We were deeply troubled to read this week in the LA Times of significant legal challenges to the First Amendment rights of a documentary filmmaker.

Joe Berlinger made a documentary about Aguinda v. Chevron, a class action lawsuit filed in 1993 against Chevron’s oil operation in Ecuador. Chevron is demanding all Joe’s outtakes — more than 600 hours of video material — as part of their legal defense. Is this an issue of First Amendment rights, trying to uncover the truth, or a large corporations acting as a bully? One judge in a lower court has already ruled in favor of Chevron requiring Berlinger to surrender his footage. On Wednesday, July 14, U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments. And the impact for filmmakers could not be more significant.

This case raises issues of: Who is a journalist? What constitutes free speech in documentary filmmaking? What rights, if any, does a corporation have to media shot by someone that is not a corporate employee.

This week’s Digital Production Buzz featured Jonathan Handel, Of Counsel, Troy/Gould, talking about the First Amendment implications and ramifications of Chevron Oil’s case against documentary filmmaker, Joe Berlinger.

This is an interview that everyone interested in documentary film production needs to hear. Because if the wrong side wins, the effect could be chilling.

It took the Appeals Court exactly a day to reach a preliminary decision. Listen to learn more.

Click here to listen to the interview.

Click here to listen to the entire program.

Click here to read the original LA Times article.

And click here to read the followup article on the Court’s ruling.

Please tell your friends about this interview – because the results affect all of us.

Thanks,

Larry

P.S. Click here to learn more about the Digital Production Buzz.

Well, Apple Insider felt there wasn’t enough stress in our lives so they published a long blog written by Prince McLean titled: “Apple Scaling Final Cut Studio to fit prosumers.”

(You can read the entire article here.)

Naturally, the entire blogosphere went ballistic.

Philip Hodgetts wrote an excellent point-by-point rebuttal of many of the key points in this article, which you can read here.

While I agree with much of Philip’s point of view – I want to provide some additional points of view.

First, it make NO sense to me that Apple would make Final Cut Pro into iMovie. They already HAVE iMovie – why create it again?

Second, Apple has long been infatuated with Hollywood. For them to burn their bridges into a market they worked YEARS to develop makes no sense.

Third, in my conversations with Apple, the ProAps group is one of the key R&D Centers for audio and video at Apple. Many of the technologies we use everyday on our iPad, iPod, and iPhone first saw the light of day in the ProAps group. These products are very valuable to Apple both for revenue and for research.

Fourth, what Apple is thinking of doing, or not doing, has absolutely no impact on my life today. Apple could be working on cold fusion with free energy for everyone but until they announce it, coupled with a ship date, there’s nothing for me to react to.

If I spend all my time reacting to rumors, I’d never get any work done.

For me, this is the key point — as editors our job is to tell stories visually. The tools we have today do a really great job of helping us put food on the table and pay the rent.

Worrying about rumors in an exercise in driving yourself nuts.

Rumor: Adobe is Buying Avid and giving Media Composer away FREE!

Rumor: New lab discovery shows dental floss to be the ideal tapeless recording medium.

Rumor: Final Cut Studio is being ported to Windows Vista and being renamed “yourMOVIE”.

What does any of this have to do with us? You can’t plan on rumors. Apple has proved this time and time and time again.

Wait for Apple to announce something — THEN panic … or celebrate .. or whatever.

For now, though, I’m going back to work.

Larry

UPDATE #1 – May 18

I got an email from a friend with some inside knowledge of Apple. I wanted to share that person’s thoughts:

1) What happened to Final Cut Express?

November 2007 was the release date of the current FCE 4 Express. For Apple retail stores this was always where they would point people that wanted more out of iMovie, but weren’t ready for a $1000 buy in. It would only make sense to me that they would focus on engineering the interface of FCE to be slightly more user friendly, but not “scale back” the program.

2) The job postings were for interface design.

Why would you hire in an area you are looking to downsize or even delete? As you and I have both seen, the FCP/FCE interface is the one that looks the least “Apple” (whatever that means!). I can imagine they are looking to tweak that look and feel. I can’t imagine after putting out the videos of the Coen brothers, and Francis Ford Coppola, Apple would just want to say, “Screw you guys!” 9/10 of the Oscar-nominated documentaries were made with FCS! That was a huge win for Apple!

3) Steve Jobs

I don’t know if you remember this: Steve Jobs in response to someone expressing concern about Pro Video. “Give us a sign you still care about pro video, and not just the iPad.”

