have MS Office 2010 PC…$200 for Mac version		x
Already have Final Cut Studio 2007	x
Adobe CS 5.5 will run on both/either….$2600	x	x
Webcam standard	x	x
Standard backlit keyboard	x
Graphics Card	AMD Radeon	Supercharged
Price	$2,549	$2,699
Processor	2.4 quad i7	2.4 quad i7
hard drive	750	750

First, that's a high price to pay for convenience.

Second, Mac wins in my little charade.  I was really gunning for PC.  I honestly weighed so many options so many different times that the chart probably isn't a perfect representation.  My last attempt was just outfit a Dell PC with as close as possible to the same specs as the Mac.

Question I asked yesterday was, "Why would a video guy consider PC over Mac?"  

§  I do not feel that the Mac towers I've used since 2007 have performed as well as PC's that I have maintained.  Yet they cost a lot more and their specs are crazy high powered.

§  I bought into the concept that Mac is a closed off world.  According to my chart above, that is incorrect.

§  Apple's focus since the iPod has been gadgets; web appliances.  I'd love to run After Effects and Photoshop on an iPad, but as far as I know, I can't yet.

§  I have been locked into the idea that I can get a similar PC for a far lower price than a Mac.  Not the case.  Research today, chart above.

So, it looks like when I do consolidate, it will be a Mac.  I can plug ancient Final Cut Pro into a Mac, not a PC.  I can still run MS Office, Adobe CS 5.5, and all my other little software odds and ends on a Mac.

Now, there's the other question: What if I didn't have to travel with full video editing capabilities?  I could quite honestly get away with only using my iPhone.  Or my Windows Phone.  Or my Droid.

So for now, stickin' with what I gots.  Re-evalute when it comes time to make life convenient.

Scott Bell - - MediaDesignSeattle.com - - BLOG

Recipe for my all nighters http://ping.fm/aftNO

Recipe for an All Nighter

Food is just as important as caffeine.  And you might say, "Why is an all nighter necessary in the first place?  Plan your day better, Scottula."  I'd love to, but some days/weeks it just doesn't work.  The phone rings with a followup I've been waiting for.  An email comes in that moves a project to step 2 and that needs to be dealt with before someone else's schedule fills up.  The child gets home from school.  Things happen.  Days are rarely quiet when I need them to be - - and the flip side, deathly quiet when I don't want them to be.  So this is absolutely not complaining.  Just passing my recipe along.

All day caffeination is not a good thing.  It makes you shaky and it builds those little interruptions into more mountain than molehill.  Stick to your regular daily caffeine intake.  Then at 9 or 10 o'clock start upping the ante.

English Breakfast tea with a dash of milk and sugar is great for my work night.  Two or three of these between 10pm and 1am do a very good job.  Mix in any sweets and chips with cheese.  Tostitos Queso?  mmmmm, such good crack.  Fritos and melty cheese?  mmmmmm.   A health slice of pie and/or some ice cream.  An orange or an apple.  Those "Cutie" oranges are perfect.

Around 1am it's time for a sandwich or the leftovers from supper.  (Dogs will freak out.)  If the tea no longer tastes good, it's time to brew a pot of coffee.  At 2am a glass of wine is nice.  It balances out all the caffeine, and for me, it helps me chill the f out and get deeper into the groove of what needs to be done.  2 glasses of wine at this point will put you right to bed, so don't do it!

My next break tends to come around 4am.  This is close enough to breakfast time.  Two microwaved eggs, some toast.  At 5am or 6am the computer ought to be grinding away on its own business, so some exercise is a good idea.  And then?  The regular daily routine can kick in.  Breakfast #2, shower, coffee, onward.  Depending on how the days go, I'm anticipating one or two more of these by the 15th.  I've always been a night owl anyway, this is a relatively easy routine for me to slip into.  

It's all good.  Tis the season ;-)

How do you tackle an all nighter?  I know, yes, I KNOW, a lot of you are crunching on the things to get done before the year ends.


Scott Bell - - MediaDesignSeattle.com - - Tuesdays With Deborah

Lingerie to Tractors

That is what I did last Wednesday and Thursday.  In my sometimes odd line of work, I sometimes get a call from Comcast to take on a side project.  A week ago it was a video production consultation with a lingerie boutique in Seattle.  The next day I caught the Bremerton ferry to do a consultation with a truck / tractor dealership.  The people were very different, and great to meet.

