Everything Is A Subscription 👹 Now, Including My Services As An Editor. I'm Looking At You Sony.

 Everything is a subscription 👹  now, not only do we pay a hefty price for cameras, Sony's in particular, but now Sony wants more money from us 🥀🌸CREATORS🌷 to use all the camera's features in post. And of course it is a subscription 👹, what else!

I present to you 🙌Catalyst Prepare Plug-in🙌, a free crippled plug-in for (crippled) Sony cameras - I kid you not. Or if you fork additional extortion money, a (semi) full (semi) featured (kind of) plug-in on a subscription 👹 plan for $99/year (at the moment, I'll bet you it will increase way faster than inflation):

The price for the rip-off annual plan is determined by the rabbit in the hat, and by the way, we can cripple the software any time you won't see your money back. So long suck3r! Err, we meant to say: 🦌Dear 🥀🌸CREATOR🌷!

Brought to you by Sony 💪uber functional😵 🙌Imagine Edge Software Division🙌 . I would not touch this 💩 with a yard long stick. But we Sony offer you this gift, oh revered 🥀🌸CREATOR🌷.

The Free features of this 🙌amazing🙌 plug-in are as follow:

1) Color Adjustment (Exposure Index, LUT, ISO.)

2) Importing Shots Marks

3) Importing OK/NG/KEEP Flags.

The give me rent money or go 👆 yourself SUBSCRIPTION 👹 ONLY features are:

1) Image stabilization and Lens Breathing Compensation. (Not supported by any cameras at the moment.)

You see there is a WATERMARK HERE if you wish not to pay for the subscription 👹. Really, really we do care.

Whoa! I'm floored! Wonderful! Delicious! Oh! So pretty Sony!

Hmmmm. Hard sell Sony. Nixing in-camera IS and in-camera BC for what? More work later in post?

OK basically Sony wants 🥀🌸CREATORS'🌷 money for features every single NLE already have, and for the privilege of using a newer (crippled) Sony camera and for doing in post what other cams do in the box.

 Yo! IS and BC are available in post man!

 Not a feature Sony. Bad premises Sony. Going backward Sony. 

Only available for Premiere Pro, how about FCP? Avid MC? Resolve? Everything else? Uh?, as of now it's: 👆 yourself losers, it's Premiere or nothing. We Sony tell you 🦌Dear 🥀🌸CREATORS🌷 what to use, not the other way around.

Not looking forward to the future according to Sony.

Hey Mr Sony, how about interchangeability in post? I guess whomever bleeds for the subscription first (hey dude I bought this cool cam, look, shit I need to pay more dough to actually use all these cool features... OK I'm a suck3r already, here is more $ Sony), will have to convert all the footage with baked-in IS and lens BC. Actually it doesn't even deliver the BC part, that's for later, but we'll take your money now anyway, cause you know, F.👆.C.K Y.👆.U. 🦌🦌🦌Dear, Dear 🥀🌸CREATOR🌷.

All The Best, Have fun with our cameras!

Now we want to take over post.

Signed: 👹👹👹 Sony Imaging Division 👹👹👹

Invasive Mosquitoes Attack And Grow In Number In Los Angeles California - Real Bugs

 The mosquito population is growing in LA. Two invasive species in particular: the Asian Tiger Mosquito or Aedes albopictus, and the Aedes aegypti.

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/pages/Aedes-aegypti-and-Aedes-albopictus-mosquitoes.aspx

https://cisr.ucr.edu/invasive-species/asian-tiger-mosquito

Not sure which ones are in larger numbers in my area, but I feel the ones I battle nowadays are the darker Tiger Mosquitoes. The pesky creatures are invading parks and yards, and sneaking into buildings without windows screens, or as soon as the screen is opened to allow for air circulation, which is needed these days as we get hit by successive heatwaves.

Both species are bad news anyway since they can carry dangerous viruses and transmit them to humans, plus they are incredibly annoying and sting badly.

Aedes aegypti (Wikipedia)

Aedes albopictus (Wikipedia)

As mentioned in the UCR and CDC articles, it is agressive and bites anytime during the day, although I notice that, like all the mosquitoes, they are more active at and around dawn.

It is also very sneaky, it flies in zig-zags around you for a moment and then attacks relentlessly. If disturbed it will fly off and hide for a while. Makes you think it's gone. Not at all, it is just resting nearby, usually in a shaded and cool area, before laughing it's next attack.

It is small in size making spotting it relatively difficult. When biting, it monitors the environment around it with its sensors, so a swift move is needed to splat it, else it will escape if you're too slow.

It likes to bite your ankles the most. I also got bit on hands, elbows, behind the knee and upper leg, feet and on the neck. It bites through light fabric as well, like thin socks.

I find using an electric but zapper (or electric swat racket) works well when the insect is flying if:

1- You have the patience to observe and follow the insect movement as it figures where it's gonna bite, you need a good vision.

2- You "scoop" the insect with the racquet in a bottom-up movement. If you try to zap it sideways or from the top down, and you're not fast enough, it will detect your presence and escape. From the bottom up you need less speed as it seems to be much less aware of what's moving/coming from under it.

You can also monitor your ankles, legs and feet, as it is likely to attack there first. Again be patient, let it land. Approach your hand no closer to about one foot (any less distance and it will detect you and escape) and then strike as fast as you can.

Before going to bed, inspect your bedroom, I found a few specimen hanging on the white walls. They will bite you as you sleep, so kill them before they can attack you.

Mosquitoes repellents or loose clothing that cover your skin (or both) work well if you can't be bothered with all that hunting nonsense. But know that it only repels them for a while, and if they are still alive, they will continue to attack. I've killed 20 of then last week alone.

