Happy Christmas! Lightworks Open Source NLE just in time for holidays!

I love open source software and I’m very excited to have just recieved the news that Lightworks Open Source NLE package will be released to first registrants by the end of November. This is exciting stuff as the editing software looks set to put some serious pressure on the competition, not least because it is free.

Lightworks has not cut any corners in delivering a fantastic pro-specified tool that is available to anyone. This is big news and promises resolution, format and codec independent editing, real time effects, real-time primary and secondary color correction, and native support for Apple ProRes, Avid DNxHD, AVC-Intra and RED. With a full stereoscopic toolset available as an add-on from the Lightworks store, this is one NLE worth keeping your eye on.

Here’s the specs. I will do a full write up as soon as I have the first release installed and under testing.

Lightworks Open Source Application Features

Capture and Playback

– Edit While Capture, Firewire, SD (analogue and digital), HD-SDI with optional I/O cards
– Full-screen, real-time SD, HD, and 2K preview playback on desktop display, Dual HD-SDI and DVI for Stereoscopic playback

Editing

– Resolution, format and codec independent editing
– Edit at 23.976, true 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, or 60
– Advanced multicam editing with unlimited sources

Effects

– Real-time effects in SD, HD and 2K
– Field or frame based varispeeds*
– Keyframe graphs
– Effects layers with node-based layering tool
– Multiple real time primary and secondary color correctors

Tools

– Multitrack audio mixer with full bus routing and multiple mixes
– Customization templates for Avid and FCP shortcuts
– Voiceover tool for adding narration directly to edit
– Shot sync – sync two sources for playback comparison
– Customizable BITC timecode and film footage overlays

Film

– Support for 35mm 3-perf, 35mm 4-perf, and 16mm-20 and mixed film formats
– View feet and frames in edit
– View keycode and ink number
– 24-fps EDL import, export and conversion to and from 29.97 fps
– Import ALE, FLX, and CSV files
– Cut list, change list, optical list, pull list, dupe list

3rd-Party Support

– Inscriber Titlemotion, Boris FX, Combustion, After Effects, Premiere Plug-ins, Sapphire, Digital Fusion
– Support for any application that can exchange AVI, MXF and QuickTime files

Collaboration

– Advanced Shared Projects with real-time review*

I/O Support

– QuickTime, MXF, AVI, DPX, DV, DV50, DV100, H.264, Uncompressed, OMF, AAF
– Avid DNxHD*, Apple ProRes*, RED*, AVC-Intra*, AVCHD*, XDCAM HD*, XDCAM EX*
– Stereoscopic support for independent Left and Right files*
– Telecine 29.97i to 24p pull down removal
– 30fps and 25fps import to 24fps project

New Features

– New and intuitive user interface
– Basic wizard for user orientation
– Avid and FCP keyboard shortcut preferences
– Integrated help with indexed Lightworks User Guide
– New style ‘bins’
– On screen console controls
– Full screen video on single or secondary displays
– Advanced EditShare Project Sharing*
– Native support for Apple ProRes, Avid DNxHD and AVC-Intra*
– Native support for RED R3D files and RED Rocket cards*
– 10bit and 16bit DPX support
– H.264 and AVCHD support for DSLR cameras
– Stereoscopic import and editorial support*
– Stereoscopic output through SDI and DVI (dual stream, side by side, anaglyph)**
– Native 2K resolution support
– Output through DVI in different resolutions up to 2K
– New project browser
– Windows 7 support (32bit and 64bit)

*Options available through the Lightworks Store
**SDI Output requires optional I/O hardware

Sony’s F3 – dissapointingly unexciting, expectedly overpriced… yawn

Sony’s latest offering, the much anticipated F3 has turned out to be dissapointingly predicatable. This camera, Sony’s super35mm CMOS, PL mount equipped answer to Red One, Epic and Arri Alexa is in a word, very… average, while being grossly underspecified and overpriced.

This is yet more proof to me that Sony is the camera equivalent to a Volvo… safe, solid, reliable… boring.

For the princely sum of $20k USD you do not get a 4.5K resolution imager and you are firmly stuck to a 35Mbit XDCAM format rather than 36MB+ of Redcode RAW.

