[Mark Suszko]

The guys that do “real” time lapse sometimes use a plug-in or app that reduces the flicker from frame-to-frame iris changes. I don’t recall what it’s called, but a google search on terms about that may turn it up.

Back in the day, I had somewhat of a similar problem and I messed with blending modes and a layer of 100 percent white, on a layer underneath, the idea being that only the white would cut thru and partially replace the brightest parts of the shot (blown-out sky).

[Mark Suszko]

Besides being lovingly shot and edited, shows like Saul and Breaking Bad break fresh ground in that they concentrate on the creation of the villain from a good person… most shows are mostly about the hero, and the villain comes into the mix already-formed, generally un-changing and unrepentant, and while they might reveal some back-story, they don’t really follow a Mirror Universe /Evil James Campbellian “Villain’s Journey” into darkness, like Saul. Here’s a basically good but slightly flawed guy, thru a series of events not entirely in his control or of his making, forced by his decisions and his character into ever narrower choices. Same with Mike the “mechanic” in the same show… The point of the plot in most any movie is that the protagonist changes by the end of it, becomes a different person. We’re used to that change being positive, not negative, and that’s part of the fun of Saul. Every so often, you wish you could just let your inhibitions go and be evil, so you can get shiat done in a world full of rules and barriers. These shows let us play with that and imagine ourselves on the same slippery slope.

[Mark Suszko]

I predict the next mpro will be modular, so they can keep selling you upgrades and crossgrades and customizations, without having to actually make a lot of different models.

[Mark Suszko]

If you’re going to succeed in this, you have to let go this obsession about what he does with what you’ve sold him, and how much he will make. I once worked on a video for a law suit that gained a then record 20-million-dollar settlement. I never even considered that they should give me a “taste” of that win, though I made an intrinsic contribution to the video that helped win the case. That’s just not how it works. You want more profit participation, you don’t want to be work for hire, fine… but you’re asking for a lot more work too, because your partner is the marketing/hustling/deal-making arm of the arrangement.

You wanna be happy in a video career? Stay in creative, leave sales to the salesmen.

You wanna be wealthy from a video career? Leave the Creatives to their work and get out there and SELL it.

[Mark Suszko]

Teradek is your one-stop shop for this.

[Mark Suszko]

Is it bad that while reading, I heard this in Jerry Seinfeld’s voice?

“…and what’s the deal with airlines and our lithium ion batteries? Am I right?”

TSA reserves the right to be entirely arbitrary and inscrutable, as well as being as reasonable or unreasonable as they wish, according to a random-number generator.

I’ve heard enough horror stories of people who show the agent the actual TSA-printed publication, specifically saying their what-ever-it-is is okay to take aboard, and still the agents have the right to arbitrarily say “no”.

I could probably make a good retirement income with a stand at the air terminals to take rejected items and express-mail them to and from destinations for people.

[Mark Suszko]

I might ask the client, if he’s sensitive to costs, if there is any pre-prod work he wants to do on his own time/dime, before handing it off to you. If you can have him pre-filter that 1Tb of footage down to just his essentials, even if it’s just circling the best takes in his spreadsheet, maybe that would save him some money. For SURE it would teach him that what you do must take time and time is money.

I was going to also add that you make the long master first and then a cut-down using that as the source is faster and relatively trivial.

As far as your gear, I have no idea. You could, however, afford a new imac, external drive, and copy of FCPX or Premiere or Resolve, for what you should be billing this guy. Get the advance deposit before you whip out the credit card and call Cupertino 🙂

Added edit: Upon further thought, maybe you can offer him a deal where you don’t bill ANY time for this, but he bankrolls your equipment upgrade. There’s been times when I’ve seen that kind of deal work well for people.

[Mark Suszko]

Thanks, Noah, which “freebies” in particular?

If I had money I’d buy Izotope.

I don’t have that kind of money right now, nor do my clients.

So the freebies will have to do for now.

[Mark Suszko]

“sunk-costs fallacy”: i.e. “I spent a grand on this ten years ago, and by jingo, I’m going to use it until they pry it from my stiff hands”.

Another take on that is, a grand divided into ten years equals a hundo per year. The cost of a great steak dinner for two. FCP7 is/was an incredible value for the price, one that we may never see again. But time relentlessly moves forward, and even I am saving up to replace seven on my home machine running sierra, since Sierra broke DVDSP and my old Motion3. If I spend $300 on FCPX and another $50 for new Motion, plus say, 100 bucks worth of plug-ins, and it lasts me only three years, I’m still way ahead on the value proposition.

[Mark Suszko]

Ninety percent of the cost is spent chasing the last ten percent of capability. I think a lot of people not on the very “bleeding edge” are willing to use that’s being offered because first if all, it’s damn capable already as-is, and it gets them most or all of the way there, and for the extra large projects, networking these or adding capability from connected extenders and chassis will pay the bills.