Charlie Wood at the Virginia Spots Complex has a great post on the 7 Best Gimbal's For the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K (Most Affordable Options). Personally I want a DJI RS 2, thought I do like the dual handle design of the 2 Zhiyun models, as the camera is way too heavy for one handed operations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6C3RiJyG9g From filmmaker Matteo Bertoli.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfKpbfZBwOU Chadwick Shouts at Creative Video Tips has a great video on quickly going from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve. Hid videos are always great, so check it out.
OK, so not always the most thrilling subject, but after arguing with a post super about this, I wanted to give my 2 cents on file and sequence naming conventions, and for some of the reasons behind why I think the way I do. So first off is spaces, and I am a firm believer that there should be no spaces in your file/sequence names. I know that modern computers mostly deal fine with spaces, but to be on the safe size I think you should use underscores instead of spaces. Now file names should start with the job identification and name that your company specifies that you should figure out, and as much identifying info as you need. So lets say you are doing a short Star Wars commercial that is 2 minutes long and is job 040477, and it is titled Millennium Falcon Kessel Run in so I would say it should be SW_040477_120_MFKR_ to start. And a quick note, 120 for 120 seconds, and you would do 060 for a 60 second. And then as shown in my earlier posts about using PostHaste to set up sequences, I use STRINGOUTS, ROUGHCUT, OFFLINE and ONLINE as the nomenclature for the sequence. Now I have been told by a post super from television that they only use the job name, info and title and a version number, nothing else, but at least for commercial work, bts works and short films I have worked on, I totally don't agree. Personally I think if you can do it, ROUGHCUTS are for internal distribution mostly and the OFFLINE is when it starts going to the client, and should be much more finished, and have a decent audio mix, color correct, graphics, as much as you can get so you don't end up with the I don't know how to watch a rough cut lady. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MNg3sSZ9F8 And I think you need ONLINE to designate the final exports, so you can keep track of them, as sometimes you go back to Ofllines and keep working then make new ones, and just version numbers can be confusing. Honestly I have had 3 or 4 Onlines at times, because you can't guarantee the client won't come back. Now this is something else that I think should be in your filenames, especially with remote work, and that is Initials of the editor/graphics artist. And even more so because with the job I am on, we have a graphics guy, who has been doing the graphics, but not only is too busy, but the ProRES 4444 takes a long time to upload and download, so he has been handing off his After Effects Projects, and After Effects projects are big and unwieldy, and hard to break down into individual comps. This means different people are rendering out graphics, and to make changes, it would be easiest to have initials in the file name of the graphics. And our Online editor also prefers initials in the file name, so…
OK I had to post this article on the Colorist of Dune because of the insane process for Color Grading that they did. I watched the new Dune at home on HBO Max, being a huge fan of the original David Lynch version, and having read all of Frank Herbert's original novels around the time the original film came out. I still am trying to wrap my head around the fact that they Shot the film on ARRI Alexa LF for the most part, then color graded in DaVinci Resolve, then scanned back to 35 mm film and then scanned back for grading. Which is to say at the least an incredibly expensive process. And how did it integrate with FX, did they do the scan first or after effects were added?
It is well worth checking out for any beginner editors out there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdP2BcR-7JI&feature=emb_imp_woyt Premium Beat really does have some great DaVinci Tips and this one is for sure worth checking out. And a very simple effect to achieve as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJMfX9Kdmts Another great video from Chadwick shoults and this one showing just how fast the new M1 Max MacBook Pro is at DaVinci Resolve, which not only says allot about what Apple did, but also what Black Magic Design has done about getting DaVinci to really shine on Apple Silicon. Man I can't wait for an Apple Silicon iMac Pro and Mac Pro to really see what these chips can do, and if rumors are right they will likely be M2 Max chips, as the MacBook Air next year is likely to be the first M2.
Blackmagic Design has announced reductions on the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard and some panels, but a price raise on the Speed Editor. DaVinci Resolve $Free.DaVinci Resolve Studio $295.DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor $395, an increase of $100.DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard $595, a saving of $400.DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel $795, a saving of $200.DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel $1995, a saving of $1000. Now the Speed Editor was $295 and included Resolve Studio, so that is going the wrong way, but $595 is getting better for the Editor Keyboard (down $400_ and $1000 off the mini panel is great, though I will stick with my Tangent. The thing is I know that Blackmagic Panels are better built than Tangent, but they also only work with DaVinci, and even with the price drop are still so expensive. And I only work with ergonomic keyboards so the editing Keyboard is useless to me, so I was interested in the Speed Editor, but it's focus on the Cut Panel turns me off. Honestly I know you aren't reading this Blackmagic, but I would love a smaller panel with basically the dial and a few other buttons, but I know it wouldn't have customizable buttons or work with other software, so... And the customability is the weird thing, since DaVinci doesn't let you customize the buttons nor let them work with anything else. And the buttons on the Speed Editor are too focused on the Cut Page, which I do not like and do not use, I would much rather have it based on the edit page, but would also want it to work with Premiere Pro, so...
Scott Simons has released the first part of a must read review of using the Apple MAcBook Pro M1 Max for Video Editors. Things sounds great so far, and it really gives me hope for the Apple Silicon iMac Pro and Mac Pro. Still hope that plug in makers start speeding up the process of re-writing their software for M1. It disturbs me that even companies like Maxon with Red Giant hasn't upgraded everything to M1 yet, even though it is a subscription, which means they really should be upgrading their applications quickly, because I am paying for them constantly. At least Adobe has the Beta of After Effects working on M1, but it is going to be limited on plug ins for sure.