Waiting for Kristen . . .

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO: “Waiting for Kristen”

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO: “Waiting for Kristen”

I was walking from work down 6th Avenue headed to Staples to get printer ink and postage stamps. At the corner of 25th & 6th I saw a small crowd gathering in front of the new luxury apartment building there. News vans and crews, cameramen, photographers were all gathered around. People were curious what was up. A pedestrian asked one of the Univision cameramen what was going on. He said, “the hooker, she lives there, on the ninth floor”. Of course today that could only mean one thing: I was in front the building of Kristen’s, the home of Ashley Alexandra Dupre. She’s the alleged call girl that Eliot Spitzer allegedly hired to have sex with. You know, the whole Client 9 thing.

The press were gathered at the door to this building waiting for Dupre to enter or exit. The news stations were conducting their 5 o’clock stand-ups here, “live from the Kristen condo” style. Struck by the minor media circus, I decided to go get my own video camera to shoot a little footage. I have a paying video shoot coming up on April 9th that I need to practice for as I am really a video editor, not a shooter. Plus maybe I’d even catch that million dollar shot? So I went back to my studio, got may camera and shot for a bit. Nothing was really going on and I started to get cold and bored. So I stopped shooting after a few minutes. I then continued on to Staples and finally bought the ink and stamps.

When I got back to my studio, I cut together the little clip linked above. I like to think it makes a statement on the absurdity of the media’s obsession with this story. Or at least a statement on my absurd obsession with the media’s absurd obsession on the story. Enjoy!

Footnote 3/14/2008, 5:00pm: The press is still there. Photographers are now staking out the rear service entrance right across the courtyard from the building I work in. Hopefully they will not take over the public courtyard as it is a cool place to go and chill for a while.

Footnote 3/17/2008, 5:00pm:  The press is gone!

Digital Films?

As an old fart in the world of film and video (17 years in the industry) I always find it odd that people say digital film and digital film making when they are really referring to video. Movie film is chemical process. Video is an electronic process. Video used to be strictly analog, now it’s mostly digital. All the arty filmmaker types would never think of using video back in the day. When video cameras were almost exclusively of the analog component type as exhibited in Sony’s ubiquitous BetacamSP product line, film makers would never use it. To them, BetacamSP was for TV news only. Then miniDV came along. MiniDV is a consumer format of digital video that is, in the very best cameras, equivalent in quality to BetacamSP. In most cameras, miniDV produces a lower quality image than BetacamSP. But because it was digital, and because of the hype and the price, it was embraced immediately by arty, indie film makers. It was given the stamp of approval which BetacamSP never got. But it could not be called video, God forbid. Because video was for hacks and film was for artists. The same people that dissed BetacamSP for its lack of imaging resolution and latitude when compared to film wholeheartedly embraced a technology with even less imaging power than film. I always chuckled at this.

When some one would invite me to watch the “digital film” they made, I’d always respond with a smart-assed “you mean your video”. I was surprised at how many confused and dirty looks I would get. It as if the person really did think that the DVD they where about to show me was actual something other than a standard NTSC video signal. As if it was really film in digital form.

To me, for a program to be called a digital film, it needs to have been shot on film and scanned digitally into a computer using a real film scanner (not a telecine film-to-tape transfer method) at either a 2K or 4K file protocol. That’s digital film, as it has never been converted into a video signal, standard, or protocol. But again, I am an old fart, old school moving image purist who sticks to the old nomenclature. I know that the word “film” nowadays means any kind of motion picture, especially a narrative one. I know it’s a semantic issue. But film still is an imaging technology that really has no other name to use for it. A motion picture camera that shoots on actual film, is called a film camera, not a chemical video camera. There is no other term for a film camera other than film camera. So I kinda feel we still have to respect the differences between film and video cameras.

If you shot your motion picture with a video camera, it’s a video. If you shot it with a film camera, it’s a film. In fact, the only true circumstance where you can actually say you are truly watching a film is when you are in a movie theater watching a movie that was shot on film and is being projected with a film projector off a film print. Everything else is video: TV, DVD, HD TV, HD-DVD, Blu-ray, Apple TV, Windows Media, Quicktime, etc., these are all forms of digital video.

I also found it odd that YouTube decided to use the word tube in its name. Tubes have been gone from video cameras since the 1960’s, and new computer displays and TVs have abandoned CRTs. Again, a semantic issue. But nostalgia rarely finds a place in high tech these days. Also, until I actually went to the website for the first time myself, I assumed it was uTube, and still often type it that way.

Anway, this is what is going through my head right now in these early hours of leap year day.

Apple TV still sucks!

