First up were, as usual, Ken Stone and Andrew Balis, for the now legendary segment of the meeting we like to call, Stump the Gurus. This of course is the part of the show where folks get to ask questions about a FCP problem that have been perplexing them for a month and then hopefully get an answer or go back home and drink alcohol. It is in this community spirit and care for our fellow man that we do this each month. You gotta love this group.

Highlights of the Q and A:
Q:)When I apply a transition I always get "Insufficient Content."
A) A transition uses material from either side of the transition point. If you get this error that means you don't have enough material for the transition to draw from. Lengthen the clip(s) and it should work.
Q) I have this clip thats been rendered and I want to use it over again but every time I touch it I have to render again.
A) You can export at FCP movie, self contained, no compression and bring it back in or you can nest it into a NEW sequence.
Q) How do I get my movie on the internet
A) Export as FCP movie, no compression, uncheck self contained and drop it into Cleaner and follow wizards or learn Cleaner and tweak till the rooster crows.
Q) I got a DP533 and what can I do to get FCP to recognize the 2nd processor?
A) there is Dual Processor enabler in the Extras folders that needs to be installed but lots of folks seem to have your problem and I'm sure Apple is looking into it.
Q) Batch Capture is coming up with dropped frames warnings all the time.
A) there seems to be a lot of trouble with this and a possible solution is to add 1 second handle and turn off Dropped frame warning. It could also be a bug and hopefully a solution will be found
Q) When I bring in a Matte from Commotion or AE how do I keep the background transparent.
A) Export with as much information as the options allow especially paying attention to "millions of colors plus."
Q) I'm getting time code breaks ALL THE TIME now with 2.0. I don't have time code breaks.
A) 2.0 seems to being looking much closer at Time Code after capture. Every single frame. It's not an issue as long as there is valid Time Code. As long as it's not aborting your capture then ignore it and lets Hope that this is an issue Apple is looking at because it's annoying.
Q) I want to use the same audio filter that I spent an hour tweaking on a whole bunch of my VO clips. How can I apply the same filter to a bunch of clips?
A) "Paste Attributes" to clips individually or to multiple clips.

Next up was Cal State Fullerton's teacher of all things media, Ross " I love an audience" Jones.
Ross gave us a how to on backing up our system to a CD so if anything catastrophic happens to our HD(s) then we have an EXACT copy ready at hand to install and save us from possible migraines using a FREE Applescript from Apple. Click here for download of the AppleScript and instructions on how to do this thing.

When you have spent months configuring your Mac the way you want it configured and you have added a whole bunch of stuff and you don't want to use Apple Software Restore cause you don't want to go back to Factory settings, well then by using this simple Applescript along with Disk Copy and, yes Apples Software Restore, to make an EXACT copy of what you have on your Mac. This process does not do a disk copy but does a sector by sector, block by block copy of what's on your HD.
When should I do this? Anytime you get your Mac perfect and you want it preserved.
This is, if one can figure out how to do it, a must for anyone who needs piece of mind and a handy way to back up. It doesn't just copy which often looses your arises and can sometimes break your files, but as stated before does a PERFECT copy of what's on your HD.
Download the Applescript and Good luck.

Andrew Balis, who was absolutely convinced that this next segment of the show would put half the audience to sleep and the other half heading for the bathroom, proved that, well, he was right. But I for one was very excited as Andrew installed QuickTime and FCP 2.0 right before our very eyes and by golly, it worked like a charm. But then I have a pathetic life.
This was what you would call a "High Risk" Demo, but Andrew, being the trooper he is. dismissed that notion and gave us all a lot of good tips on how to do this upgrade the right way. Many of the ideas are covered in Phil Hodgetts article on "How to upgrade to 2.0, the Proper way" but Andrew also had his own ideas and shared them with us.
Number one was never install in front of an audience. Number 2 was stick with the RT version of QT instead of going to the 5.0.1 version just released. Number 3 was the cool idea of color coding your extensions with the label. Lots more ideas here but unfortunately I fell asleep during the extension manager section.
Anyway, all went very smooth and this is the software we are going to be using from now on at these meetings. At least until 2.0.1
Next month we are going to have Andrew install iTunes. After the meeting, of course.

