[Updated 12/13 with clarification on Promise and more info on the incremental cost.]

I needed to buy more storage for my editing system – as if needing more storage for video editing is a surprise or something…

Anyway, I decided that since one of my editing systems supports Thunderbolt, I would buy a Thunderbolt RAID. Except the only ones currently available seemed to be from Promise Technology. Promise has been making and selling RAIDS to the video editing market for more than a decade. As Andrew pointed out in the comments: “Promise succeeded Apple’s Xserve RAID with their vTrak RAID.” As you can see from the comments below, lots of people like them a lot.

However, I decided to see what else was on the market.

And, hmmm, there’s not a whole lot else on the market. So, I decided to do some research and had a number of off-the-record conversations with different hard drive vendors to figure out why – when we are almost a year after the launch – there are so few Thunderbolt units available. Here’s what I learned.

TOO EARLY

Basically, Thunderbolt was released to the market too early. Thunderbolt requires not just one chip from Intel, but a master chip and a variety of supporting chips to be able to handle all the signal processing.

The first problem was that there was a shortage of both the master chip and the supporting chips.

Next, all these chips needed to be integrated onto a new IC board. Anytime hardware engineering is involved – as opposed to making software changes – a minimum of six months of engineering and manufacturing time is involved.

HARDWARE TAKES SPACE

In fact, this hardware board with all these chips takes so much space that it won’t fit inside a standard enclosure – in general, it requires about another 1/2 in height inside the RAID unit.

This is space that, in smaller units, just doesn’t exist. This means that many manufacturers need to retool their enclosures to support the new protocol hardware.

APPLE AND INTEL NEED TO HELP

Once the hardware has been figured out, the SDK (software development kit) necessary to support Thunderbolt was several months late coming to market – most drive vendors didn’t get them until early summer. In fact, the specs were published several times – and kept changing with each iteration. This is good, in that it allowed the protocol to improve, but every change caused delays in creating software needed to support the protocol.

In addition, Thunderbolt requires significant support from Apple and Intel engineering to explain how the new system works so that RAID manufacturers can get their systems to interconnect properly with this new protocol.

And, because Apple and Intel do not have unlimited engineering support staff, not all RAID vendors were able to access the engineering help they needed in a timely fashion. So, some vendors are farther along in their development than others are.

There’s also, apparently, a political issue. I was told that some vendors were given market exclusivity for a year after the announcement – an exclusive period that expires just before NAB next year in April.

WHAT’S IN THE FUTURE?

There are many elements of potential good news here. First, every drive manufacturer that I spoke with is extremely interested in developing for Thunderbolt – so, while the devices may still take a while longer to get here, when they do arrive, they will arrive in quantity.

Second, Intel has already announced – at least to the drive vendors – a second generation bridge chip that includes both the Thunderbolt master chip and all the supporting chips on a single chip. This will vastly reduce both the amount of engineering that is necessary to support the new protocol and the amount of space it requires. From what I have been told, this new chip will support both FireWire and Thunderbolt on the same chip.

However, we probably won’t see these second-generation chips in quantity until late in the first quarter next year.

Intel is also working on a third-generation chip which supports data transfer over fiber-optic cable, but that chip probably won’t show up until 2013.

THERE’S ALSO THE ISSUE OF COST

As one of my contacts told me, all new technologies are more expensive than current technologies. This was true with USB, FireWire, even Blu-ray players; and is true with Thunderbolt. Costs don’t fall until enough people adopt the technology to allow increasing volume to drive down costs.

“The cost of Thunderbolt will remain higher than alternatives until native implementations are made into motherboards and the external devices and if and when this happens we could see the price drop very quickly.”

In this conversation, his feeling was not that the technology was announced too soon, but that the implementation of this new technology takes a while to figure out.

SUMMARY

So, what’s the take-away? Thunderbolt is coming – but the majority of units probably won’t arrive in quantity until the second quarter next year. By a year from now, we should have a wide variety of Thunderbolt devices to choose from.

Initially, most Thunderbolt devices will probably support RAID level 0 or 1 – which provide speed or redundancy, but not both. RAID level 5 units – which are both faster and more secure – will take longer to get to the market in quantity.

For now, though, we need to wait.

Let me know what you think.

Larry

I posted a brief video on YouTube, “Polishing edit skills and books for editors & directors” in which I recommend some books about editing and directors. Perhaps because I was thinking about the recent release of my own book, “Final Cut Pro X: Making the Transition” – and the creation of my Amazon Author Page – http://www.amazon.com/author/LarryJordan/ – which I hope you’ll visit – I wanted to share these links with you here.

