Digital Production Buzz

Join Larry Jordan and co-host Michael Horton as they talk with: Chuck Braverman, Co-Founder, The WESTDOC Conference The WESTDOC Conference for the Documentary and Reality communities brings together senior network execs, program buyers, production companies and creatives. In its fourth year, Co-Founder Chuck Braverman gives us the inside take on what’s new for 2013. Doug Hansel, Marketing Manager for Pro Video, Avid Avid’s Media Composer 7 is shipping. Doug Hansel is the Marketing Manager for Pro Video with all the details of the new version. We are very interested in learning about both the new features and what Avid feels is the future direction of editing. William Boodell, Editor, Sharknado “Sharknado” flew into our living rooms out of nowhere and has taken the country by Twitter storm. We talk with editor William Boodell about what it was like – cutting with sharks.

Join Larry Jordan and co-host Michael Horton as they talk with: Ric Perez-Selsky, Independent Filmmaker We first met Ric Perez-Selsky in his role as the Technical Director for Popsugar, but like many of us, he makes films as well! His recent short, “Contrition,” was given an Award of Merit at the Accolade Film Competition and he is now submitting it to Sundance. We’ll speak with him about this process and his plans for the film. Jonathan Handel, Entertainment Attorney, TroyGould The BuZZ is fortunate to have Jonathan Handel, our very own legal eagle, as a regular contributor. This week, he updates us on the guilds and takes us behind the scenes to witness more very interesting events. Rony Sebok, VP Technology, 1 Beyond Everything you ever wanted to know about LTO from Rony Sebok, VP Technology at 1 Beyond, Inc. Jessica Sitomer, President, The Greenlight Coach Jessica Sitomer, the Greenlight Coach, is perhaps one of the most insightful career advisors on the planet. This week she is back to the BuZZ with more tips on how to be successful in the entertainment arena.

Join Larry Jordan and co-host Michael Horton as they talk with:. Mike Scheibinger, Senior Product Manager, Sony Creative Software. Mike Scheibinger is the product manager for the brand new Sound Forge Pro 11 and the amazing Spectral Layers Pro 2; both of which were released on Monday by Sony Creative Software. We don’t get much opportunity to talk about media software for the PC, so we invited Mike to stop by and tell us more.. Nicholas Pisarro, Jr., Founder, NP Associates LLC. Nicholas Pisarro, Jr.,CEO of NP Associates, LLC, has developed complex software and hardware for over 40 years. He’s also been working with Final Cut since version 1. Recently, he created a new product for Final Cut Pro X, called “Backups for Final Cut Pro” that makes backups… easy! We talk with him this week about some recent updates and a survey about who’s actually using Final Cut Pro X and his software.. Andrew Kimery, Editor, "Looking for Lenny". Andrew Kimery was the editor on “Looking for Lenny,” an in-depth, controversial documentary – six years in the making – explores the boundaries of free speech and free thought in the context of Lenny Bruce’s comic legacy. Director Elan Gale created an amazing film, but the real saga was in how the film was finally assembled for release – which Andrew tells us about this week.. CJ Bruce, Managing Director, New Antics. CJ Bruce is a Founder and Managing Director of New Antics. Previously the CEO of Video Army, CJ has been providing video marketing and production services for brands from Jamba Juice to Salesforce.com to smaller brands and local businesses for over five years. So, why is he on The Buzz? Because his company specializes in creating interactive videos for marketing. We want to learn more to see if there are ways the rest of us can make some money with this.

Join Larry Jordan and co-host Michael Horton as they talk with: Lan Bui, Cinematographer, The Bui Brothers Redemption: The Darkness Descending is a multi-platform project that started as a 24-episode web series. Cinematographer Lan Bui, of The Bui Brothers, had some real challenges lighting it and we have questions about what he used and how he lit the sets depicting the streets of underground New York City. Gary Fudge, Director of Sales, Mcor Gary Fudge is the Director of Sales for Mcor Technologies, a Irish-based 3D printer manufacturer whose printers use standard office paper as the build material to create full-color, photo-realistic 3D models… from paper! This is so cool, we wanted to learn more. Anu Rangachar, Deputy Director, 15th Mumbai Film Festival Anu Rangachar is the Deputy Director of the prestigious Mumbai International Film Festival, in Mumbai, India. The Festival is entering its 15th year with a stronger program than ever. We want to learn how she turned her love of film into managing one of the world’s premiere film festivals.. Dom Bourne, Founder/CEO, Take 1 Transcription In a world of reality TV, documentaries and interviews, transcripts are king. Dom Bourne founded Take 1 Transcriptions 15 years ago and grew it into one of the dominant transcription houses in the world. This week, we talk with him about the challenges of creating accurate transcripts and what producers need to know to convert their media into accurate words on paper – quickly.

Join Larry Jordan and co-host Michael Horton as they talk with: Nick Campbell, Animator and Photographer, Greyscalegorilla Nick Campbell worked at Digital Kitchen as an animator and a photographer where he made TV commercials and title sequences. He also founded an iPhone App company called BananaCameraCo and a motion design education and product site called Greyscalegorilla. Nick has recently been speaking to students and creatives about how to be creative and get paid to do what you love. This is a speech we want to hear ourselves! Josh Mitchell, Filmmaker, “Helen Keller Had a Pit bull” Josh Mitchell is a writer, director, actor and publicist. He recently created a film called, “Helen Keller had a Pit bull.” Just on the title alone, we thought it would be interesting, then we saw the trailer. Wow. Ric Perez-Selsky, Technical Director, Popsugar.com Ric Perez-Selsky, Technical Director for Popsugar.com, also works as an independent filmmaker and loves to direct narrative film when he is not directing live broadcasts for PopSugar. We want to learn more about creating live broadcasts for the web. Dan May, President, Blackmagic Design, Inc. Earlier this week, Blackmagic Design announced support for Avid Media Composer 7. So we invited Dan May, President of Blackmagic Design, Inc. to tell us this week about Blackmagic’s support for Avid, their recently announced support for Adobe Creative Cloud, and his thoughts on Apple’s up-coming MacPro.

This is a special July 4 holiday show – featuring your favorite interviews from the last six months as counted by your views — and new interviews from the Creative Storage Conference. (Interviews below are not listed in show order.) Jess Hartmann, President, Promax Promax recently returned to its roots in creating new hardware and software for media professionals. We caught up with Jess Hartmann, President, Promax, at the recent Creative Storage Conference in Culver City, California, to talk with him about their change in direction and latest product: “The Platform.” Philip Hodgetts, President, Intelligent Assistance One of top four most popular interviews from the first half of 2013, Philip Hodgetts, CEO of Intelligent Assistance, shares his views on the future of Final Cut Pro X. Interviews were selected based upon the number of people listening to them in the Interview Archives section of the Buzz website. Stephen Nakamura, Digital Colorist, Company 3 This is another of our Top Four interviews from 2013. Stephen Nakamura is a digital colorist for Company 3, and recently did the color grading on the feature film: “Oz The Great and Powerful.” We talk with him about what he did, why he did it, and the tools he used. Anthony Juliano, Senior Account Executive, Fujifilm Fujifilm was another company at the Creative Storage Conference. They were showing a cloud-based archiving project that they recently introduced for filmmakers and media professionals. In this interview, Anthony Juliano explains their new system and how it can benefit filmmakers. Ross Shain, Chief Marketing Officer, Imagineer Systems This is another of our Top Four interviews from 2013. Mocha is a planar tracking system, which is widely regarded as the best in the industry. Except, ah, just what IS a planar tracking system; and who should consider using it? Ross Shain, Chief Marketing Officer for Imagineer Systems explains. Sam Bogoch, CEO, Axle Video This is another of our Top 4 interviews from 2013. Mention the phrase “Media Asset Management System,” and most people will run screaming from the room. Which is fine, until you can’t find that one file you need to finish your project. Axle has developed a “radically simple” media management system that runs on a Mac Mini, as Sam Bogoch, CEO of Axle Video, explains.

