Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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I would think you definitely need to state that the video is for entertainment purposes only. This seems to be common in “educational” content so that people can’t sue because the information was construed as advice.
First and foremost you should really consult a lawyer on something like this, not a forum. People like to sue and I wouldn’t mess around.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
While they may not be stealing anyone’s business you can rest assured that they are out there undercutting prices like mad, hurting everyone in the Atlanta market. Companies like this are springing up everywhere, and the end result is clients are rapidly getting a very distorted view of what kind of price is fair. Not to be the doom prognosticator, but IMO anyone doing medium-to-lower end work is due for a serious reality check during the coming year.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
The genuine fractals approach may be the most effective. Needless to say there are plug-ins out there for scaling SD to HD (like Boris Continuum Complete), but since you are starting with such a small amount of pixels they probably won’t produce very good results.
The small starting size guarantees any solution will be kinda booty because there just aren’t enough pixels.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Another explanation I’ve heard on the interwebs is that After Effects essentially expands everything to the equivalent of uncompressed 4:4:4 on the fly, which requires major horsepower to execute in real time ala Dave’s Flame/Inferno reference.
Hopefully Todd can confirm or deny this, but it would help explain why AE can’t play a single layer in real time.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I’ve done probably 30 HD productions and have never messed with AE’s working space. I use a Spyder3 to calibrate my computer monitor, so the monitor uses that custom profile but within AE I always have the working space set to none. Maybe I’ve been doing it wrong but I’ve never had any color issues.
For the record, I am using a Blackmagic card/broadcast monitor/scope so I know the color has been accurate working this way on these particular productions, which mostly used DVCPROHD from medium-to-high end cameras like the HVX200. Things may be different depending on the source of your footage, output requirements etc.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Networking with editors isn’t going to help – they aren’t likely to hand you their own valuable contacts or refer you for jobs that they themselves need. Part of the problem you’re experiencing is that there is an incredible glut of editors out there these days. I recently posted a listing for an FCP editor and received about 40 responses within 24 hours, most of whom had a mile long resume and pretty good reels. In situations like this it really does come down to who you know, because your chances of being noticed in a stack of resumes that high is, well, 40:1. To get in the door you need to know people on the inside of the production houses, ad agencies etc. in your area. They can help you land the jobs before they are even made public, and save the hiring manager a lot of time and BS in the process.
I would focus on finding mixers, events and user groups catering to various post production roles, agencies etc. outside of editing. This could include motion graphics groups, VFX groups, agency functions and beyond. These people, since they aren’t in direct competition with you for jobs, would be good inside allies to have pitching for you when positions come up. But they won’t vouch for you simply because they met you at some mixer, you need friends on the inside – this means cultivating relationships with the people in your local production community like crazy. When you do land a gig, network with everyone there like your career depends on it. Make friends with everyone, including (and to some degree especially) the front desk/reception people, and don’t be the silent emo guy/girl who slinks in and out every day unnoticed.
I would also suggest making contact with the hiring personnel of your local studios when they don’t have any openings listed. This gives you a better chance of reaching them directly and introducing yourself since they aren’t in defense mode from all the applications they’ve been getting.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Unfortunately a lot of this has to do with what your competitors are doing. If every production company used a standardized set of ground rules (which I think is a good idea), these problems would be rare because the bad client would have no one to turn to. I guess that’s called collusion, but it would help. In my market, I know there are tons of rookie fools who don’t even use contracts and use price undercutting to survive, and that threat means the client always has someone else to turn to if you insist on any rules at all. I have been literally watching this happen before my eyes, where clients don’t want to adhere to even the most basic, intuitive and common business rules, even if they were explicitly signed off on in a contract. It’s madness.
Charging a deposit ensures that they have SOMETHING on the line that will keep them from disappearing on you. Insisting that they pay the balance before final delivery ensures they pay up if they want their product. I use both of these methods on every job, but it’s the rookie losers out there that are making it harder to enforce any sane business practices. I have a lot more to say on this topic, but that’s another post entirely…
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I would agree with all of this. Dell monitors are great, believe they use the same panels as Apple.
The best prices I’ve found for Mac Pros are at https://www.macmall.com, they are the same or less than ordering through Apple Business Pricing. Apple recently saw the writing on the wall and lowered the price of adding RAM to your build, but Other World Computing still has the cheapest mac RAM that I know of, and it works great. That said, 8-10k is a decent budget and you should probably just buy Apple’s RAM. If you ever need the machine serviced and there’s third party gear in your machine, they might not help you.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Are you on a mac or PC? The difference is huge in terms of what your options are.
On a mac, use DVCPRO HD as your first choice. If not available, ProRes HQ.
Neither of these options is available on PCs without the use of expensive third party apps. Not sure what works best for the PC side since I use macs.
By the way, if you are shooting MXF files I’m assuming you’re using a camera like the HVX200. Just for the record so you don’t get tripped up later in the process, that footage isn’t 1920×1080, it’s 1280×1080 with a 1.33 pixel aspect ratio, so it gets stretched horizontally by the program playing it back. Not sure if you knew that.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Never heard of Ramdisk, but I would be skeptical…
You are correct that 64 Bit OS is required to utilize 8GB RAM.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com