Jonathan Ziegler
Forum Replies Created
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Okay, the following is a process I’ve used in the past to control the HD3 when I’ve needed to. The steps say “HD7,” but the menus are the same. The trick isn’t with your computer, it’s in getting the camera to stream the output and then you record via Firewire as a non-controllable device. BTW: these steps were culled from a couple different sources and I am not the original author, but I can confirm this works at least through Final Cut Studio 2&3 up to OS 10.7.?. I don’t know about iMovie, FCP X, Premiere, Quicktime, or any other apps, you’ll just have to experiment.
Here goes:
Ok, you must follow specific steps to get it to work and make sure you shoot in 1440CBR, which is actually better quality than FHD because it’s a constant bitrate of 27mbps while FHD is only 26.6 i think. Someone already posted the steps on another forum, so here’s a quote, but all credit is due to that person for typing out the lengthy process…
“STEP 1: Set your HD7’s video quality setting to [1440CBR].
STEP 2: Record some video. When you’re done recording, go to STEP 3.
STEP 3: In your HD7’s output menu, set the i.LINK OUTPUT to [1440CBR] then exit the menu.
STEP 4: Put your HD7 into PLAYBACK mode. Once you see the screen with your clip thumbnails, hit the [F] for function button. Select EDIT PLAYLIST with the joystick thing and click it.
STEP 5: In the EDIT PLAYLIST menu, select NEW LIST and click it. In the next menu you may choose to select scenes by EVENT, DATE or ALL SCENES. Let’s choose ALL SCENES for the purpose of this exercise.
STEP 6: You are now in the “making-a-playlist screen”. Remembering you can only batch capture the [1440CBR] clips, select some of your video and put it into the playlist on the right-hand side of the screen by clicking the joystick thing indiscriminately.
STEP 7: When you’re satisfied with the content and order of your new playlist, move the joystick thing back to the left until you are queried “Save edited contents?” Select SAVE AND QUIT and you’ll be transported back to the screen with your clip thumbnails.
STEP 8: This is where things get tricky. Hit the [F] for function button. Select PLAYBACK PLAYLIST with your joystick thing and click it. Select the playlist you have just created (more than likely the most recent one but there’s a handy thumbnail displayed for each playlist in case you become confused and disoriented). DO NOT PRESS THE JOYSTICK THING!
STEP 9: Move the joystick thing to the RIGHT – DO NOT PRESS THE JOYSTICK THING. A new “secret” menu will appear – DUBBING PLAYBACK. This really is the crux of the matter. Playing a playlist by clicking the joystick thing will NOT output to firewire. Sure, iMovieHD will pick up the camera and tell you what it is doing, but it won’t receive any data. FCP won’t even detect the stoopid camera. Remember, the “secret” is to move the joystick thing to the RIGHT and get into the DUBBING PLAYBACK menu. Once you know that you can figure the rest out easily enough. In case you can’t, I’ll go on.
STEP 10: Connect your HD7 to your computer with a Firewire/i.Link cable. Open FCP or iMovieHD (or whatever passes for editing software on PCs these days). If you have FC6 then good for bloody you, go to the next step. If you’re also a hero and still using FC5 then make a custom setup a bit like this:
Sequence preset –> HD7 – 1440x1080i50 – AIC
Capture preset –> HDV – Apple Intermediate Codec
Device Control preset –> Non-controllable deviceSTEP 11: Create a new Project using the new Custom Setup then select LOG AND CAPTURE. You’ll have to enter a title for the new Sequence. Go back to the other end of the firewire cable (to the HD7) and click your way through the HD7’s menus until it starts to dub the playlist to FCP. The [1440CBR] footage is now being captured by your trusty Mac.”
Thank you again for whoever wrote that all out, I would not have the patience to do it. Anyway, that’s how you do it step by step in final cut 6, at least that’s how i do it and I hope it works.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
Well the grey card is designed for exposure and not necessarily color and may not give you the best colors while a good white card is supposed to be color neutral so as to get the best possible representation of the current “white” light. I usually shoot both sides when I’m prepping to shoot photos or video so I can color balance and recurve the exposure later – the grey card for the proper midtones and the white card for highlights. For the best color, you can get dslr color balance cards that do wonders for setting the best possible colors.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
As a former AOL employee, I can assure you it wasn’t intentional. Phishers use character generators to create lists of names and numbers to put together as potential email addresses, then send out emails en masse. We got a chance to download and decompile a couple. Anything that doesn’t bounce back is considered a valid address and they spam your mailbox. This has been happening since I started at AOL in 1995 (I got laid off in 2005). The same is true for any other mail server like yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc. only some have better spam filters.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
I would use the shape blender: copy one of your lakes, paste in front and resize, change the colors to match the blue water and beige-y map color you want and use the blend tool to get the gradient effect from the water to the map color. Creating a gradient could work, too, but it would take longer I would think. Then again i’m still using CS3.
Reply back if you want a step by step and I can make up samples.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
Reminds of a mirrorless T2i or T3i or whatever. Cool for the consumer market. I’m sure it will make its way to the pro market soon. That or everyone is done with the DSLR thing and the fad has faded.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
Before you have the meeting, they should all sign a non-disclosure agreement that clearly indicates you will be sharing something with them that is your intellectual property. Have clear and concise notes for the meeting – your ideas are just ideas and aren’t protected, but your notes are part of the unique expression of that idea and are protected. So far thats protecting trade secrets and copyright.
