[Charles Mercer]

Thanks for this. Regrettably I came to a similar conclusion while I was sitting on the floor assembling a flat-pack desk. The noise wasn’t there when we went to view the space and it just chimed in and out all the time while I was working. Fortunately we can bail out at no cost if we have to, but it’s a real disappointment.
In general, the Brits handle sound insulation in buildings very poorly. I once lived in a semi-detached house where I could hear the news on next door’s TV in my living room. I built a false wall to try to cut this out but it wasn’t dense enough, so we moved house. By contrast, I stayed in the Gershwin Building in New York with apartments all around me and heard nothing. I was amazed at the level of sound insulation.
Ok, we have to give this aspect our work a little more attention, so we’ll talk to the engineers when they return from hols next week.

Regards
Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

Happy New Year to all!
Well, we moved into our studio yesterday and we have a space to die for, courtesy of the glut of office space here in the UK. There is one snag – there always has to be one – the building has air-conditioning and, although we can turn our own unit off, we can hear sound from the ducting supplying the other offices. This seems to be a low-level white noise which is intermitent, but it’s enough to be an irritation. Does anyone have a solution to this bane of the videographer’s and sound recordist’s life?
Our first thought is to park a bookcase in front of the sound source with some deadening material behind it – this should cut down the resonace a bit.

Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

Thanks for your ideas Mark. I was interested to note that your lamp replacement is rare, so we have a problem somewhere. Yes, we are in the UK using 240V AC mains at 50 hertz, but the lamps are correctly rated for our supply. I’ve sent one of the lamps back to the manufacturer to see if we just had a bad batch and I’m waiting for the report. I’m also getting a new THX1000 lamphead this week to act as a quick replacement in the field – this is to get over the hot lamp replacement problem and the waiting time for it to cool on a busy shoot. I think what I’ll do is put this lamphead into the Rifa to see if the old one was where the problem lay.

As you say, it’s easy to burn the fabric of the Rifa if you strike to soon. I’ve made a sock out of a plumber’s protective mat (bought from our local DIY store) to go over the frame of the THX1000 holder. I stitched this into a cylinder so it fits neatly over the wire frame without making contact with the lamp. I still let the lamp cool a lot before I use it, but it does give the extra bit of protection. I’m sure this is not the reason the lamps are blowing because we had the problem before I introduced it. Incidentally, we take all the usual precautions in not touching the lamps on installation with fingers – we use surgical gloves to hold the lamp, which is certainly fiddly to get into the socket.

The last thing I’m trying is to get a replacement for the switch section of the supply lead – it may be a faulty switch. I’ll let you know howwe get on.

Regards
Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

Thanks to everybody who responded to the studio conundrum. I ought to say that here in the UK real estate is so expensive, and in short supply, that building an extension to my house would not be an option. I think it would be an ideal way to go in terms of reduced overhead, but we just don’t have the space you guys have in the USA.

I accept your cautions on taking on too much in the way of overhead, but one or two people suggested the necessity of bringing clients to the studio for edits. I think this is where we are at the moment. Can we ask them into the bedroom to sit down to look at the Apple iMac – nice bedroom but it lacks a certain cache!

I work with my son in the business and I’ve put my experience of 30 years in sales and marketing to good use – combined with his Internet savvy we are generating a capacity work-flow and the orders are now coming in by recommendation. (You can view our work on https://www.pearldrop.com) In fact, it seems the business is growing exponentially. The office space situation in the UK is much the same as in the US – the managers are desperate to shift it. So I can get a very good deal, with a receptionist to field the client calls, and a building that is dedicated to rented offices. They use the hot-desk principle – I can walk away after a month’s notice, and there is some subsidy by our local council keen to attract new enterprise to our town.

I’ve done the sums and we can afford to make the move – with the caveat the business keeps coming. I can only say from what I’ve seen so far, I wish I’d started in Videography years ago. As far as buying stands and equipment goes, I’m a great believer in making as much as I can at home, before going to the fancy priced catalogues. Our camera dolly, running on skateboard wheels courtesy of Youtube plans, gives us Hollywood shots (that’s what the clients say!)

So, negotitions for our studio continue and I’ll keep you up to date as to how we get on. Thanks again to everybody for the advice.

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

There’s no easy answer to this one. It seems the body starts to spread in our mid-forties, no matter how careful we are with our diets. I started to gain around the waist and when I realsised the next pants size was going to be 42″ I said enough was enough. My son persuaded me to go to the gym and it has really worked for me. I’ve lost 18 pounds in just over a year with a twice weekly routine. A brief workout with weights plus 1,000 yards on the rowing machine does the trick. But, and it’s a big but, you need the personal discipline to keep it going, especially on the days when you just don’t feel lke going.

Most people have trouble fitting exercise into a busy routine. The benefits and the feel better factor make it worth it and I regard exercise now as part of my work routine. I just have to get to the gym twice a week – no excuses. And my waist size now? I can fit into a size 38″ but wear 40″ for comfort, it’s a joy.

[Charles Mercer]

Hi, Daniel!

Firstly, an update. I just checked the model number (since this is only a loan camera while I wait for my XHA-1s to arrive), and it turns out to be the G1e, not the G1s (i.e. the older model, I think).

I’m shooting in 1080 50i, and have tried every auto/manual mode I can find. Also tried shooting in 25f, and found this to be even worse!

Any thoughts?