CasablancaExpert

Ask The Expert: When I Restore Projects That Are Archived - What Does That Do to my Current Projects?

QUESTION :I had saved the contents of my S4000Pro Casablanca editor with projects I was working on previously.  If I want to restore the drive, what does that do to my data ALREADY on the internal drive?

ANSWER: Depends if you are asking about the Bogart HD Backup or if you saved/archived just one project via the Storyboard Archives (found in the System Settings menu).

If you're talking about the Storyboard Archives - it will restore (load back in) just the one storyboard you archived (saved) into one empty project on your internal HDD (Hard Disk Drive)

When you restore the contents from an Archive (back-up) from Bogart HD Backup it restores (retrieves) the entire 30 projects from archived file on the external HDD  (whether or not you had 30 projects worth of data) and that essentially wipes out (factually, replaces) the current contents of your internal HDD. 

SO - if this is your situation, if you have projects you're continuing to work on that exist on your internal HDD - you would/should backup them up first before restoring the file from the external HDD via Bogart HD Backup.

 

Members of the Casablanca Expert website will find streaming video lessons dealing with the topic: All About Casablanca Archives  on this page: http://www.casablancaexpert.com/articles/20110318

Free Casablanca How-to and Tips Webinars yields 49 Tips for Viewers

I had a great time yesterday presenting my two free webinars in honor of the 3rd Anniversary of the Casablanca Expert website and community! 

My goal was to share 12 tips in each of the two hour sessions.  I was able to demonstrate 19 tips in the morning session and 30 tips in the evening!

Thanks to all who joined me for these special on-line classes - the recordings from the events should be posted by this weekend, and you will be receiving an email with the link to the recordings to re-view at your convenience.

Website members will also be able to access these streaming video 1-hour lessons in the members archives - link will be posted on the Members Home Page.

Ask The Expert: How can I Import Files from my Canon Vixia Camcorder?

QUESTION:
Chet - I cam record video from my Canon Vixia HFS10 camera into my Bogart S-6000 via the Media Manager. When I tried to send the video to the editing project via Archives I get a flashing sign saying fail.

If I burn the footage onto a DVD it will not play on my computer or my DVD players. Help!

ANSWER
If you have Bogart V4,  I would recommend recording straight from your camera into the Record menu, via the USB Import Option.

Here is a tutorial on this process: Importing Video Files via USB into Your Bogart Casablanca Editor

The reason is this - coming into Media Manager, often the file is kept in it's native format which may or may not successfully transfer over to the Bogart 'editing' side via the Archives.  But more and more files can successfully be read or imported into today's Casablanca with the Bogart V4 OS and when that is accomplished it is prepared for editing.

What Do You Want to Learn To Do (better) on Your Smart Edit Casablanca?

Are You Choosing to Remain with your Smart Edit Casablanca?  Me too...What Can I Teach You? 

I do have a Casablanca Next Gen. Editor running the Bogart V4 Operating System but I also have a Casablanca Renommee Plus that is running Smart Edit V9 and it remains a work-horse for me.  

It's getting a lot of my video editing work and does a great job still...I have some planned tutorials and webinars for the next months that will be of benefit and interest to both Bogart and Smart Edit OS members of our Casablanca family but I wanted to reach out and ask you -- what can I help you learn? 

Is there some operation or software you would like to learn how to use better, more efficiently or more creatively?  Please give me some guidance, some feedback - your opinion truly matters to me! 

You can visit my Facebook page to post your suggestions or reply to this topic below in the 'Comments' section - simply click on comments and log in with your email address, put in your suggestion/s and click 'ok.

Thanks!

How Can I Guide Viewers Directly to a Video on my YouTube Channel, Without Showing Other Videos?

QUESTION: 

Seems to me that when I give someone a link to one of the videos on my 
YouTube account, they click on that and go directly to the video.  That's 
good.  But they also see and can easily access all of the products in "My
Videos."  I think I have about 60 other videos.

Is there a way to set it up so that when I send a YouTube link either 
privately or publicly in an email that person only sees the video link I sent 
them?  That is, without making it a private video? 

I just want them  to be  able to see only the video I sent to them.  Again, I don't want to  have to make it private putting only a few email addresses as the only one(s) who can view it.  I still want to keep everything public.

Is this even possible on YouTube?  Vimeo and some others don't work  for me  because of business and commercial content in most of my  productions.


ANSWER: I have two answers to your question - the first is within YouTube, which may not get you what you really want - the 2nd is using a different service/provider.


1.  Within YouTube:

A newer option in YouTube is set the video to 'unlisted',  this is a nice way to make it so other folks won't see if on your Channel - but they could if they search for the tags or content which is relevant in your title or description.

This is more accessible than Private as you don't have to specify an email address and they don't have to have a  YouTube or Google account to access an Unlisted video.

To access this setting - first select the video, then click on 'Edit Info', click on 'Settings', then under Private select 'Unlisted', Click Save and you're set

2.  While the use of a Private Video designation on YouTube allows you to direct viewers directly to this video - they will still see a listing of your other videos on the YouTube account, and video suggestions following the display of your video on-screen.

To eliminate this, you would need to either embed the video onto your own website or use a different video hosting service.

As you indicated because your videos are business related, and incorporate a website address you would have to step up to VIMEO PRO (not Vimeo Plus, but PRO).

You could also use Sprout Video or iPlayed HD which are the two services I use for my longer videos that give me full and complete control over what the player looks like, no other videos are referred, etc.

I recently presented an updated webinar (end of October 2011) on the
topic - Video Sharing Websites,  where I presented fundamentals of using such a provider and also reviewed my 5 favorite services (YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Exposure Room, and IPlayerHD)

Since you are a website member, you and other members will find the 79-minute video (with accompanying 15-page PDF booklet) here:  Video Sharing Webinars - An Introductory Webinar

If you're not a website member but would like to access this resource - you can do so with my new Pay Per View Webinars here:
Casablanca Expert Pay Per View Webinars

Totally Useless Trivia: What Does DP Stand For?

Those folks using a Casablanca video editor on the Smart Edit platform may have an add-on software product called Motion Perfect. This is a favorite of many colleagues as it produces clean, smooth motion effects.

But when  you are in the Special or Image Processing menus are scrolling through the effects list you do not see MP or Motion Perfect - instead you see 'DP' in front of the Motion Perfect effects: DP Fastmotion, DP Lengthadjust, DP Slowmotion.

If you've wondered what the DP stands for, it is DynaPel.  That's the software development company who produced Motion Perfect for Macrosystem AG for use in our Smart Edit Casablanca units.

My limited understanding (or memory) is that the company no longer exists - that's why Macrosystem worked with a different company who gave us the Twixtor motion manipulation software for the latest series of Casablanca editors (running on the Bogart OS).

 

 

Question - and answer - about newer Casablanca S6000 editor

QUESTION: 
 
What are your thoughts on the Casablanca S-6000?  I have two S/4000 Pro’s.  I’ve had them for about three years.  We got them when they first came out….six months apart.  I’ve had my ups and down with them. 

I’ve sent them back to MacroSystem at least 4-5 times for each one; all with mother board, video card or some other issue that has to be fixed.  Have things improved with the S-6000; has media manager improved at all as far as file transfer. 

We have MacPro’s and the folks that use that edit and complete their projects and then sent them to our TV Station file server and then we program the show for broadcast. 

The S/4000 file transfer protocols are kind of weird...I don’t even use it.  I just want to know if the S-6000 file import and export process is anymore user friendly.

 

ANSWER:

A couple of observations --

the S4000/PRO model apparently has had the greater number of technical issues or challenges in the Bogart OS environment (I also have an S4000 PRO)

The latter units (hardware) seems to have fared better with further development -- this is anecdotal as I have no access to the tech support or repair stats from the company.

The latter units, S3000 and S6000 seems to have benefitted from the development of hardware set-up as well as all Bogart units enjoy much created compatibility and functionality with the Bogart V4.1 OS release These two new Casablanca models are very speedy with both SD and HD video. 

There is less need to work in the Media Manager with Bogart V4 and that is , I believe, by design of the company (something that a number of individuals as well as a Focus Group I was in a few years ago) shared with the company. You can export directly from the Edit Menu to an internet ready file -- though it is heavily compressed.

Also, the ability to ingest or import a variety of different video files/formats has dramatically increased with Bogart V4 OS - this is now possible easily via the Record Menu.

As far as smoother, more friendly networking with other PCs (Mac or Windows) in a multiple computer set-up. I personally would not say that it is an easier configuration.

While you have the ability to perform a variety of transfer functions via the Media Manager, it is (in my humble opinion) nowhere near as friendly as you will find in a general computer on a LAL (Local Area Network).

Hope that helps!


 

How Competitive is today's Casablanca video editor?

Earlier today on the Casablanca Expert Facebook Page I received a question from a colleague... I thought it a worthy conversation starter. I would love to hear back from some of you.  Please post your comment/reply/thoughts in the comment box below this post (click on 'Comments' link to open this option)


QUESTION: Hi Chet, How competitive are the new age Cassie's (Casablanca video editor) with their PC and Mac counterparts... in terms of price and functionality?

 

REPLY: That is a short (but good) question -- that may  deserve a longer answer.

My quick reply is that today's (Bogart V4 OS) Casablanca editors are quite  competitive with their computer application counterparts. There are lots of efficient functions afforded us in the latter versions of the Bogart OS that make them worthy of consideration over a Mac/PC counterpart.

But I also feel that the reply depends on the type of video work you do. In shorter, commercial work (TV spots, etc) there are tools in the timeline-based video editing software that many would find more suitable. And the growing need for fluidity between image and audio files of different types into and out of your editor, mingling with your video projects is a growing need for many producers.

Again, the latter versions of the Bogart OS (V4) provides Casablanca users with more compatibility in this area then ever before, but the competing systems still provide more in the is area.The rapidly changing camera/format landscape is also a prime factor for editors, especially if you work with clients/friends footage.

Again, Bogart V4 addresses many of the contemporary camera formats but I would like to see continued attention here - for example an easy to use feature in the OS that allows us to rotate footage from say an iPhone to mesh with a project (for the many novice consumers who shoot in a different horizon).
 

I have been learning other systems on both my Mac & Windows computer recently and found my Casablanca beats them hands down for many processes. So much easier and more streamlined for some simple processes.

I am eager to see further development in the Casablanca product line, and to see the company address what I believe are still some lingering issues with the current product line-up.Hope that gives you something to 'chew-on'.

I welcome other opinions/feedback from my colleagues using the current system/s -- if you're using the Casablanca video editor today, what is your thought on it's competitiveness?

Ask The Expert: Any PowerKey Shortcuts or programmable keys I can use with QuadCam??

QUESTION:  We are using QuadCam to multi-camera mix a fast ballet routine (like 3+ second cuts). My wrists are killing me from the fast camera clicks in the mix window. Are there power-key shortcuts - or the ability to assign to different cameras to key board keys so that we can hit keys, instead of moving the mouse to different preview windows?

ANSWER:  Yes - you can use PowerKey with QuadCam - the quickest and  easiest way to identify which keys do what, is to launch QuadCam and press the 'F2' key (on top of your keyboard0. this will show you which keyboard key/s are assigned to which specific function. And once you learn this, you can use this in any Casablanca menu and Casablanca software to see which if any keys are programmed with Power Key.


SECOND QUESTION: Are any of the keyboard keys assignable?

ANSWER:  No, the keys in QuadCam (or other software/menu screens) are not assignable.

Well - there is one set of keys that are assignable... there are the Marker Keys - these are for the effects lists in Transitions, Image Processing & Titling menus as well as for items in Edit and Audio Record/Edit Menus. See details in this article/tutorial: http://www.casablancaexpert.com/articles/20090131

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Ask The Expert: Learning the Audio Envelope functions

 QUESTION: I know there is no shortage of subjects to be covered in the process of teaching Casablanca stuff, but I was wondering if you would cover a lesson on ''Rubber banding''? I'm sure there are written instructions on how to master rubber banding, but it is ALWAYS much easier to grasp when there is somebody onscreen actually SHOWING the process involved. I have wanted to use rubber banding several times in my very own productions, but I have found that doing the rubber banding parts of my Projects (and failing miserably) becomes a major ''Project'' in itself.

 

ANSWER: Yes, in fact I do have a streaming video tutorial on the use of the Audio Envelope. You can view that on my website here: Using the Envelope (Rubber Banding) in your Audio Mix menu

This 9-minute clip is taken from the Casablanca Foolproof Volume 1 Tutorial DVD.  If you have that, check disk 3, film 2 for this and more instruction in the Audio Mix Menu...

and I have a 55-minute streaming video (from webinar) where I highlighted the newer audio functions in Smart Edit 9/Bogart V3 - including the new changes/improvements in the audio menus: New Audio Functions & Features in Bogart 3 and Smart Edit 9 OS  and for those colleagues who appreciate (or need) a print-able introductory tutorial on the use of the Audio Envelope - here you go: Audio Envelope Basics (Audio Rubber Banding).