SCREWFILMS HAS MOVED.

SCREWFILMS is now [EMOTIONAL TECHNOLOGY], and can be found at http://mpmazzotta.wordpress.com!

See you in Wordpress Land!!

2012: The Year of 4K

I just found the BEST thread about our 4K future over at Reduser 

about our 4k future, started by none other than Mark Pederson, founder of Offhollywood (full disclosure, I worked in their lab. They're fucking rad.)





Here's Mark, from the post:

2012 is shaping up to be the year of 4K. 4K Projectors for the home from more than one manufacturer - 4K TVs from 6 manufacturers that I am aware of. (5 confirmed - 6th is an exciting wild card rumor) http://smarthouse.com.au/TVs_And_Lar...ED_TV/T8A4B6T8 You can talk all you want about the slow and poor transition to HD - and you can sit there shooting 1080p content and claim that it will be many, many years before we are watching TV shows in 4K - but .... you'd be DEAD WRONG. Things are VERY different now. TV is the internet. HBO GO has better compression in HD than some carriers. APPLE's VOD numbers for indie films are insane (in a good way). There's COMPETITION to deliver content - Google, Amazon, Apple, Hulu (with more than twice as much as the combined total of video streamed from the websites of ABC, CBS, the CW, Fox and NBC) - so .... delivery platforms will need to differentiate themselves with QUALITY. I'm aware of one early start-up company already working to be the first all 4K broadcast channel. 2012 the 4K dominos will fall. 1080 is the next Black and White. (and yes - you can still make a good movie in black and white ala "The Artist" - but harder when it comes to financing and selling the content)

Check it out HERE: 2012: "The Year of 4k" (from Reduser)

RED DRAGON: About Official as RED gets until it ships. . .

This came across my feed reader today. . . Looks like we've all got some 6K coming up in our future. . .


I, for one, can't wait to see some footage from this. . . here's hopin' I can import 6k into FCP7!!

Click here to go to the Reduser forum post!

From the Engadget Article:

Red Camera's bombastic CEO, Jim Jannard, says that internal testing of the new 6K Dragon sensor proves that it's the new "resolution and dynamic range king." He also claims it will be "the cleanest sensor you have ever seen, ISO 2000 looks better than MX [the current sensor] at ISO 800." The imaging chip was first outed at NAB in April, promising 15+ stops of DR and 120fps at a full 5K of resolution, with $6,000 upgrades for Epic customers by the end of the year. Owners of the $9,700 (brain only) Scarlet-X will also get the Dragon, though no price or date has been given yet for that camera. Needless to say, some independent testing will be needed to substantiate his claims, but Jannard sure does sound confident.

How to Train your Mountain Lion.

So, I took the plunge on and installed Mountain Lion on my Macbook Air. . .

Right now, everything seems to be running pretty smooth (Instead of doing a fresh install, I just upgraded my Crufty Lion install). . . and while I wait for my copy of David Pogue's New Missing Manual to show up at my door, I'm just gonna bang on it until it breaks.

Here's some neat tricks that I've found to jazz up your MLion Experience:

Open Notification Center with a Keyboard Shortcut in OS X Mountain Lion (from OSXDaily)
Notification Center keyboard shortcut
Mountain Lion 101: Notification Center in a hot corner (from TUAW)
I've been seeing this ping around the Blogowebz for the past day or so. . . it's kinda a no brainer, but still pretty neat. Also, a 2 finger swipe left from OFF the track pad will activate notification center, as well.



Customize OS X Mountain Lion’s Notification Center Background (From Lifehacker)

Install Java in OS X Mountain Lion(from OSXDaily)

Keep your Mac from sleeping in Mountain Lion (From Macworld)

Restore RSS Visualizer screen saver (From Macworld)



Also, looks like Candybar is free now. . . so check that out.
CandyBar, Mountain Lion, and Beyond
Panic's Candy Bar is now free, goes to Iconfactory (from TUAW)
Mac Tweaking Tool CandyBar Is Now Free, Updated for Mountain Lion (from Lifehacker)

DIT GIG @MLB Networks, Secaucus, NJ

Patton Oswalt is Awesome.

