Phil Peel

My good friend James Hunter sadly took his own life just before Christmas. Here’s a video of his last recording.

He had sent me a rough track of a beautiful song “Heaven is a Dream in Song” that he had recorded with Kathryn Williams some time ago. It was very different from his usual work.   I  really liked  it and loved it even more after he spend a weekend re-mixing it.

He left a huge pile of video tapes after he died. So as I was sorting through his videos tapes, I put in a tape just labelled Kathryn Williams , which I was amazed to discover was almost a complete fly on the wall recording of his studio session with Kathryn, including them improvising the live recording of  Heaven is a Dream in Song.  I don’t know when it was filmed or who the cameraman was, but it showed James in an amazing creative session as he sang “improv”  or very quickly jotting down words in his notebook on the boot of a old car outside the studio.   He was enjoying himself, producing good stuff. I think the session was important to him. He was even wearing a tie!  Good to see him happy   …though sad that it was not to last.

So I synched up the video with the final mix track and mixed in other shots of James in happier times.  

The shots at the beginning are of sunlit clouds  ..filmed on the day he died. 

I was flying out of Southampton that day. His house is under the flightpath. Though it was murky in Southampton it was the most beautiful day up above the clouds. Quite extraordinarily beautiful.  It seemed to fit James’s music   …  and my hope that he now in a more peaceful, beautiful sunny place.

I’ll miss him..

Phil

Good news. tax changes to encourage more investment in UK films.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25232305

The new version 10.1 of Final Cut Pro X came out yesterday.    I haven’t tried it yet as it can only be installed with the new Mavericks OS X Mac operating system. So I’ve got to install that first.    It’s not a good idea to upgrade your programs when in the middle of an edit so it’s very convenient that I’m in between major projects.  I usually hold off doing a system upgrade until there is a good reason to do it. But I reckon a faster edit system is a good reason.  So I’m doing a big backup of everything before I jump into the OSX system upgrade.

So I’ll let you know how I get on.

Main FCPX changes seems to be  in Media management.

Projects and events are now contained within libraries, so there’s a single place for all your work. You can manage multiple productions using separate libraries and easily edit across libraries using the Library sidebar.   So you can open and close individual libraries to load just the material you need. And you can configure Final Cut Pro to automatically back up libraries to a custom location.

You’ll have to allow FCPX to convert all the events and projects to the new system before they can be used in Final Cut 10.1. However, media files are fine and don’t require updating.

“Event Manager X” can be a help in upgrading Events and Projects. To get everything where you want it ….and it’s now free. To find out more, visit:www.intelligentassistance.com.

What’s New in Final Cut Pro X version 10.1

Final Cut Pro X version 10.1 adds the following features:

– Optimized playback and rendering using dual GPUs in the new Mac Pro
– Video monitoring up to 4K via Thunderbolt 2 and HDMI on select Mac computers
– 4K content including titles, transitions, and generators
– Libraries allow you to gather multiple events and projects within a single bundle
– Easily open and close individual libraries to load just the material you need
– Option to import camera media to locations inside or outside of a library
– Automatically back up libraries to a user-specified drive or network location
– Project Snapshots let you quickly capture the project state for fast versioning
– Audio fade handles on individual audio channels in the timeline
– Add precise retime speeds by entering them numerically in the timeline
– Non-rippling retime option
– One step Replace and retime
– Custom project frame sizes
– Through edits displayed on all clip types
– Join Through Edit command removes bladed cuts to clips in the timeline
– Detach audio with Multicam clips in the timeline to manipulate audio and video separately
– Make video- or audio-only edits into the timeline with Multicam Clips as sources
– Blade and move audio in J- and L-cuts
– Ability to roll audio with J- and L-cut splits open
– Option to hide the Event browser to gain more screen space for viewing
– Native support for .MTS and .MT2S files from AVCHD cameras
– Used media indicators on source clips
– Improved performance with large projects
– Improved performance when modifying or adding keywords to many clips at once
– Easily move, copy, and paste multiple keyframes
– Option for the linear animation with Ken Burns effect
– Improved image stabilization with InertiaCam and Tripod mode
– Import photos from iOS devices
– Proxy and playback quality controls accessible in Viewer menu
– Support for portrait/landscape metadata in still images
– Effects parameters, fonts, and text size included in XML metadata
– Improved support for growing media and edit while ingest
– API for custom Share operations using third-party software
– FxPlug 3 with custom plug-in interfaces and dual-GPU support
– Share directly to YouTube at 4K resolution

Final Cut Pro X is available in the Mac App Store for £199.99. The 10.1 update is free for current customers. [Direct Link]

Here’s a fascinating idea, that needs some development but just might catch on

The Nolab Digital Super 8 Cartridge Can Make Your Film Cameras Go Digital

What if these old mechanical Super 8 cameras could be repurposed with modern technology in order to create digital images? Well, with the Nolab Digital Super 8 Cartridge, they can.

At first glance, the idea seems kind of crazy. Why use film cameras to capture a digital image? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Well, yes and no. Of course, many people shoot film because they prefer the aesthetic. However, in the case of the Super 8 cameras that took the proprietary Kodak film cartridges (which have been discontinued), an innovation like this has the potential to give new life to hardware that would otherwise sit and gather dust indefinitely.

By using a 5 megapixel sensor they can capture 720p HD footage at the native Super 8 aspect ratio of 4:3.

Processors integrated into the image sensor are able to  process and encode the footage in real time to a removable SD card.

Here’s the LINK