It still can’t achieve 1080p HD quality, and only achieves 720p HD and 480i SD by skimping on bitrate. It uses MPEG-4 Part 10 (H.264), lol! I mean, guys, it’s all about SMPTE 421M (VC-1) these days. And 4 or 5 bucks to download a file with a 24-hour viewing window? No thanks, even if it were HD. $2 gets you Blu-ray at Blockbuster with no late fees. And $20 gets me all the HD-DVDs I’ve got time for in a month via snail mail from NetFlix. Yeah, I was an early adopter of HD-DVD. I don’t care if it dies and I have to buy Blu-ray soon. HD anything is the only way to use my Sony Bravia to full effect. I’ve gotten ever dollar’s worth of all 350 I spent on my Toshiba player. Upscaling SD DVD players look lame. HD-DVD looks amazing. And Blu-ray is just a touch better still when encoded properly. It’s the best image I’ve seen outside of an editing bay or shooting studio. Ever see HDCAM SR with 4:4:4 color space on a 1:1 pixel HD-SDI mointor? Or else an HD-SDI tap straight off the chip block of a RED ONE camera on a JVC DT-V24L1DU lcd monitor? How about a 4k image stream with about five times the image quality of 1080p HD? I’ve seen these things. They make you drool and wet your pants simultaneously. It’s as if the Ziegfeld did IMAX. It makes HD-DVD and Blu-ray look cheap. It’s like watching VHS once you’ve seen Digital Betacam. Hopefully Bayer compression with wavelet transforms will replace DCT one day, once the hardware can keep up and not cost a fortune. It’s DCT versus DWT for now, but DWT is sure to win in the future. Still, HD-DVD is noticeably better than cable or on-demand HD, which has way too much compression applied for my taste. But even cable’s overly compressed HD kicks Apple TV’s ass when it comes to image quality. And neither can promise zero packet loss, so I’m sticking with optical discs instead of wires for now, ’cause Blu-ray and HD-DVD releases have been QC’d up the wazoo. Apple is becoming the greedy big brother it once rebelled against. But with its newspeak TV ads and hip product design, the sheep stay fooled: “cable tv bad, Apple TV good!” Pay more for less. $1 is too much for .mp3, drm or no, btw! Especially when there’s free p2p content at higher bitrates to be had. When are they gonna start pricing media by the byte? Because once that happens, flat-rate per month access is next, imho. Just look at the telecoms and voice calls for an example. That’s why the telecoms are drooling over video delivery: they can return to the per-call pricing model. Apple has always been good at turning cachet into cash. Who knew the hipsters could be fooled by a black mock turtleneck?

Generation L

At work this is typically the slow time, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. I try to spend it on personal projects and getting the business administrative stuff all locked up. But almost every year I wind up getting very little done. I forward the office line to me cellphone, which I can also check email on. I go in when I have to. I know it’s a telecommute world these days, by I still feel guilty staying at home. Plus, video editing and encoding cannot really be done remotely, at least not at broadcast quality levels. I have at least three personal videos I should be editing. And then there’s the screenplay that rarely gets pushed along forward. I guess I’m kinda lazy. I’ll do the marathon edit session for a paying client — 36 hours straight is my record — but it can be so hard to push myself for myself. I write this from my bedroom, on my bed, iPod on, latop resting on my legs. All the while the tasks list in Outlook cries for attention. I dread the email that will call me out of this room and put me on the PATH train to the studio. I dread that the flashing light on my cellphone will change from green to orange, notifying I have a new voicemail. I’m like a heroin addict without the heroin. And I need to go to the DMV to boot. That was today’s reason to stay home. Half the business day is gone. But the sunlight is streaming through the window and onto the bed. My dog Holly keeps shifting her spot on the bed so she’s in the light. Our bodies are tending to stay at rest. There’s money in the bank to last a good long time if I spend wisely, but I still feel like I am on the verge of going broke. I fear I’ll never be hired for another paying project again. I don’t think I’ll ever know what comfort and security is no matter what the bank statements tell me. Why can’t I enjoy myself? I crave days like this one when I am stuck in the suite on a session with a tricky client. Now I’ve got one and I cannot fulfill the opportunity of this new day.

Amber Lee & Amina Sade

Amber Lee Ettinger & Amina Sade at 58 Gallery for Hala Vintage:

Music: “Sister Caroline” by Pillbox, available on iTunes.

YouTube Revolution?

When it comes to the YouTube Revolution, as some call it, I feel what it has really revolutionized is people’s ability to accept poor image quality and dull content as entertainment worth spending a lot of time consuming. Who knows how this audience will react when you give them world-class content that is free or nearly free. Clearly there is always an audience for junk, but no one can survive on junk alone. I feel what people really like about experiencing YouTube is not its content in and of itself, but rather the ablility to share that content with others. “Look at how cool I am, look what I found and/or created,” is the unspoken mantra underlying every YouTube link you receive. Just check the one below for proof!

