For long enough, Apple has lagged behind Grass Valley’s Edius offering, or even Adobe Premiere, but the loyalists have stuck with their stunted versions of Final Cut Pro and found workarounds for what they needed, not with the cost of time or money, though.

Today, I opened the App Store and was presented with an extremely oh-you-will-not-miss-it eye-catching pane that highlights the new offering from Apple. It also has links to the Motion and Compressor packages. Price-wise, it is simply fabulous. Final Cut Pro X is priced at USD299.99, while the other 2 products are USD49.99 each.

From the official Apple press release, it states:

At the heart of Final Cut Pro X is the Magnetic Timeline, a trackless approach to editing your footage that lets you add and arrange clips wherever you want them, while other clips instantly slide out of the way. You can use Clip Connections to link primary story clips to other elements like titles and sound effects, so they stay in perfect sync when you move them. You can even combine related story elements into a Compound Clip that can be edited as a single clip. The groundbreaking new Auditions feature lets you swap between a collection of clips to instantly compare alternate takes.

Professionals in the industry seem to like it, and one of the comments heard is:

I’m blown away by what Apple has done with Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro X is incredibly modern and fast, but most importantly it lets you focus on telling your story in the most creative way, while it actively manages all of the technical details.
Angus Wall, Academy Award-winning film editor

Features I’m going to love about FCP X are:

• Auto-syncing of audio files (goodbye PluralEyes)
• Background rendering – do you know how much time this will save???
• Image stabilization – woohooo…
• Audio clean up – eliminate rumbles and hums upon ingest. Wow!
• Color matching - Select a clip, pick another to color match it to. Boom, it’s done!
• 64-bit capabilities – time to stock up on more RAM to juice up the machines!
• Multi-processor support – simultaneous operations can occur, and save time!

Here are some screenshots taken from the Apple App Store.

To have a sneak preview of what the software is all about, take a look at what user FinaCutKing has to say in his YouTube video.

This amazing road safety video puts a spin on living life and how we should enjoy life. Love the concept, and hope you do too.

After all, they are the team supporting the “third largest country in the world”, with 600 million users!

* Video from time.com

Want romance in this day and age? You’ve gotta move with the times!

Love the cinematography!

Me? I have been heading a group of companies dealing with servers and web campaigns. Nothing in common with video, whatsoever.

“Sure, let’s bring the video camera to the park“. Thus, I started my journey of exploration into the world of motion, lights and sound.

One and a half years later, these two projects have been showcased “for real” (and not just for kicks online somewhere) at 2 churches with several thousand people watching it. I’m not boasting, but rather sharing my journey on how you can learn new tricks, if passionate about it.

Here are the two MadWorld Christmas promos that were shown at both the DUMC & SIBKL churches. Oh, and if you can make it on the 3rd and 5th of December 2010, do come and watch this contemporary stage show – it features dance choreography, drama and music. It’s totally non-Christmassy, but rather a high-impact story on two characters – rich and poor. More info here.

Download videos: iPad version | iPhone version (Right click, and save as…)

Download videos: iPad version | iPhone version (Right click, and save as…)

* All videos were edited with Final Cut Pro and “mostly” shot with the Canon 5D Mark 2 (several scenes were shot with a Panasonic Lumix GH1)

One of our Integricity companies was headed to Kuantan for a server deployment and 2011 planning retreat, so I seized the opportunity to document our trip on video. We woke up early, met at McDonalds, then hit the highway. Here is our story.

Music: Heart of Medieval (by Butterfly Tea)

Please feel free to use and embed this video in any reviews you may be doing. It would be nice to let me know where you’re using it, but not necessary.

My feedback is probably not overly fair, as I am not a regular video camera user. For most people, the camera is sufficient for documenting bits of a holiday, or to capture that uber-cute-baby-moment. I’ve been pampered with DSLRs like the Canon 5D Mark 2, and I have to keep telling myself it’s unfair to compare. This video was edited on Final Cut Pro and a MacBook Pro. Colours were not edited, as I wanted it to be true to the phone.

-1 The camera auto-focuses well, which is a big plus point, but as it does, it zooms out slightly, then in again, which makes the video seem as if I was unable to nail the focus spot on.

