Andrew Rendell
Forum Replies Created
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I’d recommend the Magic Lantern firmware for the 550D, it gives you metering and the ability to turn off the AGC, which you need to do (as well as a bunch of other things that improve the 550D as a video camera).
I’ve had some decent results using a JuicedLink CX231 preamp and the Rode mic, but was never really happy with the way I had the headphone monitoring set up, so I’m now using a Tascam DR60D, which I think is the best/most versatile solution on a budget at the moment.
So I reckon the Rode mic and a DR60D would be a good choice, install Magic Lantern and spend whatever cash you have left on glass 😉
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Sorry to hear that David. I found the forum here – https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewforum.php?f=1
but it wouldn’t accept my registration. Maybe they’re overwhelmed at the moment. I might try again in a couple of days.
I notice there are a couple of BM groups on LinkedIn, but I haven’t looked into them (the tedious Avid versus FCP arguing has rather put me off a couple of LinkedIn groups tbh, but it might be worth a look), although the ‘Cow is still my first go-to. -
Worked it out… I guess there’s been a slight change to the operating because a quick press of the on button then leaving it alone and the camera comes on after a couple of seconds. So holding the power on button down as I had been doing takes it through turning on and into turning off before you see that it’s turning on…
Sorry to bother anyone who was scratching their head, but maybe this’ll help anyone who has the same issue.
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Betacam SP has analogue audio recording, by convention one would digitise at 48kHz/16bit without compression (wav or aiff).
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You can’t “wrap” a file from one codec to another without converting.
Whether there is any quality loss when converting between codecs depends on the algorithm used in the conversion process and the data rate. (I’m not in a position to compare the software you mention, sorry).
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Not really my area either but I do spend a lot of time around a big broadcaster so I’ve heard the odd thing… Sponsorship itself isn’t necessarily a problem (there’s a fair amount of it around already), but editorial independence is, so you need to get hold of the guidelines/code of practice for the broadcasters you want to sell to and read them carefully.
Around the places I usually work, it would be best to approach broadcasters before principle shooting. One off documentaries are hard to sell, but probably easier if a broadcaster has a stake in it from early on.
TBH, I think I’d look at whether a dozen half hour episodes of observational stuff was a possibility, rather than a single doc.
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In London (assuming you mean London, England) there are a number of big facilities that employ runners. It’s fairly menial but you get to meet people and can usually get from making tea and coffee to technical operations if you show a bit of dedication and attention to detail. Look up companies like Clear Cut, Envy, Evolutions, The Farm Group, Halo, Prime Focus… Some west end newsagents stock Broadcast magazine that’s worth an occasional read to keep up with what’s going on.
As a freelancer I probably spend fifteen or twenty weeks a year working in facilities (the rest is on my own kit at home or in the BBC) and I’m usually happy to talk to runners and junior tech ops, let them sit in (it can depend on the job though), and I don’t think I’m unusual in that. TBH, learning to read the situation, when it’s OK to talk/when it’s time to not get in the way, is one of the vital skills that can only be learnt by experience.
It’s probably fair to say that most of us cutters on London didn’t study editing theory formally before we started doing it, the culture is much more one of finding mentors and working your way in (I don’t mind admitting that I’m a college drop out, and my original subject had nothing to do with media anyway).
Like Mark, I’ve been making a decent enough living from editing for a couple of decades, but it took several years to get to this position and it’s not something that I expect to make me rich (I’ve always paid my own way and could never afford to work for free, but I worked for lousy wages early on and stuck at it when others gave up).
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Thanks Ross, I’ll add that to my list of links to direct people to when it comes up on the various social media groups that I look in on, if that’s ok.
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The best NLE is likely to be the one the editor is most comfortable with.
It’s valuable to think about how you will master when you have finished the storytelling aspects of the edit: are you delivering to broadcast tech specifications, colour grading, sound mix, and work back from there. The necessary scopes, sound meters, properly calibrated monitor, etc, and the time efficiency of using a dedicated setup means that for a project of that size it’s a false economy to try to finalise a programme of that length to broadcast requirements on a laptop system (I do it regularly for short projects but it’s not efficient for 90 minutes). Deciding how and where your finishing will happen will give you some requirements for your NLE, e.g., what kind of cutting files will you need to export; XML, aaf, omfi, etc.
A 90 minute doc really must have the sound tracklayed as it is bring edited, sorting out audio on a project of that size where that hasn’t been done right from the start is very time consuming and therefore expensive.
TBH, I have a favourite choice of NLE for that kind of project, but another cutter might prefer something else.
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I used to prefer Hollywood Edge, but that was when I had an employer to pay for it (expensive but like most things you get what you pay for).
Anyway, another vote for Sounddogs.com