Here's a letter from Patton Oswalt to Comedians in 2012. Stolen from /Film

Dear comedian in 2012:

How are you? I am good. In answer to your last letter, the mozzarella sticks at the Irvine Improv do taste weird. I’m taking your advice and sticking with the nachos.

Hey, ‘know what I was thinking the other day? Everything I know about succeeding as a comedian and ultimately as an artist is worthless now, and I couldn’t be happier about that.

I started doing comedy in the summer of 1988. That was a different time, wasn’t it? Joe Piscopo was president, Mary Lou Retton won the Cold War, and Andy Kindler turned 50

If I hadn’t popped that goddamn ‘P’, the Piscopo joke would’ve annihilated.

When I say everything I know about succeeding a comedian is worthless, I know what I’m talking about because everything I know became worthless twice in my lifetime.

The first time was the evening of May 22, 1992. I’d been doing standup almost four years at that point, and that was Johnny Carson’s last ever Tonight Show.

Up until that night, the way you made it in comedy was very clear, simple, straightforward. You went on Carson, you killed, you got called over to the couch, and the next day you had your sitcom and your mansion, and you’re made. Just ask Drew Carey and Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen DeGeneres. And Bill Clinton. That’s how you did it.

But now, Johnny was gone and he wasn’t coming back.

All the comedians I remember starting out with in D.C., all the older ones, told me over and over again ‘you gotta work clean, you gotta get your five minutes, and you gotta get on Carson.’ And it all comes down to that.

And in one night, all of them were wrong. And not just wrong, they were unmoored. They were drifting. A lot of these bulletproof comics I’d opened for, whose careers seemed pre-destined, a lot of them never recovered from that night. You’ll never hear their names. They had been sharks in a man-made pond and had been drained. They decided their time had passed.

Keep that in mind for later. They had decided their time had passed.

The second time everything I knew about comedy became worthless has been petty much every day for the last three years.

I know that’s not an exact date. Some other younger, not yet famous name in this room – you are going to pinpoint that date 20 years from now. But for now, every day for about the last few years will have to suffice.

I just want to give you a brief timeline of my career up to this point, when I knew it was all changing again. Listen to my words very carefully. Two words will come up again and again and they’re going to come back later along with that phrase “they decided” and people are going to carry me around the room.

I was lucky enough to get hired onto King of Queens in 1998. I had nine years on that show. Money, great cast, even better writers, a lot of fun. I bought a house. Then I was lucky enough to get cast as a lead voice in a Pixar movie in 2007. Acclaim, money, I got to meet a lot of my heroes. Then I was lucky enough to get cast on The United States of Tara on Showtime. I got to watch Toni Collette work. I got to perform Diablo Cody’s writing. After which, I was lucky enough to get cast in Young Adult, which is where I got to make out with Charlize Theron. I will use that as an icebreaker if i ever meet Christina Ricci.

I’ve been lucky enough to be given specials on HBO, Comedy Central, and Showtime. As well as I’ve been lucky enough to release records on major labels, and I was lucky they approached me to do it. And that led to me being lucky enough to get Grammy nominations.

I know that sounds like a huge ego-stroking credit dump. But if you listened very carefully, you would have heard two words over and over again: “lucky” and “given.” Those are two very very dangerous words for a comedian. Those two words can put you to sleep, especially once you get a taste of both being “lucky” and being “given.” The days about luck and being given are about to end. They’re about to go away.

Not totally. There are always comedians who will work hard and get noticed by agents and managers and record labels. There will always be an element of that. And they deserve their success. And there’s always going to be people who benefit from that.

What I mean is: Not being lucky and not being given are no longer going to define your career as a comedian and as an artist.

Remember what I said earlier about those bulletproof headliners who focused on their 5 minutes on the Tonight Show and when it ended they decided their opportunity was gone? They decided. Nobody decided that for them. They decided.

Now, look at my career up to this point. Luck, being given. Other people deciding for me.