Here is a link to EOSHD’s great review of the F3, I would be wasting my time if I tried to write anything more than what has been said here:

http://www.eoshd.com/content/431

The logical conclusion – convergence, integration, virtualization, miniaturization… digital domination

Today I realized again the priviledged position I am in, what I am witnessing and not only that, but playing an active part. If you are a regular reader of my articles, you will know that for some time I have been observing, predicting and documenting the changes we are all seeing around us. I have recieved mixed responses from industry insiders and outside observers that have varied from total agreement to blind anger and denial.

I have had the priviledge of entering into discussions with technical and creative kingpins, responsible for much of the change we are seeing around us, one such person is Russell Wintner, of which Wikipedia credits as “…an American Hollywood executive largely credited with leading the worldwide motion picture industry’s transition to digital cinema.”

You can read that article of mine and his response here: http://dcinema.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/sink-or-swim-the-end-of-the-traditional-production-value-chain/#comments

I’ve had interesting debates with top Hollywood ASC Cinematographers like Steven Fierberg in this hotly debated article of mine that left a stream of 29 comments!: http://dcinema.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/film-vs-digital-the-debate-and-war-is-over/#comments

This blog has given me a outlet, connected me with movers and shakers I never would have met. Here I can publish my thoughts and insights to the world. It’s been hugely rewarding for me especially but I hope for everyone who reads it.

What is an absolute certainty is that this industry will never ever be the same again. It has changed to its very core, its legacy of technological exclusivity, of hierarchy and selective access, of economic and political control is crumbling.

These changes are profound and concrete, they are permanent and they will make or break you. Are you foolish enough to think you can fight the tectonic technological revolution going on in the film and broadcast industry? or even to think you are not affected? or will you embrace the change and let it carry you into the next decade or two on the cutting edge, happy, employed and in demand.

If you embrace it, are you embracing every new offering to be tabled by each and every maker of these wonderous magical solutions, swayed back and forth by changing fads and buzzwords or are you more cautious, taking your time to see how the first generation or two fare (which doesn’t involve much of a wait), and making decisions more intelligently, bringing in a good dose of rational thinking and real world experience before jumping on every new bandwagon?

I’ve recently been retrenched from a large post facility with studios and a film lab. It came as no particular surprise considering the revolution I have been watching and engaging in, simply being able to add one and one together has been enough for me to see where this is all going.

Today I saw a glimpse of the destination, and even at that it’s a destination only for a while before we yet again move on.

I want to mention a few people here that I have worked with for a couple years now, and am about to be spending much more time with, and I don’t think they read this so they will probably never object.

My friend Graham Austin, of DI Film Company is a technological visionary. I’ve just taken on marketing and sales responsibilities for him, and will also be data wrangling and operating both his and Panavision Cape Town’s Assimilate SCRATCH DI suites.

Graham is an amazing man. I met him a couple years back and we immediately clicked. I think he’s the only person I ever met who saw the future the same way I did. Driven by the intellect and experience of another amazing man, Craig Blankenberg of Solutec, a very special van is taking shape and it will make a major impact here in Cape Town and South Africa.

I can’t say much about the build, or what’s busy happening inside this special panel van, but today I got to drill holes, lay cables and get my hands dirty, and this coming week we take the van out to set on it’s first commercial assignment, it’s not even finished yet.

I can say this. Until recently I worked for a large post house, I’d say they employ in excess of 120 people and have the building and all the infrastructure that goes with such a facility. With the exception of the VFX division, this one little van with three people is capable of shutting such a facility down in a single season.

In this van are more CPU cores, RAM and storage capacity than you will believe if I told you. I’m talking faster than real-time image data transcodes from Red, Phantom, Arri, Canon, whatever… real-time playback, grading, color correcting, conforming, inputting, outputting, uploading, downloading, all on colour calibrated displays and it goes to set and stays on set. This is a model in converging DIT, VT, data management and backups, grading, even on-set editorial onto a single integrated mobile platform. This is like having a no-compromise post facility data-lab and DI theatre set up on site next to the catering tent. Oh, and renders, transcodes and data wrangling continue while this van is in motion. All servers and gear are rack mounted in a specially designed suspended housing.

This is the future! It is here and I couldn’t be in a better position. I’m not worrying about weathering this storm, I’m ready to throw some lighting bolts!

Stay tuned because I’m going to be doing some in depth write ups on the van soon.