What is a video production consultation? I wear strictly the Producer hat, meet with a potential new client, learn about their business, their clients, and who they want to attract, and let them know how the video production process works.

I take notes, and when I get back home I draft scripts for their tv commercial, make sure the concept fits within the client's budget, then send the scripts to the client for review.

We revise, we change things on paper, and when the client is satisfied they sign off on it.

Next, the video production machine swings into action.  A video shoot is scheduled and executed if needed.  Graphics are purchased and/or created.  The voiceover is ordered.  Everything arrives in the editing booth at the appointed time on the scheduled day.  3 hours later we have a first draft.

I don't suppose that shifting gears from lingerie to tractors in a day is something most people are used to.  In local advertising it's nice to have a whole day to shift gears.

And so it goes.  It's a nice machine.  ....And last week Bremerton has some fall leaves left in spite of the wind.

Scott Bell
http://MediaDesignSeattle.com
BLOG: http://mediadesignseattle.blogspot.com/ 

Graphic Recording

For 4 hours last Friday, Mark Behringer, Anna Ulanova, and I did the shoot for some graphic recording. We were a bit pressed to cram it all into 4 hours, and even more pressed to cram everything that we needed onto my 64gig card. But we made it. The footage is now transferred to my computer, and I plan to chop it up over this week.

I expect it to be a very cool production. The art behind graphic recording is something that we’ve seen more of over the last couple years, and it’s quite amazing to witness. Like a “live” flip book? Perhaps it’s even more amazing because we all wish we could illustrate so easily.

The shoot went well. Mark and Anna were terrific. I didn’t yell at them too much, so far as I can tell. And we barely squeaked out of Mark’s daughter’s home before she had to get her children fed and out the door. Always something cool about tearing a room apart and putting it back together. Watch Mark’s site for the finished product.

Scott Bell
MediaDesignSeattle.com

BLOG

planning and relationships will take you further than....http://ping.fm/UilRt

Fundraising by Shotgun

When it's phrased that way, it even sounds unpleasant, doesn't it?

We're lucky enough to currently live in an economy where funds are precious. They seem tightly held and difficult to extract. I work with only a couple of non-profits, and the approaches that worked in a good economy are not making a dent right now.

I'm not going to offer any solid solutions in this post. I am going to offer caution.

The heartstrings of benefactors checkbooks are not easily tugged when they are bombarded by funding requests and see neighbors lining up at food banks.

Do not spend your non-profit's money just for the sake of trying to do something that you hope will raise money and and awareness. When you're strapped for cash and digging, do not advertise just for the sake of advertising.

Do not fire your shotgun into the bushes and then go poke about, hoping that you hit something. You'll get a bunch of leaves and a cloud of dust. And them squirrels you were hoping to nail?...they will run for the trees.

Plan your moves, build relationships, and then move forward.

One solution that is frequently reviewed and even more frequently shot into the bushes is SOCIAL MEDIA. OOOooooooooooh. So shiny and pretty. All the cool kids are doing it. And they look so cool and popular.

Here's an article that I recently enjoyed reading, "Facebook and Twitter are Stupid." It's a shock value title, but makes some very good points.

If you're a non-profit (or even a small business) currently paying anything for social media, stop right now and evaluate your expenses. Because one of the great benefits of social media - one of the reasons everyone is doing it - is because you can do it yourself.

I absolutely hate to see money wasted. I hate it more when it's a non-profit throwing precious funds into the prevailing wind.

Where is this coming from? Partly because yesterday I received my Northwest Harvest mailer and spent some time reading about food banks in the state going broke, functioning purely on volunteers, etc. Several times in the flyer, and in the envelope in front of me reminding me to donate, it mentions that NWHarvest can provide a family of 3 with one meal for just 67 cents.

If your non-profit is paying someone $500 to create or maintain a social presence, or advertise, or something along those lines, please don't be paying this if you're a flat broke non-profit. Look at the work that you do, look at what you want to achieve, and remember that the same $500 could potentially be providing 746 meals - 248 days of food - to a hungry family.

NWHarvest has extensive relationships and is very well-run. They are a shining example of how a non-profit can benefit people through structure and resources.

I'll generalize that every non-profit does need to attract attention and grow to some size that allows the organization to be one of action.

I'll also generalize that becoming an organization of action will not happen without a structured approach that builds relationships and from those relationships, builds attention and the money to get things done.

And I'll stretch this over to business. We all know that we/you do business with people that you trust, that referrals are golden, all that good stuff. To this day, in my freelance work, my most profitable projects have been with people who have a history with me and trust my work. 2nd most profitable: referrals.

I don't buy advertising. I maintain an online presence as a tool; I know that it's a good thing to have, I know that it allows me to be "found," and I also know that I cannot directly trace any revenue entirely to my online presence. Not a penny.

Non-profits (and businesses) should not and cannot rely soley on their online presence, their social media, to bring them money and attention. I've noticed that they place a lot of hope that social media will be their silver bullet. It's not going to work that way.

Think for a moment about business networking groups. A bunch of people just like you get together and talk and exchange cards. It's good commaradarie. It's a pleasant time. Do you keep going back if you don't develop any business from these business networking groups? Are you able to pay for the roof over your head because you're trading services with this and that fellow professional? Or are you actually building relationships that are leading to mutual revenue generation?

To attempt to bring this back around to the point; over the last year I saw several socially promoted events that were attended only by the people running the booths. The events still looked like they gathered a good crowd. Everyone had a good time. But there was nobody bringing in money from outside of the vendors. Because it relied soley on social media promotion and people patting themselves on the back for setting up their multiple social presences, while absolutely no relationships were developed.

Just because you or your organization is able to throw something together and advertise it socially (or advertise it at all) does not mean that you will achieve beneficial results.

Just because you have a cause does not mean benefactors will see your logo and instantly care.

Just because you have fired a shotgun into the bushes does not mean you will feed your family, or any family, tonight.

When was the last time your read about Bill Gates or Paul Allen finding something really cool on facebook or a blog and deciding to invest a chunk of cash because they felt so giddy and touched?

Create a plan. Develop relationships. Use the plan and relationships to invest in the proper tools. Then you'll end up benefiting people.

Quick Video Blog

This is kinda silly, it's just me holding my smartphone, using the videocamera app that's built into it, and talking. Only reason to post: you can do this too....in any situation, from anywhere.

Simple Is as Simple Duz

I'm probably not to say this "as a video professional," but I am continuously blown away by iMovie.  Windows Movie Maker too, for that matter.

Here's where this is coming from.

I found an old MacBook Pro on CL over the weekend.  It had the specs I wanted, so I picked it up and now I'm as portable with everything as I want to be.   As I was updating the software, iMovie updated.  And the current version looks quite different from what I would dumpster dive down to a couple years ago.  But it's still simple.  It's still intuitive.  It still lets the home movie-maker get the movie made with as few headaches as possible.

Those in the blogging group already know that I like things to be kept simple.  While there's something to be said for the small business owner who learns every in and out of Final Cut Pro or Premier so that they can represent their business, that's a lot of brain bandwidth, and that's kind of silly.  If you're selling widgets, sell widgets really well so that you can let someone else help you advertise widgets.

Most people walking down the street are never going to consider editing the videos they shoot.  And why should they (simple)?  There are few things more beautiful than a single piece of video with zero cuts.  That's why we appreciate movie directors who know "how to move the camera."

If you are walking down the street and have a sudden urge to edit video, you have two very accessible very simple ways to do it.  iMovie and Windows Movie Maker.

Why should you edit?  Because nobody gets it right the first time.  And few people have time to do 30 takes.

I'm in Portland currently thru Thursday night.  I'm going to do some simple video blogging while I'm here.  I'm going to use two methods:  1) webcam with iMovie, and 2) smartphone with iMovie.   (I'd use Windows Movie Maker, but my PC doesn't have a webcam....and therefore it gets more complicated than necessary for a blog.)

I still have little to no idea what these v-logs will be about, but that's normal.  If you've read this far you know that I have no idea what this blog post is about, yet I'm almost done with it!

I am participating in a November blogesphere event over on Tuesdays With Deborah. November is National Novel Writing Month, so several of us have committed to blogging something like 100 words a day.  My apologies in advance.

Til tomorrows entry…

Scott Bell
http://mediadesignseattle.com
BLOG at http://mediadesignseattle.blogspot.com/

Youtube or Somebody Else's Tube? http://ping.fm/AvhAl

YouTube, or Somebody Else's Tube?

If you read my post on TV yesterday, you know that I watch nothing regularly.  Looking at your comments (and THANK YOU VERY MUCH for participating - - feel free to continue to do so), if you're watching TV in the traditional sense, you're watching Sports or Drama with whatever regularity you choose.

Knowing that I watch little - to - nothing regularly, if we / I don’t watch much traditional tv programming, in traditional ways, what do we / I watch?

Other Stuff.  Other Stuff?!?!?!   Other Stuff.

Today I want to talk about online viewing, specifically, YouTube.  And I'll preface this, if it's not too late to do so, by saying that I've had two cups of coffee but would still not classify myself as "awake."

How many YouTube links did friends forward to you this week?  

I bet the description was "This is funny." or "This is cute."  or "This is highly motivational."  And then you clicked on it and laughed a little.  Or in the motivational situation, you quickly hit delete and moved on with your day :)

I watch Phillip DeFranco sometimes LINK.  He’s like John Stewart, but in under 10 minutes you get "Philled In."  And he's just about the only thing I’ll watch for more than 2 minutes, due to the fast edits and witty comments.  (“I just wanted to be more excited today.”)  Phil gets to the point (ok, many points) quickly.  And he has a monkey in his short opening sequence.  Can’t go wrong there.

I mentioned in yesterday's comments that I have zero patience for online video.  If you're going to try to make me watch a commercial before showing the content that I'm interested in, it better be a commercial that's about 5 seconds long.  Why?  Because that's the rough amount of time it takes me to realize that a commercial is loading, reach for my mouse, and close the window.

In the same sense, I completely avoided online video for years because it didn't load fast enough.  I could read 3 paragraphs before a video would start playing poorly.  Now that has changed, and as long as people don't muck up their content with garbage, I'll be patient enough for it to load.

Anyway, the title of this blahg:  YouTube or Somebody Else's Tube.  Are you watching other peoples content, or are you taking advantage of the opportunity to have your own channel?

Notice that I'm not putting channel in quotes.

If you don't have your own channel, you are missing out.  You are not taking advantage of a huge opportunity to display any side of your life to whomever you like.  At the moment it doesn't matter if you're late to the party....you are not instantly going to get 78+ million channel views like Phillip DeFranco.

Why are you missing the opportunity?

Everyone has their reasons:  Video is hard.  Video is scary.  I look awful.  I have to wear makeup and put on a nice outfit.  I don't know what to say.  It won't be perfect.  It'll take too long.   It's too expensive.  I don't know where to start.  I tried it once and it didn't do anything for me.  Or the most ridiculous, My video didn't go viral like it was supposed to.

All of these "reasons" (quotes) resemble the exact same reasons why Tuesday's 'Reticent Bloggers' don't start their own blogs.  Don't they?  Right?

I don't really have a question to wrap things up today....because I'm sleepy and I really need to get moving for an 11:00 appointment.  So I'll be very upfront that I'm drafting this live as part of a series that I started drafting in August.  November's Blogarama is effective for me in this way!

I will say that, like blogging, the only hard part of video is finding the motivation to get started.

Next week I'll be in Portland Tuesday thru Thursday, and plan to do at least one video blog (with transcript) using my smartphone.  Because it does have a full 1080p HD camera.  

So I'll end today's post by simply saying C'mon people, what's getting in your way?

I am participating in a November blogesphere event over on Tuesdays With Deborah. November is National Novel Writing Month, so several of us have committed to blogging something like 100 words a day.  My apologies in advance.

Til tomorrows entry…

Scott Bell
http://mediadesignseattle.com
BLOG at http://mediadesignseattle.blogspot.com/

What does "TV" mean to you?

I'd like to start this one with a poll.  Leave your answers in the Comments, and please include your age.

     How much "TV" do you watch:  On your Television?  On your computer?  On a mobile device?


     What do you watch the most:  Movies?  Sports?  Traditional network shows (ABC NBC etc)?       Subscription shows (HBO)?  Kid's shows?  Educational programming?  No pattern, whatever interests you?

The vast majority of my own viewing is on my computer.  It's either movies or kid's shows, with subscription shows mixed in, as long as I can watch them for free online (Wilfred anyone?  Always Sunny.  Community.)  Watching scheduled shows on network or cable TV is of absolutely no importance to me.

My actual Television Set is powered "on" when my child watches a DVD.  OH!, and I had it on for a half hour in August when I was drained and found a cute little anthology about Westerns on some channel....public television piggybacking on the Cowboys and Aliens movie.

Back when I had a free Comcast DVR, I loved it, and watched a lot more TV because of it.  Since giving that up, my viewing habits have dropped off and changed quite a bit.

