Interview with DoubleJ – how he uses it Mac proprofessional?

Today I have the honor to bring you an interview with my friend Jano Jančok aka DoubleJ, who managed to become one of the most sought-after clip producers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Thanks to the fact that he does everything from directing, through the camera to the overall editing and effects himself and on computers Apple Mac, this interview will certainly be beneficial not only for aspiring filmmakers.

Hi DoubleJ, most people are more familiar with actors who are in front of the camera, you are behind the camera in most cases, can you introduce yourself to our readers and tell us which videos have your signature?

Hi Roman, as you said before, people know me as DoubleJ and venuI've been making video clips for some time now. Some hip-hop fans may recognize me because I work mainly for performers venubelonging to this genre. For example, I made the last clip for H16ka, I'm currently working a lot with Rytmus, we've already made 3 clips, one cut for Kontrafakt from a performance at this year's hip-hop camp, and I also filmed his entire tour this year. I would also like to mention the collaboration with Maylay Sparks, Tomi Popovic, the best freestyler in Slovakia - Bio, Supo z Mojej Reča and many other bigger and smaller names.

I chose you for the interview mainly because you do all the post-production of your clips exclusively on machines from Apple. Was it like that from the beginning or did your work bring you to this brand?

With products Apple I've only been working for a little over a year, I started with video, and it continued for a year or so, on "classic" computers. In the beginning, I tried several programs, from Pinnacle to Premiere, but in the end I bought Sony Vegas Pro and stayed with it until I switched to Mac. As I started to do well in this area, I decided to switch to Mac and Final Cut. It wasn't a team that would have me Vegas or Windows they somehow bothered me, I consider Vegas Pro to be one of the best programs and in certain respects it even surpasses Final Cut, but if I wanted to continue to devote myself to video in the future and perhaps cooperate with larger studios, I had to switch to something that is more widespread in this industry and AVID and Final Cut are used more by professional studios. I chose Final Cut because I really liked OS X after a few experiences and Apple he coincidentally released a new one at that time MacBooky For which they fit me in parameters.

So this is what video professionals mostly use Apple and Final Cut? Did you have to have the same equipment as them to simply fit in? When I talked with Hugo Toxxx, he told me at the time that the moment he penetrated the world of great music and the business around it, Apple he was watched by all the studios and every pro had it on his desk, Wladimir 518 and Dara Rollins confirmed the same to me.

Most certainly not, and it also depends on which professionals we consider. There are independent studios and advertising agencies, there are film studios, television, etc. Overall, AVID is probably more widespread, but Final Cut also has its numerous representatives, especially in the USA, and it is slowly starting to be used more and more here as well. Also, many people work with Premiere, especially I heard very good feedback about the latest CS5. It's simply not possible to simply state that what is used the most among the pros and what the person will control when you meet one. Simply, AVID and FCP are definitely the most represented, but which is more preferred depends on the region, studio, and last but not least financetc. Before I decided on FCP, I read many articles, discussions, went through many forums and there were also different opinions, which could be called the industry standard. In the vast majority of cases, however, FCP and AVID were preferred. And was it necessary to switch to a Mac to fit in? Certainly not yet. I just felt the need to switch to something more widespread and more accepted by studios than Vegas, so that I could handle such a program in the future, and the fact that it was a Mac was only based on the fact that I liked it and over time it became more convenient than Windows. But the transition was not necessary, I could easily do with Vegas even now.

I am interested not only from your point of view but also from the customer's point of view, a friend of mine who worked in the best graphic studios in Europe just said that customers often ask them what they are working on, is it the same for you?

No, I haven't dealt with it yet. nestretol that someone would specifically ask first what I was working on. Rather, people ask about camera technology, but not about what I edit on. During cooperation, of course, we will also talk about what I work with and why I work with Apple and in what way is it better, etc., predsalen, Apple here it is still not as widespread as elsewhere in the world, so people are curious. Well, if a client came and asked what it would be cut in, that's not it.

Speaking of camera equipment, what do you personally use?

For about 2 years I shot with an ordinary home camera, later I bought an HDV camera, then I bought a 35mm DOF adapter for it so that I could also use different lenses on the camera, and finally, like many other filmmakers, I switched to an SLR camera.

