Almost a year ago, Scott Simmons from The Editblog wrote a blog with suggestions for video apps for the iPhone. One caught my attention, and I’ve been working on it off and on ever since. And now, with a new update from Snatch, we’re a bit closer.
To get this working, you’ll need to buy ($5.99) and install Snatch (link to iTunes store). Then, you’ll need to download the Snatch Server on your computer here. Snatch uses bonjour, making it pretty simple to set up and use (and can also be used without bounjour). It has cursor control, scrolling, an app switcher and a keyboard with customizable screen. The latest release made it possible to easily share screens. So once you have it set up, you can install a screen I quick threw together just for you ;-). You can download FCP Control 1.0 here (right click, and save as).
On your iPhone, launch Snatch, and go to the “Keys” tab, and hit “Edit”, and then “Load Screen,” making sure that you are connected to your computer. On your computer, navigate to where you saved fcpcontrol1-0.remote and select it. You’ll be prompted to overwrite the current screen. Say yes, and Wa-la! You can easily control Final Cut now.
I’ve decided that playback is probably the most useful thing, so you won’t be able to do any actual editing. Features I’ve included are:
Go to previous marker
Add a marker
Go to next marker
Play in to out
Play to out
Go to in
Set in point
Set out point
Go to out point
Rewind
Reverse
Pause
Play
Fast forward
Toggle play/pause
The buttons simply send a keystroke to the computer, which will act as shortcuts in Final Cut, so you’ll have to have the keyboard set up to the default. If you don’t, you can simply change the keystrokes on this screen to whatever you wish.
If anyone is a GUI designer, let me know- I’d love to make this look a bit less, well, utilitarian.
Hope you get good use out of this, and let me know if you have any questions in the comments.
Synopsis: The fight for control of carnival land will pit clowns against mimes in a musical standoff that will tickle the funny bone and excite the senses. The Ben-Hur of single shot musicals.
A couple weekends back, I helped out on a film shoot as part of the Internation 48 Hour ShootOut. I had worked with the same group of people in November on Quillions, and had a blast again. During production, I was a Production Assistant, helping by controlling music for lipsyncing (I used Remote on my iPod Touch), burning CD’s for practice, taping a mock up of the set on the floor as we only had access to the space for 4 hours, and whatever else needed it. I also worked on Visual Effects, making the mime disappear at the very end. A good, yet busy weekend.
On a different note, I will be starting full time as assistant editor at Idea Spring Editing tomorrow. More on that later.
You’ve heard warnings of bad DVD media, most likely. But how can you tell whether your stack of DVDs is a dud or good? Evidently, you can’t tell by a brand- you have to do some sleuthing to see if it’s good or not.
Sadly, this method only works after you have bought that stack, but at least you can tell whether to get the same kind again.
First, you’ll need to insert your blank media into your Mac (this method only works on Macs, and I can only say that it works on Leopard). Open up the System Profiler by choosing “About the Mac” from the Apple Menu, then hitting the “More Info” button. Then, choose “Disc Burning” under “Hardware”. This will bring up something like this:
What you’re looking for is the Media ID, which is highlighted in orange above. Take that code, and go to http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm. Search for the ID on the page (you may need to remove spaces), and see if it comes up under 1st, 2nd, or 3rd class media. Hopefully it’ll be under 1st class.
Looking to keep up with following your followers on Twitter without clicking through Twitter’s interface? I whipped up a script that will do that (with help from all over the web, including the bulletin boards at Macscripter.net).
This is Mac only. The script will open in Script Editor, and hit CMD-R to run the script. It’ll prompt you for your username and password. It will then retrieve all your followers (not just the first 100), then retrieve all your friends (not just the first 100), and send a follow twitter message to all your followers who aren’t your friends.
Feel free to mess around with the script (but be careful- if you change the wrong thing, you can end up like me with a whole lot of messages accidently showing up on my timeline).
If you find this useful, especially if you use Twitter for business purposes, feel free to send me a few bucks through PayPal.
I’ve been working on another site, over at http://www.fcptutorials.com. It’s an aggregate site, where I’ll be posting links to Final Cut tutorials from around the web.
When I learned Photoshop, I did it through tutorials that I found through one site. I couldn’t find a similar site for Final Cut, so I decided to make it.
If you have any interest in Final Cut, it’s a great site for picking up little tidbits and project savers.
This last weekend, I worked with a great group of people to create this entry into the Panasonic HD Filmmaker Showdown, a 48 Hour Film Fest. 5 groups across the US received a phrase, character, and item to be included, as well as a HPX500 camera. I joined late in the game, and worked as a P.A. It’s an amazing feat- 5 minutes, 1 shot that moves from stairs to courtyard, across a street, into a train station. The guy controlling the iris had a big job, and pulled it off well.
I watched Obama’s infomercial tonight, but only to check out the production values and editing, I promise.
But really, I think it was a brilliant example of the power of story. Obama took the personal stories of 4 families (from swing states, of course) to illustrate concretely what his policies will mean for them.
And it worked so much better than just a list of of what his policies will do. Much better. Story allows a personal connection, and reminds us of our human connection.
When working on the preproduction promotional video for Church Community Services, they asked me what the key thing was to create a connection with the viewers. I immediately replied- story. Personal stories. The writer was able to include many stories, which personalized an undermarketed organization.
It’s not just Obama who is using stories to create connections. Joe the Plumber is a powerful personal connection coming from the McCain campaign.
Almost a year ago, Scott Simmons from The Editblog wrote a blog with suggestions for video apps for the iPhone. One caught my attention, and I’ve been working on it off and on ever since. And now, with a new update from Snatch, we’re a bit closer.
