[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Ciat,

Have you checked your menu?
I’ve only used the older cameras, but a quick search suggests that there is way of turning Focus/Zoom controls on off.
Could be by rotating the lens in a certain direction, or the menu, or both.

Page 35 in manual:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/lit_files/513654.pdf

Set the mode switch to the desired position.
• Set it to AUTO mode or MANUAL mode, according to how you want to use the camcorder.

Page 42-52 has a whole section on Adjusting the Focus in manual or with preset(s), and various Zoom functions.

Page 84 and 101+ pages might also help.

But short of copying the pages, have a look at the manual.
You might already have checked that, but always worth a second read.

The only alternative is the repair shop, although those cameras are normally solid. So hopefully it is just a switch somewhere that needs to be moved, or a “sticky” button that has not released.

Atb
Mads

bhphotovideo.com

Just a moment...

Just a moment...

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Malcolm,

Although done in Premiere Pro, this tutorial might help you:
https://youtu.be/78N-k3U-gEs?si=QNZgl_c71Qx9nCFS

And I found this article that has some interesting reading on Batman Begins and how a lot of the visual effects were done:
https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/double_negative_breaks_down_batman_begins/

Hope that this helps?

Atb
Mads

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[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Jaanus,

Admittedly I did not think outside the Vegas box 😀

But if Davinci works for you, then that is another option.

You could split the clip in the middle of an exposure change and add a very long dissolve between the one with the right level of exposure and the under-exposed part. Then adjust the under-exposed part to match as best as you can. Just make sure to do same at the under end of that isolated part. Or the rest will look burned-out…

Should not take too long to do.

But Davinci, although with a learning curve, will always be helpful for you to know how to use.

Atb
Mads

PS: I have got got a licence for Re:Vision Color Genius, just need to open it up. And, if helpful, happy to run a test for you on your footage (not the full 3-hours though! 😰🙂).

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Cynthia,

Premiere Pro v25 is military grade destructive for anyone wishing to use it.
I’ve just earlier advised a feature film currently prepping for editing, to get off it ASAP.

In your case, there is a potential quicker way and that is to set up a new project, and import your last known good sequence from old project into the new project.
Hopefully that will help?

But should add, that I found clips in my Premiere Pro v25 Sequence, where the source clip was inside the project, but the “clip data” (edit) in the Sequence could not see it – hence either manual replace, or re-import. It was only a few clips, but enough to lose trust in Adobe.

Don’t think that teams or anything else will make a difference.

In my case the issue was also that Adobe PPro supported the file format, until it did not.

Hope this helps?

Atb
Mads

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Bob and Cynthia,

And, then Adobe “forgot” to tell you what untold damage their new .prin file format in PPro v25.2+ is doing to your project(s).

Once you get rid of that, you are still only half-way there to get a stable editing software.

.prin is otherwise known as “AI-powered Media Intelligence”.

Atb
Mads

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Ann, I have reached out to you via LinkedIn to help you directly, rather than in an open forum.

Keep in mind, that being the “Boss” does not equal being a Bad Boss.
It just means that as you have the responsibility of delivery.
You also need to take charge of the process.
That can be done in a smiley polite way, that does not involve pushing and/or being rude.

Premiere Pro v25 is the worst release for years.
Adobe only cares about you using their “Pay-as-You-Go-A.I.”.
Stability is IMHO ranked as a distant “like to have”.
At some stage I suggested that they might as well get rid of 50% of their development team on PPro, as one developer is likely to be better than the two currently messing it up…

If your proxies are LONG-GOP generated, and you have a lot of edits in your timeline, then be rest assured, you will find PPro crashing at will, or in my recent case – Windows Bluescreen of DEATH, something I’ve never seen before when using Adobe.

To spell it out: back in the day NTSC = Never-the-Same-Colour (twice).
LONG-GOP = Never-The-Same-Time-Code
If you have 1,500 edit TC points in your timeline, and just one of them is an outpoint where the TC runs 1-frame longer, than last time you opened the project, across an in-point on another clip, you and your project is TOAST, sorry BURNED TOAST!
At least if Out-Point is one frame short, you only get a blck flash frame.

I lost several PPro projects that I had to reconstruct from auto-saved files.

It was the most painful experience that I’ve had for over 20 years.

I have many more insights on that part, some which could not invented, even if you tried.

That is my experience, and it might not be yours.

Start with the end in mind, as what are you delivering back to the client, and in what format?
Once you know that, you’ll know what you need to have to make a stable project work for you, and those coming afterwards.

Hope this helps?

Atb
Mads

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Sven,

The first time will take you the longest, second time will be faster, and eventually you’ll be able to do it quickly – but it is about experience, and you finding a way of doing it quickly at a quality that you are happy with.

Modelling and compositing is the least of your problems.

MoCap (Motion capture) of your face with tracking of mouth and eye movements is somewhat more intensive. As you need hardware, studio set-up (lights/greenscreen/microphone) and capture.

You can do it, but there is no single solution. And, if for just proof of concept, you might have to do with less than perfect, which is better than not publishing at all.

May I suggest that you join up to a very recent course published by Boundless Entertainment:
THE VIRTUAL FILMMAKER’S PLAYBOOK
https://boundless-resource.com/playbook

If you look through the description, they will show you how to do MoCap on an iPhone and use Unreal engine for creating characters.

It is a one off fee, so you won’t be charged more than once.
I have some of their other courses.

Hope that this helps?

Atb
Mads

boundless-resource.com

Virtual Filmmaker's Playbook | Boundless Entertainment

Make the films you've always wanted to make, without the price tag.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Sven,

Sounds fun – you do with DaVinci have Fusion as a companion:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/products/fusion/visualeffects

I would then add Blender for actual modelling as it is free with a lot of accessible courses and assets.

If daily, you’ll want to have computer power, combined with “templates” (base projects) where you can easily manipulate the outcome.

Hope this helps.

Atb
Mads

blackmagicdesign.com

Fusion 20 – Visual Effects | Blackmagic Design

Fusion is the world’s most advanced compositing software for visual effects artists, broadcast and motion graphic designers, and 3D animators.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Cynthia,

621MB project – that is crazy big.

Can you open a new project and import timeline from old project into it?

I normally split my projects at about 30MB, and then reduce size by save as new version number X.

First thing I do is delete all unused timelines out of that project, and then save again.

I have just closed a big project where PPro v25 gave me no end of trouble.

We are talking freeze on loading project, crash out of project, and bluescreen on Windows 11.

PPro version 25.1 is my preferred version, but for the final run I went to 25.2.3 – and that again, courtesy of A.I. decided to kill off my project – eventually I realised that there is a lot of A.I. that is worth switching off.

Hope that this helps.

Atb
Mads

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Ann,

As the editor, and the one I suspect has to deliver the edit, you are the boss, and the assistants are there to help you.

I have just been to hell and back with Premiere Pro v25, because it had issues with mixed resolutions and Long-GOP footage. This was for a 4K project, and I did not go for proxies as my hardware could handle it – except for Adobe, NVidia and Windows 11 not playing nicely together + Adobe not being stable at all.
Only positive is that Adobe gives you a grey box to tell them what went wrong = my language in those many situations, makes the language shouted at an English Football match sound like what the kids would shout in kindergarden…

My advice, if your system can handle it, transcode every video in to be the same full resolution format. Whether HD or 4K, only difference should be size, and consider using ProRes HQ or higher.
Once you have done that, it should be easy from there on.
Keep in mind, that transcoding is what you have assistants for…

Hope that this helps.

Atb
Mads