Yes the name of the plugin is FxAndy and I did not name this plugin, but I do love it. First off, I’m not a film person. I’ve learned how to shoot in the digital realm but I do understand the beauty of film. This plugin gives some of that beauty back to the video world and with ease.

Here is a ridiculous list of the simulators from FxAndy.

Even if you have no idea what setting does what, play around with the simulators you will come up with a better looking video with this plugin. Here are some examples of FxAndy in action.

How does it work?

FxAndy translates the digital image you captured into a realistic simulation of a film camera complete with full color filter control, exposure control, film type selector with latitude adjustments and processing variations, darkroom and enlarger, classic print emulsions and papers with variations and adjustments — and a few digital-world tweaks to add even more versatility.

Never run out of stock!

And unlike real films, FxAndy makes it easy with perfect exposure compensation, no dangerous chemicals, simple latitude adjustments and — most importantly — no wondering where you’ll find the next warehouse stash of long-discontinued film.

Not presets; real software inside.

These simulations aren’t presets FxAndy is a full simulation suite with thousands of simulator combinations available, plus infinite variations of parameters, almost all of them keyframable for subtle and dramatic effects.

Famous in still photography

FxAndy is the brother of Andrea – Film Simulation for Bibble 5, the pre-eminent film simulator for the RAW processor Bibble 5. Andrea is an essential part of the style of professional still photographers all over the world, and now with the completely rewritten and speed optimized Final Cut plugin, the same looks are finally available for cinema.

Not convinced? Download it now!

When you purchase a new Mac you have the option of transferring data from your previous Mac to the new one in the welcome setup. By all means do it if you are working with the same processor. Do not use it if you are moving from a Power PC chip to an Intel based Mac. You will be able to migrate your Hard Drive from your G5 to Intel machine, but it will not warn you that it is a big no no. Of course I’m here to relay that mistake so you can make the move easy…I mean easier than how I found out.

There is a great article in Apple Support that helps G5 and earlier macs make the move over to Intel macs. You will be able to move all your movie, pictures, itunes and documents over with ease. With this document it tells you how to move over your settings and info for your address book, mail, ical and other data that is important. The hard part is re-installing all of your applications and re-registering the applications. I hope you have all the documents handy because it is time consuming. But once you make that move you will be happy and ready for a smoother and faster editing experience.

My G5 could not be fixed so I purchased the baseline iMac 21.5″ 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, it is fast, the screen is bright and very affordable.

Often Awesome The Series is a web series about Tim and Kaylan’s battle with ALS. It’s a story about love, friends, strength and courage. Join us every two weeks for a new chapter in this amazing adventure.

Episode 3 : “The Luckiest Man” July 4th, 2009 Tim and Kaylan are invited to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park for Tim to recite Lou Gerhig’s retirement speech during the game on the 70th Anniversary of Gehrig’s retirement from baseball. While there, Tim and Kaylan meet another couple that are battling ALS.

For more information about Tim and Kaylans fight visit : oftenawesome.org
If you are interested in funding research, please make tax deductible donations to the ALS TDI at: oftenawesomearmy.alscommunity.org

For more information about the filmmakers visit:
allacesmedia.com/oftenawesome & allacesmedia.com

How You Can Help

There are many ways you can help us out with this adventure. First and foremost is passing this video to your friends and family members and create an awareness of this horrible disease and the battle that Tim and Kaylan have ahead of them. If you are a part of the media help us and reach out to your audience with this story. Bloggers, post a video and tell your audience of an amazing love story that will move you. If you are a musician and would like to donate any music for future episodes we would love to hear your tracks. We are mostly looking for instrumental music to use as scores but open to all.

If you are a vendor or professional and would like to donate equipment for sponsorship we would appreciate it. We are looking for…

• JVC HM100 or HM700 we are shooting in 1080i and are using a Panasonic HVX200 with 32GBs of p2 and only have 36 minutes of recording time.
• Drobo loaded with Terabyte drives. Our drives are getting full fast
• An audio field mixer and additional wireless lavalieres.

This is a very special web series and hope that people want to become a part of it in any way. We are open to suggestions and hope you become a part of the Often Awesome Army.

If you frequent this website you might have noticed that I’m not blogging as much. I’m putting more focus on production and this web series moving forward. I will still post great products that I come across but with less frequency.

In this episode we introduce you to the Often Awesome Army. The Often Awesome Army is a group of Tim’s friends who put on benefit shows, art auctions and help raise money to help provide for Tim’s quality of life care.

For more information about Tim and Kaylan’s fight visit : oftenawesome.org

If you are interested in funding research, please make tax deductible donations to the ALS TDI at: oftenawesomearmy.alscommunity.org

Often Awesome is a new web series about Love, friendship and a fight to live. Tim LaFollette is battling ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), and his girlfriend Kaylan is standing by his side. The series will introduce you to Tim and Kaylan, their amazing friends and a story that will move your soul.

Blake Faucette and I decided to team up and tell this story and Tim jumped at it. I feel honored to be able to tell Tim’s story and leave his legacy behind. We want to educate, bring awareness, and help in anyway to put a dent into eradicating this awful disease. To watch the first episode go to our home page and watch it and ask what you can do to help.

For more information about Tim and Kaylan’s fight visit : oftenawesome.org

If you are interested in funding research, please make tax deductible donations to the ALS TDI at: als.net

Here are a couple of videos Blake Faucette and I produced for the holiday season. Enjoy!

