- Print out this pdf
- Go to the Artbeats website and find the clip that is pictured in the pdf using your best guesses at associated keywords.
- Fill in the name of the clip and your name in the form area in the pdf.
- Bring the form to our next meeting, currently scheduled for Thursday December 10th. All entries with the correct clip name will be put in a hat, from which one winning entry will be pulled.
So it's really not that hard. To be eligible to win, you must be present at our next meeting, and you must be a member of our group at the time of our drawing. All you have to do to accomplish that is click the "Sign Me Up" link over there in the left column.
While you're over on the Artbeats website, you might want to join in on their main Scavenger Hunt contest, where they are giving away over $40,000 worth of footage and prizes, including a 17" MacBook Pro.
Good Luck!
]]>A special thanks to John Pinella who brought in his recently acquired Red ONE camera for us to take a look at. Also a special thanks out to our sponsors: Gen Arts (our newest sponsor), Noise Industries, Crowd Control, Peach Pit Press, Focal Press, Duncan Video, and our generous hosts at FOX59.
My keynote presentation is now available to download from our Downloads Page. The .pdf file has live links directly to the iTunes Store for the iPhone applications I talked about last night.
The storyboard created using the iPhone app Hitchcock is also available to download from our Downloads Page.
A couple other things we talked about:
- The new V/DSLR cameras that Nikon and Canon recently introduced. We showed Vincent Laforet's video "Nocturne" which was shot with the Canon 1D Mark IV courtesy of Stu Maschwitz's YouTube sight (Stu worked on the video as well). You can read about the details behind the shoot on Vincent's blog and Stu's blog. I also mentioned that Laforet will be in Muncie on November 3 at the Civic Center. You can get info and purchase tickets at Jack's Camera website.
- Apple released new iMacs this week that look to be a significant bump over previous additions. The high end iMac uses the same quad-core processor that the Mac Pro's use, and also allows up to 16GB of RAM now. Throw in a new 27" LED screen with the same horizontal resolution of the 30" Cinema Display, and it should make for a pretty computer. They also released a new mouse, Magic Mouse. It is essentially a multi-touch aware two button mouse. One downside - as of now it looks like there is no support for a middle mouse button click, which could be problematic when working in Color or other apps (such as 3D apps).
After a raffle of some items provided by our sponsors, we called it a night. Be sure to keep an eye here on the website for next month's meeting details. It will be taking place Dec. 10 due to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
]]>FCPUG member John Pinella will be joining us and bringing his Red ONE camera with him. John will talk about his experiences with the camera so far. We'll also take a look at some useful iPhone/iPod Touch apps related to video production, along with our usual Q&A and Tips & Tricks.
Remember - 7:30 start on Thursday. Hope to see you there!
]]>When we return from break, there will be one new change. Our meetings have always been on the fourth Tuesday of the month, and that has never changed in the 6 1/2 years we've existed. Until now. FOX59 has asked us to move our meetings to Thursday nights. So starting with our October meeting, we will now meet on the fourth Thursday of the month. Hope that doesn't throw to many of you for a loop, or cause any conflicts. We'll see how it goes and if there are problems or complaints, we'll take another look at it early in 2010.
]]>- One week after our lat meeting discussing the Canon 5D MarkII, Canon (possibly) one-ups themselves with the 7D. It's not a full frame sensor, but it's still huge compared to a 1/3" or 1/2" sensor video camera. They knocked it out of the park with other features though, including 29.97, 25, or 23.976 fps at 1080p. You can even go to 60fps at 720p. Autofocus is still missing, and the LCD is fixed in place on the back of the camera, but this really fills in huge gaps that the 5D Mark II has. Oh yeah, and it's $1100 cheaper than the 5D Mark II! Some more reading (and viewing) material for you if you're interested
* Video sample from Canon Japan
- Our friends at Noise Industries have just released FxFactory 2.0.9. Included with the bug fixes is two new plug-ins and a free trial for a stereoscopic plugin.
- A member of the San Francisco FCPUG has created an iPhone app with keyboard shortcuts for Final Cut Pro called FCP Shortcutz.
- Even if you can't make it to Amsterdam for the Final Cut Pro User Group Network Supermeet in conjunction with IBC, you can download the magazine as a pdf file for free. It's packed with 171 pages of great info. Get it here!
- For those of you that dabble in 3d animation, or would like to, one of the easiest products on the market to learn, Cinema 4D, was just updated to release 11.5. It is being used increasingly for broadcast animations and graphics, and Maxon has taken note by creating a Broadcast Edition. The new version of C4D r11.5 includes support for moving your cameras, lights, and paths from C4D to Motion for easier compositing.
- Postapalooza 2009 is a post production conference with sessions on Final Cut Studio, After Effects, shooting, and a lot more. They will be in Florence, Indiana October 19th & 20th. If you register before September 27th, the cost is only $249.
That's all for now. Keep your eyes here as we'll have an announcement regarding the September meeting soon.
]]>We had a great discussion on shooting video on DSLR cameras, in particular the Canon 5D Mark II. FCPUG member Roger Muller and I got together last week with his brand new camera and did some shooting. Roger was kind enough to bring the camera to the meeting and let anyone interested check it out. The projector didn't do a great job of showing off the footage, so I've uploaded it to Vimeo so you can watch it without the projector in the way. I've also made the Keynote slides available for downloading as a pdf document. Just find the Downloads link over there on the left in the Navigation menu, or click here. Due to lack of permission for some of the visuals I used last night, some of the slides are different. All of the links to websites are there though, and are enabled as links so you can click on them and go right to the page.
I was very impressed with the 5D Mark II. You can create some gorgeous visuals that just aren't possible on the popular video cameras from Canon, JVC, Panasonic, and Sony. There definitely are some shortcomings to be aware of though as well. For certain types of shoots it could be the only thing you need, but I personally wouldn't want it to be the only video camera I had available. It would excel as a second camera to get interesting shots that cater to it's strong suits and avoid it's liabilities. I think the important thing to remember is this is essentially version one of a new breed of camera. Over the next couple years we should see the DSLR and video converge even more, hopefully getting us closer to the "perfect" camera.
]]>I followed up with what I believe was the first showing of Final Cut Studio 3 at a users group meeting in the world. We got through Final Cut Pro, Motion, most of Compressor (I forgot one very cool feature), and we talked about the new features in COlor and Soundtrack Pro. We will cover those another month (next meeting if I can squeeze them in).
We then wrapped up by giving away four books provided by Peach Pit Press and Focal Press. I want to point out a new feature to the website - the books we give away at the meetings will be made available to purchase via Amazon right here on our website the very next day. That way if you see a book that looks interesting at the meeting, but don't win it, you can visit our website the next day and purchase it (or at least add it to your wishlist) before you forget. You can find those books in the left hand column just below the Twitter tracker.
We also gave away $100 credits to Crowd Control, our newest sponsor. Crowd Control is pre-keyed footage of people that you can drop right in your timeline or presentations without having to do anything to key them. We also gave away three licenses for SUGARfx plugins for FX Factory provided by Noise Industries. FX Factory has some of my favorite effects for use in Final Cut Pro and Motion. We gave away Urban, Cinema, and Folding Cards last night.
Stay tuned for more details on our August meeting - they'll be coming soon. We also have some discounts we'll be emailing you really soon, so if you're not signed up as a member, you should do that now!
]]>We will devote the second part of our meeting Tuesday night not only talking about it, but showing it as well. We'll cover what's new and answer as many questions as we can with the time we have. Hope to see you there!
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