Digital Video - April 2008 - (Page 34) PLUGGING THE GAPS FOUR EDITORS LAY OUT THE PLUG-IN PICKS THEY RELY ON FOR DAY-TO-DAY NLE WORK. BY JAY HOLBEN continues O’Brien. “They had ‘Key Light’ for chroma keying and some really cool blur tools where you could add a glow to it. I loved those filters, but it’s been years since I used them because they don’t make them for Final Cut.” EASE OF USE Independent producer, director and editor Eric Tozzi has been editing music videos, documentaries and television programming for 15 years. Eric was the editor of the second season of Travel the Road, in addition to being one of the creators of the Dirty Bomb Diaries Internet series and a combination JPL and NASA project documenting the Phoenix Mars Lander mission called Challenges of Getting to Mars, which he is also editing. Based in Los Angeles, Eric started out on Avid systems, but now edits on Final Cut Pro. He is Currently using FCP V5.1.4 on a four-core Mac G5 with 3GB of RAM. “In addition to the filters already in Final Cut Pro, I’m using Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Editors,” Tozzi offers. “I also use a ton of Adobe After Effects filters for motion graphics and visual effects.” Plug-ins that he regularly uses for After Effects are: Trapcode Shine, Trapcode Particular, 3D Stroke, Starglow and Knoll Light Factory. “I find that Knoll Light Factory and Shine are very easy to use, and you can get some immediate looks,” he says. “Particular is a plug-in that you definitely need to spend some time with. There’s a bit of a steep learning curve, but it has some amazing capabilities once you know what you’re doing.” T hough hardware and software solutions for nonlinear editing platforms are advancing almost daily, there are often deficiencies in the main programs, compelling editors to seek out third-party plug-ins to fill these gaps. These workhorse applications generally take a back seat to their big-brother counterparts, but they are nonetheless an integral part of the editorial workflow. I recently had the opportunity to poll four editors about the plug-ins they use on a daily basis. An array of flares and distortions offered by Knoll Light Factory. with plug-ins,” he professes. “I started using Sapphire with the Avid almost a decade ago. I primarily use it for various blurs, glows and lighting effects.” OLD FAVORITES Recently, Dan has been working with Dan O’Brien is a commercial and feature Nattress Productions’ film effects plugeditor working with Blissium, a Santa ins. “I’ve fallen in love with Nattress Monica-based boutique postproduction mostly because of the roll-out effect,” and editorial facility. Although he started O’Brien offers. “It acts just like a film rollcutting on an Avid system, he converted out; it speeds up the footage, shakes it to Final Cut Pro when he moved to around, scratches the ‘tail’ up and goes Blissium in 2006 and now has his own to white. That’s a tough effect to achieve FCP workstation at home as well. At the if you have to build it on your own.” office, he’s working in FCP Studio2 Nattress film effects plug-ins also (V6.02) on an eight-core Mac with the have film damage, de-interlacing, 3:2 Tiger (10.4.11) OS system. removal and different laboratory effects, “I’ve been using GenArts Sapphire for including a bleach more than eight bypass simulation and years,” attests O’Brien You’ll find reports on the latest plug-ins color manipulation. whose commercial from Automatic Duck “There are a few of clients include Spike and Noise Industries on the Final Cut stock TV, Dell computers and our site. Visit DV online. effects that I don’t Mattel toys. His feature mind; I used the ‘box credits include Marilyn slide’ effect combined with some others Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm as transitions for the Nobel Son trailer. School, Nobel Son, CamGirls and the “A set of plug-ins that I used to work recent Sundance film Bottleshock, starwith on the Avid that I wish was available ring Bill Pullman and Alan Rickman. for Final Cut Pro is Foundry’s Tinder,” “Although, I’m admittedly out-of-date dv april 2008 NO CHEESE, PLEASE Martin Apelbaum, of Los Angeles-based Apple Bomb Films (an homage to the frequent misspelling of his name), is the editor of such indie features as Look (see DV Feb. ’08) and Love & Sex, documentaries including Slasher and such reality TV shows as Bands on the Run. “I get bored,” he attests. “I also love a challenge, so I try to mix in documentaries, indie features, reality shows, promos, trailers, TV series and movies of the week.” He is a switch hitter, and not just in terms of his genre choices: “Today I’m using an Avid Media Composer V2.7 on a dual 2.5GHz G5. Tonight I’ll be on a www.dv.com 34 http://www.dv.com http://www.dv.com
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