Jonny Elwyn on the Best DVD Extras for Film Editors on Film Editing

From Johnny Elwyn, and I of course appreciate it after working on DVD Extras for years, including Lord of the Rings, King Kong and some of the Hobbit. It really is such a shame that there are basically almost no special features being produced anymore, as they barely have any for streaming except for a few for Disney+. I did love doing special features, but now there is basically only the EPK footage to make very crappy and short special features.

Engadet on Microsoft’s update to the Surface Studio, with last gen tech

D. Hardawar wrote this article on the long awaited update on the Surface Studio with 11th gen intel chips and RTX 3060 graphics. This was such intesting hardware, but why not update for 4 years, then user older hardware for such an expensive device? Seems like something Apple would have done years ago, and Windows Users would have done nothing but complain about.

Save as Popup Window Closes with right arrow in newest Adobe Apps on Mac OS Ventura

This was driving me buggy, I thought it was just Ventura, or maybe Default Folder, but it seems to affect just Adobe Apps right now. Went to Adobe Support Community to report it and luckily someone already did. Thanks for reporting this problem. We are aware of this issue and currently investigating a fix. It is unfortunately affecting After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Media Encoder, so all three will need an update to fix this issue. Any fix will become available in the Beta builds, and then the next public release. John, After Effects Engineering Team  You can currently use the mouse to get around this, but it is fiddly, so lets hope they fix it fast.

9to5Mac on Best Extensions for Safari for Mac, iPhone and iPad in 2022

From Arin Waichulis at 9to5 Mac, this is worth a read. I had never heard of StopTheMadness, which is not cheap (as you have to buy Mac and Mobile versions at $7.99 each) and the Mac version also works on Firefox and Chrome as well. It overrides websites attempts to lock out browser features, which is something I have been thinking about for a long time. It can also remove tracking tags, and URL shorteners.

Kenny McMillan at PVC’s Adobe Max 2022 Recap

I watched the Keynote and Sneaks of Adobe Max this year, but that was really all I had time for. Kenny McMillan at Pro Video Coalition has extensive coverage of all things Adobe Max that relate to video, well worth checking out. Max is more focused on Design, Illustrator and Photography than video, but there are always some little tidbits for us video users.

Softraid 7 in Final Testing for MacOS Ventura

OWC has an article on Softraid 7 which will add support for MacOS Ventura, and it isn't recommended to upgrade until this is released. I run Softraid for a work drive and a personal drive, so there is no way I can upgrade to Ventura until then. Honestly the shared iPhoto library is the most interesting feature to me.

File Naming for Graphics Files

I have been editing not for 22 years, since I started on The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring Special Edition Behind the Scenes in 1999 or 2000. And even that far back I was also working with Assistant Editors and figuring out best practices to work in a company and with multiple editors and graphics people. And on Lord of the Rings in between the editing gigs, I oversaw the Assistant Department who were logging the thousands of hours of footage to make it searchable. The pandemic and remote editing has made it more important, and I have helped the company I am working with develop some methodologies, though they didn't follow all of my ideas (some of which I think are a big mistake). And example is that I break each project into 3 major categories, the project, renders and exports and this is for Backup purposes, as it is easier to back up the project and exports separately from renders, but they have combined all into a single folder making backups more difficult, especially when using software to do it (which you should always do so that you can have Checksum's checked on copy). Another huge issue is graphics files. We have managed to get sequences to include dates and editors initials so you can track files back to their creators, but the graphics guys have not done that at all. And it is one thing to be given graphics files and use them, but most of them have a name and maybe a version number at best, and the problem is that while we use an after effects project that has a basic look, each of us are doing variations on graphics, but there is almost no set nomenclature for anything, So there is basically no way to track anything! I am being given a timeline like above in after effects, for a completely spot, which each graphic pre-composed in it's own sequence, and while I have blurred the project so you can't see it, the individual graphics projects are named text 1 and so forth, WTF! And we have even been given footage lately straight from the set, without an assistant conforming anything so even project names are up to editors. This could so easily be fixed with job numbers, even if they aren't final job numbers, but just within the post department, Or even client_jobnumber_Initials. So say a 2 letter abbreviation of product name and 4 digit job number then 2 or 3 letter initials of the person working on it. And you name your project this, or at least the start of it, I think it should also have a year for the After Effects version number in there (so 2022 or 2023). And every graphic file should start the same, so client_jobnumber_initlals, I would then add a description, and a date and version number. So for example, a FedEx commercial, job one with my initals JLW would have a…