Behind the Seen: How Walter Murch Edited Cold Mountain Using Apple’s Final Cut Pro and What This Means for Cinema by Charles Koppelman.

Mastering MultiCamera Techniques: From Preproduction to Editing and Deliverables by Mitch Jacobson.

Apple Pro Training Series: Motion 5 by Mark Spencer.

The Green Screen Handbook: Real-World Production Techniques by Jeff Foster.

All the books on color grading and correction by Alexis Van Hurkman.

Real World Video Compression by Andy Beach.

All books on video compression by Brian Gary.

Video Compression for Flash, Apple Devices, and HTML5 by Jan Ozer.

In the Blink of an Eye Revised 2nd Edition by Walter Murch.

The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film.
by Michael Ondaatie

One the the secrets that I’ve learned to improving both my production and editing skills is to watch a video with the sound turned off. This allows me to concentrate on the visual without getting hooked into the story. It is always enlightening to see how much you can learn this way. I use this technique for my own work, as well as analyzing the work of others. Best of all, it doesn’t require any money or special gear, just an ability to focus on the screen and learn from what you see.

(Caution: I’ve found that this technique drives the rest of my family nuts! So, I’ve been told this is an activity best done when no one else is around.)

Also, please stop by my Amazon Author Page and leave a comment. And I would be remiss if I failed to suggest that you purchase my newest book: Final Cut Pro X: Making the Transition at Amazon.com. Lots of great tricks and tips techniques packed into one slim volume to help you Power Up your editing!

Let me know what you think.

Larry

The latest Government Video Expo opened today in Washington, DC, and, as in years past, our podcast, the Digital Production Buzz, has a team of reporters covering the event.

I thought you might be interested in how we are covering it.

We have equipped each of our reporters – Ed Clark and Tchad Moore – with a Zoom H4n digital recorder and two Shure SM58 hand mikes.

Our producers – Cirina Catania and Debbie Price – have scheduled interviews with conference speakers and key industry leaders which Ed and Tchad then interview. (We are always interested in interviewing new people — let me know if you want to be added to our list.)

The interviews are transferred from the Zoom recorders via USB and compressed, in their raw state, into a single ZIP file which is transferred to our home offices here in LA via Dropbox.

The files are then downloaded and edited by Hilary White and myself. As soon as they are edited, the files are posted to our GV Expo Buzz website, while two or three of our favorite interviews will be featured on this week’s show, with a few more featured next week.

If you haven’t checked out our latest interviews, make a point to visit here.

And, if you are in the DC area, swing by the Walter Washington Conference Center and check out the exhibits. They always have a great collection of new gear that’s worth seeing.

Thanks – and let me know what you think.

Larry

Some interesting news this morning.

FIRST

Apple has quietly notified developers that it is preparing to offer volume purchases for business customers via the App Store.

MacNN has more about this.

The significance of this is that volume purchases of Final Cut Pro will no longer be tied to individual iTunes accounts. This might also presage the arrival of volume pricing and distribution for educational customers.

SECOND

I’ve had emails or phone calls from three different resellers telling me that Apple has notified resellers that it is offering them a one-time, two-day opportunity to buy as many copies of Final Cut Studio (3) as they want.

While this is not the same as putting FCS (3) on the open market, it does mean that the product will be available from selected retailers for a while longer. If you need licenses, contact your favorite, non-Apple store reseller.

THIRD

A large number of Final Cut Pro editors are thinking about switching platforms. Last week, my podcast – the Digital Production Buzz – had a series of discussions on switching to Avid. (Details here.)

This week, we have the product manager for Premiere Pro on the show, along with a recent Final Cut Pro post house that switched to Premiere. (Details here.) If you are thinking about switching, listen to this show first.

Larry

I get a ton of press releases every day. Many I post to the Latest News section of the Digital Production Buzz, so that you can keep up with what’s going on in our world. Others I just trash.

But every so often, one comes in that I want to share with you more directly. Like this one.

This morning, I received the following press release from Eric Philpott, at Philpott Communications. I was interested because this isn’t a part of the industry I cover very much, and because I found the story fascinating.

So, here it is – word for word as they sent it.

Larry

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How Academy Award Nominee Adrien Morot Created the Makeup for Barney’s Version

Montreal, Que: February 3, 2011. Adrien Morot, head of makeup and hair on Barney’s Version, has been nominated for an Academy Award(r) in makeup. The film, directed by Richard J. Lewis and starring Golden Globe winner and Academy Award(r) nominee Paul Giamatti, is based on the popular novel by the late Mordecai Richler. The story spans a 35-year period in the life of Barney Panofsky, a Montreal TV producer reflecting back on the events of his life. As the same actors were used throughout, makeup involved the significant challenge of gradually altering their appearance as they age in a way that is convincing for the audience but that remains subtle enough not to be distracting.

