Apple just released a reboot of their Final Cut Pro video editing application: FPC X. From what I can tell, the X stands for ‘Strike One.’

No?  How’s this…  “They call it FPC-X, I’m thinking FPC-Why?”

Okay Apple, enough joking around. Where's the real FCP upgrade?

People have been asking me about FPCX since it was announced. Am I excited about it? Will I be upgrading soon? Did Apple just throw all of their professional editors under the bus? The answer to all three of these questions is, “Absolutely!” (continue reading…)

I had just pre-lit a product shot for a shoot the next morning and was about to head home when my friend Andy showed me this amazing bobble-head doll that some drug company sent around to doctors as as a promotional item.  The opportunity to film it was too good to pass up.

The toy is a thing of beauty: it’s artfully sculpted and painted by hand. And it includes an IC chip with a lovely recorded tune…about vaginal itch! It must have cost the drug company a pretty penny. I certainly learned more about BV than I ever hoped to.

I think about the people involved in making this–particularly the song. Who is the unknown hero of a lyricist who found a good rhyme for “bacterial vaginosis”? How many takes did the singer need to get all the way through the song without cracking up?

Shot on Panasonic GH2 with Leica 45mm/Macro lens.

I’ve been working on a number of projects lately but wanted to share some footage from my latest: a documentary on influential American art potter Richard Fairbanks.

This will be a longer term project which I’ll shoot in bursts as exhibitions of Richard’s work and interview subjects become available.  Here is a snippet of an interview with art critic Matthew Kangas, along with some images of Richard’s work–all of which I recently filmed at an exhibition at Seattle’s Nordic Heritage Museum.

To say that I’ve been connected with this story for quite a while would be quite an understatement.  Richard was one of my mother’s art professors at Drake University.  (And without my Mom’s influence and art lessons since before preschool I doubt I’d be pursuing an artistic profession today.)  My wife, Ahn Lee also edited one of the first books written about Richard fifteen years ago.  And our family has known Richard’s widow Dixie Parker-Fairbanks for many years.  So when the opportunity came up to make a documentary film about Richard’s work, I was in. Richard and Dixie’s story is remarkable: bridging the worlds of art, international relations, and intrigue.  There’s also an inspiring human story at the center of it, so I’m excited to see how it evolves and takes shape.

This documentary is also a great example of the “new model” of filmmaking…namely all the jobs being done by a lot fewer people than they used to be.  The economics of this project dictate that I do all the jobs of lighting, shooting, running sound, interviewing, and of course, packing up the truck at the end of the day.  (Not to mention all the post-production.)  The “new” part of this equation is that the equipment that’s available today makes it possible to actually capture the quality that a project like this demands. With two Panasonic GH2 HDSLR cameras, a Tascam DR-680 recorder with mics, and a couple lights and stands, I can get professional results from a film studio that fits in the back of a Saturn Astra.

The "new model" of shooting...one guy does everything.

I’ve been doing a number of one-man-band shoots lately and I’ve come away with two realizations.  First is a deepened appreciation for what a true dedicated professional brings to each job on set.  The second is amazement that one person can actually pull off a nicely lit, two-camera shoot with quality sound and no nasty surprises in the editing bay.  This is certainly not the way I’d like to work from now on; every moment I’m on set I feel like I’m just barely capturing what is required without really bringing the art or sophistication that one could if they were to focus on just one or two jobs.  However, many of these projects are the kind that simply would not happen if I had to wrangle vehicles, equipment, and personnel.  They would be missed opportunities.  And I’m usually pleasantly surprised (and very tired) at the end of the day to discover that the work I spent all day worrying was less than my best still looks pretty good.  Especially compared to something that just wouldn’t exist at all otherwise.

Long-distance editing...it's the next-best thing to being there.

I’m working on two big editing projects at the moment and for me they’re a great reminder of how far the technology of editing has advanced in recent years, but also what may have been lost along the way. Editor Travis Bleen, writer-producer Andrew Stoneham, and I have just locked the cut on our new short film Coffee & Pie just in time to do the sound and color correction for our premiere in about two weeks at the Bermuda International Film Festival.  And of course, post-production continues on Divergence with editor Tony Randel, assistant editor Mike Canon, and my co-creator Dan Southworth.

The way I work on most editing projects has changed drastically in the past few years.  Once upon a time, editors literally cut and spliced strips of film, so they had to be in a room where the film was.  There was no duplicate set somewhere else for another editor or the director to muck around with.  The editing happened in the room and it was generally a two-person job because while one was cutting and splicing, the other was going and looking for the right piece of film.

Thank goodness those days are over. (continue reading…)

Backblog bak’ blôg n.

1. an accumulation of unwritten blog posts
2. a blog that is deeply out of date.

v.intr being in a condition of backblog.

“The last couple months I’ve been so slammed with work, my poor site is in serious backblog.”

I see a lot of backblog going on right now around the web.  I don’t know if people have lost some of the blog fever or if they’re just busy making a living in tough times.

My acute case of backblog is due to a whole lotta projects all demanding my time.  But of course, that’s when I need to blog the most.  So here’s the quick overview of what I’ve been up to.  I hope to catch up with more info on each of these projects shortly:

• Two short documentaries I made for MTV have finally hit the web as part of $5 Cover: Seattle.  Look for the “Seattle Scene/B-Side” Videos “Tube Addiction/Verellen Amps” and “Vortex.”  You can watch them on the MTV site or in higher quality here.
• My family film, The No-Sit List (staring Danny Trejo, Rico Rodriguez, Trenton Rogers, and Dee Wallace Stone) is about to be released on DVD (street date: March 8, 2011) by Phase 4 Films, retitled Babysitters Beware.
• Another family film I wrote is preparing to go into production in a month.
• I directed the short film Coffee & Pie in New York, and just learned of its first festival acceptance.
• My co-creator Dan Southworth and I (along with a truly amazing nano-crew) shot the first several episodes of our action/sci-fi web series Divergence. We’re now winding our way through post.

There’s some other bric-a-brac but that’ll hold until I get some more photos, links, and updates uploaded on these projects.

So, sorry about the delay.  I’m still breathing, still dedicated to the blog.  More info, videos, and articles are on the way.