Directors Cut Take 2 plays a sweet tune…

Directors Cut Take 2 plays a sweet tune…
Professional musician John Moores uses the Miglia Directors Cut Take 2
to streamline and improve video music production

John Moores comments: “It is difficult to quantify the amount of time saved by the Miglia Directors Cut Take 2, but it is considerable. Production schedules are very tight, and composers are under pressure to deliver on time.”

Overview

John Moores has been a professional musician since 1986. His work falls broadly into 4 areas:

Guitarist: Gigs, sessions

Composer, music producer, music programmer: Adverts, Corporate, TV (Recent TV advertisement clients include Regus, Lego, Corinthians)

Music Technology consultant: Services provided include Mac service and installation, equipment/software sourcing and setup, and tech support to musicians and composers (clients include Martin Phipps, Rob Lane, Phillip Appleby)

Music and music technology education from GCSE to post-graduate level

The issue

For a film or TV music composer, it is essential to watch the film during the writing process. The film is usually delivered on videotape such as VHS, S Video or Beta.
It is essential that the video is synchronised to the recording system. To facilitate this, the video usually has 'burnt-in' timecode on the picture and an audio timecode on one of the sound tracks. The timecode is sent to a synchroniser box, which then locks the recorder (tape, hard disk system or computer) to the video.

John explains: “In essence, once sorted, you hit ‘play' on the video, and the whole studio starts playing at the right place! Nowadays, the recording system is often a Mac running software such as Logic Audio”.

“ The main problem working with videotape is that it is slow. Shuttling the tape back and forth to review a scene or to work on the music can take 'ages'. Moving from one scene to another means 'Fast-forwarding... Hit stop/play....' (try it yourself with your VCR, then imagine working like that all day!). Skipping to the next episode of a TV series usually means changing videotapes.”

When presenting work-in-progress to the film director, time can be consumed by "Could we just see the second cue again?"

The solution
In contrast, using a Quicktime movie, Logic Audio allows instant looping round scenes, frame-accurate synchronisation, and instant access to any scene in the movie.
It is difficult to quantify the amount of time saved, but it is considerable. Production schedules are very tight, and composers are under pressure to deliver on time. The creative flow is less interrupted too. For such a system to work for the composer, you must have an analog to digital video capture box to record the Quicktime movie, both picture and sound. It must be reliable, with no dropout (or the music cue could be out of sync.). It must have a range of Input and Output connections to facilitate routing different VCRs and playback to TV monitors. Music composers do not need the highest quality video hardware available, they just need a quick, simple and reliable solution.	Director's Cut 'Take 2' enables John to monitor the sound and picture on control monitor. An example with one of his projects.
Video Capture PCI cards used to be the way, until the Miglia Director's Cut Take 2 was released. Director's Cut 'Take 2' can simply convert the analogue video and audio footage into the DV-25 format or vice-versa. Thanks to its logical connector organisation (all at the back!) and dual output feature, switching cables around and outputting video is a no-brainer. Another great feature is the lack of software drivers, as Director's Cut 'Take 2' is recognised as a DV camera by the system –it connects to the FireWire port that even supplies power to the converter, thus removing the need for an external power supply.

The Future

By using the Director's Cut 'Take 2', John Moores is able to save time within the music production process. This will enable him to concentrate on creating music rather than watching playbacks!

Essentials

About Director's Cut 'Take 2':
Transform your computer into a video editing studio with Director’s Cut “Take 2”!
Capture video and audio from any analogue source, like a camcorder or a VCR, edit the footage on your computer and output it back to a VCR or burn it onto a DVD-R.
Director’s Cut converts any analogue video and sound material into DV format that can be captured by any computer equipped with a FireWire/IEEE 1394/iLink interface.
Simply connect your camcorder or VCR to Director’s Cut with the sound and Composite or S-Video cable provided, and connect the unit to the FireWire port of your computer. You can now import, edit and export analogue footage!