[Bill Davis]

Just to bolster what Mark said,

Starting two years ago when a lot of us transitioned to shooting HD with Canon 5dMk II’s one of the first things we noticed was that we could push in on part of the picture and essentially do re-framings, and generate cutaway shots from the originals when we’re delivering in SD.

So its NOT a new trick in any sense.

But still, congrats on thinking beyond your current workflow. This is precisely what makes someone good at this video thing – constant personal evolution.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner

[Bill Davis]

If you want to pitch this idea to your clients, feel free.

However, in all the years I’ve been doing work for large retail clients, overnight shoots have been a constant part of the mix.

No retailer will willingly take the loss of revenue necessary to give over total control of their retail space to a video production operation. Sometimes, you can use a PART of the store during regular business hours, but if you’re doing work that requires blocking aisles, creating customer hazards (flying cameras, lights or jib work) or if you’re working in high traffic areas such as a cash register line – after hours shooting is the standard.

No company I’ve ever worked with finds this anything but “business as usual.”

In fact, long after hours shooting is pretty much the standard retail shooting mode in my experience.

Actors and good talent understand this. Heck, most plays and performance situations are schdeuled evening to late night, so for actors, you typically get a “wider awake” performance booking them at 9PM rather than 9AM!

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Sorry, but your contention that ” this is a valid concern” carries no weight.

This is because the way FCP X actually will function is currently unknown outside the Apple labs.

It was said over and over that this was a preview of the design in progress – and the demo was of the build in the same state as it was 3 months ago at the private previews.

It just struck me that WE EDITORS often get frustrated when clients demand to see edits “in progress” then waste our time with snap judgements about stuff that we’ve told them aren’t finished. “No,Bob, as I mentioned before, this is just PLACEHOLDER type. The final type will NOT look like this.”

It drives us crazy when clients can’t understand the DIFFERENCE between a rough cut and the final cut.

Yet so many here are doing EXACTLY the same thing.

Ironic, no?

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Understanding that your workflow is your workflow and everyone has the right to work as they like…

I will note that this is one reason that the concept of making DISK IMAGES of cards coming back from the field is so popular with many DSLR shooters.

When you upack a Disk Image, you recreate the EXACT state of the memory card when it came out of the camera. That means ALL the original data including the .thm files are intact.

I’ve found this to be an EXCELLENT habit to get into and much easier to archive than dragging loose folders of dozens of separate clip files around.

For what it’s worth…

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Andy,

I looked further and I think you’re correct.

I had vaguely remembered doing doing some research on ribbons and had even saved a Wiki reference on the subject that I was able to pull up from the depths of my computer…

“In ribbon microphones, a current is induced at right angles to both the ribbon velocity and magnetic field direction…”

When I saved that snippit for reference a while back I thought I understood it. Now that I look at it again, I realize that I had completely MISS-interpreted it to mean that some circuitry in the ribbon mic design energized the ribbon. Now that I see it again. It’s clear that they were saying that the movement of the ribbon ITSELF induces the current that becomes the output signal. And in that way, a ribbon mic operates just like a dynamic.

My bad.

If you ARE using ribbon mics, it’s worth a web search on the circumstances where some vintage ribbon mics CAN get fried. (One source said it can happen when Patch Bays are involved, since the physical act of plugging in a 3 conductor phone style patch plug can momentarily cause Phantom to bridge the wrong conductors and cause ribbon damage.

They also noted, however that in modern ribbons, when wired properly (no shorts) even standard Phantom power will NOT cause them any harm.

So much to learn… and so little time in a life!

Sorry for posting the confusion.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner

[Bill Davis]

I don’t own a Coles Lip Mic but I’ve owned 40 other mics over the years, so take this as generalized “blue sky” help and subject to realities in use or design that I simply am ignorant of or getting wrong for some other foolish reason…

That said…

IIRC, the Coles lip mic is a ribbon mic design.

Most ribbon mics require a pretty hefty phantom power current to energize the ribbon field in order to work properly. (Scary, because original ribbon mic designs were precisely the type that you could FRY if you applied too much current across the phantom power input terminals!)

