In November RAP again teamed up with Girl-O-Rama Telepictures for another project. This time out we took care of audio mix for the “The Increasingly Necessary Todd Margaret Recap Special”  airing on IFC in January.  With season two starting at the top of 2012 on IFC what better way to get us all up to speed than a recap special?  Like watching season one in fast forward but way more entertaining.  Hosted by comic creator and star of Todd Margaret, David Cross.  Dropping Todd knowledge like an MF.

We mixed the show in Logic Pro 9.  Utilizing plug ins from Waves, Stillwell Audio and Audio Damage.  Starting with OMF files exported from Final Cut Pro 7,  we imported the files without a hitch.  Getting the mix together is great using the toolset in Logic Pro.  Automation is solid and easy to edit on the fly with fader moves or with the mouse.  We tweaked Eq and compression settings for each interview, then feeding into the stereo buss with Logic multipressor for the final polish.  Using a Mackie control surface helps speed up workflow with the added bonus of giving the wrist a break.  Delivery included bleeped and not bleeped versions of the show.

Be sure to catch the recap special as well as season two of Todd Margaret starting to air on IFC in January.

The RED Workflow for the feature:

The four terabytes of RAW camera files from the shoot were first transcoded to apple pro res proxy files for editing in Final Cut Pro. After all the footage was transcoded it was time to bring in the audio for syncing.  Not all audio files had matching time-code with the visuals.  We found that the old school way of using the slate for a sync point worked the best, thanks for clapping the slate guys!  This way we were not modifying the files in any way to make for easier match back later.

Once an in point for a clip was determined, we combine the audio and the visual clip.  Also known as making a merged clip.  That would go into a separate bin.  Once a days worth of dailies had been synced up, usually with 8 total tracks of audio, we would then batch export the whole days worth of clips to generate new clips with matching time code.  This would then “bake in” all the audio files together with the proper clips and would be sure of the clips integrity through out the editing process.

Upon exporting the new synced files, Final Cut would place “merged” in the file name.  This merged file would not come into FCP until the word “merged” was removed from the file name.  A quick trip into automator to write a script to remove the offending word and place in a new folder, solved this problem nicely.  Then import the new files into a new project that would be the working project for the edit.

The film will lastly be color graded in DaVinci Resolve.  Doing the final grading in Resolve, it is fantastic to have access to the RAW camera data to really dial in the look of the film & help convey the story. We are now deep in the editing stage and will write another entry on this stage of the feature workflow at that time.

The gotcha with this camera however is the audio.  Yes it has an onboard mic that works in a pinch, however to achieve professional level sound, you need to shoot two system.  That means recording audio on a separate device.  One solution we used was our Zoom H4 handy recorder.  A great little bit of kit that with it’s built in mics up top, looks like a taser.  The other recording device we used was the super cool Zaxcom ZFR100.  About the size of your beeper from days gone by, this device records audio to flash media @ 24/96.  Simply hook up your lav mic, and hit record on the Zaxcom.  Then once in post we synced up the audio using a little plug-in for FCP called PluralEyes.  With PluralEyes we were able to sync all the footage shot for the entire day in a matter of minutes.  This really streamlined our post workflow, and the sync was rock solid.

After a few days of editing we got our cut put together and looking great.  Then it was off to Apple Color for the final beauty pass!  You can view our profile of Jack Ryon below.  We think you will agree he is one talented Kat! – REMOTE ACCESS POST

Chad Smith of Remote Access Post, a full spectrum video post production house located just outside New York City, is a long time Avid and Final Cut Pro editor. Having worked in broadcast for nearly 20 years, Smith has been witness to the ever changing requirements and demands on his skill set — and as requirements change, so has his workflow and technique evolved.

With less time to meet increasingly tighter deadlines (and within smaller budgets), Smith’s role has evolved from straight cutting to more of a multi-layered, adjust-the-shot as you edit style of post production. “With the incredible variety of work coming through the door – from short form web videos, to television commercial productions to long-form work, I need a tool set that enables me to fly through the edit, adjusting, stabilizing and tweaking in real time as I go. Enter mocha for Final Cut,” said Smith.

“mocha for Final Cut is a great addition to my toolset. To be able to have this kind of roto and stabilizing power at my fingertips is stellar. Anyone who has tried the garbage matte tools in Final Cut Pro will know that these are bare bones tools at best and can be frustrating in practice to use. mocha for Final Cut gives me a deep, industrial strength roto and tracking tool.”

