[Eric Grush]

Thanks David, glad to know I learned something useful in school. I was thinking about an earlier “ham + eggs” analogy that was made in this discussion. I think there is a trend in lower budget filmmaking toward blowing everything they’ve got on “putting it on the screen.” That usually get’s interpreted as spending everything on the shoot and forgetting the rest. I understand the appeal of getting the best actors and crew and gear you can afford. However, I think that limitations will force a project to be more creative and trim the trapping of a larger production. Think of Steven Spielberg. Just imagine what an amazing film he could make if he had $3 million instead of $200 million. I would encourage “rubefink” and the director to really focus on what they want their film to be regardless of cost. When it comes time to shoot they will find their decisions getting easier when problems or limitations occur. By setting aside a post budget they will keep the production tight and creative and still be confident that what they get will have a place to go.

Does that make sense?

Eric Grush
Halo Arts Media Entertainment

[Eric Grush]

It’s always the case. Everyone is beholden to another and people are rarely straight with each other, because they don’t know exactly what’s going on themselves. 10gigs shouldn’t be a problem, just bill for your time. Also, make them send you and clear list of what they expect in terms of deliverables (project and media uploaded, return of master elements…). Who knows, they may be back after they have had their chance to fart around with it. Either way, make them be clear with you so they can’t waste your time and efforts later.

Best of luck,

Eric Grush
Halo Arts Media Entertainment

[Eric Grush]

I am a feature editor with experience producing features as well.
In my experience and production education 40-60% is hard and fast the
rule for budgeting. If an experienced financier or executive producer sees
a budget with less than 40% allocated to post, they will be skeptical of your understanding
of the filmmaking process. If your project is a documentary or effects heavy, this can go even higher. The best way to work in budgeting is always backwards. Are you going to print? What are your deliverables? Too often independant and low-budget productions forget that a film in the can is not yet a film. A lot of time goes into post, a lot more than into shooting. Once you have determined how much it will cost to finish the film, put that $$$ away and don’t let the production touch it. The last 2 features I cut/post-supervised neglected to remove the post funds from the production account and watched that money fly away into the production. This cost them time to beg the investors for more money to recoup their original post-budget. Do not underestimate the time and energy and cost of post. It should be where the production is directed and not an afterthought.

Thanks for listening,

Eric Grush
Halo Arts Media Entertainment

[Eric Grush]

I have seen this exact situation many times before.
Odds are, if your are in the South and they are in the North,
the client has a “buddy” who saw what you were working on and
wants to “help out.” It’s not an issue about the work you were doing.
It sounds like the client (like many) aren’t sure what they want or how to
communicate what they think they want. Instead they are looking for the
editor to direct the project. If things aren’t gelling the way they had hoped,
they inevitably show it to a “friend” who says they can fix that no problem (bells,
whistles, graphics…you know the usually this will make it better approach); just have them upload everything and I’ll take care of the rest. Sounds like sour grapes, I know, but
like I said, I have seen this before.

best of luck, stay cool, stay professional and keep doing what you do.

Eric Grush
Halo Arts Media Entertainment

[Eric Grush]

I am running a Dual 2.7 PowerPC G5
and have been struggling with this as well.
I have 6.5 gigs of RAM and whenever I try to
render large files it gives the same Out of Memory
failure. I can render for hours at SD, but only about
30min. in HD. My thought is that it is not simply a RAM
size issue. I have very fast SATA RAIDs and don’t think it’s
the drives. I had thought it was simply a throughput issue
in my older machine, but if you’re getting the same error on
newer machines then it must be something else.

[Eric Grush]

Don’t think anyone is still interested in this thread, but wanted to throw my experiences into the mix. After researching on Creative Cow several months ago I purchased a Panasonic 42″ 9-UK( you know the series we’ve been discussing), a Sony PHM-14M8U a copy of Spyder Pro and AVIA. Total cost was about $2000. I calibrated my Apple Cinema Displays with Spyder and ran AVIA component to my Sony CRT and Panny display. I checked my various charts and scopes in FCP against what my Sony CRT is giving me and that’s my color-correction monitor. A few tweaks to the plasma and it’s extremely close (a little greener and a little brighter…very little)to the CRT. I find that the Cinema Displays match both the CRT and Plasma 90% of the time, but always one of the others.

I am not doing broadcast or promoting myself as a high end coloring service. However, for the money I have put together a system that is working for the level of my clients and their needs. When they need something more, I tell them what it will cost and send them to colleagues at bigger facilites. We are all commited to our client’s needs and budgets. I think the point is that we are honest with ourselves about what services we can really provide. I work primarily in Indie film and documentary. I can edit, color-correct and even now on-line uncompressed HD; but I would never try to tackle something beyond my abilities when a client’s project could suffer for it. That said, you know your clients and what they need. I was able to pull together and solid lower-end color and HD monitoring system for a good price using research forums on the Cow, and it’s working great.

Best of luck,

Eric Grush
halo arts media entertainment

[Eric Grush]

I routinely use the Kona 3 to upconvert formats. My clients are blown away when for the cost of a high end deck rental they can get a substantial improvement on the quality of their project regardless of formats. That is not to say the Kona solves image problems; “garbage in garbage out still applies.” However, editing at a DVCPro HD or other HD formats upconverted look great for 90% of their needs.

As to you drive question. I recently struggled with the exact same problem and I have an older PCI-X G5 which precluded my use of the Cal Digit HDPro or Sonnet products. GSpeed was too costly for what I would get and the Dulce system which seems good was too small. I was able to have Maxx Digital build a 4TB rackmounted SATA RAID with a 3TB backup set that is giving me well over 400mbs. I am finish editing a feature at 10 bit uncompressed HD1920x1080 24p 4:2:2 and it runs 2 streams without fail. Oh, and it was reasonably priced too.

In my case, building a system was the best option. Price, size, speed, redundancy and being on an older machine sent me in this direction and it is working well.

[Eric Grush]

The problem with the LaCie drives seems to be when sharing/shuttling them between systems. That is a reasonable requirment for a firewire drive I think. I have 2 LaCie 500s on my G5 that get a lot of use and have never falterred. That said, they have never touched another machine. Clients who have purchased LaCie drives in the past and my soubnd editor have had a 100% failure rate in either the drive or the housing. True they have moved them from machine to machine, but as I said, “Isn’t that the point of an external drive.” G-Tech (older ones) have been reliable for me. I travel with a GRAID in my laptop set up and although occassionally sluggish with the laptop I have had no problems moving that drive from machine to machine.

Best of luck with the new drive and let us know how it works out for you.

eric grush
halo arts media entertainment

[Eric Grush]

I am encountering a similar situation with something Iam cutting. The bulk of the project was shot 23.98, but some sequences were shot at 30i, 60i and 29.97. Can Cinema Tools be used to reverse telecine the 29.97 material to 23.98 effectively or is that not an option. Another technique that I have used is the plug-ins from G-Film. They have individual settings for pulldown cadence and frame rate. I have found that playing with these filters can create pleasing results that smooth over some of the problems from the 29.97 footage. Just a thought and it may not work for everyone.

[Eric Grush]

Both the Westinghouse and the Panasonics (42″ and 50″) would be in my budget. My main concern is getting the best quality image and color accuratcy for the money. I suppose my main confusion is the necessary inputs on the monitors. The Pannys have only component and VGA I believe. The Westinghouse appeared to have component and HDMI inputs. Will component suffice or is going HDMI on an true HD display the better option.