[Bob Cole]

Stan, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen this thread. I’m sure a lot of us are curious as to what has happened. Also, could you give us enough information to see your video(s), as well as the videos that have made use of your footage?

Thank you.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I hope you charge them what it actually costs to retrieve the data.

I’m with Todd about explicitly charging for an archive, though — unless, as David says, you charge for every year. Guaranteeing an archive in perpetuity is not feasible under most circumstances. Even if the media stays intact, the changes in software and hardware can make it extremely difficult to USE that data readily, after even just a couple of years. In the case of a Final Cut Pro 7 project, you have to make sure you export an XML version, in case your future computer doesn’t run FCP7, and your future software won’t open a proprietary FCP7 project file. And who knows how long that XML trick will work?

I think that one of the great national institutions (Library of Congress or National Archives) stores its moving-image archive on 35mm film, not just for the stability of the film itself, but also because the way we access it is not going to change with some new operating system or software.

[Bob Cole]

Change the room.

The only good thing is that it is deep. It’s not wide enough, though. Your dancers will not even have 12′ in which to dance. They will have to be far enough away from the green screen so that it doesn’t in essence become a light source on them, creating troublesome edges for your keying. It’s been too long since geometry class for me to give you a number, but I’m guessing your “stage” will be about 8′ wide tops.

Thanks for the post – anytime someone can get responses from the people who’ve weighed in already, I learn something.

Bob C.

[Bob Cole]

Thanks Mark and Todd. I went onto a professional electrician’s forum and discovered that the answer was basically “no.”

The only way to get the answer is apparently to buy a circuit tracer, and then use an amprobe at the circuit breaker box. But I lack access to those boxes when on location, unless we get a building engineer to provide it.

So, back to my usual method: plug everything in and wait ten minutes; bring doughnuts and offer them around when the power goes out.

bob

[Bob Cole]

Very interesting, Erik, and pretty much what I was suspecting. With 4K coming, those particles that are not visible in HD because they haven’t clumped together enough, will be monsters.

[Erik Anschicks] ” and will probably even see it in a monitor. “
That’s just the problem, isn’t it – now, people are shooting HD with field monitors that are less-than-HD and therefore can’t reveal small flaws in the image. I”m glad you detected the problem, but not a lot of shoots carry around true HD monitors. I’m specifically concerned about the new run-and-gun 4k cameras, because they definitely won’t have 4k monitors on-set — they often don’t even have a “set.”

I am hoping that the 4k camera/sensor designers are working on the dust issue. There must be algorithms for detecting and highlighting any part of the image that doesn’t change when you pan the camera. Seems doable.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Nice work! I want to know more about your secret sauce.

Thanks for sharing.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Seth, this is a case where a test is in order. Find out how long it takes to roto five seconds of representative footage, then figure out how many seconds you’ll need to do for real. If the foreground will have a lot of action or non-linear motion, then your test should too, because that’s where the hard work happens with rotoscoping. And shoot your test as if it were in front of a chroma key screen, i.e. use a higher shutter speed to avoid motion blur.

I’d vote for green screen, if you have the time, equipment, and knowledge. Even with a perfect backdrop, I still sometimes have to roto a tiny bit here and there. I can’t imagine doing entire scenes in rotoscope.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Thanks Todd.

I don’t know (obviously) but I suspect that there are a lot of dirty sensors out there, and we just haven’t been able to see them. When 4k comes along, it may be just like the advent of HD, when we could see certain details for the first time.

My DSLR goes through a sensor vibration routine at each power-up/power-down, so dust must be an issue. And AbelCine offers a sensor cleaning service.

Will we necessarily notice it while shooting? I have noticed dust on a still from a DSLR, but only when I was editing the images, and it was pretty minor. It may even have been invisible at 1920×1080; but at 4k? I don’t know.

[Bob Cole]

[Todd Terry] “I’m a primes guy and shoot almost exclusively with them.”

One of the things that I like about a zoom lens is that you don’t have to worry as much about dust getting onto the sensor. Changing lenses in the field always brings that risk.

What is your workflow for switching primes and ensuring that the sensor stays clean? (I’m a bit hyper about this, as I had a film job, um, ruined, by a hair in the gate. That was just before I bought an otoscope to help with my inspection of the gate!)

Bob

[Bob Cole]

Thanks Dan – good to know.

b