History lives and breathes in Boston. We have the oldest public park. America’s first subway. The first public beach. The oldest original MLB Stadium. Hoards of zombies running on Dunkin Donuts.

As tourists explore here, they can basically trip and fall into an historical graveyard or memorial site. So it is fitting then, that when I log on from Boston onto Zoom to chat with Mustafa Gatollari and Brandon Alvis, explorers of paranormal activity and Lead Investigators of Haunted Discoveries, I am reminded that they tell stories about places that carry history and stories. Alvis tells me that a section of Louisville Kentucky, the home of Haunted Discoveries, has the largest collection of restored Victorian homes in the country. And they play a key role in the stories of the afterlife. 

“The main character[s] on Haunted Discoveries are the locations, right? It’s not us or the guys going in to investigate it. It’s the building. It’s the architecture. It’s the cultural history,” Alvis shared.

Diving into the stories contained within said buildings requires simultaneously showcasing the location and the storytelling elements at the same time. But that is the challenge one carries as a simultaneous cinematographer, storyteller, and paranormal activity explorer. Alvis keeps a key question in mind as the team approaches their projects: “How can we make this look like I just walked into this building and I’m looking at it through my own eyes? I want people to feel like they’re there. I want people to feel like they’re experiencing this journey with us, and I think that’s important to make sure that it looks the way it does to us while we’re on site.” 

Ghost stories. Witch craft. Black magic. Terms associated with Halloween. It is fitting, then, that the team turned to the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K to help tell these stories, driven by the possibility of compelling visuals and pleasingly (dare I say bewitching?) rendered images.

“We wanted to tell these stories in a beautiful, cinematic way. That was our biggest thing,” Gatollari shared. “We don’t have to cheat the audience out of a very nice, visually appealing mode of storytelling without compromising the run and gun nature of being able to then transition on the same shooting day with a more portable, run and gun friendly camera setup.”

The BMCC6K also provides an advantage when it comes to shifting angles and shots in post-production. “We not only have the option with the UHD delivery, where we can punch in with a 6k, but utilizing the full size of the sensor, I have so much more room to move that frame if I want to, especially with some of the recreations where we’re shooting a bit wider,” Alvis explains. “I have full options to move that frame up, move it down. And it just gives you so much more flexibility within the edit from a creative perspective, because you can even take a shot that maybe looks one way, but then once you bring it into the edit, and you just move that frame on the Y or Z axis up a little more.  It can change the entire perspective of it.”

Indeed, a philosophical shift in perspective is at the heart of Haunted Discoveries, not just to divert away from classic “black and white security camera footage” found in other versions of ghost stories on video, but to use both modern equipment (6K Cinema camera) and vintage (old lenses) to focus on the humanity of it all. To tell the true experience. And perhaps event to “heighten it,” as Gatollari explains.

“What’s the human element?” Gatollari shared. “Can we connect that to the visual that’s being told? The challenge comes in “aligning the emotion or the terror or the sadness or the joy associated with the story with the image. Can you heighten that human experience, our experience there, along with the experience of these individuals who have purportedly witnessed paranormal activity?” 

This is where vintage lenses come into play. Like our Halloween costumes, sometimes an added element, such as sound or a physical effect, speaks volumes and elevates the experience. In this case, the unique flairs, looks, and bokeh offered in vintage glass provides an additional layer of storytelling.

“There’s times you want to capture a certain mood, right? Especially when it comes to someone telling a very personal story about something they experience. And that’s when you would go into a vintage type lens, like a Helios or Canon 50,” shared Alvis.

“You got instant character,” enthused Gatollari. “They were all hand built. I feel like no lens is identical.”

Sometimes when you trek in the aforementioned graveyards here in Boston, there is an unnerving emotion of sorts, an indescribable one. Well, one that can only be described as the heebie jeebies, an annoyingly vague term for something that feels more sophisticated. The thing that Scooby Doo might say “Rikes!” too. Again, the childlike terms belie a greater complexity to the paranormal world and the stories contained within it, both on location and …somewhere else? I ask:how do you keep your cool in these scary and unpredictable scenarios?

Alvis attempts to set my nerves at bay with a grounding perspective. 

“What we’re trying to uncover and collect data of is consciousness surviving death, and that’s kind of the root of it all. That’s from our point of view with the American Paranormal Research Association, is that we are trying to find data or document the possibility of consciousness surviving death. And if that, in fact, is true, and that theory does hold hold weight, that we’re just dealing with people that are no longer of the flesh. So it’s not necessarily a terrifying or scary situation, you’re just dealing with consciousness that is carried over through hundreds of years. So that’s the easiest way to keep cool, is to go in and understand that you’re living and breathing history, and you’re dealing with people that came before you.”

Living and breathing history. I’ll keep that in mind the next time I accidentally almost trip into a Boston graveyard. Or the next time I watch an episode of Haunted Discoveries. Or the next time I decide to approach a project with a Blackmagic camera. Our job, sometimes, is to capture this living and breathing history. And when we can use technology to “heighten” the human aspect, we’ve created something different entirely.

Dax warned me about this. I didn’t think they would happen so quickly. Though, I don’t think we define the MAX blues as the same thing.

During his MAX First-Timers Networking session, the MAX-famous Dax Castro, aka MAX with Dax, noted that we would feel post-MAX blues. By inspiring, and connecting, attendees shower in the endorphin rush, catapult with adrenaline, and fly with dopamine. And the immediate drop, the return to “normal,” can be accompanied with blues.

But I had morning MAX blues.

It mixed with the yellow of a pre-dawn Miami sunrise. Humidity and sunlight illuminated a press photo walk as the first morning activity. Led by Katrin Eismann, Adobe Lightroom Product Manager for Learning & Inspiration, we investigated how to “think of the photo in Lightroom” as we captured on our devices. Admiring another photographer’s ability to visualize and conceptualize a possibility, Eismann, “she knows how the camera sees”.

My brain rushed right in, a dedicated steward and highly trained expert of all things limiting. Do I know how the camera sees? Do I need to work on my own vision?

This meant I was perfectly primed for the Inspiration Keynote. The lines from Day 2’s motivational video reverberated through the convention center and my brain. “Use what daunts you as fuel. “ “Learning to gain confidence from doubt.” “It’s not an easy path.”

There’s another set that echoes in my head from Keynote speaker Emonee LaRussa: You are getting better every year. LaRussa’s session, and I do mean that in every sense of the word considering the links to CBT,  shared that it’s time to put our thoughts on trial. Using evidence, we can counter negative thoughts to be wrong. Positive thoughts to be right.

Maybe it’s time to change that mental diet.

