Apple's macOS Mojave 10.14 is Upon Us! How to make a bootable USB installer

Apple just released macOS 10.14 Mojave!

As Always: BACKUP EVERYTHING and DO NOT UPGRADE YOUR SYSTEM OR APPS IN THE MIDDLE OF A PROJECT.

Mojave is brand new, and even though it is stable a lot of plug-ins, apps and add-ons shenanigans are not yet 100% compatible. So BEWARE and TEST your stuff before diving-in. I have a Mule machine that I load with new installs for my own tests, and I'm very thorough and prudent. I won't upgrade my main system before some time.

Apple conveniently explains how to make a bootable USB flash drive installer with Mojave  in this support page, using the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal.

But first, download Mojave from the Apple Store, and Quit the installation when the installer opens.

Mojave install file is 5.7GB according to Apple.

Check that your computer and graphic card are on the list. 

For MacPro owners like myself, the upgraded graphic card must be Metal capable:
macOS Mojave requires a graphics card that supports Metal, an Apple technology that lets the system and apps efficiently tap into the capabilities of today’s graphics processors (GPUs). The graphics cards offered by Apple in Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012) don't have GPUs that support Metal, so these systems require upgraded graphics cards in order to install macOS Mojave.

And for some reason you must be on High Sierra before the upgrade:
Before you upgrade to macOS Mojave on these Mac Pro models, you need to update to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 and then make sure that your graphics card is compatible. You also need to turn off FileVault. First, use the Mac App Store to update your operating system to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6. Don't upgrade your Mac Pro (Mid 2010) or Mac Pro (Mid 2012) to macOS Mojave directly from macOS versions prior to 10.13.6.

I will soon install Mojave on my second MacPro machine and will report any hiccups with my usual apps in future posts. Let me know how it performs on your system in the comments below. Cheers!

Publish to Vimeo from Frame.io, and Publish to YouTube and Facebook from there!

I use Frame.io for clients reviews, I use Vimeo for storing final videos.

New to Frame.io is the ability to push a (finished/approved) video to Vimeo - from within Frame.io!

You need to link your Vimeo account, of course, and there it is! I say: pretty cool feature!

When the video is on Vimeo, you have the capability from there to push it to Social Platforms, namely YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Mighty convenient if you ask me, when you have to have the same video on all platforms quickly.

How To Make an Unencrypted DCP with Resolve 15

DaVinci Resolve 15 offers Unencrypted DCP creation using Kakadu JPEG2000 for free. Until now we only had the paid easyDCP option available. EasyDCP is still the only option for 4K and Encrypted DCPs within Resolve.

For screenings and festivals purposes though, an unencrypted 2K DCP is great to have. Thanks to the guys at BMD you can easily make your own DCP directly within Resolve. In addition, one can also import the DCP newly created and add it into the Media Pool for instant checking, with the correct colors!

Before delivering your DCP you will need to copy the files to a portable drive that's compatible with DCP servers. More on this subject (and in-depth knowledge of DCP) on the wonderful website of Knut Erik Evensen.

Pretty cool, so how do we do this? When you have your film ready in Resolve Timeline, click on the Deliver page and choose Custom.

Browse to the location you want to render your DCP to. For Video, select Format = DCP, Codec = Kakadu JPEG2000, Type = you have three choices 2K DCI, 2K DCI Flat, 2K DCI Scope. Use what's best in your case.

Leave the Maximum bit rate at 211 Mbit/sec (default.)

Check Use interop packaging (it's the most compatible.) I note that there is nothing in the settings regarding the Frame Rate. Interop will only render a 24fps DCP. I had no problem doing so using a 23.98 timeline, so the rate conversion happens in the background, which is cool. I have not tried Subtitles.

Composition name, Click Browse. It opens the DCP Composition Name Generator with all the Metadata and naming already filled-in. Make sure to double check that it reflects your specific project. Make sure that Standard is set to OP (interop.)

For Audio, the default settings should work, Codec = Linear PCM, Output Track = make sure this reflects your tracks arrangement in the Timeline.

Add to the Render Queue, and Start Render! In my experience it takes around x3 real time to output a DCP with Resolve on my 2012 MacPro.

Voilà!

When your DCP is finished being created, go to the Media Tab, and add the DCP to the Media Pool. It shows in there just like a regular clip. You can check its Metadata, and Create a new Timeline using the DCP, from where yo can playback the DCP for checking everything is OK. On my machine, I have to use 1/2 resolution to have real time playback.

Alright so I had a post about using Premiere to check DCPs some time ago, this is another solution for DCP playback and creation. Enjoy!

Adobe Encore "Check Project Trims and/or Chapters Adjusted"

Cryptic Encore Check Project message: "check project trims and/or chapters adjusted".

This happened when I replaced an asset - by the way do not delete and then replace a video asset in the Timeline as all your chapters will disappear with it. The correct way to do it: select the asset in the list, then right click "Replace" and select the new asset. This way all the chaptering stays in place.

Now for some reasons my new asset was a tad shorter than the one it replaced, that's what generated the error. The last chapter was out of range. I trimmed the "ghost" end of the video track, Encore adjusted to the length of the new asset and deleted the "ghost" chapter. I just recreated a new end chapter and voilà! No more error message. Done.

Premiere, I Do Want To Replace This File! Go To Hell!! (Part2)

Oh Yeah!!  Wonderful results! This is what my replaced, renamed, relinked file looks like after Export:

Just lovely Premiere! Or AME, whomever is responsible for this CRAP!

And why "No Preview Not Available"?  WHY???

At the very least I could SEE that you are fucking up with my Export.

Allright, time for a Reboot, Restart, Trashing all the useless junk cache files, and hopefully you will behave normally again.

Premiere, I Do Want To Replace This File! Go To Hell!! (Part1)

Premiere, I do want to replace this file!  Why are you flashing this stupid error to my face?

I KNOW this file is already in the Project, this is exactly what I'm doing: REPLACING this file with a NEW file with the SAME NAME, so that it automatically takes the place of the previous one.

I know what I'm doing, why do I have to save under a different name?  Then I get this:

Oh yeah! Lovely!

So then l have to rename the file in the Finder, that opens the door to mistakes.  And then I have to relink.  Really?  REALLY???

And there is no way to override this message?  Ludicrous!

AME Background Encoding Pauses When Playing Premiere Pro Timeline

I like to Export my screeners via Adobe Media Encoder (Queue) so I can continue to work on my Premiere Timeline.

Yes, I can do that, dandy as it is, but NO!, it does not work because as soon as I playback my Premiere Timeline, AME puts itself in full PAUSE mode. 

And waits until I'm not playing back in Premiere to resume encoding.

Darn it!!

Now if I just edit and stuff, it works, full encoding in the background. Scrubbing is fair game, it continues to encode while scrubbing the Timeline, but no playback allowed. Changing the Playback relolution to 1/2 or 1/4 doesn't help.

Is it just me? Is there a setting for this? Or ...what??

Aaarrg! I wish Premiere would share the resources instead of sucking everything out of AME to a full stop.