Enrique Morales from the way cool Pitch Factory was the first "Show and Tell" of the night. Pitch factory is a cable show playing across the country where a writer can go on TV and "pitch" their book or script idea in five minutes or less. Then 2 executives from the literary world are brought in to "critique" the pitcher. It's a great idea taken one step further by Enrique. The writer sits in front of a blue screen and tells his or her's story with images, text, and sounds punctuating the story's ideas for dramatic or comedic effect. This ain't your fathers pitch, lemme tell ya.
Enrique showed us an example of one of the "pitches" which featured a young lady talking about her book which included many scenes featuring jungles, airports and farm animals. 2 executives then critiqued the writer and the final result is a very unique way to give a writer an opportunity to get his or hers ideas out there. Quite frankly this works and it's fun to watch.
Enrique is looking for FCP editors to help edit these pieces. If you are interested, please contact Enrique Morales or go to pitchfactory.com and have a look around.

Filmmaker Donna Kuyper and Actress Erica Clare were up next with the goofy looking but "man it will save your back on a long shoot" camera suspension system, called the Marzpak. This was our very first "fashion show demo and proved to be a crowd pleaser as Erica modeled this support system while Donna gave us a very comprehensive description of its many pluses and a few minuses. The pluses are that if your camera operator is not very experienced with steady-cam devices than this is a good choice. It does NOT take the place of a steady cam as it is not designed to be a steady device but does quite well in the steady category. It is light weight and is made of very durable tubing and is adjustable to fit almost anyone. Take a look at it over at marztech.com and don't worry if you're a tall person. That tube that rises above your head can be lowered.
Thanks Donna and Erica for what will be the first of hopefully many more fashion shows at lafcpug.

Film maker, FCP teacher, and a very tired Terry McCarthy spent his short time at NAB gathering highlights of the show with his PD150 and then edited in his spare time to bring us his version of "What was cool at NAB." Unfortunately something got screwed up in the editing process and Terry lost most of his cool stuff but luckily had a bit left on his PB Hard Drive
And there were a lot of cool things, too numerous to mention here and you have probably heard about them anyway but what the heck, Terry showed us and shared his impressions.
Generally Terry went around and stuck his camera in front of vendors faces and asked questions and got a lot of good answers.
Some things Terry showed were expensive matte boxes, rain jackets for DV cameras, Century 16:9 adapter with a wide angle adapter. Cool demos from Steve Martin over at DV Creators.net. A very nifty box that hooks up an external FW drive and allows you to hook up your camera and simultaneously record to tape and the HD. The HD will create stop start points and it will work much like a DVD deck. It's from Focus Enhancements but I believe it's not shipping yet as I can't find it on the web site. A very nice demo of the way cool software Twixtor. The awesome Cinewave system that Promax had set up in it's booth. A interview with software developer Brad Pillow about the RT Max and RT Lite from Promax. The Ignitor card from Aurora which now supports RT, and lots of just plain goofy toys that we all want but for some reason none of us can explain why we want them.
NAB is a show you must go to once in your life just to see what's it all about. Go twice and it's a perversion.

Break time, so we all went into the lobby to do Yoga and smoke cigarettes and try to digest what we had just seen.