In the middle of the TV shows and the albums and the specials, I took a big chunk of my money and invested it in a little tour called The Comedians of Comedy. I put it together with my friends, we did small clubs, stayed in shitty hotel rooms, packed ourselves in a tiny van and drove it around the country. The tour was filmed for a very low-budget documentary that I convinced Netflix to release. That became a low-budget show on Comedy Central that we all still own a part of, me and the comedians. That led to a low budget concert film that we put on DVD.

At the end of it, I was exhausted, I was in debt, and I wound up with a wider fanbase of the kind of people I always dreamed of having as fans. And I built that from the ground up, friends and people I respected and was a fan of.

And I realize now I need to combine both of the lessons I’ve learned.

I need to decide more career stuff for myself and make it happen for myself, and I need to stop waiting to luck out and be given. I need to unlearn those muscles.

I’m seeing this notion take form in a lot of my friends. A lot of you out there. You, for instance, the person I’m writing to. Your podcast is amazing. Your videos on your YouTube channel are getting better and better every single one that you make, just like when we did open mics, better and better every week. Your Twitter feed is hilarious.

Listen, I’m doing the Laugh Trench in Milwaukee next week. Is there any chance for an RT?

Your friend, Patton Oswalt

Post-Resume 7/30/12

Mike Mazzotta

Professional Editor
40-53 97th st, Corona, NY 11368
Cell: 860.328.7623
m.p.mazzotta@gmail.com | http://about.me/mpmazzotta

---

Special Skills:

Offline Editing | Panasonic P2 Workflow | Sony SxS Workflow | Canon DSLR (5dMKii/7D) Workflow | RED MX/EPIC/SCARLET Workflow | Arri Alexa Workflow | OS X

---

Computer Skills:

Final Cut Studio | Shotput Pro | RedCine-X (Pro) | Clipfinder | Redrushes | RedCine | | RedAlert | Photoshop | Bru PE | Media 100 | Storm | MPEGStreamclip | Scratch / ScratchLab

---

Experience:

Feature Films:

• Editor: “Dan Is Missing”, Dir. H. Crown & W. Utley, 2012 [RED MX]
• Data Management Tech: “Beach Pillows”, Dir. Sean Hartofolis, 2012 [ARRI Alexa]
• Digital Lab Tech: "The We and the I", Dir. Michel Gondry, 2011 [RED Epic-M, 3D]
• Digital Lab Tech: “4:44 Last Day on Earth”, Feature, Dir. Abel Ferrara, 2011 [RED Epic]
• Digital Lab Tech: "Hellbenders", 3D Feature, Dir. J.T. Petty, 2011 [RED Epic-M, 3D]
• Ass’t Editor/P2 Tech: "My Really Cool Legs!", Documentary, Dir. Suzanne Guacci, 2010 [HPX-170]
• Editor: "Carpe Diem", Feature, Dir. Aaron Toboul, 2009 [RED MX]
• P2 Technician: "Plan B", Documentary, Dir. Beth Cramer, 2008 [HVX-200]

Short Films:

• Editor: “Passing By”, Short Film, 2012 [RED Scarlet]
• Editor: “Prometheus”, Short Film, 2012
• Editor: “Erection”, Short Film, 2012 (Official Selection, Cannes Film Festival) [Sony F3]
• Editor: "Change Me to Me", Short Film, 2010 (Winner 2011 'Best Student Film' Los Angeles International Underground Film Festival) [HVX-200]
• Editor: "Bert's Plan", Short Film, 2010 (Winner 2011 ‘Silver Palm Award, Mexico International Film Festival / ‘CINE Golden Eagle’ CINE Competition)  [16mm]
• Editor: "In the Name of Love", Short Film, 2010 [RED MX]
• Editor: "Coming Home."  Short Film, 2010 (Official Selection 2010 World Film Festival, Montreal) [HVX-200]
• Editor/RED Tech/On-Set Editor: "Cheating/Death" Short Film, 2009 [RED ONE]
• Editor: "GRACE" Short Film, 2009 (Official Selection Texas Black Film Festival) [HVX-200]
• Editor/P2 Technician: "Run", Short Film, 2009 [HVX-200]
• On-Set Editor/P2 Tech: "Stepsisters", Short Film, Dir. Kathleen Baggett, 2009 [HVX-200]
• Editor: "Robo", Short film, 2008 [HVX-200]

