SwimFinsSF

Bed Time

Ok… So I REALLY need to learn how to fall asleep alone without the TV…. I’m not sure if i’m the only one that has this problem but when I’ve got the place to myself I can’t stand falling asleep without watching a little TV first… With Kevin around thats no problem – he turns off the TV… But he’s out of town right now… The up side is I can be a geek and play on the computer all I want.. Down side though is since the bedroom TV doesn’t have a sleep timer ( that I can find ) I turn on the TV and doze off before I turn it off… Last night I did that and woke up at 4am to Donald Rumsfeld’s face – it was terrifying…

Guess I should learn to read to fall asleep instead..

Sorry – just had to share! 😉

Final Cut Pro 4.0

I can finally spill the beans on the details of what I’ve been working on since I joined the Final Cut Pro team about a year ago. We announced the latest version of FCP yesterday at a couple of press events in Las Vegas yesterday. I’m TOTALLY PSYCHED about this release.. I’ve gotta say I’ve NEVER worked on a release that is as full of new features as this one (which is probably why i’ve been so crazy and grumpy lately)…

Here’s a few of the new things that are rolled into this version of the app itself:
– Multi Channel audio / audio mixer
– XML Support
– RT Extreme (I know – goofey name – but way cool).. Scalable Real Time effects that take advantage of as much hardware as you have
– Time Remapping tools
– Keyboard Customization
– Frame viewer for analyzing effects per frame
– LOTS more

But Even cooler if you ask me is the other things we’ve added to the package… We’ve rolled Cinema Tools into the app bundle so you get that app with final cut.. AND we’ve added 3 new apps to the package as well… Compressor, Live Type, and Soundtrack…. Compressor is a video transcoder that you can use to re-compress your video into multiple formats automatically… Live Type is for creating REALLY COOL motion font effects for titling… And Soundtrack is a crazy cool tool for mixing audio together in a very simple way to create outstanding background music for video.

You can go to the Final Cut Pro web site to get the full details but I just had to holler a little bit cuz i’m pretty jazzed and proud..

Weekly Wrapup

Just stumbled on this weekly wrapup thing and seems kinda silly and fun.. Don’t know if I’ll keep it up but what the hell… Probably give y’all more info on me than ya probably wanted to know..

1. Do you like to sing? Why or why not? Yup… Sure do… Don’t know why – probably something I got from my mom. She sings all the damn time and I think I picked it up from her when we drove from Maryland to California when I was a kid.

2. Where do you like to sing? Why? Usually in the car… Hour long commute to and from work ya gotta find SOMETHING to pass the time! 😉

3. Do you sing in front of people? Why or why not? Not in general but from time to time when I’m feeling silly I will… Don’t in general cuz I’ve got enough background in music to know that I’m REALLY BAD! 😉

4. What’s your favorite song to sing along with? Why? Cats in the Cradle by Harry Chapin… LOVE that song…

5. What song is your guilty singing pleasure? Why? Sound Track from ‘A Chorus Line’… Couldn’t be more Gay – I know.. but I love it.. songs are fun and silly.. Also makes me think of my little sister – when she was in pre-school we listened to that song all the time. So much so that her teacher called my mom one day and said, while she knew where the song came from and it wasn’t a HUGE deal – it probably wasn’t appropriate for a pre-school age girl to be singing ‘Tits and Ass’ (Dance 10 – Looks 3)… Cracks me up…

New Place

I’ve been getting a lot of people asking for pictures of the place kevin and I bought and this seems like a good place to plop a link to ’em… In case y’all weren’t aware, back in January K and I bought a new place in Duboce triangle here in the city… Cool old place that was built in 1890… Got old bones and a lot of style.. I’m really proud of it.. haven’t had a lot of time to work on it but thats OK .. That will come in time…

Anyway – here are links to the pix of it:

New Digs

(NOTE: those pictures have the furnature in it from the guys we bought it from – Some are the listing pix and some I took when we closed – but I promise to take a few with our stuff in it soon..)

Madness?

Found thils flying around from an unknown source and its too good not to pass on (credit goes to Matt for sendin it to me):

“You know the world’s gone mad when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the USA of arrogance and the Germans don’t want to go to war.”

– Chris Rock

Film Book Recommendation

Our product designer at work just got me a copy of a book that is turing out to be very cool… Book is Called “Editing Digital Film Integrating Final Cut Pro, Avid, and Media 100” by Jamie Fowler… It talks about all of the various things that go into using Software NLE’s (Non-Linear Editors) for a Film based production and what is involved in the transitions between original film shot, transition to tape / DV / etc. for editing, and then the final process of cutting the original film back together for the final print… All sounds very industry specific (which it is) however he does a good job of describing how it all works in a very interesting way… Anyway.. Just thought I’d pass it on…

So in case you care:

Editing Digital Film: Integrating Final Cut Pro, Avid, and Media 100
by Jaime Fowler, Jamie Fowler