The South Beach Diet, popularized in the early 2000’s here in Miami, emphasized lean proteins, low carbohydrates and eliminated a variety of other items. The word diet, in and of itself, immediately brings the word “restriction” to mind, even when we’re referring to a lifestyle or a non-caloric deficit.

But now is not the time to restrict.

To be successful in the Adobe ecosystem, we need to experience as much as we can. We can’t assume we’re great at only one thing (and of course we know that’s not true) and we can’t assume we know it all. We need to be open. We “put in the time to be great” but you don’t restrict your sleep, as LaRussa reminds us. We can’t restrict the details in our text prompts in Firefly Video Model. We can’t restrict ourselves from education and knowledge and learning more. We can’t control our negative thoughts and we should not accept the limitations, restrictions that come with them.

And in the case of Frame.io, you can’t restrict to a few brands of cameras with the integration.

Announced at Adobe MAX, three new camera ecosystems will be entering the Frame.io sphere: Leica, Nikon, and Canon. For Canon, the first cameras will be the C80 and the C400, and they are slated to be Frame.io compatible with a firmware update in Winter 2024. And, in the theme of no restrictions, a new C400 with the Frame.io C2C capability (in Beta) was demonstrated for me on the floor. There is pure delight in knowing that a tool you might use daily has an added element to make your life even easier. Content creation is all about speed. And when we talk about making a shift to our daily practices and routines when it comes to healthy eating, we also talk about ease. We want to make it easy. Here, too, Frame.io aims to make it easy to cover, say, the Adobe MAX conference itself while “running and gunning” with your cameras: film with a suite Frame.io Camera to Cloud enabled devices (including your phone), and have the assets automatically enter Frame.io. That’s it. It is, both in a professional term and a reference to sugar, “sweet.”

It’s important to note that the proxies are what is transferring from the camera. For the C400, proxies have to be enabled for this to work. It’s a two step process: make sure proxies are enabled (this can be to the SD card slot), and Frame.io is set up to upload them as well.

The new version of the platform has a bit of a makeover. How Miami. “It’s sleek,” I say to JJ Powell, Sr. Product Marketing Manager of Frame.io, giving us the starting word. “We’ve taken years and years and years of feedback to say, hey, what’s a way to maintain the beauty in the original look and feel while bringing it into a sleep new interface that’s customizable too, because that’s the drive,” Powell expanded.

Among the new features is the ability to send your captures straight to Lightroom through the Frame.io ecosystem. It simply requires clicking on “Connect to Lightroom” and logging in with your Adobe ID. It’s not meant to be a long process, where “it takes 100 steps and you’re selecting this and selecting this. It really is just a login experience,” Powell shared about Lightroom. Another new addition to the Frame.io experience is anchored Comments, where you can add your feedback to a specific point in the file, video, or other asset.

We no longer need to restrict our Firefly prompts either: all of the example materials for Firefly Video model showcase lengthy description, demonstrably longer than the Firefly Model 4 or 3 promotional materials. This is a storyteller’s dream. If I can input a section of my script to produce an example shot? That’s the goal.

“It turns out that most downloads from Firefly come from prompts that are between 20 and 30 words long. So that seems to be the sweet spot,” shared Zeke Koch, VP Product Management or Adobe Firefly. “Most people come in typing very short prompts, but then as you want to get something closer and closer to what’s in your mind, you keep adding words until you get close to what you want. The more words you use, the more interesting the images get. And so generally, it’s like a good habit to use lots of words to get you know better images in more detail.

The Firefly Video Model is “designed to be commercially safe,” which means that Adobe has “a legal right to train on every image in our data set” and “we’ve scanned all of those images using a combination of technology and humans,” Koch shared. “We’ve looked at every single one and made sure that they don’t contain other people’s intellectual property.” The Firefly Video Model, like the Firefly AI model as a whole, is trained on the Adobe Stock library assets, public domain, and images that creators have allowed them to train on. This means the video model has ample examples to glean knowledge from I noted that I was able to extend a macro video and a timelapse video (albeit the people turned into blurs, but that’s not surprising) which was a fun experiment in Generative Extend. “If there are examples of [it] in the stock library, which is like, 100 million videos, then odds are it’ll be able to do that,” Powell noted. There is in fact a resolution and time restriction with Firefly video Model: you can only create 720p 5-second outputs.

Like the video model, we are always learning in this environment. And the learning is not restricted to humans: I unexpectedly even managed to get the Meta Ray Ban sunglasses to learn how to do a task. In a moment that is probably the plot to a sci-fi movie, I attempted to get the sunglasses to read a piece of paper. After telling me what the paper was, but not reading it directly, the glasses told me that it might have to be asked for a direct reading, and it learned how to do this. After I said “Meta Stop,” and told the Meta employee what the I learned, the glasses said, “Yes that’s right- sounds like you learned to ask for a direct reading in AI.”  So we’re both learning, even when it’s supposed to be off. I also inquired how much Meta cost. The response? “I’m a free service with an extra cost for glasses.”

Sneaks is set up as a cinematic experience, complete with movie theater candy and popcorn. Both are definitely not on the South Beach. The candy theme extended into Project Remix a Lot (the best name of the night, hands down). Avneet Kaur, a Computer Scientist at Adobe, showcased new technology able to shift a creative projects layouts and resize according to needs. On stage, the new project, which modified and reshaped a Halloween poster, was accompanied by a sprinkling of joke around tricks and treats.

The world is full of tricks and treats. Diets can be a trick. Restricting our creative intake can be a trick. So treat yourself to a full creative diet. A full knowledge diet.

Adobe MAX reminds me not to restrict myself through self beliefs. To not be afraid. To put it as eloquently as Inspiration Keynote speaker Jason Naylor did, perhaps we can “love life colorfully.” Though maybe without those morning blues.

So I leave MAX with Mayor’s lyrics, from the same opening song echoing:

“I could go through my day pretending I don’t feel what’s happening.I try to hide my eyes. I try to hide my mind. I try to hide my pride, But I can’t hide. You know I tried.”

Let’s not hide.

That song, from 10 years ago, has likely been utilized in the echoing opening videos at Adobe MAX. The tone is inspiring, deep, expansive, and, unlike space, loud. We are worlds away from Los Angeles. We might even be worlds away from our day to day work. We’re on the beach (or on a boat). We’re dipping our toes in the waves. We’re enveloped in humidity blankets. Our glasses and our lenses are fogging up.

In this space, pun intended, we’re allowed to seek new connections, bonds, and constellations. We consider how we can proactively, uniquely, and quickly establish links and workflows between products, opportunities, and colleagues, in the efforts of creativity and community.

