When we hit NAB, there was this feeling in the air that the new & the future will be 3D. Panasonic actually revealed their take on the issue at NAB, and recently I was thinking about how impressive this technology actually is. So I thought that I’d mention the prototype they announced as the Panasonic “3D Full HD” camcorder.

It’s looks crazy and it shoots crazy but will it work?

According to Panasonic, the camera will operate by placing two cameras side by side into a single chassis. Most 3D movies are generally done by mounting two cameras together, so this would be a slight variation with the same idea. The video from both camcorders are then linked together and exported as 3D video.

So I’m not entirely certain if this is a new technology that I’m interested in seeing get developed. Why to be honest? Why should I? What benefit does 3D have? I feel like there is no point, but who am I really… Just a guy that shoots video every single day.

Imagine if you made a video that was 42 seconds long, and it was part of project that included 41 other directors, who have made 41 other videos. All of which are 42 seconds long. With the likes of Mike Figgis, David Lynch, Gaspar Noe and Abel Ferrara. Well then, you’d probably end up with this video:

Which is a trailer for ONEDREAMRUSH. Check it out here

Reprinted fron a MainConcept press release:

MainConcept GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DivX, Inc. (NASDAQ: DIVX) and one of the world’s leading providers of video/audio codecs and software development kits (SDKs) to the broadcast, film and consumer markets, today announced the release of MainConcept™ MPEG Pro HD 4 Plug-In Suite for Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS4 and CS3 software. This new MPEG Pro HD 4 Plug-In helps professional videographers, editors and producers edit high definition video in various formats.
Now available in five different powerful codec format packages, the MPEG Pro HD 4 Plug-In makes it quick and easy to edit video formats such as AVC-Intra in the Adobe Premiere Pro workflow. The newest MPEG Pro HD 4 Plug-In augments existing frame-accurate, native editing of a variety of formats in Adobe Premiere Pro, with full support for formats such as AVC-Intra or XDCAM 4:2:2, among others.
Various MainConcept MPEG Pro HD 4 versions are available:
MPEG Pro HD 4
H.264/AVC & MPEG

MPEG Pro HD 4
XDCAM

MPEG Pro HD 4
DVCPRO

MPEG Pro HD 4
AVC-Intra

MPEG Pro HD 4
Broadcast Suite

The MainConcept MPEG Pro HD 4 Plug-In adds professional enhancements to Adobe’s video editing flagship product, such as Dolby Digital 5.1 output channel support, AVC-Intra Class 50 and 100 support, and many other ready-to-use project, sequence and export presets for all sorts of devices as well as production and broadcast environments.
“Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 provides a comprehensive solution for creative professionals who need to craft world-class video,” said Owen Walker, senior product manager for Adobe Premiere Pro at Adobe. “MainConcept’s new plug-in extends the capabilities of Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 to an even greater range of workflows, such as those involving AVC-Intra codecs. We are pleased that MainConcept is dedicated to supporting Adobe software and providing even more options for our customers working in a wide range of formats.”
“Users will benefit from the unique features and various improvements we’ve added that build on the Adobe Premiere Pro workflow,” said Muzaffer Beygirci, Managing Director and VP Sales of MainConcept GmbH. “By providing multiple Plug-In options, we have created a comprehensive and cost-effective video editing solution for any production environment.”
A full list of features as well as the MainConcept Plug-Ins is available for online purchase and instant download at the MainConcept website. A free demo version is available for pre-purchase testing.
More information about the MainConcept MPEG Pro HD 4 Plug-In for Adobe Premiere Pro CS3/CS4 is available at www.mainconcept.com.

I know this video has been making the rounds on the video-blogs lately, originally at the Art+Copy Club, this presentation by Joy Moeller explains the pet peeves of the editor / producer relationship, from an editor’s perspective. I’m a pretty mellow editor, but a lot of her complaints really resonated with me, especially the ones about not touching my computer screen, and sitting so close that we’re sharing the edit desk. I had a good laugh and thought I’d share it with you.

Anyone who knows me knows that I constantly rant about the blatherings on social networking sites. People who so mistrust the whole Big Brother concept and identity theft woes seem to think nothing of posting everything from extremely personal data to photos of their kids on a social site that is completely run on automation. And they connect with unknown strangers who connect with unknown strangers who connect… etc, until they have a huge pile of virtual friends who in the real world they might not have given out their name to, much less their home phone number.

A while back, I pulled down my Facebook account because a very strange person from my past contacted me and insisted on “reconnecting” as friends.

This person who is NOT a friend, but is one of those former coworker-from-hell personalities, contacted me via FB requesting a friend invite. We were never friends before but she continued to send me badgering email requests so badly that I had to remove my account. I had a public profile, and was unable to change it to a private one, despite going through all the steps to make it so.

Recently, technology and media journalist Shelly Palmer wrote in his blog about a scary moment when his wife’s Facebook account was actually hijacked by a hacker and her friends received strange notices from the hacker posing as her. Read that scary account here.

I, for one, am signing off FB for now, I have other things to do than talk about myself all day. (As, ironically, I write this blog about myself!)

I hate it when the taskbar on the Windows machine I use at work gets needlessly polluted by things like emails, Explorer windows, pop-under ads that sneak through, etc.

Everyone we can think of off the tops of our heads uses a PDF reader often. I was using one just today as part of my job duty of technical editing; reading some technical documentation to supplement a review I was writing. (And you, my fellow video editing friend, I’m sure you’ve used PDFs before. You’ve probably been sent to an instruction sheet or two for a new plug-in.) It used to be that Adobe Reader wasn’t guilty of polluting my taskbar when I had to have multiple PDFs open, it would open muliple PDFs in the same window… but lo and behold, the current version opens every PDF in its own window, and has stripped away the option of letting one window handle many PDFs to help keep your taskbar uncluttered.

I have been a stalwart user of Adobe Reader for years. You don’t have to put a PDF reader on a Mac because it comes with Mac OS X, but I installed Adobe Reader anyway. There are a lot of freeware choices for readers on the PC side of things that are more svelte than the official Adobe Reader, but I stuck by Adobe Reader for the utmost in compatibility. But now I have to admit that I’m having to second-guess my choice. I’m disappointed that I’m even having to contemplate this; but I urge software developers to think twice when it comes to making choices that will drastically alter the way users use their software.