Alan Lloyd
Forum Replies Created
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Actually, a “garbage matte” is done in post, and is just masking out an area that does not get any rendered keying. Done with masks in After Effects, for example.
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I was very sad when Kalinowski’s, on Milwaukee Avenue, closed some years ago. Their plum pierogi were truly carb nirvana.
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Not all dimmers are created equal. Well-shielded ones tend to induce far less noise than bad ones. Residential dimmers are often quite bad for this – mostly because they end up in plastic boxes inside walls. I’ve built my own, well-grounded and fully enclosed in metal cases, and had no trouble with induction noise.
Another good option is router speed controls. They’re able to handle 1000W, are quite robust, and well-shielded. Not only does a client have some, a local rental and sales house sells them to the trade for dimming purposes, and they have heard no complaints from their production pro customer base.
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I had a client once, a few years ago, who insisted on sending me not only a reference diagram for a three-point lighting setup, but also a 50MB video file – where one good frame grab would have served. (It was a shoot of someone demoing software at a computer – they did not move during the demo.) And badgering me on shoot day several times as well, interrupting the flow of the project. Easily one of the least professional clients ever.
His best bet is to send a frame grab, diagram the plot as used beforehand, and ask for a photo to be emailed beforehand (with a “stand-in” if possible) so it could be done on setup rather than delaying the shoot.
Real-time monitoring is clearly not an option.
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Mark:
I just re-read your initial post and noticed the HD part. This is going to complicate matters and increase expense. By quite a bit. Video Toasters, AFAIK, are not yet HD capable.
In fact, the term “Toaster” is now dropped in favor of VT[5]. They are very capable machines. SDI, component, graphics, hard-drive recording, streaming capable, they can do it. No HD yet, though, except in editing.
Linky goodness: https://www.newtek.com/vt/index.php
It’s a very good choice for this. Self-contained, and it works.
(I have no material interest in VT[5] or NewTek, just thought this was something worth mentioning.)
There is also the TriCaster, which is slightly less massive and still very nice – I have used them repeatedly in multiple situations for a number of projects, and they just work.
More linky goodness: https://www.newtek.com/tricaster/index.php
But of course, they’re not Mac-based, so according to the original poster, they can’t possibly be used for “creativity”…sigh…
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…the Peppers are made as more or less a single-piece cast housing. They are very sturdy (although slightly heavier than Arris), but they are also typically quite a bit less expensive.
Until someone drops one. An Arri can then be repaired with a Philips screwdriver, while a Pepper will need to be replaced.
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Absolutely.
Some people just get an idea stuck in their heads and nothing on earth will pry it free.
(sigh…)
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Can you suggest any other examples?
Any Star Trek parody…ever! Maybe the single most overused anything in corporate communications history.
And I am hoping there is a special layer of hell Dante never even had the vision to imagine for whoever the guy was that first came up with the “words/colon/more words” scheme of titling video pieces.
One of the better scriptwriters I knew always had a mantra – “People aren’t that stupid!” That abomination you posted is a sign of someone with absolutely no respect for a prospective audience. Bury a message under grotesque makeup and histrionics like that, and they deserve outright rebellion.
When in doubt, tell ’em what you’re gonna tell ’em, tell ’em, tell ’em what you told ’em – and close it up. Clever and funny work if and only if the writing – and talent – behind it are extremely good.
I rate that piece a “double facepalm”, myself.
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You are one very clever fellow.
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Dan – the way to solve this is spatial. Have people move through the frame at angles, coming forward or receding, not simply crossing. This won’t eliminate flicker/stutter, what it will do is make it less apparent. Watch well-directed, well-edited features. (Mostly older features, as many now are neither.) Rarely if ever does action cross the screen directly. It advances or recedes.
Depth of action, if not necessarily depth of field, is your friend.