MediaHuman Audio Converter

Here's a handy FREE app to convert Audio pretty painlessly.

MediaHuman Audio Converter

It's pretty straight forward in use. Drag audio files in, set output format and hit go.

Don't forget to head to preferences and set it's output destination to someplace you'd like first. I set it to source folder, the default is in iTunes' music folder.

Image Capture not showing Photos or Videos on connected Phone

I've run into this a few times. The solution turns out, while simple, is completely non-intuitive.

The problem:

You've connected a client's phone to pull off all the "tons of absolutely great" videos and photos they've taken to "help" with the project. And you, being the editor kinda-sorta have to use them because heck, the client themselves took them just for you for their project.

You connect their phone (or iPad or whatever) to your Mac via the cable and launch Image Capture and nothing shows up. Both the Mac and the phone just sit there. Wonderful.

The solution:

Launch iTunes.

Yep. It'll ask if you want to access the connected device. Hit "Trust" on the phone and they'll show up after a few seconds in Image Capture and you can just highlight them all and drag them off and "forget" to use them later on because they're useless and blurry and shaky.

ProTip:

If you want to "untrust" the phone on your computer or they insist they do (Security! they say, "It's the business phone and our IT guys need it to be secure.") what I think you do, is this mess:

Reset the Lockdown Folder.

Yes. Hard as it is to believe that's how it's done.

If you just want to Untrust the phone you just trusted just now, open the Lockdown Folder and then sort by date created and delete the most recent one.

MediaPreview's 8mm Stock Footage Depot

In the past I reviewed MediaPreview's 8mm Distress Kit which is a pretty cool way to add 8mm film effects to your footage. Recently, they've opened up an 8mm stock footage archive which going by their sample footage has some pretty interesting glimpses into the past. Footage like this is immensely helpful for flashbacks, retro-projected footage for projects, tv footage, music videos or (good or bad) art installations, etc...

You can check it out here. 

Can't Open a PowerPoint to Import into FCP

I ran across this today and the fix is simple.

I have a powerpoint that's a .pptx PowerPoint file. That means it was created in PowerPoint 2007 or later. Now, .ppt is for earlier versions than I think 2007. A client sent me a link to a PowerPoint that was to be used in an edit and for some reason QuickView nor Keynote could open it. Keynote threw out an "Import Error".

I then noticed that the file was filename.pptx.ppt when it should have just been .pptx. Somehow the download  service that they used to send me the file for some reason appended on .ppt to the file.

Changing the file from .pptx.ppt to it's original .pptx file extension solved the problem of opening it in Keynote.