In this ecosystem, Adobe actually pushes us not just to the cloud but into space itself: dancing astronauts graced the MAX morning key note, isolated from their background courtesy of mask tracking, a yet-to-be-announced-but-lets-show-you-here-on-the-stage-anyway feature in Premiere. Just 12 hours before, I begged to the editing gods to let there be a mask tracking tool directly in Premiere. And so, as the radio pleaded in the Uber on the way to the Miami Convention Center that very morning, “Don’t Stop Believing.”

As we look to the future, space or otherwise, AI and technology provides an opportunity to focus on problem solving. It is an intention that has been ingrained into Adobe’ approach and the Generative AI products in Premiere.

“When it comes to, what’s the first generative AI experience really going to be in Premiere Pro, we were heartfelt about making sure that these solutions that are natively built into the app authentically solve daily problems that video editors face,” Jason Druss, Senior Product Marketing Manager of Video at Adobe shared while walking through Premiere’s new features. Adobe’s new Generative Extend developed out of conversations with editors and what they need most. “You’ll be hard pressed to find any video editor who’s been working for more than six months, who hasn’t run into the problem where you need to apply a transition and you don’t have enough footage to cover all the time, or you replace take four with take five, or an actor messed up an eye-line, or the camera shook, or just the clip’s not long enough, and now you have that little annoying gap. You want to stay in the zone. You want to stay in your creative flow. And these problems, just are a brick wall that force you to stop having fun. How can we use generative AI to eliminate as much of that pain as possible?” (This pain we’re referring to is not, it should be noted, to be confused with T-Pain who is performing at Adobe Bash). 

While Druss walked me through the demo, also featuring astronauts in space, he reminded me that Generative Extend could also solve the audio headache  every filmmaker has had… not enough room tone! Ever needed a few more frames of room tone? We all have. Even if you said no. 

As the astronauts explored on screen in the demo material, I couldn’t help but wonder what space (pun intended), or vast gray area we walk into when it comes to ethics and actors. Do we need to say anything if we’re using AI to generate more content, or in Firefly’s case, video content from the talent we work with? Will something I apply generation extend to be used as training material. Druss, and Adobe, are very clear: “We are not training the model on customer data. If you use Generative Extend, we’re not training off of that clip under any circumstances,” Druss shared. “Not only are these tools designed to solve problems authentically, but also are commercially safe to use and done with the absolute highest ethics, safety, trust and responsibility in mind.”

These novel AI features are partly what propelled first-timers to land on the moon of MAX for the first time. “I wanted to see what’s the latest and the greatest. And I was really hoping that Adobe would show off the video AI capability. And they did.” shared Brian Denny, Assistant Professor of Digital Media Design at Florida Gulf Coast University. “I really like what Adobe is doing with AI. Seems to me like Adobe is making it safe for a classroom setting,” Denny shared after attending an Adobe MAX Networking Event for first time MAX-goers. His table mate, Frank Robertson of South Dakota State University, was also drawn by the new AI capabilities. “AI, it’s one of the focuses that I’m looking at while I’m here, taking as much sessions as I can, because as a photojournalist and someone who teaches visual storytelling to my students, that generative AI content is really interesting.” Robertson had attended MAX online before, but couldn’t pass up the opportunity to come in person this time to Miami. “The online offering is fantastic. But just I wish I could be there. I wish I could experience this. And so it’s great to be here, to be here to experience these spaces, these places and these things.”

These spaces and places can provide the needed inspiration for creatives, and that goes beyond our day to day work in creative products as Izzaldeen Mohammad shared. “What inspires me to see, other people, how they think, how they work, see different mentalities, different cultures, so inspiring to me, like not just the tools I see here. So like, communicating, networking, yes, it’s all amazing.”

First-time attendee Nicole Bodkin expressed her delight to be at MAX. “I’ve used Adobe products since I was in middle school and so to be able to come now and, my company sent me over, was just an awesome opportunity. And I was so excited when I they told me I could go. So now I’m overwhelmed by all the options, and just excited to learn and meet people.” And off she quickly went, a comet creating trails and ties along the way. 

For a galactic enterprise of sorts, pushing the boundaries of technology, on Day 1, Adobe’s focus seemed remarkably human, physical, and concrete. Hype videos showcased photographers developing film, graffiti art, and other tethers to physical products and outcomes. We’ve come out of space, and landed on the ground, as a human making footprints with our new communities. As Chair and Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen noted in the first keynote that all the artwork shared was “human created art at its core and remixed with AI.” 

At MAX, we’ve come out of the clouds, or cloud depending on whether we’re referring to Frame.io, and re-established our relationships and significant connections and constellations. An initial hello yields abundance. A warmth transcends MAX; it is gentler than the humidity and more like the soft beach water. Big hugs. High fives. Comfort. Belonging. 

It’s the kind of community that can make internal jokes, like calling a project “Final_Final_Final” in the keynote. It’s the kind of community that invites you to it, such as Sandisk who is looking to partner with creatives to share their new kit. Offering a custom SD card case that looks like a 256GB card, created by Michael Hoang, Senior Manager of Content Strategy at Western Digital.

You are here among your people. And they are the kind of people who might be frantically searching for a yellow ticket in a LUMIX glass cage to win a stuffie, or mesmerized by someone on stilts, or part of a grand audience producing a barrage of cell phones and throwing them in the air to capture a moment and share it with their own communities. 

They are also the community that is learning continuously, either through classes or through the keynote. When Ashley Still, SVP and GM, Creative Product Group, Adobe, shared that they were going partner with the biggest creative community, I wondered, “does that mean us?” Not exactly: Adobe is now a global partner with Creative Mornings (was the keynote not already a creative morning, really? Seemed fitting). Upon the announcement, a guest close to me wondered, “Who?” Once informed, it was clear this is important to Adobe.

Realizations are a constant of MAX.There is a moment at MAX when you realize, suddenly and clearly, that you can connect creatively across programs to expand more. Create video in Firefly, extend and solve problems in Premiere, share in Frame.io. Use camera to cloud to immediately get assets. However you connect it, like a savvy form of Dots, you’re helping to expand your creative space.

It’s worth noting here that vertical video editing on mobile was notably absent across the board at Adobe. I watched video editors AirDrop assets from phones to computer, and edit content in Premiere on laptops. I realized I hadn’t heard anything about an updated vertically-oriented phone-ready video editing software from Adobe. Premiere Rush still appears to exist. But no additional products seemed to take it’s place.

Just last week, Coldplay released a new album called Moon Music, their 10th studio album. The opening verses float in on the backs of piano notes: Once upon a time, I tried to get myself together, be more like the sky, and welcome every kind of weather. It is easier, of course, to do this when you are part of a community.

And now, at MAX, you are in the Adobe community. You are making the constellations. And you are connecting the dots between yourself and each other and the creative realms. It is written in the stars. As astronauts dance, courtesy of tracked masks, you know that you hold a cosmic capability in your future.

