[Andrew Kimery]

Every place is different and being staff will typically get your a lower hourly rate than freelance because you should be getting health insurance, paid time off, etc.,. It’s been a while since I’ve done AE work but I would say $1,000/wk is on the low end and $1700-1800wk is the high end (this is based on 10hr days and 5-6 days a week). This was my experience in LA 4-5yrs ago working on some reality TV shows as well as a good sized post house that did mainly behind-the-scenes content for major films.

And, honestly, how long you’ve worked there doesn’t factor into how much you make as much as how needed you are and what kind of revenue the company is generating. A company barely breaking even year after year isn’t going to be able to pay out as much as a company swimming in profit.

-Andrew

3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1)

[Andrew Kimery]

I haven’t done a side by side test but you should be able to manipulate HQ more, but I think your limitation is going to be the source footage and not the difference between ProRes and ProRes HQ.

-Andrew

3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1)

[Andrew Kimery]

I’ve experienced the same problems w/the HVR-1500 as Ken. We purchased one of those decks to sit on the video router in the machine room but it acts so flakey we just move it from bay to bay and use FW to capture (just like we do w/our decks that cost half as much).

-Andrew

3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1)

[Andrew Kimery]

Have you tried downloading Flip for Mac? The reader is free but if you want to encode/transcode you have to pay for that (can’t remember how much it costs.

3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1)

[Andrew Kimery]

I think it might be under the “Video” menu, but I can’t recall off hand.

-Andrew

3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1)

[Andrew Kimery]

What is your Servo Reference on the deck set to? If we are capturing from our SRW-5500 and have it set to anything besides “input” we get phantom TC breaks left and right.

-Andrew

3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1)

[Andrew Kimery]

You could try using a de-noise plugin from Neat Video or Graeme Nattress.

-Andrew

3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1)

[Andrew Kimery]

Besides the storage you will be using for editing you also need a backup of all your media as well because you won’t have tape camera masters to go back to if you accidentally delete a clip or an ‘act of god’ fries your setup.

-Andrew

3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1)

[Andrew Kimery]

Try applying the blur in Motion. I remember reading a post recently (can’t remember where) where someone saw a lot of banding when applying a vignette in FCP but took it to Motion and the effect looked clean as day.

-Andrew

3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1)

[Andrew Kimery]

Why are you using iDVD instead of Compressor and DVD SP to make your DVDs? Use Compressor to make the DVD compliant MPEG2 and use DVD SP to author and burn the DVD.

Using Handbrake like you are is an unnecessary step that costs you time and image quality.

-Andrew

3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1)