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April 25, 2009

New Short&Suite on AdobeTV...and a new look

Hello, my friends! As previously mentioned several weeks ago, I finished shooting Series 2 of Short & Suite with Karl Soule, and they've just released the first episode, available NOW!

A look at the new set, designed by the master, Kush Amerasinghe
ShoSuite1.jpg

Oddly enough, the first episode deals with a topic that I recently blogged about---Client Collaboration. Naturally, it's all about using Adobe Clip Notes, and now you'll get to see the step-by-step process of how we (the evangelists) recently collaborated on some of our new demo content.

Another cool Kush add...the intermittent Truck Cam
ShoSuite2.jpg

This season, we'll be featuring lots of CS4-related features, but also some classic ones. Naturally, we're all using a lot of the same content, so the cross-media message (and more importantly, the concept of cross-media workflow) has never been stronger. Be sure to check out new shows by Rufus, Greg & Paul, all of which began airing earlier this month.

And of course, my classic intro-outro pose...;)
ShoSuite3.jpg

So friends, be on the lookout for new episodes every few weeks (not exactly sure of the release schedule). I'll be sure to keep you posted on the blogosphere when the new content posts to Adobe TV.

Until next time,

Blog on.

April 24, 2009

Rockin' NAB, the TweetUp & the FCPUG SuperMeet

Hello, my friends! Well, it's now Friday, and NAB has come and gone. A whirlwind of events, non-stop presentations and customer chats, this year proved to be busier (and 'buzzier'...explain in a moment) than expected.

It all began on Monday morning, when I presented alongside our CEO, Shantanu Narayen and CTO of Disney's Interactive Media Group, Bud Albers at the Super Session keynote. In short, the keynote theme was "Disney and Adobe: Reinventing the Boundaries of Storytelling." You can read all about it HERE, (as it made the front cover and inside page of the NAB Daily) but the gist is that we not only talked about 'the future' of storytelling...but more to the point, I was there to showcase (and 'sneak') several new technologies that are in the works, namely Adobe Story and OnLocation (the next version).

It was truly an honor to present along these two industry giants (and a little bit of trivia, my first company-wide presentation was actually with Shantanu, back in 2003!) and the audience really got the message. Over the next few days, I continued to hear great comments (and receive compliments) about our vision, our clear story, and how 'cool' the presos were. The 'buzz' around Adobe Story (a collaborative, screen-writing tool, that allows you to leverage scripts/dialogue as MetaData at the earliest stage of pre-production) really generated some serious buzz amongst the attendees. People were floored, and simply continued to inquire all week long. Thanks to everyone involved. It was indeed a memorable moment.

As for the rest of NAB, I had several evening events that I attended and/or did presentations for. The first was the First Annual 'NAB TweetUp'. Yep. Twitterers from around the globe met up at the TnT Bar @ the Luxor on Monday evening to share some drinks, share their 'true' identities, and chat about technologies. A cool evening, and a great way to actually see people, face to face. We also gave away a Production Premium Suite (Congrats @debesch!). Special thanks to Kim & Steve Brame for putting it all together.

Tuesday night was actually a *very* special evening, as it was the first time that I presented at the Final Cut Pro User Group SuperMeet....but more importantly, I was presenting Premiere Pro, on stage, in front of around 1200 people. Premiere Pro at the FCPUG? Yeah. It rocked, and the session title was 'Share the LOVE'. That's right, because it was all about showcasing the Final Cut XML Import into Premiere Pro CS4, and then showing the 'augmented' workflow among the other CS4 applications (namely, Photoshop CS4, After Effects CS4 & Encore CS4). It was a long evening, and I didn't even hit the stage till around 9:30pm (after being on the show flow since 7:30am!) but it was well worth it, and the crowd was great--gracious, laughing, cheering, and truly getting the message that it really was about 'sharing' the love, sharing the workflow, and just getting the job done. Again, thanks to everyone involved (Dan Berube, among others). Hope to see you again next year.

Following that, Wednesday was actually the 'quiet' night, where Karl Soule and I managed to get back to the hotel and actually eat dinner with a colleague *before* the witching hours! We spent the latter half of the evening copying footage and files, as Karl heads to Asia in two weeks, and I'll be on the road to Stockholm and Germany for another show (LLB, in Stockholm) and some additional broadcast/customer/partner events.

