[Bob Cole]

Hi Irene,

When I re-read my answer I realized it was too long, so I’ll sum it up quickly: Use Sony Catalyst Browse to create ProRes files, and keep editing in FCP7.

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Here is the too-lengthy answer:

Premiere is great and will work fine with your camera originals. It requires a subscription, but if you already have it available, you will enjoy it.

You could also try editing with Resolve 12 (basic version free), if the learning curve doesn’t bother you. It’s very much like FCP 7.

If you want to keep using FCP7: You could use a file conversion program to create ProRes files, which work directly in FCP 7 on Yosemite. I’ve tried three file conversion programs: EditReady, Wonder- Share Video Converter Ultimate, and Sony Catalyst Browse. There is also Sony Catalyst Prepare, which I haven’t used. They’re all different; look for reviews and enjoy!

My favorite is the free Catalyst Browse. It will do some color correction and is pretty fast. I think it might lack file checksumming??? So if I were in the field, copying SxS cards off to a hard drive so I could recycle the SxS cards for the next shoot, I’d use something else like Sony’s old Content Browser or Imagine Software’s ShotPutPro, to copy the BPAV folders to one or more hard drives first.

(The only caveat I have about my experience: I did some of the test conversions with an older MacBook Pro running 10.8.something. But I used Browse on a Yosemite MBPro.)

Please let us know whether this works for you.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Being able to mix the daylight and tungsten-balanced tubes is one of the nice things about the Kino Flo Diva.

Just as some people like to “cheat” the white balance process with a 1/4 blue gel over the lens, to “warm up” the scene, you can add a little warmth to an interview light by including one tungsten tube. Just watch out — the Diva has a switch to enable two or all four tubes.

Mix away.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

In my experience, the EX1/R’s “cine gamma” profiles are helpful. If you edit your own footage, you can use the “cine gamma” profiles and modest color correction to come up with a very nice end result.

Not from personal experience, just from reading, it appears that the best way to improve the quality of the EX1/R image is to use an external recorder such as the Ki-Pro or Atomos, so you can record in 4:2:2 10-bit. While not noticeably better-looking than the 4:2:0 8-bit image recorded directly to the SxS cards, it is said that the 4:2:2 image holds up better for color correction and keying.

I have a related question. As stated above, my preferred method is to use the cine gamma profiles and color correction in post. But when I hand off footage, I’m somewhat hesitant to shoot with anything non-standard, because I won’t be around to adjust the image in post. I have lately been thinking about transcoding everything to ProRes, rather than handing off BPAV folders and having to answer questions about how to handle them. Is there such a thing as a LUT for the EX1/R’s flatter picture profile settings?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

So, Steve, are you a Catalyst Prepare user, or are you saying that you are able to bypass this step because of your Atomos?

My further research:

I’d prefer Catalyst (for the color correction) if I could find any positive reviews. But the only reviews I’ve found have been very negative, for bugginess. Are there some happy Catalyst Prepare users out there?

I’ve tried Edit Ready and Wondershare. Edit Ready is simple, it works, can take LUTs, and is less expensive at $49. Wondershare, at $59, also works, although the color correction is very primitive.

If you have tried anything which, like Catalyst Prepare, offers transcoding to ProRes along with some color correction, I’d appreciate hearing about it. If you know how to download a trial of Catalyst, could you please share the link?

Thanks.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

If you are not old enough to remember Nagra tape recorders, you won’t appreciate this AT ALL.

Wexler’s “Medium Cool” was probably not a great movie, but I loved it. It was ostensibly a political film, but I saw it as a love letter to the process of movie-making. There was a shot of 1/4″ tape as it started running through the Nagra, with the tensioning tape roller rocking back and forth. I always thought that was pretty neat, and clearly Wexler did too.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Todd Terry] “I’m really only concerned about what hoops we have to jump through to get it in and out of the country”

I hope this advice is not too late.

The warnings about coming into Scotland on business are very well taken. I tried doing that, and had to spend two hours convincing them that I wasn’t taking jobs away from native Scots.

otoh… by the time I got to the rental car counter, the little Ford Focus I’d reserved was no longer available… nor the next automatic transmission up… so I got to drive around Scotland for a week in a new Mercedes Benz, for the price of the Focus.

Good luck. Ship the slider.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I like Bill’s point. Actually, not his point, but his refusal to see things from only one point of view.

To take a totally non-video angle on it… I interviewed a law professor who specializes in the rights of the handicapped. She mentioned curb cuts — those little ramp-like things that enable people in wheelchairs, or people who have trouble negotiating steps, to cross the street. Her perspective was that curb cuts were not an “accommodation” to the disabled – they were the correct design choice in the FIRST place. It’s all in how you perceive it.

That said, I think that dissolving audio in lockstep with video is crazy.

But again – I like Bill’s point of view.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Your observation about the importance of the particular relationship is very true. I’ve paid my valued free-lancers in full for cancelled days, even beyond the 48 hour period, because they turned down other work to commit to me.

[grinner hester] “I would explain that you booked those days and now have to get a half day pay for all 5.”

Back to the multiple-day cancellation issue: How many days in advance would trigger such a payment?

Let’s say a client reserves June 1-7. What is the appropriate fee (if any) if the cancellation occurs May 1? May 15? May 30?

Given the 48/24 hour (half/full) policy a lot of us have for a single day, it seems to me that for multiple days, the advance notice should be longer. If, since May 1, I’ve let other clients know I’m not available from June 1-7, should I be compensated for that?

Another issue: Define “half” in terms of payment. A lot of people charge about 80% of the full rate for a “half day,” given that by the time you go to the location, do the job, and return, you’ve probably lost the use of the entire day for any other job.

Happily, this is a rare situation – it’s just that my number has come up on this score a couple of times lately, and I would like to know how other people approach this issue.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Ned Miller] “If possible, if you are going to hire some crew to go with you, get strong young kids.”

All great advice, but I’m not so sure about equating strong and young. I suspect that a lot of older people on this forum have outrun a lot of young people on shoots.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Just a heads up for those who use Dropbox to send video edits to clients:

Here’s what your client sees when they follow the link to their video: a nice big video freeze frame with a clickable arrow on it. Naturally, clients click it, rather than the sometimes-hidden “download” option off to the upper right. And then, they freak out when they see the extremely compressed preview video which Dropbox generates. Very “pixilated” and ugly.

So here is the tip (from the Dropbox Forum) for anyone using Dropbox for this purpose: Send your clients the download link, but change the ?dl=0 at the end of the link to ?dl=1, forcing a download.

Bob C