Next Week Teaser...and we mean TEASER
 

2nd Unit is proud to have an enviable list of industry professioonals but this week is super special. Isabella (you know you've made it when you're known by one name!!!) is doing a 30-minute show on makeup but here's the dilmma; who's better looking, the model or the artist...OK or the producer. Tune into www.2nd-unit.tv for the trailer. And we'll have 4 more weeks of the series.. Enjoy.
Jonathan

http://2nd-unit.tv/downloads/Episode-06-Teaser.mov

By the way, I think the producer's the best looking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But you're probably not looking at me now are you?!?!?!

Nice tease! And as an aside, that .mov is what I'm talkin' about. It was fast, quality, and downloadable. Keep 'em coming THAT way. I never could get a decent viewing of the last episode on my pc and not at all on my Mac.

Was Jonathan even IN this tease? I didn't notice.

I never thought a music video about makeup could be so entertaining.

By the way, the new animated logo at the end is very nice! Did Paolo put that together?

Am I a geek, because I paid as much attention to the quality of the clip as I did to the two cuties? What compressor did you use?

Hey, geeks are people too!!;-) Yes, Paolo did it all which is wonderful for me beacuse he knows his stuff. We're so very fortunte to be attracting the talent this site is because there's simply no way I could have done it all...even though I thought I could. A producer is just that, a producer. Getting the people and the the funding together to build a quality product. Without people like Paolo, the shows would still look like the first one. Without Jaime, there'd be alot less talent in the guest star areas. And without the people behind the cameras like Jeff and Tip McPartland and Scott Chambers there'd be no series so we thank you for your comments and your coming back week after week. We hope you're getting what you want here and at 2nd-Unit.tv. BTW, last week more than 4500 downloads were logged by the server at Go Daddy last week and we have to thank them for providing the hosting and EasyStream for the bandwidth.

Ok... you used the Paolo compressor then. Where can I download it for myself?

Same place you get all the other quality stuff, 2nd-Unit.tv.

I have to agree, that trailer does look great, and yet pretty small in size. I really want to know how you got it so nice.

It's encoded H.264, 640 X 360 at 29.97 FPS at a datarate pf 833 kbits/sec. I'm guessing Paolo edited and encoded this one in FCP and exported using Compressor.

Thanks Warren, that was what I wanted. I really haven't played with the H.264 codecs, mostly because I thought there were issued between it and Windows. Obviously, I was way off there!

Thank you and thank you and thanks to everybody for the nice feedback.
Yes, I cut that in Final Cut, had a ton of fun doing it. The clips where captured in HDV wwith the JVC HD100, all on tape. I first prepared the soundtrack and then added the images. Exported the movie as a QuickTime reference file, dropped it inside compressor 2.x, selected H.264 at a VBR, temporal and spatial quality just a notch higher than Medium, fast start hits for streaming, keyframe every 60, AAC for sound, compressed in about 10 minutes on my G4 Powerbook.
Whew, hope I didn't forget anything ;)

Awsome work guys! Loved it. Can't wait for more.

The logo at the end is done with Live Type. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Live Type is the one application that I saw on the Mac that made a 20 year PC veteran like me go out and buy a Mac. It's that good.

I used a similar combination as a website entrance movie for our band using a phrase from on of our original songs.

Good job, Paolo. LiveType is a blast, huh? You did a nice job on the video too.

-gb-

Hey Greg.
Good spotting of LiveType. Actually, to be totally precise, I did that in Motion using the LiveType font. BTW, I just picked up "Shake" for $499.00, that's another "life change" program :)

Take care.

Yeah Paolo, that's one of the cool things that I have discovered is how nicely you can pass stuff back and forth amongst the different apps. With Motion, you can do ram render previews and the more ram you have, the more complexity you can view. It doesn't happen automatically, you have to invoke it from the menu everytime you make a change.

-gb-

Good spot, Greg. I guess I need to "crack open" my LiveType application. I've never used it.

Paolo, you'll love Shake. I almost bought it through eBay for $1875 literally 36-hours before Apple announced their enormous price reduction. Fortunately, I lost the auction by $25!

When I fired up my browser on the day Apple made the announcement I just about fell out of my chair. My disappointment in losing the auction instantly turned into euphoria. I was soooooo lucky!

I've used Shake in the past, but know I have my own copy for my work. It is an amazing application.

Just imagine how the "winner" feels!

I'm sure the winner felt terrible! But, then, I also assume he or she reneged on the purchase since I received a second-chance offer from the seller a week later. So, the seller is the one that feels the worst.

Getting back to topic (sort of)...Paolo, will you be using Shake for 2nd Unit post or for CruiserCast?

Wow, Jeff. You're missing out on some cool stuff there. But like Paolo said, you can use the live fonts within Motion.

-gb-

Man, that would have been upsetting. I kept an eye on Shake for a while but i didn't get the announcement. A few days ago Jonathan an I went to see a demo by Sony/Apple and the Apple guy mentioned the new price, I jumped up and yelled "sold!" :)
The day after I got my copy. For $499.00 you can't lose!

