# Off-topic Rants

As most of you will know, I recently wrote an article on this blog listing my Final Cut Studio 3 Predictions. It has gotten a really great response so far, and has helped generate a lot of incredibly interesting discussions. Regardless of whether my predictions come true or not, I think the article has really helped throw some new ideas and concepts into the public domain and has sparked a lot of imagination in some extremely talented people, which is fantastic. I’ve gotten lots of messages, e-mails and comments recently with cool technology and features which should be added into Final Cut Pro – some of which I really hope make it into the next version. Personally I think the more people talk about these kinds of things in a public forum, the more chance Apple developers will get ideas from these discussions, and the more chance they will actually think about implementing them.

Hello everyone! Well, it really feels like it’s been a long time since I last posted any updates, and guess what… it has been! As always we’ve been incredibly busy behind the scenes with so many different things. As some of you may have noticed we launched a new blog run by Nick Colla, which has been attracting lots of hits. I’m still unsure whether it was a wise move to give Nick his own blog, but I haven’t received any court orders as of yet, so that’s always a bonus.

There has been a lot of discussion on the Internet over the last few months in regards to Avid vs FCP. People have been blogging about it. Scott Simmons from The Editblog has written many entries over the years discussing this topic, as has Shane Ross on his blog Little Frog in High Def. There has been several sometimes heated podcast discussions about it – although when That Post Show got stuck into the topic at length (almost two train rides long!), the panel of experts remained surprisingly level headed. Although, I think it’s fair to say that John Flowers, the host of the show is very much an Avid man, and tends to show his Avid bias on nearly every episode. As Final Cut Users wait for the long awaited major update – Twitter has been flooded with discussions about what users love about Final Cut Pro and Avid, and what users really hate about both products.

Kaltura has just released it’s brand new Developers Community website, and I’ve actually been fortunate enough to feature in the developers spotlight! Below is a quick little video of all the people featured in the developers spotlight (powered by the Kaltura player) – you’ll have to skip forward a couple of people to see me…

A month or so ago, whilst doing some research for the “cut your own trailer” SAKOOZ site, we came across a film called Two Fists One Heart. This is a contemporary story set in Perth Western Australia, about Anthony Argo – a young Italian/Australian boxer played by Daniel Amalm – being pushed to the limit by his Sicilian father and trainer, Joe (Ennio Fantastichini). Joe wants Anthony to achieve the success in the ring that he was denied as a young man. When Anthony meets Kate (played by the stunning Jessica Marais – from the television series Packed to the Rafters), he begins to see his life – and the role violence – in a different light. He loses focus on boxing and, in a confrontation with his father, learns about Joe’s painful past. Joe turns his back on his son. Anthony leaves the ring spending time with Kate in their blossoming romance. He earns his living as a nightclub bouncer . When Anthony becomes involved in a street fight at a public event Kate dumps him. Anthony reflects on who he is and all that he has recently lost. Tom (played by the amazingly talented Tim Minchin – who I had no idea actually did screen acting!), Kate’s comedian brother helps Anthony see the world and his life from a different perspective Joe is betrayed by Nico (played by Rai Fazio – who also wrote the screenplay), another boxer of Sicilian decent. Anthony, now mature enough to make his own decisions, decides to honour his father and his family and re enters the ring to fight his nemesis Nico.

Apologies for keeping you all out of the loop last month. It was certainly never my intention – we’ve just been flat out as always! However, those that have been following us on twitter at least know we’re alive, as we’ve been regularly posting cool things we come across.

I’m inspired. I want to swear a lot. In a positive way. But I won’t. At least not at the moment. I’ve literally just got back from the cinema after watching Alex Proyas’ latest film, Knowing. All I can say is… Wow. I’ve been looking forward to watching this film for a long time. There are many reason for this. Firstly, I loved I Robot. The special effects were great – plus it was just a really fantastic film in general. Great score, great script, great acting… great, well everything. Well apart from the mass amounts of product placement – but we’ll let that slip. Secondly, Alex is an Australian. Like most Aussie’s, I like to support our own. Thirdly, most of the film was shot in Melbourne – my home town. And last, but not least – this film was shot on the RED camera. Having work with the RED on the Sakooz trailer, I have a very fond spot in my heart for this unique piece of revolutionary technology. I always planned to see Knowing when it first opened at the cinemas (last Thursday), but I’ve been caught up with heaps of other things. But, tonight, I’ve finally seen it. And I’ll tell you what – the fact that I’m blogging about it late at night just goes to show how much this movie has affected me. As I said… Wow.

I’m extremely lucky to have landed a fantastic job a few weeks ago as an assistant editor full time this year at a amazing boutique edit house in Melbourne. At a time where job security is certainly not ensured, unemployment is high and the economy is in the toilet, it’s great to have a job, let alone a challenging, exciting and fun job working alongside an award winning group of just really great people. But like with everything in life, there’s always some negatives. For me, the simple fact that I’m working five days a week means that I have less and less time to concentrate on my own film projects. After a big day at work, plus a few hours of commuting home, there’s not much time left to get fired up again about all the others things on your to-do list. As always, time in against me. But at least I’m doing something I really enjoy.

The last couple of weeks have been hectic, but unfortunately it’s been mainly projects outside of latenite. I’ve personally been interstate working on various live shows, and have also recently start working full time for a post house in Melbourne on top of lots of other ventures, so the Sakooz site has been put on another temporary hold, which is a bit of a pain. As much as I would love to have it all done by the end of this month (and to be honest, it’s VERY close to being finished), I just don’t think it’s going to happen – especially with the bushfires that keep creping up on us! Therefore, we will be postponing the launch till April just to be on the safe side.

There has been a lot of discussion on the Internet the last few months in regards to what Apple is going to do with the seemingly out-dated Final Cut Studio package. Lots of people have written blog articles about what features they would like to see in the new versions of Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Color, etc. The general consensus from the Internet community seems to be that Final Cut Studio is due for a very major update, or even a complete overhaul. Conversations about this are appearing wide-spread on podcasts, twitter, forums and through all the major social networks.