Adobe Media Encoder Stops Encoding In The Middle Of A Job - Warp Stabilizer Bug

Mac M1, macOS Monterey, Premiere Pro 22.6.2, AME 22.6

  Two weeks on Adobe Premiere / AME and I'm fighting hell daily. Premiere is the plague of the business.

OK so after the unresolved issue of Premiere tearing up h264 footage on export, now AME decides to stop in the middle of a job (Premiere Project / Timeline / Export Media / Send to Media Encoder.)

The program is 21min., AME stops at 11min. No warnings, no message, nothing, just stops as if it was done. Whatever Entire Source or In/Out Selection is used, same result.

Checking the Timeline I see that Warp Stabilizer has been used on some clips (I inherited this project) right where AME calls it quit.

In the Timeline it actually shows a black frame at the tail of each of these Warp Stab clips. Why? Another Premiere bug.

I killed all these stabilization effects, and what do you know, it goes through encoding the entire program this time, no problemo.

So basically Warp Stabilizer in Premiere is UNUSEABLE, at the minimum UNRELIABLE and it makes AME stop encoding the program as soon as it is encountered.

Adobe, fix this NOW!

Adobe Media Encoder Create New Ingest Preset Bug on Silicon Mac

 Adobe is such an unnerving company. If you try to create a new Ingest Present for Premiere Pro on a Mac Silicon using the AME Silicon version, you're out of luck and you will go crazy trying to figure out why the stupid app refuses to create a new Ingest Preset.

If you click on Create New Ingest Preset, you will not go anywhere, the Preset won't be saved, and as a matter of facts, the window that opens is not even the correct one, it shows only a "Save As" button that doesn't save the Preset as Ingest Preset, but strictly as an Encoding Preset, unusable for Proxies creation.

It's a BUG Adobe. And it has not been fixed as of AME v 22.5.

To be able to create a new Ingest Preset, one has to use the INTEL version of AME. Accessible to launch under Creative Cloud app, AME, the three dots on the right, Open (Intel.)

Then with AME Intel running, on clicking Create new Ingest Preset you do get the proper window and the Save button, and it does save your preset as an Ingest Preset that works with Premiere.

That no one at Adobe bothered to check if this worked with the Silicon version is telling.

PS: AFTER you've created your first user Ingest Preset using AME Intel, for some reason AME Silicon allows you to create more and behaves as it should. Maddening.

Premiere Pro, Adobe Media Encoder - h264 Exports Problem, Image Tearing Up

  Mac mini M1, macOS Monterey 12.3.1, Premiere 22.5.

 Footage is h264 1080p 59.94. Editing Multicam 2 angles (same thing happens with non Multicam Clips btw.) Hardware acceleration is enabled (Same thing happens when Hardware Acceleration is turned off.) Exporting h264 VBR 1 pass, (the same thing happens with CBR.)

 Why on earth is Premiere Pro crapping up h264 exports? This is what I get in the exported file:

Last image before a "problem" cut, looks fine

First image after the cut, what the hell is this?

It goes on being total crap for 21 frames

Then for some reason it's back to normal at frame 22

 Why is this happening Adobe? What makes it even more infuriating is that it feels TOTALLY RANDOM. Why does it happens on this cut and not on another one? I'm not cutting at the very first frame or at the very last frame of a Multicam Clip.

 They are hundreds of other cuts exactly like this one in this piece. I'm far from fast cutting. The shots in this Sequence are between 2 and 19 seconds. All cuts are fine but for two that are severely damaged on export, like what you see in these picts.

 Note that nothing is visible on playback in the Program window at 1/2 res, it all looks good.

 Sequence is not rendered, but if I force render, the same thing happens. If I check use Previews for Export, the same thing happens.

 When I try to change the position of the cut, the crap goes away on the next export. But then some OTHER cut gets damaged that wasn't before! Totally at random, totally AGGRAVATING!!

 What a waste of time...

 This is painful!!! This should not be happening! Adobe FIX this abnormal behavior now!!!

--- I tried to Flatten the Multicam Clips on each side of the cut, and lo and behold, now I can SEE the tear in the image, but only if I go frame by frame over the cut. Playback is still just fine and shows absolutely nothing. Bizarrely, the tear appears on the second frame after the cut, not the first one like in the exports. If I stop the cursor over the teared image, it goes back to normal after about a couple of seconds!! What??! 

--- If I add an Adjustment Layer over the "problematic" cut, and play frame by frame, the tear is gone. But it's still in the export... Same thing if I overlap the clips a little.

--- If I do not use GPU, same thing happens.

--- If I use Software Only, same thing.

The only thing that works is to change the position of the cut. But since you cannot predict what will happen, you have to change the cut position, export the section with the cut, QC that, and if the image is still tearing up, adjust some more until it doesn't.

THAT"S NOT A WAY TO WORK !  THIS IS WRONG !  I WANT TO BE ABLE TO CUT ANYWHERE !

MAXIMUM AGGRAVATION ADOBE !

Premiere Pro Multicam Clip Not Showing Audio Waveform

 Premiere 22.5.0 on macOS Monterey.

One thing that has been plaguing Premiere for years: audio waveforms snafus. Last in a row of a long list of aggravation, Multicam Clips not showing any audio waveform in the Timeline.

In this example, the first Multicam Clip shows the waveform, the second does not:

Why? You'd rightfully ask. Well it's because of the way the Mulicam Clip is panned. I kid you not.

The fist Multicam Clip is panned as follow:

The second Multicam Clip is panned as follow:

Do you see the difference? Track A1 is not panned all the way to the left to -100%. It's at -98.8%.

And that is enough ladies and gentlemen to trip Premiere and cause it to not display waveforms in the Timeline for any Multicam Clip that's not panned 100% left or right.