Thanks for your own moon music, MAX. 

The New York City soundtrack is one of noise. The sounds envelope our “Brooklyn Dodging,” an art we carry into Manhattan; dipping, diving, dodging and weaving around selfies, cabs, electric scooters, jackhammers, slow walkers, rats, and more. Information and sound is thrown at you constantly. The bright lights of Broadway promise a dazzling performance. A small yellow sign informs you that The Equalizer is filming next door. Sirens. Chatter. Yells. Subway screeches. Train rumbles. Street meat sizzles. And yet it’s an energy that rises into the air, like smoke from the carts, through to the clouds. 

Which is why the arrival at the Westin Times Square for NAB’s Post Production World seems so alarming.  So opposite. 

It’s…quiet. 

There is no fanfare. There are no signs. In fact, in order to point me in the right direction, a Westin employee has to double check their list of meetings to point me in the right direction: head to the 9th floor. No signage there either. Just three conference rooms holding lectures for National Association of Broadcaster’s Post Production World in New York.

An area like the 9th Floor, somewhere between the ground and the clouds, is where NAB Show operates, with the experience, devices, and technology to bring you to one, or the other, and communicate in between. And in a city like New York known for its rooftop bars, and subterranean mesh of subways, it too operates and exceeds the space between earth and sky.

Learning is Loud?

In teaching, I’ve been told that learning is loud. The sounds, conversations, energy, and activity that accompany a lesson may actually mean that students are learning. But here, at the Westin Times Square one mile away from Javitz Center, learning is a murmur. Here, the Post-Production lectures delivered to 40 people in a cold but comfortable conference room did not always leave time for questions. Conversations felt muted. But the strength of a program like PPW is in the personal reflection and goals it prompts you to make. Personal conversations, if you will. And the desire to research, shift, and adjust your own personal work. 

(Touch)down on the Ground?

“We came from the other guys and they gave us this shirt. What do you got?” questioned an NAB Show attendee at a booth. The focus on snagging complimentary swag is hard to avoid. By 10:15am, B&H bags, stickers, FUJIFILM tote bags, and even mini footballs by Broadfield Distributing Company found their way into the hands of swag seekers. But for most visitors, what they were seeking were conversations. And NAB Show New York is far less about the toys and presentations and far more about the meetings and the connection points. While theater chairs felt half full, booth chairs were constantly occupied by interested parties. AVID’s space demonstrated this perfectly: while the company was there to converse about video editing platforms, there was only one monitor for demos, but several couches for caffeinated chats.

In Vegas, part of the floor feels like an obstacle course. You have to be careful and dodge tripods, microphones, and interviews. Yes, the artful Dodger is back. But there was one feature at NAB Show New York that made everyone stop: the FUJINON Duvo HZK25-1000mmF2.8-F5.0 PL Mount Cinema Box Lens. The $250,000, 62-pound behemoth mounted on an ARRI Alexa 35 caused every single person who walked by to pause. Foot traffic transitioned to questions and curiosity. It’s HOW bright? And HOW long is it? And Bob Poole has one of these for his work right now? And people are interested in using it cinematically? And it’s how much?

The curiosity and questions continued. “Want to play with some lenses?” a Tamron representative eagerly asked a group of young creatives. While the students were eager, a personal camera was required, and with just one point and shoot between them, their interactions would be limited to observation only. 

A younger generation of creators is a group that Blackmagic Design hopes to entice with their lower entry point and consistent ecosystem.

“For people who are not using our cameras, the entire generation are recording just on their phones…”

As if on cue, a mobile videographer distracted us with a sort of ballet; creative spinning and creating transitions with a phone attached to a DJI Osmo. They were even using the Blackmagic Camera App.  

We laughed at the serendipity of the scene. And we continued alongside the dance.

“We’re always talking about creating less of a barrier to entry for anybody who’s getting involved in the industry or trying to grow within the industry,” Nick Martins of Blackmagic Design shared. “What I like about the company is that the same user interface that’s on the phone, on our most basic camera, is also the same user interface on our 12k or the most expensive camera. The fundamentals don’t change.”

The same can be said about the progression through DaVinci Resolve. “If you’re an editor and you’re working in DaVinci Resolve, you don’t have to learn an entirely new program to learn how to color grade,” Martins continued. “You don’t need to have another program to learn audio editing. It’s all built in so you’re more you’re more inclined to to expand your skills, because it’s right there. And on your first production, you might just edit, get it out the door. Second production, you’re quicker and more efficient than your editing. Now you have a little more time to start messing with your color grading and get better in that in that regard your next production, you can start moving into Fusion. You can start adding that to your bag of tricks.”

Up in the Cloud?

For Blackmagic, their own “bag of tricks” has expanded to Blackmagic Cloud Live Sync. The system allows an H.264 HD proxy to upload directly to a DaVinci Project straight from the camera as it is recording. This means editors at DaVinci workstations connected to that cloud project can receive files as soon as possible. Cloud Live Sync is also available on the Blackmagic Camera App, which itself is no longer limited to iPhones. Behold: the Blackmagic App is now available for Android, a long-held dream by users.

A long-held dream of mine was for Canon to address the issues of the C70. As a frequent C70 user, I came to the Canon booth with a few specific (very VERY specific) nitpicks that I brought right to Paul Hawxhurst, Senior Technical Specialist and Sales Engineering at Canon USA. The new Canon EOS C80 manages to address most of these, including a new multi-shoe and an additional mounting point (demonstrated by having the camera comfortably and not awkwardly on a DJI RS 3 Pro). Similar in size and dimensions to the C70, and utilizing the same sensor as the C400, the C80 promises to deliver steps forward in autofocus (if AF has ever stopped tracking on your C70, you’ll know what I’m referring to) as well as video and frame rate flavors, with 4K Full Frame 120fps when you’re not shooting in raw. They even bolstered the connection points of the LCD screen, a great to thing to hear if yours, like mine, became loose (a heads up here: Hawxhurst did mention that they will fix the C70 LCD screen if has started to become loose. Hooray!). The LCD screen also now has touch screen menu capability so you no longer have to use the buttons. This is NOT an operating system update, so unfortunately it is restricted to the C80 only. Speaking of the C400, it was not on display at the Canon booth but it could be found at the B&H booth capturing a resident of Pandora (staged next to the Sony Burano shown below). The upcoming 28-70mm RF f2.8 lens was not on display.

