Splice Now

This site has been called “Splice Now” for many months now, but the original “Splice Here” URL has continued to work. That time is now coming to an end. Sometime in the next few days, the SpliceHere URL will be formally transferred to a post house in Minneapolis, the result of a trademark dispute. Please double check your links and subscriptions and make sure they are pointed to splicenow.com. Once the transfer is complete, links to splicehere.org will stop working.

These are the correct links:

• URL — http://www.splicenow.com
• RSS feed — feed://splicenow.com/feed/

Today, the Splice Here blog officially becomes Splice Now. The old name was taken from the last frame of the standard SMPTE Picture Academy — the leader that was once attached to the head of every reel of cut film in most US editing rooms. The new name doesn’t have the same historical resonance, but I hope it conveys a sense of the transformative energy that has been buffeting post production lately. (As I mentioned earlier, the name change was necessitated when a post house in Minneapolis trademarked the phrase “splice here,” making those words proprietary.)

Of course, we rarely splice anything physical anymore — we just attach strings of ones and zeros together. Splicing has become a metaphor, but it remains the essence of what we do, connecting material at just the right moment, creating conflict or synthesis, generating new ideas and manipulating space and time. Without it, filmmaking would be a very different animal.

Needless to say, the substance of this blog won’t change: I’ll continue to focus on digital post production from the unique perspective of the editing room, with a healthy dose of Media Composer technical tips. And as before, I’ll include occasional thoughts about media and society, as well.

Please be sure to update your bookmarks and RSS feeds. The old ones should continue to work for a while, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. The new url is http://splicenow.com. The new feed is feed://splicenow.com/feed/ (For more about RSS, click here.)

I’d like to take this moment to thank you, my readers. With file-based cameras taking over and competition heating up between editing system manufacturers, post production is experiencing yet another wave of change, and editors need all the information they can get. I hope to reward your loyalty with plenty of useful discussion here. Many thanks for your attention and for your comments.

As I announced way back in September, the Splice Here blog will be renamed Splice Now, tomorrow. The change was necessitated when a small post house in Minneapolis trademarked the phrase “splice here,” making those words, long a part of the standard editing room lexicon, proprietary.

Your links and RSS subscriptions should continue to work for a while, but to be safe, you should update them.

The new url will be http://splicenow.com (note the change from .org to .com).
The new feed will be feed://splicenow.com/feed/

More details tomorrow — along with a minor redesign.

Due to an unfortunate trademark controversy with a post house in Minneapolis, the Splice Here blog will shortly be rechristened Splice Now. I’ll be doing a minor redesign to go with the name change, but in other respects, the blog won’t change. The content will continue to be a mix of technical tips and thoughts on digital editing, along with a dash of media criticism. Your old links will continue to work, at least for a while, but for safety, you should update your bookmarks and RSS subscriptions. More on that when the change goes live.

For those of you who remember the SMPTE academy leader, the words “Splice Here” were printed on the frame where the leader attached to the body of the show — and many of us cut and spliced a whole lot of Splice Here’s over the years. The new name doesn’t resonate the same way, but I like to think it expresses something deeper. Physical splicing is mostly gone, but putting video and audio together at exactly the right moment is, and always will be, the essence of what we do.

I hope Splice Now suggests that splicing is an idea, above and beyond its physical manifestation. Whether we use glue, scotch tape, or ones and zeros, at the end of the day we are shaping performance and story, space and time, juxtaposing images and ideas. This blog is mostly about the technique of editing, but none of it means anything if it doesn’t allow us to create stories that affect audiences.

The new url will be splicenow.com. It’ll work today, and the name change will be official very soon.