(Now, I get annoyed when I can't watch a newly released movie for $4 on my computer.  Or for any price on my computer - -Why isn't it offered?  I get more annoyed when I see movies that came out 2 or more years ago categorized as "new arrivals" on Netflix...gimme a break.)

"This is all almost interesting, Scott.  What's the point?"  Point is, that as a 35-year-old male, I'm gonna say that I'm at the tail end of a generation that watches, or watched, TV on an actual television, using an over-the-air or cable signal.

None of this should be news to anyone.  Over the last several years you might have read articles from adverntureous technology writers who tried to consume media only over the internet for one week.  Now it's common and easy.  Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, Vimeo, etc etc etc.

So please, take my Poll, leave your answers in the comments, and please include your age:


     How much "TV" do you watch:
On your Television?
On your computer?
On a mobile device?


     What do you watch the most:
Movies?
Sports?
Traditional network shows (ABC NBC etc)?      
Subscription shows (HBO)?
Kid's shows?
Educational programming?
No pattern, whatever interests you?

I am participating in a November blogesphere event over on Tuesdays With Deborah. November is National Novel Writing Month, so several of us have committed to blogging something like 100 words a day.  My apologies in advance 

Til tomorrows entry…

Scott Bell
http://mediadesignseattle.com
BLOG at http://mediadesignseattle.blogspot.com/

Punch My Ticket, Lunchlady

And then Chris Farley says something really loudly and falls down.  And we all smile.


My child-thing Harrison had his first school lunch yesterday.  It's something he's been asking for off and on since school started.  With day after day of un-masticated healthy packed lunch coming back home, I finally said OK. He, of course, completely enjoyed the experience and gave me a full report when he got off the bus, "I ate healthy food today!  I had fruit and chocolate milk and a sandwich with green salad stuff on it."  "Lettuce?"  "Yeah."


Yes, that's a full report from a 6-year-old.  Imagine how talkative he'll be in the teenage years.  (Oh, the expectant quiet.)


So he enjoyed it and the chocolate milk was a given.  Hell, it's what I choose when I eat lunch with him at Einstein Elementary.


The whole school lunch thing got me thinking about my own experiences with school lunch.  At Lincoln Elementary in Western Nebraska, I lived a block away from school and took my lunch pretty much every day.  I didn't have a regular lunch ticket until junior high, I rarely bought lunch in elementary school.  My Snoopy (and later, Transformers) lunch box had a variety of sandwiches depending on what was leftover and what my dad was taking for his own lunch....cold meatloaf sandwiches, picante loaf, chopped ham loaf....yeah, I grew to really hate each of those!  Ugh, just the thought of a chopped ham sandwich right now makes my stomach do a flip flop.  The greasy pressed texture.  Nasty.  


Of course I looked enviously at the rectangular pizza slices or "soy burgers" and after enough whining persuaded my mom to give me a dollar on the bi-weekly pizza day.  THAT, was awesome.  It was freedom from my parents, it was joining a crowd, it was the community of being able to trade pears for a cookie or vice versa (like that would happen - cookies rule!).


It was a right of passage.  Just like learning to ride a bike or getting the car keys.  


Granted, I bet I brought home a lot of barely eaten meatloaf or chopped ham sandwiches, and that was likely, easily my mom's motivation to fork over a dollar on pizza Fridays.  AND granted, in Redmond you see kids bringing a Trader Joe's buffet in their lunch bags; enough to feed at least four children.  But in all, there is a huge sense of community that comes with buying your food and enjoying it with you peers who also bought food.


Think about your first job, or your current job.  There are people who bring their lunch, and they tend to hang out together or enjoy some quiet time alone.  And then there are the people who go out or order in, as a group, publicly exchanging money for food, and hanging out together, building that rapport.


Even as an adult, it's been a occasion of sorts when I've ponied up to buy lunch with people.  It's been a moment to enjoy freedom and community and all that good stuff.  And there is a difference between sharing thoughts on butter chicken all around the table, vs being the odd man out with a bologna sandwich while others Ooooo and Ahhh over butter chicken.  


So school lunch for the 6-year-old....I'm all on board with that now.  Especially if he keeps coming home with happy news of "I ate a healthy lunch and I didn't get sent to the office today!"  (insert beaming young smile at the statement of these two accomplishments.)

