David Rowan
Forum Replies Created
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I didn’t re-programm many keys, but that was one I just had to do. I used the customized keyboard to put the cmd+d deselect back. I think that at Apple they only ever expect people to use the mouse, and they are surprised when they find out that some users actually like the keyboard.
One other custom change is that I moved the Link/Un-link toggle to the letter c. I never crop anything, but I link and unlink constantly, and “shift+l” is just to hard to do with my left hand (right hand has to be stuck on the mouse).
Anyone else have any custom changes they found helpful? Or I guess hat should be in its own thread, eh?
DWR
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perhaps you could just donate all that dust and scratched to someone who’s trying to make their DV look more like film. People pay all kinds of money to get decent dust and scratches in their video and here you are trying to get rid of them!
DWR
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Every once in a while I get the same sort of thing. For my workflow I select a file in the bin and “Open in Editor”. I can make changes to it, but then it simply wont save the altered file. I am able to “Save As…” and give it a new name.
Re-booting the computer usually sets things right for me.As for reconnecting media. I had a lot of problems when I would quit STP and then save the file on the way out. I would get an “unexpected quit” message and the files would be screwed up so that they would no longer work anywhere. I learned that it was better to save the file, then close the tab, and then quit the program. (Command+s then Command+w then Command+q). As long as I do that I seem to have much fewer problems.
DWR
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David,
I know what you mean, whenever I put a demo reel together I can’t help but think “Wow, everything I’ve ever done sucks.” No matter how much I liked it at the time. Your just in a rut.
If your a one-man band part of the problem is cross-polination. When you can bounce ideas off other people, see their work and have them critique yours then your work won’t seem so stale. Local users groups can provide this, plus you could try freelancing at a local TV station, or on someother project where you are part of a team. Teaching can also do this, even if its the local boyscouts or highschool. The idea is that your communicating with other people in new ways. Just explaining your own techniques to someone will help you discover your own identity. Judging contests also exposes you to a lot of new material in a critical environment.
Experiment. I just had a co-worker tell me that he had never seen someone in the TV business work so hard on their home movies. I’m not much of a “film-maker” in terms of coming up with my own movies. I like helping other people realize their visions. But I make some pretty good home movies, and I experiment with storytelling, pohotography and editing techniques there. I see lots of ads for would be movie makers looking for camera men and editors (and others), and in the end its all on spec…no pay. Pro Bono work may not be a waste of time if it is different enough from your regular stuff to inspire, challenge at teach you.
Do domething different. Learn to Scuba dive. Research your genealogy. Shake up your life. If you have a dedicated hobby outside of work, try a new hobby. If you don’t have a dedicated hobby outside of work…get one! For your own sake.
Summary: Meet new people, try new projects, learn new things.
DWR
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In FCP 4.5 I rendered all by hitting “Apple-R” I was baffled when this didn’t work in FCP 5. It turns out that now I have to hit “Option-R”.
I also had to make sure that under the menue for Sequence-render- That all the choices were check marked. Sometimes they are not all checked, so nothing happens.DWR
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I work on one system that is dual 2.5 G5 with OS 10.3.9 and FCP 4.5 and another system with a dual 2.7, Tiger and FCP 5.0.2.
The FCP 4.5 system seems just a tad more stable and sometimes a little faster, allthough thats just perception, there are plenty of people out there who test these things with stop-watches and can tell you better. I prefer the room with FCP 5, but its as much for the better monitors we have in there as anything. Since I have Studio in here I get to play with the other toys more, too.
You should absolutly go up to 4.5. It is a terrific and stable work horse. As for jumping all the way to FCP 5? That depends on how you like being on the bLeading edge of technolgy. In my own shop I advised engineering not to move any other systems up to FCP 5 until they have at least a full point upgrade (you know, 5.1 instead of 5.0.whatever).
On the other hand, we don’t do multi-cam, and if you need it, then you gotta go there.
DWR
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Thanks for the input!
DWR
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Have you checked the scratch disk for the render files? That is, its not putting the render files somewhere wierd (like your hard drive).
DWR
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I have the AJA I/O and I have just about every input connected to something.
SDI in from the routing system. Component (Y,R,B)with digital audio from my DVCPro 750. S-Video from a DVD player and Composit video from VHS. The DVD and VHS decks, and some other audio sources, come in analog through a mixer.
The best part is all the switching takes place in the record tool. Of course, in FCP 5 I have to close and re-open the record tool when I make changes, but in FCP 4.5 I didn’t.
Plus the AJA is rock solid. We have some bays where we use it at DV quality and some where we use it as 8-bit uncompressed.
DWR
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If you could cut a matt around it and apply a little gaussian blur that might fix it. I don’t know if your main subject would be too hard to matt.
DWR