Sunday at NAB can be an interesting time. The show floor hasn’t opened yet so you’re not constantly bombarded with new product announcements (though today seems to be an exception), people aren’t moving around like maniacs and the hallways of the Las Vegas Convention Center halls aren’t madhouses. As one of the speakers at Post|Production World I took advantage of my favorite perk: being able to sit in on some other classes and learn.
Today I will learn at #NABShow Post|Production World. Later in the week, teach. ABL: always be learning
— Scott Simmons (@editblog) April 6, 2014
One big product exception was word coming out that AJA will be introducing a 4K camera called CION, priced around $9,000. Looks like they don’t want Blackmagic to have all the fun. Your move BMD.
Exceptional news just released @ #NAB2014 – our trusted partners AJA are entering the 4K camera field with the #CION pic.twitter.com/dPTeeMWJBc
— The Studio – B&H (@TheStudioatBH) April 6, 2014
If would definitely describe myself as an After Effects hack who knows just enough to be quite dangerous. And that’s dangerous in a way that I could make something simple and nice or totally screw up and make something unusable. I’m aware of the existence of Expressions but think they are some type of crazy scripting language akin to writing code for, well … After Effects. What better time to educate myself than sitting in on Angie Taylor’s Expressions class.
It was very cool to see that Expression don’t have to be so complicated as to scare off users. They can certainly veer into some heavy scripting language type of stuff but Angie showed some rather simple examples that allowed for things like movement, rotation and animation without having to set keyframes. That had to sink in for me a moment: AE animation without keyframes. I want to know more.
That’s Gary in that silhouette on the left.
We are obviously in the world of 4K and no one I know knows more about this crazy world than Gary Adcock. He put together a great session where he and his colleague brought in a 4K projector and showed 4K side by side with 1080p. There’s often a lot of debate whether human beings can really see a different between these two resolutions but seeing them back to back was a great exercise. There were certainly detail improvements that could be seen but more than anything the 4K media just felt different. It made you want to look at it longer. Gary brought up some good points in that 4K might change the way we edit as you don’t want to cut away from a lot of the good 4K shots. You just want to take them in.
And Sony had their own Sunday announcement with the Sony Alpha.
Announcing the Sony Alpha a7S Mirrorless Digital Camera with support for 4K video recording! http://t.co/UOUClsLQ1n pic.twitter.com/BH2G2CzADu
— B&H Photo Video (@BHPhotoVideo) April 7, 2014
It’s going to be a full frame, 4K video recording camera. Because you have to record 4K!
The Breaking the Rules keynote was a good discussion that looked at content creation outside of the usually Hollywood bubble. Kanen from That Studio, Ryan from Film Riot and Peter from YouTube Nation all discussed work, working and workflows in their Internet-based media creation companies. Peter is producing and delivering a daily show, all in 4K.
The last Post|Production World session I sat in on today was all about Adobe Premiere Pro CC and the timeline. It was taught by Jeff Greenberg and one of the reasons I wanted to sit it was just to watch Jeff teach. I’ve known him for a couple of years now and he is one the best at teaching software to an audience. He has a great talent for public speaking and a mastery of the software. I learned a few things about PPro that I didn’t know but more importantly I learned something about teaching these kinds of classes … which I’ll be doing myself later in the week.
And Avid had their Avid Connect event over the weekend as well where they announced a new media strategy called Avid Everywhere. That’s going to take some time to digest … as well as a subscription model for Avid Media Composer.
#AVID | More pictures added of #AvidConnect on the @Avid Blogs http://t.co/YdWTEexqDn #NABShow #AvidEverywhere pic.twitter.com/P9PCdsETe5
— Wim Van den Broeck (@editorbelga) April 6, 2014
Sunday is such a good day at NAB. It’s a much more laid back day than what the rest of the week will be like. There’s more time to chat with the folks you see at the conference and less need to pack yourself into a room, bathroom, shuttle or monorail full of people. It’s a highly recommended day to kick off an NAB week.
Keep your eyes on PVC and we’ll be rolling out video and content all this week (and beyond) from NAB 2014.