In May Adobe dropped the bombshell that the Creative Suite method of software grouping was going away in favor of Creative Cloud. Instead of buying a new CS version every other year, you will pay a monthly membership fee for access to the entire Creative Cloud. They believe it to be a better service since you always have the latest version of the software and can cancel at any time. Does it change everything like their slogan says? Here’s what you get:

• Most up-to-date version, free (with monthly subscription)
• License that works on both MAC and PC
• New features
• All Adobe apps, is this a good thing?
• Some new cloud features

Unless you’re superbly enthused about the cloud features, the change from Creative Suite to Creative Cloud really only changes one thing: the way we pay for Adobe products. Adobe has made a huge change in their software pricing model. Now instead of paying a large sum to get into the game ($1500) and then a smaller sum to stay up to date each year ($400) Adobe will now make you pay monthly. So, the question is: Is it worth it?

This is a hard question to answer as there are many methods to purchase the Creative Suites. Some have student versions for a fraction of the price, some have an early version of CS and have just paid the nominal upgrade fee. Here are some charts to better understand the costs:

Brand New Customer:
This is the customer who is jumping into production RIGHT NOW. Here’s their cost over the next three years in comparison. This is predicated on what Adobe previously said: new CS version every two years, new sub-version every year in between (ie 2012=cs6, 2013=cs6.5, 2014=cs7). Costs of products based on amazon/adobe. Lets assume if CS was sticking around that cs 6.5 would be the current version. Our time frame will be June 2013-June 2016.

You may have noticed I included two seats per CS6 copy. In reality you are only supposed to have one license per person but that person can install the CS on two computers. This is to allow someone to have it on their work machine and laptop. In some cases (including on occasion here) companies will actually use it for two people. Adobe has said this is not as intended, and against their EULA, so you may want to compare row 1 with row 2 to see the actual savings when following the license rules.

If you follow the license rules and are new to CS/CC then CC will actually end up being cheaper monthly/overall. Approximately $550 overall savings and $15.29/month (for one seat/one license) over the three year span. If you cheat and use one license for two people then CS is more valuable, saving $1350 overall and $34.70 monthly (paying for two CC licenses and only one CS license). UPDATE According to Adobe: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4379859, the license for CC works exactly the same as CS. You can have two computers licensed with one CC account. According to the EULA you can only use instance of the software at a time but there is no technical restriction different from that of the CS versions. If you plan to use Adobe CC in this fashion then the cost savings is actually much for CC.

Current CS6 Customer:
That’s all fine and dandy, but what if you already own CS6? Well, this gets a lot more tricky. You probably bought CS6 a year ago, new or as an upgrade, and spent $1575 or $375. So moving forward what’s the cost to upgrade? For us we could most likely stay on CS6 for another year without any noticeable lack of new features. Here’s a few new things you may be excited about in the new CC software:

I’m sure we can put off an upgrade for a while. Even though these are some great features we have a workflow that solves many of these problems. We have Video Copilots Element 3D which will work with e3d and c4d objects in a similar manner. Mocha/boujou for camera tracking. The one feature that is interesting but NOT worth the cost of CC is the shot matching in CC. Why did it take so long to get this obvious feature?

Every current CS customer is going to have to make their own call on this. You have to ask yourself, are the features worth the upgrade right? For us it would cost $89.97 a month. Two CS6 upgrades (one PC, one MAC) for $19.99/month, and one new subscription at $49.99/month. Is the CC worth $90/month for us? Probably not. We may try one version however at $19.99/month just to get a taste for Creative Cloud moving forward. Clearly if we want to stick with Adobe we will have to upgrade. The question is when.

Now I put the question to you. Does this change everything? Is the pricing better or worse for you? Are you still waiting for Final Cut Pro 8 now that Apple has announced a new Mac Pro?

Here’s another post that debunks five myths about Adobe Creative Cloud. Notably:

• You don’t upgrade your local version until you want to
• You don’t need the internet except to download. The apps are offline just as before
• It’s not web based or run in browser. They are normal applications!

Read more about Adobe Creative Cloud on their website.

For those curious about pricing here’s their plans:

Here’s a great piece (the short version) that we did for Stellar Services at the beginning of the year. I forgot to put it up on the blog/portfolio. It has some nice graphics and a sweet voiceover by Todd Barsness. Don’t let his website fool you, he is immensely talented.

You can read more about it here in our portfolio.

After waiting FOREVER, Apple has finally updated it’s Mac Pro line of desktop computers! The design harkens to that of a small trash can but the features do not disappoint:

• PCI Express-based flash storage
• Thunderbolt 2
• Intel Xeon 5 processors, up to 12 cores
• Four Channel DDR3 1866MHZ memory
• Dual GPUs, AMD FirePro, up to 6GB dedicated VRAM
• Support for 4K video in edit, and power three 4k displays!?!?!?!

It’s about time! Now we’ll have to see the price point for a decent build before we drool completely. If it’s twice as expensive as a custom PC then we’ll have to decide how much the apple design is worth!

Read more about the specs on the apple website.

Over the weekend, I was able to watch Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” (2011).  The movie is guaranteed to stir any viewer’s emotions.  IMDB explains the plot best:

Young Albert enlists to serve in World War I after his beloved horse [Joey] is sold to the cavalry. Albert’s hopeful journey takes him out of England and to the front lines as the war rages on.

