[Bob Cole]

Thanks! Looks great, “but”.

It does about 100x what I need, and I’m not sure from the website and video whether it will work for quick, unobtrusive notation of good interview answers. Tapping on “note” brings up a keyboard – I don’t want that – and tapping on “circle” will “circle a take.” We don’t do “takes” for each interview question. All I want is time-of-day timecode, a little button to tap, and a list of the timecodes for each tap. Can this app be dumbed down to do that? (I’m assuming that the “clock” setting is for time-of-day.)

[Bob Cole]

Right. Way too expensive, imho. But if your camera has time-of-day timecode, it would seem fairly easy to have an iPad app which just records a tc mark every time you tapped the screen.

[Bob Cole]

[Nick Griffin] “$20k is worth a fight, $2k is not. It’s up to each of us to decide where in the middle lies your individual transition point.”

You just reminded me that somebody owes me $100. I’m writing a reminder as soon as I’ve finished admitting how low my transition point is!

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Nick Griffin] ” too often words which are written don’t work nearly as well, especially edit as well, when spoken.”

Absolutely right. Which is another good reason to do it your way (repeating the lines into Dragon or similar software) – sometimes you just have to do the hard slogging to find those moments. There may be a facial expression, a hitch in the throat, or even a pregnant pause, which words on a page can’t convey.

Of course, there is a totally different approach which avoids transcripts entirely: make notes of the best takes during the interview. I know producers who never even look at the whole session – just the parts they mark during the session. I’ve never used one, but there are timecode-equipped clipboards which enable the interviewer to mark every soundbite which he/she likes. At the end of the day you have a list of outpoints. I wonder whether any of you have used one of those, and found it useful. Although the physical timecode clipboards are expensive to buy, it seems to me that if you used time-of-day timecode, an iPad app would be able to do that job pretty easily and cheaply…. Just a suggestion to you software mavens (I’ll buy one!).

[Bob Cole]

I’ve tried that (with Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 Standard) and may give it another shot, but as you say, clean-up is required, and it took so long that I decided to hire a service. I’ve been thinking about upgrading that software and trying it again.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

This is a good warning. Thanks Ty. It seems totally unfair to spend more time and energy getting paid than it did to do the job.

How many of you folks accept credit card payments at the time of service? Is this a viable option – would it help to avoid situations such as Ty described? Have you found a good, inexpensive way of accepting cc payments?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Great example. Question for the gurus: how do you think they augmented the natural light for these shots?

(quick correction to my first reply here) The Rosco website says that the ambient light falling from the window onto the interior is cut by one stop, which seems pretty good – largely preserves the window-light effect, which heavy ND of course would kill.

Another question: Rosco specifically advises using the Rosco polarizing camera filter since it is matched to the RoscoView. Is that advice valid?

[Bob Cole]

Great (though expensive) solution if they gelled all the windows! Do you recall the name of the doc? I’d like to see it.

Did they have any problem with uneven lighting out the windows when panning the camera?

[Bob Cole]

[Bill Davis] “Dining is more interesting when you can change main courses – change how you spice them up, and change the side dishes.”

Damn you! I already brushed my teeth tonight, and you just made me hungry again.

[Bob Cole]

[Mike Imken] “Are Arri light kits a good bet as well?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/527207-REG/Arri_571961W_Softbank_D2_T...”

Chimera is great for travel. But this kit has three fresnels, no open face – isn’t it kind of a waste to put a fresnel into a Chimera? (I’d be interested in others’ opinions on that score, btw.) If you will often be using the Chimera you may want to find a kit that includes a simple (and inexpensive) open face. Also, that Chimera is kind of small, imho.

Travel kits should be rugged, compact, lightweight, come in good cases, and be as inexpensive as possible so it is less tragic when they get lost/stolen/damaged.

Bob C