Many times in an edit session, Smith is required to simply isolate one portion of a shot. In the past, Smith relied on After Effects to process shots — an extra step in the workflow that adds valuable time to the job. Smith continues, “mocha for Final Cut gives me a better tracker and way more powerful roto tools. That translates into faster results with less moseying around. Planar tracking is my new best friend!”

mocha for Final Cut is also more interactive, Smith finds. “For example, once I export the XML to Final Cut and realize I need to tweak the shape even more, I simply export the revised XML to mocha for Final Cut. It’s easy and much faster than re-rendering in After Effects.”

A Day in the Life: A Typical mocha for Final Cut Workflow
Now a key player in Smith’s everyday workflow, mocha for Final Cut is shaving hours off projects while sanity returns to the edit bay. Smith describes some examples of a typical workflow, tapping the many features of mocha for Final Cut to streamline his day.

“In practice I first export a clip from Final Cut, then drag that clip onto the mocha icon to launch the app and start a new project with the clip name. Once in mocha, it is quick work to set a search area and have the software begin to analyze the clip.

On this recent project, for example, I used mocha to stabilize some hand held “run and gun” interview shots. Once tracked, the shots sat perfectly against the lower 3rd ID graphics accompanying the shot. I also used a shape to blur out the video just behind the text. This technique really helped with legibility.

Another issue I encountered was providing depth of field for the interview shots to make the talent stand out more and and help keep the focus on the message. I did a quick roto of the talent, exported the shapes to Final Cut and laid the shapes layer on the track above the original video layer. Then, I blurred the bottom layer to taste with a defocus filter to ensure your eye focused on the talent and not the busy background. Once I had my shape layers and tracking done, mocha was very fast exporting another version of the project say with more of a feathered edge in one area of the shape.”

Blurring
With all the issues and sensitivities surrounding copyright infringement, rights management and proper corporate branding usage, blurring has become a daily reality for many editors. mocha for Final Cut helps bring sanity to this tedium as well. Smith explains:

“A bread and butter use for mocha for Final Cut is the old “Blur Out Those Logos” scenario. Here’s where the planar tracker comes in. After working with mocha for Final Cut for a while, I got a feel for identifying search areas for mocha to track. This makes it significantly faster for me to get a proper track. Once the track is done, I then make shapes around the logos I need to blur. A huge benefit with mocha for Final Cut is I can blur more than one shape at a time. I find I get the best results when I open the mocha shape XML in the canvas and “pre blur” the fill. When you export your shape from mocha as an XML, you then import the XML into your project. This XML (if you use the default settings) is like a 2 layer sequence (or a nest) with your fill layer on top and the actual shape layer on the bottom. The top fill layer contains the Luma track matte composite mode enabled, so you just see the footage that is being cut by the matte. If I pre blur the fill a bit, say 8 pixels or so, then lay my shape layer into the sequence and blur bit more, it seems to sit nicer in the final comp. With this in mind there are many other tricks one could do by “pre processing” the fill of the shape clip.”

mocha for Final Cut: An Extension of My Daily Workflow
“The more I work with mocha for Final Cut, the more I can see this becoming a natural extension of my workflow and problem solving tool during the edit. With the new possibilities provided by mocha for Final Cut, ‘fix it in post’ is now easier and faster. There should be a rush on this so big it brings their server down!” – REMOTE ACCESS POST

We just completed editorial on this Indie Feature Film trailer for director Brian Strine.  His latest feature film project is titled “Beneath the River”.  A compelling story of a young couple who find that money does not bring happiness. This edit was intended to give more of an impressionist view of the film, with a European audience in mind.  Taking the stunning images of the film and giving broad strokes to the story line.

The project came out looking great.  We did two versions, one 25 min that was for airing on Sony HDCAM and a 9 min cutdown for iTunes.   The 9 Min. version is below.  REMOTE ACCESS POST

We just completed a graphics job for Robert Stone Productions.  Award winning veteran documentary producer/director Robert Stone (Oswald’s Ghost, Guerrilla: the taking of Patty Hearst, etc) tapped Remote Access Post for his latest production for PBS’s American Experience.  Due to air in October, the doc covers the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps or CCC.  Putting young men back from war to work building parks across America.

Airing on PBS American Experience November 2, 2009 at 9pm  -   REMOTE ACCESS POST

We just completed another spot with up and coming commercial director Bill Miles.  This spot was originally shot on 16mm then transferred to video.  Once in FCP 6 we made selects and began cutting pretty quickly.  The music track really informed how the images came together.  The music was edited in FCP then brought into Logic Audio 7 for sweetening.  Some shots we pulled all the color out and cracked the contrast with Gen Arts Sapphire Effects.  Layering the film textures over some of the shots became addicting.  It adds to the sunshine feel of the spot.  The final version was color corrected in Color 1.0.  End page graphics were done in After Effects CS3.

Check out the spot below.   -   REMOTE ACCESS POST

Check out the spot below.   -   REMOTE ACCESS POST