Ed says:
The Big Ten Network hasn't been in town for long, but boy they sure have been doing some great programming. We just finished an awesome doc for them "Hail to the Victors: The Greatest Stories of Michigan Football". It should be released on DVD just in time for the holiday season.
In the mean time, check out BTN for airtimes and get the insides scoop on the Ten Year War.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
The College Sports Minute is Comin' Atcha!
Ed says:
For a couple of months now we have been delivering the online college sports news series, The College Sports Minute.
OK, OK, the producer always seems to write more like 90 seconds worth of copy, but who's to complain? Big college sports in a small package. Every weekday. Sarah Kustok. What more could you want? Check it out:
For a couple of months now we have been delivering the online college sports news series, The College Sports Minute.
OK, OK, the producer always seems to write more like 90 seconds worth of copy, but who's to complain? Big college sports in a small package. Every weekday. Sarah Kustok. What more could you want? Check it out:
Friday, July 18, 2008
Jack's Big Music Show - Emmy Nomination
Ed says:
I just learned Jack's Big Music Show was nominated for two Daytime Emmys for "Outstanding Original Song - Children's and Animation" and "Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series"
This is marvelous new for guys at Spiffy Pictures, and an honor for me to have been Lead Editor and and Post Production Manager for both seasons of JBMS.
We were up against some tough competition - including heavy weights like Sesame Street, which ultimately took the award for "Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series".
As they say, it is an honor just to be nominated. To celebrate, here is another of my favorite clips from "Jack's Big Music Show".
I admit, one of the reasons this is a favorite clip is that Sandy Weber and I manufactured the whole tree full of Coo-Coo birds from just 5 takes of the same puppet performing on a single "branch". The tree itself was expertly built by Sandy from just that one "branch" segment.
I just learned Jack's Big Music Show was nominated for two Daytime Emmys for "Outstanding Original Song - Children's and Animation" and "Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series"
This is marvelous new for guys at Spiffy Pictures, and an honor for me to have been Lead Editor and and Post Production Manager for both seasons of JBMS.
We were up against some tough competition - including heavy weights like Sesame Street, which ultimately took the award for "Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series".
As they say, it is an honor just to be nominated. To celebrate, here is another of my favorite clips from "Jack's Big Music Show".
I admit, one of the reasons this is a favorite clip is that Sandy Weber and I manufactured the whole tree full of Coo-Coo birds from just 5 takes of the same puppet performing on a single "branch". The tree itself was expertly built by Sandy from just that one "branch" segment.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Cafèzinho
Ed says:
Last month I got a real education. That's why I love my job.
It was all coffee brewers, all the time with Kevin and Pat Sinnott, long established independent producers here in the Chicago production community. Kevin's other expertise is coffee. He's been seen as a guest coffee expert on Good Morning America, the Oprah Winfrey Show and has had many articles published as a consumer coffee writer and reviewer.
The DVD, "Kevin Sinnott's Coffee Brewing Secrets", features such coffee industry luminaries as Donald Schoenholt, Kenneth Davids, George Howell, Erna Knutsen and others. The DVD hasn't been released yet and the support materials (including what promises to be a very informative web site) are still being developed, but look for it all to be unveiled in time for the '08 Christmas Season. Keep an eye on this spot for links and excerpts from the video, which has great tips and insights into brewing great coffee.
Happily, for all of you budding coffee aficionados out there, I have an exclusive sneak-peek DVD extra segment; it's Kenneth Davids, editor of the"Coffee Review" demonstrating a cool little European brewing device.
mmm-mmmmm that's goood cofffeee...
Last month I got a real education. That's why I love my job.
It was all coffee brewers, all the time with Kevin and Pat Sinnott, long established independent producers here in the Chicago production community. Kevin's other expertise is coffee. He's been seen as a guest coffee expert on Good Morning America, the Oprah Winfrey Show and has had many articles published as a consumer coffee writer and reviewer.
The DVD, "Kevin Sinnott's Coffee Brewing Secrets", features such coffee industry luminaries as Donald Schoenholt, Kenneth Davids, George Howell, Erna Knutsen and others. The DVD hasn't been released yet and the support materials (including what promises to be a very informative web site) are still being developed, but look for it all to be unveiled in time for the '08 Christmas Season. Keep an eye on this spot for links and excerpts from the video, which has great tips and insights into brewing great coffee.
Happily, for all of you budding coffee aficionados out there, I have an exclusive sneak-peek DVD extra segment; it's Kenneth Davids, editor of the"Coffee Review" demonstrating a cool little European brewing device.
mmm-mmmmm that's goood cofffeee...
Saturday, April 5, 2008
2008 Housewares Show - Planning is Key
Ed says:
Motion Post specializes in affordable customized remote mobile television editorial. It's a mouthful to say, but it's what we do. Like our slogan says, we provide HD and SD broadcast quality video editing "where you want it, when you need it". Most often this work is extremely time-sensitive, so the contingency planning we do is just as important as the editing talent we bring to the remote site.
As with any production, realistic contingency planning for a time-sensitive on-site edit can make or break a deadline. Plan "B" is never more vital than when you are off-site, away from your comfy edit suite.
The highlights packages I did for Privileged Access TV and KRT Productions at the 2008 Home and Housewares Show at McCormick Place in Chicago was a great example.
We were tasked with capturing the excitement in daily highlights videos, edited overnight, that would tease the next day's activities and provide a sense of the show floor. The videos were then looped for guests in-room at over a dozen local hotels and available on the internet to help people keep up with the show, which is one of the nations largest.
For 3 days we edited in a conference room at McCormick Place using Motion Post's MOBILE 1 editing package (plus a system provided by KRT), working with KRT staff editor Nick Borgione under the expert production talents of KRT Senior Producer Jane Serbus and Owner Kathy Rivera. Jane had mapped out each show ahead of time and wisely generated pre-set elements the week before, so everyone knew what needed to be done (and did it). It went like clockwork.
Then early on the second day Nick's editing computer gave up the ghost (it happens). It had been a solid system and it had worked well -- until it didn't; suddenly it went stone cold dead. This seriously threatened our ability to get the show out on time, Nick had already been working for hours.
Fortunately, I always bring a backup computer system -- in this case a fully loaded laptop, ready to go with everything we need. The temptation in a situation like that is to try to trouble-shoot the broken system, Nick had lost a couple of hours worth of work and really wanted to get it back. I've learned from long (hard) experience however, that the best thing to do in a situation like this is to just move on -- don't spend another moment worrying over a dead system, it's never worth the time in the field.
I had prepared for the contingency and I had him up and running immediately. As a result, the impact was merely annoying and not project-threatening. It was a good lesson in forethought.
Here's a snippet of the fruit of our labor - which was delivered just in time.
Motion Post specializes in affordable customized remote mobile television editorial. It's a mouthful to say, but it's what we do. Like our slogan says, we provide HD and SD broadcast quality video editing "where you want it, when you need it". Most often this work is extremely time-sensitive, so the contingency planning we do is just as important as the editing talent we bring to the remote site.
As with any production, realistic contingency planning for a time-sensitive on-site edit can make or break a deadline. Plan "B" is never more vital than when you are off-site, away from your comfy edit suite.
The highlights packages I did for Privileged Access TV and KRT Productions at the 2008 Home and Housewares Show at McCormick Place in Chicago was a great example.
We were tasked with capturing the excitement in daily highlights videos, edited overnight, that would tease the next day's activities and provide a sense of the show floor. The videos were then looped for guests in-room at over a dozen local hotels and available on the internet to help people keep up with the show, which is one of the nations largest.
For 3 days we edited in a conference room at McCormick Place using Motion Post's MOBILE 1 editing package (plus a system provided by KRT), working with KRT staff editor Nick Borgione under the expert production talents of KRT Senior Producer Jane Serbus and Owner Kathy Rivera. Jane had mapped out each show ahead of time and wisely generated pre-set elements the week before, so everyone knew what needed to be done (and did it). It went like clockwork.
Then early on the second day Nick's editing computer gave up the ghost (it happens). It had been a solid system and it had worked well -- until it didn't; suddenly it went stone cold dead. This seriously threatened our ability to get the show out on time, Nick had already been working for hours.
Fortunately, I always bring a backup computer system -- in this case a fully loaded laptop, ready to go with everything we need. The temptation in a situation like that is to try to trouble-shoot the broken system, Nick had lost a couple of hours worth of work and really wanted to get it back. I've learned from long (hard) experience however, that the best thing to do in a situation like this is to just move on -- don't spend another moment worrying over a dead system, it's never worth the time in the field.
I had prepared for the contingency and I had him up and running immediately. As a result, the impact was merely annoying and not project-threatening. It was a good lesson in forethought.
Here's a snippet of the fruit of our labor - which was delivered just in time.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Awesome8!
Ed says:
Last month I had the pleasure of working with children's entertainer Miss Lori of PBS fame and Miss Lori's CAMPUS on her new video "Awesome8".
Almost every frame was shot on green screen (DVCPro-HD / P2 / 720p24). The gymnasium environment was a complete fabrication; 127 effect shots in 4 minutes -- most with at least 5 layers. Produced by Greta Landis, we got background help by our friend and favorite graphic artist Sandy Weber. I think we pulled it off in fine fashion.
I'll try to post up a higher resolution version on our website soon. In the mean time you'll be humming this one on the drive home tonight.
Last month I had the pleasure of working with children's entertainer Miss Lori of PBS fame and Miss Lori's CAMPUS on her new video "Awesome8".
Almost every frame was shot on green screen (DVCPro-HD / P2 / 720p24). The gymnasium environment was a complete fabrication; 127 effect shots in 4 minutes -- most with at least 5 layers. Produced by Greta Landis, we got background help by our friend and favorite graphic artist Sandy Weber. I think we pulled it off in fine fashion.
I'll try to post up a higher resolution version on our website soon. In the mean time you'll be humming this one on the drive home tonight.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
DVCPRO-HD
Ed says:
Greetings, and welcome to the Motion Post Blog.
We are a television post production company specializing in mobilized, remote video editing services. In the near future I plan to post more about what we do and the philosophy behind our unique approach to mobile video post services.
But today I'd like to start off by sharing an email I wrote recently for an editor friend who was guiding one of his clients to an HD workflow. Many production companies have been working in High Def for years, but many others have not -- and it can be an intimidating and expensive transition without guidance. I've had lots of great experience using Panasonic's DVCPro-HD formats and I guess this letter sort of evangelizes it, but for me really it's more about the workflows I can develop around any format. As I wrote this I realized that, up to this point, DVCPro-HD and Final Cut Pro have the tools proven to fit my needs (and budgets) the best.
Propinquity? Perhaps, but here is my experience:
===
believe it or not I've never taken a penny from Panasonic...
* If you must work with HDV, may advice is to digitize it to a different format like DVCPro or ProRes if you can. If you can't, I understand some editors are setting up Final Cut to render HDV sequence effects using ProRes. Needless to say, I am NOT a fan of HDV or its Long-GOP brethren.
** I've had purists point out that digitizing on a laptop creates a lower quality signal because of the tricks Panasonic plays to squirt it though the firewire bus, but in the “real world” I've never noticed an appreciable difference in the video quality.
Greetings, and welcome to the Motion Post Blog.
We are a television post production company specializing in mobilized, remote video editing services. In the near future I plan to post more about what we do and the philosophy behind our unique approach to mobile video post services.
But today I'd like to start off by sharing an email I wrote recently for an editor friend who was guiding one of his clients to an HD workflow. Many production companies have been working in High Def for years, but many others have not -- and it can be an intimidating and expensive transition without guidance. I've had lots of great experience using Panasonic's DVCPro-HD formats and I guess this letter sort of evangelizes it, but for me really it's more about the workflows I can develop around any format. As I wrote this I realized that, up to this point, DVCPro-HD and Final Cut Pro have the tools proven to fit my needs (and budgets) the best.
Propinquity? Perhaps, but here is my experience:
===
Q. Knowing that you are finishing your shows in DVCProHD has given me a lot to think about while Apple irons the kinks out of FCP6 and ProRes. If it's not too much trouble, could you send me a short list of the broadcasters you deliver your DVCProHD masters to? And/or the name of a few of your shows. Thanks Ed. I'm gathering my resources for the big push to HD!
A.
DVCPRO-HD has been a fabulous format for us. There is now army of Varicam shooters out there, plus the economics of the work flow (equal to or better than standard definition Digital BetaCam in our opinion), the flexibility of o/i compatibility, and picture image to file size performance is the best we've found.
It holds up very well to color correction and standard timeline effects rendering without the kinds of compression degradation you see in lesser formats like HDV*. Panasonic's formats are not as expensive and cumbersome as HDCAM, and DVCPro-HD offers true variable frame rate options in a progressive frame with an apparently richer color space. It is still a compressed formant however so if you need to do heavy effects work I recommend digitizing the footage uncompressed (720 or 1080) onto a properly equipped (Kona/Decklink, Raid0 SATA, etc...) system and work from there. But it's best feature is the ability to log and digitize on a lesser system (like a laptop) using firewire while not tying up your main edit system**. It also down-converts very nicely to standard def.
The new P2 camera option offers a whole new realm of flexibility. But don't be mistaken about what P2 promises. As of now with Final Cut Pro, when you import P2 you are pretty much stuck with the statistics (frame size, frame rate, aspect, etc...) of the camera source. One of the advantages of tape digitizing is the ability to transcode the footage (to SD, for instance) in real time using a capture card.
I could go on, but suffice to say we do all of our origination on Varicam 720p (frame rate is determined by the look we want) and then digitize and edit to the output format that our broadcast client needs. We find Varicam's variable frame rate capability to be invaluable.
In our HD sports documentary series Fields of Glory and Hardwood Heavens for MoJo on Comcast -- we use a Kona card to transcode and edit in DVCPRO-HD 1080i60 with no appreciable quality loss. From there I can master to the required HDCAM format, but we don't have to pay HDCAM production rates to get there -- and MoJo's QC department has never made sound.
We've done 3 seasons of a show called Nike Training Camp for College Sports Television, shot on Varicam and (believe it or not) delivered for broadcast on DVCam (DV25). They loved the quality boost that HD origination gave them, and it cost us only a fraction more to shoot it on Varicam compared to DVCam or BetaCam SP.
We've produced commercials for the NY Yankees and PSAs for Honda using the format.
We've produced a series of 9 direct to DVD children's videos, Curious Buddies for Nickelodeon, Shot at 720p24 and 720p60 (the latter offers a great slo-mo capability), digitized and edited at DV50 and mastered to Digital BetaCam for DVD authoring.
One exception: last year we produced the broadcast series Jack's Big Music Show for Nickelodeon. This was shot in the studio on Sony HDCam, digitized as DVCPro 50 and mastered to DigiBeta. It worked fine, but in the end, for numerous reasons, the producers plan to use a Vericam studio set-up instead next year.
We have an ongoing relationship with one of Comcast's OnDemand channels delivering short-form instructional content. The shorts are all shot on location using 3 Varicam cameras plus a P2 and mastered for broadcast in HD and SD.
The list goes on.
Right now I think the best hardware set up is the Panasonic AJ-HD1400 fully loaded (don't be tempted to buy a used 1200a at this point), Kona 3 or Decklink HDSDI capture card, G5 or MacPro, a solid SATA RAID drive setup (I like Caldigit's offerings right now, but you can build your own RAID array for far less money) and obviously Final Cut Pro.
We now have Aja's new IOHD. It rocks. I have been working in DVCPro on our MacPro using the IOHD and it works well, (however, we've had only limited success running that configuration on any of our lesser machines). I'm looking forward to ingesting our Vericam footage to ProRes using the IOHD, I think that combination has huge potential, we'll see...
Good luck.
Ed Pickart
believe it or not I've never taken a penny from Panasonic...
* If you must work with HDV, may advice is to digitize it to a different format like DVCPro or ProRes if you can. If you can't, I understand some editors are setting up Final Cut to render HDV sequence effects using ProRes. Needless to say, I am NOT a fan of HDV or its Long-GOP brethren.
** I've had purists point out that digitizing on a laptop creates a lower quality signal because of the tricks Panasonic plays to squirt it though the firewire bus, but in the “real world” I've never noticed an appreciable difference in the video quality.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Welcome to Motion Post!
Welcome!
We will soon have content you might actually like to read -- in this very spot.
Thanks for dropping by!
Ed
We will soon have content you might actually like to read -- in this very spot.
Thanks for dropping by!
Ed
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