Join Larry Jordan and Mike Horton LIVE this week as they talk with: Jim Tierney, President, Digital Anarchy JDigital Anarchy recently announced a new version of Beauty Box, their video plug-in that softens and retouches skin tones. With all the talk recently about stars who do NOT want to be touched up – we thought it would be fun and timely to discuss with Jim Tierney, president of Digital Anarchy, what their software does and when beauty is fine just as it is! Philip Hodgetts, President, Intelligent Assistance Last week, at the WWDC, Apple provided a sneak peek at the upcoming revision to their MacPro computer. Reactions were instantaneous, with one very loud discussion centering on graphics card support and capability. Philip Hodgetts, president of Intelligent Assistance, joins us this week with his evaluation of the new MacPros, and his thoughts on the graphics card controversy. Al Scirocco, Creative Director, leftchannel Albert Scirocco, Creative Director for leftchannel, hails originally from a long line of Italian artists. He came to the U.S. in 2003 and channeled his own passion for art into a successful venture, leftchannel, handling motion graphics for film, advertising, broadcast, and environmental design among others. This week, we talk with him about his company, his clients, his projects, and his perspective on production. Bruce Nazarian, The Digital Guy JA couple of weeks ago, we had Bruce Nazarian, “The Digital Guy,” on the show to introduce us to Lemonade Weekend 2 – a massive multi-day musical event scheduled for 2014.We ran out of time, so we’ve invited him back to continue the discussion on how to plan an event designed to attract hundreds of thousands of people. It’s a fascinating process!

Join Larry Jordan and Mike Horton LIVE this week as they talk with: Gavin Fisher, Founder, Fisher Film Works Gavin Fisher is a Cinematographer/Colorist/Editor based in Los Angeles. His company, Fisher Film Works. offers various post-production services including color correction / finishing, editorial, and visual effects. His company recently completed a colorful Arby’s national campaign using Blackmagic Design cameras and DaVinci Resolve, which is what we want to talk with him about tonight. Luis Pelayo, President, Hollywood Tools You just wrapped the last shot. Now what? You’ve got dozens of hours of interviews, but the only way to figure out what you actually have is to get all your media transcribed into something you can read. How do you get it transcribed quickly and efficiently? That’s where Hollywood Tools comes in, as President, Luis Pelayo, explains. Jonathan Handel, Entertainment Labor Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter Sometimes the most interesting dramas occur behind the scenes, as seems to be the case with the current SAG/AFTRA lawsuit. Jonathan Handel, entertainment labor reporter for The Hollywood Reporter joins us for an extended session tonight to explain what the actors union is doing, as well as a look at what he’s teaching the next generation of entertainment lawyers at UCLA. Maxim Antonov, President, The Takes We first met Maxim Antonov, president of TheTakes.com, at the recent CineGear expo. The Takes is brand new project management software designed to simplify managing all the elements that go into production. We talk with Maxim this week to learn about his new software, what it does, who its designed for and how it works.

Join Larry Jordan and Mike Horton LIVE this week as they talk with: Kanen Flowers, Creative Director, Scruffy TV Kanen Flowers, Creative Director of Scruffy TV, gives us an update on Scruffy TV, the state of the media industry in the Bay Area, and his recent success in funding his next feature – Hero Punk – using KickStarter.com. Why did he pick KickStarter? Bruce Nazarian, The Digital Guy Bruce Nazarian, The Digital Guy, has a new project: “The Lemonade Weekend 2.” It’s four days of great musical events taking place in historic Hollywood, March 20-23, 2014. We want to talk with Bruce about what he’s planning, who’s going to be attending, and what we can do to support it. Sean Mullen, President, Rampant Design Tools Rampant Design Tools has created some great effects titles for After Effects. From hard-to-create smoke and gunshot visuals, to more complex visual stock elements, Sean and his team have been some amazing visual effects. This week, he talks about the process of creating visual effects and how they decide what to create. Jessica Sitomer, President, The Greenlight Coach our favorite job coach, Jessica Sitomer, president of The Greenlight Coach, returns with suggestions on how to develop and maintain relationships in the digital age. These days, everything seems fast-paced and often superficial, which is not what you need when building a job network. What do you need to know to really connect with people? Jessica has the answers.

Join Larry Jordan and Mike Horton LIVE this week as they talk with: Sean Stack, Colorist and Finishing Editor, Alpha Dogs, and Matt Jackson, Director, “Love in the Time of Monsters” What color is a zombie? When Director, Matt Jackson, brought “Love in the Time of Monsters” to Sean Stack, Colorist and Finishing Editor at Alpha Dogs in Burbank, CA, this was more than an idle question. This week, we speak with both Matt and Sean to learn how they approached creating the final color “look” of the film, and why picking the right color for a zombie was so difficult. Nick Gold, Director of Business Development, Chesapeake Systems As media files continue to grow ever larger, it becomes more and more difficult to store files locally at the computer. Instead, we need to move them to a network-attached device, called a “SAN,” so that those media files can be accessed from more than one computer. But what’s the best way to do than and what gear should you consider? Nick Gold, Director of Business Development for storage developer Chesapeake Systems, stops by this week to explain their new SAN Fusion system. Sean Safreed, Co-founder and CTO, Red Giant When Red Giant announced their newest product it got a lot of attention. Not because it created pretty effects, but because it helped to manage and protect editing projects. As “BulletProof” wraps up beta testing and gets ready for release, Sean Safreed, Co-founder of Red Giant, tells us what Bulletproof is and why so many people are so excited about it. Wendy Woodhall, Co-founder/Executive Director, Los Angeles Post Production Group Post-production is part technology, part craft, and part story-telling. And no one knows that better than the Los Angeles Post Production Group, a user group that looks more at techniques than technology. This LA-based user group has a birthday coming up and co-founder Wendy Woodhall stops by to celebrate.

