Al Bergstein
Forum Replies Created
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Yes, a camcorder is the better way to do these, as I’ve done them a number of times. DSLRs are not designed for this kind of work. That said, if you end up doing more of these, a way to do it is to sell your T3i and get a 5d that has clean HDMI output and then buy an external recorder like a Ninja that allows you to surpass the 30 minute limit. Why do that? So you still have your DSLR look that you like, and actually improve your quality. But really, if you are going to do this kind of work, investing in a camcorder is really the way to go. You can find lots of cheap used gear out there for this, or rent one if you live near a city.
I’ve fallen back to only doing audio taping of these kind of things. I reserve the video for pulling clips to do a shorter presentation of “best of”. That way if something really unique happens you have it “in the can” but don’t waste time editing unless it’s necessary.
I can turn around an audio tape in an hour and put it on Soundcloud. That allows people to do what they really want to do, which is listen to the taping. Next to that, I might include the speakers powerpoint presentations.
Al
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Nicolas, I try to never upscale as the results I’ve seen are always worse. So if you can deliver in 720 and shoot most of it in 720, I doubt your audience will notice any difference. Us pixel peepers might, but it’s unlikely to be of much consequence. I agree that if you are concerned you should try a demo bit before you get into it.
Al
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Well, it’s pretty simple, I would venture.
1. You can use the footage without paying for a permit, and if you get sued, pull down the footage, remove it from all festivals you have paid to enter it in, etc.
2. You can go back to the city and explain you were not clear about the permitting issue, you were informed when you got there, you are a young student that is just learning about these issues (if in fact you are), and that you had a crew ready to go. You’d expect you will be needing to film in the future in the city, want to stay legal with them, and ask them if you can retroactively file for permission this one time.
3. Hire a lawyer to intermediate for you.
4. If you are a student, check to see if there are some kind of student waivers for these things. If a film is for student use, you may be able to sign some waiver, but still get covered for the issues that the Parks dept. faces.As an example of why this is important, our small town allowed a small indie company to film along the beach bluffs under peoples homes. What the town didn’t ask, or tell them was how late they could film. Turns out they started setting off fireworks at 1AM right under some of the wealthier people’s bedroom windows. Technically they were legal, but the town now has gotten hard core on allowing any more commercial filming at a great location after dark.
Either way, you have shown why budgeting and pre-production planning is important. In our modern world, you can never assume you have the rights to shoot in any metropolitan area, except with the broadest of public areas.
Al
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It’s *so* easy to get misconstrued here. (G). The short answer to your question: Do I have as a business owner to force employees to do something not of their job if I want to get the most possible business done ? is No. It’s not their job. If I’m hired to edit, it means I didn’t sign up to clean toilets. Period.
Al
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Osama, perhaps we are talking a cultural difference here, since you mentioned your pay in Euros, and from your name I could assume you were raised in a different culture than some in Europe, but I could be wrong there also. Just to be clear, there are numerous women (and a lot of men) who would take your comments really the wrong way, and they could even be your clients! From this side of the Atlantic, your comments are not what American values are usually all about. We tend (and not everyone here is the same) to assume that no one is above cleaning up after themselves, or keeping their workspaces clean. My assumption is, if I care about it, I clean it. Having worked in the UK, France and Italy, I understand that management is not often expecting to clean up the rugs, but you sound like you are a startup, and rules are a bit different on that.
Your answer that your workers are employees is the answer. You need to hire this out if you don’t want to do it yourself. It’s the cost of being a business owner and profiting from the business. They were not hired to clean up the restrooms and vacuum carpets, and they don’t stand to make any profits from jobs that a clean studio brings in (other than ones they are working on). The job of maintenance is an operational job that is part of keeping the studio open, regardless if you have any work at all! It’s a cost of doing business.
Your employees are only there while needed, and when done they could care less if the place doesn’t get cleaned up. However, if it gets too messy they might work elsewhere where it’s cleaner. So if they value that and you value them, you need to provide a clean workplace. And of course, you care about your clients, but the employees assume you are the ‘owner’ of those client relations. So it really is only up to you.
Cultural differences are hard to understand. As an example, I just was told a story last week by a friend from Brazil. He told me that the N word in English is actually the opposite in Brazil, and is as common and acceptable as saying “black person” is in the US, like saying, “If you are looking for Al, he’s the tall black man usually dressed well”. And calling someone a “black person” in Brazil is the same as using the N word in the US. He found out the hard way the first time he taught a course up here in a college. He was apparently rattling on about how a type of music was played by a certain type of Brazilian and noticed everyone was looking at him really funny. He got pulled into the office of the Dean later that day, and eventually had the whole thing explained to him. Needless to say, he was never asked back to teach (G).
I would recommend that you might consider a documentary on following a housecleaner or office cleaner through a week of their work sometime. You might find it extremely interesting and I would suggest that the people doing editing all day are doing a lot less strenuous work than the person cleaning the buildings. Here’s a BBC expose of the industry from 2005.
https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4259608.stm
and the documentary it describes. Available on Vimeo. You might all want to sit down and watch this together!
https://vimeo.com/45803001Al
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all good answers, my only additions to this is it might depend on how the company is structured. If you are making all the profits, and the editors are simply hired hourly, or per job, it’s really your job to hire a cleaning crew, or do it yourself. If these folks are all partners in this business, and share in the profits, then it either should be a joint effort, or you should all agree to pay for a cleaning service. Remember that Gandhi cleaned toilets too.
Your comments of, “cleaning is so hard that a few hours of it makes me tired for the rest of the day.” sounds like whining. I’ve known too many women who wake up at dawn, get a bunch of kids off to school, clean all day and take care of dinner, to hear you say that you are ‘tired out’ from cleaning a small office for a few hours. That comment should be kept to yourself.
I always cleaned my studio myself, frankly. But I ended up marrying a woman who was crazy about cleaning so she always beats me to it at home (G). Lucky me.
Al
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I think my iMac is the latest i7. I’m on my MBPro right now so I can’t check. But when I bought it in January, it was still current top of the line.
I believe you can partition the Mac hard drive and choose which one to boot to. I’ve never bothered. Or use a virtual machine.
Al
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Lloyd, I’ve gone through much the same as you since 2010. Your 2008 machine is quite old but for DSLR HD footage, with 16 GBs of RAM, should do fine. Replacing it with the newer tower is not a bad idea either, but let me ask you a few questions.
Do you need laptop portability? And is this going to be your only editing machine that you can afford? If not, then you might prefer a newer desktop.
You can buy a brand new iMac 27″ for not much more than your Mac Pro used tower will cost. That’s what I sold my Mac Pro to buy. The 2 GB graphic card is great. I also have a MB Pro i7 16GBs RAM mid 2012. So I am familiar with all three machines. I much prefer using my iMac to my MB Pro for video editing. I use Premiere CC and CS6. I also do photography professionally and also prefer the iMac for working on stills.
If you buy the Mac Pro, you can add a USB 3.0 card to it. That helps. TB is not a panacea, just an interface. USB 3.0 is fine for most of what I do. I really can’t see a difference between them. But I have been moving towards all TB for future purchases.
I also use a eSata to TB box to be able to continue to use my eSata drives. This works fine with both by laptop and desktop.
I would wonder though what you are doing to the footage to have it take that long to render. Most of my footage is rendering on an almost 1:1 basis, maybe a bit longer. I don’t use lots of efx or looks to my footage, standard doc work. You will render much faster on any of these newer machines than your old 2008 does. If you are doing a bunch of stabilization in your editor, that will chew up processing a lot.
Another last thing to add about the MB Pro, it does run hot if you are using it for hours and hours to do rendering. Remember, it’s not really made for production work like this, meaning doing the overnight processing that film studios can end up doing. It can get the job done, and if it’s your only machine, you’ll be better off using it than an iMac, since you can’t take the iMac on the road.
Al
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I don’t understand what you mean by “Depth of View”. Depth of field? or something else?
As to shutter speed, there are numerous, in-depth tutorials and explanations found on the web. Just google “video shutter speed’ or some such thing.
As to setting your shutter speed on your T2i, it’s in the menus when video is active. Please read your manual, or if you don’t have one, download one from Canon’s web site. Again, that can easily be found by googling Canon T2i manual. I usually carry a manual for my cameras on my cell phone, computer and iPad so I know it’s always with me in a pinch.
Al
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Daniel. I’ve been through a lot of recorders in the last 5 years, and would have to say that if I was going to start over again, and wanted to try and get hired in the LA area (UCRiverside, right?), you might try and keep your eyes open for a used Sound Devices unit. They do come up on Ebay, seems like in waves. There haven’t been many lately. They are considered the workhorses, due to their ruggedness and specs.
Sort of have to decide how many mics you are going to run at once though, so given your goals the higher end seems to be the way to go. Or rent them when needed.A very good friend who does sound engineering for me and is super picky about sound, has always loved the specs of the Tascam, and recently bought himself a 680. He loves it. He does not do much pure field video production though. Usually he is stationary with control and electricity. For the price, to also be able to get Digital S/PDIF is a big deal to him, and is not available on most models in this price range. He claims the noise floor is super clean, but of course, there are others here that have argued that. All I know is that I’ve done video shooting of a long time pro musician, and he and my buddy have loved the audio results from the shoot.
I’m not sure you’ll love the onboard mixing abilities of the Tascam. You’d likely want to try it first on a 4 mic test shoot. You might find, for the price that you need a good mixer with bright LEDs also. Which then brings you back to the Sound Devices used price range. You can buy a 702 new for under $2k, and front it with any amount of mixer channels you want leading to the 2 in.
It really comes down to what kind of work you anticipate doing. If you can find the right rental shop in your area, I’d suggest that first. You’ll quickly find what you like to work with.
Al