[Bob Cole]

Thanks John and Todd for the great reality check. I can see that this is probably an inappropriate technique for this show. I won’t have a truck and I’m locked into using the Z1 with its huge DOF.

Backing off enough to keep the key off the net means a much bigger frame than I can cart around. I saw a very stylized show once, where they used a muslin backdrop but framed it so that you could see the actual background as well. That’s probably the best I can hope for but it is a bit theatrical for this particular documentary. I’m going to get a single net for the frame, just to play with. But I probably won’t use it for this show.

Thank you again! Sometimes the best set-up is the one you don’t use because it won’t work.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

[Reggie Spires] “The stupid ignorant boy from the south that Dennis thinks will hurt somebody with the wrong lighting package.”

Having someone the caliber of Dennis Size consult for free on your lighting kit is a privilege. He’s absolutely right in every point he made. He said “be safe” almost as a throw-away line, but you should really listen to that. If you’re using any high-output, high-temperature device (costly or not), you really should be careful: use safety screens, don’t touch even cold bulbs with bare hands, secure your stands, etc.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

[Ben Ferrer] “The goal is to eliminate all traces of hard shadows.”

Sure, the type of diffusion has an effect. But that has less impact than the size and positioning of the diffusion surface relative to the subject. A perfectly diffused source that is far away will be “harder” than a less-diffused source right on top of the subject.

If you don’t want shadows, you’re usually looking at wrapping the light around the subject, so perhaps you want to use several diffused sources from different directions. But if your 12×12′ is right next to the camera, and close to the subject, the shadows will be trivial with any of those diffusion fabrics, as long as the light source covers the entire 12×12 frame.

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

Are you using any other hardware like a Kona card? If so, I’d call their tech support asap.

Do you have lots of audio tracks? When I have had lots of tracks, I’ve experienced some wild audio events — like the audio on A1 suddenly getting louder, at just the point where I had a fade-out on the audio on track 5.

You may want to do a “mix-down” and see whether that helps.

Do you have the same problem with other codecs?

The biggest “gotcha” that I’ve had lately turned out to be the Sony M25 deck. If I left the deck turned on and connected via firewire while editing, I got dropped frames.

Good luck.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

[Christopher Wright] “There are many doctors who are VERY tired of dealing with all the paperwork, middlemen, and slow reimbursement due to all these HMOs,”

You got that right.

A tale of three doctors I know personally:

One wonderful young doc I knew from his childhood, a truly great person, recently had to devote a huge part of the budget of his medical practice to hiring an aggressive insurance wrangler, because his previous person almost killed the practice, by failing to harangue, harass, and pursue the insurance companies.

Another doctor I know went from a full-time independent practitioner to a part-time hospital doctor, when she realized that each new patient actually cost her money. I don’t understand that, but I have no reason to doubt her honesty. At any rate she makes more money for two days a week than she used to make full++ time.

My own doctor abandoned his practice and went to one of these “boutique medicine” deals — you pay $1500/year for the privilege of being his patient. He’s now my ex-doctor.

I would like to see the Congress stripped of all its medical insurance and special medical access until it straightens out the entire system.

Hurrumph.

bob

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

Wow — just this week I ran into someone else who raved about working with Ray Farkas. I think your previous note was interesting, when you mentioned that it wasn’t just the technique, but his personality as well, a point which I hadn’t seen mentioned a lot elsewhere.

I think we all know someone who has that ineffable ability to relate to people. What a great skill to have for an interviewer.

Thanks for the insights… and great link too.

question: how did he mic the people? Hidden lavaliers? I know the “fifty cents” interviews show a table mic, but the NYC after 9/11 show no mics at all.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

[johnny clark] “The JVC HD100 only shoots HDV at 24 or 30 fps. It shoots SD at 24, 30 and 60 fps.”

So — if you want to shoot 60, you have to shoot SD. Oddly, the camera menu seemed to suggest that there was an HDV setting for 60. My mistake — thanks for clearing that up.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

[Christopher Wright] “I had my initally affordable rates go up three times in one year with no claims”

That seems excessive. But it seems as if it is fairly common practice for insurance companies to increase rates even for non-claimants, forcing them to reapply for a new policy, which means they have to requalify, at which point any new problem with their health can be used to justify a higher premium &/or excluded condition.

Over time, if you stay with the same policy, your insurance “tranch” (correct word??) tends to become sicker and sicker, and the premiums higher and higher. People who get sick find it impossible to get new insurance and tend to stick with the old policy, driving up premiums for all in that “tranch,” until the premiums reach absurd levels that the now sick-and-out-of-work policyholder can’t afford to pay….

… unless you’re a member of Congress or some other highly protected govt. or corporate employee.

It’s a system that will be extremely difficult to change, because the privileged people who are happy with their insurance will oppose anything that hurts them. Nor will the multi-trillion dollar insurance industry want to give up their power and profits — and the last I heard, they donate a lot more money to Congress than the uninsured and the underinsured.

Cynically yours,

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

[Peter Ralph] “Income from the rental of personal property is always treated as regular business income”

Thanks. That clears it up.

re: paying SE tax “only” on the first 100k. I was aware of the cut-off, but I’m not quite clear how that relates; if a “mogul” earns 100% of his/her income from rent, he/she would pay zero SE tax, right? I’m still mystified as to the justification for a landlord — especially a mogul — potentially paying no SE tax.

I guess you’re simply saying that to a mogul, 15K is trivial. True that….

Thanks again for the info.

No mogul,
Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

[Todd Terry] “We don’t really charge for storage.”

That sounds like a good idea, if the amount you charge for production and editing supports it. I suspect that houses that mainly do spots are more liberal about this, whereas if you do longer form, and one project occupies 200+gb, it’s a lot more difficult to give away a hard drive for every project.

I think I’ll sell the drives, charge for the time it takes to fill them, and state on the invoice that my liability in the event of drive failure is limited to replacement of the drive itself. Walter’s idea of keeping copies of all .FCP and .AEP files sounds like great sense. The only question remaining is whether to give the client copies of those files as well.

Thanks to all for the insights.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650