Tell Me Again, Why Was It That We Hated FCP X?

I remember a long time ago when we cursed Apple for abandoning FCP 7 and foisting FCP X upon us.  I can't remember exactly why since I never used FCP X but it seemed the right thing to do once Apple decided not to support FCP 7 anymore and a bunch of editors and writers called FCP X a glorified iMovie... (And I really hate iMovie) so I joined the mob and cursed Apple as we ran FCP X out of town.  I continued to cut on regular ol' FCP, and forget all about FCP X.  Lo and behold, a year and 3+ updates later, I stumble across David Leitner at Filmmaker magazine this month who really, really likes FCP X and thinks that one day we will learn to love it.

His argument:

A big advantage of conjoined operating systems is that user-interface breakthroughs on mobile devices such as the iPad can readily migrate to Mac apps like FCP X — for instance, use of animation, multitouch, auto-saving, full screen display, Retina display, integration with flash architecture — all of which in turn optimize FCP X for use on portable MacBook Pros with trackpads. On the latest MacBook Pro with Retina display, for example, you can view full 1080p in FCP X’s small Viewer window.

Of particular significance: the 64-bit AV Foundation found in OSX supplants the now legacy 32-bit QuickTime framework (video files will continue to sport QuickTime extensions). AV Foundation brings, at last, multi-core and GPU-assisted speed to Final Cut Pro rendering tasks (using OS X’s Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL), as well as full color management from input to output and finer time accuracy for subframe events.

In addition to incorporating OS innovations and building out extensive control of metadata and media management, the FCP X team sought to directly address several prominent trends in production: Digital cameras generate endlessly more footage than film cameras ever did, which must be readily reviewable and searchable. Multiple cameras are now common and often wild (no sync). Democratization encourages many to edit regardless of experience; at the same time, audiences expect perfect finished quality regardless of budget.

FCP X’s solutions, in order: fast Skimming with pitch-corrected audio, Keywords & Smart Collections, Multicam (introduced in January in FCP X’s third upgrade in a year), and a friendlier, less cluttered interface for those with less experience, with deep controls located just below the surface for experienced editors.

A big plus for Leitner is that it allows him a new conceptual approach to editing:

FCP X has no tracks. It adopts a different metaphor, one that Aeschylus would recognize. Instead of a timeline with tracks above and below, FCP X provides a single “primary storyline” that serves as a narrative spine, with a beginning, middle and end. Individual clips are “connected” at points along the storyline, floating on, just above (video) or below (audio) the storyline. A complex stack or sequence of clips can be collapsed and nested into a simple “compound clip” that can be edited like a single clip or momentarily reopened into its own storyline for internal editing.

The editor, free from worry about accidentally knocking clips or complex sequences out of sync, can playfully shuffle clips and sequences, focusing entirely on story structure.

Dispensing with the clutter of conventional tracks also favors use of FCP X on mobile devices and compact laptops with smaller screens — a clear nod to the future.

I like my timeline and I hate the iMovie timeline but I won't lie... I'm not hating on FCP X that much now.  Maybe Apple was on to something from the get-go but messed up the rollout when they released an incomplete FCP X and abruptly shut down FCP 7. 

Also, check out 7 pro editors on their experiences using FCP X.

Stuff I Dig: Solipsist by Andrew Huang

Solipsist | Andrew Huang| 2012 | USA | Format: N/A| 10 min

Winner of Slamdance 2012's Special Jury Prize for Experimental Short.

Colorful organic threads. Colorful explosions. A colorful exercise in symmetry, rhythm and randomness.  

Although the meaning of Solipsist may not be straightforward and is subject to interpretation, it can be immediately grasped as an expression of beauty.  However, it's not just colors, puppets and effects wizardry here, according to the IMDB summary:

Solipsist is a three part experimental fantasy short film about otherwordly beings whose minds and bodies converge into one entity. Filled with elaborate costumes, stunning visual effects, and underwater puppets, the film is a non-narrative purely visual/audio experience designed to transport viewers through a hypnotic, dream-like experience.  It consists of three parts, each featuring visually fantastic characters and creatures that converge with each other in surreal ways. The film concludes by featuring all three segments combined into a colorful, psychedelic finale.