Misc. Projects:

• Editor, “Live from Isokon” Music Video Series, JBM, 2012 (featured on NPR’s ‘All Songs Considered’) [5DmkII]
• Editor, “Cage” Music Video, Van Ghost, 2012
• Digital Lab Tech: "I Just Want My Pants Back", MTV, 2011
• Editor: "Jonas Brothers/Demi Lovato Live Performance", Mark Haefeli Prod., 2010 [EX-3]
• Assistant Editor/Tech: "Taxi Cab Confessions", HBO, Aug. 2009
• Editor: "VampireFreaks Presents" Interview Series, VampireFreaks.com, 2008-2010
• P2 Technician: "Running Away", Music Video, 2009 [HVX-200]
• Editor: "K-I-A", Music Video, Dir. Ravin Ramkissoon, 2009 [XH-A1]
• Editor: "PROPAGANDA", Music Video, Donald Johnson, 2008 [HVX-200]
• Editor: "Devil Her Due", Music Video, 2008
• Editor: "Refinery 348", Music Video, The Basement Labs, 2007
• Editor: "The Associates", Music Video, Frequency Deleted Records, 2006 [DVX-100]

---

Certifications:

REDucation RED POST Training SN#003 Graduate, Dec. 2009
REDucation RED TECH Training SN#003 Graduate, Dec. 2009


Misc Work Experience:

Digital Lab Technician, Offhollywood - Manhattan, NY - 2011
Post-Production Teaching Assistant, New York Film Academy - Manhattan, NY - 2008-2011
REDOne Post Workflow Professor, New York Film Academy - Manhattan, NY - 2011
Post-Production Teaching Assistant, NYFA/Del York Film Academy - Abuja, Nigeria - 2010 

Manhattan Edit Workshop MC 101 Courses

Looks like the folks over at Manhattan Edit Workshop have some Media Composer classes coming up. . . Here's the info from their website:

MC 101 (Three-Day Version)

(Part 1) Editing Essentials with Avid Media Composer 6 - $1,295

This class is offered as a $995 weekend course (material is compressed into two-days with less lab time) or a $1,295 three-day course that introduces the concepts of nonlinear editing and includes all basic features of the Avid Media Composer system for Macintosh. This course is the first step in achieving confidence, creativity, and efficiency with Avid Media Composer 6, the non-linear film/video editing application used in most movie and television productions. Along with its counterpart, (MC 110) MEDIA COMPOSER 6: PART 2–EFFECTS ESSENTIALS, this course provides the foundation for Media Composer User Certification. This course leads you through the interface and basic editing techniques before moving on to trimming, fine-tuning the edit, adjusting audio, handling multicamera editing, adding transitions, adding titles, and outputting your finished project. The training is hands-on and features project-based lessons in which you work on real-world projects ranging from extreme sports and dazzling documentary footage to an episode of the television show Hell's Kitchen. This course is the first step in mastering Avid Media Composer 6, the standard editing system used by professionals in the film and television industries. This course targets: Producers Editors Assistant editors Multimedia producers This course is also appropriate for Avid Symphony users. Weekend and Three-day intensives are from 10am-6pm. The weekend class is a $995 compressed version of the class with less lab time. The Three-day class is $1,295 and spread out over three days only offered during the week. Students can also take the Avid 101 & 110 as a bundle week long class for $1,995. Please click here to see our Avid 101/110 bundle week long workshop.


Upcoming Dates

August 06, 2012 - August 08, 2012
September 10, 2012 - September 12, 2012
October 22, 2012 - October 24, 2012
November 12, 2012 - November 14, 2012
December 17, 2012 - December 19, 2012

I think I know what I'm doing in the off season this year. . . I'm REALLY looking forward to having Avid Certification. . . and then I can be a REAL BOY!!


In case you're wondering, here's the course outline for what's covered in the first class: [I'm a Link, You Should Click Me!]

JBM at ISOKON. . .

Here's some videos that I got to cut for JBM in support of his new record, STRAY ASHES.

