Mike Cohen
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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We used Media 100 from 1999 to 2005. When we had maxed out the capabilities of version 9.5, or whatever the last version that was on OS 9 was, we had a choice to make – buy new Macs x3 or switch to Premiere Pro 1.5 on PCs that we already had in-house.
I found Premiere CS3 to be the most stable, aside from a few deadly projects here and there. Now we run CS4 on all machines and the performance is different from the Core 2 Duo to the Core 2 Quad to the i7, as one would expect.
As others have said, editing native HDV is processor intensive – add some color correction and stay away from the older machines. We know what we have and how best to use each system.
In other words, know the limitations of what you have to work with. Before cutting a feature film on any editing system, make sure you know that you can do it, rather than finding out the hard way.
There is always a better mouse trap. However eventually you either get the cheese or get your tail caught.
Mike Cohen
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We have covered this a lot here. If you are doing work for hire, as an individual or a company, your “credit” is a check with your name on it. If a producer wants a pat on the back, they should work in broadcast.
If you make a video about a new lawnmower for a lawnmower company, to be distributed with lawnmowers, the only credits on the video should be the name of the lawnmower company.
Always, always, always ask a client before putting anything about you or your company on something that they have paid you for. This is not only common courtesy but just smart. Did I mention you should always do this? No? Well, you should always ask. But in general you should not have to ask because you should not even consider doing it.
Now in broadcast shows, the credits are a common part of the show, but still have an agreement about what and who gets a mention. Walter, Shane, Grinner or someone else can address that.
One last thing I may have forgotten to mention above. Always ask the client.
Mike Cohen
PS – in case you missed it, and if you are just joining us, ask the client what they prefer.
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This conversation makes me think of animation. When you hire a vendor to create animation for you, you own the final output (image file sequence or movie file in specified format) but not the Maya project or whatever. And some vendors then charge a licensing fee, ie, use the work in broadcast for 5 years for $X.
Generally you can specify in your contract if you want exclusive license and/or source files, and you pay a premium for that.
Mike Cohen
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Holy Sheep!
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I went to a film festival back in the Spring of 09. One of the comedic shorts had written prominently in the credits “Shot on the RED camera.”
It was one of the worst 10 minutes of video I have ever seen. And aside from two nicely blocked dolly shots with shallow DOF, the rest looked like home video and was edited like a Shamwow commercial.
It’s the content.
Given the choice between an above average DP with a surveillance camera and a VHS deck or a college kid with a Varicam, I’ll take the first one.
Mike Cohen
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[Eric Susch] “And don’t ever apologies for your equipment. It’s the work that matters.”
Nothing more to say IMO.
Mike Cohen
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The article quoted makes a funny argument. Comparing the success of New Moon to the failure of Basic Instinct 2 is silly. New Moon, like Twilight before it, has a guaranteed success because there are already 100 million 12 year old girls who have read all the books and were clamoring for the movies. Also the male stars have girls from 12 to about 50 swooning.
Basic Instinct 2 seems to have been made because Sharon Stone thought she was still a big star. It wasn’t a bad movie on its own but it was missing the controversy and star power of the original. Like 12 year old girls flock to see Robert Pattinson, middle aged guys flocked to see Sharon Stone cross her legs, which in the late 80’s was a big deal for a mainstream movie.
Studios could save money by running new sequel ideas past this forum.
I wonder if Blair Witch 2 had a high mathematical chance for success, or Blade III or Terminator Salvation or Alien 4 or Predator 2. Making a sequel because you think people want more of the same is a bad move. People want something new with characters they like. Dark Knight was a lot better than Batman Begins and different yet maintaining the quality and characters we love. Why? Because it was statistically guaranteed? No, because talented people knew what decisions to make and they made them well.
Mike Cohen
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There is a new car commercial shot with stills and tilt-shift. Not sure what car it is for – I don’t watch much television.
I’m sure you’ve seen this however:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyZfIlxwsfI
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My favorite part of online editing was modifying a cuts only EDL to an A-B roll EDL. Then you print out the EDL on the attached dot matrix printer and manually build your B-roll – every other shot gets dubbed, via assemble edit with appropriate pre-roll and time code, to a new reel. That way you can execute an A-B roll edit dissolving between shots from the same source tape.
The best moment of my life was the first time I did a complete A-B roll on the Media 100 in like 2 keystrokes. Can’t do that in Premiere yet.
Mike Cohen
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“What kind of floor is that?”
“Space floor?”
That’s funny. I’ve always liked Albert Brooks.
It’s great when a film shows you real life. Film editing can be pretty boring to an outside observer.Reminds me of a particular edit session. I picked up a guy at the airport – he flew in for the day to work on his video. I had already done an initial edit. We sat down in the edit bay and made our edit decisions to the EDL while watching the 1″ of the edit…keep this…delete that…etc. For you kids in the audience, before we have FCP and Avids, we did our edits to an EDL. You wanna know how long the final video is? Ripple Edit. Just save your work because there is only 1 Undo.
But then if you want to watch the edit, you need to Assemble the edit. You load the source tape and let the computer take over. One edit at a time. As this was happening, the guy was getting really frustrated “why can’t we just watch it in real time? Why must we sit here and watch every edit individually?”
Because that’s how it works.
Now you make the same decisions just with different technology.
Great links.
Mike Cohen