[Gary Hazen]

CCU’s are designed to work with a specific camera. Some CCU’s will work with different model numbers from the same manufacturers (ex.; Sony cams 950 & 1500 will work with the same CCU). But it depends on what back end is mounted to the head.

Here’s a JVC museum if you decide to get rid of the gear.
https://www.smecc.org/jvc_video.htm

[Gary Hazen]

I’m not familiar with any of the gear mentioned, but I’ll take a shot at this. I’m going to assume that the RS-110 is a CCU (camera control unit) for the BY-110 camera. The aux input on most CCU’s is reserved for sending return video back to the camera head, so the operator can view e program feed or whatever the engineer routes to the aux input. In short, you can’t use the box to sync a composite signal – you need a TBC if that’s what you’re trying to do.

With regards to the cameras – they are probably good for museum pieces or giant paper weights. The old tube camera’s had to be realigned on a regular basis. Even if you had an engineer realign the tubes the picture would still be terrible. I would guess that those cameras are 20 years old. The quality of imagers has changed quite a bit in the last couple of decades.

[Gary Hazen]

I’ll second the notion of using DNxHD. I had posted a link to download the codecs, but the Cow is holding the back the post because of the link. Anyway, you can download the DNxHD codec from Avid’s site. Do a couple of test renders comparing QT animation to DNxHD 220. I think you’ll be pleased with the results and your Engineer will be happy with the smaller size. The editors will enjoy faster import times using an Avid native codec.

[Gary Hazen]

I’m going to guess that Frank has worked for a facility for the last 15 years and been isolated from mundane things like a budget.

Frank-
With your experience you can easily estimate how long it will take to complete the project (number of days). The only thing missing is knowing what you would charge if you were freelance – your day rate.

Here’s a little calculator that should help estimating a rate:
https://freelanceswitch.com/rates/

That said, I’ll pay a talented 3D artist more than an AE artist because decent 3D artists are hard to find.

good luck

[Gary Hazen]

You could run the pics through PS before importing them.

Create a new doc using the NTSC D1 Widescreen square pixel preset.
Drop in your pics, scale down and reframe if necessary.

When importing to the Avid use “scale to fit” in the import settings.
This will convert the pixel dimensions from 864 x 486 (square pixels) to 720 x 486 (non-square pixels).

Alternatively, you could scale the widescreen image to 720 x 486 in PS before saving the file. And then use the maintain setting in the Avid import settings. Some argue that PS does a better job of scaling an image. I think it’s subjective. Either workflow will result in a proper anamorphic image.

In addition to dealing with the mismatched par’s, passing the images through PS is also good for cleaning up of the images. In the long run it will save you time in the edit.

I’m not going to say that you deserved to get beat up by your client, but I will say what leaves your shop is your responsibility. The problem with photos and aspect ratios is that sometimes it can be difficult to spot errors in aspect ratios. A perfectly round logo that turns into an egg on the montior is easy to spot. A photo of Bob in accounting isn’t quite as easy. You don’t know Bob – is he fat or skinny? Of course your clients know Bob very well. They know he’s been on the South beach diet for months and is in fact skinny – except of course on the video they just received.

[Gary Hazen]

For creating the shapes open up illustrator and go nuts. If you’re on a tight deadline check out iStock, Shutterstock or any stock site and search for vector shapes, vector artwork, etc.

[Gary Hazen]

Image > rotate canvas

[Gary Hazen]

Instead of using the select tool have you tried using the crop tool with the size (width, height & resolution) set to your final dimensions? I may be misunderstanding what you trying to do.

[Gary Hazen]

You can also use stock footage. Artbeats has a set called FIlm Clutter that contains a bunch of head & tail burns.

https://www.artbeats.com/collections/160?format_id=1&page=3

[Gary Hazen]

Grant is spot on.
One camera. Multiple takes. Different focal lengths.

This isn’t a project that you want to tackle in AE. Editing is best done in an editing app. I know a few people that will use AE for editing, but they’re insane. And they have far too much time on their hands.