FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: THE JUMP
Tonight’s Oscar Night, so it feels like a good time to tell you about my friend Ryan Serrano’s short film – The Jump.
Since my friends & family screening, it’s been making the short film circuit. I was blown away, but « Levar Burton Voice » don’t take my word for it!
Indie Short Fest: February 2024
- Best Sci-Fi Short: The Jump by Ryan Serrano (USA)
- Best Short of the Season – Runner-up (Special Jury Mentions): The Jump by Ryan Serrano (USA)
- Best First Time Male Director: Ryan Serrano for The Jump (USA)
- Outstanding Achievement Award (Original Score): Simo Virokannas for The Jump (USA)
California International Short Film Festival: Winter 2023/2024
- Best Sci-Fi Short: The Jump by Ryan Serrano (USA)
- Best Actor: Ryan Serrano for The Jump (USA)
- Best Sound Design: Jake McGuire for The Jump (USA)
- Best Editing: Cheryl Serrano for The Jump (USA)
- (This one’s near and dear to my heart. Well done, Cheryl. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽)
We all know finishing a movie’s a miracle, but making a good movie? Even more so.
Congratulations to Ryan & Cheryl and the entire cast and crew.
Trailer
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I’m not sure a bridge goes as hard as Childish Gambino’s Sober.
Yep, here’s your Apple Vision Pro killer app by John LePore (warning - it’s a Twitter link).
Also, about John LePore (who I just discovered today but has been doing incredible work for years) - http://johnnymotion.com/about
Second time in two hours I’ve emailed a lifewire.com article to someone. They’re the best at what they do!
Two people. Same AirPods Pro version (Gen 1). 4 rounds of failure (two for each set) for different reasons, none of them from impact or abuse.
In-ear AirPods are nifty, but they can’t withstand whatever my family’s ears… generate.
Remember Quibi?
I remember when everyone thought they’d be producing content for Quibi. 😅(Born from a line from TMNT: Mutant Mayhem that had me racking my brain for the name of that service.)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem … finally, the TMNT movie that got it right.
Congrats to Jeff Rowe, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Dan Hernandez, and the whole team.
And another home run of a score from Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross.
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At the grocery store and they’re playing some Luscious Jackson. Am I at The Cool Grocery Store or am I just old? 😄
macOS 14 (Sonoma) is creeping up my list of least favorite macOS releases. (#1 being Catalina.) So much weirdness and instability.
Tetris really is a perfect game.
Also see:
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Another in the category of Ideas That Won’t Make Money, I wish some game studios would venture out into unexpected territory every so often again.
Like, from the makers of Gran Turismo comes… Omega Boost?! (With mecha designs from Shoji Kawamori of Macross fame?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_Boost
Or from the makers of Final Fantasy comes… Einhander?!
I stumbled upon Michael Palmisano’s YouTube channel recently (https://www.youtube.com/@Guitargate). Most of these “So-And-So Reacts to (Pop Culture Milestone)!” videos are clickbait, but Michael’s videos feel genuine. Honestly, they’re what I would make if I had an ounce of his musical acumen. 👌🏽
D’Angelo - Chicken Grease LIVE W Pino & Questlove!
Hearing Portishead For The First Time
Yes, yes, yes.
I’ll take those Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi remasters now, please.
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I always forget about the Network Link Conditioner tool when diagnosing network-related trouble with apps in macOS. Shout out to my man Jeroen de Jong for the reminder.
Once upon a time, DVD menu experiences were another huge source of visual inspiration.
There are the obvious choices – any menu from Star Wars Episodes I-III – but this menu for Serendipity influenced the entire visual direction for my first (paid) Macromedia Director CD-ROM project.
Compare that with Edge of Tomorrow’s menus? 😬
Is there no money earmarked for DVD and Blu-Ray UI/UX work anymore?
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Avid Media Composer 2023.8.x still isn’t qualified for macOS 14 (Sonoma), but it’s a sweet, sweet irony that you must remove the AvidTitlerPlus plug-in from “/Applications/Avid Media Composer/AvidMediaComposer.app/Contents/SharedSupport” before it will even launch in Sonoma. 👨🏽🍳🤌🏽
I think it’s time to revisit this movie.
Ladies and gentlemen…
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Oh nothing, just Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s complete “Classic Game Postmortem: Rez” talk (deck and video) from GDC 2016. Fills in a lot of gaps on Mizuguchi-san’s body of work.
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ISAAC T.’S POST-2023 FCP CREATIVE SUMMIT HIGHLIGHTS
If you use any of Apple’s Pro Apps – Final Cut Pro, Motion, Compressor, and Logic Pro – and you couldn’t come to the Summit this year… wow, this year’s Summit was historic.
