Bill Paris
Forum Replies Created
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Oh come on boys ….obviously you guys aren’t the “Change the World” types….. Apple is showing us the way, just follow and be happy we have them to determine what the future of editing will look like. All you guys who want an editing program you can use to make a living …… a program filled with your “practical ideas” are just getting in the way of real progress. If they had listened to you, they would have come out with a program filled with all your “I need this today” ideas…. a program you could adapt into your current workflow effortlessly …. a program that integrated the best new technology with the workflow we use today…. a program you could make money with…. what fun would would that have been? With FCP-X you get to see the future today! How cool is that!
Bill Paris
Producer/Director of Photography
Crew Hawaii Television
http://www.crewhawaii.com -
I don’t think anyone would say that FCP-7 and the previous versions of FCP were perfect editing platforms, but it was the tool many editors spent the last decade learning with the assumption the program would be improved by the inclusion of the new technology Apple was adding along the way. (ie… Color…. Motion… STP… etc) without completely changing the UI. The program was getting better with each release since up until now the new technology was added in to the exiting UI. You have to wonder if they could have kept the UI similar and added some of the new features as options instead of the only option. Perhaps when they listen to the professional community and make the necessary changes….. oh wait a minute…. they didn’t listen pro editors when designing this version…. why would they listen to the pro community in the next version? I’ve been a Apple fan for years, owned stock in the company, bought way to many computers, etc…. but this one has me perplexed. I wonder what Steve Jobs thinks about all the feedback from this release? My hope…. he’ll kick some ass and we’ll see some of the old functionality added back into FCP=X….. that way we can all be happy…. ok happier?
Bill Paris
Producer/Director of Photography
Crew Hawaii Television
http://www.crewhawaii.com -
Tried FCPX for the first time today and felt more and more angry the more I used it…… Editing for 30 years in broadcast, I learned the FCP UI from version 1 and was hoping FCP-X would have the same user interface with new 64 bit horsepower and integrated Color, Compressor, STP, etc…. instead what we got was a “new paradigm” that forces us to either learn this new UI or switch to another program and start over. Thanks apple!!! I thought by committing to the apple eco system years ago I would learn one system I could use for years to come, but Apple thinks I should start over and learn a new UI… a new paradigm….. well I think I’ll take their advice and learn Avid or Premiere.
Isn’t it interesting how almost everyone on these boards is talking about which program to use now that FCPX has turned into Imovie Pro. You have to wonder if we all dig in and try to make FCPX work for our work flows …. hang in there with Apple giving them our feedback on how to improve the product for the Pro user for the next 10 years…. maybe they’ll get close to perfecting this new FCPX product and all of us will get really good at the UI and be cranking out great shows, commercials, promos, movies, etc…. Then will Apple decide it’s time for a new paradigm again? We’ve already been down this road with them over the past decade….I for one will be using version 7 as long as I can, to keep my business running… play with FCP-X when I want to cut my kids soccer game video and start looking for a system/company that won’t abandon the professional users who have invested years learning their UI….. listening Adobe and Avid?
Sorry I had to vent…. it really makes me mad!
Bill Paris
Producer/Director of Photography
Crew Hawaii Television
http://www.crewhawaii.com -
One suggestion…… Call the ski resorts in the area and contact their marketing departments. They should know the best guys, since they probably use them for their b-roll packages and commercials.
Bill Paris
Producer/Director of Photography
Crew Hawaii Television
http://www.crewhawaii.com -
As a small production company that often does overnight shoots, I had to throw in my 2 cents.
My take on this: If your calendar is open and your not having to say “no” to any shoots the following day, I say a fair rate for shooting overnight is your day rates per 10 hours. If on the other hand your extremely busy and you know your going to have to move other shoots around and say “no” to other shoots, than charge the client an addition percentage for the overnight project. If I were doing a shoot where travel would eat a day from my schedule this would probably fall in the “Half Day” rate for labor only.
Another point ….. how big is the client and budget. If your doing a national commercial for a large chain, I would think they wouldn’t balk at paying an additional fee for the overnight shoot. If it’s a small mom and pops store in your community and your hoping to work with them in the future on more projects, you may have to suck it up and do the job overnight for a straight 10 hour production rate.
