I have seen the future of live performance and U23D is it. Why spend $20 on parking, hundreds of $ on a ticket, and still need a set of binoculars?

Concerts in IMAX are incredible. The sound rumbles your seat as if you were there. Flying cameras give you the most intimate experience you can get without being on stage with the performers.

Let’s hope this is the start of a trend.

Coming from the IT world I’m accustomed to writing documentation. Perhaps none of my employers or clients read the documentation but it gives me the peace of mind to know the facts have been recorded for others.

I discovered that my leanings toward documentation is a rarity. Most people blame time or budget constraints and skip the technical writing. My gut feeling is those people have no idea how to communicate what’s in their head.

The concept of documentation isn’t a favorite task for filmmakers either. Not that it’s my favorite task but it’s important to know your assets.

The project I’m working on has had a few drive failures over the years and clips need recapturing. Final Cut Pro makes it somewhat easy if you’ve logged your clips properly, labeled media with reel numbers, and used consistent timecode on the media. Easy, no?

No.

I’ve got offline clips without reel numbers. The physical media name doesn’t match the clip description and the reel numbers are missing or wrong. Just to make it more fun, the DV timecode has breaks.

The other assistant and I need to sort this out and fortunately there aren’t a lot of missing clips, however I offer up these bits of advice:

1. Label your physical media with a descriptive name and reel number
2. Log your clips using descriptive names and reel numbers (if you’re Type A, go crazy and use scene and take numbers)
3. Stripe your DV tapes before you use them to establish consistent timecode

This is super easy and saves a lot of wasted resources down the road.

I recently started as an assistant editor on an independent feature. It’s one of those projects five years in the making but in the finishing stage of production: picture lock then onto visual effects and music and sound editing.

There’s a teensy problem before we get there… Over time hard drives have crashed without any backup (except the source media) and we’re going back to re-capture the lost files.

What’s interesting is the wasteland of media folders accumulated as the project was edited on other computers or bits of data recovered from odd places. There’s a folder named for each hard disk that’s crashed and rather than consolidate files into a master project folder, the clips were stored in random folders and hurriedly reconnected wherever they were.

The other assistant and I aim to clean this up but it’s interesting at how fundamental file management is, and regardless of your chosen field, how it’s poorly implemented. Whether it’s a giant inbox of e-mail or hard disk of snapshots, keeping things organized and tidy seems the last thing on anyone’s mind.

I’ve never considered myself a compulsive organizer. Instead, I’ve learned the hard way when drives crash, data goes missing or is impossible to work with. Data management is about running a well-oiled machine so you can win the race, not break down before the finish.

Although sites like YouTube have democratized filmmaking, it doesn’t mean anyone can make good content. All the fancy tools in the world don’t matter if you’re missing creativity and the aptitude of using those tools.

This video demonstrates how you can re-create the infamous D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach with a few people, compositing software, and talent.

[Via HDforIndies]

What’s so fun about YouTube are the old school videos that get uploaded. I went looking for 90’s era techno tracks from BG The Prince of Rap and Brooklyn Bounce from the early 2000’s. Before you roll your eyes take one look at your playlists of crap before you throw stones.

Example: Brooklyn Bounce’s Bring it Back. You can’t buy this song anywhere let alone the video. I found it on YouTube, saved it my favorites, and now it’s gone. Forever pulled from their massive hard drives due to a TOS violation.

I understand fully about copyrights and the DMCA. What I don’t get is the music industry’s attitude of “lock it up so no one can get it.” As a consumer I can’t buy Bring It Back nor can I enjoy it for free on YouTube. I’m certain the stupid video played ad naseum on some music channel back in the day (free to the viewer I might add) but today? Nope.

Options? Rip the video from YouTube and save it, forever, locally. It’s as if the music industry encourages piracy by withholding content. TubeSock, you are my friend.