Mike Cohen
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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I find that the Quicktime export settings in AME do not offer h.264. We export h.264 files with the Adobe codec – this plays in Quicktime player, although not reliably in iTunes. Quicktime Pro is the definitive way to get videos iTunes ready.
Mike Cohen
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Put a timecode burn in the lower third, but over some of the content so they cannot crop it.
However since you did not stipulate payment up front, you may be stuck being the bank here, since they likely need the final work before 30 days have elapsed. Some customers won’t let you invoice them until the work is done.
As other have said, and as has been repeated numerous times on this board, it depends upon the customer. If this is a new client, then get something up front – even a signed contract with clauses about payment terms in lieu of payment up front – something you can use in the event of non-payment. But if it is a customer who gives you work repeatedly, and they pay consistently, then you can float them the downpayment if you think they are good for it.
Mike Cohen
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One of the freelance shooters I sometimes use had Steven Soderberg as an intern. Apparently he made pretty good coffee!
Mike Cohen
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[Craig Seeman] “Problems Solving and Trouble Shooting need to be learned. You can’t learn this by rote.”
Craig – well put and in agreement with something I say all the time.
I have had people ask me what college is good for if you can learn on your own. That is the answer, in my opinion – it teaches you critical thinking.
If you ask college professors what college is good for, they may say something different – I should ask one sometime.
Hunter, maybe you can conduct an experiemnt for us. Ask some of your professors what the purpose of college is and see what they say. Make it open ended so as to not sway their answers.
Mike
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[Tom Meegan] “For instance, Mike Cohen’s company specializes in surgical/medical videos. His knowledge of that field translates into effectiveness and efficiency.”
Good point Tom. I went to school for Mass Communications, which in early 1990’s terminology meant video production (pick one, corporate, broadcast (news or sports), or independent, or radio, or journalism)). We graduated with knowledge of all of these areas. I at one point considered being a tv news reporter, but my experiences as a tv news intern changed all that.
Having a niche helps. However within a niche, as in my experience, there are sub-specialties – but as others have said, you have to know a little of everything and a lot of a few things. Do we use a lot of After Effects in medical video? Not too often, but we have someone on staff who knows the software and what can be done with it. Sell yourself not just on what you know, but also on what you can do for a client. Why be R2D2, who is really good at fixing hyperdrive generators, when you can be Han Solo, who can fix things, program a computer, negotiate contracts, pilot a ship, hold his own in a fight, dress sharply, crack a good joke, mentor a young farmboy, get out of dicey situations and gets the girls.
I am a video editor as one of my job duties, sure, but also a project manager, manager (of other people, budgets, proposals, marketing, new business development, etc), writer, instructional designer, producer, director, graphic designer, etc. The “etc” is a catch-all for whatever comes along that needs doing.
Don’t leave college planning to be just one thing your whole life. Plan on the “etc”.
Mike Cohen
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This is one drawback of the small form factor camcorders – they lack timecode ports seen on both larger cameras and/or non HDV cameras.
Best idea is to use a timecode slate. You can point each camera at the timecode display on the audio recorder each time you change tapes. This is how we sync up our HDV cameras – point one camera at the other’s timecode display so you have a visual way to sync in post.Mike Cohen
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Fantastic to finally see a forum dedicated to field production. There are forums for cameras, lighting, audio and the catchall Business and Marketing forum that gets a little of everything, but I am thrilled to have a forum dedicated to the elusive art of showing up at the planned location, setting up and dealing with all of the situations one can anticipate and those we can’t while doing our best to get the shots we need.
I will be keeping a close eye on this forum!
Mike Cohen
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Hunter
Your professor is, in fact, a professor, not a working editor (or is he/she?).
In other words, does this person actually work in the industry?
And the “industry” is a vague term – there are countless jobs that involve video/multimedia production. Is it the same industry as 20 years ago? No. But such is the case with many industries.
Look at the two most recent threads in this forum and you will find some clues – it is the person looking for a job more than the industry at large that is important. Be prepared to start at the bottom.
Thinking back to college, professors operated in a box – teach the subject – no one ever talked about what happens next.
But we didn’t have the internet – you do – and you are smart enough to recognize that your professor does not have all the answers. We can help with that.
Mike Cohen -
In most cases college grads hired for production are not given projects with high levels of complexity right out of the gate. We like to train people in our company’s particular way of working first. So a reel may show that you HAVE some experience, but not necessarily that you ARE experienced – remember I am talking about new hires out of college, not new hires with 5+ years of experience.
If I see a reel with some fancy effects, I may ask how you did that, or even have you show me.the reels of the three final contenders of our most recent hire varied from great to poor, but we knew we were hiring someone we would be moulding to our needs, so we judged attitude then aptitude.
Mike Cohen
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We experience these dropouts occasionally, and we believe these are errors in the recording on the HDV tape. We sent a problemativ tape along with out V1U camera to Sony and they told us the camera is fine, we need to use better tapes. So now we are using the most expensive HDV tapes Sony makes and guess what, we still get the occasional red frame dropout.
Makes tapeless recording look better every day.
Mike Cohen