Along with supervising the entire makeup department on the film, a primary task for Morot and his team was aging the main characters over the course of the film using a combination of prosthetics, subtle makeup, hairstyling and artificial facial hair. Much of the effort was focused on Paul Giamatti, whose character starts out in his early 30s and reaches his late 60s by the end of the story. Others included Golden Globe and Academy Award(r) winner Dustin Hoffman, who plays Barney’s father and Rosemund Pike, who plays Miriam, Barney’s third wife.

“I’ve seen aging makeup done on other people I’ve worked with,” said Pike. “I usually feel that the person is submerged in some way under layers of substance, and loses something of their essence, no matter how effective the transformation was. What Adrien managed to do was give Paul and I faces from which we could look with our own eyes and through our own expressions, that supported us, rendered the ageing of the characters believable, but left the whole process unobtrusive.”

One of the challenges on Barney’s Version was keeping the makeup subtle enough to allow the actors to deliver a full range of emotions for this performance-driven piece. Morot stressed that collaborating closely with the actors was the key to achieving this.

“Adrien started by asking me what I thought Barney should look like and how I thought he should age,” said Giamatti. “He had a wonderful distinct makeup at the get-go, but he was amazingly collaborative, and intensely sensitive to what would help me act the part. And he was so fluid with his own design, shaping it, changing it, constantly refining it.”

“Paul is an incredible actor ” said Morot, “He really made our job easier and the makeup more convincing by portraying Barney perfectly at each stage of his life and I am really grateful for that. The same goes for Rosamund, who gave Miriam such class and elegance.”

And although the audiences may not notice it, Giamatti is wearing makeup with various prosthetics throughout much of the film. “The alcohol bloat and weight gain were so convincing, people thought I had gained weight for the part,” said Giamatti.

Barney’s Beards
The standard approach to creating an artificial beard is to use an appliance, which is much like a wig with a special lace backing glued to the skin. However, lace beards cannot stretch with the actor’s facial movements, and can limit the actor’s expressions. “Even at a subconscious level, the actor can’t be free to play his part if he is worried about his beard falling off,” said Morot. “During our first makeup test, Paul asked if there was anything else we could do so that he didn’t feel so restricted by the beard.”

Morot opted to craft the beard by hand using a combination of human and yak hair. Each tuft was painstakingly glued down and the beard was built up layer by layer. Then a curling iron was applied to give it the look of real facial hair. Finally, the beard was trimmed and styled. “When we did the second makeup test with the new beard, no one realized it was fake. Paul was thrilled because without the lace backing, the beard moved with his skin. This was vital because it allowed him to feel natural and focus on giving his best performance without any distractions.”

Morot was able to apply Giamatti’s beard in under 30 minutes, from a total of the 2 hours and 15 minutes allotted for his prosthetic makeup application.

Aging Gracefully
Aging the character of Miriam, the love of Barney’s life, presented other challenges.

“I know I do not have the easiest face to age,” said Pike. “I think women in general, with a different quality of skin, are harder to age than men and Adrien had to be particularly subtle and inventive in his approach. He aged Miriam and then concealed the aging cosmetically, as any woman would. Adrien matched the skin tone of the prosthetics on my eyelids, cheeks and neck to my own, and then made the tone of my whole face uneven, as if it was aged. Then he concealed some of the aging with ‘beauty makeup.’ As a result Miriam had a face that was layered and real.”

Morot said that he was floored by the Oscar(r) nomination. “I don’t know if it’s really sunk in yet,” he said. “It’s a tremendous honour and I’m deeply thankful.”

Produced by Serendipity Point Films in association with Fandango, and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, Barney’s Version premiered at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. The film stars Paul Giamatti, along with Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver, Mark Addy, Rachelle Lafevre and Scott Speedman. The producer was Robert Lantos. Barney’s Version opened in theatres in December 2010.

About Adrien Morot
With over 20 years of experience in the makeup effects industry and having worked on over 100 feature film and broadcast projects, Adrien Morot has established his company as one of the leading fabricators of makeup effects in the field. For more information visit http://adrienmorotmakeupfx.com.

I’m reminded of the story of three blind men describing an elephant. None of them can see the truth, so each has to describe this huge beast from their own, very limited, perspective.

What brought this to mind was a recent blog post from Dustyn Gobler commenting on what the cancellation of the XServe means to the ProApps. (Read it here.)

As I told Dustyn in my reply to his post:

I think there is a very large middle-ground that you are over-looking which exists between Avatar (and The Real World) and soccer moms. In this area, Final Cut Studio provides a high-quality and significant solution.

