[Nick Griffin]

THANK YOU GUYS!

Don’t know why bins now have .# instead of .avb, but at least it WORKS!!

Again, THANK YOU!!

[Nick Griffin]

Bet it was really a GREAT video. Too bad it’s in bad taste to remind past prospects that they “get what they pay for.”

[Nick Griffin]

Depending on the gear you have and level of skill there’s always Crews Control. I’m sure you can find them online.

[Nick Griffin]

[Mark Suszko] “This would be easier if the camera can be locked off for several hours, and not splitting the shot over two different days. “

And therein is a problem that’s all too common in many corporate shoots. You need someone to sit with the camera over an extended period of time — even if it’s just to guard it rather than operate it — but the client balks at the cost of this person covering the extended period of time.

[Nick Griffin]

Jeff-
I don’t think there’s really any way around this but testing it on a couple to a few nights with and without the moon. There’s no easy way to guesstimate the lighting ratios between the office building lights and the moon.

If it were me I’d consider doing the shot as a still so it would be far simpler to control the lighting by having different exposure lengths. You would then also have the choice of easily adding the moon of your choice. Also use a long shutter time so the fountain turns to a smooth silk-like flow rather than a frozen moment.

Then do an AfterEffects push or move on the still to help it pass as more than a still. Adding the sound of the fountain would also help in selling the illusion.

OR- you could come up with a simpler B-roll shot.

[Nick Griffin]

[Mark Suszko] “a dedicated ENG style camera over DSLR’s”

Mark-

FYI: Canon’s C-100, C-200, C-300, etc. are NOT DSLRs. They are real cameras with real shutters, real audio and a huge range of ISOs. They are also MUCH lighter and in many ways easier to work with than the traditional ENG-style cam. I use both but in many cases the C-series camera is a better choice. (IMHO.)

[Nick Griffin]

Greg-

Aaaach!! So many potential pitfalls with this type of shoot. I agree with Todd and Dennis, especially the part about having a riser. To that I will add one thought: rope-off the riser to assure that it won’t get bumped. I’ve been at conferences where someone hanging around at the back of the room thinks that the riser looks like a good place to sit. Disaster for a long shot. The other thing about risers is that you are best to have two, one for the camera and one behind it for the camera operator to so he or she doesn’t introduce any shakes.

As to lighting (or lack thereof) I would never bid something like this without a careful review of the AV company and its plan for the event. I’ve worked at conferences where the stage is well lit and even some with a follow spot for kinetic speakers. Also beforehand verify that the AV people will be able — and willing — to provide a board feed for the audio.

But I’ve also had to work at conferences where those putting on the event are CHEAP and consider the regular room lighting adequate — even when they dim it for the inevitable PowerPoint.

Protect yourself. It’s better to pass on a job than to walk into a potential disaster.

As to the lens, like Todd I frequently use a Canon C series camera and among other lenses have the 400mm, f4. For a well lit stage ISO 640 is easily do-able with even a little depth of field to spare.

[Nick Griffin]

Well, this is really more a question for the Business & Marketing pasture, but here goes:

In a strictly “legal” sense you have every right to go after them for violating your copyright, although your best target would be the other production company as well as the former client. But, in a practical sense, is pursuing this worth it??

Do you have a contract with this client that specifies that you retain ownership of the footage? Has communicating this been something more than a conversation you had?

Your description basically says that this client has moved on from using you so there is little you can do that won’t consume a LOT of your time AND MONEY in legal fees. You could probably get a lawyer to write a “cease and desist” letter for not a lot of money, but, should it be ignored — which is fairly typical — you could be looking at tens of thousands of dollars to go the litigation route and have no guarantee that you’ll win and be able to recover the legal fees as well as any damages.

Long and short of it is:
a) make sure that the other production company is aware of what this client has done and
b) do what you can to embarrass the client making it POSSIBLE that they will right this wrong.

Just don’t count on it and remember that even though you are in the right, your risk is harming your reputation and being known as someone who is difficult to work with.

[Nick Griffin]

I’ve been happy with Quickbooks for several years. My accountants are happy getting info from it for us as well. CAVEAT: Although I thought at one point QuickBooks said it could import Quicken files for an easy move up. This may go back a few years but at the time it did NOT work. This may be because their PC version always seems to be ahead of the Mac version in features.

[Nick Griffin]

Not addressing your original question (which was answered quite well by the way), but rather what you just mentioned about +12 not being enough gain, here’s a simple solution.

On a project a couple of years ago we were using an out of town shooter for interviews who may know something about visuals but NOTHING about sound. Everything he provided was over 36db too low.

The solution is to get the first track that comes synched with the video where you want it to be in terms of timing. Then copy, paste and ALIGN copies of just the audio track on additional blank tracks added below. Then -36db can be brought to a decent level just by sending two, three or even four channels of the same audio to the same place in the mix. i.e..- center for an interview.

The only negative here is that you are also raising the noise floor of the recording. Fortunately with modern equipment the noise floor is typically so low that it shouldn’t be much of an issue.

Hope this helps.