Had to share…

[Chuck Reti]

I recently posted this tale to a similar thread on the AVID-L2, but also seems appropriate here-

In the early days of Quantel, ADO etc. a director/producer on an auto spot got sold on the idea of shooting a car green screen, and then using the newfangled technology to make “3-D moves” of the car on a star field background. I pulled a decent key, and magically made the car (a full side shot), move across the screen. He then asked me to turn the car, a y-axis rotation, as if the car was on a turntable. When I did so, he went ballistic when it disappeared on edge, and he couldn’t see the front grille and headlights as it flipped around. It took some bit of explaining as to that we were rotating a two-dimensional picture of a car, in 3-D space with our Magic Box, not creating a 3-D image out of his single side shot, as he had assumed or been led to believe was supposed to happen. He had shot some front. rear and 3/4s but as statics, so they were not going to give him the look, either.
Soon after, the post staff had a meeting with the sales staff to explain the difference between 3-D graphics and movement in 3D space.
—
Chuck Reti
Detroit MI

[Tim Kolb]

[marisu fronc] “it took them 8 tries (on 8 separate occasions with 8 different couches)”

LOL!!!! ….oh, my sides hurt.

I am reminded of the line from “Dumb and Dumber”…

“I fell off the jetway again.”

TimK,
Director,
Kolb Productions,

Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Mark Frazier]

A story to explain the sound of my head pounding on the edit bay wall many moons ago…..

In the very early ’90s, I travelled to a Communist-controlled country with a large group of people, which included another news crew and some production people from a University. When we landed, we learned that our news cameras and the University camera would be “secured” for a day or two. We only got our news cameras back as we were leaving the country three weeks later.

For the duration of the trip, we were not allowed to touch any other video cameras, especially the only professional camcorder, a Hi8 setup that was quickly returned to the University shooter, who was the head of their Video Production department. He told us that he would provide us with a dub of all of his raw footage when we got back to the states, and we could produce our hour-long presentation with that. Sounded good enough; he was, after all, their main guy.

Unfortunately, the note he included with the footage he delivered said something to the effect that he was not overly pleased with the outcome of the footage. We could see why. Every single shot included plenty of footage of him positioning the camera, balancing the tripod, pan around and zoom in to get focused, then about a second of decent footage. Cut to him setting up the next shot. Repeat.

Thank goodness I did not have my still camera taken from me while we were there, because the end production was built almost exclusively from those still shots.

And people still wonder why I have such a problem relinquishing control of any aspect of my productions…..

[Tim Kolb]

I’ve seen some unusual runs of being on the wrong end of the “double punch”, but typically you notice it after a point…

TimK,
Director,
Kolb Productions,

Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Mark Suszko]

Yep, I got caught with that one just once, as a very young kid. they handed me a camera I’d never used before, a Hitachi, I think, and sent me out to shoot some 3/4. The in-viewfinder talley for record had a red and a green light. The intuitive thing was green meant “go, you’re recording” to me. Turned out in that camera green meant “paused in record mode” Red meant “rolling record”.
It taught me to always triple-check for things like seeing the reels turning. This is now another problem, as tape is disappearing, we get fewer and fewer moving mechanical visual cues regarding system operation. I always freak out now if using someone’s solid-state audio recorder for that reason: no reels to see moving!

Some guys I know worked freelance shooting a high school basketball tourney for the local station. They had a remote truck with switcher, and betaSP decks. During the half-time break, somebody stopped the deck, but left the REC button pressed and lit for E-E, and with free-run time code set, from a distance the deck looked like it was really recording. Nobody did a close check before the second half began. They didn’t record the second half of the show.

Since it wasn’t broadcast live, there was not even a home viewer’s VHS copy to borrow. The hosts had to verbally describe the second half of the game, from memory, after airing the first half of the show and a apology. imagine being the sales guy selling commercial time for the seconf half of THAT program!

That’s the real killer about basketball anyway: nothing matters score wise until the last 2 minutes. 🙂

[Chris Bové]

[Mark Suszko] “The in-viewfinder talley for record had a red and a green light. The intuitive thing was green meant “go, you’re recording” to me. Turned out in that camera green meant “paused in record mode” Red meant “rolling record””

Heh… yeah I did that too. Mine was during a live studio shoot. My first day on the job, we had the usual setup with a field cam mounted on rolling sticks and a massive viewfinder mounted atop it all… with red tally lights on either side of it.

Two stories in the same day actually (talking heads show – I’m supposed to get cutaways):
1) REHERSAL: Tally light is red – on or off. Idiot here thinks that red means it’s not being used. So for the whole rehersal I see no light on, so I think I’m the primary camera, slooowly panning to follow the action. Sweating bullets the whole time. Of course when the light finally turns red, I let go of the arms.

2) LIVE: They take my shot, and my editor’s brain takes over. Looking right at my viewfinder I mentally drift and start ‘watching TV’. Inner voice says, “Hmmm… that guy has a lot of headroom. Wow, now he’s got a whole lot of headroom. Wow, somebody on these headsets is really angry… someone must be in trouble… $#!T!”

______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chaz Shukat]

[Mark Frazier] “Every single shot included plenty of footage of him positioning the camera, balancing the tripod, pan around and zoom in to get focused, then about a second of decent footage. Cut to him setting up the next shot. Repeat.”

Oh my God, don’t get me started. If I had a nickel for every cameraman like this I’ve had to deal with in the edit bay, I’d be frikkin’ richer than Gates. Al Gore, forget about global warming, somethings got to be done about this problem. It’s an inconvenient truth that 90% of the people that work as cameramen don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to shooting and getting usable footage, let alone telling a story.
I say it’s the fault of all the cheap little camcorders that everybody has. They can work a camera but don’t have a clue about shooting. That’s because they have no training. Who is out there training cameramen? And sound, obviously they are not thinking much about the sound. I mean, it’s like learning how to drive a car. Before you can get a drivers license, you not only have to know how to operate a car, but you also have to know the traffic rules of the road. You have to study and be trained and oh God I’m gonna have a hemmerage! More than death, I wish for these people to have to edit their own footage. But if they edit like they shoot, that shouldn’t be a problem either.

Phew!. I’ll be alright now.