Since Chris Fenwick is locked aboard a big bus careening across the American Heartland working on a top-secret editing job, planetMitch, and I chat with Kris Simmons of 6 Strong Media and Kre8insights.com.

In today's episode, we focus on our listeners' questions and comments. Wow! What a diverse, amazing group of people from all over the world who are listening to the show.

Special guest Walter Biscardi of Biscardi Creative and co-founder of Atlanta Cutters joins Chris Fenwick, planetMitch, and Carl Olson in episode #80 of the Digital Convergence Podcast.

Zacuto founder Steve Weiss joins the Digital Convergence Podcast panel to talk about the Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012.

Well, that's embarrasing.

No new Mac Pro was announced last week afterall.

Let me take that back. There was a "new" Mac Pro announced, but then a few hours later Apple removed "new" from the website description of the Mac Pro.

Anyhow, Chris Fenwick, planetMitch and I have a bit of fun with this on today's show. Also, I was hoping to talk about Autodesk Smoke 2013 since the trial came out a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, the Smoke 2013 trial went up in smoke with an installer error. So, the out of box experience for me with Smoke 2013 has, shall we say, gone up in flames.

This week on the Digital Convergence Podcast, Chris Fenwick, planetMitch, and I wrestle with disbelief the latest rumors of a Mac Pro refresh, and wonder does it even matter any more. We talk about desktop and notebook computers for post-production work, voice over talent, new "convergence" filmmakers in the news, the latest upcoming Atlanta Cutters group meeting, flying cats, freelancing and running your own production / post-production business, and the great user feedback we've been receiving about the show. In episode 77, we range far and wide over a number of topics. Focus - it's not happening in this episode.

Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends (even when I'm out on the road) thanks to Chris Fenwick, planetMitch, and Barry Anderson - another episode of the Digital Convergence Podcast - the show about photography, video and post production - hits the airwaves. Or the intertubes.

Today's hot topic: music licensing.

I think the Digital Convergence podcast team has pulled off another great episode. Thanks, guys!

Many filmmakers can recall a pivotal feature film they watched that caused them to say, "I want to make a movie." For some, it may have been Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odessey. For others, it may have been the summer of 1977's premiere of George Lucas' Star Wars. For our special guest on the Digital Convergence Podcast, Mike Carroll, it was Dvaid Lean's Lawrence of Arabia. Mike Carroll has long desired to make feature length films - not shorts - and to date has three feature length movies in distribution. Each movie was made on a small budget. Not only has Mike directed three feature films of his own, he is the author of two books.

His first book, Naked Filmmaking: How To Make A Feature-Length Film - Without A Crew - For $10,000 Or Less, chronicles in depth his journey to make feature length movies with minimal gear and very little money. One reviewer says this about Mike's book: "Carroll walks us through the joyful but often tedious and gut-wrenching process of one-man filmmaking every step of the way, giving detail after detail. He truly holds nothing back here, which makes for one of the best and most thorough books on making an independent film you can come across."

In this episode of the Digital Convergence Podcast, Chris Fenwick, planetMitch, and Carl Olson (that's me) have a blast listening to Mike's truisms of independent filmmaking. There's a lot of good content in this episode - thanks to Mike.

Also, planetMitch shares his experience in judging the 1st Annual APA Members Short Video Contest. Lot's a interesting movies produced by photographers who are transitioning from stills to motion.

planetMitch and Barry Andersson just went to the best film school ever: they pooled their money and resources, grabbed a couple of brand new Canon 5D Mark III's, lined up a stellar cast of actors and actresses, and shot a movie.Incident on Marmont Avenue is loosely based on a true story that happened to Digital Convergence co-host Chris Fenwick (you can read about the actual event here on Chris' website). planetMitch talks about how he and Barry came up with the idea, how they were able to secure top talent to appear in their movie, and why they told the story as they did.

Today's episode of the Digital Convergence podcast finds me face-to-face with Chris Fenwick who is working on location for a huge conference. Before recording the show in his edit suite, I got to the conference opener video that Chris crafted for three large video screens before an audience of over 600 people from all over the world. All I can say is, "Wow!"

planetMitch joined us via Skype today, too. We talk about a wide range of topics from doing video for large conferences, editing in FCP X, ergonomics for editors, and the 2012 Guerrilla Film Challenge where planetMitch is serving as a judge along with Koo of NoFilmSchool. You can read more about the 2012 Guerrilla Film Challenge on planetMitch's blog at planet5D.com.

Autodesk's Marc-Andre Ferguson joins Chris Fenwick, planetMitch and I today on the Digital Convergence Podcast to talk about Smoke 2013. Marc-André gives us the scoop on the new Smoke. With a price reduction from $15K down to a more accessible $3,495, combined with a slick new UI that will make most NLE users feel right at home - Smoke 2013 is poised to be the "super-app" that has proved to be elusive for so long. Instead of needing a multiplicity of applications to edit and finish, Smoke 2013 promises to be an all-in-one solution for many editors.