First you need to know how to make them.

Then you can enjoy them.

Go to lightedchristmasballs.blogspot.com to learn more about the balls and even download a PDF on how to make your own and bring something creative and fun to your neighborhood.

I love all my FCP editors have a safe and happy holiday season.

A buddy from Lazy Brown Productions shared this with me earlier in the year and I’ve been waiting to share this with my readers. If you loved Peter Jackson’s “Dead Alive,” you will love this short about Christmas Trees. Warning to all Politically Correct minded people this video is not for you go here and have a happy holiday. For all grown ups enjoy.

Thanks Twitch for showcasing this video…absolutely brilliant.

My production partner Blake Faucette is selling one of his two Panasonic HXV200s for $3,000. It is a great deal for this camcorder. Comes with a nice Petrol camera bag, battery, UV filter, battery charger and AC adapter, manual and more. Camera is in GREAT working order. Selling it all for $3000.

If you are interested please contact me today he is trying to sell it quick to purchase an iMac so he can edit for our new web series that we will be premiering this Monday.

Tis the season to be want the things we cannot have. Maybe I should speak for myself. Here is a list of items that this editor would love to have this year for Christmas.

Editors Retreat
Why not? A chance to go to Miami, FL during the coldest time of the year and get together with world class editors and shoot the shit. This is what my old boss called tech porn. This years Keynote speaker is Christopher Nelson A.C.E. Editor, Mad Men & Lost. Mad Men is one of my favorite shows on TV and would be in awe to speak to him about the program.

Editors retreat is an intensive, interactive environment for TV, video and film editors that fosters creativity and the exchange of ideas at the highest level. Featuring:

• Social Web Strategies: Marketing Yourself
• Better Pitches: Techniques to Capture New Clients
• Transforming to a Predator: Learning Producer Roles
• On the Edge: Hottest Photoshop® Tricks, Latest Expert Final Cut Pro® Techniques, Latest Expert Avid Techniques and Hottest After Effects® Tricks
• Setting the Mood with Color Correction
• Working Workflows: Red and Beyond – New Formats and Deliverables
• Secrets of Sound Mixers
• Numerous case studies and actual projects discussions by leading editors

Now in its fourth year, the Editors Retreat has become an annual gathering for the post-production elite. Highly experienced editors from the worlds of film, TV and video come together to network, exchange ideas, share tips and of course, have fun! To ensure that only the best of the best attend, participation is subject to an application and screening process.

Running for 4 days and 3 nights, the Editors Retreat offers advanced sessions on post, visual and audio techniques and features valuable insight into emerging trends and technologies. An equal amount of time will be devoted to discussing the creativity, craft and business practices of successful editors.

This years retreat is less than 30 days away on January 13-16th.

You have to show your reel in order to register…not just register but they will contact you to let you know if you are in. If you are in you will be in with some big time editors. The grab bag is almost worth registering alone.

Each Retreat attendee will receive a gift bag worth over $5000! Gifts collected so far:
GIFT VALUE
Megasuite from Digieffects $799
Plug-in from Automatic Duck $495
CGM DVE Favorites $199
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 $799
Free Training Course from FMC $1,500
NAB Post Production Conference Pass $895
Music License from Free Play Music $100
FxFactory Pro from Noise Industries $399
Pond 5 Stock Footage Coupon $100
TOTAL VALUE $5,286

Canon EOS 7D

I want this camera. I use one at work and have fallen in love with it. I’ve only used it a few times with the default settings and the results are amazing. Rick Burnett, a good friend of mine, did a great post about the camera on his blog Asylum Studio Productions.

Capture Magic HD
Most of last year I shot with the HVX200. Love the camera, but when you shoot in 1080i with 2 16Gb cards you only have 36 minutes of footage to work with. That is why I need this software. So when I’m recording live shows I can record straight to my laptop and not worry about capturing later.

Capture Magic HD is a premier multiple camera, direct-to-disk recording, and monitoring system for standard definition consumer DV, DVCPro, and high definition DVCProHD and HDV.

Recording directly do disk minimizes the need to buy and carry new tapes. Gives you much more storage capacity, and lessens the chances of corrupt or dropped frames caused by problems with tape.

Capture Magic HD, using it’s own technology is one of the first available products to let you record and capture HDV on a Mac.

With time-lapse recording you can record spectacular video showing the awesome power of nature. This could be rolling clouds speeding through the sky; the tide sweeping in and out on a beach; or even the shadows of a lone sun beat cactus crawling across desert sands!

With Capture Magic you can also do stop frame animation by tweak each frame, and then when you are ready you can record that single frame.

That is all I’m asking Santa this year for Christmas. You may of noticed I did not ask for a new Mac…well I have the baseline iMac on it’s way not the quad core iMac. I had to get a new computer and the baseline iMac is faster than my laptop and I’ve tested out FCP Studio 3 on it and it flies. What is on your editors wish list?

The time… 7:15 PM on Thursday evening on December 3rd, 2009.

I can’t figure out what is wrong with it. The hard drive is healthy, checked all 8 Gigs of RAM, took out all the PCI cards, switched out the video card, used Tech Tool Deluxe and everything passes.

I have everything backed up and will have to use my laptop in the meantime.

Will have to wait and see what is next but the new Quad-Core iMac 27″ looks very interesting.