Al Bergstein
Forum Replies Created
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I own a 5Dmkiii, a mixpre-d and a Marantz. PMD-661. I am usually a one man band. I use all three in many occasions, but not always. Just the other day, I shot a community meeting, and used the PMD to take high quality sound “off the mixing board”. I shot the meeting with the 5D and the mixpre-d, partially so I could do interviews if needed. So having the Marantz is worth the purchase for getting that professional sounding mix that will set your work apart, and you can set it up, turn it on, and forget it. But don’t use it to feed the camera, just to have the backup sound. I throw them all on the timeline and can easily find the sync points without using PluralEyes, which I sometimes do use.
The Mixpre-d is not absolutely necessary, as the 5D and the GH3 both have very good sound in, with very little hiss. (the hiss is more a function of the mic than the preamps on these two cameras. But your HPX might be a different bag, as I have owned an HMC150 and now own a xf305 and 105. These camcorders usually have more hiss in their preamps than I’d like, and yes, running any mic through the Mixpre-d into the line in will give you a much cleaner signal. It’s sort of silly that a still camera like the 5D would have cleaner sound from the mic input than the xlr based camcorders. I sometimes wonder what these engineers are thinking.
Al
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I use the Rode wired lav on my Mkiii, I don’t understand what Eric said at all. I don’t have any power to my lavs that I plug into the Mkiii. I have an extension cord to get the lag just far enough away so that I can do head and shoulder interviews, and I get darn good sound out of it.
This is a short video I shot in two days for a volunteer group I work with. They just wanted to highlight a few of their members. These were shot with a wired, unpowered lav directly into the Mkiii. I think that while the storyline isn’t exactly thrilling, the audio quality is fine.
Al
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Hi. I have a PM661, and never have had a problem with cards in my computer. Try using the USB connection from the Marantz though.
You didn’t state some obvious things. What computer are you using? How old is the card reader? (some high capacity cards are not able to be read by certain older readers). etc.
The PMD uses a file system supported by Windows, but should be readable by any modern Mac.
Al
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I also have the same card as Graham, a similar processor setup and I also shoot xf305 footage. NB constantly crashes, when on the same timeline as other footage. Oddly enough, this problem moved to my laptop, which had a different card, while Vegas stabilized on that laptop. However, I’ve also stopped using Vegas on dual monitors, and again, Vegas is stable now, when I need to use it. I can usually get it to crash when previewing on a second monitor
A possible workaround for the New Blue problem is as follows, and I’ve had no problems when needing to use Vegas since doing this.
(first off, make sure you have upgraded NB to the latest version, not that it will help).
Create your timelines and do your normal editing of footage. Get as close to done as you can.
Save your work and open a new project, a new timeline.
Do all your New Blue work on that timeline.
Render your title(s) only as long as they are needed (i.e. 5 second title) to the exact same footage as you are using (I render mine to MXF)
Add them back into your original timeline and finish the project.While this seems ridiculous, and I never have to do this with competing NLEs, this does allow me to update older projects for clients, add new titles, etc, and never have a crash, knock on wood.
New Blue is a very buggy product, IMHO. I would recommend picking up Boris or one of the other competing products, if you are using Vegas. And I agree, ProTitler can be problematic as well, though since implementing this NBlue regime, and sticking to single monitors, ProT has been more stable as well.
The whole thing is rather sad, because Vegas is a very fast product to work on, when stable. I’ve used three NLE’s in total, and I prefer working in Vegas when it works. And I still can’t get 12 to even open a project without crashing on my machine. So I’m living in 11 when I need to use Vegas.
Al
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I’ve not seen any questions about the SD cards reliability on the 5Dmkiii in recent posts, and I assume we would have if there was a problem. My own experience, on other non 5D HDSLR’s was that the SD cards seemed less reliable. I did have card failures, but since moving to CF cards, both on 7Ds, 5Ds and xf100 & 300s, I’ve not experienced any card failures.. Maybe I’m just lucky. A sample of 1 person, even with 10 cards, is not a great sample. I do believe that the SD card connection is a physical slide in connection, and I always worry about touching that connection over and over, so I try not to. The CF cards connectors are hidden, so less likely to be corrupted by skin oil, or whatever else might be on your fingers if you accidentally touched the connectors.