So my initial thought is that the little Sure usb powered gizmo might not be applying enough current (even if the transformer is pumping out the proper voltage) for the mic to work properly.

Also, since the Coles is purpose designed for noise suppression in loud field conditions, perhaps it’s sensitivity is simply moderate to begin with.

If the output is low, but clean. Then simply boosting the signal in FCP should get you a clean signal at the proper level. Try applying Compression (maybe 2/1) via the FCP filters and make sure the ‘preserve volume” box is checked.

If the result is clean, then you don’t have any issues. If it’s not, then the microphone is not outputting correctly.

Just a couple of ideas off the top of my head.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Listen to what’s being said by others.

At the level of the worker, people are paid based on the WORK they do. At the level of manager, people are paid commensurate with the RESPONSIBILITY FOR RESULTS they shoulder. At the level of owner/partner, people are compensated by the ECONOMIC RISK they take.

If you charge, in advance, for your labor, you’re ONLY entitled to the compensation level of the WORKER, period.

You want to shoulder MORE responsibility or bear the burden of greater economic RISK by putting up (and quite possibly losing) the capital required to generate economic results – then, and ONLY then, can you claim something akin to residuals.

Simple as that.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Modern LEDs are a LOT of wonderful things.

Amazingly energy efficient. Light weight. Resistant to breakage.

One thing they are NOT is spectrum equivalent to other light producing technologies.

And the cheaper they are, the more they tend to generate light that skews into the green side of the spectrum. I suspect that in some combinations of multi-colored LEDS inside the lights you’re dealing with – this SKEW is happening.

Every major LED video light fixture manufacturer understands this and many actually include solutions from packaging magenta (minus green) filters with their lights, to putting switches or dials on their instruments that allow the light itself to adjust the green spectrum content to match other equally color-deficient sources (like some fluorescent tubes)

Even the new $2000+ Arri LED fresnels have a “plus or minus green” spectrum dial included.

It’s just how things are right now.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Maybe this will help.

Nobody would say that what makes the difference between a great artist and a lousy one is a matter of what kind of brushes he or she buys or uses. Clearly TALENT is the ultimate differentiator.

BUT….

That being said. If I told you that a particular fine artist, who does portrait painting and gets BIG BUCKS to do so – like a particular brand of exotic sable brush that allows him to get precisely the effect he’s after in painting fine details like eyelashes or skin textures- then you’d likely NOD and say, yeah, that makes sense.

In the hands of someone who understands how to use a particular tool – the tool ITSELF can make a difference in the final work.

Lenses are a LOT like that.

If you can’t paint – it doesn’t matter at ALL which brush you use.

And if you’re a relatively inexperienced painter, the tools are FAR less important than concentrating on learning the basic techniques of your art.

But at some point, when your experience starts to match your vision – the TOOLS you use to craft that vision become ever more precise and important.

Make sense?

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Just to bootstrap onto the smart things others have said- it’s worth noting that when someone is beginning in sound, it’s really, REALLY easy to think things are OK when they sound OK. And often, that’s exactly right. But later conditions might change and you’ll notice that something that you have become accustomed to monitoring in one space (like listening to your mix on computer speakers or in a noisy fan-filled edit suite) where it sounds fine – suddenly gets a chance for playback on a better sound system – and that new reproduction system reveals SIGNIFICANT flaws that were not previously apparent.

I just watched a demo at NAB where a VERY highly skilled image maker showed work from the field- but the nat sound recordings that accompanied the images were often HARSH and PIERCING. They probably sounded very clear and perfectly fine on a 100 watt system. But on a 1000 watt system, turned up for a crowd of 500 – the flaws in the audio (lack of full range, mid-tone over emphasis, and some over-processing) that were likely obscured to all but those ears trained to listen for them – got pretty harsh and nasty when it got turned up on a bigger system.

Not the end of the world, but a good example of why time recording the best quality you can for BOTH image and sound is always time well spent.

FWIW.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner