I’ve just returned from the decidedly retro Doubletree Times Square, where you’ll think you’ve time-travelled to a swanky club circa 1964 when elevator door opens on the 3rd floor lobby full of purple glass chandeliers, mirrored this and that, all at some attempt at a creating a louche atmosphere that long ago departed the Deuce.
But that shouldn’t stop you from a visit to the New York Post Production Conference. Now moved from its first years at a West 34th Street multiplex, this annual production and post training session now feels more intimate. Besides, it just gets better each year with the quality and variety of courses made available.
Created and staffed by lower Broadway headquartered Future Media Concepts, (NAB puts its name on the event too, as FMC runs courses at the confab in Vegas each April), the conference offers a free-ranging, relaxed atmosphere, where attendees can move among any of the three classes on tap at a time. If you’re involved in video, TV, film, and new media creation, you can choose among lectures such as Advanced Techniques for Final Cut Studio, Flash and After Effects Integration, and Tools or Toys? Examining DSLRs in Video Production. If you want to teach, you might study Final Cut Pro 7 and Motion 4 for two days in order to qualify for Apple Pro certification. (Check out the conference’s site for more: www.nypostconference.com.
The trainers are sharp, quickly moving through major topics but open to questions along the way. Richard Harrington is just one example of the level of sophisticated insight you’re able to tap here — he’s authored numerous books that make straightforward reads, including ones on using Photoshop in video production, beginning and advanced Adobe After Effects manuals, and co-authored many others (info available here: http://rhedpixel.com/rppro1/).
Like the other trainers I’ve met, he’s also very generous in answering questions long after the training sessions are over. Some of his best advice is even free, since Harrington, like many other late-of-DV-mag authors, blogs on the ProVideo Coalition web site. Want an example? For a useful lesson on the best way to move your footage from Final Cut Pro to After Effects, check out his most recent article.
