Skunk Fu!

I've just finished my first TV series!

In one way I'm sad that Skunk is wrapped, but in another I'm delighted that I had the oportunity to work on a TV series that has been sold all over the world with such a talented crew.

I started on Skunk Fu! in March 2006 as assistant editor to Joe Fitzpatrick. I really had no idea what was involved in editing animation. I thought I knew - but I hadn't a clue! In the last year and a half I have learned so much about editing, working with Flash animation, broadcast standards and a whole lot more, but my most important lesson was don't work with Avid Xpress Pro unless you really have to.... he he he

Skunk Fu! is due to be broadcast in the US in the coming months on Kids WB and is currently being aired on the BBC and ABC Australia (I'm sure it's on in other countries now as well).

Check out the website - www.skunkfu.tv

I have the Skunk Fu! promo clip on my website - www.alanslattery.com

It's here... Yay!

Gabor, the Hungarian IT guy here in the Cartoon Saloon Skyped my in his Hungarian IT guy way to tell me that An Post had delivered a box! My Canon HV20.

The first thing that hit me was the size. It's teenie... so cute!

The HV20 records 1080i HDV. It has a 3.1 MP still camera and a 1920x1080 CMOS sensor. The manual controls are a little hard to get used to, especially after been using full size cameras, HVX200s, DVX100s, and my XH-A1. The menu button, the all-in-one joystick/button for exposure, audio levels and shutter is right next to Menu button which is right next to the Record button... all a little too close for my awkward thumbs.

I shot a little footage around the house, got Daw making coffee and some exterior stuff, captured it into FCP and it looked deadly! Some of the settings I tried resulted in quite grainy footage, but it was dark enough on our landing of no-lightbulbs (!) so that's to be expected.

One thing I noticed was that Final Cut took longer to capture from the HV20 than it does from the XH-A1. Why? I-oun-o!

I have a shoot next week and I'm using both the XH-A1 and the HV20 so I'll post my comments on how the two compare then.

My New HV20

I haven't gotten it yet... but it's in the post.

AnPost.ie tell me it's in Portlaoise Mail Centre... I should definitely have it by tomorrow so.

I've been wondering what to buy as a second camera to shoot with my XH-A1 and I'v eben looking at the full range of AVCHD and HDV cameras - well by full range I mean anything made by Panasonic or Canon!

AVCHD really seems to be the way to go - even a "full HD" HDV format wouldn't sway me. The reason I went with HDV this time round is because I haven't the facilities to work with AVCHD just yet. The new (completely new!) iMove can work with it, but that came out the day after I bought the HV20!


I'm not sure if iMovie works natively in AVCHD or if it transcodes the footage to AIC on import - just as it does with HDV. It would be handy if it did transcode the footage, because you could very easily work with AVCHD and HDV in the same project - unless you are using FCP6 where you can have differently encoded clips on the one timeline.... But I only have FCP5.

Over the next few days I'm going to be playing around with the camera and I'll post my thoughts on mixing HV20 footage with footage captured by the XH-A1.