MacVideo "Matt Davis's Blog"

Seeing Red again...

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:39:00 GMT

What on earth will the cinema industry do with a camera like the Red Epic 617?

Happily skinning cats for cash

matt@mdma.tv — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:33:00 GMT

Oooh, thank GOODNESS I've spent way too much money on encoding software.

A fundamental law of capacity?

matt@mdma.tv — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 10:54:00 GMT

An interesting situation cropped up a few days ago. Regulars may remember that I now shoot tapeless with an EX1, which has been a beautiful thing for my market niche.

Not enough hours in the day...

matt@mdma.tv — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:28:00 GMT

I'm helping out on a little project. Well, big project. And here's a question that's baking my noodle:

Once more into recession, dear friends.

matt@mdma.tv — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:36:00 GMT

This has absolutely nothing to do with editing, or shooting, or script writing. But it is something we're all going to deal with: Discounts.

Journeys through Archivia

matt@mdma.tv — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:44:00 GMT

BluRay Drobo Lto Raid-five.

Live long and prosper....

matt@mdma.tv — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 08:14:00 GMT

I'm on the sunny side of a disaster. Backups and archives functioned, and my Mac systems are back at cruising altitude. But, lest that one should sound smug, I am aware that archiving is an interesting case in point, especially for an EX1 owner.

alt.edit.final.final.final

matt@mdma.tv — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:22:00 GMT

It's the last 10 yards of an edit. Well actually, today it's two edits symultaneously.

Graphic Artists Borrow, Artists Steal

matt@mdma.tv — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:07:00 GMT

Sorry to inaccurately paraphrase Mr Picasso, but I'm trying to excuse the fact that I'm watching Top Gear. With a notebook. I'm pretending to be a petrol head, but I'm watching the editing like a hawk. Or a hungry chicken. Whatever.

It's all in the recovery

matt@mdma.tv — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:59:00 GMT

I had a hard disk failure the other day. MacBook Pro. Happened without warning when on the phone to client. No warning. Just like a stroke. Sudden, devastating, terminal.

Being a Monitor

matt@mdma.tv — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:33:00 GMT

Thanks to those who suggested alternatives to the HD25 headphones, which are now repaired thanks to the lovely people at Richmond Film Services. But this debacle has illuminated an interesting angle on things.

The old Army Colonel, and his son on holiday

matt@mdma.tv — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:17:00 GMT

Another edit is in the can. In approximately 9 hours, I'm off to do a Z1 shoot and really wishing it could have been an EX1 job. Okay, so I could shoot HDV - but the shots would stand out like trout in a fishbowl.

Back to school

matt@mdma.tv — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:58:00 GMT

This may be a missive in the school of 'Painfully and Slowly Working Out the Patently Obvious', but in the face of a sudden delay in the start of an edit, I decided to splash out on something to cheer me up until the tapes arrive (four to six hour delay). And being a bit of a sad git at heart, what do I choose? To cuddle up to an Iain M. Banks? To go for a long cycle ride in the balmy summer air?

Bridge to Engine Room: We need more power!

matt@mdma.tv — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:53:00 GMT

Having switched from DV (and DV derived from HDV) to the EX1's 720p, the quality is wonderful, but suddenly there's lots to re-learn. Okay, so we've got 720p25 to progressive PAL worked out. That's all fine and dandy. Good quality, easy peasy, quick and efficient. Move along, nothing to see... (it's all about ensuring FCP does not try to do anything interlacy with your 720p footage - see Rick's article on Ken Stone's site).

You've got the look

matt@mdma.tv — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The film look. That ellusive, ephemeral, desirable image we're all after with our sub-$10,000 cameras trying to look like Panaflex or Arri with lenses that represent a years salary.

Analogue Audio, now there's a thing!

matt@mdma.tv — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:45:00 GMT

In the virtual local pub that is the interweb's many forums, a few of us gathered to pontificate about HDV audio recently.