[Mark Suszko]

And it works the other way around too…

https://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2681267

West Side Story turned into a horror flick…

[Mark Suszko]

You might try compositing an identical layer that has had some gaussian blur applied, then see what blending between the two at various amounts will do. Might also try playing with the gamma settings. These are just guesses, based on what I’d try to do with a single still image. In FCP, under Compositing drop-down menu, you find a bunch of built-in modes to try. I would go for “guess-and-press”, with about 99 levels of undo;-)

Hey, what’s the worst that could happen? It doesn’t work, and you revert.

[Mark Suszko]

Your part-time availability is a problem. Perhaps the easiest thing would be to offer yourself for night and weekend shifts at an editing house or production company. Use that time to learn and build contacts.

The easiest things for part-timers to do in corporate video, IMO, is freelance contractual work on things like writing scripts, building graphics and animations and editing, creating music tracks, recording narrations, audio sweetening, things you can do in a home office setup and via telecommuting/FTP transfers and e-mail, etc. because the schedule is what you want it to be. And big corporations don’t want to waste office space hosting you doing those activities and pulling full benefits too. Shooting and producing are pretty much full-time day gigs, wedded to the client’s schedule. Those would be harder for you to access.

[Mark Suszko]

Either NLE is valid, each has strengths and weaknesses. What matters is what kind of work you want to do, where you want to do it, and what the people there already use and have access to.

You will find work most anywhere if you master either platform. Each of them can have their keyboard shortcuts modified to match the other, so in a sense, you learn one, you can fake your way thru the other about as well. That’s a simplification, but I think it’s generally valid.

DVD editing… I think you mean *authoring”. That indeed is a specialization. It’s not just editing, it’s integrating all the elements of the DVD and their inteconnectivity/interactivity, the extra audio tracks and captio tracks, etc. plus the black art of managing the encoding and compression to fit the data on a disc and make it play smoothly with great quality.

DVD Authoring certainly could become a career in itself, especially if you’re designing and producing all the elements and etc. and not just throwing together stuff supplied by someone else.

[Mark Suszko]

Yes, attenuators are what you’re missing, also known as matching transformers. You can get them as small self-contained units that look like mic couplers, Shure makes a couple nice little ones, some switchable in level.

Typically PA systems and mixers don’t have a lot of extra XLR outputs to feed you, and almost never a spare mic-level out, you usually have to settle for line level thru a phono jack or RCA jacks. Balanced audio all the way thru is what we prefer, and radio shack adapter voodoo at the back of the board may introduce sources for hum and the like. Something to watch out for.

In desperate situations, I have also gotten acceptible results putting a dynamic stick mic or even a wireless lav next to a PA speaker. Hey, they mic electric guitar speaker cabinets and the like, so it’s not so weird, it’s just not usually the best practice in video of events, because any buzz or hum in the PA gets magnified. If you place the mic far from the speaker, enough to reduce the buzz, you get audience talking leaking into the feed.

One other consideration is the difference between a “wet” and “dry” mix, and the difference in a mix made for PA versus one made for video. The mixer guy may have EQ and such tweaked to best deal with the room acoustics for the audience’s ears, and that may not be the same as mixing for good video use.

You also need to worry about if you need audience response and ambience in the tracks somewhere… reactions to jokes, applause, etc. which the PA feed may or may not give you. Shotgun on a second channel on the camera may or may not be enough for that.

My preference is to run a hardwired stick mic to the podium and use good shielded cables all the way back to the camera. Everything else besides that is a compromise forced by the specific circumstances.

[Mark Suszko]

Your business is concluded, you are under no further obligation to them unless there was something in the contract about it.

But let me guess, there wasn’t much of a contract to start with, perhaps just a Deal Memo or something?

I think you’re right to tell them to take the hard and high one. I would send them a certified letter stating your contract has been fulfilled, and you have nothing further to do with them, they own the site and can do whatever they want with it, but you’re not doing any more work on their site for free. As far as revealing what software you used to build the site, not only is that inconsequential, (HTML is HTML, and any other web designer they hire should be able to delete that link in about five minutes, but they are too dumb or cheap to know/do that) you could argue that that information is a trade secret proprietary to your business and none of their beezwax.

[Mark Suszko]

markertek sells a gadget that makes two shoes out of one, pretty cheap as I recall. But will probably mess up your nahd-held balance a little, adding wrist strain. might look into that though.

[Mark Suszko]

Lots of event guys swear by using a throw-down iriver as a backup device for these gigs, and editing the audio in post. You can find numerous variations on this digital audio recorder at Tigerdirect.com and other places. If you’re trying to avoid editing and want to get the best audio live, in-camera, then yes, you’re going to need another mic and perhaps a mixer, or fast hands swapping cables. If you can’t afford to get one of these recorders or a second wireless, perhaps you’re under-charging your clients. You could also look into renting a second wireless just for the gig, if you know in advance.That’s less money. A second wireless is a good idea anyway, you’d havea backup if the first one has frequency issues at the venue, or you can get the second unit with a stick-type mic and use it at podiums and to pass-around at receptions, etc.

Another thing to look into is, many churches now have wireless hearing assistance devices hardwired into the P.A. system, very clean feed. They may not advertise it very much, so ask. You just ask the usher for a reciever, typically they use a mono mini-plug for a cheap earpiece, its easy to use a 20-dollar radio shack cord/adapter to bring that into your camera. I’ve done this three times at different venues and it worked GREAT every time. I bring my own fresh battery for the church RX units, they are usually 9v alkalines.

[Mark Suszko]

I swear by the Communications Specialties Scan-Do Pro Ultra. Against an Extron and a Sony ina shoot-out, it won in a walk-away. Very responsive service too, e-mailed a query, the VP of the company called me back!

[Mark Suszko]

Well, it’s common to montage some side-by-side “growing-up” stills of the B&G as a light intro to the main video. We can thank John Mellencamp’s “Life Goes On (Jack & Diane) music video for this being popularized, but hey, I like it too.

One of my favorite tricks is to tape candid behind the scenes style of the stills guy taking his formals right after the ceremony, and dropping his stills into the shot every time his flash goes off.

One could use a sequence of stills as a bumper between segments as well.