Using MacOS X Server with Virgin Media

Nothing to do with editing, but I thought I’d do a quick post on how to get Mac OS X Server to authenticate when sending emails through Virgin Media (or NTL, as was). It’s tricky... Read More...
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FCP to Avid Workflows

I am often asked to edit TV programmes in Final Cut that will be finished in, or at least will somehow pass through an Avid system. This workflow is actually very straightforward, but can go horribly wrong if you don’t understand the different ways that Avid and Final Cut/Quicktime handle video. There is a lot of great information out there on the web, but also a lot of disinformation – with Avid fans dissing FCP and vice versa – so as a user of both, I thought I would try to draw it all together into one blog entry. Read More...
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FCP X Review

There have been so many complaints about the new version of Final Cut Pro – FCP X. I’ve had a chance to play with it for a few days – some things I like, many things I don’t. Read on for the details.

Let’s cut to the chase – Final Cut Pro needed to be re-written. It needed to be 64-bit, it needed to be Cocoa... Read More...
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Less Technology - more Technique

There is a lot written about how to use editing software, but not much about how to edit – why some cuts work and others don’t, the techniques of montage, continuity and so on. Here, I try to redress the balance a little.

Imagine you saw the world like a film. You watch yourself from afar as you stroll to the pub. In the blink of an eye you are inside the pub - close up - watching yourself enter and scan the room for your friends. Read More...
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Canon 5D workflows that actually work (and flow)

How we shot, archived, logged and edited a feature film on the Canon 5D. A lot of people do it, but this is how it should be done!

I’m a geek – I freely admit it – but I didn’t develop a custom workflow for the Canon 5D just for the hell of it, I did it because all the off-the-shelf solutions out there just didn’t cut the mustard. Read More...
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Getting past the Geeks

Editing a TV programme is one thing, but there are a host of hoops to jump through before your masterpiece will be allowed on the telly. Here is a basic guide to passing tech review.

Amazingly, life as a professional editor is not all red carpets and lunch with Charlize Theron. Sometimes we have to do some work and show that, not only are we gifted and beautiful, but that we also know stuff.
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Stitched up by interlace

Interlaced TV shouldn’t exist in the modern world, but somehow it hangs on in there. A quick overview of its history.

If you ever find yourself in Stirling, go and see the National Wallace Monument – a bizarre Victorian Gothic monster with an even more bizarre late 20th century statue of Mel Gibson in the car park. Read More...
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