[Dan Brockett]

I agree, it could be done but so far, nobody is stepping up to the plate, not even RED. Eventually they will have to implement global shutters but probably not for a while.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

I cannot think of a professional video camera that uses CMOS imagers than contains a global shutter. Do you know of one?

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Mark:

While your response was directed toward Evan, I think it was a very thoughtful and intelligent answer and one with which I totally agree. I think most of us are finding the phone not ringing as often lately so what can we do to go out and create work?

There is so much work out there if you are the kind of person who can present yourself as a communications solution, not a video producer. Everyone needs to communicate effectively and few have the skills to do so but you need to broaden your horizons as far as your definition of communication. Perhaps its web video, Keynote shows, (Heaven forbid!) PowerPoint shows, live presentations, media coaching, writing, editing workshops, training corporate media departments, etc. There is a lot more to it than videotaping and editing and if you are stuck in that mindset, the world is passing you by.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Thomas:

In traditional visual terms, a fade to black is meant to emulate the curtain dropping on a stage performance. It symbolizes the beginning or end of a scene. Of course, as the others have alluded to in this thread, few people these days pay attention to classic visual cues from cinema history and all of the rules have changed.

There are some good tricks suggested here. Just to add to them, I have been editing a terrible corporate video that I did not shoot. Really badly shot footage, and it was shot exactly how most of us would not shoot it, in a single camera lock off most of the time. Two suggestions:

1. I have been using quick soft-edged angle wipes, they work okay and at least make it look like, “take one, take two, etc.”

2. If the shot has decent resolution, you can always zoom in on the shot to give you a fake medium or MCU to cut to. This works best in fast cut, more edgy types of project better than conservative “traditional” cuts.

There is ideal solution to the issue of chopping up single angle, single framed interviews but we all have to do it from time to time. Both of these tricks have saved me numerous times.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Hi Conall:

This is the best HVX footage I have ever seen. Enjoy!
https://vimeo.com/2404740

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Hi Rich:

I am not an attorney, so I don’t know for sure, but it surely does sound as if they would need to pay the same sorts of license fees that any other user would.

As far as Spain, I don’t know what the U.S. copyright laws are as far as how they apply to foreign countries. I know that there is an international copyright law, but as you know, much of the rest of the world ignores that because they are in countries that basically ignore copyright law (most of Asia, for instance).

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Unfortunately the four-pin Firewire connection is fundamentally flawed in design. When the HVX-200 first came out, I did many hours of shooting with the camera ran into a Panasonic 1200 and 1400 DVCPro HD deck because at the time, all we had were 8GB cards and for two hour interviews, they weren’t fun to juggle.

Thanks goodness they wised up and installed a locking six pin Firewire on the HPX170. Just beware, the four pin FW is a flimsy connection, even when brand new, if you jiggle the cable, you may lose your connection momentarily. Strain relief on the cable is a must and even then, I would be very careful. I would hate to pin an important shoot on that connector. I have done it and lost footage.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Patricia:

I’ve got to ask, what is an NPO?

Thanks,

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

I agree, a waste of kilobytes. A lot of electrons are killed to generate those e-mails and spamming just wastes this precious, natural resource.

Do you think any professionals would take you seriously if you spam them? Most people I know HATE anyone who sends them spam and will purposely go out of their way to not ever do business with those companies. I know I am that way.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Wow Todd, that is pretty cool, a ShotMaker Mini Van. Someone had some talent in engineering that. Nice.

Daniel:

I used my wife’s Dodge Caravan as a production vehicle a few years ago. Not really very different than the Honda. If you are using it for transport, just take out the seats the liberally coat the interior with furniture pads so you don’t gouge up the plastic side panels and interior with light stands and cases. Double doors are a must. Light duty car-based vans like these aren’t really going to do very well with serious production gear. I used to load up the Caravan to the brim with gear, which would have ended up weighing at least 1,000 and possibly close to 2,000 lbs total. At that weight, the bottom of the van would scrape on speed bumps and steep driveways.

More importantly, loading up a regular car based minivan like the Honda with serious amounts of gear (its tempting because minivans can hold a LOT of gear) can result in your transmission taking a dump on you. Keep in mind, that mini vans are based upon car chassis, suspension and transmissions, they are cars with more room is all. If you want a serious production van to carry more than a few hundred pounds, you will be much better off with a domestic truck-based chassis van, not a minivan. Vehicles like a GM Astro, etc. or even a full sized van. These full sized vans are based upon the divisions truck chassis, designed to take some weight and abuse much better.

Adam Cultraro, a director who I wrote a three page series on for his film Corrado for HD Video Pro Magazine, bought a used production truck for almost nothing, painted it and customized/fixed up the box. If you are the least bit handy, this would be my recommendation for a serious production vehicle. I think he ended up with just maybe $2,000.00 to $3,000.00 into his Ford production van, it was something like a 21′ truck with the box, diesel engine. You go to U-Haul and they will sell their older, yet well maintained rental box trucks.

MUCH better than a minivan and much cheaper. Tons of room, you can fit a dolly, generators, overheads, a few dozen C-stands, etc. That’s the other thing that sucks about a van, you will inevitably need whatever item is buried at the bottom of the mountain of gear in the minivan. With a real production truck, you have immediate access to anything on the truck, not just what is sitting on top of the mountain of gear in the back.

Good luck,

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs