Great Lineup Highlighted Tues. March 27 Meeting
We've had a great SF Cutters Meeting Tues March 27th at SF Cutters:

•Barb deHart of Flip4Mac and Telestream: Episode and Pipeline
•Mark Faulkner SF Cutter Editor of "Where's Molly?"
•Christopher Phrommayon, Apple Inc., Pro Apps Engineering Support

Raffle Spotlight on " Episode Pro" value $895
Link is here: www.flip4mac.com/episode

Thanks to all that attended. Stay tuned for the April meeting.

SF Cutters Announces Azureus as New Sponsor
Azureus is a high-quality, online entertainment destination that
enables filmmakers to share their original, creative content with
millions of users—for free.

This next generation platform provides a positive, legitimate environment for filmmakers to distribute their works to a vast, global
audience of film fans.

Users can browse, discover and share high quality films (in DVD or HD quality) in a variety of genres and niche categories—all on a full screen, with no loss of quality—creating a rich and compelling entertainment experience.

Please support them as they are a great company and are real believers in our mission at SF Cutters. Thanks Azureus!

Azureus will have a demonstration of their services at the upcoming January SF Cutters meeting. Don't miss it.

FCPUG SuperMeet Wrapped Up
For those of you that attended our recent SuperMeet, we extend a big thank you. Thanks for supporting us and showing class. We hope you learned some cool new things, connected with a few old friends and made a few new ones. Did you miss the event? Here's what happened.

We had Associate Editor Sean Cullen who is currently working with Walter Murch on Francis Coppola's new film, "Youth without Youth" as our headline guest. This movie is being filmed using the Sony HDC F950 HD Cam and marks the first time both Walter Murch and Francis Coppola are going "filmless." Sean discussed the digital workflow they have developed.

Also appeared was film editor Angus Wall who just completed Zodiac for David Fincher. Angus discussed the all tapeless workflow they developed for Zodiac. The film was shot using the Grass Valley Viper Film Stream camera and Angus will be joined on stage by tech consultant, Andreas Wacker.

No December Meeting was Held
Traditionally, we take a break in December to prepare for MacWorld. Happy Holidays everyone!

The November SF Cutters Meeting is Wrapped: Happy Holidays!
This was our last meeting for 2006. In 2007 our meetings move to the last Tue of the month. The first meeting in 2007 is Jan 30. Thanks to all that attended and Happy Holidays to all SF Cutters and their families.

Thanks to Snader and Associates our Refreshment Sponsor for October and November for the goodies. Attendees also won some killer raffle prizes.

Kevin Monahan in person showed sneak peeks from his new seminars: Final Cut Pro Basic, and Motion FX. He showed how to incorporate dynamic trimming technique to help cut the scene into a more exciting piece.

Kevin had just come from teaching at Video Symphony in Burbank. Congrats to Kevin who updated recently at Apple Pro Training and is certified for Levels 1, 2 and 3: the highest possible level for Pro Trainers teaching FCP.

Alex Lindsay founder of Pixelcorps, a world wide online training organization, and dvGarage, producer of media and training materials, showed us something a digital master might call a "challenge": presenting a Web Video made with Garageband, Zaxwerks ProAnimator, Motion, and Final Cut Pro.

 

Jim Tierney founder of Digital Anarchy showed you:"How to Create your own Preset Plugins in After Effects" and it was so cool! He also showed us "How to use a Digital SLR to shoot HD time lapse."  These were brand new presentations - Jim is one of our all time favorite presenters; we had many, many favorable comments from his presentation. Sorry if you missed this digital master in person.

Jin from Cinemasports showed us videos of previous Cinemasports entries and enlist us to participate. Cinemasports is the Iron Chef of Filmmaking. Teams have 10 hours to complete a movie with a list of ingredients. Finished movies screen the 11th hour, that very night. For Example, can different teams complete a short movie during daylight hours that includes an English teacher, a tattoo, and a lost lover? Three-time Oscar winner Walter Murch says, "Something emerges that's not contained in any of the films..."

This month we had a huge raffle too.Final Draft, Gorilla, Flip4Mac's new Episode, Flip4Mac Studio Pro HD, DMTS Training DVDs, Books and lots more.