All Together Now

When we daydream, it is said that our head is in the clouds. And while the traditional notion is that we are not grounded in that exact  moment, that we’re floating in a dream, in the NAB realm, we are actually looking on the ground and in the sky at the exact same time. And FUJIFILM’s photo walks, returning from last year’s show, is illustrative of this change. This year, the two hour workshops offered topics such as Camera to Cloud and Street Photography. “We’re going to give you a mission,” shared Victor Ha, Vice President of Electronic Imaging Division and Optical Devices Division at FUJIFILM North America Corporation. “We created a series of photo walks that would allow us to help organize some of the interest, and then also for us, kind of see where the interest laid.”  The smaller group size allowed for hands-on experimentation and experiences. “I think that the broadcast community tends to be a high touch community, meaning they’re not going to want to sit there in a group of 40 making the same image,” Ha shared. “If they’re going to invest their time or spend their time, they’re going to want to actually go in and learn something be more deliberate. So we made the conscious effort of putting only five people into each photo walk and then pairing it with a tech, pairing it with a PA as well as instructor.“

I noted that the photo walks, where one was experiencing the New York City streets while using cloud based functionality of the FUJIFILM cameras was an interesting combination, being as its both street level and yet high “above” at the same exact time. It was how I was describing NAB New York. And I asked Ha to respond.

“I grew up in a world where the core function of broadcast was news. And I think that that, more than anything, is still one of the pillars of why cloud delivery is so important… that authenticity, that delivery in journalism is absolutely important. And so I think you need to go on the ground to do that. You need devices that are able to provide that ability, to push the ability for us to get content out…I think it’s only going to expand upwards and downwards, but I think it’s going to expand horizontally across a lot of different devices and platforms.”

Photographers and creators had the opportunity to capture New York through FUJIFILM equipment, and I find myself wondering now: With Blackmagic’s new URSA Cine Immersive, which allows one to capture material for the Apple Vision Pro, what would New York City look like or sound like? Could we try it next year? Should we try it next year? Are we able to truly recreate the noise and the feeling? Or would we find ourselves somewhere in the middle, like the 9th floor, somewhere in between where we are, and where we’d like to go, with feet in the clouds and our head in the clouds (or vice versa) but always having the capability to be the intermediate, with everything you need to communicate and grow horizontally in between.

While I don’t think I can take any credit for that shift, I can confirm that Adobe does listen to what creators and communities are interested in. From curiosity about how editors are using Premiere in order to incorporate new AI tools (check out Scott Simmons’ rundown!) and considering potential headaches and roadblocks, Adobe has done its best to listen to creators and the community. And in the case of Adobe Firefly’s new Video Model, Adobe shares that the  Firefly Video Model is the first AI video model design with commercial use in mind, a need that Adobe says came directly from AI users. Adobe Firefly Video Model is rolling out today, October 14th, through a public beta. We’ll give it a whirl and share from MAX! 

Provided by Adobe, below is a Firefly Video Model Example with the prompt “the cat is looking towards the camera and slowly walking away.

While we in Miami take in this morning’s keynote in person, Adobe’s MAX news is already out and about in the realm. Among the updates this morning include:

Firefly Video Model: Ever wish you could create cinematic video with just a prompt, including decisions on camera placement? Ever wish you could create B-Roll just from an image? New Text to Video and Image to Video are coming through the public beta for the Firefly Video Model.

Generative Extend in Premiere Pro Beta: Ever wish you had a few more frames? Allows you the ability to extend your video clips and audio clips with the power of AI (aka Firefly Video Model).

GenStudio in Adobe Express: Ever wish you could ensure that everything you create in Adobe Express was brand compliant? Well now you can with a one-click model called “Apply Brand”. 

GenStudio for Performance Marketing: Ever wanted a one-stop shop to ensure your generative text and marketing assets were all on brand (automatically), created for multiple audiences, and had insights at the same time? Adobe GenStudio now offers this. 

Automatic Image Distraction Removal: Ever wish you could remove distracting objects with one click? Photoshop’s remove tool has been updated.

Generative Workspace in Photoshop: Ever wish you could save your image prompts and results in Photoshop? Your generative history is now available through Generative Workspace in Photoshop.

Canon, Leica, and Nikon coming to Frame.io: Are you rocking a Nikon Camera? Are you a Leica lover? Are you a Canon user hoping to use Frame.io’s Camera to Cloud ecosystem? All are slated to come onboard. (As of 7:00am EST, I don’t have additional details such as an anticipated timeline to share here; we’ll share when we have it!).

Adobe Express File Types: Ever wanted to use Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Lightroom files in Express? Announced today, Express can now handle InDesign and Lightroom files. 

AI Literacy Course: Ever wish you could ensure the next generation of creators uses AI ethically and has the skills to be a part of the creative community? As part of Adobe’s community-based initiative, Adobe has the goal of helping 30 million young creatives by 2030 through curriculum, grants, scholarships, and donations. More on this project will come next week. 

Smart masking in Premiere: Ever wanted to mask and track a moving subject in Premiere? Previewed today during the keynote session, with more coming at Sneaks, this is “coming to Premiere Pro” in the future… and the live demonstration tracked a couple dancing through Miami with impressive accuracy. The future is almost here y’all!

Over 100 more innovations are expected to be unveiled today. PVC is on the ground here in Miami, so expect more news from the sandy beaches of Miami Beach to hit your inboxes throughout MAX!

No, I’m not referring to the Democratic National Convention, but rather the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics Games. And this year one of Sony’s newest cameras also made its Olympic debut: the Sony Alpha 9MIII, with the world’s first global shutter. 

For Nick Didlick, one of the 1600 lucky and talented photographers at the Paris Games, capturing a variety of sports in a variety of different ways, requires an impressive amount research and care. Also impressive: Didlick has been capturing Olympic moments for forty years!

We caught up with Didlick by email to inquire how Sony’s equipment and camera elements, including Pre-Capture on the a9 iii and the PDT-FP1 transmitter, aided in telling the story of the Paris games. 

There are several photographers covering the same event, with similar gear. How can one differentiate their storytelling at the Olympics? Are there ways to shift your creativity/framing etc that help create an image that is uniquely your own? 

Three things make a difference: Planning, technology, and experience, which are all part of trying to make something unique. At an Olympics, you must rely on all three, but the most important thing is having an idea in mind and a plan. I had a shoot plan 30 days out from coming here, which included the sports, the personalities, and the venue I wanted to cover, so research is a big part of the overall plan. Those plans change, including when you shoot an event at the venue. And always, always watch for things behind the actual event for a truly unique image.

I didn’t realize that Sony has a loan center set up at the Olympics. Were there any lenses that surprised you or shifted your storytelling of the games?

I came with all the gear I needed for my plan (see https://alphasports.pro/paris-2024-summer-olympics/), but I did rely on the cleaning a repair service for some gear. But for many of the photographers, the loan service is essential and part of being at a major sporting event worldwide.

Sounds like pre-capture is an incredible feature when it comes to the Olympics. Were there any other sports that Pre-Capture was integral for? How has this changed your approach when it comes to taking photos?

Pre-Capture is an amazing tool, as is 120fps, but these are tools that can help you make your storytelling unique. But they are probably the least understood menu items. Here at the Olympics, I use them to get that decisive moment that can show viewers a moment they or even the photographer didn’t see. Boxing is a prime example, but Gymnastics Uneven Bars, 100m Dash finish line, and any place with a decisive moment like a finish line Pre Capture and 120fps are great tools.

Sounds like the Sony PDT-FP1 transmitter has been super key in your workflow! Can you share an example where transmitting quickly and efficiently using this tool ensured that you hit your deadline?

The Sony PDT-FP1 is the star of the show here when it comes to photo technology. Everyone who has used it loves it. It makes my camera a truly network-attached device, as well as my laptop and other devices. On a venue, I can send selected (or all) pictures to editors, but even better, while riding a bus to the next venue, I can connect my laptop and send my outtakes as well. While the device is an investment, it saves so much time over a day it’s actually a great investment.

A breakdown of the Sony gear, examples images, tilt shift examples, and strategies can be found at Nick Didlick’s website.

Jeff Cable extensively logs his adventures with vivacious excitement that jumps off the page in his own blog. So we felt lucky to catch up with Jeff by email to inquire about using the Canon R1 and R5, Canon lenses, and other technical elements that enhanced capturing the stories of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

I noticed some really interesting shots in your feed, from the Olympic rings on the tennis net with Gauff (above), and multiple exposures. How can one differentiate their captures at the Olympic games? Does the new technology make this kind of differentiation or specialization easier?

There are more than 2000 photographers here at the Olympics and most of them are very accomplished. This makes for tough competition. Photographing the Olympics is no regular event. The pressure is high and the demand for high quality images is high. For me, I do everything I can to shoot creatively. And yes, the technology of the new Canon EOS R1 and EOS R5 Mark II definitely helps. I have used the eye control on both cameras and it works perfectly. I have also used the pre-capture of the cameras to give me a higher percentage of capturing the peak of action that I might miss otherwise. And having the ability to shoot at 40fps is really nice for those times when the action is super fast. Oh, and the newer lenses are amazing too. Super fast focusing and lighter weight, which makes it easier to hand hold them in certain situations. Love that.

I love that the camera have multi-exposure mode which lets me push myself (and the camera) to get somewhat truly different. Even with all the photographers here at the Olympics, very few use this mode. I love it! And I also love to motion pan at the Games, again to try and create an image that is different than the other 200 people shooting next to me. Some of this relies on the technology and some Is just knowing what to do and how to do it. But pushing myself is not a competition with the other photographers, it is a competition within myself to constantly shoot better and to create something that fills my creative cup.

How does the gear you choose enhance storytelling at the Games?

The gear I choose makes a huge difference in the final images. On the camera side, I have to choose whether I want the higher resolution of the Canon EOS R5 Mark II or the pure speed of the Canon EOS R1. On the lens side, I find that the lens choice gives me the ultimate amount of creativity. Even though I am often tempted to shoot really tight on the athletes, there are plenty of times when the wide shot is more spectacular.

What recommendations do you have to quickly build rapport with athletes and other photographers at a high pressure event?

The key to surviving the pressure of the Olympics is to keep a smile on my face and treat everyone with respect. We are all dealing with crazy fast deadlines and the pressure of shooting more creatively than the other guy. But with all that said, we are all creative people, doing what we love, in an environment that is packed with superior athletes. Whether I am shooting here at the Games or an event back home, I find that establishing a relationship with the client is EVERYTHING. I like to keep it light and fun. Most photographers here at the Olympics don’t get to mingle with the athletes, we just photograph them from afar and move to the next event. For me, because I shoot for the team, I am lucky to get to know the athletes and their families, and this makes it all the more special for me when I am capturing images for the team. I just had dinner with many of the past Team USA athletes, and the families of the current athletes tonight. They know me and I know them. I love that personal connection.

Obviously you have great shots to share though I’m curious…what happens if you miss a shot? Does that still happen at this level? Do you crop it in an interesting way or continue on like a goalie where you can’t think about the last shot? 

If I told you that every shot I took was perfect, I would be lying. I miss shots all the time, and sure it is frustrating. But we can’t be expected to shoot in perfect focus and at the peak of action every time. And there are things that happen that we can not predict. Part of great photography is luck. If I miss a good shot, I need to move on and try to be better for the next great moment. And sure, cropping is a great tool. Most images that I post to the team have been cropped either a little or a lot.

For Jeff’s dispatches from Paris, photos of “Canon heaven,” numbers of the Games (including those included in the headline here), and photos from a variety of sports, head on over to Jeff Cable’s Blog at https://blog.jeffcable.com/.

Hope you’re finally getting some rest, Jeff!

In 2024 though, NAB Show had a unique set of numbers courtesy of construction and new walkways. Suddenly, we seemed more aware of our bodies. Heavy bags became even heavier. Long walks become longer. That cushy carpet became even cushier (here’s looking at you Blackmagic), a relief for your toes and foot pads after the longer-than-normal walk. In ways big and small, the 2024 NAB Show impressed upon us an awareness of the body in ways that stayed with us long after the floor (and not just because we now had LiveU stress balls and LucidLink chapstick). 

With new tools at our disposal and a focus on the body, the hope is that we are able to dance, not unlike the students in Fame at the New York High School of Performing Arts (“Tuna fish. Our favorite dish!”). It feels like the swingle, the “handheld dance” filmed with one camera as the operator sways the shot between the characters. At the Women’s Cinematographer’s Workshop presented by the Society of Camera Operators at NAB Show, instructors noted that the key to be successful at the swingle, and indeed any camera endeavor was camera balance. And of course, like any good song or dance or NAB Show, don’t forget to breathe.

Dancing is responding. It is air. We are floating storytellers. We are authors of a “silent poetry,” like Simonides of Ceos wrote. But those of us who have danced long, without supports, are starting to feel the weight, the figurative impact of those toe shoes and repetitive landings. We’re starting to fray. Those of us that have been in the field long enough to see cameras shrink are also starting to become aware of what the film industry has done to our bodies. And that bodily impact that happens alongside the beauty of filmmaking is what led Alessandro Di Leo to develop Ready Rig with his father, noted cinematographer and camera operator, Mario Di Leo. 