I never experienced SD card failures on my HMC150, when I owned one, either.
I do worry about shooting 64GB cards, for the very reason you mention. The discipline of not putting ‘all your eggs in 1 basket” is worth it for me, though to be clear, when I started buying 32GB cards, people were saying the same thing! Ultimately, if I’m worried about losing a shoot, I pickup the xf305, with dual redundant recording.
Al
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Chris, you should do some testing with your camera. Shoot in bright light, dim light, multiple ISOs and f-stops to learn where your camera is ‘grainy’ and where it isn’t. Post those examples when you do, and we can give you feedback. Shooting in low light, with little contrast, and underexposed, is a good way to get a ‘grainy’ look. I had a T2i for about a year, and there was very little problem with ‘grainyness’. There were other issues, like overheating, I encountered, but properly exposed footage and an understanding of how your camera works in different ISOs is a key to becoming a better cameraman.
Good luck.
Al
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Ah. Ok. Thanks for clarifying this. Glad to hear you are pricing well! That’s always the right start. What you describe is what’s called a ‘subcontractor’ I believe here in the states. You are saying that they would work for you as a subcontractor, and you would pay them? That might work, yes. But I would still check with your accountant to clarify any government rules on having that person in the same physical space. Brings up issues like insurance, etc.
Al
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Thanks Mads. Yes, I do a very detailed job of specifying that we have to work in “pre-production” phase and “production/post production” phase. I usually require a set of steering committee monthly meetings, a storyboard and a script, if only to detail key technical concepts that need to be conveyed. I also usually require either 1/3rd up front, or the ability to bill for my time monthly as I go along. I’ve not had a failure in 3 years of doing this, but was curious as my business is growing (I’ve just won another project and have a likely sure thing under contractual discussion). So I’m starting to ponder if there is a tightening up of my processes to avoid customer dissatisfaction after jumping all their hurdles.
Al
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Mark is very right on with this, and this is all good advice. The basic thing you are facing is that you are ‘under-capitalized’. I was too, once. And I eventually sold my business because I was in the same cycle you are in now. I went out and did other work for a number of years before I came back to this being properly capitalized. My buddy who I sold the business to, ran it on a shoestring for another twenty years before he sold it for a profit. But he had a great time and did good work. There was enough money for one employee, but not two.
Do not take on other employees until you know that you can afford them. You might consult your accountant and your banker, which helped me gain what’s called “accounts receivable” financing to bridge bigger jobs properly. Not sure if that’s standard practice in Israel, but I bet it is. But bringing on employees adds a lot of work to your load. Payroll, and other government mandated programs and processes.
But do raise your rates, as described. I remember reading that even the great photographer Edward Weston was living in poverty on the California coast, complaining of not making any money, and I believe it was Ansel Adams who told him to raise his rates. He did and got more work than ever before. So he continued raising his rates and still got more work. I believe he eventually hired an assistant (G). You might be getting too much work because you are too cheap. Those customers often aren’t great clients, either.
Lastly, one of the key things that you should remember, in any job, is pay yourself first. That keeps your number one employee happy (G).
Best of luck Zvi. Kul Tuv.
Al
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It brings up one other issue, that perhaps you folks run into. What is your definition, in your contracts, of ‘acceptance’ of the product? This is a grey area. If you have a steering committee of powerful players within the organization, how do you go into the project defining what the acceptance criteria is? I know going in what the idea for the final video is for clients, i.e. cover the following topics, 7 to 9 minute film, etc. But actually specifying, so that Tom could avoid being told that he failed in his job, (something he might not be aware of). He should be able to say, ‘according to the contract, we accomplished the goals as set out in the contract, in the storyboard and in the script. Or is that too much to ask?
Al