+1 Low light is rather challenging, but the HD7 didn’t fair too badly (look at the BBQ scene), so I’d give it a positive point here.

-1 Shutter speeds seemed to be rather high by default, resulting in somewhat staccato-ed frames for motion (look at the rain scene where the car and bike ride by).

+1 Battery life is pretty decent if you’re only shooting video and nothing else.

-1 I was using the 720p option and it keeps on defaulting to VGA (640×480) mode. It’s a known issue, and hopefully the next OS update fixes it.

+1 There aren’t a zillion and one options to set before getting the mobile phone to shoot video, so it’s really pretty simple for the average user.

+1 Weight-wise, it’s quite light and easy to carry around. Having a 720p camera in my pocket at all times is totally awesome for the unplanned moment.

+1 The screen makes it so easy to see what you’re shooting – you don’t need to squint through any viewfinder and colours are accurate – what you see on screen is also what is recorded.

-1 Audio isn’t fantastic, but neither is the in-built mic on 99% of cameras. You can plug in an external mic, but you’ll have to either buy a specific cable, or make it yourself.

CONCLUSION

The video feature is excellent if you have kids, or if you run a vlog. You can set up the camera anywhere and start recording easily. Transferring the videos to your computer is pretty automatic and you can start editing right away, if you choose. This phone is ultimately still a phone first (obviously), but it does have the capability to capture decent home videos.

We had several early-adopters of the iPad join in for a discussion on how they use their toy for work and play. We heard from Ben Israel (then Digital Strategy Director at Integricity Interactive), Niki Cheong (avid blogger & The Star journalist), Toh (founder of mytechnews.info) and Warren Tan (Managing Director of Integricity Interactive).

I’ve been working with video for more than a year now and have learnt so much over that period. I really want to thank my wife Grace who runs her video/photography company called Stories for teaching me so much. Now, I teach her stuff too!

With all these awesome videos, I want to show them off on our iPhones and iPad. Digging around for the best and optimum video settings to compress to is just a pain. I’ve summarized my options here for you (and skipped all the lengthy explanations).

When converting / compressing videos, I use Handbrake – it’s an excellent FREE software.

Standard settings for all devices

Format: MP4
Video Codec: H.264
Framerate: Same as source
Quality: Constant quality: 100%

The only settings that differ between devices are the Picture Settings. Click on the button and set Anamorphic to None, check Keep aspect ratio, then adjust the width as shown below. All widths are in pixels (px).

iPad / iPhone 4

General info: iPad screen resolution: 1024 x 768
General info: iPhone 4 screen resolution: 960 x 640

If compressing HD / Blu-ray videos (or anything wider than 1024px), set width to 1024 (height will automatically adjust accordingly)
If compressing DVD, set width to 720  (DVD resolution is SMALLER than your iPad, so we don’t want to blow it up unnecessarily)

iPhone 3 / iPhone 3Gs

General info: iPhone 3 & iPhone 3Gs screen resolution: 480 x 320
Set width to 480 (height will automatically adjust accordingly)

* Disclaimer: I don’t claim to be a guru on all things video related, but these settings work for me. If you encounter issues, do leave a comment and let me know. All the best.

As technology becomes more readily available and the population of Internet users increases, the user group gets more diversified. Different users use the Internet for different reasons, and they have varying browsing requirements. The Maxis communications team performed extensive research and found that Malaysian Internet users generally fall into one of seven categories which they name: Blogger, Traveller, Smart Shopper, Explorer, Online Buddies, Gamer and Entertainment Enthusiast.

Each of these user groups has different characteristics and more often that not, the Internet population will fall within one of these types. Based on these characteristics, Maxis launched  a wide variety of plans to suit these needs (tailored, cost-efficient-only pay for what you need).

As an extension to their campaign, fun interviews were conducted with online personalities which represent the seven key Malaysian Internet users. Being heavily involved in social media and running a digital agency, I was featured in one of their interviews, representing The Explorer.

The talented and beautiful Fiona Oon interviewed me and we had a great time in front of camera. Sure we had several takes, but it worked well.

Here’s a behind the scenes shot of the both of us at the Integricity HQ bar area.