Short of the Week explains further:

Comprised of three loosely related scenarios, each segment reflects characters attempting [to] merge or physically connect. This is in reaction to the title of the piece, which refers to a philosophical concept that posits we can only know what is in our own minds, and are thus unavoidably isolated.  In an artist statement, the filmmaker, Andrew Huang, notes that he grew up fascinated with the concept, and the tragedy of being trapped in one's own physiology. Through contemplation of the nature of synaptic gaps in neurons and the structure and purpose of language, ideas for these 3 sketches emerged, centering on attempts to build bridges between individuals. 

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Original Soundtrack.

Video Pick: Twin Shadow "Tyrant Destroyed"

Tyrant Destroyed, written and performed by Twin Shadow, from the album "Forget", available for purchase here.



Plus a behind the scenes making of the video synth effects with video artist, Johnny Woods.  He is using a modular analog equipment from LZX Industries designed to manipulate video.

IWTST: Universal Soldier - Day of Reckoning

I Want To See This:
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning | John Hyams| 2012 | USA | Format: Red Code RAW| 114 min

 

Thank you, Sijo Bruce Lee

It's the master's birthday today and Bruce Lee would've turned 71 if he were still here with us in this physical plane.  To me, he is the pinnacle VA+MA (Visual Artist + Martial Artist) that I strive to be and whether it's for philosophical insight, spell-binding entertainment, or martial arts inspiration and wisdom, I constantly turn to sijo Bruce Lee.  And so, I constantly say, thank you.

The artful rage of Bruce Lee:

 
The studied wisdom of Bruce Lee:

Training Video Vault: Guro Dan Inosanto JKD Trapping

I remember seeing this VHS video collection for sale in Black Belt magazine and Inside Kung Fu as a kid and oh, how I wished I could afford them then.  
And now here they are on YouTube. 
For free.
At least until the cease and desist... so watch and take notes pronto.

JKD Trapping is a vital yet refined art that takes tons of focused practice but pays off in huge dividends down the road. It has its genesis in Wing Chun but it's not just Wing Chun trapping I'm talking about in the grand scope of trapping; I think of clinching and grappling when I talk of trapping, too.  Trapping as a concept and skillset form the basis of many of the techniques I use and teach and show in my book, MMA Fighting Techniques.  Most of all, trapping is about flow; the kind of flow that develops your sixth sense in reading and feeling your opponent's attack so that you can respond in kind.  Although trapping in this classic video series consists of the traditional JKD trapping inherited from Wing Chun, master them and keep your mind open to the practicalities and possibilities beyond it. 



For the rest of the series...

Getting Artsy with Hollywood Storytelling

After viewing the recent crop of movies (specifically, The Master, Cloud Atlas, Anna Karenina, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook, and Holy Motors), film critics, Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott discuss the recent trend of these movies and others like it that dispense with traditional Hollywood narrative conventions of familiar plots and established genres to attempt a more interesting and personal kind of storytelling.

Each year we review movies that teasingly or didactically, successfully or not, dispatch with either the whole or part of the mainstream storytelling playbook: they don’t seem to have three (or four) well-defined acts or characters who seem particularly motivated. They (movies and characters both) drift along rather than shift into drive; in other words, they look a lot or a little bit like art films. This fall, though, within a couple of months, there have been more than a few such movies — some released by small companies like IFC Films and others by big studios like Warner Brothers — that, in different ways, appear to aspire more to the art house than the multiplex. I don’t think we are witnessing the emergence of a lasting break with the old, durable Hollywood ways, but we are seeing an exciting level of playfulness.

The critics are happy to see this kind of "playfulness" happening in Hollywood even if it isn't always successful.

