The New Final Cut Studio 2

I can’t wait to get my hands on Apple’s new Final Cut Studio 2. Specifically, I want to try out the new application called Color. Color grading is perhaps my favorite part of post production and I’m excited to see how far I can go with this new feature. The interface doesn’t look that scary and knowing FCP, I’m hoping that it wouldn’t be that complicated to learn.

I thought that Livetype wasn’t included in the new bundle but I was wrong (sorry!).  Someone pointed out that Livetype is indeed included but wasn’t prominently featured like the other applications such as Motion and Color. My bad…

Video Resolution is NOT Video Size

I found out there’s a lot of confusion regarding video resolution.  It seems that some of my colleagues actually mistake resolution for video size. I admit to making the same error before.  The problem is that since video size depends on the type of video compression, the responses are varied when video editors are asked about the “standard video resolution”.

First of all, video resolution and size are different. According to the book Digital Intermediates for Film and Video:

“In broad terms, resolution determines the level of detail in an image.  In video signals, the resolution is the measure of the number of horizontal lines used to build a picture.  The higher the number of lines, the higher the resolution, and the higher the level of detail that can be ‘resolved’, and hence, the greater the quality of the image.”

The resolution of a video image is determined by the standard: 525 for NTSC videos and 625 for PAL videos.  This is the proper response when asked about standard video resolution. On the other hand, standard video size may be 720×486 or 2:1 (NTSC).

Ang Lihim ni Pablito

“Ang Lihim ni Pablito“ is a small project we did at work (for fun!). Since none of us own a video camera, we decided to make a “comic strip” instead.

*Since I recently made a VodPod account, you may view the full video here or you may simply click the link I provided in this blog.

Softwares used:
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe After Effects
Final Cut Pro

an unbiased critique of “Bandila” (honestly!)

Watched the late night news program “Bandila” on ABS-CBN for the first time last night. I was busy the entire day and I wasn’t able to catch anything on the news and it was the “earliest” late night news show in local TV. For a news program, I think it tried to have a new approach in presenting the news. Visually, it was too busy. The graphics were very “animated”; there were a lot of unnecessary and annoying sound effects and the transitions they used were distracting. There was one news item about the “Wednesday Group” of senadors which used A LOT of cross-zooms. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to record it.

To be frank, I didn’t really get that much information. There was just far too many distractions. Editing style seemed out-of-place… i think it would be more appropriate for a corporate AVP and not for a news program.