Apple has released FCP 5.1.2
HUGE Update. Apple has announced that FCP 5.1.2 is now available. More info >>>

October 2006 News

SF Cutters, still going strong!
SF Cutters is the world's first Final Cut Pro User's Group and probably the world's first editor's group of any kind, really. If you weren't aware, SF Cutters have spawned over 90 chapters of the group worldwide, as other's have seen our vision and started up their own groups. As the founders of this grass roots movement, we are very proud of this. We are now celebrating our 6th anniversary.

Upcoming Meeting Notes
Lots of stuff going on this month. Our October meeting is already planned and we are gearing up for our "big meeting with Larry Jordan, Gorilla Software, Studio Artist and more. See the Events page for more details and breaking news.

Stay tuned for more info on our Post-Thanksgiving November meeting on Nov. 27. This will be our famed "Gnomes vs. Holmes" meeting with Bruce "The DVD Guy" and Steve Holmes. Should be a barn burner!

If you have an event or screening, be sure to email SF Cutters to get it on the site. You may want to check out the events page for all the current stuff going on.

Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 is released
This is no minor upgrade, in fact it contains features promised for "the next major release of Final Cut Pro" back at NAB. However it is being positioned as a maintenance release and will be free to Final Cut Studio owners who have cross-graded to the Intel compatible 5.1. The upgrade is be available through Software Update. Our tests show that it is working reliably on DV Only systems, however, if you have third party hardware, please check with those companies to get the latest drivers.

Upgraded format compatibility

Sony XDCAM HD: Adding 1080 25P and support for native 18- and 35Mbit VBR MPEG HD. XDCAM support now includes:

•1080i 50/60, 1080p 24/25/30.
•Native 25Mbit CBR, 18- and 35Mbit VBR MPEG HD for HD
•Native IMX 30 (new) and IMX 50 for SD

Panasonic: Adding 720 25P from P2 devices. Support now includes:

•1080i 50/60, 720p 24/24N/25/25N/30 from P2 cards
•1080pA 24 (Advanced Pulldown) now supported via FireWire
from AJ-HD1200A
•More reliable P2 import dialog with ability browser, mark, and ingest in the background.
•Unfortunately it appears that there is still no 720p/50 support.

CANON: 1080p 24/25 HDV

JVC: 720p 24/25 HDV

Other Changes and additions
While Apple call these "Stability and Reliability Improvements", many are actually significantly updated features.

Scopes:

•Improved accuracy for scopes and monitors which now sample all video lines (not just 16 down the screen)
•Scopes will update in real-time during video playback.
•Final Cut Pro is now compatible with "some" FxPlug (real-time graphics card accelerated) filters (a totally new feature not expected until Final Cut Pro 6).
•Gamma Control for Imported Graphics (also new).
•Metadata Preservation in QuickTime files (also new) -
•Cineon/DPX files will import the appropriate QT-Component with all metadata!
•Able to insert edit to audio channels 5-12 on decks.

Improvements in:

•BWF (audio) compatibility;
•Media Manager reliability;
•EDL and Cinema Tools lists;
•XML for developers; and
•Edit-to-tape accuracy for D5.

This update (and apparently all future updates) will only be available for Universal Final Cut Studio owners. The crossgrade/upgrade program ends at the end of the year. Crossgrading or upgrading is highly recommended for all Final Cut Studio application owners, even those still on PPC Macs.

Back to Top ^^^

Apple Kbase Article Updates: Oct 5th, 2006
Here are some updates pertinent to Final Cut Studio. Sit up and take note.

Motion 2: Canvas can't be moved to second PCI Express graphics card
If you have a PowerMac or Mac Pro with PCI Express graphics cards the Motion Canvas window must be on the main display, even though you can add compatible PCI Express graphics cards. Motion's Canvas will only display correctly on the main display.

Final Cut Pro: For best performance on Mac Pro, install memory in risers symmetrically
Final Cut Pro's performance benefits from symmetrical RAM configurations on Mac Pro - the Knowledge Base article details the pairing combinations that are recommended: from 2 x 512MB DIMM in each pair of slots, through to putting 4 x 2GB DIMM in each slot.

Maximum memory usage in Final Cut Pro is 2.5 GB
On a computer with more than 4 GB of RAM installed, you may notice that Final Cut Pro allows a maximum memory allocation of only 2.5 GB. This is because the maximum that a 32 bit OS or application can address is 4 GB of RAM. The missing 1.5 GB is used by frameworks, libraries and drivers which Final Cut Pro calls, therefore the RAM used by these system components gets counted in Final Cut Pro's 4 GB allocation.

