The iPad Pro has been on the market for a while now, yet the “Pro” in its name still has to live up to expectations. I talked to Pedro Hofmann, a videomaker from Vienna, in how he is making the iPad Pro into his fast turn-around editing machine using the LumaFusion app. The iPad Pro-ish Apple’s most recent upgrade to the iPad Pro line was impressive – with a processor that is exceeding the speed of many laptops in its line-up, it became clear during the Keynote introduction that it’s a sign of things to come. The iPad was finally powerful enough to be the Pro machine they promised a year earlier. With one huge caveat: the lack of a a proper file system and the incompatibility of the consumer-oriented iOS with the professional Mac OS makes the “Pro” in iPad Pro nothing more than a shallow promise. LumaFusion on the iPad Pro In comes Pedro Hofmann, a videomaker based in Vienna, who creatively specialised in producing fast turn-around one-minute films for his clients. He’s shooting the films on his Sony a7s II, his DJI Mavic drone and other gear, and then he edits right on the spot using his iPad Pro using the app LumaFusion. In fact he sold his MacBook Pro and considers the iPad Pro the best “selling tool” for his productions he’s ever had. I agree with him that showing edits to clients on an iPad often gets them more excited than showing them something on a conventional laptop – somehow the experience feels more haptic and organic. File Access in iOS & WD My Passport Wireless Regarding his workflow, it isn’t completely straightforward simply because Apple is limiting the way you can access files in iOS. He’s working with Apple’s USB-C SD reader as well as a Western Digital My Passport Wireless, which also has an SD reader built in, and it enables him to read and copy every file system of any camera (on the SD card) while Apple’s own reader ignores the folder structure of Sony cameras, for example, effectively showing an empty card despite the fact there’s data on there. The My Passport Wireless becomes a media hub that can serve the data into the editing app LumaFusion. SD Reader in the WD My Passport Wireless LumaFusion Now of course it’s not ideal that there isn’t an Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro for the iPad Pro yet, meaning, it is impossible to move projects between your desktop and iPad so far. However, the LumaFusion editing app is truly impressive in what it’s capable to do: You can have up to three layers of video at 4K 50 playing simultaneously without any hick-up. And believe it or not, but it also plays H.265 extremely smoothly due to the graphics chip in the iPad Pro, something that even the biggest desktop machines can still struggle with these days. LumaFusion seems like a very capable editing app at first glance, with proper editing shortcuts, layering, proper typo handling and many advanced functions. It’s definitely worth a closer look and seems to work quite well for these fast turnaround edits. iPad Pro Editing – the Way of the Future? Enjoy this workflow video above, peeking into Pedro’s way of working. I personally can’t wait until we can finally use an iPad Pro or any other laptop for professional editing because I think it will totally change the way of working. Direct interaction with your footage feels a lot more natural than the indirect way of working we’re used to with keyboards and mouses, and nothing has changed in that way in the last 30 years. It’s time for a revolution in professional interfaces. What do you think about editing on an iPad Pro? Have you worked with LumaFusion before? Let us know what you think in the comments. 