Visiting Apple Park
All attendees were invited as guests of the Pro Apps team to experience Apple Park. Somehow, the guest entrance is both striking and low-key, like I finally found and got into Disney’s Club 33.
We then received our very own Apple keynote from the Pro Apps team, complete with a demo of all the new features to come in Final Cut Pro (for macOS and iPadOS) and Logic Pro.
After that, we all enjoyed some hands-on time with the new M3s and some face time with members of the Pro Apps team and Pro Workflow Group. I’m always impressed by their generosity and patience in these settings.
Finally, we ended our visit with a guided tour of the park itself. The architecture and landscape are truly stunning. Although we weren’t allowed to take pictures, our guides reminded us there’s plenty of footage of Apple Park in keynotes and event videos anyone can (re)visit. (When you visit, ask your guide how those large glass panels for the external windows were made and shipped to the site.)
The Future of Pro Apps
The final session was a Q&A with the Final Cut Pro Team. They didn’t mandate we keep the contents of the session secret, but we were asked not to quote any visiting members of the team.
The big question still being asked in 2023: “Is FCP going away?” The resounding response? “No.”
In fact, a last-minute question sparked a member of the Pro Apps team to invite some users up after the Q&A for a chat. Paraphrasing:
Can FCP users get a better experience for adjusting curves with video effects keyframes on clips in a timeline using the Video Animation editor? The Video Animation editor is tiny and hard to use. Maybe we could access those curves in a new subpanel in the Inspector akin to Color Curves?
After some dialogue, they made no promises, but I’m hopeful making the Video Animation editor better or exposing those curves for keyframed video effects in the Inspector will be considered for a future update.
Overall, the vibe at this Summit was the best and brightest it’s ever been and the Pro Apps team’s presence added to that vibrance this year.
PostLab – The Event of the Year
Something happened that’s near and dear to me: as part of this year’s Hedge delegation, I helped introduce the next generation of PostLab to the FCP community.
First, we’re bringing versioning and locking for any creative app. Yes… any creative app. Motion? Yes. Logic. Yes! Pages? Blender? Unity? You name it, PostLab will support it.
Then, there’s Event Locking for Final Cut Pro in PostLab.
It was a genuine honor unveiling what’s to come in PostLab. Keep your eye on PostLab’s website for details on how to sign up for PostLab Beta.
A massive thanks to Simon, Taco, and Tim back at Hedge HQ for making this happen. Also, presenting alongside Jasper and Paul was an absolute pleasure. 🙏🏽
Random Access Memories
(Of the things I can talk about) in no particular order:
- Alex Gollner - forever passing each other in the hallways, we finally got to sit and chat. I truly enjoyed it.
- Chris Hocking - I see you finally figured out how PostLab works. 😄
- Dylan (The Final Cut Bro) and Jeff Bates (The Final Cut Dad) - really impressed by your quality of teaching. Thanks for pulling back the curtain a bit on the life of a YouTube showrunner.
- Sam Mestman & Jeff Greenberg - and now
curry pizzais part of my lexicon. - Felipe Baez - hey roomie! 👋🏽
- Robin Moran, Joshua Meyers, and Mike Yanovich - haters gonna hate, but I wish any/all FCP contrarians could hear how FCP kept your teams alive and thriving through tricky (and even extreme) circumstances.
- Nick Harauz - you’ll have to tell me how Sundance went. 😂
- Steve Bayes - thank you.
I attended my first Summit in 2017. As an attendee and a Pro Apps user, it was magical.
This year feels like a return to form with those same feels, but being part of a team dedicated to solving real(-life) problems for creative pros? Not gonna lie: it feels good. We can’t wait to see how PostLab plays a part in that.
As we concluded that penultimate session with Robin, Joshua, and Mike, in a crazy stroke of poetic serendipity, the last comment was from our CEO Paul, who announced, “Strike’s over!" I can’t think of a better ending to the FCP Creative Summit. ✌🏽
Wow, X3 was a disaster on so many fronts, but this is a new low.
Also, if anyone at Marvel Studios is reading this, a solo Storm film starring Ms. Berry with Dir. Matthew Vaughn would be 🔥🔥
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UPDATE: ONE MEDIA COMPOSER TO RULE THEM ALL
Credit where credit’s due: Avid actually removed every version of Media Composer pre-dating its current release, 2023.8.
Now there really is only one version to rule them all, but.. for how long, Jim? (For… how… long…)
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Ya know…? That Frog design work still works.
It’s the dawn of a new era here at Hedge. Meet OffShoot.