The June MegaMeeting

Please note we've moved the DAY and the PLACE for this special meeting - read, note and act upon it!!!!

Tuesday June 5th | Bristol Zoo (Clifton Pavilion - the 'corporate function' entrance around the side from the main public entrance).

We've pulled a bit of a coup for our next meeting: those nice chaps from Apple are here for the day to talk about and demonstrate the new Final Cut Studio 2 and we've managed to persuade them to stay on a few hours in the evening to let us see and hear it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. I'm sure they'll be absolutely delighted to garner feedback from such an experienced and enlightened bunch such as ourselves!

As usual there will be raffle prizes which this month include: Plug-ins from Automatic Duck and Digital Heaven plus books from Peachpit Press. And we have a special DISCOUNT for anyone who wishes to buy the upgrade to Final Cut Studio 2. There's also FREE STUFF from Automatic Duck - tryouts of their products on disc.

But the event is limited to just 30 attendees so you MUST let us know if you intend to turn up; please e-mail wefcpug boss Richard at:

richardatherton@mac.com

if you would like to be there. And please be there for 6.30 p.m. for a 7.00 p.m. start.

-Richard-

First one there gets to feed the penguins. (Not true).
-Phil-

F C Studio 2 Manuals online

If you're the sort who likes reading manuals, especially before the software is delivered, then http://www.apple.com/support/manuals/
is your sort of web page.

Manuals for FCP6, Color, Compressor 3 etc all available for free download to whet your appetites.

Review - Larry Jordan Soundtrack Pro DVD

If you were at the April meeting, you'll remember that Jiri promised to let us know about his experiences with the Larry Jordan DVD - well here's his review. More of these to follow in future weeks (I hope) - Phil

Review: Larry Jordan's Soundtrack Pro Essential Training DVD

by Jiri Kolozsi (info@kolozsi.cz)

I am not going to write the whole table of contents of all lessons and give my comments to each of them - everyone can read it on Larry Jordan's web page here:

(Editor's note: URL updated by request) http://www.larryjordan.biz/store.

Instead, I would like to be very concise and just sum up good things that I have noticed while going through all lessons and what I think is unique in Larry's approach.

Despite the fact the total duration of the whole course is claimed to be 6 hours - it took me a few days to go through all lessons. Almost every lesson is accompanied by exercise files so you are going to spend some extra time just playing with those files.

The course is aimed on beginners and intermediate users - that means terminology of sound editing and basic editing/mixing principles are explained. For the most of you it wouldn't be necessary, but for any novice to sound editing information provided are invaluable, given in very understandable and concise way.

Larry teaches you how to set up your system and then maintain it. He shows you how to tweak Soundtrack Pro's preferences according to your needs. Different techniques and approaches to sound editing in FCP and ST Pro are compared as well.

During the course, Larry had to invent some workarounds around ST Pro's bugs - so if you have ever ended up being upset by an odd behaviour of the application, you're not alone!

If you have wondered what are the best practices how to achieve this and that - Larry tells you. This way, beginners can save precious time learning the best practices right from the very beginning. You will be able to achieve one thing multiple ways and use keyboard shortcuts effectively.

Having visited Larry's PowerUP! seminar in Manchester this year my expectations of the DVD course were really high - and I haven't been disappointed. I appreciate his real-world production experience, i.e. you are taught by someone who actually does video & sound editing and can provide you with some handy tips that can save you a lot of time - and, of course, money!

If you have never used ST Pro or if you are completely new to sound editing - this training DVD is for you. But even if you are a pretty skilled sound editor the chances are that you will be able to find new approaches and techniques in using ST Pro.

Podcast 4 now out

Relive the joys and dramas of the recent wefcpug meeting by listening to the latest edition of 'Out Of Vision'. Or at least, listen to the interview with Martin Baker of Digital Heaven. Ned Soltz, our US correspondent, joins me down the line with his take on what-was-new at NAB, and there's an interview with Richard Harrison. As well as being a wefcpug member, Richard is FCP manager at Bristol post house Films@59, and he talks about the challenges of running Final Cut suites in such a busy, mixed format, environment.

This podcast is now up on the server - it's been compressed as an mp4 (AAC) rather than mp3. If this is a problem to anyone, let me know!

Free to subscribe, available through the iTunes Music Store (somewhere down in the archives here are the instructions) or by clicking on the link at the podcast website http://wefcpod.podbus.com

Next meeting - you won't want to miss

At last, we can confirm the date of the June meeting.

It's a different day - TUESDAY 5th June

It's a different place - the 'Clifton Pavilion' at Bristol Zoo

It's the same time - 7pm

And it's going to be big.

With thanks to Ken Bell at Quad Logic, it's your chance to get your hands on Final Cut Studio 2. In captivity. Live.
And with even more thanks to Ken, if you're there and you place an order for the upgrade, there's an unrepeatable 5% discount.

And wait, there's more - further instalments of the fantastic wefpug FREE raffle. Details of prizes when we feel less faint from excitement.

So mark up your diaries!!

Podcasts in the pipeline

It's been a busy couple of weeks in and out of the production offices of 'Out of Vision' - the wefcpug podcast. First up on the site will be episode 4, our post NAB issue. There'll be more from our US correspondent, Ned Soltz, plus exclusive (naturally) interviews with wefpug member Richard Harrison, who's the FCP manager at Films@59 in Bristol, and with our special guest for the May wefpug meeting, Martin Baker of Digital Heaven in London.

I'm also preparing a programme centred around an extended interview with Gina Fucci and George Panayiotu of Films@59. They're in an ideal position to comment on the technical and structural changes we're seeing in production, the move to HD, and the struggles faced by productions as budgets have been trimmed. It'll make a thoughtful - and thought-provoking - special edition of 'Out of Vision' - coming soon to an iPod near you.

If you haven't subscribed yet, visit the Out of Vision website for the links.

May's meeting links and report

The attraction of a night in rainy downtown Bristol (or maybe it was the fabulous prizes of our free raffle) was too strong to resist, with visitors from far and wide last night, including our special guest, Martin Baker of Digital Heaven.

Yours truly was the warm-up act, with a brief discursion into how to handle 16:9 and 4:3 clips together in FCP (literally a warm-up act, as the MBP decided to go into a temporary overheat-inspired shutdown). Notes on this another day. But at least we all got to share the joy of trashing FCP prefs and recovering a project file. Revision Questions may well be set.

Martin began with his take on events - primarily Apple inspired events - at the NAB in Las Vegas. He was particularly impressed by the pricing of Color (sic) and, like most in the room, is looking forward to the joys of 3d work in Motion 3. We'll be reviewing the package just as soon as we get it!

With a brief pause for the first raffles of the night - copies of the Walter Murch book 'Behind the Seen' and the new Quickbook guide to Quicktime Pro (just published by Peachpit Press) - Martin came back for more, with a demo of the filters, transitions and other apps his company now produces. Winner on the clapometer seemed to be the 'RetroTV' effect, with 'WhipPan' a close second, and a judges' special mention for the sound effects bundled with (especially the 'Dream' transition). Full details, and downloads available, on Martin's website digital-heaven.co.uk

One lucky wefcpug member won a voucher for software to the value of $100 (or was it $200?) from digital-heaven but wait, that's not all. There's ANOTHER voucher to be raffled next month (and we sure do have a special meeting planned then) and we can ALL download freebies from Martin's site.

If you missed the meet, there'll be a contribution from Martin on the next 'Out of Vision' podcast - see the next posting for details of this and forthcoming online offerings.

Next meeting - May 8th TUESDAY

Next Tuesday's meeting of wefcpug - yes Tuesday 8th May - will feature presentations from Martin Baker of Digital Heaven who will be giving us a full report on NAB and Final Cut Studio 2 and, if we're lucky, will also talk about writing plug-ins and demonstrating some of his own. These are world class plug-ins and, as such, respected worldwide as some of the best available anywhere.

Phil will be trying to de-bunk some of the myths surrounding conversion of a picture from 4:3 to 16:9. And just when will we see the end to anamorphism? (Hint, probably never).

There's another chance to stump the gurus who will trample over each other to solve your FCP problems, and we'll share notes over which updates have worked (and which haven't).

Please, please let Richard know if you would like to attend; it's at the BBC Whiteladies Road, Bristol again, will start promptly at 7.00 with entrance via the side gate.

Oh yes, and following on from last month's exciting raffle of a Larry Jordan Training DVD we have yet another fantastic prize up for grabs. For FREE (yes, as in Free Beer).