Bruce Frankel
Forum Replies Created
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Well, I am of an older vintage. I haven’t been back to CR since 1978. A week’s worth of groceries was $15 at the Hy-Vee on 1st Ave. It was a great town and the nearby nursing school provided a lot of entertainment.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I will work on that. BTW, I went to Coe College, right down the street! We watched KCRG all the time.
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I started in the biz in 1980. At that time, a film mix was done in a studio with a 16-channel mixing console connected to a bank of 35mm MTM dubbers running in sync to a 35mm projector! There were only a couple of facilities in town that could do that work, but that was the technology at the time. That is why the prices were high and clients paid them. Times were good for commercial editors and as the KEM gave way to the Avid, prices for service remained high and clients paid the price because the costs to set up an Avid suite were still very high. The bubble burst when FCP became popular and everyone from high school student to award-winning pros could easily get into the business and call themselves “editors”. I gotta admit, there are some talented high school kids out there. The problem is, they live at home with mom and dad and have no overhead. My son’s 16 yr-old friend showed me some After Effects stuff he did, at home, that blew me away! Yikes!
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The other issue is the loss of accumulated knowledge. I grew up in the biz where we worked under the watchful eye of a seasoned pro, we had a mentor, if you will. We absorbed knowledge not only about the tech stuff, but client services, how to keep clients happy and coming back. The kids who never worked as an assistant, intern or gofer in a working studio, miss out on that stuff. It is a great loss for everyone.
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Chip,
Thanks for your response. It only seems to be happening in the DVCPro mode, not DV or DVCam mode. Stay with me here. I have two decks. Both AJ-D450s. One deck had this high error E-02 in DVCPro mode. The other deck seems to record ok, but has intermittent monitor BNC out connection troubles, so, I take the recorded tape out of one D450 and play it back in deck two, which has the recording problem. Odd, I know. Deck two plays back DVCam and DV fine, but not its native DVCPro. That’s when I see the E-02 message, blocky video, etc. Why two decks? ‘cuz I rarely use DVCPro to record and the cost to overhaul the deck was more than buying a supposedly fine, used D450 on Ebay. I was after the servo card since it seemed like a servo card error. So, I bought the second deck thinking I could cannabalize one deck to fix the other, but that did not work out. My original deck has very low hours, so I am surprised it might be a head issue.
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Never mind, I see now that I needed to extend the time line bar over the section of video I was working on.
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Thanks for the info. I guess I am keyframe fixated;-)
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I mostly agree with you. For the most part, more sophisticated clients understand the importance of hiring experienced people. However, these are abnormal times we live in. Budgets are cut and it is very tempting for smaller corporate clients to go for price over talent and experience.
I recently lost a job that was bid out to me and four other companies. The client went with a company that was 80 percent less (tens of thousands of dollars) than my bid and I thought I was too low to make a decent profit! I called the gentleman who requested the bid and asked him if he thought there was something odd in the vast price difference. He just grunted and said he liked the low-bidder’s reel. This video job was meant to attract Fortune 500 companies to a suburban office center. The low bidder’s reel was all wedding and event work, no corporate or commercial work whatsoever! I just shook my head and moved on. Price won out over suitability. Too many people willing to work cheap. Too many inexperienced people in decision-making roles.
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A professional is an amateur who is paid for their work. Since there are no licensing bodies or qualifying tests to become a Pro in this biz, Pro status is only based on who you can get to pay you for doing the work. I hate to sound harsh, but that is a fact.
I was going to join the DGA, Director’s Guild. I had a meeting with the local chapter and went through issues like insurance, benefits and pension plans. I asked them if they wanted to see my reel. They said no! I asked how I could become a member of the DGA without showing them my directing work. They said “if someone wants to hire you, who are we to say you are or are not ready or qualified?” Wow, I was taken aback by their position, but they were right. If you want to be a First or Second Assistant Director, you need two years of on set apprenticeship. Those are considered technical positions. For the main Director, no such time on set is required, it is considered a subjective, artistic position and it is why you hire the 1st assistant director to help you through the shoot!
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I will attempt to go AES in. The output levels on the DVW500 are fine, I think there must be some corruption in the Avid. I will try the old standby: open a new project and import audio. If it is OK, I’ll just re-digitize in a new folder. Thanks, I’ll keep you informed.