Of course this not to say that there is not high-quality content to be found on YouTube. But it certainly didn’t make its name with it! When was the last time you saw something really profound on YouTube? To me, an HD cable box with a DVR inside is a lot more fun and fufilling than YouTube.

It’s interesting to see how the computer and the internet have become a communication tool more like the telephone than the movie theater or TV. I remember in the mid to late 1990’s everyone was predicting how video was going to be the next big thing on the web. But what actually became the next big thing on the web were blogs. Text. No one was predicting that simple writing like I am doing now would become a big thing on the web and affect mainstream media, especially mainstream news media. Did anyone predict blogs? I may be wrong, but I don’t think so. Yet look at the impact blogs have had. And no one saw it coming! Blogs are arguably the single most influential thing on the web. A blogger started the chain of events that led to the U.S. House of Representatives vote to impeach a standing U.S. president. So beware of predictions and those who make them. Surprises will never be obsolete.

I do believe the internet will continue its growth as a way for people to communicate with one another. But until there is a huge increase in internet bandwidth for the home user, to say 1 Gbit/s, I do not see the internet changing fundamentally. And even at those speeds and greater, unless some brand-new form of media is invented, computers and the internet will only then be able to match the media viewing experience of technologies that already exist like HDTV and film. Technologies, it should be noted, that aren’t static and are changing and evolving themselves. I am willing to bet cold hard cash (and in a way actually have) that 70-inch and greater HD flat-screen monitors in the home will cause a sea change in the media consumption habits of people. But of course I may be unpleasantly surprised!

Lest we forget, the only true new form of media that the internet has been able to offer has been websites. Everything else on the web is merely existing media distributed in a new way. So: “Don’t believe the hype, it’s a sequel.”

Geek Speak: Headphones

Yeah, headphones baby!

So my dog chewed off the plug to my main set of cans, a Sony MDR-V600, and I was forced to buy new headphones after I realized that I could not repair the cable myself. The research for the best new set began. I had three main qualities I needed in these headphones: they had to be under $100, they had to be really good, and they had to be available at a store within a ten minute walk from my studio. Turns out that Tekserve sells cans! They have Sony MDR-7506’s for $99, the same price as at B&H. It’s always good when a store has the same price as B&H. And Tekserve is right around the corner. Mission accomplished.

But why I am writing this is to mention just how good the 7506’s are. I’ve used these headphones before as they are the industry standard studio reference headphones. I always meant to get a set, but I figured the V600’s where good enough to the point where I would not notice the difference. Wrong! I still have another working pair of V600’s as I need two sets, one for home and one for work, so I did the old side-by-side comparison. It’s amazing how different the two are. The V600’s are muddy and wet against the 7506’s, whose brilliance and clarity is amazing. You hear everything. With the 7506’s you get this nice flat response where no one frequency is favored. I never realized just how bass-heavy the V600’s are. It’s all mud covering up all the good stuff. The 7506’s are so nice and true that you can hear things in tracks that you NEVER heard before. Things like: the artist’s breathing, guitar pick noise against the strings, doubled vocal tracks that you always thought were single, and all sorts of fine nuances in the layering of tracks like very subtle panning and flanging. In fact these cans are almost too good as MP3’s of low and even normal quality sound like ass. You really need to replace all your MP3 files with nice fat ones if you are going to use a pair of headphones like these. Sure there are even better headphones out there (think Ultrasone) but none can make this claim: there’s a really good chance that MDR-7506’s were used in the recording and mixing process (when headphones were called for) of the music you are listening to, more so than with any other set of headphones. So why not listen to this music as the artists, producers, and engineers did when they were making it?

The only thing is that the form factor of the V600’s is definitely more comfortable than the 7506’s. That is not to say the 7506’s are uncomfortable per se, it’s just that the V600’s are better if you ask me. (But these 7506’s are far more comfortable than their main competition, Sennheiser HD-280’s.) Of course, my V600’s are old and entirely broken in to the shape of my head. The new set still feels a little clampy, if you know what I mean. The 7506’s are definitely of better build quality, with far less plastic parts than the V600’s. And all that plastic tends to creak and squeak, and transmit more cable knocking noises like a bad stethoscope. This may seem like a nit-pick, but when you use headphones to QC audio, it’s a real issue. Many parts of the 7506’s are held in place with bonafide screws! And they came with an exploded parts diagram, something that I thought was a goner in the disposable age we live in.