I am participating in a November blogesphere event over on Tuesdays With Deborah.  November is National Novel Writing Month, so several of us have committed to blogging something like 100 words a day.  My apologies in advance 

Til tomorrows entry…

Scott Bell
http://mediadesignseattle.com
BLOG at http://mediadesignseattle.blogspot.com/

Hey, it's November.

Wow everyone, it's NOVEMBER.  You know, that great no-man's wasteland between Halloween and Christmas.  November has the unfair disadvantage of landing with a harsh thump on the day after one of the greatest holidays of the year.  If you're reading this on November 1st, I'll wager you're hung over from one form of sugar or another.  The six-year-old absolutely did not want to get out of bed this morning, and we made it home and into bed by about 9:15 last night, with an awesome haul.

I'm pretty sure that Charles Schultz labeled November with piles of leaves and football....because what else is there?  Deborah Drake would tell you "Gratitude Gratitude Gratitude."  And I'm definitely feeling grateful this November; with two online training contracts underway and a third in gestation, with fun video productions coming up for Mark Behringer and Gerald Grinter, with 4th quarter opportunities springing up hinter and nither and my home life coming into its own week by week.  There's always a lot to be grateful for, in and out of November.

However, as a month, I just don't care for Nov.  It gets cold.  Cold er.  Out here in the Pac NW it gets more rainy or misty or something precipitous.  The freekin month starts with the word NO.

The retailers don't really even try to pretend November is anything other than a time to put away your Halloween junk (in easily identifiable orange containers) and get ready for Christmas.  Discounted Halloween items were already stocked right next to Fred Meyer's Christmas decor.  ...it made me a little excited and happy.  And I must remember that the snow will start falling soon, which means SKIING!

I won't be participating in No-Shave-November, or Movember (to grow a moustache).

I am participating in a November blogesphere event over on Tuesdays With Deborah.  November is National Novel Writing Month, so several of us have committed to blogging something like 100 words a day.  My apologies in advance :)

Til tomorrows entry...

More of my opinion on FCPX. Much shorter. And I'll try not to ping this one 40 times :) http://ping.fm/yfZCA

Final Cut Pro X - digging deeper

Don't worry, this one is shorter.  

Since posting my first FCPX notes, I've read a lot more about the new app, and what the pro facilities think about it.  FCPX is simply not useful for pro facilities in their current workflow.

I think it will be very useful, and reinvent the workflow, within the next five years.  The number one issue that I see is the lack of XML and the ability to share projects between edit bays.

One comment that I read jokingly talked about using FCPX on his iPhone.  My thought is, that's not a joke.  Another comment talked about (semi-quote) "To share a project I'd have to hand over my entire computer."  My thought is, why not?

Let's lose the idea of networked edit bays for a moment.  Move forward 5 years.  Your pro facility is running the latest version of FCPX (at Apple's pace five years should equal version 1.5, lol) on iPads...25+ inch screens, 500+ gigs.  C'mon, they'll be lightweight....you can set them on easels if you want.  If you need a different editor to work on a project, you hand off your tablet.  To back up your footage, you plug into your highspeed network or whatever version or idea of "cloud" exists, and drag n drop.

Technology grows exponentially.  Today's smartphone or tablet easily works with video much much Much faster than my 11 year old mac G4.  The possibilities that FCPX opens are huge, and we'll be in that reality before you know it.

Final Cut Pro X

The future of video editing has been going directly into the hands of anyone who wants to tell a story.  With Final Cut Pro X, it goes very deeply into those hands.  And that's a very good thing.

Going to start this one by saying that I HAVE NOT seen or used the new app in person.  I've read 2 loose compilations of reviews and 1 press release from Apple (and I learned a long time ago to not trust the press releases, lol).

When I first began using Final Cut Pro in 1999 or 2000, I liked it because it reminded me of an Avid "Media Suite" upon which I had created some cool stuff.  That was why I originally liked FCP; it was familiar and easy to learn and use.  Remember kids, this was back when having 18 gigs of storage was really really awesome and resembled 2 large shoe boxes strung to the Avid with embillical cords.

Final Cut Pro continued to be easy to learn and use for years.  It added more bells and whistles, literally, with Soundtrack Pro.  With Motion.  Compressor.  Eventually even Color.  (DVDSP I'll leave alone....and you'll understand why shortly.)