Bordwell on Constructive Editing

If you went to film school, you more than likely read David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's textbook, Film Art: An Introduction, in your Film 101 class.  Through blogging, essay writing, researching, visiting festivals, reviewing films, teaching class and holding lectures and discussions, they have dedicated their lives to advocating for cinema as an artform.  And if you visit their blog and read their usually lengthy entries, you can see that they not only know their stuff but they still enjoy watching films.  You'd think people who have watched so much might be jaded by now but Mr. Bordwell and Ms. Thompson are still fighting the good fight.

Film Art now comes packaged with videos on directorial techniques and film clips thanks to David, Kristin, Criterion Classics and Janus Films.  Unfortunately, you have to buy the book or be a student to watch them.  Fortunately, David has heard our praise (and our cries) and is offering new videos for the mass public.  Below is the first one on constructive editing, well worth the time.
Hopefully, there will be more.

Video Pick: Menahan Street Band "Lights Out"

Here's the video for "Lights Out" from Menahan Street Band composed of members from The Dap-Kings, Antibalas, Budos Band and The Expressions. 

http://menahanstreetband.com/
http://www.facebook.com/MenahanStreetBand
http://twitter.com/MenahanStBand

Video Pick: Clean Bandit "Nightingale"

A favorite latest from my favorite youtube music video channel, Noisey:

Here's the video for "Nightingale" from about-to-blow-up London quartet Clean Bandit. Fusing classical, electronica and hip-hop beats, and calling on an array of vocal collaborators, this catchy little track is unlike anything you'll hear today. 

Video directed and made by Clean Bandit (Clean Film), with additional camera work from Ben Millar Cole and stunt driving from Ruth Chatto.

"Luke had to learn the drum beat backwards and half-speed to film this. At the end, he is surrounded by Kandaka (singer of A&E) and two of her brothers, dancing. We filled the birds (Christmas decorations) with gunpowder emptied from fireworks and set them alight. Nikki, our singer (Nightingale, A&E), is very good at riding a bike with no hands. Filmed in and around South Kilburn Studios, where the song was written and recorded too."
Pre-order Clean Bandit's first EP, 'A&E' here: http://bit.ly/WaWldU


Thanks! 

http://cleanbandit.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/cleanbandit 

https://twitter.com/cleanbandit

Martial Moves of the Day - MMA Submissions

Part of keeping up with your fight game, besides training and working out is watching videos; they're entertaining and instructive.  Today I present top submissions. 

No. 2 is my favorite.

This video (Best Submissions by Technique) is worth watching all the way through even if the quality of some clips is old or low-res.  Kick ass job compiling this, ix3623.

And cuz it never gets old, here's one more list...

Story Time with Anton Chekhov "The Lady with the Dog"

The Lady with the Dog | Anton Chekhov | Russkaya Mysl (Russian Thought) | short

old postcard of Yalta

IT was said that a new person had appeared on the sea-front: a lady with a little dog. Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov, who had by then been a fortnight at Yalta, and so was fairly at home there, had begun to take an interest in new arrivals. Sitting in Verney's pavilion, he saw, walking on the sea-front, a fair-haired young lady of medium height, wearing a beret; a white Pomeranian dog was running behind her. 

And afterwards he met her in the public gardens and in the square several times a day. She was walking alone, always wearing the same beret, and always with the same white dog; no one knew who she was, and every one called her simply "the lady with the dog." 

"If she is here alone without a husband or friends, it wouldn't be amiss to make her acquaintance," Gurov reflected. 

...Finish it here.

Read the story for lessons on presenting and following through on a theme for your story.  Also, to learn how to tell a love story that carries emotional heft with a proper balance of melodrama and intellectualism.  I was left wondering: What does it say about love and lovers?  More specifically, how does this story speak to us in an age where we don't have arranged marriages (at least in the Western world) and can choose who to marry?  Would a modern couple in Dmitri's and Anna's shoes still have a case to make for love or would only they just be indulging their sexual and romantic desires? What does it say about our deep need for privacy and how little we think of it nowadays until we are exposed?