Aside from the videos, Maxis, Integricity and Mindshare collaborated on developing an interactive social game built for Facebook, called Maxis Mission: Possible. Mindshare is the agency overseeing the strategy for Maxis, while Integricity provided the expertise to strategize and develop the Facebook application.

Once again, the seven characters come into play. You pick one, and explore maps for hidden items. It’s an interesting concept as you encounter enemies and bonus items that can give you a speed boost.

Prizes are pretty cool (unfortunately, I’m not allowed to win them since I’m supposedly a friendly party) as you can win a holiday for 2 to the Gold Coast AND RM5,000, an iPhone, Blackberry and more cash prizes. If you do win anything, you HAVE to share the goodies with me, seeing as I pointed you in their direction, huh? Just kidding…

When asked about why Facebook was chosen as a platform for this campaign, Matthew Willsher, CMO of Maxis, said, “The extension to Facebook is a natural move as there are now more than 5.2 million Malaysians on it. We are continuously exploring other engagement opportunities on social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter.” [quote from: marketing-interactive.com]

My take on this campaign is that Maxis is really going all out to secure ground using social media and I am very excited to see the wide adoption of Facebook in their campaigns. This will hopefully serve as a stepping stone for the entire industry to show them how powerful it is to invest and harness sites that are already a phenomenal success.

On the street I saw a small girl cold and shivering in a thin dress, with little hope of a decent meal. I became angry and said to God; “Why did you permit this? Why don’t you do something about it?” For a while God said nothing. That night he replied, quite suddenly:

“I certainly did something about it. I made you.”

For many months, I have been silently following a website that is interestingly called InvisiblePeople.tv. It is an interesting play on how humans shun away from looking at something they wish to eradicate from their minds. All too often, we walk quickly past the people begging on the streets, stealing a glance or two from the side of our eyes.

We’re afraid – that’s the truth. Afraid of being asked for donations, afraid to be caught staring, and worst of all, afraid to care.

This project heavily invests in social media and uses it to make the invisible people, visible. Mark Horvath, the man behind this project was once known as the Lizard Man of Hollywood Boulevard, when he himself was once homeless. Mark had strong media beginnings as a Hollywood distribution executive, but lost it all to drugs and alcohol. In a nutshell, thanks to the LA Dream Center, he was set right again and freed from the bondages he once had.

Today, he goes out to the streets armed with a small camcorder, mic, laptop and iPhone. Mark posts raw unedited footage (sometimes deemed too raw) of the people he interacts with as they share their homeless stories with him.

So, how exactly does Mark use social media? Sites that are frequently updated include: his blog, Twitter, Facebook, Whrrl, MySpace, YouTube, uStream, Vimeo and Flickr. They serve as his own broadcasting channels to reach out to the public and update them on-the-go. Through the true-to-life updates, he has caught the attention of many and this has served to further propagate the message and his mission.

Is there any magic to it? From what I see, there isn’t: it’s about being true to your project and being as transparent as possible. Picking the right social platforms is probably very important too, as you would want to target the relevant audience through it. Frequent updates help too, and we can see videos are uploaded very often on the InvisiblePeople.tv site.

With so many platforms to manage, I was very curious as to how Mark manages them and sent him a couple of tweets. Here’s his down-to-earth reply.

Stats to date: CNN reports more than 1,000 videos are watched per week on the Vimeo channels and the project has more than 10,000 followers on both his Twitter accounts (@hardlynormal and @invisiblepeople). Mark has been featured on Huffington Post, CNN and loads more media as a result of him being extremely social with a fantastic mission.

He’s raised sponsorship and donations from many companies amongst which are Ford, Hanes (they give out socks to the homeless) and Virgin Mobile. Truly, it’s a powerful testimony of how one man has shared the stories of hundreds of homeless people with the world and brought smiles to those who are in need.

More importantly, via social media, an entire movement has been formed, out of people who are more aware that these problems exist. To all those who are interested in making a difference, Mark in a very practical way asks them to start helping in their own neighbourhood. There’s little point in helping out halfway across the country when the problems are prevalent in your own backyard.

May the invisible become visible, via the power of social media.