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Steps Taken:

• Boot Camp
  • Identified existing version as 2.1 (that came with Mac OS Leopard).
  • Discovered I needed it to be Version >3.1 to handle Windows 7.
    • Attempted to update it automatically, via existing-installed Mac and Windows (XP), but neither worked.
• Cloned existing Mac OS - Snow Leopard system to experimental disk, over-writing (only) the existing Mac OS installation there.
  • Used SuperDuper in free (gratuite) mode.
• On clone, updated relevant software:
  • Mac OS > Boot Camp Assistant
    • Download Windows Support Software.
      • I assued that would give me the latest version…
      • But Boot Camp failed to update - it said “The Windows support software is not available”
      • Wasted time retrying a few times…
      • Discussion at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2793568?start=0&tstart=0 indicated this was a known issue, and the work-around was to go for the second option, “I have the Mac OS S installation disk”.
    • Located Mac Pro (desktop) install-disk for Snow Leopard (it was in a thin cardboard box, along with iLife etc).

Cloning:

• http://lowendmac.com/ed/royal/08sr/clone-mac-os-x.html
  • ID
    • Article by Simon Royal - 2008.10.07
  • e.g. use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner

Web-Research:

• http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/running-windows-anything-else-your-mac/179571-upgrade-windows-7-without-going-through-bootcamp-again.html
  • ID:
    • Updating Boot Camp and installing Windows 7 on your Mac
    • by Topher Kessler  January 20, 2010
  • Best to install drivers first:
    • Boot Camp Software Update 3.1 64-bit: The full Boot Camp driver package for 64-bit versions of Windows, including Windows 7.
    • Boot Camp Software Update 3.1 32-bit: The full Boot Camp driver package for 32-bit versions of Windows, including Windows 7.
    • Graphics Firmware Update 1.0: This provides graphics updates for iMacs and MacPros with Geforce 7300GT, 7600GT, and Quadro FX4500 graphics processors. It is only required if you are installing Windows 7.
    • {BUT are they not included as standard nowadays (2012) with latest version of Boot Camp ? }
  • http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/running-windows-anything-else-your-mac/179571-upgrade-windows-7-without-going-through-bootcamp-again.htm
    • ID:
      • upgrade to Windows 7 without going through bootcamp again?
      • Question by “brockga”, Feb. 2009
    • “should be” no need to destroy & re-create existing Boot Camp partition, just install W7 over the top of it.
    • Further advantage of this method: W7 “Custom Install” option able to save existing Documents
      • << The Windows 7 install process will then copy all of your data in “My Documents” over to a Windows.old folder within Windows 7 itself. All applications and documents stored in other locations will have to be reinstalled / transferred manually. >>
      • x
  • http://forums.macworld.com/index.php?/topic/139815-successful-setup-os-x-lion-bootcamp-win7-data-partition/
    • ID:
      • Successful setup: OS X Lion + Bootcamp Win7 + Data Partition
      • ernopena_nyc, 28 August 2011
    • The key to this working is creating your extra partitions AFTER you make the Bootcamp partition but BEFORE you install Windows. And once Windows is installed, you CAN NOT shrink, resize, delete, create, or modify any partition.
    • <<<
      • I have my internal 500GB hard drive partitioned the following way:
        • 120GB OS X Lion (system and apps)
        • 316GB workspace partition (user files, projects)
        • 64GB Bootcamp Windows 7 Ultimate
      • To make this work, I started with the standard procedure of installing OS X Lion on a single Mac OS Ext partition and using Bootcamp Assistant to build the Bootcamp partition for Windows.  Then I did 2 key things:
        • 1. Before installing Windows on the Bootcamp partition, I first went back to Disk Utility, shrunk the OS X Lion partition, and inserted a 3rd partition Workspace_HD for all my user files. Then I restarted and installed Windows 7.
        • 2. After Win 7 Ultimate, the Bootcamp drivers and Office 2010 were installed and activated, I DID NOT make any changes to any partitions. I can put whatever I want on any partition, but I CAN NOT shrink, resize, delete, create, or modify any partition. Any change to the partition tables after Windows is installed will BREAK the Bootcamp partition.
      • I went thru 3 broken installs of Bootcamp/Win7 to figure this out
    • >>>
  • http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/windows-7-on-a-mac-my-boot-camp-survival-guide/3446
    • Miscellaneous related tips and discussions…

