[Denis Danatzko]

FWIW, you’re still young. And, if you’re fortunate enough to find enough work to stay in the business, you should – or at least could – be facing a somewhat lengthy career.
Media and content production have changed so much and so rapidly in such a short amount of time, the biggest challenge you face may be determining how to please an audience. There was a time, some might call it the “golden age of television”, when content creation was rather formulaic, and live streaming, i.e. a live broadcast was such a monumental undertaking that it rarely happened.

As for the physical demands, they may change as you age. Look at what’s happened in just recent years: equipment has become smaller and lighter. Even small halogen lights largely have been replaced with LEDs. Perhaps the one aspect that hasn’t changed all that much is in the audio end. Yes, mixers and other equipment have become smaller, but the size and general scope of microphones has changed little.

I started in video after a long corporate carer, and it became my 2nd career while concentrating on legal video, something that can be handled relatively easily as a one-man-band. I’m 65 now, and have been shooting almost entirely alone for about 15 yrs. Yes, I’m slowing down a bit, but, I still do non-legal work that doesn’t require a run-n-gun pace. My take is that if you stay healthy and in shape, make occasional upgrades to equipment, and stay alert to changes in audience preferences, you should be able work for quite some time.

[Denis Danatzko]

If you have contact info for the people, contact them directly, preferably talking to them. if you don’t, get it.
Ask if they’ve uploaded video before, and, if not, do they need help? Is there someone who can help them do it, e.g. one of their children/grandchildren? A friend/neighbor? If not, you may have to ask them whatever camera/recording device they’ve used, then do some research and provide them with specific instructions for their device. There would likely be no more than 5 devices, and how different might they be?

If you’re facing a hard deadline, then warn your “employer”, and keep them informed/let them know of any difficulty you encounter along the way.

It seems you might be generating unnecessary stress and worry about the project. Yes, it could prove time-consuming, but those seem the most straightforward steps.

[Denis Danatzko]

How popular/well-known is the band, and how big is the venue? Have you tried politely pointing out that the video could serve as free advertising for the venue? I’m sure it could be shot and edited in such a way as to include some footage that would serve that purpose

Is anyone – other than possibly you – likely to earn anything from the video? Might he be looking for something in his pocket? I wouldn’t find that surprising if it’s a small, privately-owned place, but I also wouldn’t accommodate him. If that’s his goal, I’d pass on the job.

I’ve done a few shoots in places so tight that with patrons and wait staff roaming around, it would have been downright dangerous for me to move around. In one place, I recall standing in the same place throughout the entire performance and being limited to zooming in/out and raising the camera just to get different-looking footage.

Whatever the outcome, keep in mind that it is private property and he has the right to decide what goes on there. That brings up another point: is he willing to sign a location release? Without that, I suspect you may be leaving yourself open to potential legal problems.

Good luck and let us know the final outcome.

[Denis Danatzko]

The venue manager could have a variety of reasons, e.g. insurance or security issues, in-house recording staff, maybe some union issues, but anything offered here would only be guesswork. I would expect that recording concerns would have been ironed-out when the venue was booked.
If no one from the venue will tell you why, my first thought is that the band might be able to learn the reason.
Will the band be doing rehearsals before the concert? If so, maybe you could join them then, sans camera, and politely ask around among the venue workers.
Whomever you approach, don’t be confrontational.
An alternative that might get you more info is to call the booking office and ask there about their policies/procedures about recording.

Good luck, and please report back if you solve the dilemma.

[Denis Danatzko]

Peter,
THANKS. It’s a relief to know that.

I love learning those little “tidbits” about software, but feel compelled to ask this:
Is there a simple, or at least brief explanation as to why I see that in PPro CC but not in an identical project in CS6?
Thanks, and best regards,
Denis

[Denis Danatzko]

YES!

Am I doing something obviously wrong, or just dense?

Have you a solution?

Thanks.

[Denis Danatzko]

Thanks so much for your response and offering suggestions.

Unfortunately, I can’t add anything to the sequence. I have 40 clips, and am making 40 sequences. Each sequence is being exported via AME as MPEG-2 DVD, then imported to Encore and made playable through Playlists. This is necessary to meet customer requirements.

I’ve created dual PPro projects, 1 in CS6 and 1 in CC.
The CS6 project, with the Warp Stabilizer applied to my single clip, works as expected, i.e. the final frame is not “chopped off” and each frame is filled.
The CC project, with the same clip, the same sequence settings, and the Warp Stablilzer applied, still has the final frame “cut off” by approx. 10-15 %, with black space both above and below the image.

I believe I may have uncovered a bug that forces me (at least) to be suspect of the present incarnation of the Warp Stabilzer effect in PPro CC.

I’ve filed a bug report with Adobe, but unless others run into the same situation and speak up, I have little hope for it being resolved soon.

