A new media conversion programme from Divergent Media (the people behind Clipwrap) is promising a lot of things in a crowded market. So what does this new $49 application offer?
We have to admit to being slightly sceptical about media converters, we are bombarded by cheap front end GUIs of FFmpeg on almost a daily basis.
The new $49 app comes from a reliable source however, Divergent Media, the company that brought us Clipwrap, the program that rewraps mts and m2ts files into suitable movies for editing.
What go us interested in EditReady was the speed of conversion. Divergent Media are claiming that by using OpenCL, it is fast. Possibly up to four times faster than Apple's Compressor looking at their comparison chart. We have all waited for an H264 client viewing copy to convert at the end of a long edit day haven't we?
“We think of EditReady as the bridge between production and post-production. More and more cameras shoot straight to QuickTime movies, and we wanted a tool for editors to prepare that footage before dropping it into their post workflows. By helping users easily get all their footage into a common mezzanine format like ProRes or DNxHD, we hope to lessen the headaches during the later stages of editing” said Divergent Media CEO Mike Woodworth.
EditReady Features
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Speed: EditReady leverages hardware accelerated decode and OpenCL to make it the fastest transcoder on the market. It is as much as 10x faster than competing transcoders.
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Simplicity: Featuring a clean and simple UI, EditReady makes the complicated work of building transcode batches fast and friendly. It is designed help you get from set to suite as fast as possible.
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Metadata: EditReady’s metadata editor lets users view and edit all of the camera and editor metadata associated with a video file. Quickly clean up batches of files, rename clips for edit or add custom data fields.
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Batches: Convert multiple batches of files with pre-made presets to create efficient workflows. Quickly transcode footage for web screeners, ProRes editing, or bake in LUTs for dailies. All this can be done through the simple user interface, or through a command line interface for power users.
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!