There are two main reasons why I recommend this movie.  First, the cinematography is beautiful.  Spielberg does not shy away from his beauty shots.  He uses light brilliantly, such as shining it off of the Joey’s brown coat to show his beauty and power.  I assume it can be hard to show the emotions of a horse, so the light and camera movements/angles help support their emotions. Whether it is a low angle to show power or an extreme close up of Joey’s face while running to show fear, the cinematography is crucial and beautiful.

The second reason I recommend the movie is because of the horses.  It is unbelievable what these horses are capable of in terms of their performances.  The battle scenes are probably the most impressive because of all the coordination that must have been involved.  I was surprised by the various of emotions that were pulled out of me during this movie, especially when only two horses were interacting on screen.  I think that is what really sold the movie.

Overall, I recommend this movie for people to watch and would give it 3.5/5 stars.  If you can look beyond the predictable story and just enjoy Spielberg’s craft, then you may just enjoy the movie as much as I did.

The title might be a little misleading. We LOVE raw footage but we only LIKE 4k. It could be because we’ve never worked with 4k or that I’m still amazed at the quality, with the right cameras, of 1080p (effectively 1k). We do love raw however. Raw is often described as the digital negative. This means that what you have is actually what was captured, no compression or limiting involved. This allows you to take video with poor exposure or color correction and specifically fix the problem areas. With compressed formats you can do a little of this but your working with interpretations of image instead of the original image.

Over at Philip Bloom’s blog he writes about Why you Must have 4k and raw and why you absolutely DON’T need it. The gist is:

1. raw gives you the flexibility to find ways to beautifully enhance your work
2. 4k is the next thing,

What’s most fascinating to us at this point is how to shoot raw on our 5d mark ii. The Forum goers over at the Magic Lantern firmware site have some tips to make this happen. As soon as I get it set up I will get some tests posted asap.

Right now I’m more concerned about moving to raw than 4k so we will see what the future holds!

Last week, we were pleased to make this display area video for the St. Paul’s Wine Fest, which greeted guests as they entered. The video was used to describe the different kinds of wine and beer that were available for guests to sample during the festival.

In order to make this video come to life, we used Element 3D from Video Copilot. We were able to create the 3D images of fruit, candy, glasses, and bottles to best describe each wine and beer.

Next up, fighter jet flybys in all upcoming videos!

It’s that time of year again. No not an Apple announcement (where the heck is the new iPhone by the way), the 2013 NAB Show. This is where the National Association of Broadcasters tell us that the future of broadcasting is technology and methodology that has been around for a year. But seriously the exciting news that will be coming out is going to be all about hardware and software. New cameras and production devices as well as cloud software that finally realizes the state of modern digital filmmaking, this is the hope anyway.

I’ve thought about this long and hard and here are my hopes predictions:

1. Low-cost RAW camera at 10-bit
   • Canon came out with the c300 and c500 as an answer to professional filmmaking at the DSLR scale. The c300 just isn’t feature rich enough while the c500 is silly expensive.
   • I’ll look to RED or ARRI for something that I can take home for less than $8k that does this.
   • Just like the 5dmii revolutionized digital filmmaking so can an affordable 10-bit RAW camera.
2. Useful DSLR software
   • DSLR clips to color correction to edit to sfx to grading is the most convoluted and annoying transition/process. We need something that streamlines this.
   • I want a tool that takes DSLR clips, allows me to color correct them individually, and then add continuous timecode before editing.
   • The software should also have an opinion about sound and fx workflow. (Adobe has dynamic linking but it’s a pain in the ass when you need to go back and forth, which is common).
3. Online review & collaboration software
   • Seriously? Every industry has great web/mobile apps to make their work more efficient. Why is the production industry lagging so far behind?
   • Shotgun is too complicated, looks more useful for big productions with lots of people.
   • Scenios is nice for its simplicity but it’s unpolished and it doesn’t have great inline document creation (scripts/callsheets). You can create a blank doc and format yourself or upload an already created file.
   • GoSimian has nice client pages but is just a gussied up web page.
   • I want a web software that:
     • Allows for creation of all production documents from scratch with multiple templates
     • Integrates all these assets together so I can convert a script to a call sheet to a shot list, etc.
     • Has client pages/review where they can view/edit assets as needed and watch embedded youtube reviews.
     • Has a mobile client (for fricks sake this is 2013) so I can pull up a call sheet and call the nearest hospital in two clicks.
4. Cake, that I can eat too
   • We are superbly fortunate to live when we do. If we didn’t have all the affordable technology that we have then Backflip Films wouldn’t be able to offer video production in the Madison area. It just would not have been feasible. For this I am thoroughly thankful.
   • Because we live when we do we have great expectations though. I want all this and a bag of chips and I want it in my pocket.
   • Seriously though, I’m really hoping for some craft services breakthroughs.

Check out the previous video we did, Brewing A-Z with Robert Goulet, during this epic day.

I was on a brew tour at the newly opened Karben4 right by my house. I thought Ryan Koga (Goulet above, himself during the tour) was hilarious so I bugged him until he would let us come film him and his brewery. This is the first of three projects from that shoot day. Enjoy.

We got a new sign! This is it. Isn’t it wonderful!