On Location CS4: A Must Have For The Production Toolbox!

Prior to its release of CS4, Adobe invited a few industry professionals to come up to its headquarters in San Jose California to take a look at what was under the hood of the new release. Fortunately I was one of those invited. From the buzz I've been hearing I was really excited to see what they had going on.

Since that time I've shown my excitement for upgrades on products such as Premiere Pro with its new speech to text feature, and Photoshop with its ability to work in 3-D. My biggest excitement however was the fact that Adobe brought one of my favorite programs On Location to the Intel Mac platform.

When I moved over to Mac one of the things I really missed was the ability to use DV Rack. DV Rack was a product created by Serious Magic and was ultimately bought by Adobe. For those who don't know DV Rack, it allowed me to connect to my PC via FireWire my camera. having my camera connected and be able to record into my hard drive was a great blessing. Also the ability to monitor my shoot with zebra stripes, and positioning guides really up to the quality of the shots.

I was really upset when Adobe released CS3 as it had On Location, a.k.a. DV Rack, but it was PC based only. Even though all the other products they have were allowed on the Intel Mac. No I didn't want to use Boot Camp. I wanted to work inherently in my Mac OS.

The first thing I asked upon my visit was whether or not on location would now be on Intel Macs. The Adobe representative flashed a Cheshire cat grin and the adrenaline began to flow in my body. I think I remember jumping in the air and yelling at the top of my lungs "Yes!".

So now that you know On Location is available on the Mac lets take a look at what goodies it brings.

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Preparing for your shoot
Any content creator knows it's a vital to have a shot list prior to getting into any production. On Location now allows you to create a placeholder shot list. Now when you connect your camera you're a absolute ready to go. Start going through your shot list and your shots will import directly to your hard drive. You can also fill in tons of metadata such as whether the shot was good or not, what type of camera was used, notes, pretty much any kind of metadata you can possibly think of. What's so great about this? How about a huge time saver when you get into post.

There is one negative and that is you cannot export your shot list in any format. You can of course write by hand or type it or take a screenshot. Hopefully Adobe will address this in future versions

Let's talk metadata
Throughout the CS4 product lines Adobe's extensible metadata platform or XMP is supported. As you capture your footage any and all metadata that was available will be saved. This can be used in Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Soundbooth. A perfect synchronization. That being said the comment meta is only readable by After Effects.

Shooting modes
On Location allows you to capture footage in two modes: the shot recording mode and the take recording mode. The shot recording mode allows you to capture any new metadata inherent to that shot. Conversely the take recording mode allows you to shoot on-the-fly taking information from a placeholder you created.

Scoping things out
Of course one of the biggest keys of On Location's success is the fact that lets you check scopes. Although On Location CS4 shipped only allowing RGB waveforms, the current version includes IRE waveform ability. The scopes is key for adjusting white balance and exposure.

Final thoughts
I am incredibly happy and satisfied with On Location CS4. It was the one product that was missing from my toolbox. Now that it's back recording content is easier more efficient and right on target.

On location ships with Adobe Premier Pro CS4. for more information visit www..adobe.com.
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