[John Steventon]

Hey,

Thanks to everyone for their advice, and I’ll try each of them in turn. The reason I need to find the offline item in the sequence is that it’s often a timecode break or pre-roll error that causes it not to capture, so though I can find out the TC information from the offline clip in the browser, I’ve no idea where to put it in the sequence.

Well, ‘no idea’ is a bit strong, but as out of 1616 clips, 40 of them need captured manually, it’s pain in the backside trying to find the clip in the sequence – and unfortunately the programme is so similar that even if I did know the programme well, it’d still be hard to know where the clip came from. I’m sure names like ‘oversea aerials’ doesn’t help matters much to let me know where they should go in the sequence, but I don’t really think it’s up to the offline guys to start naming clips ‘oversea aerlals to go in the part towards the end of the programme when he talks to her about that.’

But, I’ll do a feature request, and hopefully something will come of it.

Thanks again.

J

John
Success is merely a failiure to imagine more…

G5 2.7Ghz, 4.5Gb ram, Blackmagic Decklink/multibridge, 5.6Tb Infortrend storage, FCP Studio 5.02, Makie MCU control, Yahama 5.1 surround, JVC DTV multi-format monitor, 2x23inch Apple monitors – and a partirdge on a pear tree.

[John Steventon]

Fair point. And I guess the Apple advances in technology and software are really good, so it’s best to be complaining about something like this rather than whining about no updates for 2 years!!

Being an iPod owner, I should be well aware of how quickly Apple upgrades its stuff, and not be quite as knee jerky about it.

Thanks.

John

John
Success is merely a failiure to imagine more…

G5 2.7Ghz, 4.5Gb ram, Blackmagic Decklink/multibridge, 5.6Tb Infortrend storage, FCP Studio 5.02, Makie MCU control, Yahama 5.1 surround, JVC DTV multi-format monitor, 2x23inch Apple monitors – and a partirdge on a pear tree.

[John Steventon]

So does that mean I’m stuck with 5.04 (that I bought in August 05) unless I buy 5.1?

Hmmm, the similarity between Apple and Avid is beginning to get closer…

Thanks for the advice though.

John

John
Success is merely a failiure to imagine more…

G5 2.7Ghz, 4.5Gb ram, Blackmagic Decklink/multibridge, 5.6Tb Infortrend storage, FCP Studio 5.02, Makie MCU control, Yahama 5.1 surround, JVC DTV multi-format monitor, 2x23inch Apple monitors – and a partirdge on a pear tree.

[John Steventon]

Hey Jerry,

Thanks very much for such a full reply.

Media manager would still bring up the same problem. The new project it created with the edit to be onlined still wanted to digitize every piece of rushes that the edit referred to (ie, the full clips, not just the edit choices).

I’m very careful about not cross-digitizing projects. 10 years of Media Toll madness in Avid have taught me that for sure! The make offline option is a better idea than deleting from the desktop though, so thanks for that advice.

And the Digitbeta deck works perfectly well from all four Media Composers, and like I said, it would let me insert 4 or 5 edits before refusing to do any more.

I’ll check there’s not something I’m missing with Media Manager, but I’ve been on the phone to FCP training people, and what they’ve told me to do is a) What I’ve already been doing, and b) Still not solving the problem.

I’ll download 5.04, see if that fixes things (if it’s a free update) and let you know.

Thanks for your help.

John

John
Success is merely a failiure to imagine more…

G5 2.7Ghz, 4.5Gb ram, Blackmagic Decklink/multibridge, 5.6Tb Infortrend storage, FCP Studio 5.02, Makie MCU control, Yahama 5.1 surround, JVC DTV multi-format monitor, 2x23inch Apple monitors – and a partirdge on a pear tree.

[John Steventon]

THanks for that.

I don’t actually like the 700s. I had them for a while, but felt the bass came out like mush on them rather than a good solid thump.

Technics RPDJ1210’s are the way to go I think.

Thanks for your help.

John

John
Success is merely a failiure to imagine more…

G5 2.7Ghz, 4.5Gb ram, Blackmagic Decklink/multibridge, 5.6Tb Infortrend storage, FCP Studio 5.02, Makie MCU control, Yahama 5.1 surround, JVC DTV multi-format monitor, 2x23inch Apple monitors – and a partirdge on a pear tree.

[John Steventon]

I like the sound of Viv… does she massage at the same time?

Anyway, moving away from ear fetishism, does a “High Sound Pressure Level” just mean it can play really loud?

Have I over-thought it in my explanation? Should I just say “Dead loud and that’s all you need to know?”

Thanks again.

John

John
Success is merely a failiure to imagine more…

G5 2.7Ghz, 4.5Gb ram, Blackmagic Decklink/multibridge, 5.6Tb Infortrend storage, FCP Studio 5.02, Makie MCU control, Yahama 5.1 surround, JVC DTV multi-format monitor, 2x23inch Apple monitors – and a partirdge on a pear tree.

[John Steventon]

Hi everyone, thanks for all your thoughts so far,

It’s more about the colours than the resolution of the image I’m concerned about. To give you an idea, it’s for a programme where half takes place in UK and half takes place in US. As an added indictation of this, the director wants to colour the US stuff to make it look as though it’s got that Friends/Seinfeld colourscape, rather than (as you say) the flat colder colours that we seem more comfy with when making British stuff (which will be the UK stuff).

Look at The Office for example. Can’t remember for the life of me what that’s shot on, but it’s typical of the colourscapes that get used in British productions, and if you compare that with pretty much any US drama/sitcom – it’s starkly different.

