[Dustin Barrons]

I do appreciate everyone’s opinions and suggestions. All are very helpful. In response to Dave, I do not think it is necessarily placing a band-aid upon a severed leg. It is just recently that I have imported the footage and it most definitely can be re-imported if necessary. Three questions for all of you:

1. What is it that I said that makes you believe it is in 29.97? I don’t mean that in an offensive way, as it may sound so, but more so as I really am just curious how to tell. The timecodes on the clips (at least of what I can tell) are showing as 23.97. Properties are showing as 23.97. I’m wondering if there is a way that I can tell.

2. If I do need to re-import, how would I go about selecting that through a capture. Perhaps this question does need to go to the Premiere forum, but just curious if anyone knows here.

3. What ever caused the pulldown in the first place? Was it the capture settings through Premiere? Was it using the GL2 to capture? I’m really not sure how things work regarding playback in cameras. If a camera does not shoot in 24p, can it also not export nor view in that format? I saw the GL2 as more of a playback/capture deck than anything, but then again I am new at this.

I do not mean to sound as if this is an urgent, do or die type situation. I have about 12 days to figure this out. I am looking at it as more of a learning experience. Would it be better to capture through the JVC then go 24p all the way? How would I even know if I was 24p all the way? I know it may sound like a stupid question, but all the evidence I am seeing points to the footage still being in 24p as I edit and key. Am I missing something? Should I look for something specific to tell me?

Again, thank you all for your suggestions and I hope to hear from you very soon. It is always appreciated.

[Dustin Barrons]

To Aharon:
First off I just wanted to praise you, enormously, for the tutorial you offered me on junk mattes. You are a saviour, no doubt. Thank you much.

For Aharon and everyone else:
Everything works great now with the auto-traced junk matte eliminating bad areas on the green screen. Now another, but perhaps simple problem. How do I go about animating a mask to eliminate the areas shot that aren’t greenscreen? These areas do not have a foreground subject in front of them, but are rather just areas to the sides of the greenscreen that were included in frame. I can put down a mask to cover them for one frame, but with camera movement, how do I animate that mask and can I somehow automate it through auto-trace, perhaps?

Thank you again,
Dustin

[Dustin Barrons]

Aharon,
Thank you much for the fast reply and the tutorial. I will soon check that out. Once I track the marks, how can I link the background image to it. I always thought that it was through the parenting process, but after quickly experimenting, that did not seem to do it. Secondly, is it possible to track more than one mark? Is it necessary?

Thank you,
Dustin

[Dustin Barrons]

Nestor and debe,
First of all, thank you for the information. Secondly, a couple of questions if I may:

In my situation, certain crew will definetely be employees according to the help I’ve gotten from you wonderful folks. However, I’m a little confused about certain things. First, can I pay these employees a one-time payment or does it have to be weekly or bi-weekly, etc? Second, do I have to pay per hour? The thing is that these employees are all close friends who have absolutely no problems with being paid a one-time $800 rate at the end of the project. However, this low number may even conflict with federal min. wage regulations. I am stuck in a bad position of already sending an estimated budget to the client before I was aware of alot of this new info. What position does this leave me in? Also, would I need to terminate employment with them and rehire them at the start of a new project (if there are any) or would they be on hiatus? The thing that gets me is the fact that they are only working for a very specific amount of time (4-5 weekend shoots).

Second, with employees, do I need certain insurances beside a regular production insurance? For example, workers comp. If I did need workers comp. or anything similiar, could I wait until I recieved my up front payment from the client to purchase it? And, could I terminate the insurance once this project’s done? What is the going rate for policies?

Lastly, if I become an LLC (thank you so much for the help on LLC’s everyone), can I remain as a home business?

Anything would be extremely appreciated. I’m still young and looking for any knowledge I can get. Thank you again.

Thank you,
Dustin

[Dustin Barrons]

debe,
Thank you very much for the info. Extremely helpful. It’s nice to know there are still people out there who don’t mind teaching us who strive for knowledge. On that note, I do have a few questions however.

First, does anyone know a good way to find entertainment attorneys? I’m in the Detroit area and I know they’re out here, but where at I’m not sure. What is the going rate for consultation of that type? And, does anyone have experience at finding alternative routes to getting questions answered by professionals (university professors, mentors, etc.)?

Second, what is involved with a LLC? As a general business question, do you have to be a partnership, or can I do it as an individual? (I don’t know how trusting I am of a partner at this point in my “career”) How much paperwork and how often do you need to file with the government? Are there annual or quarterly costs?

Lastly, does anyone know how you can find production insurance? As with attornies, I’m yet to find any insurance companies. Any recommendations on actual companies would be greatly appreciated.

Any help would, again, be greatly appreciated.

Thank you again,
Dustin