Chuck Pullen
Forum Replies Created
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Here’s all you need to do. Take the 3 RCA’s out of your camera, plug them into an RF modulator. Get as much RG-6 as you need to make it to that tv, put in on channel 3 or 4 and you’re done.
You’ll probably have a little hum if you run more than a hundred feet, but since it’s just a que monitor, I don’t think anyone will complain. Everything you need should be at Radio Shack, Best Buy, or even Walmart for about $50 or $75,
Chuck
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Bob, if you haven’t been thanked for your eye-opening candor lately, let me be the first to convey my heart felt thanks from every “newbie” who’s been tasked with an impossible mission such as taking a couple of Best Buy “HD” cameras and figuring out how to switch them to stream live for free or some of the other crazy issues that pop up on this column.
The scary part is that how long do you think it will be before you can use an iPad to switch a couple of iPhones and do a live stream? Hell Broadcast Pix already has a “switching” app. for the iPad, can something more advanced be far behind? I am sure we can all appreciate the enthusiasm from every young go-getter just starting in this business, but we also have a responsibility as Bob often points out to make sure these people understand the true value of their product, and what they are getting themselves into or potential exposing themselves to some serious repercussions if they fail, or someone is injured during a production for instance.
On a side note, I had my own “Bob Zelin moment” last week when I met when and old acquaintance who is thinking of getting into the wedding videography business. Well this guy has shot a grand total of one wedding (for a friend) has one “pro-sumer” camera, and he has already put down a deposit to rent office space from a wedding center in our area. Well I tried to be nice, I really did, but he and his wife got up and left half way through the meal, and I have not heard from them since. I had a couple of “veterans” of the video/photography business with me at the dinner for support, and they all agreed this boy was in a heap of trouble, and didn’t even know it yet!
Chuck
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I’ve been anxiously awaiting Bob’s response to this question; totally worth the wait!
“That’s a really fair price; now can you do it any cheaper?”
Enjoy the long weekend guys (in case you get one)
Chuck
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As a Columbia Alum, I can assure that both Columbia or Flashpoint will prepare for a long low-paying career as either a waiter or barista (now that all of the video stores are gone) Save your money buy some decent gear, read some books, surf the cow. Either you got it or you don’t; and those schools certainly won’t give it to you if you don’t!
Going to school is more of a networking thing anyway, and you can meet most of your peers on Facebook or other online groups and hone your skills working on the same projects with them minus the $40k a year tuition.
Now please don’t take my advice (or anyone else’s on a web forum) as your deciding factor, but truthfully I left Columbia a year early, because I was just too busy doing real work, and I got tired of everyone there that was trying to skate their way through coming to me to help them with something complicated, or help them fix something they didn’t bother to do correctly in the first place. In all the years since I’ve graduated no one has every asked where I went to school, if I graduated, all they want to see is your reel, and they want to know if you know what you are doing.
Feel free to drop me a line if you want to chat more, and I can send you a long list of Columbia film school grads that are E-mailing me every week looking for a job if you want to talk to them.
Chuck
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Thanks for your input Bernat. I have considered that as an option, but I don’t have easy access to a Mac, and since I plan on eventually using the Ki Pro for a weekly television show, I don’t think going to see someone with a Mac every week to dump off the footage would work.
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Good morning Gary, thanks for your response.
It was my understanding that Vista/Windows 7 had the ability to access Mac formatted drives, I guess that isn’t the case?
I did download a demo program from download.com (the name escapes me at the moment but it wasn’t Mac Drive) and it allowed me to copy the file, but it took over 12 hours to transfer a 150GB file. Before I buy a program, I was hoping someone who has dealt with this would recommend something that would allow me to access the drive, but it wouldn’t take so long to transfer files?
After looking it up, Mac Drive sounds like the program I should try next, thanks for the suggestion!
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I also explored the Phatcat, but I must tell you, if you have the money I would lean towards a fiber based solution.
If you do decide to go with the Phatcat, you can find heavy duty “tactical” CAT5 and connectors from companies that market it towards automated manufacturing machinery. The components are a bit pricey but it’s pretty much a bullet proof system.
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I second (or third) the hard wired route. The 2.4 GHz wireless systems have been decimated by WLAN so don’t count on having a channel available unless you’re out in the middle of nowhere. I have had some success with RF modulators/DA’s & home theater whatnots from Radio Shack/Best Buy You can pick up a couple hundred feet of RG-6 if you don’t want to order some real Belden coax.
Chuck
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Agreed, I often see misspellings and incorrect grammar on network level programming at home and I think about how many eyes “should” have seen that mistake from production, to ingest, QC, air control etc… and yet it made it all the way into my home.
I remember being in air control a couple of years ago and the banner for the movie “Superman III” read, something like “stupermand III” I called the network at the beginning of each segment when I saw it, and they didn’t pull it until the end of the movie!
One of my other favorites is a “Solo flex Tread-climber” long form program that has aired on many stations all over the country for several years now. About half way through there is a 3 to 4 second “Media Missing” slate from Final Cut. I caught this one day and brought it to my network’s attention, yet you will still occasionally see the same program airing to this day with that slate!
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I’d like to add my own two cents/hearsay to your question. If you are living in a major market in which the affiliate is an O&O, they are all run out of Atlanta by…(Crawford Communications?) Anyway from what I hear I wouldn’t trust them to pump gas let alone monitor network affiliates in multiple major markets. Welcome to the new world folks, trust me when I say it will get much worse when Comcast takes over. Every break on every NBC station will get hacked up like they do with local add insertion on cable 🙁