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.

In Apple’s announcement, they indicated that one of the things they fixed was a series of memory leaks, which is something that Soundtrack Pro has suffered from since its initial release.

However, my philosophy is to ALWAYS wait whenever Apple announces a new update - just in case the new version does more harm than good. (You can read an article I wrote about upgrading here.) So, I didn’t install the upgrade until this weekend.

At which point, I immediately began having problems using Soundtrack Pro. After experiencing five or six crashes within ten minutes, and sending a crash report to Apple, I did the usual — Safe Boot, Rebuild Permissions, creating new versions of the project file using Save As — all of which did not solve the problem.

What DID solve the problem was trashing Soundtrack Pro’s preferences — something that we have not had to do before.

So, if you find that Soundtrack Pro is becoming unstable:

• Save your work and quit Soundtrack Pro
• Go to your Home Directory > Library > Preferences folder
• Delete com.apple.soundtrackpro.plist
• Empty the Trash

Reopen your project in Soundtrack Pro and you should be good to go.

Once I trashed this preference file, Soundtrack has been running reliably for hours.

Larry

The first part of his series has been posted: “How To Create A Bootable OS X Firewire/USB Install HDD”. David writes:

“This tutorial suggests a long term strategy designed to produce a problem-free install, and a quick reinstall if problems should arise again — with the proviso that you spend a one time spare afternoon preparing the necessary files and materials. The strategy is intended to produce long term results and far less down time.”

You can read it here.

You can read the entire article here.

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

Click here to view: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYE5N9cpwTE

Larry

As I was leaving the Object Matrix booth, I met Paul Phillips, the U.K. Managing Director for Active Storage.

When Apple decided to get out of the RAID business a few years ago, Active Storage hired many of the engineers from Apple’s team to create a new RAID system designed specifically for the Mac.

In this interview, I talk with Paul about what Active Storage has done and how they’ve optimized it for the Mac.

Click here to listen to the interview. (TRT: 5:46 — 2.4 MB — QuickTime)

Larry

As I was walking the aisles of the Broadcast Video Expo in London last week, I discovered a company called Hocus Products. They make a wireless lens focus puller for smaller cameras - everything from a Canon 5D to a Sony EX3.

In this audio interview, I talk with Pete Hoare, the developer of the product, to learn more.

Click here to listen to the interview: (TRT: 3:43 — 1.5 MB — QuickTime)

Larry

Larry

LIVE BROADCAST TO SMART PHONES

As a sign of our changing times, Julia Ruttner sent me a note that Dolce&Gabbana are doing a first-ever live broadcast for the iPhone and Android mobile devices on Feb. 25. As we move to larger and larger TV screens in the home and smaller and smaller mobile devices in our hand, the production challenges of making a program look good on both screen sizes boggles the mind. None-the-less, it should be an interesting show.

WHO: Dolce&Gabbana and D&G F/W 2010 Women’s Fashion Show from Milan Fashion Week

WHAT: Broadcast live for the first time on iPhones and Android Mobile Devices

WHERE: live.dolcegabbana.mobi

WHEN: D&G - Thursday, February 25th at 10am EST
Dolce&Gabbana - Sunday, February 28th at 8am EST

If you are an independent filmmaker and want to share what you are doing with the world, let me know and I’ll help.

Larry

NEW ZEALAND FILM MAKER

My name is Dale Stewart, I am 24 years old and I am living in Auckland, New Zealand. I am a young, up-and-coming film maker within the country. I started my career with two short films and both have done very well.

I am currently in post-production for my first feature film which is fully funded by myself. It is a horror film called [ COMPOUND ] and began shooting in Feb 09.
Here is the first, full, trailer.

I recently completed an interview with Fangoria Magazine. Here is the interview.

Being from New Zealand I have had a lot of support from the New Zealand media and people within the film industry. Ive been recommended by a friend of mine to contact your website to how I can get some more buzz out for my film which is nearly complete.

Dale Stewart