Los Angeles, CA / Boston, MA - July 26 – The FCPUG Network, including Final Cut Pro and digital video user groups from within the US, Europe and the world over will gather together once again in Amsterdam, Netherlands during IBC 2010 for the Third Annual Amsterdam FCPUG SuperMeet on Sunday, 12 September at the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky. This SuperMeet promises to be the single largest gathering of Final Cut Pro, Adobe, Avid users and gurus and digital filmmakers in Europe during 2010.


"We are excited to return to Amsterdam and even more so to hold this SuperMeet once again at the Hotel Krasnapolsky," states Michael Horton, SuperMeet co-producer and head of the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group (lafcpug). The Hotel Krasnapolsky is located in the heart of Amsterdam just a short tram ride away from the RAI center that will host IBC 2010. "The Krasnapolsky's not only easy to get to, but it's a beautiful venue to visit and network at. And SuperMeets are all about networking."



 

SuperMeets provide the postproduction and broadcast community an opportunity
to not only learn about the latest technology trends, but to connect with each other to discuss experiences and opportunities within the industry in a social setting that is both educational and fun. The user-driven format offers engaging presentations and training by community members and industry technologists. Equally popular are the presentations from community member videographers and filmmakers.



Doors to the SuperMeet will open at 16:30 with the "SuperMeet Digital Showcase," featuring over 25 software and hardware developers including Adobe, Automatic Duck, Autodesk, Avid, Blackmagic Design, Data Robotics, GenArts, Matrox, Noise Industries, Red Giant Software, The Foundry, Vimeo and many others. Here, attendees can enjoy a few cocktails, network and party with industry peers, talk one on one with leading manufacturers and learn about the latest trends in collaborative editing workflows for post production and broadcast markets.

"Unlike giant trade shows, SuperMeet attendees always get a chance to get up close and personal and hands-on with hardware and software developers in an intimate setting," states Daniel Berube, SuperMeet co-producer and head of the Boston Final Cut Pro User Group (Bosfcpug). "This is especially important for our industry in today's tough economic climate where networking and staying connected and on top of current HD editing and 3D workflow solutions is more important than ever."


The SuperMeet producers have also announced the Amsterdam debut of "Open Screen Theatre." Filmmakers and digital content creators will have a 10 minute chance to "Get Seen" in an informal, collaborative setting. Sign-ups begin at 16:30 when doors open and are open only to SuperMeet ticket holders. Only DVDs and QuickTime movies on flash drives will be accepted.

“We want local and visiting filmmakers who are shooting with DSLRS, camcorders, iPhones and anything that makes video to screen their content and interact, “ states Berube. “Filmmakers, just show up and sign up, get up and show off your work.”

The SuperMeet agenda, featuring presentations from Autodesk, Blackmagic Design, Adobe and local area filmmakers, is considered by its producers as "supersecret" and will not be announced until approximately three weeks before the event. Presentations will begin at 19:00 and rounding out the evening will be the always raucous "World Famous Raffle" with thousands of Euros worth of filmmaker-related prizes to be handed out to dozens of lucky winners.

Tickets are now available for purchase online only for the Early Bird price of €10,00 Euros each for adults and €7,00 Euros each for students. Food (snacks) and drinks will be available throughout the evening. To purchase tickets online and for complete daily updates on the SuperMeet, including directions, transportation options, Open Screen Theatre info and a current list of raffle prizes, visit the Amsterdam SuperMeet web site.
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http://supermeet.com



About the SuperMeets
SuperMeets are gatherings of Final Cut Studio, Adobe, Avid editors, gurus and digital filmmakers from within the US, Europe and the world over who use or want to learn to use Macintosh-based workflows and solutions such as Apple's Final Cut Studio suite of applications, most importantly Final Cut Pro. SuperMeets are held annually in San Francisco, Austin, Las Vegas, Amsterdam, London and Boston. The SuperMeet agenda usually includes demos of new products, digital video tips and tricks and filmmaker show and tells, including a SuperMeet Digital Showcase featuring hardware and software developers providing workflow solutions for digital filmmakers and content creators.


 Philip Bloom presents to BOSFCPUG workshop attendees

 

Publisher Carol Patton of Imagine News visits with Dan and Philip.

Hayes McCarthy of CakeMix Studios at the BOSFCPUG Workshops

 

Keylight 2.0 in Final Cut Pro 7 under OSX 10.5 Leopard.

 

Keylight™ is a powerful plug-in from UK's The Foundry, (maker of the high-end Nuke compositer/VFX program). Keylight is used on chromakey shots in virtually any major feature film you can think of. It comes from a product developed specifically for motion picture chromakey work, normally bluescreen production.

If you're wondering what the difference between bluescreen and greenscreen might be, well, let’s see. Different colors? True; and blue is better for blonde characters, green for everybody else. Originally, blue-filtered imagery was motion picture in-camera special effects. In the 1930’s Technicolor’s London lab came up with the blue screen process which better suited color film. (It’s always from the UK, isn’t it? Except Technicolor itself was invented in Boston by refugees from MIT.) It was an arduous workflow from shooting against blue, controlling spill, pulling male and female traveling mattes… a headache. Today, for digital film and video, greenscreen is enormously popular, because the green channel in video carries most all the luminance information needed to isolate a key background from a foreground subject.

Today, whole feature films like 300 and SIN CITY are greenscreen productions, unless everybody’s blonde. Why are we seeing so many green shoots? Is the economy really improving?

Enter the web!

Live-on-webpage production is becoming extremely popular. You often see spokespeople walking out of nowhere onto a browser web page when you load it, to say hello, deliver a mission statement or company overview. It's a little spooky to see leprechaun-like folks talking to you or to each other, but, when done right, message transcends media, and it's compelling. You see instructors standing next to bullet-point examples of their topic or product, often interacting with it-- often only when you click your mouse to direct the presentation. It's a whole new “humanizing” media initiative which doesn't challenge bandwidth the way full size videos do. But it requires careful planning, shooting, and good tools in post.

Cyclone Interactive of Boston, working with Moving Media of Arlington, MA, used greenscreen for a multinational corporate client specifically to bring live action and virtual sets together on the web, along with stand-ups to be composited against web page white backgrounds, all ending up as Flash elements. The experience and workflow was typical and today many editors get involved in these shoots.

Moving Media's A.J. Dimaculangan directed the green stage elements and I was hired to pull keys in two venues. The first was live on stage, allowing the director and client to check HD greenscreen alignment with the intended virtual sets for each scene. We captured each take through a Sony Z1 camera’s FireWire output, directly to a 13” MacBook (back when it had a FireWire port) right into QuickTime recordings, and from there imported into After Effects CS3 —which unlike FCP actually ran on a MacBook! With the wrong keying tool, this could be a fairly high pressure job.

The second venue was in post, refining keys, troubleshooting unwanted shadows, and with the wrong tool, you may not have all the bells and whistles you need for special situations.

The Foundry's Keylight™ excelled in both venues. It's hard to believe you can sit right on a stage and get a workable key with but one mouse click. That's often the case with Keylight™, because very good default edge spill suppression is incorporated. This is why the product has been used on major feature work.