[Andrew Rendell]

+1 to what Michael says, but in addition if it’s mains related you can get harmonics, so an additional very narrow notch at 100Hz or 120Hz as well as one at 50Hz or 60Hz (depending on where you are)can be helpful (and a couple of very narrow notches will have much less effect on your programme sound than one wider-Q one).

Also check the cabling from your boom mic before you use it again – balanced cable should not hum, that’s precisely what it’s designed to avoid. You might have lost continuity on one of the wires (although you’d have a bigger problem than just hum if you’d lost one of the signal +/- wires), or it might have shorted (become unbalanced) somewhere.

[Andrew Rendell]

Oh sure, I’m rather overstating the “gods” bit (although it’s a rare pleasure to work somewhere where the engineers are appreciated), but the point is that you can do it yourself if you really want to and really know what your doing and have the time and resources to put into it. (Which is probably worthwhile if you’re a big broadcaster like the BBC, but probably not for a smaller company).

Hopefully, if we continue doing this we’ll end up doing the whole job in the same building and be able to cut out the step of copying the material onto another drive to get it to the edit suite. (But I’m not holding my breath).

[Andrew Rendell]

I’m doing a job on wednesdays at the moment which has an interesting workflow:

There is a studio discussion (presenter and 3 guests) filmed with 3 cameras with a live switcher between 9.30 and 10.30 am. The camera feeds are simultaneously recorded on tape and ingested into the storage system.

At 11.00 am the studio engineers give me a hard drive – this has an .aaf and a bunch of .mxf files on it.

At 11.20 am I have imported the files into Avid and can start editing. What I have in front of me are four vision feeds, the three cameras and the switcher output, and a timeline which is the cuts from the switcher. (I spent a day before the studio recording started prepping the titles, so the only extra thing I have to bring in is an opening PTC which is recorded outside around 11.30 ish, when the guests have gone.)

By the end of the afternoon I supply tapes of 2 versions for broadcast (the first goes out at 9.30 pm on that day) and a file delivery (which currently only goes to the web site, although it should replace at least one of the tapes as a delivery format soon).

It will come as no surprise to some here that “The Ingex Boys” are regarded almost like gods around here (although that’s behind their backs, we’re in England you know and it simply doesn’t do to be too gushing). See what they do here – https://ingex.sourceforge.net/

[Andrew Rendell]

All I’m willing to say on a public site is google “business plan” – various places offer templates, which will give you an idea of what banks, etc, want to see in them.

The other thing I’d say is don’t spend too much of your time sweating over the details (unless you’re using it to apply for serious funding, of course) but use it to focus your mind on what your business is really about.

[Andrew Rendell]

I registered quite soon after I went freelance as it became clear that I was likely to earn around the threshold anyway (it was lower back then). I work for a selection of production companies, a couple of broadcasters and occasionally for a facilities company and all of those are VAT registered businesses so it doesn’t make any difference. The corporate stuff that I do tends to be through a production company working for big companies (the kind where it’s my reputation for broadcast that’s got me the gig) so no issue there either. If you’re working for/selling to people who aren’t VAT registered then yes it puts your prices up (or reduces your income), so if you’re in that part of the market you’ll have to make your own judgement on that.

Even though I don’t always cross the threshold (I haven’t for the last couple of years TBH but work has picked up a lot this year so maybe…) I reckon it’s worthwhile for me as I do spend quite a bit on keeping my computers & software up to date, so I get to claim back a decent amount. If you don’t spend a lot then the flat rate scheme is quite attractive (and simplifies your VAT accounts).

[Andrew Rendell]

It sounds like the Digibeta isn’t locking up properly. Check the system setup menu item for servo lock and the out ref switch on the A500 and your ref signal wiring. It’ll probably be one of those things.

[Andrew Rendell]

Its hard to say but there are a few things going on here.

HDV uses lossy compression and 4:2:0 color. ProRes is much higher quality so up-converting to it shouldn’t cause any problems, but it doesn’t add anything that wasn’t already there.

HDV can look very good on screen if the exposure is spot on but level changes/color correction can show up noise (grain) and the limitations in color resolution very quickly. This might not show up particularly obviously on a computer screen but is quite apparent on a full size video monitor.

DVDs are SD, so they will never look as sharp as your HD footage. The method/settings you use when converting from HD to SD can make a lot of difference to the look of a DVD.

I suspect you have a combination of those last two going on. I’d suggest using Color for your grading as it’s more versatile and IMO the quality of the rendered files from Color is better than what you get using FCP’s filters. Also, use Compressor for your down convert to SD before burning to DVD and enable the frame controls and select the better settings for the conversion. (If I were you I’d export a 30 second clip from FCP and have an experiment with the Compressor settings to find the best compromise for your material).

[Andrew Rendell]

Which fonts aren’t coming up?

I remember noticing (a few years ago but it might still be pertinent) that I had programs that displayed more fonts than others, but what was happening was that in the programmes that showed more fonts were displaying all the variations, e.g., bold and italic, as separate fonts, whereas the ones with fewer fonts (and Avid is among those ones) showed only the main titles and you got the extra versions by clicking the B, i, etc, buttons, so there wasn’t the difference that it looked like at first glance. I don’t know if that still happens (and I’m not at the right computer to check right now) but it might be worth bearing in mind.

[Andrew Rendell]

Nice idea but I’ve never come across one. You can control the audio mixer section from a daw control surface in FCP7, so I’d guess that in principle it might be possible to get the multi-function knobs on something like a Novation Nocturn to control parameters other than that (but I expect it would be a serious software writing job to do it).

Do you use a pen/tablet instead of a mouse? If not, try it. I think it’s much nicer/more tactile than the mouse.

[Andrew Rendell]

More info needed

What’s your computer spec and software version?

What codec is your quicktime export and how are you viewing it?
(It’s possible that your computer can’t handle the high data rate of a full quality export unless you reimport it back into your editing software, so your quicktime might be ok and you just can’t monitor it properly, but that’s a wild guess without more info)

Have you tried using Compressor to process the qt to something better for viewing?
(If the problems you’re seeing with the full quality one are replicated through to, say, a medium res H264 then that would confirm that the qt is faulty rather than your monitoring)

Which codec did you use for your quicktime conversion?

[I’ll check back here later but I’m cutting for fast turnaround tx today, so maybe if you can answer those questions someone else will think of something before I get back.]