Join Larry Jordan and Mike Horton LIVE this week as they talk with: Woody MacPhail, Producer, Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival and Luke Van Dyk, Head Engineer, Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival Gone are the days of sending film reels to film festivals. Everything is now digital. But the media files are massive! Woody MacPhail is the Producer of the renowned Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival and World Tour and Luke van Dyk is the Head Engineer, Film & Media for the Banff Centre. The Festival makes extensive use of Signiant’s Media Shuttle for high-speed file transfers between producers and the festival. We want to learn more about how this whole process works. Nicholas Pisarro, President, NP Associates, LLC Making backups of your projects is supposed to be easy. But when media files are involved, suddenly, “easy” isn’t so simple. Nicholas Pisarro, president of NP Associates, developed “Backups,” new software that makes backing up Final Cut Pro X files easy again. Too good to be true? Tune in this week to learn more. Bobbie O’Steen, Author and Film Editing Historian Bobbie O’Steen is the driving force behind the “Inside The Cutting Room” event being held at Manhattan Editing Workshop in NYC on June 8th. She is also the author of two prestigious books on editors and editing: “The Invisible Cut – How Editors Make Movie Magic,” and “Cut to the Chase – 45 Years of Editing America’s Favorite Movies.” She joins us this week to talk about the craft of editing, what works, what doesn’t, and who does it best. Jessica Sitomer, President, The Greenlight Coach Recently on The BuZZ we discussed the “10 Worst” College Majors with Jessica Sitomer, President of The Greenlight Coach. During that conversation, Larry and Jessica started talking about the intense competition that exists for all media jobs. So, on this week’s BuZZ, we invited Jessica back to provide answers to how we can rise above the competition and land the job.

Join Larry Jordan and Mike Horton LIVE this week as they talk with: Alan Heim, President, American Cinema Editors (ACE) Alan Heim is President of the American Cinema Editors, with a list of credits a mile long, including the current release: “Gods Behaving Badly.” He joins us this week to talk about the upcoming “Inside the Cutting Room” workshop in New York City, his outstanding book on editing, “The Cutting Edge History of Film,” and his experiences as an editor. Michele Yamazaki, Vice-President of Marketing, ToolFarm Michele Yamazaki, VP of Marketing for Toolfarm, is a regular on The Buzz, bringing us the latest news on great plug-ins for our editing software. This week she has new ideas on how to create rain effects during editing, as well as tips on how to integrate standard-definition (SD) video into a high-definition (HD) project. Michael Bergeron, Sr. Business Development Manager, Panasonic Our producer, Cirina Catania, interviewed Michael Bergeron, Senior Business Development Manager of Panasonic last month at NAB. During this insightful talk, he discusses the benefits of shooting and editing AVC Ultra, along with showcasing his favorite camcorder. Jonathan Handel, Entertainment Labor Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter Unrest continues between labor unions and producers. This week, the writers for the Fashion Police are on strike. Jonathan Handel, Entertainment Labor Reporter for The Hollywood Reporter, joins us to discuss the news and explain why it matters.