Why was I excited about Soundtrack?  Because it came with a music library and music loops.  I was not - - and am still not - - an audio guy.  Final Cut Pro is my preferred audio mixing and cutting tool.  Can I bop in and out of Soundtrack or Adobe Soundbooth or even once-upon-a-time ProTools to do some equalizing? Sure.  Do I like to?  Not often.  Does my end product, after hours of messing around in an audio application, sound much better than what I could do in FCP itself?  ....only now that I've saved some presets.  I loved the addition of Soundtrack because of the content that came with Soundtrack.

Why was I excited about Motion?  Because I love After Effects, still do, and I thought Motion would be a serious option.  It wasn't for me....I ended up loving Motion for the library of video content that came with it.

Why was I excited about Color?  It looked neat.  It has saved my ass on occasions.   And I still like to just send clips there and mess around with them, though I hardly ever use the results.  It's a fun toy for me.

Why was I excited about DVD Studio Pro?  I wasn't.  But some clients needed DVDs, and this was packaged with the software, so now we could possibly use it to make some DVDs, instead of the DVD recorder next to the decks.

Why was I indifferent about Compressor?  It compresses.  So do a lot of other dedicated apps.  Utility is nice.

Tonight I saw that FCP X has been released, and most reviewers are giving it 2.5 stars.  Read more here:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/06/apple-releases-64-bit-final-cut-pro-x-via-mac-app-store.ars
Here:
http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Final-Cut-Pro-X-is-Mac-App-Stores-top-seller-but-buyer-reviews-are-scathing/1308710448
Here:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Apple-Amps-Up-Productivity-With-Final-Cut-Pro-X-72715.html?wlc=1308726716
truly great comments in here - http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/12/apple-announces-final-cut-pro-x-rebuilt-from-ground-up-with-64/
Here:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/top-features/

Final Cut Pro X is a $300 app, available only through Apples App Store.  Compressor and Motion are available separately for $50 each.  DVD Studio Pro is not available.  I LIKE ALL OF THIS.  A lot of people don't.

For starters, Final Cut Studio used to cost $1,000 to $1,200 and ship with, what, 7 installation disks...and all of its manuals...the manuals were nice....even though online forums prove nobody read them.

There was a time when we didn't have motion pictures.  There was a time when editors cut film by hand with razors.  There was a time when I was editing either 3/4" deck to deck or ABC rolling edits through a Video Toaster or Pinnacle Genie.  There was (and if you listen closely, there still is) a time when only the "professionals" used Avids, and only these upstart basement editors who don't know bars and tone from pad used Final Cut Pro.  ....yeah, those quotes and italics are ironic...  When Walter Murch cut Aviator on FCP, it felt like validation for the underdog software that could and all of the little people who were using it.  That was in 2005.

Final Cut Pro is, today, one of a couple professional products available.  Final Cut Pro 7 was / is just the latest version of an application that held its own and impressed a lot in a "professional" editing workflow (and yet to say FCP7 impressed anyone is to stretch the truth).

The last time I was excited about a new Final Cut Pro was when sub-frame audio editing was introduced.  This year I added Adobe CS5 to my system.  Once upon a time I created some excellent work on Premiere.  I was so tired of FCP that I wanted to see what the new Premiere could do.  I wanted it to be better than Final Cut (And in some ways it is better, for my purposes.  Just one is the ability to work natively with P2.  The BBC switched to Adobe this year.  All that said, right now I use Premiere rarely.)

Compared to the rest of the world of computing, getting into any professional video application has lately felt like steering a dinosaur.

Final Cut Pro X appears to have stirred some excitement in me.

Just watch the demo of how the timeline works, how your footage is organized, how your tools are right there.  I've walked people through the basics of timeline editing, and it has been interesting.  FCPX looks very intuitive.  Not to mention finally taking advantage the power that macs currently have.

I'll say again that I haven't used the new app, I'm just reading what other people have read and written about it.  There are going to be haters, and there are going to be people who think I'm an idiot for feeling such butterflies and expressing them without testing.  So be it.

....and I see "native editing includes support for import and playback without transcoding" of AVC-Intra.

...and I see export presets for youtube, facebook, etc., taking a tip from Adobe export options.

The Bad off the bat:
- X is not backwards compatible.  (Haven't most .0 versions of 64 bit software been this way?)  You can't open your current FCP products in X.  When you compare the "update" with the predecessor, it's easy to see why.  But still very inconvenient.
- apparently doesn't let you set markers the same way that you used to be able to.  I do like my markers.
- apparently can't specify where you're storing your files...such as project files, render files.  I'm guessing it's like iMovie in that regard.  You can eventually find your files, you just need to know where to look.
- content auto analysis automatically sorts your shots.
- working with tape is either difficult or not possible.  ...because we all love tape so much...i say only halfway mocking.
- no XML support.  That's not good.