From NPR's 'All Songs Considered':

If JBM's Isokon videos render our own Tiny Desk Concerts obsolete, then we may never forgive him, but "On Fire on a Tightrope" does capture a lot of the intimacy we seek in our own series. Stray Ashes is out now.

FUCK YEAH.

Purchase mp3s here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/stray-ashes/id523766749
LP and CD available here: http://westernvinyl.com/shop/

Directed by Mona Fastvold
Recorded & Mixed by Daniel J. Goodwin at Isokon Studio

Performed by Jesse Marchant, Jason Lawrence, Andrew Carlson & Anthony LaMarca
Cinematography by Jae Song & Cameron Dingwall
Edited by Mike Mazzotta
Colored by Nicole Benoit



(this is totally a playlist. . . check it out!)

Also, here's some press about this. . . here
here
here

Correct order for Onscreen Credits. . .

I always find myself scrounging around, trying to find the proper order for Onscreen Credits for projects. . .

For a long time, whenever I had to do it, I'd always just google it. . .

. . . but I shall google NO MORE!  Here is the DEFINITIVE LIST, as per DGA/WGA Guidelines. . .

OPENING CREDITS

PRODUCTION COMPANY presents

a NAME LASTNAME production

a NAME LASTNAME film

"TITLE"

Lead Cast

Supporting Cast

Casting Director

Music Composer

Costume Designer

Associate Producers

Editor(s)

Production Designer

Director of Photography

Executive Producer

Producer

Writer(s)

Director

CLOSING CREDITS

Director

Writer(s)

Producer

Executive Producer

Lead Cast

Supporting Cast

Director of Photography

Production Designer

Editor(s)

Associate Producers

Costume Designer

Music Composer

Casting Director

***if you credited the above in the opening, closing credits begin here ***

Unit Production Manager

First Assistant Director

Second Assistant Director

Full Cast / Character List

Stunt Dept

Production Departments (Grip, Electric, Camera, Sound, Wardrobe, etc)

Post-Production Departments (Assistant Editors, Visual Effects, Colorist, etc)

Song Credits

Caterer

Title Designer

Special Thanks

Camera, Lenses and Equipment Makers

Location of Final Sound Mix ("Recorded at...")

Copyright ©

Disclaimer

THE DISCLAIMER

"PERSON'S NAME OR PRODUCTION COMPANY" is the author of this motion picture for the purpose of copyrght and other laws.

This motion picture is protected pursuant to the provisions of the laws of the United States of America and other countries. Any unauthorized duplication, distribution and/or exhibition of this motion picture may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.

Characters and incidents portrayed and the names herein are fictitious, and any similarity to the name, character or history of any person is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

No animals were harmed in the making of this film.

(Shamelessly stolen from HERE)

"ERECTION" by Tannaz Hazemi

Here's a trailer for the Short Film 'Erection' directed by Tannaz Hazemi. This (as far as I know) was the first thing i've cut that's been screened at Cannes. . . here's hoping there's many more!!

A young couple struggles with a relationship that has run its course.

Luke Macfarlane
Bonnie Swencionis

Directed by Tannaz Hazemi
Written by Tannaz Hazemi and James Grimaldi

Director of Photography: Zack Galler

Editor: Mike Mazzotta

Production Design: Laura Miller

Asst Director: Isaac Lefevre

Sound: Clayton Castellanos

Pudding Boy Productions

You can read more about it HERE, and HERE. Also, IMDB













. . . and for the record, this is my favorite article about Tannaz. "Kissing the Tannazbian" by Sasha Owen Longfellow

Post is Production (From DITNERD)

Post Is Production from Light Iron on Vimeo.

Michael Cioni from Lightiron Digital talks about some of the new products in their fleet. In one take. For the Win.

From his post:

I hope that you all can appreciate the beauty that is this video/the technologies that Light Iron has created. I hope the one day get the opportunity to work with those guys, they are really at the forefront of developing what digital workflow is an utilizing all of the tools that great companies like DIT Station and many more have developed, please show them all your full support!

A digital imaging technician (DIT) works in collaboration with a cinematographer on work flow, systemization, signal integrity and image manipulation, to achieve the highest image quality and creative goals of cinematography in the digital realm.