Is it possible to edit a timeline on Premiere, send it to Resolve, as a project/timeline structure rather than as a rendered intermediate file, color-correct in resolve then return (again at project/timeline level) to Premiere (say)?   From a brief web-search, it looks like the answer is “yes”.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/869356

• http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=808171
  •  <<<
    UNVEIL is a real-time, de-mixing based plug-in that allows attenuating or boosting reverb components within a mixed signal of any channel count, including mono sources, as well as modifying contained reverb characteristics. Additionally, UNVEIL allows bringing the key features of a recording into focus, or moving them to the background, by attenuating or boosting perceptionally less important signal components.

    UNVEIL as well as a free trial will be available from the Zynaptiq website Monday, March 26th.

    UNVEIL comes as Mac AU (AudioUnits) Plug-In, with VST and AAX support for both Mac and Windows platforms planned for later in 2012.
    >>>

• http://success.adobe.com/en/na/programs/events/1203_16108_nab.html

What I have discovered:

• There is a W7 upgrade product but it only works from Vista, not XP.
• Furthermore, the upgrade to W7 64-bit only works nondestructively from Vista 64-bit.
• So I might as well do a clean install…
  • (Which is probably wise in any case)
• …and from a Full (not Upgrade) version of W7
• Will initially try it on an experimental system disk.
  •  Want to be sure of no significant issues before committing the main system.
• One of the things to confirm is whether any of the (few but vital) progs I have that only run on XP will be able to run in W7’s “Virtual PC” (which has XP SP3).

Read the rest of this entry »

Skimming  (after a fashion) is not only available in FCPX:

• Skimming in Adobe Premiere:
  • From http://forums.adobe.com/message/4207188#4207188 &  http://forums.adobe.com/thread/962323
  • <<This is a feature that experienced editors have been using for years.  Instead of using the “ultimate slow method” of double clicking a clip in the project panel and opening it in the source monitor, just move the mouse over any clip while pressing a shortkey, and set in/out points on the fly.>>
    • Organization & Layout:
      • Suppose you have a few Source sequences, such as one sequence per rush, or maybe per scene.
        • Maybe also combine all rushes into a single (additional) sequence.
      • Create a main “Target” sequence.
      • Open/place a “Source” timeline  along the whole width of the top of the screen.
      • To that timeline, add sequences (tabs) for each of the Rush-Sequence(s)
      • In the centre, have the program monitor along with a scope
      • Below that, open/place a second timeline, this time for the Target sequence.
      • Now you have two separate timelines and can drag etc. individual clips (maybe trimmed) from the Source timeline to the Target timeline.
        • Just remember it’s not the same as using the Source Monitor.
    • To Enable Skimming:
      • Make a keyboard short cut (e.g. [§] ) to the [Move Playhead to Cursor] function
        • In CS5.5, that function is in [Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts > Panels > Timeline Panel > Move Playhead to Cursor]
      • When holding that shortcut, the playhead will follow the mouse.  No need to click mouse and drag the playhead.  Also no audio scrubbing occurs.  A very slick way to search for that certain something.
    • Tips:
      • Lift [;] and Undo [Ctrl-Z].
        • The [;] does a “Lift Edit” between [I] and [O] points.
      • Extract is supposed to be [’] but on my [MacBook Pro > BootCamp > WIndows 7] it is [\]
      • [Drag] does a copy, not a move.
      • To drag only the video or audio part, do [Alt-Drag]

• Skimming in FCP7
  • From http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/better-editing-with-custom-screen-layouts/
    • (I have not tried this, I just note the link)

This great codec has changed its product name once more.  I have GoPro/Cineform Neo installed and it said there was an update available.  But on the download page I could not see [Cineform Neo] anywhere.  A web-search revealed that it is now called [GoPro CineForm Studio Premium].