Lastly, even if they “steal” your idea, they still have to do the work which is the really hard part. Really, if you have a handful of ideas, you haven’t got much. An idea is only as good as its execution. If they like your ideas and they think you can execute them, then they’ll hire you.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
I love the design and the style, but the site is way too busy and the layout is inconsistent. It looks like you have emphasized numerous things on the page – when you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing. I found myself hunting around for basic information. I would pick one thing per page to emphasize and then lose the rest. Really.
It kinda looks like a first year design student did the design and layout. I think the demo reel is too long – I closed it after 30 seconds. Can you compartmentalize so everything isn’t on one reel? Like split the live-action and the motion graphic stuff up so you have a couple short reels? All it really does is skip from client to client and functions far less as a promotional reel for you and far more as a gosh-neat, look what I’ve done. If you’re making a demo for another video pro or you’re trying to get a job, it’s great, but a potential client will be lost. You have to walk them through what they are seeing so they know what they are getting. Don’t assume they’ll just get it. They won’t.
Why do you have a pile of stuff there? What is it doing? If you can’t answer that question, it doesn’t belong there. It looks like I should be flipping through stuff there, it pops with this annoying animation of flying cards and then you have to click again to get the video to show and then again to get the video to play. Can you eliminate at least one of the clicks? More than 2 and I get annoyed.
Nice on NOT using Flash, btw.
The navigation is so-so. The only things that change are the small bits at the top. There are no significant changes there to warrant the use of those tabs. The first few times I clicked, I didn’t think anything had happened. It’s almost like it was put there for the sake of doing some gosh-neat thing when it would have been faster and easier to either make the same info cycle by itself or just drop in some next/prev buttons.
Finally, how do you answer this: why are you better than your competition? I don’t see that addressed on the site. You have some of it on the bottom with the mystery meat icons (the heart, balloon, check, etc. icons), but those should really be at the top, right? You have only a few seconds to capture someone’s attention and the good stuff is at the bottom. You’re gonna lose everyone before they read it.
Regardless, I’ll say again, I love the look of the site. The 40’s-60’s printhouse look is neat and the letterpress logo is neat. As a web page, it’s too busy, if I didn’t know you were a video/media company, I would think you were a startup design company (all the visual print references). I know you may not have ASKED for all this feedback, but as a long time graphic designer, I can’t help it. Everything can be improved.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
While you are starting out, consider what your long-term goals are FOR NOW (trust me, it will change). You can be as detailed as you like, but leave some wiggle room for changes. Go for a 6 month, 1 year, 2 year and 5 year plan. Write them down. Keep them nearby for immediate reference. Anyone who walks into your business should be able to see what you are all about in a few sentences.
Next, get legal ASAP. Protect your personal and business assets: form an LLC or other legal entity to hold business assets. Keep an inventory. Keep it separate from your personal assets and get into the habit of never mixing personal and business assets. Take the time to talk to an attorney. Just an initial chat is all – you are finding a potential asset for later. Same with the accountant or bookkeeper.
Figure out your hourly rate: https://freelanceswitch.com/rates/
Remember, your business and personal assets (and monies) need to be separate. This is for legal, tax, and practical reasons.
Start looking into multiple revenue streams. For example, I began doing stock photo and video and now I make at least $200 a month and average about $450 a month. It’s not much, but it covers my minimal overhead and it’s solid money I can rely on. I tend to use it for marketing and advertising as well as licensing and office supplies. Having worked on several web design projects, I began offering web design and used my graphic design degree to add loads of other services. I now offer a wide range of services I can easily market and sell. Yeah, I want to do video all the time, but I can offer a broader range of services and I have multiple revenue streams. Don’t do it all at once. Start small and get comfortable selling one service. Then, when you have the first one down, offer another one. As you go along, you will be confident creating new products and services for yourself.
One last thing: you are doing good as a sub-contractor, but you have only 1 client which is somewhat precarious. Having 5 or 50 clients is far better – spread it around. If you have a non-compete clause in your agreement, make sure they are fully compensating you.
Remember to network. Knowing a wide range of people is really helpful when you land a big project and have to hire out. Yeah, we all want to do it ourselves, but being able to run a big project successfully and under budget is a far more valuable skill than being a jack of all trades. While you are at it, learn to recognize talent in others. Really learn this skill and you can run almost any project. Learn the difference between the talkers and the doers and you will go really far.
Finally: don’t be an equipment whore. It’s expensive to constantly be keeping up with all the latest tech. You can easily bankrupt yourself. Furthermore, the tech will always change. You will never “arrive” at the best equipment and never need something new. Build reasonable equipment costs into your budget early on. I just read an article on the new standard they are working on for “UHDTV” – yep, that’s Ultra High Definition TV. Literally 4K TV. It’s not here now, but will be eventually. That’s all new monitors, computers, cameras, equipment, etc. On the horizon past that is 8K TV they’re working on already. The tech will continue to change so don’t fall in love with it. 😉
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
Be careful with that – rights managed footage will have all of the proper releases signed so you can use them commercially, but editorial footage doesn’t have any rights released and you may be stuck with a lawsuit if you use someone’s likeness for commercial use (there’s special laws for journalism that don’t apply to the same image/footage in commercial use). I strongly suggest you consult briefly with an intellectual property or, ideally, an entertainment lawyer before using news footage commercially.
If you need the footage and can’t find it, find some online and just recreate it with all of the names and faces changed.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
Gaffers tape and zip ties. Cheap and easy.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293