Stolen shamelessly from Sam Gursky over at DITNERD

So, this is LinkedIn. . .

I've FINALLY broken down and signed up for LinkedIn. . . 

Anybody else use it?  Have you had really good experiences?

Please Comment Below, and let me know what you think/what you use it for. . .

Mike Mazzotta's Linkedin Profile

If it's good enough for the Gander. . .

My good friend Sam Gursky just posted over on his 'DIT NERD' blog about his OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE experience with Premier CS6. . . check it out here:

http://ditnerd.tumblr.com/post/23145001324/the-big-leap

FCPX Touchscreen Demo

FCP X Touch Screen Demo from Jason Rose on Vimeo.

Aksel Stasny's Film & Lighting tests. . .

Looks like my good friend Aksel Stasny has been busy. . . here's a series of Lighting & Film Stocks tests that he's been doing for his upcoming short. .. 

Original from here.

You can find out about Aksel's upcoming projects on his website, http://www.akselstasny.com/

The Post Dept. of Conan weighs in on Adobe CS6

I saw this floating around the web today. . . Conan's editors got their hands on Premiere CS6, and they dig it.  Check out the video!

Where do I put FCP Plugins Again?

I can never remember where to put FCP plugins to install them. . . so I found this handy guide.  

For the original post, click here.

Quicktime 7 & Quicktime X in Lion. . . (With Download Link)

I just downloaded QT7 from Apple's Support page, and when I tried to install, this was the error I got:

"Quicktime can't be installed on this disk.  This version of Quicktime 7 can't be installed on this disk because Quicktime X is already present.  Please use Software Update to install the appropriate version of Quicktime for your Mac."

So. . . yeah.  QT X is definitely NOT a replacement for QT Pro.  This is TRUTH.  Here's an OLD thread detailing some of the differences.

Obligatory Backstory:

Today, I had some issues with a Gamma shift in my QT's from FCP (long story short), and it looked like one of my solutions involved QT Pro. . . So, after much googling, I came across this Apple Support topic, that answered my question.

I was a little put off about how far I had to dig for this, so here is the direct download link. . . your mileage may vary, but this should give you the ability to buy a QT Pro license (comes with Final Cut Studio).

>>>Download QT 7 (Lion Compatible)<<< 

It's now installed, and is playing nice with QT X. . . No hacking required.  I just opened the DMG, and now i'm looking at QT Pro. 

If you're interested, here's some links that got me to my solution;

"Quicktime X alongside Quicktime 7? (from Apple Support)"

"QuickTime Player 7 for Mac OS X v10.6.3 or later (Support Page)"

Old Thread detailing some of the Differences between QT 7 & QT X (from Macrumors)

Inside QuickTime Pro's bag of tricks (from Macworld)

Well, I'm back. . .

I've been slacking.  A lot.  

So, here's a list of things that I'm going to do this year (Professional-wise).

• Learn Avid

•Learn Premier

•Learn FCPX

•Update this blog more

So. . . Yeah.  I'm gonna post a bunch of back stuff on this blog, and keep up with all the new things that I can.  The next few months are gonna be busy. . . but I'll find some time.

In the mean time, scroll through the old entries, and refer this to your friends!

On Modding an iMac. . . (UPDATED!)

***UPDATE***

Looks like there's an extra SATA connector on the Logic Board that I didn't know was there. . . check out this video from OWC about their Turnkey service, which covers ALL the options I talked about below!

***/UPDATE***

I LOVE my iMac.  The first Mac I personally owned was a 24" Intel iMac, and when it died a fiery, applecare-y death, Apple replaced it with a 27", and I've loved it even more.

The iMac might not be the most upgradeable machine, but there's still some tricks & tweaks that you can do to get the most out of your machine.

***Protip:  Most of these mods (with the exception of upgrading your RAM), will most certainly void your Applecare warranty.  Proceed with Caution.***

1) Upgrade your Ram

If you own a Mac, and you don't know about Crucial, then you're missing out. Crucial Ram is the same as Mac OEM ram, but at 1/2 - 1/3 the price. They're SUPER awesome, ship quickly, and have a HUGE stock of old ram for legacy Macs. . . if it runs OS X, then they've got ram for it.

