Al Bergstein
Forum Replies Created
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Is anyone here actually *winning* government bids? I occasionally do one just for the exercise of keeping my grant writing skills current, but rarely assume I will win one. There are so many requirements that don’t have anything to do with skills, but to meet some federal requirement in contract awards. I did win one two years ago, working through a consortium of non profits that wanted to see a film done. It was low budget, but was worth making for them, and led to a current bunch of work that I’m doing for the husband of one of the people from the non-profits. It’s all about networking.
I sent in a government bid for a training video last fall, and simply bid it as best I could to make money. My hope was that if the other company failed, or they couldn’t find someone, that if I was called it would be on my terms. But I wasn’t. (G). At least not yet. That price allowed me to cover my base if I actually won it. The last thing I want is a job that I don’t want to do, when I have other, better, paying work. I have my plate full with some free work for non-profits I want to support, so don’t want to give away any more.
Al
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In addition to that great advice above, I would say that if you are serious about getting into film, and are thinking of spending four years learning it, then go to LA and do it where it’s done. Along the way, you might be able to actually get some experience making films, you might find that there are niches you prefer (and can actually find money to be made in), or you might get into some kind of business side of the industry. You can always return home afterwards with some serious experience and it might get you a leg up in a job interview. But I wouldn’t waste your time studying film anywhere other than LA. WIth respect to NYU, and my alma mater of Columbia College in Chicago, but LA is where the center of the film industry is. You’ll be one of tens of thousands, but there’s lots more work opportunities. The bottom line is that this is trade, not a profession like corporate America, and you need to be working in it as quickly as possible. Good luck and come back to either thank us or slam us when you are done (G). And now I’ll take my arrows for dissing my alma mater, which has produced some Oscar winners and nominees!
Al
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I too had tons of same kind of problems with the latest versions of nVidea drivers. I ended up turning off GPU acceleration and eventually pulled the card and switched over to ATI. Problems solved, for now.
Al
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Have you tried multiple keyframes along the line?
Al
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Why doesn’t key framing work with this Geoff?
Al
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Ok. Got it. So to be clear, you can *edit* the footage ok, but when you go to *render* it freezes? Do you mean when you render it without sending it out to be queued? Has it *ever* worked right? Where are you rendering to, which drive? I always use an empty drive other than the one that holds the footage, and the program (i.e. if the program is on C, and the footage on D then I render on different drive).
Have you tried rendering anything other than MOV files? Is it just MOV?
Has any of this started since you added the SSD?
Do you have RAM settings changed, or somehow different than *normal*?
Does it freeze when you are just working on editing?
And when you say it freezes, it just doesn’t go into a long running process, but it actually freezes the computer entirely???
Sorry for the questions, but just trying to help you isolate the problem.
Make sure you have plenty of disk space on the drive you are rendering to.
Since so many of us are working fine with a similar configuration, I personally would start by taking a spare drive, cloning the SSD drive (your OS drive) via a cheap eSata dock, and replacing the SSD with the cloned *non SSD* drive. That would eliminate the OS drive as the cause, with minimal fuss.
Good luck!
Al
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Vic, I think that you will really see the difference when you blow the image up to large screen (say in a small hall). The HFM400 is a consumer level camera, and you likely will notice much greater likelihood to blow out whites and crush blacks (and shadows) in general ,especially when the light is sunlight. On a desktop monitor in an NLE you might see similar look and feel to well exposed footage. (say a landscape).
The *latitude* of the DSLR will be far greater, IMHO, until you start getting up in to the much more expensive camcorders (more low end pro levels, like Panny, Sony and Canon do around the $3 to $4k range. And as mentioned by others, your exposure will make or break you on either camera, but you’ll have more to salvage on the higher end cameras, in general.
My experience is that my xf305 outperforms my 7D footage, almost always, except in low light. The 4:2:2 looks fabulous, although different. However, the differences are much less on a small screen on the web. Sometimes the added contrast of the 7D or GH2 AVCHD footage makes them look better. If you are doing green screen, having that 4:2:2 color space or larger image to work with can really make a difference. And when I need DOF I reach for the 7D, except when I can’t (G). Then you back up, use the telephoto and zoom in on the subject to drop out the background on the smaller sensor camera.
But I do love both cameras for different reasons. My TM900 (similar to your Canon M400) is just not in the same league. Nice, but only useful for special purposes, not commercial work, unless I am needing a long establishing shot for a concert, for example. I sometimes set it up on a pod attached to a beam to get that far shot.
Al
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Vic, first off, no, I’m sorry, I used the 7D, which *should* be the same as my old T2i, since the guts are the same camera, but the external case is much better. I would *assume* it should work the same. Maybe someone on this board has experience with the T3i. On my 7D it does *not* give me full screen (there are black bars on right and left) but it does show what is in the viewfinder. There are various functions for “full Screen” 16:9 and 4:3 (SD).
I read through the reviews, and some are somewhat off base. However, the issue of “squish” might be referring to the fact that there are black bars on each side. I don’t see any *squishing* of the image though. It’s full screen on the 7D. I think that some of the negative reviews were from people who hadn’t read the manual. And the monitors might have been setup wrong.
As to battery life, my experience is that these little monitors do you up batteries somewhat quicker than you would hope. However, there is the option for not only he standard AA lithiums and other higher mA batteries and I bought the extra battery plate to allow for larger rechargeables, like Sony, Canon and Panasonic, which I assume are needed for long days in the field.
All in all, the monitor does show me what the 7D is seeing, and helps me focus and compose. It’s flexible, has great color, and is small and lightweight. Works for me. Since you can return these things, you might buy it, give it a week and return it if it doesn’t do the job. For the price, I don’t think there is a better monitor. For more money, your choices expand a lot.
Good luck.
Al
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Vic, the monitor I have is the following (the SKU might be the B&H number).
Marshall Electronics MAVLCD50HDMI 5″ On-Camera MonitorIt does not *squish* the screen when I start to shoot. It shows what the screen is showing. It might be clipping some small part of the edges, but I am only using it for some focusing, and general framing. I actually prefer and usually use the Zacuto non electric viewfinder, which is fabulous for allowing focus, but having the Marshall allows me to be a bit less aggressive with the setup (meaning not so heads down in the camera while I’m trying to monitor sound levels, etc.
I’ve had a larger monitor, and this one is a nice size, fits well when I’m on rails or just on a tripod without rails. My Lebec tripod has a nice little fitting that allows me to mount an arm out on the side. I noticed that Manfrotto finally are including that in their lower end models as well.
I think this Marshall is a nicely engineered small monitor. If you are doing lots of studio work with clients who need to watch and critique, you might want to spend more on a larger monitor. But for one person, this is a good fit.
Al
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You might want to start by simply re-billing them and seeing what happens. A gentle reminder billing. Maybe enclose a note explaining that they may have forgotten and that you didn’t want to bother them during the hospitalization.
Al