Inevitable Convergence

Inevitable Convergence:
The creatives wish to remain in the state of flow during their work, and look for software packages eliminating the roadblocks, timewasters and everyday annoyances, simultaneously providing all the desired tools at reasonable cost. Rigid specialization seems to slowly become the thing of the past, as more and more barriers to integration start to crumble. When the dust settles, I wonder where will we be?

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Can clouds help the surge in post?

Post Magazine - Can clouds help the surge in post?:
Web based tools and storage are enabling new capabilities for long range collaborative work which works well for proxy viewing and other lower-resolution download-based services, however the high latency can be an issue for more real-time high resolution, high frame rate work since coast to coast communication latency can be about 100ms.

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What does Avid make from Professional Video Editing Software?

What does Avid make from Professional Video Editing Software?:
We can use Avid’s accounts and their 10 filing to calculate revenue for their professional video editing software (i.e. Media Composer/Symphony and DS). In Avid’s 2011 10K filing they state:

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Maxon Announces Strategic Alliance with Adobe to Bring Creative Professionals New Levels of Digital Media Content Creation

Maxon Announces Strategic Alliance with Adobe to Bring Creative Professionals New Levels of Digital Media Content Creation | Studio Daily:
Maxon, the developer of Cinema 4D, a leading 3D animation software for film, broadcast and motion graphics professionals, today announced it has entered into a strategic alliance with Adobe Systems Incorporated to further collaborate on technology that provides creatives in the motion graphics and visual effects industry with new levels of digital media content creation. As part of the alliance, both companies are expected to collaborate and engineer a pipeline between Adobe After Effects software and Cinema 4D to give users a seamless 2D/3D foundation.

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Avid — Has the Ship Sailed (or Even Sunk)?

Avid — Has the Ship Sailed (or Even Sunk)?:
Mark my words… Avid will make a desperate announcement at this year's NAB (if not sooner). Their 'we're focussing on the pro market' strategy is too little and too late. The pros they want to keep are moving on in records numbers (let alone dwindling).

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Digital Cinematography vs Film: Tides are Turning

Digital Cinematography vs Film: Tides are Turning:
As I embark on a long creative, exciting journey on Need for Speed with DreamWorks, I wanted to share some of my most recent findings from a five day camera test that pushed every camera to its breaking point. Our final choice was a three camera collaborative for the look and feel of this film.

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Adobe SpeedGrade CS6 – Can Color Grading Go Mainstream?

Adobe SpeedGrade CS6 – Can Color Grading Go Mainstream? » NYC Production & Post News:
For years the Production Premium version of Creative Suite gave you what you needed to author a complete video production. While it didn’t offer a specialized tool that could craft color with as much finesse as Photoshop, many were happy with what Premiere Pro offered in terms of basic color correction. As Adobe pointed out in their tutorials, to finish your Premiere project you could get pretty respectable results simply using that app’s Fast Color Corrector and RGB Curves.

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Apple to Stop Mac Pro Sales in Europe March 1st

Apple to Stop Mac Pro Sales in Europe March 1st:
According to multiple sources, Apple has issued a statement saying that it is stoping the sale of Mac Pros in Europe and select countries beginning on March 1st, 2013.

As of March 1, 2013, Apple will no longer sell Mac Pro in EU, EU candidate and EFTA countries because these systems are not compliant with Amendment 1 of regulation IEC 60950-1, Second Edition which becomes effective on this date. Apple resellers can continue to sell any remaining inventory of Mac Pro after March 1. Apple will take final orders for Mac Pro from resellers up until February 18th for shipment before March 1 2013. Countries outside of the EU are not impacted and Mac Pro will continue to be available in those areas.

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ShotOnWhat?

ShotOnWhat?:
Our goal at ShotOnWhat? is to create the largest collection of technical information that exists for Film & Television productions. If it has been seen on TV or shown in a theater, we would like to gather as much technical information as possible about the cameras, gear, post, sound, VFX and any other associated elements or processes, notes and trivia from the production. We are making the information searchable, cross referencing it a bit, and creating some trending to observe long term shifts in technology.

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Wow! Adobe & Behance are getting together

Wow! Adobe & Behance are getting together:
I’m thrilled that Adobe & Behance announced today that Behance (a million-member creative community, in case you’ve been living under a rock) is becoming part of Adobe.

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360,000 reasons why NLE manufacturers have to rethink their products and their pricing

360,000 reasons why NLE manufacturers have to rethink their products and their pricing - fcp.co:
A few people scoffed when we suggested that Lightworks would become a player again in the very competitive NLE market. Think again, 360,000 downloads on and a move onto Linux is real.

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What are you grading today? August 2012

What are you grading today? August 2012:
The results are in. Alexa on top, not surprising considering it’s popularity across all genres.
Red One drops to 4th after being 1st in 2011. Film drops down and Epic makes a big move up to number 2

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White Paper: Deliverable Data Management and Hard Drive Usage in Video Production

White Paper: Deliverable Data Management and Hard Drive Usage in Video Production:
Examining the Loss of Magnetic Media From Repeated Hard Drive Usage in Video Production

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The race to the bottom

The race to the bottom: Whenever a group of established professionals in the business gets together, they bemoan the “race to the bottom”. That’s the concept that simpler, more inexpensive tools result in the lowering of quality. The prevailing attitude is that now “anyone can do it” so no one “values the craft”. Editors complain about what low-cost editing software...

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GovernmentVideo: Budget 4K: The Next ‘New Thing’

GovernmentVideo: Budget 4K: The Next ‘New Thing’:
In January 2012, JVC announced a sub- $5,000 hand-held camcorder—the GY-HMQ10—with native 4K-resolution, which is a little more than twice the resolution of 1080 high definition. If the GY-HMQ10 becomes popular with indie film and television producers, Sony, Panasonic and Canon might focus on budget 4K as well.

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‘The List’ Cedric’s thoughts on the grading systems available today

‘The List’ Cedric’s thoughts on the grading systems available today:
Hi all,
there’s been a discussion that I’ve seen a couple of times about which system to choose, here is a little list I’ve compiled, feel free to comment!

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Our cross-platform future

Our cross-platform future:
We initially started out as a company developing solutions for Final Cut Studio users on the Mac. Final Cut Pro was a growing application that had made many inroads into professional film and TV production and was bringing lots of new users to the Mac for the first time.

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Avid Sells Pinnacle Studio HD, Avid Studio, M-Audio, & AIR Software:

Avid Sells Pinnacle Studio HD, Avid Studio, M-Audio, & AIR Software::
Avid has had a garage sale and offloaded Pinnacle Studio HD and Avid Studio to Corel and M-Audio and AIR Software to inMusic. Check the Corel and inMusic Press Releases for full details: Corel Press Release: Corel announced that it has acquired Avid’s consumer video editing product lines, including Pinnacle Studio HD and Avid Studio.

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Post Magazine - Running A Post House

Post Magazine - Running A Post House:
Every post business has its own recipe for success, and while some ingredients vary, a talented and well-trained staff is a necessity in every kitchen…um, studio. So is making sure clients are well fed with creative ideas, solutions and quality work.

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Three choices « digitalfilms

Three choices « digitalfilms:
We now know where the four “A”s are headed. With the dust settling just a little, picking your favored approach to post is shaping up into three choices: the software suite, the all-in-one and the toolkit. That’s not to say you can’t mix these options up a bit, but let me outline each approach.

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