Apple has been known for being very ‘i’ centric with it’s devices – often only allowing Mac-able applications to run on many of the products Apple sells. So we were all taken aback with the big news coming from Avid’s corner that Avid Studio editing software will now run on Apple’s iPad.

Avid is known for Big Processing and Blockbuster Movie editing, but a few years ago they acquired Pinnacle Studio, which was an entry level editing software. Avid changed its name to Avid Studio and re-wrote its code to be more like mainstream entry level systems and more stable than it was in the past. Now Avid Studio is being released to edit on an iPad and we think the user abilities have many possibilities. Read the rest of this entry »

When Final Cut Pro was revealed, video professionals were unhappy. Personally, while I loved previous Final Cut Pro releases, If FCP went away, I could get over it pretty quickly. Editors still have the powerhouse that is Avid, and I’m learning to like Adobe Premiere (admittedly, that’s mainly because of it’s integration with After Effects). The problem is, with the future of the MacPro in question, it’s looking increasingly likely that we’ll be forced to migrate to Windows or Linux. The idea of giving up OS X is not something I, or many other videographers, relish.

Some will argue that with thunderbolt peripherals becoming more common, video editors can easily work on an iMac or MacBook Pro. While it’s true that thunderbolt allows for an amazing amount of modular expansion in terms of storage, monitors, and even PCI slots for GPUs, thunderbolt doesn’t address the limitation of RAM and processing power. If you’ve ever rendered out a complex After Effects composition, you know the importance of hyper threaded virtual cores and piles of RAM, something that out of the entire Apple line of computers, only the MacPro can provide.

One might argue that Apple hasn’t updated the MacPro because the hardware in the current generation MacPro still stands up to today’s standards. While that may be true, wouldn’t they at least update it to include the thunderbolt technology they’re putting in every other Mac? It’s my belief that by abandoning the MacPro line, Apple is unofficially abandoning professionals that need serious horsepower in their workstations. Would they do that? I doubt it, as if they want users to submerge themselves in the Apple ecosystem of consumer products, they’ll want people using Apple products at work as well. Apple wants a presence at school and at the office. It just doesn’t make sense to not offer a product for power users. Still, it is very fishy that it’s been a year and a half since the last update, and every day that goes by without word of a refresh makes me nervous.

“Today, everybody’s a filmmaker.”  That’s the message of director Wim Wenders (“Paris, Texas” and “Wings of Desire” among many other films, as well as music videos for U2 and The Talking Heads) as he introduces a new innovative video competition in partnership with the pen and watchmaker, MontBlanc. Launched in September, the competition, titled “The Beauty of a Second” is designed to celebrate the 190th anniversary of the invention of the Chronograph by Nicolas Rieussec, which was able to record time to an accuracy of one fifth of a second, quite a feat in 1821.

“One of the great things about cinema is how it makes us aware of time.  Each film consists of many brief moments of life that altogether create a unique and new space in time.”  If you’re familiar with the project, or if you’re paying close attention to the tile of the competition, you’ll realize that the emphasis here is definitely on “brief.”

The MontBlanc video competition is for films one second in length.  As Wenders eloquently points out, every video we shoot is a series of one-second moments.  But what if you as a videographer set out specifically to capture the perfect one-second on film?  Would it be a moment in nature?  The start of a smile on a child’s face?  A white shirt hanging to dry on a line?  How do you capture not only a beautiful moment, but perhaps even a compelling story in just one second?  Maybe it’s not possible, but that’s precisely the goal of this competition.  And from the entries so far, it looks like many videographers are capturing great moments in very small cuts (or, more precisely, in very precise edits).

Since the competition opened, the first three submission timeframes, or “rounds,” have been completed.  As of this writing, we’re mid way through round four.  The final round will finish on February 12th.  At the conclusion of the contest, Wim Wenders will select the winning one-second film.  Once you’ve viewed a few dozen of the one-second clips, you’ll likely agree that choosing a winner seems like an impossible task.  Just how good can one second of footage be?

But the hosts of the website, “The Beauty of a Second,” provide an additional incentive for film makers and film buffs alike to join the fun. Even if you haven’t submitted your one second entry, you can assemble your favorite one-second films into a “Playlist,” thus editing together a film of up to sixty seconds, comprising sixty segments.

In our Videomaker blogs and forums we’ve talked frequently about outlets for creative videography and film making.  We’ve even reviewed the history of continuous shot films that can last as long as  eight hours.  This film contest from MontBlanc is clearly at the other extreme.

But MontBlanc is not the only outfit with a focus on the one-second film.

“The 1 Second Film” is a non-profit organization that has already produced what they describe as “the world’s biggest shortest film.”  The concept here is to produce a one-second animated film where each two frames of animation is comprised of a single collaborative painting.  (Actually, the twelve paintings that compose the animated film were produced at a kick-off party years ago.)  The one-second film will then be followed by a one hour credit roll, during which a “making of” documentary will run while all the contributors (the “producers”) to the non-profit will be listed.  The project’s beneficiary is The Global Fund for Women.  Producers, who have contributed everything from a few dollars to tens of thousands, include everyone from celebrities (Kevin Bacon, Steven Colbert, Kiefer Sutherland, and many more) to corporations (Apple, FotoKem, and others).

These two projects have a couple of things in common.  First, participants share a love of visual arts and experimental video.  Second, both projects are profoundly rooted in a sense of collaboration.  Both are worth paying attention to in 2012.

In a sad bit of news yesterday, it was reported that Steve Jobs, the driving force behind such companies as Apple and Pixar, died. The first to announce his death was his own company, which posted a picture of him on its website with a quote reading “Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor.” The website also offered a way to send condolences to Steve by emailing rememberingsteve@apple.com.