Join Larry Jordan and Mike Horton LIVE this week as they talk with: Frank Huerta, Co-founder/CEO, TransLattice Managing metadata is a challenge, but managing metadata when you have team members all over the world contributing to the content of a project is scary difficult. TransLattice developed an award-winning neural network, allowing major producers to breathe a bit easier. Their CEO, and co-founder, Frank Huerta joins us to explain how it works. Sibille Cooney, Post-production and Training Consultant, SmokeFlame Academy Sibille Cooney is a Post-Production and Training Consultant for the SmokeFlame Academy and an expert in Smoke and Flame, supporting major clients, such as Disney, Fox, CBS, and Technicolor. We interviewed her recently about the challenges in training editors to use new software. Josh Apter, Founder and President, Manhattan Edit Workshop Manhattan Edit Workshop is planning an event on June 8th in NYC featuring some of the industry’s most innovative and successful editors. It’s called “Inside the Cutting Room – Sight, Sound, and Story.” Manhattan Edit Workshop founder, Josh Apter, tells us about the event and provides some free tickets for BuZZ listeners! Jessica Sitomer, President, The Greenlight Coach Picture the scene: A student is planning for college, trying to decide what to major in. Then, they read a recent Forbes article listing the 10 Worst College Majors. And, guess what, Filmmaking is #2! Sheesh… We knew the industry had problems, but are they THAT bad?? Jessica Sitomer, President of The Greenlight Coach talks with Larry and Mike about what this means, and how college students can best plan their future.

Join Larry Jordan and Mike Horton LIVE this week as they talk with: Bill Roberts, Director, Audio/Video Product Management, Adobe Systems, Inc. Last Monday, Adobe announced Creative Cloud upgrades to all their products with a shift to subscription pricing for their software. And many users went ballistic. In many ways, the reaction reminded us of the response to Apple’s release of Final Cut Pro X. Bill Roberts, Director of Product Management of Audio and Video Products for Adobe Systems, joins us this week to answer questions about their new pricing model, why Adobe did it and what the benefits are to users. Join us on the Live Chat and ask some questions yourself. Jason and Josh Diamond, Directors, The Diamond Brothers Sesame Street’s latest YouTube videos were shot with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera over a four-day period in New York City, then colored using DaVinci Resolve. Jason and Josh Diamond, directors at The Diamond Brothers, are seasoned filmmakers. Why did they choose this camera and how well did it work? (Besides, we want to know what it’s REALLY like to work with Cookie Monster?!?) Eric Wise, Founder, Splice Vine Eric Wise is the Founder of Splice Vine. Eric launched Splice Vine as a resource for content creators looking for a unique take on video post-production. His website, newsletter and podcast explore the fundamentals and future of the editorial craft from a different point of view. Splice Vine describes itself as a “context engine.” This week, we’ll find out what that means. Gary Symons, President & Co-founder, VeriCorder Technology, Inc. Gary Symons is a former field reporter for CBC News in Canada, who left the CBC in 2009 and founded VeriCorder Technology. Last week we talked with Gary about his new FindStringers website. We invited him back because there was so much more we wanted to talk about. How is news gathered in an Internet world? How can you be sure a citizen journalist knows how to be accurate? How can small companies gather news from around the world on a budget? We were fascinated by our first conversation with Gary last week and are looking forward to talking with him again. Philip Hodgetts, CEO, Intelligent Assistance This week was the Hollywood IT Summit, which is an opportunity to learn how the big studios are using technology. At the conference, metadata was front-and-center, so who better to explain what it means for the rest of us than Philip Hodgetts, the CEO of Intelligent Assistance and a regular contributor to The Buzz on technical issues.

Join Larry Jordan and Mike Horton LIVE this week as they talk with: Kanen Flowers, Creative Director, Scruffy TV Kanen Flowers is Creative Director at Scruffy TV, the folks behind That Post Show, Scruffy Thinking, Scruffy Shows and Hero Punk. He is also the Writer and Director of Jake Forgotten. He used Blackmagic Cinema cameras to shoot Hero Punk. This week, we get to turn the tables and interview him about what he learned about using these new cameras. Jessica Sitomer, President, The Greenlight Coach Jessica Sitomer, president of The Greenlight Coach, is back with more advice on how to get our careers back on track. She’s also got some great advice on solving problems in the workplace. In any case, if you are now looking for work, or expect to look for work at some point in the future, you need to listen to Jessica this week. Paul Korver, Founding Partner, Cinelicious Cinelicious, a post-production facility in Hollywood and Santa Monica, specializes in high-resolution film scanning, restoration, tapeless workflows and 4K post production, specifically in the areas of digital intermediates and color correction. Paul Korver is their founding partner and joins us this week to explain his company and how they balance the old with the new. Gary Symons, President & Co-founder, VeriCorder Technology, Inc. Gary Symons is a former field reporter for CBC News in Canada, who left the CBC in 2009 and founded VeriCorder Technology. His new company produces apps and hardware for mobile journalists. VeriCorder just released FindStringer, a system that can connect any reporter to any media company in the world, in just seconds. This week, we will learn more about it.