Still, until we see what Apple has planned for the future, all this is just guess-work. It was fun to read your thoughts even though I do not wholly agree with them.

Dustyn kindly responded saying that the lens through which he viewed the Apple announcements was that of someone involved in reality TV and info-tainment.

Then, he shared with me an email he received from Steve Jobs, which, if true, adds yet more fuel to the fires of all this discussion.

Take a look at this second post from Dustyn and let me know what you think.

As Dan Cook, or Earl Weaver, or Bill Carpenter, once said: It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.

Cool – I can wait.

Larry

This morning, Apple quietly announced that it was discontinuing the XServe – which is the high-end server for XSAN and other networks – on January 31, 2011.

For folks that need servers, Apple recommends that you use either a new version of the MacPro or the MacMini. (Personally, I am a huge fan of the MacMini for servers, I have three of them running here in the office and they work great for us.)

There are lots of ways to interpret this move, but the most obvious one seems to me to be the best. Apple has never been a “Big Iron” company. Years ago, Apple needed hardware that met the needs of the large enterprise because no one else was offering products that supported Macs. Which is why we first saw the XRAID and then the XServe.

Today, that need is no longer there. There are a large number of companies that provide state-of-the-art hardware that support Macs, PCs, and Linux systems. With the continual shift toward supporting “open standards,” as opposed to proprietary software, Macs are included in more systems than ever before, by companies that specialize in creating server-based hardware. Apple has never been successful in this market, and, today, they don’t need to be.

Creating gear targeted to this market leads to an Apple weakness, not a strength. Which is why, over the last year, we have seen Apple discontinue first the XRAID, and now the XServe.

There is a lot of conversation going on now about whether this means that Apple is no longer interested in the high-end. I received several emails this morning essentially saying that the days of Final Cut Studio – as another high-end application – are numbered.

That may be true, but I don’t believe it.

At its heart, Apple is a software company. They create great hardware so they have someplace for their software to run. For me, the signs still point to significant upgrades to the entire professional suite. Probably not as fast as we all would like, but I suspect the wait will be worth while.

Let me know what you think.

Larry

Tonight, on our podcast the Digital Production Buzz, we announced The BuZZ Shout-Out!

No one needs to tell you that finding work these days is hard. That’s where The BuZZ can help. We want to help jobs find you.

Here’s the deal: You create a 30-second audio ad that promotes your services, send it to us, and we’ll share it with our world-wide audience. Show off your creative chops – and look for work at the same time!

The best news is that this is FREE to both companies or individuals that want to participate. To us, it doesn’t make sense to charge you to look for work. We just want to help you become successful. (However, if you want to tell your friends about The BuZZ, we won’t object.)

There are, of course, a few rules – you can read them all here.

We’ve been working on this for the last month, but it would not be possible without the support of some far-sighted companies that agree with us that we need to do more to showcase the incredible creative talent in our industry.

Data Robotics, Inc., makers of the Drobo line of storage products.

Maxon Computers Inc., makers of the Cinema 4D line of professional 3D design software.

Smartsound, Inc., makers of SonicFire Pro and it’s library of high-quality, royalty-free music.

I’ve spent a lot of my time looking for work – I know how hard it can be. We want to help. Check out the website, fire up those creative juices, and let’s see what happens.

Larry

P.S. We have room for one more sponsor – if your company is interested, drop me a note. Thanks!

I’m a member of the IMUG mailing list, which has lots of interesting discussions on media, gear, and life. This morning, Carey Dissmore, Principal of Carey Dissmore Productions, Inc. and a co-founder of the IMUG, sent out a post that I found so compelling, I wanted to share it with you. So, with Carey’s permission, here it is.

There’s nothing brand new or earth-shattering about stating that technology moves really fast in this business. It’s been true of computers and software for awhile but it’s now also true of cameras and video formats.

I’ve often stated about any piece of gear: “It will always do what it always did”, implying another cliché “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. But that only works in a world that is standing still, and today we’re in a world that is moving faster (and becoming more fragmented) than ever, from a technology point of view. It also only holds until something DOES break, and then you’re really screwed trying to get parts (or the high, ROI-insane cost of said repairs) for old gear.

Nowadays, it’s getting very difficult to buy a camera, much less a cell phone that is NOT high-definition. It’s also hard to find one that shoots tape. The complete transition to a high definition, tapeless world is pretty much complete, and has brought radical changes to how we all do our work–not always adding speed or efficiency. This transition has also added a whole lot of media-management responsibilities at every step of the production workflow, particularly at the front and back ends of it.

