I have been privileged enough to be able to work from since the Covid Pandemic hit, though my wife has started having to go in 2 days a week. And I have realized I really don’t want to return to the office at all if it can be helped. At home I have my editing computer setup just how I want it with the plug-ins and scripts I want and the keyboard and mouse as well, and I am able to see my wife during the day as well as my dogs, but the thing I really, really don’t miss is the commute.
Honestly in Los Angeles the minimum commute if you are very lucky is 30 minutes each way, and most are between 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes each way. And yes that eats up so much time in the day.
Already I walk my dogs for about an hour and a half each morning (unless it rains which is not that often) so I get up at 5:45 to start work at 9 AM. To have to drive too, means I would need to be getting up at 4:45 AM. I used to be able to go that, but I am getting older, and 5:40 is already early.
And to be able to start dinner and eat pretty much when work is done is also amazing, it gives you an evening.
And this is without kids.
Now an inexperienced editor would need more supervision, and I can see them in an edit bay with more supervision, but after 20 years, I don’t need more daily oversight.
And with all the talk that 4 day work weeks without longer hours, actually increase productivity, so does working from home, and having commute time be part of your day for days you go in really would be amazing. It would mean that employers had to think about the commute, but it would also mean that they would hire closer employees, so there would have to be laws enacted, giving commute times based on where you are. Some places could easily do 30 minutes, but Los Angles would have to give at least an hour every day. I am assuming employers would make apps that track your drive as well, so they don’t get cheated our of a few minutes, but all that might let more people work from home.
They have released the Beta of DaVinci Resolve 18. It has extensive new features in addition to Cloud Collaboration. This includes Blackmagic Cloud, a new Proxy generator with simplified proxy workflow, intelligent Media Management.
New features include Intuitive object mask, automatic depth map, track moving warped surfaces, and updated resolve fx beauty. It also has enhanced subtitles, reverse shape, iris and wipe transitions, it can view 25 multicam angles, and has YouTube and Quicktime Chapter Markers.
Fusion updates include GPU Accelerated Paint and Text and Shape Acceleration.
Fairlight updates can convert legacy projects to flexbus for high track counts, automatic binaural rendering, decomposition of nested timelines and innovative space view 3d display.
Other new features include DaVinci Neural Engine Acceleration, Laptop HDR Monitoring on Apple Displays, Atmostpheric Simulation, Edge Detection, DaVinci WIde Gamut Color Space, 8K Real Time Color Correction and better M1 Ultra Performance.
AI Tools include a Person Mask, Superscale uprez, smart reframe for Social Media, Stylize with Open FX Library, Fave Refinement, Dead Pixel Fixer, Object Removal, Patch Replacer.
For Content Creators it adds upload to YouTube, Vimeo and Twitter, Import ATEM Mini Projects, Advanced Noise Reduction, optical flow speed change, Mix 2000 tracks in reral time, track and follow objects, and upgraded Color Warper for Refined Grading.
Also new is the Blackmagic Cloud Store drive with 4 10G Ethernet Ports for local network and built in cloud share via dropbox, with proxy creation. It has super fast SSD drives.
There is also a Cloud Store Mini for smaller situations or where you will use your own 10GB switch.
And the Cloud Store Pod, which can have 2 USB C drives connected to it.
And the HyperDeck Shuttle HD a desktop recorder and player for ATEM MIni Switchers, that can also be used with the Cloud Store.
Wow, this is huge. A full cloud solution for DaVinci including sync. This is so impressive. I wonder if there will ever be solutions to use this with Premiere?
This is of course not going to work as well as a dedicated streaming box. And though he says the audio from Premiere will also now playback on your machine (not sure how it does that, but he says it works, but I doubt they can hear you talk, so I would recommend LoopBack to the mix so you can combine Premiere and your Microphone to make audio (and run your computer through headphones so their isn’t audio feedback).
Pretty that you can try getting this running for free (or $99 for Loopback), though obviously dedicated hardware will run better.
So I have written about Sofi Marhsall’s Ultimate Rea-Time Editing Workflow (That Won’t Break the Bank) and just wanted to give a little Update on how i have updated that workflow because of my setup, and the difference for me is that I run a older Blackmagic UltraStudio 4k as my video out, which I run to a Samsung HDTV.
I followed her instructions and got a BlackMagic Web Presenter, but got the UltraHD version so I can do 4K video, and it does seem to work just fine with either the front or back USB C unlike the older version she used.
