SEMI OT :VASST Hits the Ground Running!

epirb wrote on 6/14/2005, 8:11 PM
Just returned from Orlando, where Vasst had its first stop of the Vegas 6 and HDV solutions Tour.
Let me tell you it was Incredible!
HDV Seminar:
If your already into HDV or contimplating it , or even just want to know more about it. I highly recommend you check out the FREE seminar in a city near you.
Even tell your friends who aren't Vegas users to attend(it'sgeared more toward the whole HDV thing more than Vegas, but I can attest to the fact that the non Vegas users walked away with a lot of info, plus their jaw dropped a few times when they saw what could be done in Vegas !)
(whispering):(here's another tip if you attend , remember the P/A ratio of HDV is 1.333, trust me it'll be good for a free T shirt )(but dont tell any one I told you.)
Vegas 6 seminar:
I didnt attend the morning sesion(geared more towards the novice ) not because I'm sure I couldnt have still picked up some good bits of information. But because I had the destinct opportunity to accompany the Legendary Victor Milt on a shoot expirementing with a new 35mm prime adapter that Spot had brought along.( 'nuther tid bit...if you attend the HDV seminar you get entered into a drawing with the tours grand prize to win one of these beauties). Let me tell you, the morning with Vic was a class in itself.
Then came the Vegas 6 advance class in the afternoon...As usuall Spot and Mannie did a great job. Spot has a great way of communicating to all different skill levels, His methods and knowlege of Vegas and all things Sony ,no matter what the question leaves everone understanding the answer.
This new way of splitting the class into two sections I think really made it nice to be able to focus on certain deeper aspects of Vegas with out having to go back and explain the basics. And while I did not attend the novice class ,I did speak to someone who attended, and I got the feeling that it worked the same for them, not getting confused with stuff that might be over their head.
Anyways, in addition to the usuall "I didnt know you could do it that way " or "so thats how its done " bits and pieces that I walked away with,new skills are also learned . GReat Chroma Key teqniques Spot !
We also got a sneak peak at the newly revised and soon to be out ULTIMATE S 2 !
Let me say this about what I saw and got to play with breifly.
MOMMA LIKE ! ...This baby has been hopped up on steriods!
New multi cam tools w real time switching interface thats incredibly intuitive.Take it from a guy whos not multi cam fluent by any means!
Some really cool lower thirds functions. Plus some audio goodies and more new features that will blow you away. Its scheduled for release in a few weeks,I wanted to upgrade there on the Spot (but they are putting the finishing touches on it as we speak) No doubt, the Script Keeper: JohnnyRoy and the rest of the Vasst team have been doing there homework on this one. I cant wait for the upgrade. For those of you attending the Seminar you'll get to see a sneak peak.
Plus as usuall Spot and Mannie always have good inside iggies(info) of other things coming down the pipe.
Additionaly its a great way to meet some of the local forum members in your area, put faces to names, and make new contacts. Its amazing how when you are finaly face to face with someone you might have talked to on this or other forum, how one persons abitlies or video niche can help you out or Vise Versa.

Now before I finish, let me say,
I am not an employee of Vasst, Sony or the likes, Just a VERY satisfied customer, trust me its worth every penny!!!This is information you will be able to use over and over and improve your skills.

Thank you Spot ,Mannie ,Vasst and Sony for a great couple of days !Heck I coulda just given you the money for next years seminar.!
For those of you debating whether you should go, .... GO you wont regret it.

Sorry about the long post but Im still buzzin on my Vasst high, and you will too .

Eric (Epirb)

P.S.
Aslo thanks to Victor Milt for the morning schooling as well, what a treat to have that oportunity along with the Vasst seminar.

OT added 6/15/05

Comments

vidiot57 wrote on 6/14/2005, 9:02 PM
Hello,

Ditto everything epirb said!!,

I did not get to attend the class, but was lucky enough to go to the HDV Showcase.. And it was really great.. I picked up lots of good info just listening to Spot.. And everyone was very cordial..
I really enjoyed Victor Milt speak about the 35mm adapter..I also picked up his DVD from Vasst on Lighting, and got to watch a little bit of it.. Wow, I have tried to learn about lighting from books, magazines, experimenting for a long time.. But on this DVD, Victor does a fantastic job of showing you in very simple terms, with basic lighting equipment how to do many styles of Lighting.. Tremendous wealth of information here guys..

Anyway the Vasst event was great as usual.. great job..!!

