Popcorn, Toothpicks and Video

Four Tools that Eliminate Nagging Uttle Problems and Keep Productions Running Smoolthy

Ever get a piece of popcorn stuck between two teeth? Your world stops as you struggle to fix this minor dental problem. You frantically search for a toothpick, find one, get that pericarp out of your mouth and life continues.

Video production is like popcorn. You’re just chewing through your schedule and all of a sudden a small but hard problem lodges itself between shots. You can’t continue until you find a video toothpick.

Toothpicks solve a narrow range of problems. But when you need one, you really need one. Here are four video toothpicks that I’ve used to dig hard, thin problems out of my production teeth. This metaphor is getting a little airblown and doesn’t really cover everything mentioned here, so let’s get to the germ of this column.

AutoMotion Digital Heaven

>Overall Rating: HOT

Building endless lower thirds or other graphics with the same design is like eating a bowl full of popcorn shells. Each new file becomes another bit of shell stuck in my teeth. Several years ago I tried to construct a template-driven graphic generator with AppleScript and PreFab Player gluing together FileMaker, Illustrator and After Effects. My beast wasn’t housebroken and left digital messes all over my computer, but the idea was good: automate merging text data with graphic templates.

Digital Heaven had the same idea, no doubt borne of years of working with the BBC and other clients. But unlike my mutant, AutoMotion works really well. Import a template from Apple Motion, enter text or import a tab-delimited text file, preview the graphics, then export everything as a series of Motion project files. AutoMotion earns its keep with this last step.

With a Motion template and text file in place, AutoMotion running on a G5 workstation builds three-dozen graphics in about five seconds. A G4 Powerbook lags behind by just a few seconds. Drop the project files into a Final Cut Pro timeline and you’re done— until the producer asks for changes. Maybe a name’s misspelled; maybe the producer wants a different typeface or text color in several or all of the graphics. No worries.

Make the needed design changes in Motion, the text changes in AutoMotion, and then use AutoMotion’s Smart Export to export just the files that have changed. In Final Cut Pro, reconnect to the updated files and you’re finished.

AutoMotion isn’t a design tool, but it works with any simple or complex Motion template (with animation, particles and the rest) that has text objects. AutoMotion provides a preview window to let you check any graphic before rendering and can display title/action-safe guides for 4:3, 14:9 and 16:9 graphics. And did I mention that it’s fast?

AutoMotion requires Motion 2.0.1 or later to generate graphic files. You can download a free 30-day demo version and buy the $395 application at www.digital-heaven.co.uk. I’d love a few more starter-templates, and a version that works with other applications and platforms. But as it is, AutoMotion is a great time-saving tool for Mac-based designers and editors.

SATA Cards for Laptops

Overall Rating: Too Early to Tell

Laptop editing gets editors out of dark rooms and into the field (I’ll let others decide if this is a blessing or a curse). But connecting a VTR and a hard drive to the same FireWire bus begs trouble, or at least entertains unreliability. Alas, laptops with multiple FireWire ports usually bind them to the same bus.

One solution is to slip a FireWire card into your CardBus/PCMCIA slot. That gives you an additional FireWire bus for your drive. But why stop at FireWire? Several new adapters let you connect two SATA drives to your CardBus-equipped Mac or Windows laptop. SATA drives are sold by such companies as FirmTek (www.firmtek.com), WiebeTech (www.wiebetech.com) and Lindy (www.lindy.com).

Think of it: Your laptop’s built-in FireWire 400 port for your camera, VTR or SDI/analog converter and a CardBus SATA adapter connecting to a dual-bay external eSATA enclosure. Up to 100 MBps storage to go.

I have just started working with one of these cards and I’m impressed. However, different combinations of cards, drivers and laptops yield widely different performance; like by a factor of two. Because of my limited and not universally smooth experience with these cards, I’m not yet comfortable offering a rating. But I’m going to explore further.

I’d rather have a laptop with built-in SATA drives and ports, but for current laptops with CardBus slots these cards, sold by companies including FirmTek and WiebeTech for $50 to $100, keep me from mourning the passing of FireWire 800.

Carry-on Storm Case

Overall Rating: SOLID

When I travel with equipment, I’m as careful as possible. I’m also usually as rushed as possible. I don’t want haste to make waste of my gear. And I hesitate to fly with small expensive items (radio systems, lav and shotgun mics, lenses) in checked baggage. So a couple of years ago I bought a Storm Case iM2500 made by Hardigg (www.stormcase.com). It’s mostly great.

The case is a hyper-rugged plastic-resin carry-on case with two wheels and a telescoping handle. Most significantly, it fits current airline carry-on baggage restrictions. Both the case and its contents have survived several unscheduled drop tests without damage. The handles are comfortable, the press-and-pull latches hold securely but open much more easily than those on my Pelican cases, the cubed foam let me customize the interior to my specific needs. I chose a yellow case, one of five colors, to make it stand out from my black Pelican cases. I haven’t submerged it, but the contents passed several puddle and rain tests without getting wet.

The downside is that strength consumes space. The interior measures about 20 x 11 x 7.5 inches. You lose a couple of inches in each dimension to run-over-it brawn. The case weighs about 12 pounds empty. Loaded, the case is a bit tippy when wheeling around, but not terribly so.

The equivalent Pelican (www.pelican.com) wheeled carry-on case, which I haven’t used, is the 1510. Both the iM2500 and the 1510 list for a bit over $200 with foam inserts, but are available for much less. My Storm Case gives me one less thing to worry about when traveling to a shoot.

Traveler Boompole

Overall Rating: SWEET

Speaking of carry-ons, for some gigs my standard boompoles are too big. One barely fits in my large suitcase. Another requires a dedicated case or three feet of space in a lighting or hard tripod case. If I’m flying to a remote and simple gig, I want something smaller. But not too small.

I want a pole that is compact when collapsed but at least six feet long when extended. And I’d rather not spend more than necessary. Some compact poles extend to only five feet or so. Some cost over $400. Some inexpensive poles aren’t well made.

The aluminum Avalon Traveler boompole from K-Tek (www.mklemme.com) offers the best combination of length, cost and quality that I’ve seen in a compact pole. The Traveler collapses to just 20 inches but extends up to 6.5 feet. That’s not enough for most feature work, but for interviews and much run-and-gun work it does fine.

I don’t know if I’d want to work with a 16-foot aluminum pole. But at its full length the light-weight Traveler remains rigid. Adjusting pole length is easy; the couplings on each of the six sections tighten quickly.

Although some people hesitate to use an internally cabled pole at any length other than fully extended, fearing audible cable slap, I don’t have problems with internal cables. I have a modest amount of booming skill, but nothing anyone else can’t match. That’s good because sometimes I need six feet of pole, sometimes just three or four. Sometimes I need a 10-foot pole, but I can usually tell in advance when I will, and in those cases I’ll reach for something other than the Traveler.

The Avalon Traveler lists for $210 without an internal coiled cable (model KE-79) and $250 with one (model KE-79CC). With the internal coiled cable the Traveler weighs about 1.5 pounds. When I need to travel light and small, I can slip K-Tek’s Avalon Traveler into my Storm Case and cover my story.

These tools are a bit more high tech than a wooden toothpick. Perhaps we can call them video water jets.

RATINGS: Products are rated for features, performance, ease of use and overall value on a scale from LAME, OK, SOLID, SWEET to HOT.

Write Jim at jfeeley@accessintel.com