The only pic I took all week; post-show, Monday night. Today was a good day :)
PostMondayNAB.jpg

And with that, my friends, I think I'll call it a night. I'm likely going to take some time off (before hitting the road) but I'll be working on the Chip Hanna multicam edit; so as that progresses, I'll probably drop a post or two ;)

Until next time,

Blog on.

April 16, 2009

Hi-Def Multicam Hot Stuff with Premiere Pro CS4

Hey friends! It's been a busy couple of days, what with NAB looming, and a new series of tours on the horizon. So, in an effort to change things up a bit, I set out with Greg Rewis to create a new series of video materials to be used as featured assets during our new roadshows. The subject: Chip Hanna.

Chip Hanna & Tony Martinez, Live and in HD
ChipTony1.jpg

Now, you might remember Chip as the leader of Chip Hanna & The Berlin 3. Greg and I (along with Mike Downey and Stef Sullivan) visited Chip and the guys during a European Tour last year. We 4 were subsequently on tour too, and caught up with them in Copenhagen. This time around, Chip brought along his multi-instrumentalist master, Tony Martinez, to rock the upright bass and pedal steel, performing as a duo.

Captured retro-grainy from a Canon Tx1; it'll be a nice mix with the HiDef imagery
ChipSolo.jpg

In any event, if you take a look at the Evangelists' new Adobe TV series, you'll see that we're all referencing new assets based around 'Greg's Bar & Grill' (no affiliation...lol). Well, in keeping with that theme, we figured we needed some really cool musical acts to add to the Bar's roster of talent. Enter Chip Hanna!

The one, the only...Tony Martinez
CrazyTony.jpg

So, along with our pal Sunny Thaper, we brought 5 separate cameras (all shooting different frame sizes, frame rates & qualities...just to keep it interesting--2 steady: HDV & DV; 3 roaming: 720p, DV & 640x480), and filmed + recorded (with multitrack audio, discretely captured, provided by the house engineer, Jack Maverick) 5 songs, which I'll be spending the next few weeks (along with Karl Soule) editing and mastering, to be delivered in the May time frame, on stage, live!

One of the roaming cameras: video shot with the Canon G9
ChipTonyG9.jpg

These are all grabs from the various cameras that we used, and naturally, one of the benefits is that we'll be able to highlight a multicam edit in Premiere Pro CS4, something which we've haven't shown in a while (simply because we didn't have any footage). But now...we do!

So, stay tuned for more, and I'll keep updating you on the progress.

Until next time,

Blog on.

April 9, 2009

Fast & Furious with CS4!

Hello, my friends! Well, for those of you living in the U.S., the #1 Box-office movie this weekend was Fast & Furious, the fourth installment of the franchise. Generating over 70 million dollars, it was not only the #1 film, but also notched the largest weekend opening in April...ever.

Box-Office Statistics & Imagery courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com
FastStats.jpg

What may make this particular film of interest to many of you is that the MicroSite promoting the film was created using Adobe Creative Suite 4, with a great deal of focus on After Effects CS4, Adobe Media Encoder CS4, Flash CS4 and Dreamweaver CS4. Notice some of the cool 3D animation being displayed on the site? Yeah...it's courtesy of the new 3D tools in Flash. Notice how great the video looked? Yeah...Adobe Media Encoder CS4.

So be sure to stop by and check it out. But don't just take my word for it...read this interview with the Visionaire Group creators of the online campaign for F&F which really highlights the power, flexibility, and efficiency of the CS4 workflow during the creation of the site

FastFurious.jpg

Until next time,

Blog on.

April 8, 2009

NAB is Coming! New AdobeTV Episodes! More Exclamations!

Hello, my friends! Well, it's been a little while since the last post, as my colleagues and I have been in the trenches, putting together materials for the upcoming NAB SHOW in Las Vegas. As always, I'll be there, along with Karl Soule (and a host of others) and it should be a great show. Details soon to follow.

I also wanted to mention that Karl and I shot the next series of 'Short & Suite' for Adobe TV. New episodes will be appearing weekly, and several episodes from fellow evangelists Rufus Deuchler & Greg Rewis are already availabl (more from us, Paul Burnett & Julianne Kost as well). As mentioned before, these were filmed in our new studio at the Adobe offices up in San Francisco, and the output/content/quality really looks sweet! Be sure to check it out.

For now, it's back to meetings, meetings, and more meetings (along with content-creation in between). Stay tuned for NAB and tour updates.

Until next time,

Blog on.