• http://cineform.com/news
  • (<<about 78 days ago we said, RT @David_Newman)
    • First public beta for the new GoPro CineForm Studio Premium application that soon replaces CineForm Neo (PC version) http://t.co/I7crXd8y>>
• http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/cineform-software-showcase/504151-public-betas-new-products.html
  • Neo and Neo3D are going away, to be replaced with GoPro CineForm Studio Premium (Neo level) and GoPro CineForm Studio Professional (Neo3D level.)
  • These applications incorporate much of the functionality of the older products in an easier to use new user interface that combines the conversion features of HDLink with the image manipulation of FirstLight.
  • As not all existing features are supported today within the new interface, FirstLight and HDlink will continue to exist for some time, although they will not be greatly enhanced beyond bug fixes.
  • Mac users will find the same for Remaster, with its key features moving into CineForm Studio (Mac and PC applications will be much more inline.)
  • All future enhancements with go into the new application, and today MVC 3D camera support has been added, with much more to come.

How about an After Effects plugin for automatically grading any footage featuring a Gretag Macbeth color chart in-shot (e.g. at the beginning and/or end of shot)?  Matt Roberts’ new plugin, still “steaming off the press”, works in Premiere as well as After Effects, and has been tested in CS5 and CS5.5.  You simply pause on a frame featuring a color chart in-shot, place corner locators to identify that chart, and ‘Go”.  It not only fixes white balance but also adjusts for saturation and compensates for certain kinds of “color twisting” defects such as can occur in cameras.    Subsequent “expert tweaks” can then be made if preferred, e.g. 20% saturation reduction for “film look”.  The free version works in 8 bits, the paid (£50) one (in the process of being made available on ShareIt.com) works in 32 bits, multithreaded etc.  To find out more and to download it: http://www.mattroberts.org/MBR_Color_Corrector/.

Example: Canon 7D Video Footage:

So what’s the point of this plugin?  Greater quality, reliability and productivity, as compared to traditional color correctors, as explained below.

Those with an eye for accurate color reproduction from video footage will be familiar with traditional tools such as 3-way color correctors and meters such as waveform monitors and vectorscopes.   All proper Non Linear Editing systems (NLE’s) have these.  Generally-speaking such tools work well, but sometimes in practice the situation can become confused when for example a subject’s “white”(assumed) shirt is in fact off-white, or when tinted light mirror-reflects off skin or results from camera filters.  Easy to understand in retrospect, but initially can cause “running round in circles” of interative adjustment and re-checking.  Furthermore, some cameras have peaks, pits, twists and ambiguities (e.g. infra-red) in their colour response that many such correctors cannot correct in a straightforward manner.   Not only can time be wasted but it is quite possible to end up with an image that “looks” right to most people but which in fact has done something inexcusable such as altering the very precise color of a corporate logo.

One way to reduce the potential fo such confusion is to incorporate a color chart in shot.  Various types exist, including Gretag Macbeth (GM) and Chroma Du Monde (CDM).  The GM card, while primarily targeted at photography, is also in widespread use for video.   That chart consists of a matrix of colored squares, one row of which represents (steps on) a grey-scale.  It also includes some near-primary colours and some approximate skin colours of a few types.  The simplest use of such a chart would be to use the grey-scale row for white balancing and the other colours for “by eye” grading/tweaking.  The more experienced will probably make use of vectorscopes etc. but that can still be a nuisanceful if not cumbersome process.

Enter Matt Roberts’ Automatic Color Corrector.  We tried it out on some footage from his own Canon 7D and from my Sony EX3, the latter fitted with a slightly green-tinted infra-red filter, on a snowy day.  We even tried it on an image (featuring such a chart, as well as a model with lots of fleshtones) on Canon’s website ?URL? for their C300 camcorder.  In all cases, the correction was achieved in seconds.  We were particularly confused as to why Canon’s web-image image was so off-colour, but it certainly was, and the Corrector fixed it.

Once again, the link: http://www.mattroberts.org/MBR_Color_Corrector/