New Announcements PDF Released

We now have a downloadable PDF that includes upcoming events and announcements, as well as tips and tricks not found on the site.

To download our newsletter, just click on the image to the left.

Each issue will be released on the third Thursday of the month. Deadline for announcements is the third Monday of the month. Email announcements to us by emailing us.

There's secret tip and tricks in the newsletter not available anywhere else, so check it out.

Make a Split Screen With a Soft Edge. How? It's in the Newsletter

What's included:
Cool stuff like upcoming Cutter presentations, events and announcements. Inside info on upcoming guests to the SF Cutters meetings. You'll also find tips, tricks and info not found on the website that are written by SF Cutters Staff or culled from the website from our regular subscribers.

What's not included:
This newsletter will only go out once a month, so timely and last minute information, such as screenings by SF Cutters or other events might be missed.

Important: Job offers, as well as, freebies and deals from our sponsors and vendors will not be included to the Newsletter. These are only for members of SF Cutters. Don't miss out on these special deals and job offers by becoming a member of our organization. Being a part of our community adds to our numbers, so we can get even better deals for our members.

Become a Member of SF Cutters
Not a member of SF Cutters? It's easy to join, just subscribe to either Cutter-Talk or the SF Cutters Announce list (or both) by going here >>>

Submit an Article, Product or Book Review
We are now accepting submissions for articles, as well as product and book reviews. Please email us if you are interested in contributing.

How Did We Do That?
We hope you enjoy our newsletter and will tell your friends about it. We created the newsletter courtesy of Apple Pages 2, which comes as part of the iWork package.

The info was culled from our announcements posts and then dropped into a Pages Template, like you see above.

Back to Top ^^^

Using Our Site: Top Menu Bar Redux
Here is a quick tip about how to make our website your "portal" for other FCP Troubleshooting forums. This is great for quickly going to various knowledge bases to do research on either a technique or for troubleshooting a problem. You'll also see some easy ways to return to the home page.

Here's How:
1. Roll over the Discussions Button in the Top Menu Bar

 

 

 

A selection of FCP Troubleshooting Forums appears below the button.

2. Click on the FCP Forum of your choice.

3. You will immediately jump to that FCP forum.

After you've visited the other site and have posted your question or answer, return to sfcutters.org to go to your next FCP related search.

Now, a quick look at how to get back "Home" when you are looking at other pages on the site. There are a few different ways.

1. Click on the "Home" Button at the top of the page.
2. Note that when you roll over the Home button, that a sub-menu for Go to > Home will pop up. You can also click that to return home, as well.

3. Finally, you can click on the SF Cutters logo in the upper left corner of any page. You can also click on the banner to get back Home.

That's it!


We like to think of the sfcutters.org site as a gateway for connecting with other FCP users, both in the SF Bay Area and all over the world. So, make sfcutters.org your home page and have immediate access to FCP users and forums world-wide. Also, don't forget to check out our Links Page, offering the most exhaustive set of links to FCPUGs on the planet.

Back to Top ^^^

Trouble with Cutter-Talk? Read this!
Problems with Cutter-Talk? Yes, it's been ocurring as of late, especially if you have Yahoo mail. If you are not receiving your Cutter-Talk, please check your Bulk or Spam folder for SF Cutters autogenerated or list serve messages as your ISP may be blocking them. Especially you new users.

Many problems can be avoided if you save your password in an easy place to remember. If you are still having trouble, you can always unsubscribe, then re-subscribe.

If you have not signed up for the list, click on the list-serve link on the left nav bar or just click here.

Back to Top ^^^

New Feature for Cutter-Talk: Archives
Cutters have been requesting this feature for some time, and now it has finally been implemented. Click here to get access to the Cutter-Talk archives, a thing of technical beauty.

Back to Top ^^^

Podcast: An Evening with Walter Murch
"An Evening with Walter Murch" took place at the Club Mezzanine during Macworld Conference and Expo, and as part of the FCPUG SuperMeet (co-hosted by SF Cutters) which took place on January 12, 2006.

Click the iTunes button to receive the feed as a podcast.