So far I haven’t said anything most of us don’t already know. But sometimes it’s just good to talk about it.

But here’s the point: There are definite sweet spots (windows in time) to own and use gear. Implying all else is sour. Perhaps that’s a little strong, but let’s explore this a bit.

Bleeding edge/Early adopters: The pain of early adopters generally centers around infant hardware death, driver issues and software bugs. Being an early adopter can be a competitive advantage but tends to be most suited to those who are savvy enough to provide their own support–shops that are small and savvy enough to be flexible in dealing with hiccups and work around issues that arise. These are generally people who are already pushing the limits of their current technology pretty hard and need all the faster/better they can muster. Or they’re just tech geeks, or both, like me

Both the single system owner and the large “sausage factory” ends of the production business can be really hurt by bleeding edge issues. What is a minor inconvenience for the folks above can be devastating. The single system owner has no alternative systems to work around the problem and the “sausage factory” mega-shop basically shuts down because the large staff of “working class” employees probably don’t have the training or the analytical & technical skills to work around issues. Result in either case: Production grinds to a halt.

(Almost) Everyone else: Just behind them is a broad swath of general adopters. Where exactly these folks fall on the adoption curve is determined by project and budgetary cycles, but they’re all still kind of “in the zone” with reasonably current gear.

Then there are the technology Luddites (both witting and unwitting)…

I’ll directly address the Mac users. In the Mac-centric video world we’ve been through a lot of changes in the past 5 years. We’ve been through the PCI to PCI-X to PCI-Express transition, which made a lot of us have to buy new video I/O boards. We’ve been through the PowerPC to Intel transition (software upgrades), (Snow Leopard as well). Rapidly changing and fragmenting standards in storage connectivity, the move to multicore, the move to 64 bit, the move to GPU-centric software. It’s a lot. Fall too far behind on eBaying the aging gear to flip to the new gear and this big ballooning monster of total obsolescence will build up and crush you. (aka “Unwitting Luddites”)

Upgrade decisions are often driven by how closely one’s ability to get clients and work is tethered to your ability to support the latest production standards. The hobbyist who makes side income has a completely different threshold than someone who’s entire livelihood depends on continuing to secure more work. And therein lies the rub, because the upgrade cycles have slowed down for everyone in this economy, while the progress of technology, formats, cameras, etc. has surged. This makes for some hard choices. Sometimes it feels like trying to outrun an avalanche, but it’s better than being buried by it.

But there definitely comes a point, despite one’s budgetary challenges causing delay of investment in new gear, where you are expending so much time and effort to bootstrap old gear, trying to make it work with current standards, while being unaware of how much of the tangible (and intangible) benefits are to be had with upgraded kit. Somewhere in that mix also lies opportunity cost of jobs you could be getting if it weren’t for old gear. Tough to manage it all sometimes, but this is a terrible place to find oneself.

That doesn’t mean I’m not all about “bang for the buck” aka “value for money” and “the right tool for the job”. There IS such a thing as overdoing it. Everyone’s needs are different. A honest assessment of the work you do (and are likely to get) is required to match the right gear to it. For example, there are a lot of people in production who would do well to look at iMacs on “value for money” standpoints. iMacs don’t have the expansion options of the MacPro towers, but can do a lot for less depending on the kind of work you do. They can also be great support systems as long as you already have one MacPro configured with the necessary video I/O, which nowadays is more about driving displays than capturing anyway.

Now please excuse me, I’ve got an avalanche to outrun!
Carey

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Thanks, Carey, for writing this and allowing me to share it. As always, I’m interested in your comments.

Larry

Our podcast, DigitalProductionBuzz.com, is the Official Podcast of Digital Video Expo for the third year in a row! Digital Video Expo 2010 is in Pasadena, CA, from Sept. 28 – 30.

We are creating three special programs – LIVE – from the trade show floor starting Wednesday, Sept. 29. (More on that in a minute.)

To celebrate, we are offering FREE PASSES to the trade show and discounts on the conference sessions. Here’s how it works.

Register for the exhibit floor and use the code – BUZZ – and you get in free.

Register for the DVE conference workshops using the code – BUZZ – and save $50. (This offer does not include the Weynand Training.)

The Buzz is already covering DV Expo with a variety of pre-show interviews with industry leaders. Plus, we’ll be at the show with updates on the latest technology every evening for three days starting Wednesday, Sept. 29.

Visit – DVExpoBuzz.com – for the latest in show news and a complete schedule of our special shows when they are produced. If you listen to the show on iTunes, we’ll post them there as well.

Larry

P.S. When you come to the show, please stop by our booth – #129 – and say hello. I’d love to say hi!