The news comes just a day after Apple announced its new iPhone 4S and only a little more than a month after Jobs officially resigned.

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” he wrote back in August. “Unfortunately, that day has come.”

This is big news for Apple, which can attribute much of its success to Steve’s vision and drive over the years. Ever since Jobs returned to the company as an “advisor” in 1996, he has been seen as the driving force behind a slew of products that helped turn the once-sluggish company around. So great was the change that for a brief time this year, it actually surpassed Exxon Mobil as the world’s most valuable company. That’s a far cry from the state of the company in 1996.

For those who may not know, Steve Jobs was also once the CEO of Pixar, having bought the company from the computer graphics division of George Lucas’ ILM. At first, the company struggled to make a profit but when Pixar released “Toy Story,” the first feature-length computer animated film, both it and the company became an overnight success. Eventually, media giants such as Disney took notice and bought the company for $7.5 billion, putting Jobs firmly back in the spotlight again.

Losing such an integral part of their company will undoubtedly increase pressure on Apple to deliver stunning software and devices in the next year. This is especially so with those in the video and graphics world. Ever since the introduction of Power Macs and Final Cut Pro in the early 2000′s, Apple has enjoyed a commanding presence in the media market. The only question is if they can keep that momentum running. Apple recently released a new version of Final Cut Pro at NAB  which many critics lauded for a lack of the kinds of features that initially made it so successful. Answering the concerns of what they called their “vocal customers,” Apple released an update to Final Cut Pro X that addressed some of the complaints about the program such as lack of XML importing and exporting. In addition, they released a demo version of the software for those who wanted to try the program without having to invest money up front. This was a small move in the right direction, but without Steve to act as a “safety net” for the company’s direction, many will have to wonder whether Apple’s computers and software will continue to dominate the media market. It’s too early to tell what this might mean for the company, but there’s no doubt many in the media market will be keeping a close eye on what Tim Cook and Apple do next.

NAB 2011 was all a-flurry when Apple announced it was finally releasing a new updated version of it’s Final Cut Pro editing software program, and the flurry hit a fervor when they announced it was going to be a completely new rewrite.  In fact, there was little left but standing room at the Final Cut Pro User Group’s Supermeet in April when Apple’s VP Randy Ubilos and Peter Steinhauer hit the stage.

Now, the excitement is back again with the announcement of Final Cut Pro X’s availability in the App Store today. If you’ve also used Apple’s motion graphic editor, Motion or Compressor in the past, they have new versions also available in the App Store for only $50 each. However the big news is that for only $300, you can digitally download Apple’s new program to see if all of the new features have been worth the wait.

Speaking of features, Apple’s got a laundry list of new one for their latest release. The new Final Cut Pro uses a “magnetic timeline” to allow editors to move clips around without losing audio or video tracks due to overlapping. It also has the ability to correct footage as it’s ingested for audio, color, and motion issues – features that were once part of different applications within the Final Cut Studio suite.

Final Cut Pro’s interface has also been majorly overhauled with only three real windows left: a preview area, a new media browser, and an editing timeline. In a way, this new “upgrade” makes the program feel a bit more like After Effects or iMovie than what people have come to expect from Final Cut Pro.

Apple has also added the ability to edit footage even before it’s been transferred and can categorize your footage based on people’s faces and what type of shot it is. A handy tool for sure. You can also assign all kinds of metadata and keywords to your footage in order to be able to find areas of your footage quickly and easily. Apple also included the ability to “audition” clips with different effects before applying them and claims to have more presets than ever before for their effect library. Lastly, there is now an option to group together audio, video, and transitions into single clips called a “Compound Clip.” This is very similar to nesting but allows for easier access to the elements inside of the group for easy tweaking.

One of the most applauded features of Apple’s presentation back in April was the ability for Final Cut Pro X to utilize the full power of Grand Central Dispatch and the 64 bit architecture. This means that Final Cut Pro X can render everything in the background all while utilizing multiple cores of power – something that no editing application does incredibly efficiently.

Though there are a lot of great new features to Final Cut Pro’s upgrade, there have been a few noticeable features that many users have already found to be missing. One of the biggest is the lack of support for projects from previous versions and the inability to import XML or EDL. Also, Apple got rid of support for tape based ingestion and export, making it difficult to use for the many editors that still need to use tape in their workflow. Lastly, Final Cut Pro has also lost the multicam feature that many live event videographers used to make editing a large amount of clips a little simpler.

Videomaker awarded Final Cut Pro X our “Best of NAB” award for editing software at this year’s National Association of Broadcasters tradeshow in Las Vegas. With its low price, faster renders, and complete redesign, Apple was a clear favorite in this field.

Of course, with all of these new features, almost every editor will want to find out if the software is worth the wait. Actually, we’ve been wondering the same thing ourselves. Thankfully, Videomaker reviewer Ben Balser has an advance copy of FCP X and is working on a review of the program for Videomaker as we we speak. Watch for that review coming soon to see if the new Final Cut Pro will be a game changer for Apple or simply game over.

http://www.videomaker.com/r/527

Free video editing software on the iPhone is available with Splice from Path 36. The basics of editing are here in smaller form, but nonetheless, the same concepts that desktop editing programs offer.

Improvements in this version include HD, video trimming, bulk imports to the timeline, the Ken Burns effect and overall usability innovation. I keep thinking of important features like multiple audio tracks, speed control and custom text positioning and they are included. The app also sells music, sound effects and backgrounds to accompany your iTunes library. An ad free version costs less than lunch at $2, so now you have the abilities of a studio in your phone. The new software allows all phases of video to be done out-of-pocket, from pre-production through shooting, editing and sharing. This combination of quality and mobility may further fudge the line that divides home videos from professional productions.