Michael Webber

Author: Michael Webber

  • Frosty Run, People Struggling

    Frosty Run, People Struggling

    Yesterday, I noticed what appears to be a transient shelter in the woods right along the banks of the Blackstone River. The tall structure seems to be built with gathered wood and rope lashings. There are even a few steps in front of the entrance, suggesting an elevated floor off the ground.

    The structure is far enough off the running path that I’ve likely been running past it for months without it catching my eye. By the looks of all the tarps, it may be occupied, and given the recent cold temperatures, it’s a reminder that many are suffering. My assumptions could be completely wrong. It may not be a homeless shelter situation, but it does make me think about what the situation might be.

    This discovery coincides with my recent reading of a poignant Esquire article titled “The Invisible Man” by Patrick Fealey, a former Boston Globe reporter currently experiencing homelessness in southern Rhode Island.

    “We see right through the unshowered soul living in a car by the beach, or by the Walmart, or by the side of the road. But he’s there, and he used to be somebody. He still is. A firsthand account of homelessness in America.”

    Absolutely worth reading; here’s the link: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a62875397/homelessness-in-america/

    The combination of Fealey’s powerful narrative and the sight of the potential shelter along my running route has captured my thoughts while running over the past few days. While I don’t have any big thoughts or ideas to share, I’m struck by the complexity of individual stories and the challenges we face as a society in addressing homelessness.

    Perhaps the most important thing we can do is to cultivate empathy and kindness. Each person we encounter, regardless of their circumstances, has a unique story and inherent worth. As we navigate our own lives, let’s strive to be more aware of those around us who might be struggling and find ways to help when possible.

  • 7 Miles Along the Blackstone

    7 Miles Along the Blackstone

    Garmin recommended long run today, 1hr 10min. Temps in the high 20s, felt comfortable. Enjoyed the frost cover and the thin coating of ice on the Blackstone Canal. #running

  • Refreshing Winter Run

    Refreshing Winter Run

    There’s something meditative about running in the snow. The world softens, muffled by a blanket of white. This morning, along the Blackstone River, it was just me, the crunch of cold snow under my feet and the rhythmic yet gentle thud of my sneakers hitting against the packed trail.

  • Before Ctrl+Z: Exploring Film Editing’s Golden Age with Walter Murch’s ‘Her Name Was Moviola’

    Currently in post-production, Oscar-winning editor Walter Murch is working on a passion project, ‘Her Name was Moviola‘, a documentary about cutting film the way it “used to be done”.

    What is a Moviola? Well, simply put the Moviola was a tool used in the process of editing film from the 1920 all the way to the 1970s.

    “la moviola” by luarembepe is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

    Not a flashy device, but a workhorse of the film industry! Editors like Walter used the Moviola to birth masterpieces like “Citizen Kane” and “Gone with the Wind”, shaping the language of film editing for generations.

    Although I’ve never used a Moviola, I have an appreciation for the craft of early film editing, decades before the advent of non-linear editors like Avid, Adobe Premiere, and Final Cut Pro.

    I started editing video on 3/4″ U-Matic A/B roll editing systems in the 1990s and although not the same, it was the video’s precursor to non-linear computer-based editing software. Both film and video were tactile experiences, with physical media to manipulate. I can hear the U-Matic tape machines clicking and whirling as it took commands from the editor controller. The Moviola was even more tactile, as editors physically interacted with the film, threading, marking, splicing, and reviewing.

    There’s no better person to enlighten the future generations of our past than Walter. He has spent a lifetime focused on his craft and giving back. Remarkably open, Walter has shared his thoughts through books, documentaries, interviews, and even a letter to film critic Roger Ebert, “Why 3D doesn’t work and never will. Case closed.”, which is a great example of Walter’s thoughtful views.

    “If we don’t do something like this soon, it will be too late. Those of us with the muscle-memory of how to dance with the Moviola are exiting the scene, and all the necessary support equipment is disappearing into landfills with each passing day.”

    – Walter Murch

    You can learn more about the film on the website: https://moviolathemovie.com/

    There’s also an active Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/MoviolaTheMovie

    On October 1st the group announced they were going into the final stages of post-production. A release date has not been announced yet, I’ll be keeping an eye on this one!

    You can learn much more about this project and the motivations behind it, in this great interview with Walter Murch on the Pro Video Coalition website: https://www.provideocoalition.com/her-name-was-moviola-an-interview-with-walter-murch-about-film-editing-with-the-moviola/

  • Trim video without re-encoding using ffmpeg

    I’ve been taking the time to learn ffmpeg and some of the really useful stuff you can do with this command line tool (CLI).

    Here’s one example of a situation I find myself in frequently and have not had a great solution until now.

    The ability to trim a video file without re-encoding!

    “Re-encoding” means loss of video quality in my mind. Not quite as bad as copying a VHS tape, known in the analog world as a “generation loss” Having the ability to trim a video file WITHOUT suffering any quality loss, that was a WOW ffmpeg moment for me.

    This is an issue that comes up frequently in community media and I’m sure all video professionals have delt with this issue.

    You have some raw footage you wan to keep for the future, but the camera operator forgot to stop recording and the file has a bunch of “junk” at the end.

    Or you digitized some analog tapes and during the process you walk away only to come back to “snow” or “junk” at the end of the tape that you have now just captured.

    Or you have a video file with the standard leader of color bars and countdown at the beginning. You want to trim the footage, but don’t want to lose video quality in the process…

    So you either keep all the extra “junk” taking up space on your drive or you open up your editing software and edit out the junk and take the hit and re-encode.

    Right now, I’m cleaning up a 70TB Synology NAS that is nearly full. I found several large files that fit the above examples.

    Using ffmpeg and a rather simple command line, I was able to clean up some of these files and free up some space.

    Here’s an example of the command line I used:

    ffmpeg -i BestVideoEver.mov -ss 00:37 -t 51:14 -c:a copy -c:v copy BestVideoEver-trimmed.mov

    To break this string down just a bit, here’s what’s happening

    -i = Input Video
    -ss 00:00 = In-Point (everything before will be removed)
    -t 00:00 = Out-Point (everything after will be removed)
    -c:a copy = Copy Audio (Copy NOT re-encode)
    -c:v copy = Copy Video (Copy NOT re-encode)

    Finally “BestVideoEver-trimmed.mov” is the ffmpeg output file, which you can set to a specific destination if you want, for example:

    ffmpeg -i BestVideoEver.mov -ss 00:37 -t 51:14 -c:a copy -c:v copy /users/michaelwebber/Desktop/BestVideoEver-trimmed.mov

    Anyway, that’s it! Something I learned how to do recently and wanted to share just in case others find it useful.

    If you want to learn MUCH more about ffmpeg I recommend reading this blog post. Covers a whole bunch of topics including how to install ffmpeg and many of the cool features. Never knew you could edit video and even add text graphics with ffmpeg. I really recommend this blog post at img.ly, an in-depth, well-organized post.

  • High School Intern Returns

    Such a cool moment to have a former High School volunteer and intern stop in and do a TV hit from our studio because his flight was canceled.

  • COVID Sunsets

    COVID Sunsets

    My wife and I have been going on long weekend bike rides for several months now. The COVID pandemic has given us extra time in our busy family schedule to discover a new date night-exercise opportunity.

    We schedule our start time so that we’re arriving at Colt State Park just in time to see the sunset. Regardless of the weather conditions or cloud cover, that’s our goal.

    The East Bay Bike Path offers great views along the Rhode Island coastline, passing through various areas including an industrial seaport, small cottage home neighborhoods, parks, and large estate homes.

    Sunset at Colt State Park on December 28, 2020

    Some weeks the temperatures are extremely cold and we’ve had to pack hand and foot warmers. On other weeks the wind is the biggest challenge. We even attempted the trip when ice cover large sections of the route.

    Once we see the sunset at Colt, the ride back to East Providence is dark and temperatures drop fast. Views on the return trip switch to nighttime city lights.

    The rides have become a routine and something to look forward to on the weekends. We always take photos of the sunset regardless of the weather, we have a growing collection of photos that I hope to create an album with at some point.

    Colt State Park, January 23, 2021

  • Sunset Cargo Ship

    Captured a neat shot of the Cardinal, a bulk carrier vessel (IMO: 9274575) as it was leaving the port of Providence, Rhode Island headed to Quebec.

    This photo was taken from Colt State Park, during a recent 33-mile bike ride, a trek my wife and I often take on the weekends to catch the sunset.

    You can visit MarineTraffic.com for more details on the ship: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:5976592

  • Goodbye Ann & Hope

    On June 29, 2020 Ann & Hope announced they would close all remaining outlet stores following a series of previously announced store closings. This includes their historic headquarters location in Cumberland at 1 Ann & Hope Way.

    I stopped by to take some photos of the building yesterday, just to capture some images before the signs are removed and the building becomes mostly vacant.

