Our meeting accommodated just fifty people, and as there were 56 people, it was standing room only. Even our new treasurer and 'crack' sign in and raffle ticket taker, Ned Soltz, who can apply a choke hold as well as any WWF wrestler couldn't keep the FCP faithful out.

Meeting was called to order at 7:30PM. I made a few announcements about the group, mentioned that we now have a domain name, (we are now www.lafcpug.org and looking for a web host) that we are looking for a logo for our group, (thanks Adrienne Statti for your work, so far) and we might have to start charging a membership fee to handle expenses as they occur. This last item was met with a silence the likes I have not heard since I told my Wife I was starting a FCP User Group.

I then introduced a few special guests who were in the crowd and urged the members to chat it up with them after the meeting as these guys were doing pretty cutting edge stuff. Michael Alberts,is editor on the feature film "Nicholas", directed by Pete Shaner, and shot on the new Sony/Panavision 24P High Definition camera. This is the first feature shot on that cam, and Michael later stood up and debunked a few myths about High Definition movie making. (Ya still need a full crew, folks) He also graced us with a six minute trailer of the movie which sure made me want to go see it.

Bert Glatstein and Dan Forte (SP) were there. They both are editing movies on FCP for the cable network, Showtime. They even got iMacs in the works there. Wish I had time to talk to them. I know they have some good stories to tell.

Ramy Katrib from DV Filmtree was introduced and later took his Film-to-DV-Film-Logic-EDL-cut-have-no-idea-what-I'm-talking-about-thingy upstairs and showed the more technically knowledgeable of the crowd how to save lots of money and make cutting film work on a low cost NLE system such as FCP. I think. Write Ramy and then get back to me and explain. It was interesting, whatever it was.

Our first "show and tell" was announced and it couldn't have been better. Director Chuck Braverman showed and told of his multi part documentary for the Discovery Channel called "High School Boot Camp," which he shot himself, with assist from his girlfriend, and is editing (Rebecca Harrell is editor) on FCP. If anyone is having trouble with their teenage children, "High School Boot Camp" will keep em home. Great looking and heart breaking, and Chuck knows how to project.

Up next was R/kaine Blaze who shot and edited and showed us a rough cut of an episodic piece he labeled "Urban Noir." With an 'in-your-face' music score written by R/Kaine and a beautiful young woman doing her damnedest on a chair and a wall, this piece, shot on a ZR10, proved you can never have to much furniture, and if you allow yourself a moment to think, you just might find yourself in a better place. Cool stuff.

Special guests Ron Margolis and Steve Martin, better known as the DV Guys brought their show to our gathering. Ron, cranked up the DV Guys theme song and let it play till we cried "Uncle", gave a quick tour of what the DV Guys web site is all about, and gave us all an earful on the magic of QuickTime streaming and broadcasting. Steve Martin, arguably one of the premiere FCP gurus in the country, gave us a few tips and tricks and wowed the crowd with the "view by icon in browser tip." (did ya know that if you view your clips by large icon in the browser, you can re arrange them in any order, highlight them all, and upon dropping them in the Timeline they will all fall sequentially in the order of your arrangement.? Well now you do.) Thanks Steve. You are a lot of fun to watch and I hope you come on back for more tricks and tips. Some folks still don't know how to call the Yak.

We then broke for 15 minutes of refreshments and schmoozing, which was a real good idea about then, as we had all been sitting for an hour, and everyone's butt hurt, and all our eyes were permanently fixated by the constant flashing from Ken Stone's camera. Of course Ken followed us out to the lobby and kept snapping. But he IS our historian and web master dude, and we love him. Thanks Lowell Kay for the drinks.

Upon return, we got right back into what everyone seems to enjoy the most , 'Show and Tell'. Michael Alberts, who I have already told you about, showed his clip. Andrew Balis, AKA Randy B got up and declared "film is not dead" and proved it with a killer trailer from the movie, "The Curio Trunk" directed by Duane Stinnett and photographed by Andrew. A dark moody piece about something wicked in a trunk, Andrew showed us that not only is he a fine DP, but a damn good cutter too.
Kevin Monahan, AKA as Telly, flew in from San Francisco and arrived moments before the meeting started. He brought a clip that showed us talent and FCP can turn some of those cheesy wipes and filters into a thing of art. This was one of those pieces that begged a 30 minute Q and A beginning with 'how did you do that' and ending with, 'I didn't know you could do that?' After the meeting, Telly grabbed one of the 10 FCP workstations, and gave a "how to" to some of the people interested.

A lot of you know that I am a big fan of DV Companion I think it is the finest helper tool since the automatic clutch. So it was with great pleasure that I introduced Philip Hodgetts, team leader of DVC, who flew in from Australia just to attend our gathering. OK, so he had a meeting in San Diego too, but we got to see him in person and our members got an eyeful of what I have been talking about all these months. Version 1.2.5 of DVC includes all the revisions of FCP 1.2.5 as well as the most wanted and posted topic on 2-pop, AUDIO FILTERS, what in the hell do they do? With DVC 1.2.5, we now know what they do and how they work. Sing Hallelujah!! Unfortunately I could only give Philip 15 minutes to show the folks his baby. Philip wants your feedback, so write him with any questions or ideas.

Our now world famous raffle rounded out the evening. Lowell Kay donated Dr Rawstock hats and a really cool Canvas bag. Ralph Fairweather of 2-pop.com donated 2 t-shirts. Promax donated several Lisa Brenneis books. And our grand prize, donated by Intelligent Media "FCP A-Z", a 3 tape instructional video on everything Final Cut Pro. Jeannette Dubois, last months big winner of a copy of Final Cut Pro, and luckiest person alive, pulled the tickets out of the hat.

Winners included: Ned Soltz - who kept winning everything until we had to drag him out of the room.
Ralph Fairweather
Phil Nee
Ron Shaw
Dan Brockett
and Douglas Seelig, the winner of A-Z
My apologies for not including all the winners. If your name isn't on here, write me and we will post it on the web site.

After the meeting folks went their separate ways. Some went upstairs to one of the FCP edit suites to watch Rami do his thing. Others hung around to ask questions of the many gurus milling about. Others just talked shop. Me? I smiled a lot.

It was a great evening with great folks and I don't know how we will top it next month. But we'll try. Next month we move upstairs and we'll be able to accommodate ninety people. Thats a good thing, cause we have good things planned.

See ya next month and bring us your clips for Show and Tell.


Michael Horton
"HeadCutter"
lafcpug