NFWS, but funny as hell.

Galactica = the best show on TV, no question about it. It’s rare to find a sci-fi show that doesn’t lean completely on trickery and special effects, and completely masks it’s own genre with stellar writing, supporting flawed yet brilliant characters portrayed by some top-notch talent. And I say that as someone who felt the original ’70s version sucked harder than a black hole, no less- it was no small feat to turn me around to BSG.

Between August 24th and 28th Adobe will be shooting on-camera interviews of Adobe software enthusiasts, talking about the software and work they love, for a video to be shown at the MAX conference in Chicago. If selected, you’d only be needed for one of those days (individual shoots will range between 1 to 2 hours maximum, FYI). If you want to be considered for this big-screen appearance you just have to drop a note to ‘adobecast@yahoo.com’ providing:

• Your occupation
• What Adobe products you use
• A recent photo or two of yourself
• Contact information

If you’ve got an interesting story to tell – especially if you’re using Dreamweaver, of course (as I’m biased that way) – drop a note to the production email account and get yourself in the running. I’m really looking forward to seeing the final piece, as well as the blooper reels…

See for yourself at the Adult Swim website.

Watch the video at Alex’s site…

Methinks this seems a bit fishy. Not only does the image at the original blog post look strangely Photoshopped, but if I recall correctly, iPhones are locked down under security tighter than the White House right now. My friends at Cingular IT are only getting their first opportunity to see one behind closed doors next week, yet this shot appears to be in public, at an event of some sort. Add the fact that 4 and 8 gigs of memory in an iPhone is barely enough for a decent mp3 library, let alone a bunch of video, I’ve got to claim extreme skepticism.

Although I think this sounds like a sweet field use for an iPhone, my bullshit meter is reaching it’s maximum right now. I’d love to be proven wrong, though.

Check out the video at Drew’s Vox weblog (Adobe highlights are in the last third of the clip, if you’re specifically interested- but I strongly recommend watching the whole run as his commentary is fantastic). Great video!

Before I had access to 24p cameras I used the original Magic Bullet pretty extensively (and did a bunch of research projects on it at the PixelCorps) to both convert my 60i/30fps footage to 24p and do secondary correction via MBL’s former incarnation- the Look Suite, but this upgrade looks like it’s going to be a killer and dramatically improve the UI and workflow by kicking outside the normal plug-in interface (supporting After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Motion or Avid) to the swanky ‘LooksBuilder’ application. From within LooksBuilder, you can apparently model a shot’s processing from lens to print, including all the steps within, with drag-and-drop coolness alongside realtime visual previews.

As LooksBuilder is a separate app outside the plug-in interface used within host applications, you can also use LB on it’s own, and import still frames to work with to build out custom presets/etc. Damn. This is one hella nice upgrade to what was already my most favorite, kick-ass post-production tool. Nice job, guys.

Although After Effects has remained a video-tweaking stalwart on both Mac and Windows platforms for it’s entire lifespan, Premiere Pro dropped Macintosh support two releases ago in favor of Windows-only releases. And quite a bit happened with Premiere in that Windows-only span that Mac users missed out on entirely – the application really took on a more serious, bad-ass side that was (in my opinion) lacking in it’s previous Mac/Windows incarnations. Fortunately now you Mac-bretheren can check out what the PC folk have been freaking on for all that time- as the Premiere Pro CS3 prerelease isn’t just for PCs anymore, but is also Intel Mac-savvy.

A note on availability
Both prerelease programs are for the English version of the applications. I’d also check out the system requirements for Premiere Pro and After Effects to make sure your hardware is up to snuff- video is a pretty taxing media type to work with on any machine.

Also- although Premiere Pro CS3 prerelease will be available to everyone, the After Effects CS3 prerelease program is open to former After Effects and suite owners only – check out the FAQ for more details on whether you qualify.

The products aren’t complete yet and not all functionality is in place, so as with all the Labs programs, make sure to send the teams your feedback and thoughts on the new bits on both the After Effects forums and the Premiere Pro forums.

So what’s holding you back? Go warm up those broadband connections and get crackin’!

David Caruso pwns the field as the undisputed king of the one-liner, dispelling all doubt during his current CSI:Miami stint as investigator Horatio Caine for at least sheer volume alone. You have simply GOT to respect his diligence and Shatner-esque dramatic pauses/sunglass doffing to pull the extended cheese factor. Bow down to royalty, y’all.

Witness, please:

Can I get an ‘aww yeah’ for the king?