    © 2020 Michael Webber mike@michael-webber.com
    On Ann & Hope Way, Cumberland RI ©2020 Michael Webber
    © 2020 Michael Webber
    © 2020 Michael Webber
    © 2020 Michael Webber • Photo usage requests email [email protected]

    Ann & Hope is known as the “the first discount department store in America, pioneering practices now common in modern big box stores.

    Growing up in Massachusetts, I don’t recall any childhood memories of the store, but many in Rhode Island and especially in Cumberland. I know the shopping cart conveyor was a unique system for moving shopping carts between floors. I bet that was neat to see in operation.

    From the “About” page on the Ann & Hope website is some interesting history that I thought I would capture, copied below:

    In 1953, Irwin Chase and his father, Martin, opened their first store in an old textile mill in Cumberland, Rhode Island. The building and store were named after a ship, the Ann and Hope, which was lost at sea off of Block Island, Rhode Island in 1806.

    Originally, Martin Chase operated a ribbon manufacturing business on the third floor of the Ann and Hope building. When a lower cost ribbon was developed that would later make the Chase’s ribbon style obsolete, the ribbon business was closed, and the remaining ribbon was sold at a discount to tenants in the building. Word of mouth quickly spread, and the Chases added additional lines of merchandise.

    The Company was built on the philosophy of buying large volumes of merchandise, and selling it at a discount. Since Ann and Hope’s prices were very low, they had to have low operating expenses. As a result, the Chases implemented several innovations. One of those changes was the use of central checkouts that are now commonly found in most discount stores. Another was the use of shopping carts in a discount store setting.

    Today, the second and third generations of Ann and Hope’s founders operate 11 Curtain & Bath stores in 3 New England states. In addition to these stores the company runs other concepts such as Dollar Outlet and the Garden Outlet. While you may no longer be able to buy everything from food to stereos to sporting goods under one roof, each store has an outstanding selection of products at prices that are the lowest you will find anywhere. Some things never change!

    https://curtainandbathoutlet.com/about-us/

  • Zoom TV Interviews

    Feeding our Blackmagic ATEM Switcher with Zoom Participants

    Four computers running Zoom feeding Blackmagic ATEM

    A few weeks ago I had a blog post on my Zoom and Stream Deck configuration to support TV interviews. The setup continues to evolve and I wanted to take a moment to share an update.

    The biggest problem we have with Zoom is the Audio-Follow-Video auto-switching within Zoom. We prefer to see people full screen and don’t want to depend on the gallery view, in fact I try to avoid it.

    Using the spotlight or pin tools in Zoom just doesn’t work fast enough for our purposes. We want to cut between participants just like we would in a traditional in-studio interview show. This includes reaction shots and cutaways.

    Multiple Zoom Calls Into Switcher

    The new setup we’re experimenting with uses multiple PCs, all with separate Zoom connections, each set to full screen with a single participant “pinned”. The output of each PC feeds the Blackmagic ATEM via HDMI as a source.

    I was a little concerned about lip-sync or slight delays between PC connections to Zoom. Thankfully that’s been a non-issue, everything syncs!

    Primary Audio

    To be clear, we’re only pulling audio from ONE of the PCs (input #1) with the gallery view display. All other switcher inputs are video only.

    Once setup and configures, which does take a few minutes to establish all the Zoom calls, it works great! We can now switch between headshots, in the same way we would if guests were in-studio. I can bring in lower third graphics without fear the Zoom auto-switching and don’t need to chase pinning and spotlighting people.

    The only downside is the number of PCs needed… To have a true single shot of everyone you need one more PC than you have participants. (one is always dedicated to the gallery or multiview.)

    So in this case I have FOUR workstations running Zoom for a three-person show.

    Couple of Notes & Tips

    • “Hide self-view” on the PC displaying the gallery view.
    • All other Zoom workstations should have their mic and cameras OFF as they are for view only purposes of feeding the switcher.
    • All Zoom workstations must be set up in a dual-monitor setup, with the pinned zoom person on the second monitor. Then you want to open up the chatbox and place it on the first (primary monitor) THIS IS CRITICAL! Placing the chat box open on the primary monitor avoids pop-up alerts on your full screen pinned video. (Hopefully, that makes sense)
    • You also want to “Hide all non-video participants” on the main gallery view feed so you don’t see all the extra zoom caller PCs feeding the switcher.

    Happy to answer any questions and would love to hear anyone with suggestions on how I might improve things.

    What a mess! Our experimental COVID-19 rig is constantly changing. The lessons learned from this will no doubt alter our planned studio and control room upgrades scheduled for this year.