Mike Moncrief
Fleshpainter wrote on 6/15/2005, 1:47 AM
Still trying to figure out how I managed to miss the whole thing...
epirb wrote on 6/15/2005, 3:55 AM
Flesh,
dropped you an email a cuple days before, didnt get it? Sorry we/I missed ya.
Spot|DSE wrote on 6/15/2005, 5:42 AM
Eric,
Was great to see you in Orlando! Fleshpainter, you were missed. A couple people asked where you were.
Orlando was a great place to start the tour, was good to see so many old friends and meet some new ones from this and other forums. The HDV attendance was a real surprise, meeting so many Premiere and FCP users there. 3 people signed up that night for the training on the following day, one of them was the president of the local videographers association/lifetime Premiere user.
Most folks are blown away at the hassle free tools found in Vegas for doing HD.
Looking forward to the next cities on this leg.
Epirb, thanks for the very kind words, and for the help striking the room. I wish we could have stayed longer, especially since Wade had 3 extra DefLeppard/Tesla tix. Would have loved to end the day with that show. (BTW, your bungie cord on the roof gave me a nice bruise! That stuff is dangerous)
Atlanta tonight, hope to see y'all there. (NYC, Chicago, LA, SanFrisco, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur are all next.)
johnmeyer wrote on 6/15/2005, 10:42 AM
And now, after that refreshing interlude, back to the main program ...

When is the VASST tour coming to San Francisco? I looked for that in some of the initial announcements, but must have missed it. I just looked at the site again, and it talks about Los Angeles, but not San Francisco.
DavidMcKnight wrote on 6/15/2005, 11:16 AM
Thanks epirb for the review. I saw the training in Dallas last year for V 5 and I'm looking forward to a Texas stop this year. If memory serves, there should be more dates added towards the end of summer / beginning of fall.

And the whispers I've heard about US 2 sound awesome! Looking forward to that one...

Spot|DSE wrote on 6/15/2005, 1:13 PM
John, we THOUGHT we'd have the Stanford auditorium for this, but still haven't confirmed. Keith Kolbo is teaching Vegas at the Digital Media Academy for the first half of that week there, and I'm teaching the second half of the week, we're still pulling to make this happen. I'll post whatever new information comes this way.
p@mast3rs wrote on 6/15/2005, 2:17 PM
Wish I was still in Orlando to attend but unfortunately the hurricanes last year prevented that from happening. Glad you had an awesome experience and wish I were there to share it with you.

Hopefully with my NEW TEACHING JOB at Plantation High School in Florida for 2005-2006, I will be able to convince Vic and Spot to come in and allow my students to learn from their vast (no pun intended) amount of experience.

I will say this, if ever given a chance I would intern/work for free just to gain an ounce of the knowledge Vic has. I was able to glance over some of his "Light It Right" DVD from a friend and if I ever get the extra cash, plan on using it in my classroom this year. I blame the lack of funds on legal bills as of late.

Great news about Ultimate S2 coming and am quite interested. They did great with V1 and I am sure Johnny Roy will amaze many more again. I would dumb the man a genius as well. :)

Whoever said summer is the slow season for video editing was very silly. Maybe Ill get lucky to catch a Vasst tour one of these years. :)
johnmeyer wrote on 6/15/2005, 3:09 PM
John, we THOUGHT we'd have the Stanford auditorium for this ...

Gee, the last time I was in that place was for my "Human Sexuality" class thirty-three years ago. From what I'm hearing, the VASST HDV presentation may be something similar (VASST is as good as ... ).

Please post the dates when you get it all lined up.

John
kkolbo wrote on 6/15/2005, 8:15 PM
Well, we have a whole week on campus to get down and dirty with Vegas and anything else the campus can offer, ooops. I mean explore great techniques. AAhh, I mean, well you know what I mean. I hope to see some of you at Stanford at the end of the month. A week of sharing techinuques, and working hands-on with Vegas just can't be bad.
KK
bruceo wrote on 6/15/2005, 9:20 PM
The Orlando event was my first Vasst experience and I must say that it exceeded my expectations!
Monday night when Spot opened Ultimate S to demo Multicam HDV editing to the Premiere and FCP users in the room during the HDV solutions session. I was surprised because I saw a 4 cam on the fly, switched edit set up, executed and finished in minutes. I was literally crapping my pants and then when I looked at the Ultimate S tabs I was freaking out with all of the extra features and then I saw that it was Ultimate S 2 and Spot said it was in final beta stages and would be released soon. Needless to say I am amped, because since I started using US1 my $/hr have increased DRAMATICALLY and I see that US2 is going to drive my earnings even higher!! I definitely give huge KUDOS to the VASST team for the tour and the tools that they have provided so far!
MUTTLEY wrote on 6/15/2005, 10:47 PM

Well color me jealous on all counts, and Vic you never invited me to tag along ... of course I'm in Austin but being asked is always nice ! =P

- Ray
Spot|DSE wrote on 6/16/2005, 2:47 PM
Ray, you're always invited :-)
I saw some of the footage Eric and Vic shot, and captured it last night at the Atlanta event. Very sexy stuff indeed. This lil' adapter is made by a small company, but they have a sweet look and a very nice approach to doing what the "big boys" are doing.
ArthurDent wrote on 6/16/2005, 6:36 PM
The VASST Tour was in Atlanta last night. It was well-attended and Spot wowed the crowd with all the aforementioned toys. Ultimate S and GearShift are very impressive and make Vegas even better.

The giveaways were great (thanks for the T-shirt, Spot!) -- a non-Vegas editor got a free copy of Vegas+DVD.