That reminded me of when we were filming a video together and you pulled out that camera, I was wondering if you were serious, but the result was worth it, man. Nowadays, chips and optics are getting better and better miniRecently Canon managed to convert a 120 Megapixel chip into a normal SLR camera, in 10 years it may be in iPhone 10. Can you imagine working fully with video on a mobile phone?

Nope. Even filming with a camera has its disadvantages, and working with a camera is much more convenient and easier. Well, I can get an image from an SLR, let's say for 2000 EUR much more than from an equally expensive, even more expensive camera. Personally, I was very interested in Sony's new camera with interchangeable lenses, but it's still not the same, and I'll definitely stick with the SLR for a few more months. But I certainly couldn't work with the phone.

So, after experience, what would you recommend to aspiring filmmakers for equipment? What is worthwhile or necessary to invest in and what can wait?

The first thing I would recommend to aspiring filmmakers is to practice, practice and practice. You can shoot even with a €300 camera, and a big camera doesn't immediately make a person a great filmmaker. You have to shoot, try, learn, you yourself come up with things that limit you, what you would need and want to achieve, you find out why someone has a picture like this and another like that and slowly move forward and then you yourself find out what kind of camera technology will be for the most suitable for him. However, if I had to advise specific products, I would definitely personally reach for the Panasonic HDC-TM700 camera, which is one of the best "small" cameras, which is also confirmed by the reviews. In addition to a great image in full HD resolution, it offers options for choosing the frame rate and interlacing images, includes a ring for convenient manual focusing, of course there is an input for an external microphone and an output for headphones, etc. One has several manual settings at his disposal and can win with the image. When buying a new camera, I would definitely recommend looking at this model from Panasonic. However, for the more experienced, I would rather recommend a digital SLR capable of recording high-quality video and at least one light lens. Why more experienced? SLRs require a slightly different approach, one has to learn to work with the aperture, time, cannot make sudden movements because SLRs record the image differently than a camera and suffer from the so-called rolling shutter effect. Most SLRs cannot focus automatically during filming (or focus as we know it from cameras), unfortunately it is also Canon products that, on the other hand, offer the best image compared to the competition. The new Nikons, and it seems to me that even Sony, already know how to focus like this, but Canon has a better image. So just from the point of view of focusing, if you want a top image, you have to always be alert and focus manually, which is not exactly the easiest task for a beginner, zooming is also not exactly the easiest, because on the one hand you have to refocus when changing the focal length, or . focus and rotate the lens, the image is more or less shaky and it doesn't look good. This issue could be written and discussed for a long time, but there is no space for that now. SLRs simply offer a great picture for their price, but shooting with a SLR is more demanding than with a regular camera, and that's why I would recommend absolute beginners to start with a camera and then try experimenting with cameras as well.

OK man, we would have the camera/photo equipment, what would you recommend if one decides to use a Mac? What is the most important thing about a video?

So, first of all, you have to somehow get the material into the given computer. This is what the USB and FireWire ports are for. Cameras that use as a recording medium miniDV cassettes require FireWire to transfer the recording to a PC. With USB one can transfer with these cameras maximal photos. Users of devices that record material on HDD or memory cards can get by with a USB or a classic memory card reader. When choosing a Mac, you should therefore check whether it has all the ports that the given device requires. The second thing is the configuration of the given machine. For basic video editing, you should mainly look at processor performance, disk performance and memory size. In general, the better the processor and more memory, the faster the work with the material will be. Since each manufacturer and also models of the same manufacturer can record material differently, it is difficult to list specific processors that are suitable for editing. I personally edited HD video on a Core 2 Duo with a clock speed of 1.83GHz, but it wasn't exactly the most comfortable job. Also, the video was not encoded in h.264, which is currently used by several cameras and cameras, and it is difficult to say how the processor would cope with such video. Video in h.264 is quite demanding on performance and I don't even recommend editing video in h.264, because this codec is not suitable for editing and conversion to some other, more suitable codec is more appropriate. He personally enlightened me the best Apple ProRes 422, with which Final Cut understands one poem. Video in h.264 is also significantly compressed, so converting to something more "normal" means preparing multiple times more space for the material. If you dare to edit h.264 directly with your computer, an interesting choice could be the latest version of Adobe Premiere, which directly supports h.264 video editing. Well, I've already digressed from the question. If I had to recommend more specific hardware, the more powerful the processor, the better, the new Core i3/5/7 processors from Intel are the most suitable for video processing, but the older Core 2 Duo can handle basic operations as well. I myself worked for a year with MacBookom Pro as the main work tool, in a configuration with a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB of memory and a powerful hard disk. As for memory, there is 2GB of RAM minimum, in any case I would recommend at least 4GB. Among classic hard drives, this is clear, Seagate offers a very good Momentus XT drive with a capacity of 500GB, but I personally prefer drives from Western Digital and specifically the Scorpio Black series, which is one of the best that the current market has to offer. I don't have experience with SSD disks, so I can't really comment on them, but the combination of SSD for the system and HDD for data is very suitable. An external disk connected via FireWire 800 also won't do anything wrong, on the contrary. If you have a powerful processor and material on the internal disk, rendering the video to a second disk can also add speed. For working with Final Cut, I highly recommend an external drive to which temporary files will be rendered.

