Doug Graham
Forum Replies Created
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I would differ from Don’s advice in that I don’t believe the occasional use of a head cleaning tape will risk your heads or shorten their life.
A professional cleaning is, of course, the best choice. But if you’re faced with a head clog during a shoot, you have to do something RIGHT NOW. I always carry a head cleaning tape, and run it for 10 seconds if I get a head clog.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
Definitely check with your local government offices. Different locations have different requirements.
Here are a few things to check out:
1. See if there are some domain names similar to your business. That makes it easier to set up a website.
2. Do a Google search on your proposed name. This will tell you who else it using it, and where they are and what business they’re in. NOTE: Your business name doesn’t necessarily have to be unique in all the world. There are several other “Panda Productions” out there, for example.
3. Check with your local government to see what they require. You might need:
– a zoning variance to operate a home business.
– a tax ID number
– a DBA filingWhile you’re there, check on your state’s rules for charging sales tax.
4. Open a bank account in your business’ name.
5. Get some cards printed, and design some stationery. Have a uniform “look” for all your business-related stuff.Regards,
Doug Graham -
The MD actually has better audio quality. As long as your unit has a microphone input, you’re good to go.
The iRivers are nice because they are cheap, small, and have no moving parts. The audio is acceptable, but not as good as a minidisc. The only drawback to the MD is that you’ll have to feed the audio into the computer as an analog signal and re-digitize to a .WAV file.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
My suggstion is, “don’t”.
Instead of trying to mix audio at the shoot, record ALL the audio sources, and mix them in post.
With two cameras, you have four audio tracks. You could run one wireless to one cam, the other to the second cam. That leave two unused tracks that you can use for an onboard shotgun mic and another wireless.
If you have still more audio sources, use a minidisc recorder or an MP3 recorder to capture their audio.
By not mixing live, you avoid one more stressful thing on the Day.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
Agreed. My last controller was an IDE model from 3COM. Expensive, but very good.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
Geez, everyone is so anti-Norton.
I’ve used their SystemWorks for years, with no problems. The thing I like about it that it includes the whole suite of diagnosis and repair tools as well as the antivirus software.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
In response to the original question:
*DON’T* RAID your system disk! The increased risk of drive failure isn’t worth the speed increase.
Some of what the others have said has merit, but I do see a marked data throughput advantage to a three-drive or more SATA RAID 0 array. It’s even higher if you buy a dedicated RAID controller board, rather than relying on the motherboard’s built-in RAID, or a Windows software-based RAID.
Make sure your power supply has the juice to handle all those drives.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
Most videographers who also offer photography use separate cameras for the two. Current HDV camcorders are capable of making adequate quality prints up to about 4×6, but still can’t equal the resolution of a digital SLR like the Canon 20D.
There IS some commonality in the two skill sets, but there is something for either the videographer or the photographer to learn when adding a new medium to his or her arsenal.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
Before buying anything as specialized and expensive as a jib arm/crane, do the following:
1. Get a copy of Mark and Trish Von Lanken’s “Moving Camera Techniques” DVD, and see if you can get what you want with a little practice and a monopod.
2. If you have to have a jib arm or crane, look into renting one.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
$25 lavs can do a surprisingly fine job. But if you want something better, nobody’s stopping you from buying a Sony ECM-44 and plugging it in to the transmitter.
Got to clear up something here, though:
Multiple frequencies is a good thing to avoid interference from other UHF sources, like church sound systems, police/fire radios, DTV stations, etc. However, having selectable freqs is NOT the same thing as having a diversity receiver.A diversity receiver actually is TWO receivers, with separate antennas placed at slightly different locations. A comparator circuit constantly checks to see which receiver is getting the strongest signal, and uses that one.
What this does is to greatly reduce the chance of something called multipath distortion, or sometimes “RF dropout”. The radio signal from the transmitter goes from the transmitter antenna to the receiver antenna…but it also goes in every other direction as well. The signal bounces off things that reflect RF, like steel beams, columns, chair frames, pipes…
These reflected signals ALSO arrive at the receiving antenna, but at slightly different times than the main signal. If the direct and reflected signals arrive out of phase, they tend to cancel each other out. This produces the aforementioned “RF dropout”. It is this phenomenon that the diversity receiver was designed to counteract, since it’s highly unlikely that signals will arrive at two separate antennas in such a way that the signal is cancelled out at BOTH locations simultaneously.
Regards,
Doug Graham