Nothing is off-topic in "2nd Unit" as long as we talk about movie-making :)
Yes, when I heard about the new price I immediately saw the possibility to have a state of the art chromakeyer without having to use convoluted exports like I'm doing with Ultra. Now I can "Send to Shake" directly from Final Cut, key the footage and then re-import it in FCP from the comfort of my Powerbook. Love it! And I'm totally blown away by the control that Shake gives you when pulling keys, including concatenating one keyer into the other (Keylight into Primatte, for example). That is flexibility. Also, I like using a garbage matte for the key, a feature that is sorely missing in Ultra.
So yes, in my copious spare time ;) I'll shoot the next episode of CruiserCast using only one machine, my old and trusty Powerbook (unless Jonathan buys me a new MacBookPro, nudge nudge, wink wink ;))

You know, you could always borrow Jonathan's new MacBook Pro and then just forget to return it? I'm sure he wouldn't miss it. ;)

Now that you have Shake--and with your great greenscreen experience producing CruiserCast--I suggest that in season two of 2nd Unit you consider interviewing a Visual Effects Supervisor (Emmy award-winning, of course).

One of the facets of movie making I'm interested in in special effects work. I do a fair amount of it for a Hoosier but would love to get some inside tips from the best in the industry.

Very good idea!

True Paolo but we also try to keep individual threads on topic here. I think that's what he was referring to. IOW, we should keep discussing the teaser that started this thread.

-gb-

And folks like me that occasionly (?) stray, must drive the Mods up a tree! Sorry guys :)

Okay, this time I'm really getting back on topic--and fronting for Keith so he doesn't get in trouble.

When is the episode on makeup due for release?

I'm always in trouble Jeff, and would just be confused otherwise ;) But, to remain on topic, will the show cover rates and what goes into the kits, or just tips for application? I think a PDF covering the average kit contents might be nice.

Next week, I'm cutting it right now. The second part of Jody Eldred went live last night, don't miss it as it has a great demonstration on how to control light, both indoor and outdoor.

Is there a thread on episode requests? I'd like to see a piece on camera motion to move beyond static tripod shots...both high budget and low budget would be cool, when to use them, how to set them up what they look like...etc.

And how to get a wheelchair, to use for cheap dolly shots? A How To on skateboard wheels on a dolly? Show the sponser's product for the working pros, and then DIY guerilla cheapies? That shouldn't be too conflicting, is it?

Like Greg, I'm a long term PC user and have been using Vegas for several years, but with the move to Intel and the price drops on Apple Software...it's becoming mighty tempting. Depends on what Sony does with Vegas 7 in September.

I think Steve Jobs wants to run Adobe completely off of the Apple platform as soon as possible, it least thats what it seems like.

As far as low price options, just downloaded the free Jahshaka compositing tool to check it out.

I tried the Jashaka once, and it crashed hard, real fast.

What I usually tell people about switching to Apple is that the Mac gives you better quality computing, in general. We are used to try to get the best bargain but sometimes the best deal is the worst. The Mac experience is about making your life, when it comes to compting, more enjoyable. In that it's hard to compare FCP to Vegas because working with FCP means that your general editing expierience is differente and, in the opinion of this writer, of higher quality.
The best thing is that now, because of the Apple stores, is really easy to have a test ride and see what's behind the ads. If you have an Apple store nearby I really advice you to spend 1/2 hour there, it will be worth your time.

As competitive as that market is, Adobe is a necessary provider of great software. Apple doesn't have a replacement for Photoshop, Illustrator or Dreamweaver. Unless they plan on buying Adobe out, I bet it's their interest to cooperate with them.

Take care.

The latest version is a big improvment, but not any competition for the current offering of commercial tools. I think maybe in a year they may have something worth checking out. I'm just a sucker for free stuff sometimes. Blender 2.42 should have been called Blender 3 with all the improvements they made in it.

As you al know, there's realy no buying 2nd Unit's opinion. We run our own shop with enough money to green light our projects and can select any hard and soft ware we want. That being said, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a more ardent nor vocal supporter of the Mac way of life than me and Apple has Paolo to thank for that. I, like Rodney Charters, spend an inordinate about of time in Mac stores (both of our favorites are The Grove) and I'm a complete devotee of the Mac. I'm just learning FCP and have a pretty good handle on Dreamweaver but there simply is no replacement for After Effects or Photoshop. Adobe has their stuff together and it works with Mac. I've been with Adobe literally since their first floppy came off the line and I'm brand new to Mac. I can tell you, I wouldn't change either for anything and hopefully you're seeing the benefits of that marriage in the quality of out stuff here at 2nd Unit.

Yeah, I like free stuff too, but... it has to work, and be intuitive for me. I've used free 3D stuff, Caligari for instance, and it wasn't that good. I've also used older versions of Bryce and 3d MAX, but my favorite is a defunct program called InfiniD 3D. It just won't run since I upgraded 2 years ago. So, now I build a PC out of old, old, parts just for it to run. And play Duke Nukem. Probably why I stick with Premiere... it's easy. I like easy too ;)

Hehe...."Somebody's gonna pay for screwing up my vacation."

or my favorite line... "It's time to kick a## and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of bubblegum."

Maybe I should drag the old P166 back to life and challenge you in a frag match. It should be much more fun now with the broadband speeds we have.

Sorry...back to our regular thread topic.

So Jonathan, it sounds like your experience is mirroring mine in terms of learning to like the OSX environment. I still use both Windows and OSX, but the Windows usage is waning.

Looking forward to the coming episode...any ETA yet?

-gb-

You're on!

I've seen that as a possibility for the past two years. Who knows?


Way to bring this weaving thread back to topic, Greg!

To follow up on one of Keith's suggestions, I also would like to put in a vote for having a downloadable PDF with a list of recommended items for a makeup kit and maybe even a one-page guideline of pointers. I realize that this is more work, but extras like this will make future subscribers see the overall value in 2nd Unit--which should already be obvious but the extras can't hurt.

I agree Jeff. The little extras like a PDF of materials and whatnot would only make it more valuable. And I stayed on topic too! Woohoo!