[Daniel Stone]

Always add 3:2 pulldown in the export menu. You just have to select 29.97, upper/lower frames, and pixel aspect. Premiere does a really good job. If you don’t have a broadcast monitor, you can step through and count frames. If done properly, you should always advance forward with the exception of the duplicated frames.

[Daniel Stone]

Thanks for the excellent info, guys. Everything makes sense. I’m curious about the COS11 and am going to give it a try–although I think practice is what I need most.

Is there a good technique resource any of you know about? A book or an online series I can buy?

[Daniel Stone]

I’ve never used the AT but I am not a fan of the Sennheiser G3s. At all. We bought three sets (frequencies) and they all suffered from constant hits, fizzles, sputters and interference. Did some research and, apparently, it’s a common problem with these. We bought the entry level Lectrosonics system. A bit more money but they’re plug and play. They just… work. They save us a ton of time (and embarrassment) on set not having to stop the interview, rescan for frequencies and ask everyone to bury their metal items in a lead trench a mile away from set.

[Daniel Stone]

Thanks for the responses, guys. Conrad, I’m going to check out those links.

Kannan: The worst computer is a 2012 Mac Pro (Yosemite 10.10.5) 3.33 GHz 6-Core with 32GB of RAM and an NVIDIA Quadro 4000. Startup drive is an SSD.

Yesterday we reverted back to Premiere CC 2014 on all of our computers and it’s SO much better. I had one crash all day, which, for Premiere, is amazing. I’ll take it.

[Daniel Stone]

I know this is an old post but I thought I’d give you a quick perspective from someone in a production company who gets a million resumes and does a lot of hiring. Here are some tips:

1. Always send your samples. I look at samples before I even look at your name. I look at your resume only if I like your samples.

2. Scrap the “To whom it may concern.” Nobody reads cover letters. Know why? Because they’re cover letters. You’re a creative emailing another creative. Be creative. Get rid of the cover letter and address me as if I’m not just being spammed by the same dull form letter that everyone else is getting. My favorite emails start with, “Hi Dan,” and contain less than 4 sentences – one of which is personalized to us (think “Congratulations on the new office!”).

3. Check your grammar. Not knowing the difference between “your” and “you’re” shows me that you don’t pay attention to details and that I’ll be embarrassed if you ever need to communicate with one of our clients.

4. Use snail mail (in addition to email). We get a lot of resumes here. A lot. Email yours (with sample links) to get it “into the pile,” and snail mail a demo disk in a box to stand out.

5. Please don’t send demos as attachments or DropBox downloads. it’s annoying. I want a YouTube link that I can watch on my iPhone from my living room couch at night after the kids go to bed. If I like it, I’ll bring it into the staff meeting in the morning and show everyone else.

6. Unless you’re sending me a job-specific reel, be sure to tell me exactly what your role was on set. If you’re a newbie sending me a highly-produced Nike commercial without a job role, I’m going to assume you sent me the wrong link. Even if you were just a PA, it’ll at least tell me you’ve been on a large set – and that does help.

7. Be persistent but not annoying. What? Be constantly available but easy to ignore. Most of the guys and girls I’ve hired were at the right place at the right time. The industry moves so quickly that we don’t keep resumes on file. Typically, we ignore resumes we receive when we’re not hiring. Connect with someone in the company who is not the direct head and send them monthly updates.

Hope this helps!

[Daniel Stone]

Thanks for the input, guys. Very helpful!

[Daniel Stone]

Funny thing is, the expectations thing is what’s making me want to stop. The last commercial we shot, a few guys charged me meal penalties for not providing a last meal after four hours. When I brought it up, they removed the charge but said, “It’s just that you guys usually provide an end meal.” I’ve found that happens with bonuses, too. Sometimes I’ll throw some hard workers an additional $50 or so for going above and beyond on a shoot. Sure enough, this usually causes a sudden rate increase for the next shoot.

Thanks for the input, Todd!

[Daniel Stone]

Thanks for the input, guys. I’ve decided to pay him the higher of the two rates plus a kit fee. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t treating him unfairly.

The photos are unedited client deliverables. The DP lit the scene, the director directed the shot and the camera op filmed the talent as instructed. We then had him do the same thing with a still camera.

Really appreciate the feedback.

[Daniel Stone]

Thanks for the reply, Eric. This echoes what I keep hearing.

[Daniel Stone]

Hi Bob,

We run Teradek systems on set for the client and director monitors. At $2K it’s somewhat pricey but probably one of the more reliable systems out there. We’ve rented cheaper systems which seem to suffer from frequent drop outs and signal loss.

Dan