So it makes it easier for you Apple a lot of work? I'd rather ask differently if it was Final Cut pro Windows, would you go to Mac?

Hard to say or me Apple makes work easier. Some things go faster for me in FCP, some things I did faster in Sony Vegas Pro. As for the system, although I am with Windowsom never had major problems, not even with Vista, I like OS X better and it suits me perfectly. So if Apple released FCP and pre Windows, I would stay in the OS X environment. If FCP was pre Windows even before I came to Mac, so it's hard to say, maybe I'd stay loyal Windowsu.

The last time you were at my place you laughed at my LED Cinema 24″ Display, it touched me quite a bit, so what do you use and how important is a display to a filmmaker?

Was he laughing? Certainly not, I plan to buy one myself, but in the 27″ version. And to the question, a large and high-quality display is quite important next to the camera technology and the HW computer itself. Of course, the video can also be edited on a 13″ display MacBookwith a resolution of 1280×800 pixels, but a larger desktop will definitely come in handy. Personally, I used a laptop as my primary editing machine for about 3 years, connected to a high-quality, Full HD monitor with an S-PVA panel. Having a large desktop is a big plus when working with video, and it is also advisable to invest in a high-quality panel that does not change colors at larger angles. I currently have the latest 27″ iMac with an IPS display and a Core i7 processor as my main editing machine, and an old monitor next to it, so I can’t complain about the size of the screen, but as I already mentioned, I plan to replace the old monitor with a 27″ Cinema.

So you have a glossy panel, doesn't it limit you somehow?

Nope. Fortunately, I have a window behind the display and not behind me, so I don't have a problem with unwanted reflections, but I would definitely welcome a matte display, especially on my 13″ MacBooku Pro, which I have for work in the field and so I sometimes use it.

Sure, it's a shame, isn't it Apple 13" doesn't make it optional, in my opinion it's a great machine for off-roading, right? I'm currently reviewing the iPad Connection Kit, too bad it doesn't do live view and save video, would you use that instead of the MBP?

Sure, I'm with you. MacBookom in the field very satisfied. It is light, compact, solid body, decent durability and powerful performance is enough, because I had it for a year as a primary machine. As for the iPad, if it could handle the live preview, then definitely yes. It would also not be a bad companion for storing material in the field, but 64GB of memory is not enough for a working weekend.

I recently spoke to Speilberg and he said that it is enough for him, the fact that Jurassic Park is not in HD…. OK, I think we've said everything the reader might be interested in, so what advice would you give to aspiring filmmakers?

Going to film, training, always trying to improve and, to top it all off, read something. I often receive various questions about video processing by email, and many people are quite confused. They just buy a camera, download professional software and think they can start making movies. Well, as I already wrote, a big camera and professional software do not immediately make a person a great filmmaker.

Great, thanks for the interview and I will look forward to more and more new videos from your production! Good luck man, I wish you all the best!

I thank you for the opportunity to talk and I also wish you much success and many satisfied readers.

If you want to see more of DoubleJ's work, you can find it at doublej.sk a youtube.com/doublejrec