Chuck Pullen
Forum Replies Created
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Hey Stephen, long story short, I bought some RM-55’s used from E-bay that were modified by TV Pro gear with a 9 volt battery and a resistor, since the 9 volts that would normally power it from the camera can’t travel long distances. I am, as I speak rigging 3 of them together using a 9 volt power supply from Radio Shack so as not to burn through tons of 9 volt batteries. As for the cable, I was able to track down 200 foot lengths of (it’s been a while I think it’s just 6 pin PS/2 cable) that is also used for certain types of security cameras. I had also added 6 pin XLR’s on each end since I didn’t think the PS2 plugs would last long in a production environment. If anyone has more questions, just shoot me an E-mail and I’ll give you more info once I get the whole thing working.
virtualchuck@yahoo.com
Chuck Pullen -
Bob, if he’s delivering to Discovery, they have very specific published standards. If he’s delivering to “Joe’s truck stop and trailer park cable system” serving 50 households in Des Moines it’s a little different (He didn’t really specify)
I’ve worked in the #3 DMA for many years, at several stations, and all I am saying is that the strict standards that broadcast television once held advertisers to many years ago, have slipped to the point of ridiculousness, mainly due to the fact that now any college kid with a palmcorder and laptop can shoot a PSA as a class project for some non-profit and distribute it on DVD to his local market stations. He of course probably doesn’t know what bars/tone and a slate are, and unless anyone rejects it, he’ll assume that he’s dong everything correctly.
I can tell you from experience that some stations are so desperate for $$$ that they will let almost anything pass QC and even when they deal with someone who’s submission is so bad that it can’t air, they bend over backwards to help the advertiser get their spot to air. It’s a common theme amongst people I talked to… in this market at least.
That’s the way it is in my little #3 DMA world… I’m glad to hear that the networks in your world are still holding their advertisers to some QC standards…Just one question, are any of them hiring?
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I really don’t think many stations are holding people to ANY sort of standards anymore. Here in Chicago I frequently receive PSA’s on DVD with no bars, no tone, no slate…I frequently have to add the proper disclaimers to paid programs, edit out pieces of black, and I almost never use bars and tone for any sort of reference, because really most people just look at them as that annoying noise and pretty picture at the beginning of the tape.
I have seen it all; my new favorite is a Bow flex paid program that played for months before I noticed ten seconds of the AVID “Clip missing” slate half-way through. These programs use so many silly effects, everyone assumed it was supposed to be there!
Take it from an old school Master Control operator, bars & tone, slate, then countdown, (In that order!) and most stations won’t give you any problems.
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Future generations will have one of two career choices: Robot creation OR robot repair…That is of course until we design a robot capable of designing and building other robots, then of course that robot will design and build a robot capable of fixing other robots. The only thing that will stand in the way of robot nirvana? Those pesky “flesh bags” as Bender “Bending” Rodriguez would call us!
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Here’s what I would do… Deliver your master so that it stops at exactly two minutes in and goes to black! Then you explain “You paid for two minutes…Here’s your two minutes!” I know not really constructive advice, but I find myself developing a “Bob Zelin Complex” lately!
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Hey Kristin, I too was registered to come to the Chicago event, but after hearing from colleagues that everything I wanted to see or demo wasn’t there, I too decided to stay home and watch my freshly painted deck dry… Anyway, here’s my nickel’s worth of free advice:
Like some people who attend your events across the country, I cannot make it out to NAB, so I look to your Expo as my NAB… I spend all year researching and comparing various products, so when your event comes around, I just want to do one thing, and that’s to get my hands on some new toys!
Now obviously it’s not up to you to tell the exhibitors what to do or how to do it, but for the past couple of years I only remember Panasonic as having a “functional” demo booth, and even then it was nothing more than a couple of cameras pointed at a cute girl playing pool? I remember having to BEG the Canon guys last year to answer some questions about their XLH1 camera, even after I told them I was in the market for three or four of them (I decided to pick up more 250u’s that day, thanks in no small part to their attitudes, BTW)
As far as Chicago is concerned, as someone who works in this city, I can tell you your best bet is to set up your next event in Rosemont, or some other suburb off the tollway that actually cares about business and doesn’t try to bend over anyone who requests the honor of holding an event in their shell of a formerly great city. I would rant longer, but thanks to the mayor selling off the parking meters, it now costs like $10 an hour to park downtown, so it’s time to move my car again…
Thanks for putting on the Expo Kristin, and since you took the time to get some input from actual people on this user forum, I promise to come to next years Expo…And you won’t even have to buy my a drink 😉
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I thought I saw that someone like B&H or maybe Helix was selling generic ones. I’ve purchased replacements from Canon and Fujinon in the past, they are way over priced!!
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I am staring at one now, and yes, I think vile pieces of crap sums it up. We have had two of ten of the new Sony monitors die within a six months of installation, and I think every single one has needed some attention over the last year that we have had them…I can only begin to imagine Bob’s opinion of them…
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I believe I read an article about this movie in Digital Content Producer or some magazine like that. The best part was that they choose these cameras for financial reasons… This movie is going to make over $50 million dollars and they didn’t want to spend an extra $20,000 for better cameras???
God love them for doing that though, and like Walter said, everything was done in color grading… It should give the rest of us with more expensive cameras some hope though… If they can make $50 million with some XLHA1’s imagine what we should be charging for our shoots!
Chuck
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Hey Just came across the auction and I thought of your problem Mark.
Chuck