I always enjoy meeting fellow video people and learning about what they're doing.

If the Tour is coming to your town, make plans to attend now, it's "Must-see HDV!"

Thanks again to Spot and Manny from VASST, and to Sony and the other sponsors for making the Tour possible.

vicmilt wrote on 6/18/2005, 3:32 AM
Hey all...
sorry I'm so late checking in - I came back from Orlando, to three clients who all needed their projects finished NOW! (How do they ALL know when I'm so busy - are they having meetings at night or something??)

Anyway - special thanks to Eric and Bruce for their great assistance and good humor helping me lug equipment around for our test footage of the 35mm Lens Converter. I haven't even had a chance to look it over yet, but what I saw in the eyepiece was totally a knockout. I'll be back with a full review in a week or two (got to get these jobs OUT of here).

And - ya know - everyone thinks when you're a working professional you just know Everything. Not true - I was at that edit semiar, same as everyone else. To bathe in the amazing technical skill of Mr. Spotted Eagle. What a teacher! One hour with him is easily worth ten days of book wrestling! Plus... he let me play with his lens converter and his own personal Z1 ! Now that's a great guy.

So this morning I couldn't sleep and I downloaded Gearshift and tried out converting my HDV footage to lower resolution proxies for editing on my laptop. Super easy - super necessary - definitely worth the $25 bucks.

I'm hoping to get this footage into some viewable form, but don't hold your breathe just yet... those deadlines... oh well...

It's the eternal enigma of the freelance operative. When you don't have work, all you do is wish you did. When it finally comes... all you do is wish it was over!

v
[r]Evolution wrote on 6/18/2005, 6:51 AM
Wish there was a 'Student Package' for the tour.

I know how to do lots of things with Vegas but sometimes I think... 'I'm not sure if I'm doing this right'. Classes like this is exactly what's needed to let the NLE world know that Vegas IS Pro.

I think I saw this course was $200.<- good for professionals... bad for beginners.
epirb wrote on 6/18/2005, 7:22 AM
With all due respect Lamont, if the person is a beginner the first half of the day is cheaper (I think like $50.00). But if you decide to to the whole day ,the info and training you get is well worth the $200.00.
Personaly I think its very reasonable, think about it this way, the cost of them coming to you, or at least nearby , most all other seminars are either "east coast" or "west coast" and you have to factor in the travel costs and time to that as well. Plus all the equiptment they bring that you can put your hands on and see close up and in action.Makes the cost very reasonable.
Plus,this isnt just a lecture, many of use brought laptops and quasi followed along with Spots demos using our own stuff on the laptop.

And as I mentioned in my forst post, the other side benefit, .. meeting other Vegas users in your area, that can really help perpetuate the learning exerience even more.
In addition to getting to talk to and meet people like Spot face to face, I'll bet every stop has their "Rock Star" Vegas users . Orlando had Vic, the New York stop will probably have many like Johnny Rofrano, and many others.
And every one I meet was more than happy to share thier knowlege and experiences with you.
200.00 bucks is alot of money, and their are many things I want that cost as much or less. But for me this took precedence. I am by no means a profesional editor.like many here , possibly even you, I am trying to get a business off the ground with Vegas and editing. So every penny counts. I consider this an investment.
Just in the things I have learned from the class will save me 200.00 bucks in time I would be trying to figure it out in Vegas many times over.
Why not even try the first part of the day and see?
Again I say this stuff because I believe in it, Just as this forum is something I preach about to others that dont know about what a great tool it is.
Spot|DSE wrote on 6/18/2005, 8:14 AM
Lamont, the beginner session is $50.00, and if you're a student, talk to Mannie/drop him a note. Plus, the HDV Solutions event is pretty informative on its own.
drop Mannie a note; mannie [@] sundancemediagroup [dot] com
Tell him I sent you. ;-)
MH_Stevens wrote on 6/18/2005, 9:12 PM
The LA day is June 28 - and damn, where will I be? In San Diego having my esophagus biopsied! What a bummer.

{PS for Spot - taking a road trip with Nancy and the folks this week - leaving in the am - and were going to SLC via Tooele - up your way - got to see a friend in Springfield. Someone said that was the location for "Everwood" but I never saw it.}
Spot|DSE wrote on 6/18/2005, 9:49 PM
Michael, the complimentary HDV Solutions tour is in Culver City at the Radisson.
Radisson Hotel Los Angeles Westside
6161 West Centinela Avenue, Culver City CA 90230-6306, USA

And the training the following day on the 28th.
MH_Stevens wrote on 6/18/2005, 10:28 PM
Thanks , but it's still a "damn", as on the 27th I may still be on the road back from Utah - I'll make it if I can.
Spot|DSE wrote on 6/18/2005, 10:31 PM
Sorry we won't be here to greet you, there are some great desert sites that your FX1 would love. Flowers are in serious bloom due to all the moisture we've had lately, and up high were only the ATV's can go, there are monstrous desert cactus blooming yellow, pink, and blue. Fun stuff to shoot with the monster desert in the background on the horizon