[Nick Griffin]

[Floh Peters] “apply the “BCC Film Damage” filter to it”

In the words of Homer Simpson, “Doh!!”

[Nick Griffin]

[Michael Slowe] “there is a Black & White setting”

Chris-
If you’re trying for the look of a silent movie in Media 100 there’s more too it than just a black and white setting. Unfortunately once you apply the setting under the classic color correction mode trying anything else undoes the black and white conversion.

Assuming your goal is to stay inside the Media 100 environment, what I would do is render out the black and white footage then re-import it so you could tweak it using the curves commands. Try using curves to “crush the blacks” — pull the lower level, ie – the bottom 20-30% further down / darker. Then perhaps trying the opposite with the top end of the range. This will give you a more limited range of grays which was the look of much of the earliest film stocks.

The available tinting option seems fairly limited so instead you might want to use Red to create an overlay track of a solid color Vary the opacity of the layer to taste to give the footage a lower contrast and a color cast which connotes old, ie. – sepia.

Old silent movie footage also often has places where it was broken and re-spliced. Try adding a few very short jump cuts in places.

You might also want to add a track overlay of dust and scratches to help sell the idea of the video being old. There is a film artifacts collection from Artbeats that has lots of good stuff like that, but there are also many other things like it online.

Now if you REALLY want to get serious and really want to achieve the look, XML your way over to Apple’s Color application or another high end color grading app where you’ll have an even greater ability to tweak. You’ll also have a large number of pre-sets available including the ability to “bloom” the highlights further mimicking the old film look.

Like so many things in this business there’s really no one way to go about what you’re trying to achieve, so try a few. If you have the time experiment with as many as you can.

[Nick Griffin]

[John Nelson] ” Another hurdle is overcoming sea sickness and claustrophobia but that just takes time.”

Well, then in your case underwater video may not be such a good idea. To be a successful shooter, even in just ten or twenty feet of water, you have to be extremely familiar and comfortable with scuba and with boats. The last thing any Captain and divemaster crew wants is to have to worry about someone who’s not a customer.

My dive operator clients would always allow me and my still cameras to go along on dives with paying customers because, as one explained, “Well you’re a divemaster so we know we don’t have to worry about you.” I wasn’t a certified divemaster, just a very experienced certified advanced diver.

Not too off topic, but to shoot well underwater you have to have complete control of buoyancy, complete gauge and depth awareness and basically the knowledge not to do anything dumb. Mastering these things is what allows you to operate the camera safely and get the shots you want. Otherwise you can endanger your own as well as other lives. Not to be too heavy about this, but a camera in the hands of an amateur diver can turn deadly when the diver pays more attention to the camera than to what’s going on around him. Depths and currents are far more deadly than even sharks. Honest.

Maybe you can sell topside videos to tourists. Also, the idea of being able to provide a mobile version for phones and pads is magic to most people not in the video know. They’ll pay for it! Especially on a memorable vacation.

[John Nelson] “Haven’t had the ‘clams’ to upgrade to HD yet and hope that won’t be a big hurdle.”

You should address this as soon as possible. Most people with the money for a USVI or BVI vacation will have an expectation of HD — even if they have no idea that the much less expensive HDV isn’t quite the same. SD probably won’t cut it with too many and certainly won’t justify a premium price.

And good luck with Elizabeth. If she’s anything like her father was you may have a hard time getting her to do anything other than what’s absolutely necessary. I fear that it’s an Armstrong thing, but have experience with only one generation.

[Nick Griffin]

John-

Oddly enough early in my career, back in the eighties, when I was only in the ad agency business I needed a videographer for St. Croix shooting and the closest we could find was on St. Thomas. Next closest of course was San Juan. At the time we represented The Buccaneer, the VI Seaplane Shuttle, the largest local dive operator, St. Croix Marina/Island Marine Supply of St. Thomas and Tortola and various other smaller operations. We even had a locally-based account exec who, not surprisingly, brought in zero new business.

While Mark’s ideas are good, as usual, your biggest problem is that you are on what is essentially a very small town. To get more business you need to expand your market. If you want the chance to do ads and or property videos you need to also become a presence on St. Thomas. If you want bareboat or other shipboard projects, you need to be known by charter operations on Tortola and, to a lesser extent, on the other BVIs. You should also look into ways of getting south to some of the Windwards. Unfortunately, like STX, these are also very “small towns” until you get to places like Barbados and Trinidad.