Streaming iPod download also available.
Click here to view a 320x240 QuickTime streaming file in your QuickTime Player.

iPod Download Available
An iPod-compatible H.264 video is available (Running time: 1 hour 14 minutes (114MB file size)

View (Control-click (Mac) or Right-click (Windows) to download iPod video)

The video features the legendary Walter Murch, a three time Academy Award winning Editor and Final Cut Pro user who has worked as a sound designer, film editor, writer and/or director on feature films such as JARHEAD, COLD MOUNTAIN, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, THE CONVERSATION, GHOST, APOCALYPSE NOW and many more.

Running time: 1 hour 14 minutes
Requires QuickTime Player 7.0.4 or better.

Special thanks go to Pixelcorps for taping the podcast, Adjoa Middleton for the multi-cam edit and to Kevin Monahan for finishing, titles and encoding.

September 2006 News
For those that missed out, here is an archive of the hip happenings of the SF Cutters for September 2006.

Apple Video World
Did you attend this event? SF Cutters staff was on hand and chatting up the locals. Thanks to Cutting Edge and Apple for putting it together. Unfortunately, we could not sign up new members because there was no internet access. Ah well, next time, we hope!

Demonstrations included:
Tapeless Solutions for Broadcast: We walked in during this demonstration and it was quite comprehensive in describing both P2 and XDCam ingest. In FCP 5.1.2 there is a new P2 ingest window, similar to Log and Capture. Very slick!

We went in and sampled the snacks, drinks and vendors during the networking part of the demo. Sorry Adam! I'm sure the Omneon stuff is way cool though!

Broadcast to Podcast
This was a cool demo because it appears that a lot of new business in broadcast is centered around being able to produce and deliver enhanced podcasts. Learn the presets in Compressor so that you can easily deliver multiple versions of your original content. H.264 encoding is good for "future-proofing" your encoding since it is scalable along multiple digital devices, like your iPod or Cell Phone. We also learned here that tape, now more than ever is dead, dead, dead!

Unfortunately, due to other commitments, (OK, truth be told we had too many social gatherings bunched too close together), we didn't see the XML workflow or Soundtrack Pro demo.

One thing we do know about XML workflow, though, is that you don't know need to know how to code it, it's there to just use it and it works across all of the ProApps, primarily for import and export purposes. Note to selves: put learning XML on our "To-Do" list.

STPro? Logic? What do we look like? Sound Guys? Just Joking! Seriously, though, if you haven't used STPro in your productions, you're selling yourself short. You can fiddle around and try to teach yourself, or get your hide to the SF Cutters store and pick up the Pro Training book for SoundTrack Pro by Mary Plummer. Good stuff!

NAILP Event on 9/27 at The Little Roxie
The National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NAILP) in association with the New College of California presented
"Inside the Box", TV in our backyard. If anyone has a scene report about this event, please email us.

Vendor News
The following info may be of use to members of SF Cutters. These are articles are derived from press releases of products we find interesting or compelling. Vendors can contact SF Cutters for demo and review purposes. Email us if you are a vendor and would like us to review your stuff.

Mammoth HD Footage Library adds 33 new collections
Mammoth HD have released 33 new collections - featuring the Thailand Series, New York City's Columbus Circle Series and expanding the Ocean Life Collections. Al Caudullo's Thailand Series includes the Golden Buddha Collections, Thailand Scenics, Animals, Flowers, Silk Worms and the River Kwai Bridge. Jack McKee's New York Series is a study of Columbus Circle with NYC traffic, the buildings, globe and statues.

The Ocean Life Collections feature the new works of Paul LeBourgeois with the Diving: South Pacific Series with Sharks, Ship Wrecks, WWII War wrecks, reef fish, nudibranchs and other aquatic life and the Blue Ring Octopus Collection, and Bill Macdonald's Diving: Indonesia Series features Octopus, Squid Mating, nudibranchs, Reef Fish, Scorpion and Lion Fish.

The new additions to the Mammoth HD Footage Library bring the total online Collections, ranging from the Amazon and the South Pacific to Bhutan and the Middle East... and lots more.

Mammoth HD's Royalty Free Collections feature online review with thumbnails, clip information and QuickTime previews of every Clip. HD collections in 1080 are typically US$895 for 10-15 clips, ranging down to SD versions at US$395, as are HDV versions.

Century Pro Series HD 2X Tele-Converter
Schneider Optics have released the new Century Pro Series HD 2X Tele-Converter for the Panasonic HVX200, Panasonic DVX100A/B, Sony HVR-Z1U and Sony FX1 camcorders. This professional optic instantly mounts to the camcorder lens front to effectively double focal length range in the telephoto direction, while maintaining the lens? original F-stop at full telephoto.

HD 2x Tele-Converter features multi-coated glass elements to deliver ultra-sharp images free of unwanted distortion or chromatic aberration. Equipped with a bayonet mount, installation to the front of the camcorder lens is quick, easy and secure. The unit comes complete with a lens support slider for mounting on standard 15mm support rods and fits a 105 mm diameter front for compatibility with many existing shades, matteboxes and accessories.

In fact, the company is so committed to the contention that a deep lens shade is vital to minimize flare and stray light, the new attachment ships complete with a lightweight round shade with a built-in rectangular mask. For greater protection, the face of the unit offers 102mm threads for direct attachment of Schneider 102mm clear UV filters.

The new Century Pro Series HD 2X Tele-Converter is available in three models: for the Panasonic DVX200, for Panasonic DVX100A/B , and for the Sony HVR-Z1U/FX1. Suggested price including support slider and lens shade is US $1495.

Digital Heaven releases two new Plug-ins for Final Cut Pro, updates VideoSpace and starts Video Podcast

New Plug-ins
Digital Heaven have added two new Final Cut transition plug-ins to their range.

DH_RetroTV
Designed to replicate an old TV, DH_RetroTV is effectively three plug-ins in one. It has a Switch On mode where the image appears from black with optional picture rolling. The Channel Change mode is designed to be used between two clips and features controls for the amount of Wiggling and Noise. Finally there's a Switch Off mode which reduces the image to a white dot.

DH_RetroTV comes complete with five specially created and royalty free sound effects including mechanical on/off switches and channel changes.

DH_Dream
Designed to recreate the classic ripple and blur transition commonly used for flashbacks or dream sequences. Allows control over the amount of wave and blur and comes complete with two specially created and royalty free harp glissando sound effects!

DH_RetroTV and DH_Dream are available for individual purchase at US$20 each from the Digital Heaven online store. Demo versions and example movies are also available from the Digital Heaven website.

VideoSpace 1.5
VideoSpace v1.5 is a new version of the popular free widget for Mac OS X Tiger which calculates the disk space required for video files. VideoSpace provides a wide choice of codecs from DV right up to 10 bit Uncompressed HD with comprehensive options for frame rate and audio settings. New features for version 1.5:

Support for calculations of up to 1000 hours duration (previously 100 hours)

Support for IMX (30/40/50mbs) and XDCAM HD (18/25/35mbs) codecs

VideoSpace is available as a free download.

Hot Tips
Digital Heaven launched their new video podcast, Hot Tips which shows useful and time saving tips for Apple's Final Cut Pro. In the first episode, Martin Baker demonstrates some little known tips for dealing with clip speed.

Hot Tips can be watched online where RSS links and iTunes subscription details can also be found. All episodes will be iPod compatible so you can brush up on your Final Cut Pro knowledge wherever you are!

Panasonic ships the AJ-HD1400
Panasonic announced that the new AJ-HD1400 DVCPRO HD portable VTR, previewed at NAB in April, is now shipping. The HD1400 replaces the HD1200A and plays all of the DVCPRO HD formats and DVCPRO50, DVCPRO and DV as well. most popular high definition broadcast formats. The AJ-HD1400 is available at a suggested list price of US$25,000.

The AJ-HD1400 records at 100 Mbps with 4:2:2 image sampling and intra-frame compression in multiple HD formats including 1080/59.94i, 1080/50i, 720/60p, 720/59.94p and 720/50p, and plays back in 20 HD and SD formats, including both NTSC (480i) and PAL (576i) tapes. It incorporates a built-in up/down/cross converter, so that users can play back DVCPRO50, DVCPRO and DV tapes can output an upconverted HD signal.

With IEEE 1394 input/output, the AJ-HD1400 can transfer DVCPRO video codec data without additional quality loss to a Mac or PC-based nonlinear editing system. With its HD-SDI in/out and SD-SDI outputs, the AJ-HD1400 is a flexible and high-quality solution for applications such as line recording and in-studio production, and it also supports VANC metadata (UMID, CC, et al.) and offers encoder remote control. The AJHD1400's RS-422 9-pin remote allow precise insert and assemble tape-to-tape and NLE editing.