[Bob Woodhead]

China balls… fantastic for tight quarters, or perhaps a boardroom table scenario, with talent all around. Basic large paper-based china ball (buy online for a few bucks). Take a few “Y” edison socket adapters, screw ’em together so you’ve got 4 or 6 sockets, then fill those with Home Cheapo flo bulbs. Hangs from an arm just dandy, throws tons of soft omni-direction light. I keep a couple in my large art portfolio (also a cheapo idea… it holds gels, foamcore, china balls (collapsed), cookies, etc).
When you’re at Home Cheapo, also look for some plastic alligator-toothed clamps, about 3 time the width of C-47s, but same length… they’ve a hole at the end to thread a cord through… work great for stretching out any diffusion in a frame. Think they’re called tarp clips.

“Constituo, ergo sum”

Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
http://www.CoolNewMedia.net
Quantel-Avid-FCP-3D-Crayola
Panasonic HPX500

[Bob Woodhead]

Using Director simply as a method to play video, regardless of medium, is over-complicated. Director shines when you need to go beyond merely playing a video (perhaps even with accompanying text), but into complex variables, acquiring realtime data from the Net to incorporate into presentation, using Flash animations, sending data captured during playback, alternate media, etc etc. Flash itself of course has grown into a very viable alternative, and probably has more top-end programmers available. But only when On2 video codec became available was the video quality acceptable (to me).

I’ve created a number of Director projects, and hardly scratched the surface of what was possible. But Mark is right – it’s very hard to find GOOD Lingo programmers. I wish I was doing more Director work… it can be very rewarding to build a custom media-based application for a client. Trouble, you lose your programming chops very quickly.

“Constituo, ergo sum”

Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
http://www.CoolNewMedia.net
Quantel-Avid-FCP-3D-Crayola
Panasonic HPX500

[Bob Woodhead]

Use P2CMS for transfer. Yes, there’s a separate utility for card naming, but as it’s PC-only, I don’t bother with it. Search on my name & P2CMS, and you’ll find a long thread describing my workflow.

(here it is:)
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/193/869018

[Bob Woodhead]

Order an iCuff instead – you’ll LOVE it. Think it’ll fit w/o eyepiece. If you need to be sure, ask me to check on mine.

“Constituo, ergo sum”

Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
http://www.CoolNewMedia.net
Quantel-Avid-FCP-3D-Crayola
Panasonic HPX500

[Bob Woodhead]

Oh yeah, for all of our shooting so far, going above the reach of the Seven hasn’t been an issue. But that’s all about what you need. I see the Ezfx jib has options for longer… not a bad choice.

[Bob Woodhead]

In EXACTLY the same buying mode as you, and have spent considerable time researching. I’ve had numerous shoots using the Seven jib ( http://www.longvalleyequip.com ) that a fellow shooter owns, and only had two complaints; 1- it tends to “bounce” a very small bit when trying to swing into a final rest position (usually during a more “dynamic” kind of move) 2- when you’re “out of balance” position (say during a high to low move), the jib naturally tends to want to return to balance, thus making it slightly harder to hold on the out of balance position.

I’ve talked at length with the owner of Long Valley (GREAT guy, AND a DP), and he feels the 1st issue is one that will go away as the jib is used more – that the bearings still need some more “swing time” – and with decreased friction, that small “bounce” will diminish. The 2nd issue is probably the same with almost ANY jib arm (as it’s simple physics). That said, PortaJib has a new “vector balance” thingy that they say helps. After reading their page carefully, it appears it’s not a dynamic doohickey, but that you need to adjust it for the shot you’re doing. (CAVEAT – I have *not* talked to them on that point.) As to “bounce”, I *assumed* that having a pan friction control would help stop bounce, but after talking to Doug @ Long Valley, it seems more friction would only make bounce worse.

Now, I’ve talked alot about these 2 issues, but they’re really VERY picky topics. I’ll say that the Seven jib is very fast to set up, works great. I tend to use the LCD on the camera, so monitor mounting isn’t a big concern. As I’m using a HPX500, rear controls, etc would add $$$ (my remote zoom/focus are just long enough for tripod use), so that wasn’t part of my decision.