Oscar and Emmy nominated Sound Editor Tony Milch was up next with a look at the free app that comes with 2.0 called Bias DV. Unfortunately we had a difficult time getting Bias DV to appear on the projector and most of Tony's demo consisted of talking about audio and its place in the filmmaking process. Was a good thing too, as Bias DV is a very simple app, and would require only 5-10 minutes to talk about, but talking about the world of audio is much more compelling and there are few folks in the world who know more about audio than Tony Milch.
So why four of us wrestled with the connection(s) Tony gave the crowd a bit of a primer on the art of audio editing and a lecture on human hearing range and what those audio filters are in FCP and how to manipulate them without doing previews which, of course need to be rendered. Tony also showed us, once we got the darn thing working, the DSPs (Digital Signal Processors) in Bias DV. Quite frankly Tony was more impressed with the filters in FCP than Bias DV.
Tony told us that recording audio is not in the mixing but begins in the "booming." Get a good boom operator who can hear and knows how to do a long shot, close up, and medium shot and get uniform sound with the same ambience and you are well on your way to NOT having to do any ADR in your limited budget. Nothing is more important than your production audio Get it right on the set.
Anyway, after opening a clip from FCP n Bias DV, Tony gave us a very quick tour of its features including Bias ability to do RT preview using it's limited set of audio filters.
There is so much more that we all need to explore in this world of audio and thank goodness we have Tony Milch to help us figure it out.

Filmmaker, Actor, Music Composer, David George was up next with a "moc doc" he directed along with Pons Mar, called Scott Seidman (the unfinished documentary)
Shot with 2 DV cameras and a Pro88 radio mic this beautifully filmed and expertly edited film takes us on a tour of the sets Scott Seidman created for Billy Hayes' new movie "Southside" which explores the connection between boxing and homophobic rage. I won't argue with that.
Intercut with interviews with associates of Scott , this film takes the viewer into the psyche of the main character who for reasons I won't give away, remains missing,
This is David and Pons first project with FCP since they bought the program in January and it shows great storytelling skill as well as avoiding the often "first timer" dazzling quick cuts, and over use of filters and transitions. It's also damn funny and features a killer music score.

Group 101 films member Steve Paynie was up next for the final show and tell of the night with his 3 minute short, "BLUE." Group 101, based in Los Angeles, is a group of filmmakers that formed for the express purpose of making films and making a lot of them. The idea here was for each member to make one short a month for six months on a given topic that changed from month to month. The film also had to be 3 minutes or less. BLUE was the topic, Steve's first effort, and a dandy one at that.
Filmed with a DV camera and edited on FCP, BLUE is about a young man who, feeling "blue", visits a Doctor to seek relief. The Doctor, seemingly knowing exactly what's wrong, explores the young mans anatomy through his rear end finding multiple items enlodged deep in his bowels. It was no wonder he was feeling blue.
Great concept and very well executed by Steve, BLUE is a very funny look at what might ail us all, given a through examination by an expert with a latex glove. But what might be a greater concept is the idea behind group101 which will be showing the best of the groups films on May 24 at the Knitting Factory. Be sure to catch that.
After the meeting Steve showed another film of his and it illicited such strong favorable reaction that I was persuaded to show it again next month for FCP does Rock and Roll night.. Ya gotta see this one.

World Famous raffle ended the evening and again we didn't get the names of the winners but the following is a list of the great prizes and we are very grateful to to the folks who generously donated them..

2 Creative Cow T-shirts - from Creativecow.com

2 Promax T-shirts- from Promax

Cool Mouse pad from - www.roark.net

A year subscription to the sound effects library- from Sound-effects-library.com

2 copies of Final Draft and Final Draft AV - from Final Draft

Stealth Serial Port - Geethree.com

DVCompanion 2.0 - from Intelligent Assistance

Secrets of Final Cut Pro - from DVCreators.net

Plug-ins for iMovie - from Geethree.com

A set of 4 books on the Sanford Meisner Approach to Acting - from Larry Silverberg

Final Cut Pro A-Z 6 Hour Training Tape- from Intelligent Media

six pack of Becks Dark - from Ken Stone (grand prize)

Special thanks go to the tirless Ned Soltz for taking tickets and doing everything, Paul and the folks at LA Film Shool for setting up, Dan Brockett for taping the show, Chris Coe for the stills, Doug Lindeman for hawking raffle tickets, and of course, Charles McConathy of Promax for footing the bill.

See ya next month for another attempt to get it right.

Now go out and make movies.

Michael Horton
"HeadCutter"