David Mcclellan
Forum Replies Created
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Don’t upgrade. FCP5.1 is extremely stable sans the Media Manager. We just sold a movie to Think Film that we shot on 35mm and edited and delivered to them on D5 – all completely in FCP 5. It wasn’t even on an intel Mac – perish the thought!!!
Until the Meida Manager is rock solid and can take EVERYTHING IN THE TIMELINE (INCLUDING ALL NON TIMECODED MATERIAL LIKE MUSIC, ADR & CG EFFECTS) and create a proper fully functional media managed file that works – then the upgrade is for the mixed media in a timeline and COLOR program only. Everything else seems marginal and trite. I won’t upgrade until I have a good reason to. And a media manager that suits my needs is a big deal.
-DM
G5 Dual 2.5Ghz
OSX4 FCP5
Lots of Ram – Lots of cables – Lots of bills… -
In the long list of extraneous crap one has to buy in order to edit in HD, a cable crimper should be last on the list.
Come on BMD people, there is no excuse for cables that are barely as long as well endowed male genetalia.
I am 100% right on this. Admit your foolish errors, you swarthy bastards!
-DM
G5 Dual 2.5Ghz
OSX4 FCP5
Lots of Ram – Lots of cables – Lots of bills… -
Yeah, I am very glad someone else posted this before me. I just bought a Decklink HD Pro PCI-X version card and it really is an embarrassing slap in the face to pay over a grand for the card ($1500 for PCI-X) and get these wimpy foot long break out cables.
Could ya spare it? If you charged another 20 bucks could these cables at least reach around the freaking computer? They aren’t even useful enough to reach a deck or a monitor sitting on my edit desk 2 feet directly ABOVE my G5. Who was the engineering genius that made this decision?
-DM
G5 Dual 2.5Ghz
OSX4 FCP5
Lots of Ram – Lots of cables – Lots of bills… -
The answer I’m getting so far (from other sources) which confirms Shane’s figures (Discovery is the high end vendor) is that hard cost for the entire production would between $50,000 and $65,000 – and you could very easily do this for much less if it weren’t for the 30 or 40 animations required which make nailing down the price a bit sticky.
Thank you all very much. Next time I will re-post over in Business & Marketing as suggested.
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No, I did some work on a pilot a few years back for 2 now former editors at Playboy (they were full timers there then, producing their own stuff on the side – now one works for Discovery and the other freelances and cuts on Animal Planet) – and that got me in to cut a show there called Night Calls (I think, been a while) for an episode which was multi cam HD on a Mac with AJA system. Then I got asked to stay on to cut for the series (they have many editors there around the clock) but I had money come in to produce a series of corporate training videos that I bid on, and at the time, that was the right move, even though the $$ at Playboy for editors is very good and it is by far the happiest place in Glendale.
This is turning into a pissing contest I believe, and that was not my intention. My main question was based on getting accurate figures for producing a show that has 30 or 40 animated motion graphic elements involved – kind of beyond the scope of what I have produced previously. I am sure I can do it with whatever funds I get if I had to. That was not the point.
If nobody wants to give up the goods – that’s fine with me. I just find it a bit caddy that of all the things discussed here on this forum, hard cold cash and the price of making a show is always somehow skirted (except for Shane). Lawyers, doctors and accountants can all pretty easily find out what the negative operating costs in their respective fields are. Why do filmmakers need a secret handshake?
I’ll just email my friends tomorrow. Forget I even asked.
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Did I touch on a personal subject? What is the big secret here? I can tell you the budget on several shows I’ve cut for in the past – but none were HD. Well one actually was (playboy). And BTW – I do reels for $50, not $100, cupcake. Anyone who pays more is getting hosed – or is not cutting a reel.
-DM
G5 Dual 2.5Ghz
OSX4 FCP5
Lots of Ram – Lots of cables – Lots of bills… -
I don’t mean to be rude. I know the pitching a show game. We pitched Lifetime last month. And I’m not asking for help here — -yet. I just want to see what cold hard cash figures people put up here for their out of pocket negative costs based on the show they produce. Actually based on the show I kinda sorta mentoined – but OK – tell me what show you did (do) and what the cost of making it was and I’m cool with that. It really is a simple question.
Here is the kind of answer that I’m looking for:
I’m joe and I worked on “Whoring Wiveswap Of Orange County” for LIFETIME and it costs us $68,000 per episode to get er done.
Easy.
Thanks.
-DM
G5 Dual 2.5Ghz
OSX4 FCP5
Lots of Ram – Lots of cables – Lots of bills… -
I like (and very much appreciate) Shane’s answer with the $ numbers. I’m not asking what networks will PAY. I’m asking what your ballpark production budget for the type of show I mentioned (or whatever you make) should be. No variables. Just tell us your show and post the dough. Not what you SOLD IT FOR. Not what they might PAY. What it COST YOU TO MAKE IT.
A House in Phoenix costs $35,000 to MAKE. They sell it for $135,000. Got it?
How much does your production cost to MAKE. I really don’t care about the other numbers. Personally in this business I find people lie about both figures in public constantly. And nailing down how much the total bill is for a certain production can sometimes be very hard to get out of people.
I am sure many users here will find this useful. And fun.
Thanks Shane. Very useful.
-DM
G5 Dual 2.5Ghz
OSX4 FCP5
Lots of Ram – Lots of cables – Lots of bills… -
yes – but downconverting with AJA HD card still requires recapturing the whole lot of tapes and then relinking – correct? Also I don’t have the card or the deck. Aja’s & BMD’s websites makes it seem like you buy the card and install the drivers you will be able to edit mixed formats in a single timeline on the fly. I guess I’m not up on my techno nerd nomenclature. “Downconverting” as the term gets tossed around on the Aja and Blackmagic websites implies a simple realtime conversion of files to a lesser quality format within your editing app (timeline) – however – after much research – what it actually means is this: Capturing footage at a lower resolution.
-DM
G5 Dual 2.5Ghz
OSX4 FCP5
Lots of Ram – Lots of cables – Lots of bills… -
Was thinking of using compressor to convert the original media files to DV files and then relinking them. That might be overkill though. I’ll try the copy/paste / render method first.
Thanks!-DM
G5 Dual 2.5Ghz
OSX4 FCP5
Lots of Ram – Lots of cables – Lots of bills…