[Mike Cohen]

You can use the free Open Broadcaster – it just records and whatever resolution your select, then you would have to zoom and add arrows etc in post. There is value in paying for Camtasia because it does a lot of the work for you.

I have used Open Broadcaster to record webinars. WebEx and GotoMeeting let you record the shared screen content, such as PPT, but it does not record webcam content. I make the talking head big enough to manipulate in post, usually making it smaller.

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

Does the employee get a paycheck? That is his “credit” unless the client asks for his name to be on the video. On the rare occasion when a client has added my name to the credits I have been humbled and appreciative, but generally in a work for hire the client’s name is what goes on the video.

I hope everything worked out.

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

[Danny Hays] “First of all, OSX doesn’t support the USB3 Shuttle. I assume your mac has a USB3 port.”

This is confusing. Does OSX support the Shuttle USB 3 or not?

I’m thinking of buying one to capture the output of another computer.

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

Some sequences were shot in IMAX – the link has some movie stills if you have not seen any of the trailers or the movie

https://i0.wp.com/bitcast-a-sm.bitgravity.com/slashfilm/wp/wp-content/images/ZZ3279C053-700×1155.jpg?resize=700%2C1155

But not all. IMAX (digital) is the poor-man’s IMAX and as Tim said, if it is not actual IMAX film like you would see at a science museum on a school field trip, it is IMAX-like.

[Mike Cohen]

WOW. I will have to watch this whole thing some time, but nicely done and probably very accurate.

But let’s see how a movie like this could come to pass.

Adam Sandler still has some clout given his box office history though perhaps less now. That being said, I watched The Cobbler on a flight last week and it was ok.

Shockingly this was directed by Chris (Home Alone, Harry Potter) Columbus. Sorry dude, we know you’ve got bills to pay.

Written by guy who wrote a lot Sandler movies, and some other guy.

All star cast – that does not actually guarantee success.

On the plus side Digital Domain and other US-based effects houses did work on this, so it may be awful but the artists no doubt did some great work.

$110million budget – $24million opening – game over.

I may watch this once it comes to RedBox. You know, for the nostalgia.

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

We use direct mail and see a spike in direct to customer product sales timed with each catalog.
We also do email marketing, though generally to smaller more targeted lists of past customers.
Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

Thus far I have been bulk renaming files, by adding a prefix (ie, XYZ-project_saturday_cam1_001.mts) and then importing the files as files, not using media browser. I’m sure somewhere an AVCHD engineer is dying a little on the inside, but this way there is no chance of files getting mis-linked. Premiere edits these files just fine and seems to know what type of video it is.

I have not used Prelude yet. Isn’t the beauty of Premiere that you don’t need to transcode anything?
I’ll have to try out this Prelude workflow.

Thanks

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

Hi – late to the party here.

Forgive me, but I am using a Core2 Quad machine (home built (not by me)), Q9300 @2.50Ghz – Windows 7, 8 gigs ram, GeForce 9600 GT, with USB3 non-RAID storage. System was built for DVCAM editing, and did ok with HDV.

Works great with 2 tracks of XDCAM or any AVCHD format for that matter.
But once I have more than 2 tracks of video, realtime playback gets sluggish to almost unwatchable, and AME exporting takes a dog’s age for just about anything other than straight cuts.

Obviously this configuration is past its prime.

1 – is the current system beyond help?

1a – would a USB3 RAID help, or is the processor/RAM/video card still going to be a bottleneck?

2 – What can I do for under $3,000 to improve performance?
HP or Dell seem to have some entry level workstations in that range. Would the modern processor and Adobe-certified video card make a noticeable improvement?

Understand there is some subjectivity in these questions.

Cheers

Mike Cohen

2a –

[Mike Cohen]

I was just googling the information which turns out to be in this thread. It seems we answered my own question a year ago. Long live the cow!

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

It depends upon a few factors:

• Your business model
• Your relationship with clients
• Your client’s expectations

Your business model

How do you charge for projects? If everything is a la carte, then perhaps showing that you threw something in shows a sense of goodwill.
When I hire a video crew for a day rate, I either get:

Invoice A:
Red Epic Camera: $800
Tripod: $125
Arri Kit: $150
Kino Flo: $75
Video monitor: $150
Camera Operator: $550
Audio technician: $450
Audio kit: $175
Consumables: $50
Lunch: $25
Parking: $15
Mileage: $35
Power strip: $25 (I kid you not)
USB hard drive $79
Shipping: $35
White balance and focus: N/C (ok, I’m just kidding)

Overtime past 4 hours: $450/hour (I once had a freelancer stop the shoot to ask me if I was ok with going over 4 hours – a policy is ok but use judgement in exercising it)

or

Invoice B:
Red Epic camera crew $3,500/day

If it is a crew I have worked with before, I would prefer version B – I know what I am going to get and line item pricing per piece of kit is not really useful to me, and even less useful to a client who is not in production. For the first time, sure I like to know what I am getting, though one would still expect you to get the full capabilities of the crew.

Also, once I know the capabilities and philosophy of a vendor I know that they will bring everything they need to the table. For example a production group I use in LA brings several road cases to a live event, containing piles of extra kit and gizmos which they generally won’t need but if they do it is on hand. Costs them maybe an extra gallon of diesel to haul a few hundred extra pounds, but they show that they are ready for anything.

Your relationship with clients

Are these one and done gigs for hire, part of a larger project, or one in a series of ongoing projects, and part of a long term relationship?

The most important work is the next project, so do a great job on this one. If you throw in a few hours extra editing to make it perfect, most clients would be happy to know that, and unless you are giving them a bill for a set number of hours, just leave that detail out. The client will come to expect that you will produce a quality product.

If I check a file and see that it needs to be re-rendered due to some glitch, I certainly am not charging for that. Use your judgement.

Your client’s expectations

Along the same lines as the previous point. Most repeat customers hire you because of something you bring to the table that they like and perhaps can’t get elsewhere. So you do what you need to in order to keep the client happy and returning. If I get a request for say a 5-minute version of a 7-minute video, and it takes and hour to turn this around, I’ll just throw it in as good will. If you get asked for a price, and say “no worries – this was an easy one” the client will smile, say thanks, and hopefully volunteer to pay for the next one, buy you a beer or just keep the work coming.

Obviously if the request required a total re-work of the project then by all means charge accordingly, but depending upon the nature of the relationship, determine how much you need to get to cover your costs while helping the client out with what could be a last minute surprise on their end.

Thus the client expects quality work and that you are giving them their money’s worth, not that you are going to charge for every foot of gaffer tape or hour of rendering.

Your job as producer / editor / whatever, is to keep the client happy and promote future work.

Interesting thread.

Mike Cohen