Eric Hansen
Forum Replies Created
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Hey Chris
on what computers do you actually need to playback in realtime? is it only on the computer that plays the actual projection? if so, i would suggest a modest shared storage system, and super fast direct attached storage on the playback system. this is the setup i see at post houses that have an online/theater/master suite. when you’re dealing with massive frames like that, but only need them in one place (at the end of the post production process), then just beef up that one place.
FusionIO is a good idea, especially if After Effects is doing the actual playback. you can buffer the entire timeline to the card (assuming it all fits). Or, get an ATTO SAS card, attach a bunch of Enterprise SSDs to it in a RAID-0, and go to town. the latter is the setup I saw being tested at Skywalker Ranch last year in a theater that needed to pump out 4k DPX in 3D. based on what the techs told me at the time, i would only attempt this with the help of the ATTO technicians directly.
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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv -
Haha, great post Bob. That’s almost exactly what I did after assisting in the install of an Xsan and maintaining it for a year. But then I realized the pain of proper DNS, which made me yell profanities at small children playing with puppies. This may all be fixed in the current version of Xsan, but honestly I don’t want to know. I did my last Xsan in ’09
Oystein, I definitely recommend keeping it simple and building on the working ethernet setup you already have. Once it’s setup properly and the bottlenecks have been fixed, you should be getting full gigabit speed to all of your clients (assuming your RAID is not full or near full)
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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv -
Hey Bob
Has the HDOne always had your drives in it, and not CalDigit-supplied drives with CalDigit firmware? When I spoke with them years ago about the HDOne, Element and other RAID products, they told me I couldn’t use drives that didn’t have the CalDigit firmware. It’s a big reason why I don’t use CalDigit RAIDs anymore (other than the awesome VR2)
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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv -
does the E610f have 8 FC ports? I have a client with a Vtrak E (not sure the model number) and it has 2 ports on each of the 2 controllers. if you have a similar setup, then yes, you will need to get a fibre switch, along with everything else Sebastien lined out in his post. This will make things much more complicated than you have now. Even though Xsan software is free, it will still be an expensive upgrade in cards and MDCs and time invested. BTW, if you have a similar port/controller setup as i do, i’m not sure if going to 4 ports over 2 will increase the speed. I believe they’re just there as fault tolerance in a multi switch system.
a few suggestions:
– creating 2x1GB trunks from the clients to the switch doesn’t do anything to speed up the connection. Steve Modica can chime in on this. Basically, it’s something the Mac OS can’t recognize and take advantage of.
– i would suggest dumping the ProCurve and getting a multi-port Ethernet card for the Mac Pro host computer, and connecting every client directly. the configuration of the switch may be your bottleneck, or the configuration of the 2x1GB truck on the host computer side may be set up incorrectly.
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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv -
if you have an ATTO card, contact their tech support. They’re awesome and will walk you though any troubleshooting.
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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv -
I deal with a bunch of broadcasters that want either XDCAM or H.264 for their final delivery. so i make a master ProResHQ file and make the XDCAM and/or H.264 masters from that. the only time i wouldn’t do this is if my entire edit was XDCAM. but that doesn’t happen with the projects I work on.
another thing to remember is that you cannot correctly analyze a 3:2 pulldown addition on a progressive monitor (such as a computer monitor). you won’t notice errors in field dominance. what you’ll see in Final Cut is doubled frames, even though that’s not technically what’s there. i keep an older 14″ Sony L5 monitor for this reason.
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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv -
[Kat Michaels] “Also, not sure why I want to select “fast” for the deinterlace setting, but I’m willing to give it a shot.”
With interlacing, there’s no such thing a better quality interlace. It is either right or wrong, accurate or inaccurate. Using the “fast” setting means it’s done accurately as long as you have set the field order properly.
it’s because you DON’T want it to DEinterlace. you’re actually forcing Compressor to interlace the footage to create the 3:2 pulldown cadence. i wish Compressor was set up a bit differently to make this more obvious. “fast” is what you want because it effectively shuts off the DEinterlace setting
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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv -
Hey Seth
All of the packages that I’ve purchased online that include downloadable videos (mostly computer and camera tutorials and the like), have been unprotected H.264 files. some of these packages include PDFs that require a password to read them, but as far as i know, there’s not a similar way to lock a video.
I think streaming from a secure site may be your best option. Although, now that I think about it, I’ve never “purchased” training that was secure streaming. it was always a monthly fee (like Lynda.com).
hope that helps
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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv -
Awesome post Bob. Wow.
It’s humbling that even after years of freelance, we still need to keep chasing. Same for business owners. Well, even more so for them so they can afford to keep their full time staff employed. Ed, it could be worse. You could be funding pilots that don’t get picked up. I’ve been down that road and it’s brutal.
Bob is 100% right, you need to reach out. You use Red Bull as an example. I’ve been working with Red Bull for almost a decade. They would NEVER look at Mandy for editors, producers, etc. They reach out to the producers they already have on hand. If they need to go elsewhere, they will ask their best producers who they would recommend. I got to work on Red Bull projects because I worked for production companies that worked for Red Bull. Would this be an option for you? Would you consider an internship to get your foot in the door at one of the companies?
To add one more layer to Bob’s calling advice, just show up. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hired someone, not because they were the best, but because they kept showing up at the production office looking for work. Sometimes being available RIGHT NOW is your most valuable asset. When I’m traveling, I’ll try to meet up with clients and prospects in whatever city I’m passing through (even if the reason I’m in that area is totally unrelated). If you cold call someone and tell them you’ll be in town for the next 2 or 3 days, it’s very likely they’ll at least meet with you.
This advice won’t help you now, but hopefully it does down the line. My biggest source of business comes via word of mouth, and people i’ve worked with before. It really is networking. When I take on any job, no matter the pay level, I do the best work that I can for my client and try to leave people with a great impression. I don’t let them walk all over me, but I do my work as professionally as possible. Then sometime down the line, someone from that project may give me a call. I’ve actually had former interns hire me. Treat every person you meet like a future client.
The only other thing I would add to Bob’s excellent advice is to never stop the other things you’re doing to work on one job. For example, right now I’m working on a Color Grading job that’s roughly 6 weeks. But I’m also reaching out to new and old clients to book projects after this one is finished. So even though I’m spending the whole day working on a Color job, when I get home, I spend a few hours doing work for my other clients and prospects. Bob’s right, it never ends…
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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv -
All of my “facility” clients are still on FCP7. Many of them have downloaded PPro 5.5 and 6, Avid, and FCX to try them out, but they’re all still working in FCP7 daily. Hardware, established workflows and most importantly, it’s what their staff already knows. If you look at the costs of changing facility-wide, it’s a lot more than just the cost of some software licenses. If you’re a large facility, theres a lot of labor cost added in (downtime to upgrade the systems, time for the staff to learn new software, time to deal with glitches as they pop up). For many of the editors I work with, FCP is all they’ve ever known. Amazing and a testament to what Apple pulled off with the app over the years.
The one-man-bands that I work with are way more eager to switch apps. Mostly because it’s cheaper for them in the software purchase and it’s advantageous for them to know multiple platforms. Freelance people are also more open to spending their time learning an new app. Facility owners don’t want their entire staff spending their limited work hours learning new software, which you can’t bill a client for.
the last year has been incredibly interesting, that’s for sure. Me personally, I hope all the companies are watching each other and everything will improve though competition.
just my 2 cents
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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv