We have mentioned this worthy project before as you can see from the article below. However Michael Horton from the LACPUG has sent us some more information about their goal to fund and install their new projector.
Michael at the LACPUG has provided a monthly meeting for creative film & video folk who live in Los Angeles for many years now. As mentioned, we have often featured his videos right here on FCP.co. He's just sent us some more information about the projector that we thought was worth sharing:
Recently, Michael Cioni of Light Iron here in Hollywood approached me about replacing our 10 year old projector with a used Christie 2K they are getting rid of. Cost was $5,000.00. This is a considerable savings over the original price of $130K.
Our current projector cannot handle the demands of modern software. It is native 1024x768 and we are forced to use a scaler device which always produces a soft image. Most software nowadays requires high resolution outputs. And we can't do it. We have not been able to do it for the past 4-5 years. At least do it with a sharp image.
I had a meeting with the Gallery Theater and Light Iron reps checking to make sure we could fit this projector, (see specs and rendered drawings of this beast in the above link) in the booth. We can. So I bought it. Or should I say my credit card bought it. It was just too good a deal to pass up. So now I've got to pay this credit card off! DVCreators stepped in to help and we feel its at very least a start on raising the funds to pay this thing off.
The Gallery Theatre is owned and run by the City of LA. Our deal with them for the past 10 years has been that anyone and everyone who rents the facility has use of the digital projector and all digital equipment that we have provided and installed. Meaning the projector is not just for lacpug but for ANYONE who rents the Gallery Theatre. This includes Film Festivals, Multimedia Theatre productions, Dance companies, Students, Indie filmmakers, Musicians and yes, the City of LA itself who often hold meetings here. Over the past 10 years thousands of people have made use or enjoyed the benefits of our equipment, including Adobe.
If for any reason the City kicks us out of the Gallery we have reserved the right to take all of the equipment with us. That's the deal and would remain same with this new projector.
So there you have it. Somehow and someway I am going to make this happen, and the deal with DVCreators will help. And again, just to be clear, this projector is not just for us. It's for everyone in LA who rents this wonderful facility.
Thanks for reading this and hope we can make this happen
Michael Horton.
We should also mention that Michael has Arthur Schmidt as guest speaker at the next LACPUG this coming Wednesday November 19th. He's edited a few films you might have heard of such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump and Pirates of the Caribbean to name a few. If you are in LA, well worth a night out.
One thought we had and one that we have shared with Michael is that he should set up a page where people could donate money directly for the projector. We think a lot of readers would quite happily chip in dollars if there was an easy way to do so online. We will let you know more when we hear back from Michael.
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
