Don Bloom
Forum Replies Created
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I know this may not help you being in Nashville but look at http://www.chicagodigitalpost.com for both dups and replication. They do great work,I feel they’re fairly price, much can be handled over email and Tim is a good guy to work with.
Tell ’em Don B. sent ya’At least you’ll have an idea as to pricing to compare with and to.
Don B
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Replicating is what they do for blockbuster movies and they work in just about every player made so for large quanities REPLICATING is the way to go. Its a “pressed” operation as opposed to burning.
Good Luck,
Don -
DVDA is VERY conservative with its file sizes. EXAMPLE; I just did 1 this AM, MPEG2 w/AC3 video. MPEG file was 4.1 gigs, AC3 was 168 megs. DVDA2 told me the file was 4.7 gigs but I know from previous experience the size was OK so I burned it. It burned and played fine (on 4 different players). Look at the size of the MPEG file and the AC3 file add some for menus and remember that a 4.7 gig DVD will not actually do 4.7 gigs. I don’t remember the exact number buts I believe its around 4.32.
When you encode in Vegas go a little more conservative and you should be OK.Don
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I’m guessing its a biography of sorts. If it is perhaps using some photgraphs that she might have from her past, her as a child, her wedding or whatever she might have and ask her specific questions about those events. Drop the photos in ala Ken Burns and use her as a voice over.
As for actual shooting depending on the efect you are looking for you can use soft lighting to make her look “better” and hide some wrinkles, use a small hairlight to highlight her gray hair (if she has) to make her look radiant and use a back light to seperate her from the background. OR you can use a harsher light to bring out her wrinkles and give her the “aged” look-I know some people would disagree, but I did one not long ago, he was an old time fireman (70something) and his wrinkles brought out the character of his personality. It really depends on the feel you are going for.
Also try NOT to mic the subject with a lav-use a boom mic-it just seems that most of the older generation feels more comfortable not wearing the mic but don’t mind the boom as its a part of the gear-its just kind of there.
HTHs
Have fun-these folks are a wonderful part of history and can tell stories with the best of ’em.Don B
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I had a similar situation where only a very small portion was out. Actually it was 2 very small protions but nonetheless…I looked at the original project, the rendered AVI and both were in perfect sync. When I looked at the MPEG/AC3 in DVDA2 it was out by about 12 frames. OOOPS! I tried to re-render that portion to MPEG and it was still out so I simply re-rendered the entire ceremony to AVI then replaced that portion in my complete project file, re-rendered and it was fine. Now here’s the thing, I had never seen anything like that before, I contacted Edward and he said he had never seen it before so we both scratched our heads before I rendered it. What I did do differently though was I rendered the 1st one as a 2 pass (vrb)and the 2nd as a 1 pass (vrb) BUT there is no way to know if that was the real problem or not. You might try the re-render route if you need to. Its crazy and will cause one to bang your head slowly against the wall. It never happened before and hasn’t since so perhaps it was the 2 pass, or maybe it was just the gremlims.
Good luck
Don -
Excalibur has a Fix Bad Frames feature that has worked well for me. I had a couple of tapes in 1 batch that had intermittent drop outs but where the footage had to used. Rather than pulling a still and then going into Photoshop and all that good time consuming stuff, I just places the cursor over the bad frame, and told Excalibur to either use the Previous frame or Next frame and BAM! All fixed.
Don B
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Bill Elder at billelder.com
Tell him Don from the FFC gave you his name. (that way I can get my referral fee ;-o)Don B.
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use a velocity envelope (right click-“envelope>velocity”) you can add points at specific places to slo down or speed up your clip, you can specify how slow or how fast you want it to go. Using the “squiggly” is fine but not as precise as an envelope.
Don B
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PAN/CROP plus Opacity level-use keyframes to set when you want the opacity to start going dark and at the point where you want it to fade away completely
Don
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Personally I like the AT897 for on camera work-not as hot as the ME66. I use on 1 of my 150s and on my JVC5000. As for wireless, I’ve been using a couple of Azden 500Us for a number of years (I use a Sony lav mic though-not the Azden) and I can honestly say I’m quite happy with the results. A lot of guys I know use Sennheiser wireless, some use Lectrosonics (very costly) some use AT’s and a few use AKG. Most of the wireless setups run between $400 and $600 depending on the make and the mic included. The Lectros about $1000 although sometimes you can find them on Ebay for less. The 897 shotgun runs about $250 to 280 depending on where you go to get it.
Regardless of which unit you choose make sure you play with it first before taking it out on the job. Know what it can and can’t do and find out what camera settings to use for the best audio (meaning-AGC or manual with the levels set to a certain setting)
Although it seems like a lot of money if you plan on doing any more weddings or other type of events like a wedding you’ll need to have a wireless. A bride and groom want to hear the words clearly.
Maybe you can find somewhere near you where you can rent a wireless until you can afford to buy it.Don