And because I am not using USB-C to HDMI cable for my setup, which is also going to eat up a more of your video ram (displaying as a second monitor. Instead I ran a BNC Cable from my UltraStudio 4k into my BlackMagic Web Presenter, while my Samsung is running out of the HDMI out of the UlraStudio 4k. Sofi’s version is setting up the web presenter as a second monitor, but I am already using a second monitor on my computer, and would rather run the direct output from my UltraStudio from Premiere (or DaVinci or AVID) into my Web Presenter, and you don’t need to setup the web presenter as a second monitor.
My Web Presenter lives on top of my UltraStudio 4K (the Emotive is a DAC I use for listening to music off my computer) someday I will get a rack mount to put them in.
Whatever you are playing back shows up on both monitors for me, and I can see on my TV, which is the black line at top with the power cable running down the wall, and the usb cable to the computer allows the web presenter to act as a USB web cam.
Premier Video Output Settings
Premiere Pro Menu > Preferences > PlaybackMy playback settings set to Blackmagic Playback with Disable Video Output when in background disabled!And the Blackmagic playback setup settings for my UltraStudio 4K
So in Premiere I am playing back through Blackmagic playback via my UltraStudio 4K, and I have disable video output when in background (which I usually have checked, disabled, so the signal keeps going to the webcam constantly.
Now again differing from Sofi Marshall here I have the audio setup differently, as she is using Loopback to send the audio to the Web Presenter, but I am using Premiere Pro directly. I am still using Loopback, but differently as I will show.
So for Premiere Pro I go to Premiere Pro > Preferences > Audio Hardware to setup direct audio to the UltraStudio 4K.
Premiere Pro Menu > Preferences > Audio HardwareAudio Hardware Preferences, default output to Blackmagic Ultrastudio 4k and Map Output to Blackmagic PlaybackDefault Output selections, I actually usually use Edirol UA-1D which I have an optical cable coming out of to my Edirol and an Emotica AMP for my Speakers as well as a FireStone Audio Headphone amp, and use blackmagic to show sound sync on my TV, but I can live with the sync being the same as the computer monitor most of the time, but for this I use send the audio to the Blackmagic UltraStudio 4k.
I then follow Sofi Marshall’s directions on creating Loopback Device 2, which combines the iMac Microphone (her external microphone) and the audio from the Web Presenter.
I have created my mic for zoom, the “Mic & web Presenter” with the External Microphone and the audio from the Web Presenter 4K combined.
So here is my loopback microphone setup so my cut can be shown with audio and they can here the microphone.
Now since I am running the audio directly to monitor my audio for me it would be coming out of my TV which would then show up in my microphone, so I can’t have that, so I must mute my HDTV, and I want to hear my edit through my headphones. My headphones are running through my Edirol though could be just the headphone jack, so I have made a loopback to send Premiere to my Edirol.
I have also made a setting for DaVinci exactly the same but with DaVinci.
These send my audio from Premiere or DaVinci to my headphones. Now we need to setup zoom.
Zoom Menu > PreferencesZoom Preferences ? Video for Camera I have selected my Web Presenter 4K as the video, with original ratio and HD.And Zoom Preferences for Speaker I send the audio to my Edirol (which could be headphone jack) and for the microphone I select Mic & Web Presenter which I created in Loopback.And make sure to turn on High-Fidelity Music Mode and Stereo Audio.
Now you can do a zoom using my video out from Premiere and Web Presenter. Thanks to Sofi Marshall, as I would have never done this without her.
Personally, I am for fully remote at this point, but hybrid at some point, but since I have recently set up a real time remote workflow so I can live stream my cuts with ZOOM, and have the real-time viewing and feedback, while still staying remote.
I can honestly say I would not to be in an office all day with a mask on, but even with masks and vaccinations I wouldn’t feel safe, especially with the bathrooms in most office buildings. And the time I have spent with my wife and my dogs during the pandemic just shows me how much I don’t want to have to drive in Los Angles traffic anymore.
The previous $495 version could accept a 4K signal, but it only could output at 1080, but this can output at a full 4k for a better signal for $695.
And like the previous model it has a USB C out so you can connect it to your computer as a web cam to use in Zoom. And with my UltraStudio 4K I could easily run it via the SDI input without bothering the HDMI out (though it also has an HDMI out).
I was talking to a DP with the director on a notes call and I really wished I had this setup so We could do live sessions. I know a lot of producers like to do a session in person and being able to stream live to a producer and talk really is something I need to add to my setup soon so I can continue to work at home. I am really looking forward to trying out Sofi Marshall’s setup and getting this going.