I'm shamelessly borrowing from Richard Pevear’s introduction to Anton Chekhov’s Stories in articulating here what was so novel about Chekhov’s approach. Pevear notes that in his own time Chekhov’s writing technique was compared to impressionist painting. He elaborates: “The most ordinary events, a few trivial details, a few words spoken, no plot, a focus on single gestures, minor features, the creation of a mood that is both precise and somehow elusive—such is Chekhov’s impressionism.” Chekhov’s writerly stance was that of a detached observer who presented characters and situations without moralising or judging. His subject matter was “the common stuff of humanity” rather than “monumental personalities dramatically portrayed.” He offered no clear conclusions. All of these factors are at play in “The Lady With the Dog” - Kate's Book Blog

Just Saw This: Chronicle

Chronicle | Josh Trank| 2012 | USA | Format: 35 mm [spherical] and [Fuji Eterna-CP 3514DI] D-Cinema | 84 min

Although it's not a flawless movie (the use of the camcorder as a POV device grew  annoying and Andrew's descent into "trenchcoat mafia" membership was a bit too convenient), I do wish more "superhero" movies were as inventive as Chronicle.  If so, our superhero movies could actually live up to the legacy of the mythological tales and legends we have inherited from the past and properly reflect our present-day cultural values, traditions and aspirations in all their complexities.

Definitely 4 stars out of 5 in terms of plot and characterization as a reflection of hubristic American youth who feel powerless, aren't aware of their power in this world and end up using their powers prankishly or ineffectively.  Also, a 5 in special fx; not just for the technical quality which made the effects appear seamless (with very few tell-tale signs) but for the fresh approach the director took with them.

Here's a quick peak at how they made one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

Beauty of the Sweet Science

Boxing Study 1286 Joshua Clottey. Howard Schatz

"Howard Schatz’s 19^th book, At the Fights, is a 224-page opus on professional boxers, or, as he puts it, “rare and unusual individuals” shot both in studio and on location at gyms and stadiums around the country." - Slate

Boxing Study 1166 Kassim Ouma. Howard Schatz

This book of boxers in action is the shit because it captures fighters with HD quality sharpness under dramatic lighting in futurist poses without denying the primitive, animalistic and righteous appeal that has always attracted the athletes and the fans for centuries.

Boxing Study 1805 Sergio Martinez. Howard Schatz

The inventive use of technology and the boxer's eager showboating make for repeated viewing.

Boxing Study 1809 Steve Cunningham. Howard Schatz

But as you turn the page, you're eventually reminded of the price fighters pay to come out on top or to just lose with dignity.

Before/After. Howard Schatz

Stuff I Dig: Physics of Judo

I dig the Physics of Judo...

Because I love the intersection of science and athleticism and how they illuminate the powerful beauty of reality and the tangible reality of beauty.

Because, both, when done right all come down to observable, doable principles.

Becauses it's another excuse to surf the web and learn something new.

And if you dig this kind of nerdy martial stuff, too, here's a whole playlist of  interesting but awkwardly delivered martial arts science-science for your benefit.  

Chinga Tu Romney (a political satire)

Just last week, producer-actor Mauricio Alexander, presented me with a short script that he wanted to shoot called "Chinga Tu Romney."  It was hilarious; he spoofed the Romney campaign's attempt to reach out to latino voters by using Craig Romney's limited Spanish skills in an ad that employs Mitt's penchant for lying. 

Of course, I had to do this.  

And so I put my co-producer hat on and we shot it last week.  Now it's down to the wire as we use our creativity to expose Mitt's lame attempt at appealing to latinos (and voters, in general) before Nov. 6.    

Watch the videos and spread the word by visiting the Chinga Tu Romney site where you can see the behind-the-scenes videos and the actual ad.  Also, please tweet us on TWITTER, like us on FACEBOOK, subscribe to us on YOUTUBE, join our circle on GOOGLE+ and follow us on TUMBLR. 

¡Chinga (Tu) Romney! 

Btw, some P.A. told Craig that "chinga" means "vote."