Gary Hazen
Forum Replies Created
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[Craig Seeman] “I thought that app was a good idea just as I though the Avid Free was some years back.”
Avid Free was terrible. Buggy, never worked right. Just a bad idea. You invite people to try out your product with a free version and they are left with the impression that you make bad products. It probably did more harm to the company than good.
Regarding the selling off of the consumer line I think this is a positive move on Avid’s part. Their product line up is too cluttered, this is a step in the right direction.
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Regarding #1
Keep in mind that Bob is an engineer. Engineer’s don’t do creative. They don’t give a crap about creative. If creative had a specific voltage then Bob could hook up a meter to your demo reel and determine your market value. If you want to be an engineer then don’t worry about your reel.If you have any intention to work in post then your reel matters. Most of the people that do the hiring for post positions care about the basics. It’s an extremely competitive market. If everyone that interviews is willing to work hard, have a great attitude and do the mundane jobs just to get their foot in the door, then the only thing that sets you apart is your your *reel.
That said, I agree with Bob that they don’t care if you’re the next great director. Proclaiming yourself as the next “Great Director” shows arrogance more than anything else. There’s nothing wrong with confidence, just don’t over do it.
Regarding #2 (knowing your potential employer)
This is solid advice. Always do your research prior to the interview.*Your reel is way too long. No one is going to endure 18 minutes.
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It depends on what version of Thunder you are running. We had an old version of Thunder (pre MXF). Our standard work flow was to import DV files (Pinnacle codec). If necessary we could import HD files – 1920 x 1080, Quictime, animation codec, 29.97 fps. On import it would convert the file to SD (our system was SD only). I recall having to tweak the import settings, however it’s been so long I don’t remember which settings were adjusted.
If you have the newer MXF based Thunder with HD enabled you have a couple of options. Try to find a copy of Thunder Browse, this will allow you to transcode the files into a Thunder friendly format. You’ll need to install it on a PC if you a PC available (doesn’t run on Mac OS). Or you can try to dig up the old Avid DNxHD codecs (v1.8) and then convert the files to DNxHD using TMPGenc, AE or another suitable app. You might find the legacy codecs on Avid’s site.
Hopefully one of these options will work ouf for you. Thunder is either already EOL or well on it’s way. Good luck.
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For our particular work flow it’s worth the expense.
I’m not a fan of AMA. We try to get the most out of our discs so we end up with well over a hundred clips on a single disc (nearly 90 min.). With a PDW-U1 drive attached to the edit station it can take awhile for all those clips to load into the bin via AMA.
I prefer to import an AAF file and then import the media attached to the AAF. It’s much faster since I’m only grabbing the clips I need. I write the AAF back to the original disc in the user data folder. I’ll have the producers do this as well once I’m finished testing out the work flow.
I used to have the producers export an EDL using the PDZ-1 software. I would bring the EDL in through EDL manager, assign a tape name name to the clips and digitize with a 1500 deck. It worked OK. I can see that using AAF will be a big improvement over the EDL workaround.
That said, I wish Sony hadn’t made AAF a paid option. Bummer. We can blame it on Sony’s marketing department I guess. No doubt they are pleased that they have, “Monetized components of their applications”. Whatever. I’m an editor, I just want a way to get my Producer’s selects into my edit system as quickly and painlessly as possible.
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For XDCAM Browser you need the optional advanced pack.
https://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/xdcampack?keycode=731500
This will allow you to export an AAF file (without the media).
If you don’t want to spend the money on the option you can simply use a clip list and AMA. Write the clip list back to the origianl XDCAM disc. When you load the disk using AMA in Composer the clip list should show up at the top of the bin as a sequence. From there you can consolidate, transcode, etc., etc.
*Disclaimer – My work flow tests were done using PC computers (WinXP/7, MC 5.5). I have no idea if these methods will work on the Mac side.
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Avid’s timecode plug in can utilize the clip name.
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get bin info
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[Cathy Mayville] “Anyone else I should go see?”
Digital Rapids and Viewcast.
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[Chris Hefner] “Are you going to consolidate each and every bin from within the editor (MC).”
Nope. I’ll consolidate the finished sequence not the individual bins. My particular need is for archiving not migrating.
[Chris Hefner] “a solution that can isolate all the media for a project within interplay and move it to a new location without consolidating.”
If I knew I would need to migrate the entire project when it was finished I would create a unqiue workspace before starting post. All of the digitized/imported media would be stored on the same workspace. With all the media contained within a single workspace there wouldn’t be a need to consolidate. Moving the project to another system would require making a copy of the entire workspace to an external drive or LTO. I would expect that this would be time consuming – moving around huge chunks of data takes a ton of time.