The San Francisco SUPERMEET was a good time to meet new sponsors and catch up on new products that enhance/streamline digital workflow. My favorites are in BLUE:

One such group leader is Taz Goldstein and the associates at Handheld Hollywood.

The idea behind Hand Held Hollywood is to explore how Apple’s ubiquitous iPhone (and iPod Touch) can be used in nearly every aspect of film and video production. Hand Held Hollywood provides a destination for those wishing to discus and discover the latest techniques and technology; a place where every gadget obsessed writer, producer, director, cinematographer, composer, editor, actor, and otherwise can call home.

The founder of Hand Held Hollywood, Taz Goldstein, is a Los Angeles based Director who launched Hand Held Hollywood to satisfy his own filmmaking and gadget addictions.

With 20 years experience, Goldstein’s work has spanned nearly every medium. His award winning films have been showcased at festivals from Savannah to Singapore. His commercial directing garnered the Radius Award at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. And his television work has been seen by more than 30 million viewers (HBO Networks, Fox Television Studios, Food Network, MTV, FX and the Prime Time Emmy Awards).

Goldstein has lectured at numerous industry events including NAB, Macworld, and the DV Expo.

This presentation was recorded at the FCPUG San Francisco SuperMeet, February 2010.

Watch Taz Goldstein’s presentation at the SuperMeet in San Francisco at MacVideo here.

Here are some of the cool accessories I spotted that might be of interest to DCFCPUG users:

Watch the presentation to hear Taz talk first hand about each one….

OWLE BUBO – The grip that adds stability and functionality to your iPhone 3Gs, letting you take significantly better video.

PROPROMPTER WING – A small camera mount that helps turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a low cost Teleprompter.

PROPROMPTER PROMAG – The Wing’s big brother that allows for professional, through-the-lens teleprompting. The just announced a new version for the iPad. Look for our full review coming soon.

FSTOP WIRELESS RECEIVER – Remotely control your camera’s lens with this incredible combo of hardware and iPhone/iPod Touch software. Even control more than one camera at once.

For new iPhone/iPod Touch related apps targeted for film editors/makers:

CINEMEK STORYBOARD COMPOSER - Compose fully animated storyboards right on your iPhone and iPod Touch. Simply amazing.

ARTEMIS DIRECTOR’S VIEWFINDER - Turns your iPhone 3Gs into an incredibly powerful director’s viewfinder, complete with a wide variety of formats, cameras and lenses.

MOVIE*SLATE - Our favoriate clapboard app that lets you log your shots for easy import into Final Cut Pro. The new version has added a very cool Music Video feature.

REELDIRECTOR – Let’s you edit video on your iPhone. Let’s you trim, re-arrange, add transitions, titles, and audio. It even creates Ken-Burns-ish slideshows from your photos.

PROPROMPTER – This is the teleprompting app I showed alongside the ProPrompter Wing early in my presentation. The new version allows you to wirelessly control the playback speed with a second iPhone or iPod Touch! Awesome!

SCREENPLAY – Let’s you write a script right on your iPhone. Better yet, the app can import and export documents from Final Draft 8!

iKEYSTOGO: FINAL CUT PRO – A complete guide to all of Final Cut’s commands and shortcuts. A great reference for FCP editors.

MOVIOLA PRO VIDEO GUIDE - A complete reference guide for the digital media maker. It’s a great source of technical info.

BABY NAMES PLUS - A great tool for writers looking for a character name reference. Let’s you search by multiple criteria, and even shows you the most popular names for any given year.

Other interesting apps:

MatchLens – a calculator that computes the equivalent lens focal length between two cameras with different aperture/sensor sizes.

RUNPEE Mobile – Tells you when it’s safe to go to the bathroom when your out at the movies. ‘Nuff said.

Enjoy the presentation and visit HHH for your next iPhone/iPod Touch app for film…

Rodney – DCFCPUG

If you have an interest in participating in a local screening of this film, send an email to rodney@dcfcpug.org.
If enough people are interested, this should be a fun activity to celebrate this legend in our own personal way.

Rodney – DCFCPUG

Final Cut Pro – Changing Render Codecs

Sequence Settings

Normally, it is a good idea to render your effects and transitions in the same video format you are editing.

However, for some video formats which use a GOP compression scheme, such as HDV, XDCAM HD, XDCAM EX, changing your render settings can both improve quality and allow your renders to be completed faster.

To change your render settings, go to Sequence > Settings > Render Control tab.

Then, change the Codec pop-up menu from Same as Sequence Codec to Apple ProRes 422.

Making this change has two significant benefits: higher quality and significantly faster render times.

It also has one downside, your render files will be about 4 times bigger than your source files.

If disk space is really limited, don’t do this. Otherwise, I strongly recommend it.