Each of these things are bad for me because I've been editing for 16 years, 11 of those years on a program I'm familiar with, and I know how and where I like to save, sort and generally do things.

Each of these bad things are only going to be bad for professional fcp users.  For the new market that Apple is opening, these things will not matter.  And I imagine a couple of versions or updates from now, pro life will be okay too.

Apple's argument for streaming video over DVD production makes a lot of sense to me.  1) Remember HD-DVD vs Blu Ray?  What will come after Blu-Ray?  2) The last time you shared your video, did you ship a DVD or did you upload it?  (Well, Scott, that depends on the length of the video.  Yes it can.)  Last time you sent a professional ad to broadcast, did you create and ship a beta because they don't accept DVD, or did you upload it?

Now what about at the beginning where I waxed stupidly about the future of video editing going directly into the hands of anyone who can tell a story?  Do you have $300?  Do you have a new-ish mac?  Now you can have one hell of a lot of power to express your creativity.  At your fingertips.  Hopefully it's as intuitive as it looks.

Somebody commented that it should have been called iMovie Pro instead of Final Cut Pro.  If the program does what you want it to, who cares what it resembles?  11 years ago I couldn't afford an Avid, even though I wanted one.  I got the program that did what I wanted it to and resembled an Avid.  It happens.

Final Cut Pro was initially embraced by the documentarian and indie film maker.  Now, particularly for these storytellers, the software is going to be even more accessible.  Two or three years from now I'm sure a big budget flick will be created on FCP-X's latest version.

People can shoot and edit HD video on their phones now.  That's a lot of power in a pocket and a lot of stories that can be told.  The world is only going to keep going this way.  And as professional editors aka storytellers, we can only embrace the continuing and constantly growing opportunity share our experiences with the world.

We all love stories.  Final Cut Pro X looks like a brilliantly intuitive way to tell more of them.  I can't wait to try it out.   ...after upgrading to 10.6.7...that's through the app store, right?

PS - - I use the word Professional a lot in this.  FCP started life as a pro-sumer application.  It's really really good powerful prosumer, but prosumer nevertheless.  It grew and grew and became adapted professionally.  iEverythings have changed the way prosumers consume and create media.  FCP X appears to be right in line with those changes.

PPS - - I'm posting this from a virus-free PC.  My editing gear is on a mac across the room.  I still have my functioning, very first G4, it plays music and stores a lot of pictures.

Bring on the cries to burn the idiot!

What is stopping you from doing something great?

I haven’t blogged in awhile, been busy, been otherwise distracted.  BUT, the things that I have been working on have prompted this question: What is stopping you from doing something great?  Excuses?  Drop them like flies.  Money?  If you’re serious, how much do you need, do you have a plan in place, and do you know where to find the nearest Country Club or other location where the people with the $$$ hang out? 

Once you eliminate excuses and money, what is left to hold you back from doing something great?   

Absolutely nothing. 

So eliminate it/them/it.

I’ve been busy preparing videos for the Rotary District 5030 Conference, it’s happing April 28-May 1, and it is going to be the most deeply emotive conference this district has ever had.  Why?  See my previous blogs for a detailed explanation, but the simple answer comes in two quick parts:  1) the videos are actually going to play correctly because the district has had a professional (moi) on point to gather and assemble them, and 2) These are emotional videos.  I’m a cold hearted SOB, I keep a perimeter on my emotions, and every time I’ve reviewed the “final” DVD master, some part of it has brought a tear to my eye.  It’s due it no part to me.  And it never has anything to do with a hand-across-the-water Rotary-produced song.  It’s due in every part to the fact that these are videos and photos from very giving people who are making a difference in the world every day, no excuses, no boundaries.

Whatever boundaries prevent you from making a difference, there are ways to remove or ignore them.  It just takes your initiative.

This is relatively short for me, so I’ll end it on a funny that has nothing to do with anything, until I start writing movies again.

                Guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do,
                hunt them badgers down,
                skin ‘em, clean ‘em,
                make slippers outta ‘em,
                ….for the ladies.

And

                His sideburns are so amazing they can microwave a burrito from 50 feet.

…and really, who doesn’t love burritos?  Other than Hitler?