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Diplomatic approach to clients with badly set-up monitors
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we unfortunately can never win this battle. You setup a monitor, and then they turn on the florescent overhead lights, and say “gee, that looks terrible”. So you adjust, and then they turn the lights off. One minute plasma, one minute LCD, and the next, the downconverted signal on an old Sony CRT in analog. You can’t fix the 0IRE digital / 7.5 IRE analog problem – this is the way SMPTE decided on this. (How come the blacks are crushed, how come the blacks are so hi).
My recent favorite was at Brighthouse Networks with a new install and a Sony LMD-2050 LCD monitor. “How come the graphics look so terrible and jagged”. Thank God they had a Sony PVM-20L5/1 monitor in the same room. I looped the video into the Sony CRT, and all the “jaggies” were gone. It’s tough to tell a client that their new $3000 LCD HD Sony monitor is a piece of crap.
Bob Zelin
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[Bob Zelin] “It’s tough to tell a client that their new $3000 LCD HD Sony monitor is a piece of crap.”
But I would LOVE to have been in the room when you did….
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[Bob Zelin] “It’s tough to tell a client that their new $3000 LCD HD Sony monitor is a piece of crap. “
Now you all know why Bob berates folks on the lists. He can’t tell it to his clients, so he vents here. 😉
Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca -
[Terence Curren] “Now you all know why Bob berates folks on the lists. He can’t tell it to his clients, so he vents here.”
Hey Terry, he said telling ’em was “tough,” but anyone who has been around Bob any time at all — and you have known him for years both here and on the Avid-L — knows that tough means he takes a thought or two before telling them. (But never more than a couple of thoughts and maybe a breath or two.)
:o)
Ron Lindeboom
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[Ron Lindeboom] “tough means he takes a thought or two before telling them.”
Bob’s “diplomatic approach” is a deep bite, but without the full dose of venom.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Hey I love Bob! I’m just having a hard time imagining him holding his tongue around his clients… 😉
Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca -
[David Roth Weiss] “Bob’s “diplomatic approach” is a deep bite, but without the full dose of venom.”
Yes, stiffened immobilization but not complete removal from the pages of life itself. You can still see life from there, just not feel it much…
Ron Lindeboom
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[Terence Curren] “Hey I love Bob! I’m just having a hard time imagining him holding his tongue around his clients…”
Yes, some things are so unlikely that even the imagination fails in its power to go there.
Ron Lindeboom
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One of the first times I realized the power of Creative Cow was at Brighthouse Networks in Pinellas County in Florida. Out of the blue, someone said “hey, we read your article on Creative Cow”. I had no idea that they even looked at Creative Cow. (I guess with 80,000 hits a day, everyone looks at Cow). So belive me, I am very nervous about “telling stories” on Creative Cow, and naming names, when “everyone” may in fact be reading it. Terrance is correct- I can’t yell at my clients (I want to get paid), and so I take my frustrations out on these forums, but Cow is becomming so wide spread, I may stop naming names – particularly on product specific forums like AJA and Blackmagic, as everyone that owns one of their products is looking at these Cow forums.
Being a “smart ass” may be funny here, but not when it affects the pocket book. When I showed the client the graphics problem with the Sony LMD vs. Sony CRT monitor, I believe I may have smiled and said “you tell me, what’s the problem”. I would never make comments in real life, like I do on these forums – not to a paying client.
My earliest “antics” before the internet existed was only to protect paying clients, when I would storm into big facility master control room in NY, armed with a calibrated Tektronix waveform monitor and a single BNC cable (and the clients tape), bypassing the receptionist, and saying “ok, you show me where the blanking error is”. This was as wild as I used to get.
Bob Zelin
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If you know they will be viewing it on a PC and you are exporting to H.264, use this method to correct prior to handing it out.
“After you create the QuickTime/h.264 file, open it up in QuickTime and select “Show Movie Properties.” Highlight the video track then click on the “Visual Settings” tab. Towards the bottom left you should see “Transparency” with a drop-down box next to it. Select “Blend” from the menu then move the “Transparency Level” slider to 100%. Right after that, choose “Straight Alpha” from the same drop-down and close the properties window. AND finally, “Save.”
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area
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