If you're a lil' fuzzy on how to do it, check this link HERE.

2) SSD Boot Disk

SSD's are SCREAMINGLY fast.  Paired with the Max ram in your machine, this will totally boost performance.

I know this is a little anecdotal, but now that I have a Macbook Air w/ and SSD, I have seen the light.

Also, you don't need the largest one. . . You could probably get by with a 150gb Boot Disk, and have all the software you need installed (for example, Final Cut Studio w/ all the trimmings is ~40gb, and that's HUGE.  Adobe CS5.5 Master Collection is 25gb).

Bear in mind that getting into the guts of your 2010 iMac can be kinda harrowing. . . it's gonna be one of those things that you're probably only gonna wanna do once.  So, while you're in there. . .

3) Ditch your optical drive in favor of another Hard drive

Hard Copy sucks.  Optical Media is lame, and old, and I can't remember the last time I actually had to use it.

If there's space on the chassis for an optical drive, then there's certainly room for storage.

There's a couple of pretty cool kits out there (not that I have any personal experience with them). . . most come with all the tools that you'll need.  Here's a couple of links:

Installing additional SSD in Mid-2010 27″ iMac

iFixit Dual Hard Drive Kit Helps You Install a Second Hard Drive in Your iMac, Is Perfect for SSDs (from Lifehacker) 

Protip:  Make sure you get the right kit for your iMac.  Also, you could keep the stock hard drive in your imac, and then boot off your newly installed SSD.  Both connections are SATA, so they should have similar bus speeds, to take advantage of your new SSD.  

and, finally, the Cadillac of iMac mods. . .

4) eSata Port Hack

This is kinda old news, but it's still pretty awesome.

Check out this link to OWC (Other World Computing), and see what's up, if that's something you think you'd be interested in.  I'm not 100% that you'd still be able to add an SSD in place of your Optical Drive. . . that'd be a question for OWC.

Be sure to check out the <a href="http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/turnkey/iMac_2010_27/faq/">FAQ</a> on OWC's site for more information.

So, yeah. . . you've definitely got some options there.  Go forth, and rock out!

Big Ol' Bunch o' Links. . .

Here's a collection of links to stuff that I would have posted on this blog, had I been updating regularly. . . enjoy.

4 Simple Mac Maintenance Tips (from OS X Daily)
Things You Should Expect If You Start Freelancing and How to Prepare Yourself(from Lifehacker)
Why Videos Go Viral(from Gizmodo)
Reasons Behind the Demise of Kodak(from /.)



Top 10 Ways to Make the Best of an Old, Crappy Computer(from Lifehacker)
HD Monitor Calibration - SMPTE, ARIB, and White Balance



Order Off the Secret Menu at Starbucks (and Other Coffee Shops) for Better, Cheaper, or More Powerful Drinks
Improve the Quality of Enlarged Images with These Photoshop Tips (from Lifehacker)
USB 3 on a Mac

Best iOS tools for professional content creation (from Lifehacker)

Lifehacker has a really good article about the best iOS apps for content creators.  If you're in film, photo, or design, go check it out. . .

Hype v. reality: The best iOS tools for professional content creation

After Effects basics tutorials by Andrew Devis

Here's a whole mess of After Effects tutorials. . . definitely worth checkin' out.

After Effects basics tutorials by Andrew Devis

Jay Rabinowitz on Editing "Requiem for a Dream"

Here's some videos of Jay Rabinowitz talking about Editing "Requiem for a Dream". . .



Looks like Manhattan Edit Workshop has a bunch of cool videos over on their channel. . . check 'em out!
http://vimeo.com/mewshop

Editing Rig.

this is my Editing Rig, circa 2011.

Here's a brief list of some of what's there:

• 27" 3.2 Ghz Intel i3 iMac
• 32" Memorex TV
• Ancient LCD
• DSR-11 DV Deck
• Trinitron Broadcast CRT
• Mimo USB Monitor

There's a bunch of other stuff hiding in there (Hell Yeah, Nintendo Wii!!), but I don't really remember what they are. So Yeah.