As already stated by Blackmagic Design: “DaVinci Resolve 14 is the world’s first post production tool designed for true multi-user collaboration.” In this article we’ll sum up the main features and capabilities regarding multi-user collaboration in DaVinci Resolve Studio. A multi-user collaboration workflow could be a complex mission without the right tools dedicated to this kind of post production environment, and one that may lead to lengthy conforms and synchronization issues. With DaVinci Resolve 14 editors, assistants, colorists, and sound editors can make conforming and managing changes in parallel on the same project and at the same time. This is made possible by an impressive arsenal of multi-user coloration tools like project management, open storage, bin locking, built-in chat and timeline comparison. Project management The new DaVinci Resolve Project Management software makes collaboration possible by managing traffic and saving the changes from each user. The software allows setting up a shared project database so users can log in and start working on their projects. It’s really straightforward and made easy thanks to a friendly graphical user interface which contains dedicated icons and indicators. Bin and timeline locking Bin and timeline locking allow multiple assistants and editors to work together without the risk of overwriting each other’s work. One user can create bins for organizing footage and adding metadata, while another works in a different bin. The bins and timelines remain “read only” until they are unlocked by the user that’s working on them. This feature is a must-have on a collaborative post environment because it helps accelerate the workflow without running over each other’s work. Built-in Chat DaVinci Resolve grants editors the ability to quickly message and communicate with assistants, sound designers and colorist with its built-in realtime chat feature, making it an essential tool for the whole post-production team. Timeline Comparison This is a really cool interface in DaVinci Resolve Studio which allows to visually compare timelines between an editor and assistant.  There are also options to delete, move or trim, so working together on the same timeline becomes possible via a very friendly graphic user interface. Timeline Comparison This recent BMD tutorial demonstrates all of these collaboration options between five users: editor, assistant editor, colorist, colorist 2 (the main purpose of DaVinci Resolve is grading after all…) and audio editor, and is definitely worth watching. Also, visit the multi-user collaboration page to learn more. At first glance, it seems that BMD have put a lot of effort to turn their industry-standard color-correction platform into a professional NLE, and have delivered a nice, easy-to-use, yet powerful multi-user collaboration interface (Read more in our article : The Battle of the NLEs).  It’s worth mentioning that I’ve been following various DaVinci Resolve Facebook groups to discover that there are some bugs and mishaps when actually using the software for heavy editing tasks. Have you used DaVinci Resolve Studio on multi-user collaboration environment tasks? Let us know your experience in the comments below.

Watch previous episodes of ON THE COUCH & ON THE GO by clicking here! Visit our Vimeo and YouTube playlists, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! It’s always great to sit and talk with friends from the industry and chat about what’s on our minds regarding production workflows and issues. On this 16th episode of ON THE COUCH, I sat down with Jem Schofield from theC47.com, who is well known for his education and workshop classes in the filmmaking field. Apart from being an educator, Jem is also a producer and much of our talk focused on getting better audio for production – something that is constantly neglected by owner/operators who need to do their own audio. We touched on the fact that a lot of shooters who started with DSLRs were able to deliver great video all of a sudden because of the technical capabilities – while at the same time the level of audio got worse overall because people used the terrible built-in microphones with their low-quality preamps to record location audio. Jem emphasized the importance of understanding the differences between microphone pickup patterns when deciding on a microphone for your production. Many just go with one shotgun microphone for all their purposes, but there is no “one size fits all”. Like us, Jem loves to work with our sponsor Røde’s microphones as they provide some of the best value for money in the industry. My go-to boom microphone for my own smaller productions is the Røde NTG3, a shotgun microphone with a very narrow supercardioid pickup pattern. Jem argues it’s great for exterior recording but he prefers the NT55 inside rooms because it has a broader pickup (ideal when 2 persons are talking to each other) and it doesn’t have the “pickup tail” that the NTG3 has. While being super narrow with its pickup, the pickup tail also makes the NTG3 more susceptible for picking up sounds from behind the microphone (e.g. ceiling fans, air conditioning, …), handling noise and sound reflections – and that’s exactly where the NT55 shines. The new Røde SmartLav+ combined with the Røde Rec app for iOS was another product combo that Jem mentioned – a super easy and super inexpensive way of always carrying a very usable lavelier microphone with you as it records straight into your phone using the app – not a bad value for money considering the SmartLav+ is around $75 and their app another $5 (definitely much cheaper than dedicated sound recorders that are often left in the studio exactly when you need them for an occasional sound bite shot on a  small camera or DSLR).  We also talked about other subjects including camera stabilization and the discussion MoVi vs. Steadicam and how irrelevant it is considering the fact that both tools have their advantages and disadvantages (and the fact that Tabb Firchau from Freefly and Garrett Brown, the inventor of the Steadicam, are giving workshops together). Before we wrapped the show up, we discussed the fact that like me, Jem quite likes Final Cut Pro X and thinks he is able to work faster with it than with any other NLE. We also touched on the up- and downsides of Premiere and Avid. Lastly, Jem Schofield mentioned that he is going to do another extensive filmmaking workshop in Scotland for a week starting July 27th, 2014. This “Filmmaker’s Intensive” will deal with the science and art of telling stories and people will learn all about lighting, shooting and also getting the right audio for their productions. Head over to their website here to check it out: http://www.thefilmmakersintensive.com To watch all ON THE COUCH episodes so far, click here.