My take on doing business is to be a “problem solver” for my clients. In the case of shooting in a retail store, I may have suggested shooting overnight to the client so they would not loose a day of business, thereby putting their needs fist and foremost. If I knew at the time of suggesting an overnight shoot that it would cost an additional amount for the crew, I would bring it up in the preliminary discussion and allow the client to weigh the “Cost of an Overnight shoot VS closing the Store for the Day”. The important point here is putting their needs first and letting them decide the best alternative.
One final thought…… I see this “point of view” issue come up fairly often in our business. Their are many craft people that have more of a union mentality when it comes to shoots. When the minute hand crosses the 10hour mark, overtime will be charged. There are others (like myself) that try to look at things from the client’s perspective and will be a little more flexible. The end result often is a client that’s is appreciative and will call you again. In this case you may say to the client……. “We would normally charge a fee for an overnight since the guys can’t work the next day, but in this case we know your on a tight budget…. so …..” or you could say “If we do the overnight, my guys will charge a additional half day…. I wish there was a way we could avoid this but… they miss the next day etc.”
Hope my rather long rant helps?
Bill Paris
Producer/Director of Photography
Crew Hawaii Television
http://www.crewhawaii.com -
Jeremy and David,
I may have found the problem….. it turns out when I installed the new drive enclosure I used the cable that came with the unit…… the problem: the ESATA cable that came with the unit is longer than the one from the old box. (Ok that was a dumb move!)
I have the raid working at the moment and trying to off load the footage that matters. Once I have the important file off loaded I’ll re-stripe the raid and hopefully everything will work?
Thanks again for your help with this issue, hopefully thats it!
Bill Paris
Producer/Director of Photography
Crew Hawaii Television
http://www.crewhawaii.com -
Jeremy,
Thanks for your thoughts…. I may try to replace the card since I’m having the “dropped frames” issue and I have quite a bit of material on the un-matched raid I would rather not have to re-capture. I’ll keep you posted on the results. Thanks again!
Bill Paris
Producer/Director of Photography
Crew Hawaii Television
http://www.crewhawaii.com -
I wonder if the problem could be due to the compression of your camera files? Before my problem with the XDCAM EX files I had only used Smoothcam on HDCAM and BETACAM footage and never had problems. Another issue I noticed was a significant amount of tearing around fine details. While they would go un-noticed on a small web video, when transferred to a NTSC monitor they looked really bad.
I wish I had a better answer for you, but the only solution I know of is to use a more robust camera format. It might be an interesting to perform a test that compares different cameras/codecs to flush out the problem?Good luck! Let me know if you discover another answer to the problem.
Bill Paris
Producer/Director of Photography
Crew Hawaii Television
http://www.crewhawaii.com -
David and Jeremy,
Thanks you for you thoughts and suggestions.
My Raid Configuration is “Raid 0”
I started using Softraid for the drive failure alerts…… they’ve mapped the leading indicators of drive failures and alert you when your system exhibits any of those symptoms.I talked with the guys at Sonnet Technologies and they told me there should be no conflicts with the drives used or the un-matched enclosures. They also said that they work closely with Softraid and have never had any issues with their product.
I also talked with Promax tech support ….. one idea that was kicked around after looking over the Kernel Logs from the computer was that the trouble could stem from the power supply quitting while the computer was on.
I’m also wondering if the PCI ESATA card could be bad since I have another problem that occurs even when the unmatched drives are disconnected. I’m getting “dropped frames due to slow disks” messages even though I’m running all media and render files on my other raid (Stardom 8TB ESATA drive). I’ve tested the though-put using the Kona 3 Hardware test as well as measured the data rates via “istat” and everything looks good.
The common element with both problems…. the ESATA PCI Card. Could there be an issue with the card? It’s a Cal Digit card with 4 slots.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Bill Paris
Producer/Director of Photography
Crew Hawaii Television
http://www.crewhawaii.com -
You might try to run the effect again with different in-out points and see if you get the same results. I found picking sections of footage with the least amount of movement can help. If the footage has large movement the effect seems to have trouble ….. it works best with small movements like vibration from a car or helicopter. I have had the same results your getting when the shot moves around a lot.
Bill Paris
Producer/Director of Photography
Crew Hawaii Television
http://www.crewhawaii.com