(no subject)

[prog]

I used up my monthly ZipCar prepay for the first time. Good, good, I don't feel like I'm wasting my money on it anymore. (I drove a couple bucks over the line yesterday, and my account cycles tomorrow.)

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Final Cut Pro is, so far, totally awesome, though I'm only partway into logging the ~8 hours of footage collected last weekend. And the manuals are very nicely written. I especially like that, when they introduce major new concepts, they sometimes break to outline an example workflow (starting at the shoot) that makes use of them. They also explicitly map FCP features and concepts to traditional film industry conventions whenever possible, so I feel like I'm getting a super-shorthand film-school education as a bonus. Neat stuff!

Something interesting I learned today: movies still use slates, with clappers. I really just assumed that they're a moviemaking icon that's been long since replaced by, I dunno, something more electronical. But, nope, the FCP instructions specifically tell you how to sync audio and video tracks (if you're working on a big-budget production that records either on separate equipment), and it involves mousing the tracks around until the visual of the clapper dropping and the clack! sound it makes are properly simultaneous, on your big expensive computer screen.

Boy, something about knowing that makes me happy.

Comments

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

I've seen 'making-of' movie special with clappers in use even for modern films -- but some of the fancy ones have LED digital clocks and scene/take number indicators.

[rserocki.livejournal.com]

I've seen an instance of those.

movie clappers

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Hurrah, low tech! :)

[xymotik.livejournal.com]

There's already a non-profit that's been in the SF area for about five years now, City Carshare, but Zipcar just announced that they're coming to San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland within a year:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/15/BUGFSDNV301.DTL