-Feburary 25, 2004-

It was "Motion Graphics and Effects Night" where we introduced the faithful to the world of Compositing and Motion Graphics, a huge part of Final Cut Pro and a part only few really understand. Plus a rare and very special appearance by Academy Award Winning Editor, Walter Murch.

Appearing tonight were Alex Lindsey from dvGarage who talked about what you need to know about Visual Effects BEFORE you shoot your movie. He be covered the topics Photogrammetry, Blue/Green Screen keying, HDRi lighting, Matchmoving and more.

Also appearing was Kevin (Telly) Monahan who showed tips and tricks from his now shipping book, "Motion Graphics and Effects in FCP."

AND special guest, Academy Award wining Editor Walter Murch who spent over 2 hours sharing his "experiences" on using FCP to edit the movie, "Cold Mountain." And sharing tips and his thoughts on editing film. Amazing night.

6:45- 7:15PM - Stump the Gurus
Join FCP Gurus, Ken Stone, Andrew Balis and special guest Gurus, Steve Martin of RippleTraining, and author Lisa Brenneis, as they will attempt to answer all of your questions and solve all of your problems concerning FCP. If they can't solve your problem or answer your How 2, then you get your pick of the raffle table. Of course you still go home with your problem but you get your pick of the raffle table.

7:20PM - 7:50PM - "What Filmmakers Need to Know About Visual Effects" - Alex Lindsey
What you MUST know BEFORE you shoot a movie that has ANY visual effects. Alex Lindsay, former member of Industrial Light and Magic's "Rebel Unit" and founder of dvGarage, will walk you through what you need to do on the set to make your Visual Effects Supervisor (for beginning filmmakers...the students at the local art school) love you! If you ever plan to shoot a movie with ANY visual effects, you need to know these tips! Topics covered: Photogrammetry, Blue/Green Screen keying, HDRi lighting, Matchmoving and more...
Note: This is NOT on the DVD

8:10PM - 8:40PM - Final Cut Pro Effects Tips and Tricks - Kevin Monahan
FCP Guru and co founder of SFCutters, the San Francisco FCP User Group, Kevin Monahan will give us the low down on how to do some very cool effects in FCP 4. These How2s are a part of Kevin's new book "Motion Graphics and Effects in FCP."set to ship Feb 20 2004. Kevin will also be selling a LIMITED supply of the book in the lobby before the meeting and during the break.

8:40PM - 9:00PM - Break
Kevin Monahan will be in lobby selling his long awaited book "Motion Graphics and Effects in FCP." for the LOW LOW price of only $30.00. There will be a very limited supply. First come, first serve. Intelligent Assistance will also be in Lobby selling their latest creations, Practical Color Correction and Killer Titles for Calligraphy and LiveType. MicroNet will be showing it's SanCube solution for OSX. lafcpug will once again begin selling "Lafcpug on DVD" beginning with Januarys 2004, "Doc Night." Price will be $20.00. And, God willing, Charles McConathy returned along with the boys from Promax to show off toys.

9:00PM - till we drop - FCP and "Cold Mountain" - Walter Murch
Academy Award winner Walter Murch and his first assistant Sean Cullen first walked into the offices of Digital FilmTree in Hollywood over 2 years ago to learn about this new NLE system, named Final Cut Pro in the hopes that they might use it for an upcoming movie they were doing titled "Cold Mountain." After a brief training session with the boys at DFT they decided that indeed FCP was right for them and off they went to Romania with a half dozen or so FCP workstations in tow and 15 months later the film was in the can. The real story is what happened during those 15 months. Mr Murch will be in Los Angeles to attend the Academy Awards as a nominee for Best Editing for Cold Mountain and one of his many stops during his brief stay will be with lafcpug. He will share "war" stories on using FCP to edit Cold Mountain and take your questions. Walter spent 2 hours with us sharing his knowledge and love for what de does. It was quite a special treat.

World Famous Raffle -
Various Books - CMP Books
FREE DVD Studio Pro 2 hands on Training Class - DVCreators.net
FREE FCP 4 hands on Training Class - DVCreators.net
SheerVideo Pro Codec -http://www.bitjazz.com
Various Books - O'reilly Books
2 copies of DV Matte Pro ($199.00 value) dvGarage
1 Super Pack ($1200 value)- dvGarage
1 Membership to the Online Pixel Corps through August 31 ($125 value) -dvGarage
Copy of Final Draft and Final Draft AV - Final Draft
Copy of "Motion Graphics and Effects" by Kevin Monahan - PeachPit Books
Copies of Motion Graphic Backgrounds - 12 inch Design
COPIES OF LIVEFONTS VOL 1 - LiveType Central
2 copies of ProMax QuickStart Training DVD-ROM for Final Cut Pro 4 - Promax
2 FCP 4.0 Keyboard KeyGuides - Neotron Design
2 Royalty Free Stock Footage CDs - ThinkStock Footage
Killer Titles for Live Type and Calligraphy - Intelligent Assistance
Practical Color Correction For FCP - Intelligent Assistance
DVD Companion Pro Pack - Recipe 4 DVD
1 T-shirt - kenstone.net
13 copies of lafcpug DVDs (Oct 01 - Oct 02)- lafcpug

Special thanks to Jim Perry and Dennis Garten for filming the show, Ken Stone for taking pics and Promax for footing the bill