“Filmmaking is an endeavor that is very difficult on the mind and the body…It is an accomplishment to work with so many people for so many long hours in coordination to produce a beautiful piece of art,” Di Leo shared at NAB Show in between demonstrations of the Ready Rig system. The hope is that Ready Rig, a wearable stabilization system with two bendable support arms, will alleviate the literal and figurative pressure of “carrying the production on [their] shoulders” and develop a free creative mindset away from any limitations. As Di Leo emphatically shared, “What we’re trying to do from a philosophical perspective is literally dissolve away all the different elements that keep people from being able to just create instantly and be in that instant flow state when they have a camera on them.” And in this case, that camera is balanced, weightless, and ready. Even for a robot battle. 

Robots are, oddly, a consistent presence on the NAB Floor these days crawling solo along the show floor, or as a humanoid AI robot named Ameca interacting on the NAB Main Stage. But it’s not the robots that stay with me from my days on the floor. The thing that is seared into my head from 2015? The SteadyGum skeleton with a shoulder camera demonstrating camera related injuries. Slumped over like they had a long night on the strip, it serves as a warning sign for those of us who have yet to address our bodies

“Video is such a great career, as a videographer, camera operator, but..if you’re just like, oh, I’ll deal with it later, I’ll deal with getting the right support gear, then you could set yourself up for failure,” Andrew James Mitchell of SteadyGum shared from the NAB Floor. “I see getting something like the SteadyGum is an investment of yourself and future-proofing yourself, so that way you’re not going to get injured later on.”

So what’s a creator to do to try not to be a hungover skeleton, slumped over a camera, or a computer, or both? Well, what happens in Vegas usually stays in Vegas, unless you’re willing to learn. And so, at 7:30am, just a few hours after the after parties and 90 minutes before the show floor opened, a group of eager semi-caffeinated creatives met in a back room in the middle of nowhere West Hall for tea, biscuits, and wellness. Equipped with take-home bands, participants in the Rise Women in Broadcasting Networking & Wellness Event  learned the ins and ours of stretches to alleviate and counter all the time we sit at our desks and carry our gear. To start by stretching both ourselves and our creative intentions is a proper start to the show. 

“This focus on body awareness and injury prevention at NAB is crucial as it aligns with the Rise / Wellness and Care Media mission and the globally focused corporate wellness trends of supporting attendees’ well-being and longevity,” Claudia Nettig, co-Founder of Wellness and Care shared by email after NAB Show. “Through initiatives like simple yet effective ‘Movement Classes’ aimed at finding our core well-being, we strive to help professionals from all walks of life, making a difference one person at a time.”

Some of us adapt to filmmaking and our bodies respond in different ways. We change our tennis shoes (well, first we learn to wear comfortable shoes on the show floor). We roll instead of carry. We stabilize. We manage. We plan.

Some of us are treated to DJI’s eye mask and neck pillow to alleviate our travel home. It fits that a company creating stabilizers would also take an interest in our care. Making a difference one person at a time.

We come to NAB to improve ourselves, our skills, and our technology. But perhaps, it’s time to also improve our body, too. For it’s possible, like the singers of The High School for the Performing Arts in the aforementioned Fame that we too could “sing the body electric” and “celebrate the me yet to come.”

Mapping mirages happen within the Las Vegas Convention Halls too. When crafting an NAB schedule, sometimes you forget where your classes are. Or more specifically, how far away they are. 

“Where is C8201?” I ask Chris. 

“That doesn’t sound familiar to me,” Chris responds.

I roll my eyes. I realize I need to make a decision about how to use my time. So I ask Chris:  “What’s the most important session at NAB?”

“Check out what we’ve got planned for 2024 Show!”

“What is the most important release?” I pester.

“That’s not on my radar,” Chris responds. 

My partner Chris is not terribly helpful. He is, after all, an AI chatbot created specifically for NAB Show. His older and more sophisticated humanoid sibling (cousin?), Ameca, graced the NAB Show main stage. And while robots and chat bots might be expected at one of the most technologically focused trade shows of the year, the human conversations and humanity are truly the highlight.

At a trade show where the production and actions make our creative lives more robust, NAB highlights conversations and community that drive products and change. Conversations lead to action and conversations lead to product. And where else can you have a conversation with almost every creative player in the industry, and also gamble, but NAB?

And we do mean every creative player. For some companies, like Blackmagic Design, NAB is the trade show where the most staff attend. 

“I think what happens, and the reason why we bring so many of our engineers to the show, is to watch reactions to what we announce, get ideas for future things, and a lot of times, and this has happened more than once, there’ll be a product that was not announced but is coming later, and people will give feedback about, ‘you know what you should do?’,and you start going, hmm, well, we are in the right direction,” shared Director of Sales Operations, North America at Blackmagic Design, Bob Caniglia.

Blackmagic usually decks the halls with decks, literally. Photos of their gear have graced the pillars, the ceiling, and the windows of the Las Vegas Convention Halls and the neighboring Marriott for years. This time, the new URSA Cine 12K graced the hotel awning at least 24 hours before the announcement of the camera. Users still flocked to the booth, eager for the first glance of the new camera or see the Pyxis in action (or perhaps sink their feet into the best carpet). 

The larger the booth, the larger the presence. Just down the way from Blackmagic, Adobe’s bold colors and massive real estate offer creative consultations and demonstrations.

“We’ve got pretty much everybody that’s working on the product that can actually bring it to life and make it happen,” shared Paul Saccone, Sr. Director, Adobe Pro Video Marketing. “We have literally hundreds, thousands of customers that we’re talking to this week at the trade show, but it just doesn’t happen at trade shows. We have really, really doubled down in the last 18 months at Adobe about making sure that we are deeply engaged with the community.”

Community for Adobe now extends deep into the creative sphere beyond the boards (though those are helpful too). With meet  ups and conversations, collaborations with creatives, and more, Adobe has been strategic about leveraging from and learning alongside those who use their products the most. They’ve included members in early releases, especially with AI incorporation, and hosted frank conversations about how best to improve their products.

“There’s a million things we can do with generative AI, but we’re trying to think of things that are going to be meaningful and have an impact for editors,” Saccone continued “When we did the sneak for the community members on Sunday night [before NAB], there was applause. I want to continue this engagement with the community and really focus on trying to do the things that matter.” 

Speaking of engagement, NAB Show creates a one of a kind opportunity to meet the people behind the products. So I had a conversation about conversations with the CEO of Frame.io Emery Wells himself, in-between demonstrations of the new Frame.io V4 which includes a build out for a casting call.

“We hope that people share what they’re discovering and the workflows that they can create,” Wells noted about how creatives  are using Frame.io. “We probably would not have sought out to build a purpose-built casting tool, because that’s a relatively niche kind of requirement. But what we found is across all these different requests of workflows that people are trying to accommodate, we distilled it down into a common model, which is this idea of custom metadata fields.”