FWIW, and for others who may encounter the problem, here’s info about how I ran into it:
1) I shot AVCHD footage on Panasonic HMC-150
2) created project in PPro CC
3) created new sequence, with these settings:
VIDEO
Editing Mode: AVCHD 1080p square pixel
Frame Size: 1920 (greyed out) horizontal 1080 (greyed out) vertical 16:9
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels (1.0)
Fields: No fields (Greyed out)
Display Format: 30 fps Drop-Frame Timecode

AUDIO
Channel Format: Stereo (greyed out) Number of Channels: 2 (greyed out)
Sample Rate: 48000 Hz
Display Fromat: Audio Samples

VIDEO PREVIEWS
Preview File Format: I-Frame Only MPEG (greyed out)
Codec: MPEG I-Frame (greyed out)
Width: 1920
Hieght: 1080
Maximum Bit Depth (unchecked) Maximum Render Quality (unchecked)
Composite in Linear Color (unchecked)

4) imported .MTS file to Project Panel
5) dragged .MTS file to timeline
6) applied Warp Stabilizer (with default settings) to clip
7) analysis and stabilizing completed
8) pointed to final frame of clip within the sequence
9) found final frame noticeably “chopped off”, with an unknown/unusual white line on the right side of the clip marking the point at which the frame is “chopped off”.
Not only is my final frame “chopped off”, but each individual frame is not filled, i.e. there is black space both above and below the image. (That doesn’t happen in the CS6 project).

This was done on a Windows 7 Pro (Service Pack 1) machine with i7-3930K CPU @ 3.2 GHz with 32 GB of RAM and nVidia GeForce GTX 670 GPU.

Maybe this will help others who might be encountering the same/similar problems.

Apologies for the length.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

[Denis Danatzko]

Thanks so much for responding.

My source footage is exactly 19 secs long, and I’ve put the whole clip into the sequence, so I could only shorten/trim it.
I tried that, trimming only the final frame, but the problem only moved 1 frame to the left, so it appears that the problem relates to whatever the final frame is.

I think that hints that the “problem” is somehow related to the sequence or a sequence setting.

Other thoughts?

[Denis Danatzko]

Hi,
In what area of the country are you shooting?

I’ve shot plenty of equestrian events over the past few years, with a few thousand riders in total, and all have been “on speculation”; sometimes I’ve made money, and sometimes I’ve barely broken even. I’ve shot barrel racing, gymkhana, hunter/jumper, and western. Believe it or not, I’ve been most successful with barrel racing.
With all that, I’ve shot only competitions, never a clinic.

Unfortunately, simply inquiring of the participants beforehand bears no commitment on their part; they could say yes today, then either change their mind, or place an order then not pay once you’ve done all the work.

Despite the pitfalls, it seems you’re most interested in a fair price to charge. Speaking for myself, that would depend on how elaborate you want to make the production. Ultimately, it’s something only you can decide.

Since it’s a clinic, and not private lessons or a competition, do you plan to mic the instructor so participants would be able to recall/watch repeatedly/hear what they’re being taught/shown?
Will the instructor agree to that?
Does the instructor expect payment/some cut of sales for that? Some do. (Remember, the instructor is imparting hard-gained knowledge for which the participants are paying, and, once it’s been recorded, could be duplicated and distributed by them, thus making future clinics less likely/necessary).
If the instructor realizes that recording the clinic could cut into his/her sales of future clinics, they may not allow it, or at least lodge a protest with the venue owner or clinic producer. It all depends on how “picky” the instructor is.

All but 1 of the venues I’ve shot at have let me in without having to pay a fee. That 1 venue wanted $ 150 just to shoot, and there was no guarantee I’d make any sales at all.

When I have an assistant (normally my spouse or daughter) for equestrian events, here’s what I normally do:
– I record each rider as a separate HD clip.
– once a number of riders has finished, I hand the card with the raw footage to my assistant, who downloads them into a laptop.
– I continue shooting the next group of riders on another card, while my assistant has the past few rides available for viewing on the laptop.
I charge a small amount (maybe $ 3-5) for riders to view their footage a few times from the laptop. It they also want a personalized DVD, I take their order, with name, address, horse’s name, phone, etc. and at least a $ 10 deposit. (Most customers pay in full when they place their order).
– Once home, I edit the footage for each order, watermark it, add text panels, then upload it to my own web site so the customer can preview the footage for their order. (See samples here: https://www.adhocvideo.com/equine/DVDs
– Once I receive the balance of payment (if any) and confirmation that names, spelling, other details are correct, I build the necessary menu(s), then burn, print, and mail the DVD.
For a barrel racing ride, which requires maybe 30 seconds of recording time, I provide 4 separate views of each ride, 2 of which are in slow-mo.

Lately I’ve found that more people are asking for the digital file rather than a DVD. I’ve only filled a few of those orders, but it seems to be the trend, as it allows viewing in HD, while a DVD does not. I have to develop a simpler workflow for that, one that will allow me to add a watermark quickly. I expect to have that in place within the next few weeks for future shows.

I know this is a long reply, but hoped to provide some ideas for you.

Good luck.

[Denis Danatzko]

A big THANK YOU.
That’s what I ended up doing, and it’s working now.
It had been so long, I forgot about that update.