Steve wrote: “We certainly do. Folks who left were in support, not engineering. Next release will be awesome.”

I would rather take Steve at his word, than some blogger. Steve has been known to be discreet about new products, and say that they aren’t interested in something when they are (namely eReaders, and phones), however he wouldn’t say they ARE interested when they aren’t.

Larry adds: Thanks for these thoughts. There will, I’m sure, be lots more to add as time moves forward. For now, though, ask yourself: “just how reasonable do these rumors seem?”

UPDATE #2 – May 19

In an unusual move, Apple today released a denial to CNET of the initial report in Apple Insider, saying they were fully committed to Final Cut Studio.

You can read the full report here.

Whew!

Just a very quick note – as it is now about 11:58 PM – that our podcast, the Digital Production Buzz is located on the trade show floor at the 2010 NAB Show as the official podcast. We are right next to the Post Pit – South Lower Hall, Booth 8826.

We’ve already created two shows – you can listen to them here: www.nabshowbuzz.com. (Well, OK, if you want to be technical, the second show is done as of ten minutes ago, and will be posted in the morning)

We have a team of almost 30 people – both staff and some GREAT volunteers – helping us put together a huge range of news and special reports. However, it’s too late at night for my brain to think clearly enough to blog about it. (By the way, while we are fully staffed for this year, we’d love to have your help next year!)

I’ll have all kinds of photos and gossip to post later in the week when I have time to breathe.

Starting tomorrow, Monday, at 9 AM, we are streaming and posting live five-minute News Briefs on the hour. Everything will be posted here — www.nabshowbuzz.com — as well as on iTunes and our website.

Our NAB coverage ends this Saturday – a WEEK of special shows and almost 40 News Briefs. Almost 14 hours of programming in five days, way more than 300 interviews. Then, I’m taking a nap. (Visit here to learn how you can put The Buzz on your website!)

By the way, thanks to the NAB for appointing the Digital Production Buzz the Official Podcast of the 2010 NAB Show. Thanks to our sponsors – Adobe Systems, Zeiss Lenses, Pond 5, Data Robotics, and Focal Press - for their financial support. And thanks to our incredible producer, Cirina Catania, and Associate Producer Debbie Price, for their tremendous efforts that make these shows possible.

More later, time to get back to work….

Larry

Earlier today, Data Robotics released the new Drobo FS. Drobo is a hard disk RAID family that I like a lot. Last week, I had a chance to talk with Mark Fuccio, Senior Director of Business Development for Data Robotics about the new unit.

First, some background. I’ve been reviewing Drobo systems since they first released a FireWire-attached device about a year and a half ago. In fact, the Drobo FS will be the fifth unit I’ve looked at from them.

* You can read my review of the initial
FireWire Drobo here.

* You can read my review of the Drobo Pro here.

* You can read my review of the Drobo S in the latest issue of my newsletter.

* And, I’m impressed enough with them that I asked Data Robotics to loan me a Drobo Elite to serve as the main storage system for all our NAB coverage which starts this Saturday. I’ll have a review of the unit in my next newsletter.

So, when Mark called to tell me about the Drobo FS, I was interested.

The reasons I like Drobo systems are that:

* They are expandable, without having to transfer all your data off the system first.
* They work with any number of differently sized drives, hard disk sizes don’t need to match.
* They provide full RAID 5 protection for your data, lose a disk and you don’t lose your data.

The reason I like what Mark told me about the Drobo FS is that it also:

* Attaches to your network via Ethernet
* Doesn’t require a server
* Is accessible to all the computers on that network
* Requires zero customization, plug it in and it’s done
* Has it’s own AppStore — called DroboApps — so you can customize what this does.

I’m hoping to get my hands on a review unit in May. In the meantime, I wanted to tell you about it. Click here for more information.

As always, let me know what you think.

Larry

As many of you may know, I write a monthly newsletter covering Final Cut Studio. (Sign-up for your FREE subscription here.) We are now in our sixth year of publishing, each issue generally runs around 40 pages.

For many years, when the latest newsletter was published, last month’s issue would be disassembled and key articles were posted to the website. This worked great… until last year, when our wizard of a webmaster left to run a bakery. (Deep sigh…)

At which point, the back issues started piling up.

Well, we finally broke thru the log-jam and have started posting new articles again to the website, within the last week, I’ve posted more than three dozen, with several dozen more to go.

To see the latest tips, techniques, and commentaries, check out the complete list here, in our Editing Library. We currently have hundreds of on-line tutorials – all totally free – that you can access at any time.

Or, for even faster results, try searching for what you are looking for here.

Thanks!

Larry

P.S. You can purchase the complete content of all my 2009 newsletters – over 500 pages! – in PDF form for only $19.99. Click here to learn more.

Recently, there’s been a big flutter on the web about whether professional video can be encoded using the H.264 codec. The reason is that the H.264 license agreement essentially states, in part, that the H.264 codec can only be used for personal, non-commercial, use; for professional use, a license fee may be involved.

Can this be true? The license agreement first appeared around 2003 – did we miss something? The answer, as we learned tonight on the Digital Production Buzz, is a resounding maybe.

Philip Hodgetts has been doing some research and tonight we interviewed him to get a better picture of the problem. You can listen to his complete interview here. (TRT: 7:01, 2.4 MB, QuickTime)

KEY SUMMARY – PROFESSIONAL USE

Note: This is not legal advice – for that, see your lawyer. However, this is our understanding of the problem, with a link to learn more.

A license fee for H.264 use is probably required for professional use if ALL the following conditions are all met:

1. The video program must be encoded using the H.264 codec. (Other codecs are not covered by this license agreement.)
2. You sell the program. (If no money changes hands, no license fee is required.)
3. The program is sold to the ultimate end user. (If you are compressing files for use by someone else, say, digital dailies, no license fee is due.)
4. These programs must be in excess of 12 minutes. (Shorter programs do not require a license fee.)

If required, the license fee is very small: $0.02 per disc sold or about 2% of gross revenue, whichever is smaller.

RELEVANT URL

Where to obtain information about a license:
www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/AgreementExpress.aspx

Listen to Philip’s interview and decide for yourself what your next steps are going to be. For me, I’ll be spending time on the MPEG/LA website.

Larry

Tucked in a small corner at the Broadcast Video Expo 2010 in London was a brand-new product designed for independent producers to help them shoot in 3D — BinoRig.

They were displaying a prototype of a camera mount that allows two cameras to be mounted on a single-tripod to shoot 3D. Nick Rose is the inventor, and managing director of TeleTest. In this audio interview, I spoke with him on the show floor to learn more about his new gear.

There are several points to listen for during our conversation:

• Shooting 3D is more than putting two cameras side-by-side
• Adjusting the distance between the cameras (intra-ocular) distance is needed to create a 3D effect.
• Toeing is used to enhance the 3D effect.
• Aligning both cameras needs to be done to make sure the shots match.
• Existing gear is really expensive and requires a large crew to setup – BinoRig is an alternative to this approach.

I found all his comments very informative and wanted to share them with you.

Click here to listen to the interview. (TRT: 7:37 – 3.6 MB – QuickTime)

I discovered several other small, but fascinating, companies at BVE, which I’ll share with you over the next couple of days.

Larry

Sorenson Media released Squeeze 6 today.

Normally, I put product releases in the Latest News section of the Digital Production BuZZ website, but in this case, I have a bit more information about this product which I want to share with you.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from the folks at Sorenson Media asking if I wanted to get an advanced look at the new release, provided I not talk about it until they released it. Since video compression is a subject I enjoy talking about, and I’m a past user of earlier versions of Squeeze, I happily said “Yes.”

You can learn more about the new release at Sorenson’s website.

MacWorld provided an overall product overview here.

Yesterday, I spoke with Peter Csathy, CEO, and David Dudas, product manager, for Sorenson Media about the new products.

One of the things that is very interesting about this announcement is that Squeeze follows Apple’s lead in Final Cut Pro 7, as articulated by Brian Gary, in that Apple does not view compression as an end in itself – rather, compression is part of the process of publishing your information. So, with the new Compressor 3.5, Apple integrated a publishing option with compression — you can compress and publish your work to YouTube, or Blu-ray Disc, or standard DVD, or … You get the idea – the reason most of us compress things is so that we can put the video somewhere other people can see it.

Sorenson has taken this a LOT further – by coupling Squeeze 6 with Sorenson 360 — their video delivery network. I learned about Sorenson 360 a while ago, but didn’t pay it a lot of attention… it seemed like another version of Akamai to me.

However, what you can do when you couple a compression program with a distribution system is that you can create your videos in Final Cut, compress them in Squeeze, then automatically send them to Sorenson 360 for secure review and comments, publishing to the world, or streaming. In other words, this is the next step in integrating compression with high-power distribution.

Even better, the purchase of Squeeze 360 comes with a free Sorenson 360 account. If you are constantly sending videos to clients for review and approval, this is a much more efficient way to work.

Peter stressed Sorenson’s goals of “Quality, Workflow, and Speed” over and over. (If I hear the words “pain points” one more time, I’m probably going to turn green.) However, it was clear in listening to them that they are trying to find out what makes compression difficult for most people and then fix it.

The interface of Squeeze can be intimidating, so Sorenson Media has taken pains to provide tutorials and optimized setups to get new users started in the right direction. While their price precludes people who dabble in compression, I agree that making new users feel comfortable with the program is a worthy goal. I haven’t used Squeeze for 3 or 4 years, so I don’t know how much of the interface is modeled after the most recent Squeeze 5. However, it does take a different approach to settings than Compressor, so it will take a bit of time to learn to use well.

After our phone conversation, I sent Peter some additional questions that I wanted to share with you, because the answers illuminate some of the challenges we face as we look for ways to compress video faster, but with higher quality.

Question 1: Does Squeeze take advantage of multiple processors for compression?

Yes, it does but not all codecs are created equally.
- MainConcept’s H.264 is multithreaded and takes advantage of multiple processors for a single file. Because this codec already maximizes processor utilization, we do not enable Squeeze to encode more than one output with this codec at a time. Doing so with this codec would actually slow it down.
- On2 VP6 got a speed bump in Squeeze 6 and it is handled differently. It does not utilize multiple processors as efficiently as MainConcepts H.264 but it does work well when encoding multiple files simultaneously. The other codecs in Squeeze are handled similarly to VP6.

Question 2: Does Squeeze take advantage of multiple computers (separate boxes) for compression?

No.

Question 3: Does Squeeze run on Windows?

Yes.

Question 4: Does Squeeze run on non-Intel systems?

Not any more. Squeeze will run on the PowerPC but we have decided not to support it going forward based on Avid, Adobe, and Apple’s decision to drop it as well. This will allow us to have better focus on Intel based platforms.

One of the features in Squeeze that I liked a LOT was its Preview function. Unlike Compressor, which previews filters and geometry, but not compression settings or frame controls, Preview in Squeeze allows you to see a short (five-second) sample of your video fully compressed with all filters and effects. This is a huge benefit to folks trying to get the smallest possible file sizes with the best quality (think mobile phones).

Yes, it is a true preview and does an actual compression of five seconds of your video, based on the position of your playhead in the preview window.

I have not run the software, so I can’t speak to how well it works, but based on what I’ve been told, this is easily a product worth looking at. The retail price is $799, upgrades start at $199. I find the price a bit daunting, but the free Sorenson 360 account helps make the pricing much more attractive.

Recently, Philip Hodgetts began writing about “The Death of Advertising” in his blog. His thoughts resonated with me because, like many of us, I’m looking for ways to reach new customers, and to help other companies reach new customers through me.

Clearly, traditional audiences for print and broadcast media are melting away, along with ad budgets forced to contract in this recession. However, the need to find new customers for companies large and small does not go away, even when economic times are bad.

You can read Philip’s original blog here: What Will Replace Advertising?

Last Thursday, Philip was on the Digital Production BuZZ with further thoughts on this subject that I found interesting and want to share with you.

Click here to listen to Philip’s interview on The BuZZ. (TRT: 6:00 – 7.8 MB)

After the interview, Philip sent me a link to a presentation that provides more details, which you can view here.

I don’t doubt that Philip is correct – advertising is and must change. But here’s my problem with his proposed solution: as ads get woven more into the fabric of the communication – TV show, radio program, website – it becomes harder and harder to distinguish what is advertising and what is “programming.”

Let me give two specific examples from my personal experience. I believe that it is important for video production professionals to have access to (as best as can be obtained) unbiased opinions and reviews of products and technology. That what caused me to start my Final Cut Studio newsletter over six years ago, and continues as the driving force behind much of what I do in my writing, training, and broadcasting work today.

However, all of us need to eat, including me, so I’ve been contacting potential sponsors to see if there are ways we can work together. Their replies have been interesting.

Many want to rent my email list to create their own promotional blasts. However, my list is not for rent. Never has been. Never will.

Others want to pay for me to review products in my newsletter. However, any review that I write about is based either on gear that I’ve purchased, or which is loaned to me for the purposes of the review. I don’t accept payments for a review – that becomes a very slippery downhill slope.

I’m currently investigating a radio show focused on video production – but sponsors are unwilling sponsor unless I talk ONLY about their products. Or, include personal testimonials endorsing their products. This creates a VERY fine line between providing information and becoming a shill.

If I were doing entertainment programming – adding a product placement or creating a scene around a product – probably wouldn’t bother me, its only “entertainment” after all. But the situation changes as we move out of entertainment into information and news. Here, the changes Philip suggests don’t work as well.

How do we interest a sponsor in funding news that isn’t always good? How do we fund sources on the web that work hard to deliver meaningful information? If web ads don’t work, and I agree with Philip that their usefulness is very limited, what can we do to attract attention to sites that deserve it, as opposed to sites that are just making noise?

It is a very puzzling situation – one that I am still working to figure out. In fact, we are all trying to find answers to the marketing puzzle. I thought Philip’s thoughts were useful signposts along the way.

I actively encourage your comments and feedback, using the links below. As always, I love hearing from you.

Larry

= = =

UPDATE – Nov. 3, 2009

Philip Hodgetts sent me a new link that furthers the discussion on how we are going to collect, distribute, and pay for news. You can read it here:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/170942-the-future-of-journalism-is-entrepreneurial?source=feed

For me, the key phrase is in the second paragraph: “Advertising won’t be one-stop shopping anymore and that means it may support news less.” And the thought that if news becomes entrepreneurial, it becomes very, very easy for the large to intimidate the small. Imagine what would have happened during the McCarthy era if CBS News was a one-person operation run out of a basement. Or if the Washington Post was two-people, and no lawyers, looking into the Watergate break-in. Or, when Apple took on two rumor sites a couple of years ago for reporting gossip — in this last case, both sites stopped publishing.

What we are potentially losing is the balance of size and power necessary between the media and the companies, and governments, they report on. Big is not better – but it does make intimidation harder.

More things to think about.

This morning Apple announced a plethora of new hardware, some of which looks pretty interesting — as long as you aren’t interested in editing video.

You see, Apple removed the FireWire port from the MacBook – again. A few iterations ago, FireWire was in. Then, they took it out. Hue and cry ensued. They put it back. Now, it’s gone again.

The only interfaces that remain for moving data between the computer and an external drive is USB2, Airport, or Ethernet .

The problem with USB2 is that it is too slow – roughly half the speed of FireWire 400.

The problem with Airport is that it is slower than USB2.

The problem with Ethernet is that there is no way to connect a FireWire device via the Ethernet port. And that’s assuming you are willing to give up a high-speed connection to your server, in order to attach a separate hard drive.

Yes, you can use your Ethernet port to connect an iSCSI device – provided you have a device that supports it. However, you can’t convert between FireWire and iSCSI. Or eSATA. Or PCIe. In other words, your data is trapped on your hard disks and can’t get off. Not on these MacBooks.

If Apple had replaced FireWire with some new high-performance port that we could connect peripherals to, I could understand. But to remove a critical high-performance port and replace it with nothing is just STUPID!

I realize that FireWire is not the fastest interface out there. eSATA, PCIe, iSCSI, and FibreChannel are all faster. However, the MacBook has never had an ExpressCard/34 slot, so that rules out eSATA, PCIe, and FibreChannel. And I know of only one iSCSI storage device currently shipping – the DroboPro. A great unit, but hardly as affordable as a stand-alone hard drive.

Granted, the vast Macintosh public may not need to connect external devices. (I’m sure no one really needs to back up their data to anything but a slow hard drive.) But media professionals do – whether working with audio or video. Media remains a core part of the Macintosh market.

According to Apple’s financial report, earlier this week, for every desktop Apple sells, they sell three laptops. However, what bothers me about today’s announcement is that increasingly, it is becoming very, very difficult to use any of Apple’s laptops to do what Macintosh systems do best – easily work with massive media files.

We had this conversation earlier this year, when the MacBook Pros were updated – and FireWire disappeared. Now, it’s disappeared from the MacBooks. At this rate, it will disappear in the next iteration of iMacs! Not all of us want to wait while our media backs up to a Time Capsule. Nor do we want to attempt to edit HD video while connected to a USB2 drive.

Apple can do better – without jeopardizing form factor or profits.

They just need to care.

Larry

P.S. You can send feedback to Apple on this issue at:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbook.html

Complaining won’t fix anything in the current releases – but, perhaps, they will give this consideration in the future.