Wells proceeds to walk me through the custom metadata fields and shares the functionality of Frame.io V4.

“Whether you’re doing VFX shot tracking, casting, location scouting, commercial photography workflows, standard post-production workflows, anything in between, they all share a common sort of workflow approach, which is input some data, and then build views off of that data for the specific workflows you’re trying to accommodate,” Emery shared about the potential buildouts of metadata workflows. 

Keeping the end user in mind drives every company, including NAB itself, from design to talent to new features to supporting the community. And it’s driven in part by feedback.

“We make meaningful changes, and we’re not building these products for us.  We’re doing it for you and the customers and what you would want and what our customers would want,” enthused Brett Halladay Product Education Manager at DJI. We chatted while riding the subway at the DJI booth. Major pluses: it didn’t smell and was relatively quiet! Magical!

Vertical shooting, now on the RS4 and RS4 Pro, was incorporated based on feedback and adaption of 2023’s RS3. “On the RS3 Mini, when that launched last year, we built in vertical shooting…and it turns out that a lot of our customers actually love this, and they started buying RS3 Mini as a second gimbal so they could use it with social content,” Halladay explains. “So we incorporated their feedback and the desire for this level of workflow into our main line of product. You can go from landscape recording or photos into portrait and then right back.”

I ride all the way to FUJIFILM (well, by foot, not by subway) to see if a certain new camera that broke the internet is out and about.

“Oh you mean this one?” asked Michael Bulbenko of FUJIFILM as he slings a X100VI around his shoulder and onto a counter. Yes, that one. This camera, with new video emulations, is the latest to inspire FUJIFILM’s “loyal community.” And they, in turn, inspire the equipment. “The whole point of making anything that we do is for the end users,” Bulbenko shares. “We have this philosophy of something called Kaizen, it’s a Japanese word, it basically means like always improving. We embrace that.”
Across the way, Canon beckons me in both by a surf rock band and by my name, a testament to their relationship building as part of their community (Author note: seriously, I crashed a Canon winter gathering years ago and somewhere between sips of wassail and demonstrations of the R, I made years-long friendships). It’s like Lisa Gualtieri Alford, Vertical Sales Manager at Canon, shares: we feel like VIPs.

“I think that we build community through NAB through a lot of one-on-one time. I pre-plan a lot of meetings with customers so that I can take them on booth tours and do product demos and build those relationships ,working with customers on that one-to-one level,” Gualtieri Alford shares. And some of those customers have actually suggested elements that, through a process of feedback and design implementation, were incorporated into products. “A lot of educators wanted to see aperture rings on the outside of lenses the way that we used to do it in our older lenses,” Gualtieri Alford explains. “So when we came out with the RF lenses one of the things that they added to it was the control ring…and then also with the new RF 24-105, that has a dedicated aperture ring on the outside of the lens. So that’s one example of bringing feedback from higher education and professors that need things like that as a teaching tool that now we see in the new and current iterations of products.”

This educator is pleased.

Relationships are also key when it comes to Sony’s work with creators and users. As shard by Senior Product Manager El-Deane Naude in an email after NAB Show, “Sony’s core mission over the last few years has been getting closer to creators.  Practically speaking, this means sourcing feedback from power users, customers, and influencers. This insight and information has helped us design and roll-out purpose-driven products and implement helpful updates to enhance the power of – and your investment in – our existing products.  Sony benefits from the knowledge and relationships within our industry, which help us create more effective solutions.  In turn, our creators have their perspectives taken into account and have an open forum and a direct line to Sony to have their feedback considered, pain points addressed, and better technologies to assist them.”

During my tour of the Sony Booth at NAB, questions and notes were drowned out by a video about Virtual Production. “Gone are the days of the green screen,” the video beckoned. Conversations, and community, around virtual production actually started before the floor even opened at NAB at Vu’s Virtually Everything Summit. Everything is big and bright in Vegas, but Vu’s LED  screen (and breakfast spread) defined the words. 

Fueled by a proper breakfast and held at Vu’s facility close to the Vegas airport, the Summit aimed to be a hub of conversation and learning from each other, talking about the “miracles” that are virtual production, as presenter Chris Hayman shared on stage. 

“We’ve just found over the years, there’s been a lot of advertising about how amazing virtual production is, but not enough people talking about the reality,” Tim Moore, CEO of Vu Technologies, shared before his keynote. It’s just a really good time to have a lot of great minds in here that are open and willing to tell what they’ve been through and how to avoid that in the future.”

Vu’s Summit provided breakout sessions on everything from diversity to Unreal Engine, and plenty of space, real and figurative, for conversations. As we were reminded by Edd-Dawson Taylor during their session (attributed), “Art is communication coming from people.”

So is communicating with yourself art, too?

Throughout NAB, I for one, talked my way through it. From wondering if I was making the right choice with a class to asking questions about gear, it’s a continuous conversation. And through it, I noticed that the element of change, of serendipity, of risk happened over and over. A gamble. 

We are in Vegas after all.

It’s been nine years since the launch of Frame.io. And with today’s Version 4 release, Frame.io came back to the creative table with a complete overhaul of the system…at least for those willing to jump into beta or hop on the waitlist.

Want to make your viewing landing pages look like Apple TV? Or quickly sort clips by “Select Take” to share with the director of a project? Create customizable data fields? Well, you’re ready for the power of the fourth: Today, April 9th, Frame.io V4 rolls out in beta for Free and Premium customers, and will come to Team and Enterprise users later this year. It’s worth noting that at the time of this article, the author is currently on the waitlist for beta. 

From the panels to the custom fields to the upload experience, Frame.io promises an entirely new experience for both you and your customers. With V4, Frame.io combines the elements of a data asset management system, project management service, and commenting software all at the same time. 

The goal of the new Frame (as so may of us call it) is customization, ability, and agility. Upload through Camera to Cloud while the camera is recording. Organize Collections with your own custom categories. Global search with a keystroke. Pinpoint a comment on the frame. See all of your shares at once. Share free guest licenses. Scroll down and see assets immediately (no more waiting for them to load). Manage projects and collaborators through workspaces (formerly, Teams). Prioritize uploads. Barriers that have been highlighted have sought to be reduced and, Frame.io is hoping creatives continue to use the product in new ways.

Notably, caption support is not listed in V4.  And in terms of cost, no price updates were listed in the announcement.

We hope to see the new Frame in action at the upcoming NAB Show. Or, perhaps we’ll give it a go from the show floor and showcase our editing workflow. While “optimistic updates” is what Frame.io calls their instant visual confirmation of a comment, we hope to bring you optimistic updates from NAB Show across the floor.

Learn more about the new release and sign up for the waitlist at Frame.io.