So on jib, I’ve decided to save $1100 and go with the Seven. It’s got a fantastic build quality. I think the couple of extra features on the PortaJib Traveller just wouldn’t come into play enough to make it worth it for me. (Given someone else’s $, I’d buy the Traveller.)

On to dollies. Initially thought I was going with the Losmandy Spider Flextrak dolly. Seemed like an awesome concept. After much thread searching, seems like a great idea that’s not so hot “in the field”. Seems the Flextrak needs a really smooth surface to lie on. Also, the track stiffens below about 50F. Doorway dollies… also have found many comments that it’s just “not enough”… great for smooth floors, but usually relegated to hauling gear, not camera. Chapman, Panther, Fisher, etc – right out due to cost, weight, crew.

Have read many success stories about skate wheel dollies, running on either ABS, PVC or standard metal track. IndieDolly, Microdolly, Supertrack dolly (from Long Valley), Glideshot dolly (VERY similiar to Supertrack Dolly). Indie & Micro, besides being $$ more than the other two, don’t offer a way for cam op & AC to “ride on”, or add weight (heavier = smoother, usually). Seems to me the simple design of a platform for your sticks & op, riding on skate wheels is the way to go. So I’m opting for Long Valley’s Supertrack. That said, given OPM (other ppl’s money), I’d buy a Matthews Doorway Dolly, along with Matthews Hot Buttons to ride it on track. But I’ll save $$ instead. (PS – going to try to mod the Supertrack platform into a doorway dolly by adding removeable pneumatic wheels on top side of wooden platform.)

Hope this helps, as it’s the end product of my research into your question.

“Constituo, ergo sum”

Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
http://www.CoolNewMedia.net
Quantel-Avid-FCP-3D-Crayola
Panasonic HPX500

[Bob Woodhead]

We’ve been using a 2-drive external SATA RAID 1 array. (mirrored) Take it with us on location.

Computer sees it as one drive. Drives go on the shelf as a set when full. MXFs are copied to “online” RAID 5 for editing. MXFs are deleted from RAID 5 when project complete (archives are on that 2 drive mirrored set).

“Constituo, ergo sum”

Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
http://www.CoolNewMedia.net
Quantel-Avid-FCP-3D-Crayola
Panasonic HPX500

[Bob Woodhead]

[Jeremy Garchow] “For instance, if we are shooting Broll for a week, there’s no way we will be able to predict what we are going to get.”

In a best case, you’d have some PDA-thingy that’d let you edit a text file on a SD card. Wish I had one. (we use a laptop when we’re not out in the boonies) Barring that, you could pre-define broll categories. Shooter selects metadata based on what they’re pointing at. Then rename (if needed) clips once they’re imported as QT refs in FCP.

[Bob Woodhead]

I think the most significant aspect not realized in your outline is that working with clips on different edit stations is really very easy with Raylight. There’s an option in Raylight to save the newly created QT reference file in the same location as the MXF. So my workflow is:
– transfer clips (either off camera or off cards) via P2CMS onto a 2 drive RAID 1 array. (Mirrored drives for safety.)
– Run Raylight on those files
– (if desired) copy everything to an edit RAID (raid 5)
– do a simple Finder search for .mov files on the folders. the search results (a QT file for every clip) can be dropped into FCP.
– storing the QT ref files with the MXFs means that you don’t need Raylight after the initial processing (and also eliminates the possibility of changing options in Raylight later, and thus potentially mucking up your FCP references)

So Raylight can be a “run once, use many” operation.

No help here on AVCIntra…. 500 owner.

“Constituo, ergo sum”

Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
http://www.CoolNewMedia.net
Quantel-Avid-FCP-3D-Crayola
Panasonic HPX500

[Bob Woodhead]

If you’re on a Mac, I strongly recommend Disk Tracker. Cheap, VERy fast, Boolean searching, multiple search parameters, etc etc etc. If I can’t find what I want in under 15 seconds, I ain’t got it.