It’s this look that we’d like to inject to the US stuff that’s important. We’re shooting HD so it’s not a quality issue – it’s a colour issue.

Thing is though, if you look at something like Curb Your Enthusiasm, it DOESN’T have that Friends look to it (in my opinion anyway). The colours are a lot flatter, and it’s not as vibrant, yet it STILL looks complelety different to The Office (and again, I don’t think that’s to do with format).

And if you look at a UK sitcom like Coupling (the UK version) where it’s tried to make its colours brighter, richer and stronger, it still looks nothing like a US programme.

It’ll look into the colour settings you mentioned for the camera and see if the camera tech can look into doing some tests first, as the description of the gaudy colours actually sounds like what we’re looking for.

If all else fails, I’ll just put a laughter track over the US stuff… and call all the characters Chip and Chet…

Please… that was a joke… no hate mail 🙂

John
http://www.fairlineproductions.com/johnedit.html

John
Success is merely a failiure to imagine more…

G5 2.7Ghz, 4.5Gb ram, Blackmagic Decklink/multibridge, 5.6Tb Infortrend storage, FCP Studio 5.02, Makie MCU control, Yahama 5.1 surround, JVC DTV multi-format monitor, 2x23inch Apple monitors – and a partirdge on a pear tree.

[John Steventon]

I find Digital Film Tool’s Zmatte rocks. Depends on how well the green-screen has been lit in the first place, but I love using zmatte. It works with AE too – go to http://www.digitalfilmtools.com to download a demo of it (and its other great plugins).

Hope it helps.

John

John
Success is merely a failiure to imagine more…

G5 2.7Ghz, 4.5Gb ram, Blackmagic Decklink/multibridge, 5.6Tb Infortrend storage, FCP Studio 5.02, Makie MCU control, Yahama 5.1 surround, JVC DTV multi-format monitor, 2x23inch Apple monitors – and a partirdge on a pear tree.

[John Steventon]

Hi,

Firstly, thanks for all your replies. It’s not actually a programme that’s being delivered, just a music video which is getting sent to them – hence the lack of a) Someone to contact, and b) Any pre-contract stuff.

Well, hell, it might be out there somewhere, but I’m just the dumb facility guy, no-one tells me a thing 🙂

So my quesiton is really what level they’d expect the audio at. For adverts, I make the audio ‘tickly’ 6ppm. For normal TV programmes, I have general audio at 4 with transiants etc using the headroom up to 6ppm. But how do they expect the music? Mostly at 4 with some headroom? Or tickling 6?

Ripping the audio in directly from CD plays about 8ppm, so that’s not an option, so I just wanted to know if there’s a preferred amount I should take it down to – so it’s generally at what on the PPM scale.

Normally I have it to the music peaks at 6, which means it plays normally around 5ppm – but i was just looking for some particular guidance as the producer is also the producer for the artist, and is especially concerned about the audio levels matching everything else that plays on the channel.

So if I had either a tech guidelines from MTV or something I can show him that proves I don’t just play it out at 8ppm, it would take some heat off me.

Thanks again, in advance.

John

John
Success is merely a failiure to imagine more…

G5 2.7Ghz, 4.5Gb ram, Blackmagic Decklink/multibridge, 5.6Tb Infortrend storage, FCP Studio 5.02, Makie MCU control, Yahama 5.1 surround, JVC DTV multi-format monitor, 2x23inch Apple monitors – and a partirdge on a pear tree.

[John Steventon]

I think the hardest part about convinving people about the offline/offline thing as a facility nowadays it storage space.

Even back to five years ago, 140Gb of online Avid giving 2 hours uncompressed space would cost a couple of grand, and therefore offline then online was a neccesity (unless you had less than two hours worth rushes and render needs).

But, sitting here with 5.6Tb of storage to play with, people are now asking to go straight to online for their offlines, to save a days reconform. The big problem (as I’ve just explained once more to the director) is that working at online 1280 HD 10 bit slows the machine down when doing graphic stuff (mostly re-grading shots). So we sit here for a while waiting for a color effect to render, only to find it doesn’t look right and go for it again – wasting a lot of time.

I’m not saying I want to offline at 20:1, but I still think there needs to be a case (for facilities like mine) to be able to advise people that their impatience will actually cost time.

And as to the offline/online on your FCP system at home, I remember when avid released FreeDV and there was a mild murmer of discontent that people would be able to edit themselves, some guy simply wrote, “You can give anyone a pencil – but that doesn’t make them a writer” (Except he wrote that a bit better).

And I think it’s true. There’s a reason an online editor is an online editor. Fine, online at home, but you’re missing out on a lot of skills, knowledge and experience that could turn an ok programme into a special programme.

Of course, the last thing to add to this discussion in that same line of thought though, do the people who off and online in their spare rooms take the programme for a sound-dub? Bet you they don’t.

For cable channels, who have little or no budget, I guess it’s fine to lose a step of gloss along the way, as the money just isn’t there. Where I start to object to this kind of approach is when the major channels cut corners this way – the budget’s there, but it just doesn’t get funneled into the right areas.

Anyway. Render finished. Better go.

John

John
Success is merely a failiure to imagine more…

G5 2.7Ghz, 4.5Gb ram, Blackmagic Decklink/multibridge, 5.6Tb Infortrend storage, FCP Studio 5.02, Makie MCU control, Yahama 5.1 surround, JVC DTV multi-format monitor, 2x23inch Apple monitors – and a partirdge on a pear tree.