Anyway, I could not be more happy with the Sony MDR-7605’s. Good stuff. Get yourself a set if you need great, affordable cans. One caveat: you may find yourself listening to all your music all over again!

Video Schooling

Today a producer I work with asked me to draw up some video guidlines for cameramen to follow when shooting video that is to be used on network television news. You’d think anyone with pro-caliber equipment would already know this stuff. But not all do. Here’s what I came up with:

Guidelines to Cameramen and Videographers for ENG Shoots

Due to the ever-changing nature of video and video cameras in the digital age, and due to the varied experiences of cameramen and videographers, it has become necessary to outline some basic guidelines regarding video shoots. If you have any questions about anything before or during the shoot, please ask. Please allow the producers to be involved in decisions regarding the look of the video. If the following guidelines are not followed, you risk full or partial forfeiture of your fees.

For standard definition shoots, ALWAYS shoot NTSC 4×3 interlaced video at 30 frames per second (60 interlaced fields per second). DO NOT shoot 16×9 or progressive video unless asked to do so.

For high definition shoots, ALWAYS shoot NTSC video at 1080/60i and frame for 4×3. DO NOT shoot progressive unless asked to do so.

It is worth repeating a third time: DO NOT shoot progressive unless asked to do so!

Never shoot 24p or at 24 frames per second.

Never use “cine-mode” or any other film look camera setting.

Never use a high or low shutter speed. 1/60 of a second is perfectly fine.

Bring enough lighting equipment to be able to shoot at a normal camera gain setting.

A nine-inch (or larger) broadcast-quality interlaced monitor must be at all shoots. All cameras on set must be able to be viewed on this monitor.

Audio is to be continuously monitored by someone with headphones. This can be the cameraman.

When performing a camera move, hold the starting and ending compositions still for at least five seconds each.

Pause the camera when recomposing it between shots.

Breaks in timecode are to be kept to a minimum.

Use a tripod. Handheld shooting is to be avoided at all cost. If handheld shooting will be necessary due to the nature of the subject, always use a shoulder mountable camera, or mount your camera on a shoulder brace.

During a two-camera interview shoot, the second camera must be locked down on a wide-shot. This camera is NEVER to be recomposed during the interview: no zooms, pans, tilts, etc.

During a two-camera shoot, both cameras must be of the same make and model, must be set identically, and must have matching timecode. No exceptions without prior approval.

During an interview, never set focus, change iris setting, or otherwise adjust the camera while the interviewee is speaking. Make these changes when the interviewer is asking a question. Or else ask the producer to hold the action so the camera can be adjusted.

Always have interviewees say and spell their name on camera. If applicable, have them say their company or institution name and their title on camera as well.

All phones, cellphones, pagers, fax machines, etc. must be set to not ring during the shoot. This includes EVERYONE on set, including: crew, producers, agents, talent, and interviewees.

Always shoot in SP mode when shooting miniDV. (LP mode is unacceptable.)

Always acquire 48kHz 16-bit audio when audio is recorded digitally. (32kHz 12bit audio is unacceptable.)

Always acquire at least 15 continuous seconds of quality room-tone for all interior locations.

All on-camera interviewees must each have their own lavalier mics on their person.

Wired lavalier mics are to be used during sit-down interviews.

Wireless lavalier mics are only to be used when on-camera talent is going to be walking or otherwise moving around. Sennheiser wireless lavalier mics and receivers are the only acceptable brand to use on these shoots.

DVCAM or DVCpro25 is always to be used instead of miniDV with cameras that have the option to shoot in these modes.

Always use the highest quality, professional grade tape stock. Sony, Panasonic, and FujiFilm are the only acceptable brands.

When shooting HDV, indicate it on the tape label.

When shooting DVCpro25, DVCpro50, and/or DVCproHD indicate which format you are shooting in by writing it on the tape label no matter what color the tape lid is.

Do not use flash drive or hard drive storage media to record a camera signal without prior notification and approval from the producer.

Keep in mind, this is electronic news gathering, not independent filmmaking. Video that looks like video is what is desired. Trying to emulate film is not the assignment.

Apple goes nuts?

Apple has “released” its “new” version of iMovie, iMovie ‘08. It sucks. Even Pogue hates it. Ditch iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and move to real video editing software from Avid. They even have a free ($0) program, Avid Free DV which kicks iMovie’s ass.

Avid vs. Final Cut Pro, why Avid Media Composer is better than Apple Final Cut Pro:

It’s a mature product with about two decades of updates and R&D behind it.

Avid makes all their own break-out-boxes.

Avid has superior customer support with 24/7 toll-free phone support.

With MC you can mix resolutions, HD and SD, within the same project. Not so with FCP. With MC you can also do a SD downconvert output while simultaneously outputting HD all in realtime. And this SD stream can be set to reformat the HD aspect ratio by either letterbox, anamorphic, or center-cut means.

MC has world-class video codecs, especially for HD, and has for a long time. FCP’s HD codecs for anything beyond HDV are a joke. With MC, you can transcode your HDV footage up to a stable, professional HD codec that can withstand heavy, multi-layerd compositing and its subsequent rendering – at manageable data transfer rates too. (HDV, while nice and used by pros quite often, is a consumer video standard and employs a heavy amount of lossy MPEG2 encoding and poor color sampling.)

MC has more realtime video effects and options. FCP’s realtime capabilities are really bad. It’s almost like Apple is using a totally different definition for realtime than Avid and the rest of the post-production industry.

The MC user interface has more buttons and is more customizable than FCP. The FCP user interface looks like a toy’s when compared to MC’s. With FCP, there’s like, nothing to click!

Once your footage is digitized in MC, you’re ready to edit, there’s no other processing or rendering required.

With MC, outputting back to tape requires less, if any, prep work or rendering. Almost everything, even lowly DV video over FireWire, has to rendered before output with FCP. How do you meet deadlines with that step looming over your head? I guess there are no FCP systems in newsrooms.

MC has better video effects and compositing and titling right in the program. You’ll use Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects far less often, enhancing your creativity and efficiency.

You can color-correct right in MC without having to launch another application and do any importing and exporting.

MC has infinitely superior media management over FCP. FCP media management is a joke. It really is. Honest. Take it from everyone who has used both applications.

MC has Script-Mode editing. FCP has nothing like this. And never will since Avid holds a patent on this technology.

MC has ScriptSynch editing. FCP has nothing like this. And never will since Avid holds a patent on this technology.

In MC, keycodes and foot/frame numbers are all managed within the application, no need to use any other program or any third party plugin(s).

I’m not 100% sure about this one, but I do not think you can import FlexFiles from telecine directly into FCP. I know you can in MC.

FCP has really lousy keyframing in its effects toolset. You cannot even cut-and-paste a keyframe. Just how the hell do you edit without that ability???

FCP lacks any sort of fluid motion in its motion effect capability.

MC’s Multicam feature is far more reliable than FCP’s.

FCP and Apple offer no centralized and shareable media storage for multiple system users, and migrating from one FCP sytem to another is a real pain in the ass. Avid has made all of this simple and reliable. Okay, well, simple and reliable once you know what you are doing!

You can run MC on PCs and Macs. FCP is Mac only.

Notes from the Edit Suite

On August 25, I came off a three-week “work bender” of non-stop editing, weekends included, of at least nine hours a day, usually more. Four to five hours of sleep was the norm. I am just starting to come around to normal with a straight 40-hour workweek. Two of my biggest clients both had projects occur essentially at the same time; dovetailed, overlapped, & back-to-back. I tried to get a freelancer, but she bailed at the last second. So I had to suck it up, dig in, and get it done.

All in all, it went rather smooth, not withstanding the toll it took on me. I caught a bona-fide, tested-positive case of strep throat while under the gun. But, to put a positive spin on that, at least I got sick while working than while playing. I’d rather be sick during time on than during time off. At least you can keep you mind off the illness! Both jobs were completed successfully: on time, on budget, and to positive reviews. Go me, sorta.

Here’s the thing about overworking yourself: life gets weird. Social life went on hold. I was in a daze, almost like a buzz, that self-propelled. Caffeine and Visine became life-support. One day, during the middle of all this, I was able to get home by 9 pm. I didn’t know what to do with myself since every night previous, I had come home past midnight and had to go straight to bed. Oddly, I was not able to unwind and enjoy the time or go to bed early. I still stayed up to 1 or 2 am, keeping to the mad schedule I had fallen into. One thing that is interesting, is that when your body gets used to only getting a little sleep, it makes the most of it. At least it did for me. I slept deep and sound for the few hours I had available. Not that I wasn’t dog tired most of the three weeks, but at least I managed to sleep when the time came, which is something I can’t always pull off.

Overall, I would not want to go through this again. But I am not so naïve to think that I am in an industry where that would be unlikely. I do not recommend pushing yourself this hard to anyone. I wish that both of these projects had come in with some time between them. But they didn’t. And when you work for yourself, you can’t really turn down the big paying gigs when they come. Because, as any small business owner knows and fears, they are not guaranteed to come.

All in all, I am glad for the business. All in all, I am not complaining. All in all, far worse things can befall a person than periodically having to work hard.