Christopher Wright
Forum Replies Created
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“One of the hardest things for me about working on my own is finding — or making — free time. Seriously, just plan for time that you WILL NOT be near your computer or video camera. Not gonna touch it, not gonna think about it.”
It’s been 25 years, and I’m still working on this one!!
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I have to disagree with Bruce on the “Filming versus Videotaping” comment. I work on features quite often now and am shooting exclusively on HDCAM, Varicam, Genesis, RED etc. All cameras which ARE NOT film cameras. I would call what I am doing “filming” and not “Videotaping.” Also while the “Ken Burns” type treatment you offered our young charge showed great editing and compositing chops (more motion graphics skills), it doesn’t have a single moving camera shot in it. If I saw this young man’s reel, I would want to see how well he can shoot as well as edit. I think being a good freelance shooter is a better place to start getting an income stream than advanced motion graphics for him, especially at the tender age of 19!
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Octocore 8 GB Ram, Radeon card, MBP, MXO
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It sounds like you actually got the amount your client paid the “other company” and that you could make a real comment on “production value” versus budget. I am in a smaller market where especially ad agencies are “roving” all the time. Whenever I am asked to evaluate another competitor’s work, I always ask the particulars of how the project was handled. I have seen horrible work from competitors (who usually do credible work) which turned out to be shot as a concept “test” scratch video on a consumer format by one person (sometimes an intern of the company), “rough edited” by another person in another company (sometimes a film student), and ultimately dropped by both companies due to not being paid for their work, not wanting to get further involved in the project for no pay, or having the work shuttled to another person within the agency. Several non-profits just want their piecemeal projects (mostly shot by volunteers) “fixed” for free as well, and go from company to company, trying to let you “prove” to them that your company can do a better job, but again for free. I even had one client who had been through eleven “free” or “student intern editors” part-timing at bigger companies for over a year who finally realized that she needed to get her project completed by deadline and finished professionally with us. I have also been on the receiving end of a “competitor smear” where I found out someone was showing a 10 year old project of mine which was shot by a client in extended play 8mm video, and they were told that this project was an example of my recent HD work! It is always REALLY good to know if you are talking apples to apples.
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Octocore 8 GB Ram, Radeon card, MBP, MXO
Windows XP Adobe Studio CS3, Vegas 8.0, Lightwave 9.2, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 6, Continuum 5, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects -
I always preferred to use Targas in every editing and compositing program I have ever used until I started using FCP. FCP and targas don’t get along well. FCP doesn’t even recognize the alpha channel in 32 bit TGA files. I have found FCP loves PNG formatted files and will recognize the alphas “transparently” (pun intended) with this format.
Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Octocore 8 GB Ram, Radeon card, MBP, MXO
Windows XP Adobe Studio CS3, Vegas 8.0, Lightwave 9.2, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 6, Continuum 5, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects -
Even more obvious in this thread is also the confusion of exactly what “rendering” means and what it consists of. If Rick is only talking about NLE renders that is one thing. To me “encoding” and “rendering” are the same type of process which I also bill for. The original poster is talking about AE renders, which are (usually) quite different in complexity and time than FCP renders done only to optimize and output a timeline project. And then there are Lightwave, 3DSMax, and Maya renders with radiosity, hair and cloth simulations etc. that can take weeks or months. That is why many 3D artists I know still stick to the “$1,000.00 per finished second” rule on high quality work. Again if you structure your pricing right, rendering is and should be factored in as an expense you must cover to keep a healthy business going.
Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Octocore 8 GB Ram, Radeon card, MBP, MXO
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I have upgraded my Dual G5 Power PC (AJA IO/LH) machine with no issues, and also my Octocore and MBP using the MXO with no issues. But then again, I haven’t been using AE for any projects lately!
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Windows XP dual 1.0, PPro 1.5, Vegas 6.0, Lightwave 8.3, Sound Forge 8, Acid Pro 5, Continuum, Boris Red, Combustion 4.0, Sapphire Effects -
Ah, yes, I remember correcting 180 degree out of phase SC/H phase signals for Sony BVH-2000 1″ machines used for KLRU “Austin City Limits” edit sessions. Boy do I feel old now.
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Dual 1.0 G4 Medea RAID, 1.5 gigs RAM, Lacie Raid, UL3D, Cinewave
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I have always charged for rendering time (and always will), but it is always a part of my bid. I pretty much know how long any project in AE will take to render. You are paying rent on your space, utilities, laying out money for equipment and software etc, etc. It’s called a business and you charge for the time you spend dealing with client issues.
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Dual 1.0 G4 Medea RAID, 1.5 gigs RAM, Lacie Raid, UL3D, Cinewave
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That is about the best analogy of the HDV format I have ever heard. And so close to the obvious metaphor.
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You first have to make sure the USB device is enabled in Apple System serial device preferences, and then you have to go into the system setups in FCP and manually select the Keyspan for device control.