You could venture into Puerto Rico, but that’s likely a saturated market as it does have a city. Being a short plane or ferry ride away from Tortola you might want to let The Moorings main office in Florida know that you’re available in the area to inexpensively get footage for them. (They’ll be looking for real beauty shots though and demos of local commercials and weddings will just turn them off.)

You may be able to locate US and European charities who want fresh footage of the sad (and oh, so slow) state of recovery in Haiti. It’s much cheaper to send someone over from another island than it is to fly someone from Miami or New York, so that can be your angle. (They’ll be looking for serious doc-style footage, again no local commercials or weddings.)

You mentioned “diving without a tank” which brings to mind the fact that you probably are, or easily could become, an experienced diver. Many SKYdiving schools offer a service where you can pay for your first jump to be video taped by a skydiving videographer. With a small camera and housing you could offer a similar service for “resort course” divers. Two or three of these a day could be a decent supplement to your business. Make it a “donut” with island footage and Buck Island B-roll of fish and coral as the intro and outro and the DVD will be worth more. Offer to one-off as a file upload-able to smartphones / iPads, etc and worth more still.

On both the charter and dive operators be sure to build in a “commission” for them and avoid stepping on their toes if they’re offering anything similar.

Anyway, just a few ideas based on a small inkling of knowledge left over from my past life.

[Nick Griffin]

[Scott Sheriff] “There are much better uses of your time, like trying to work out why the director didn’t like your cut”

I fully agree with Mark, Todd and Scott. Paolo, IF (perhaps a big if) you still have a relationship with the director/producer ask specifics and see what you can learn. You’ll either know more about the style he had in mind, that he has no cogent idea what it was he was looking for or perhaps that he simply didn’t like his own footage and blaming the editing was a simple out. It’s always best to get and keep people talking. It might even earn you a second chance.

And yes, Glen’s suggestion is NOT a prudent way to proceed, to say the least.

[Nick Griffin]

Be polite, apologize for even having to bring it up, but ask to be paid. If they’re in a financially tight position and want the upcoming work to help pay for the past bills tread very carefully and ask for very specific terms and timelines in writing.

[Nick Griffin]

[Tom Sefton] “If I was you, I would spend a few hours responding to it and then put the most obnoxiously cheap quote to them.”

Patrick-
If it was me I’d spend an hour writing a detailed letter, send it, then move on hoping that for the next go ’round the people writing the RFP will have felt the heat of attention from above. Even if a low quote won you the job now, the hiring entity that wanted someone else would likely make the project anywhere from unpleasant to nightmarish. As I said, move on.

[Nick Griffin]

Hey guys, I don’t think wireless AUDIO is what Carly was asking about. If I’m understanding the question she’s asking about the far more obscure (ie.- expensive) world of wireless transmission and reception of the camera’s video feed. I too would like to know more about this, if even for monitoring rather than live use.

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? (In my best Ben Stein impersonation.)

[Nick Griffin]

[James Houghtaling] “What does the studio space look like? Lots of space? Room for backdrops? High ceilings?
Flexible existing studio lighting? or do I plan on bringing my own lights? Light mounts on ceiling? Windows? (do I need to bring material to block window light)”

This is impossible to answer as nearly every studio is different. The main room in some of the big, brand-name studios will hold an entire orchestra so of course there’s plenty of room and invariably high ceilings. In smaller places with movable baffles, traps, vocal booths, etc. there can be barely room for the band, let alone much extra. Existing lighting can be good for a moody look, but don’t count on it. You may be best served by re-lamping existing fixtures. Windows are a rarity as 1) they are flat, reflective surfaces and 2) they’re unlikely to be as sound proof to the outside world as is a solid wall.

The long and short of this is you HAVE to do an site visit to know what you will be working with.

[James Houghtaling] “How much time will you have the space for? Time enough for multiple play-throughs? Daytime or night?”

It should go without saying, but recording studios charge in units of hours, days, weeks, and so on. You can likely get as much time as you’re willing to pay for. You may, however, be able to negotiate a discounted rate if they’ll assign a junior engineer who just has to handle playback for you so you’re not tying up a regular engineer. Ask.

[Nick Griffin]

[Wayne Keyser] “Wouldn’t it be so much simpler just to get the dealership (in a gesture to “partner” with the team) to get the team’s permission?”

With all due respect, Wayne, that sort of thing costs a fortune in major cities with major teams. “The official car dealer of (team name)” is not an inexpensive or simple thing to get.

I think Aaron was on the right track thinking of using out of copyright photos and referring to the team in generic terms, but how is one to know which photos have expired copyrights, which weren’t renewed, without a lot of research?

I do agree with Wayne that you really need a legal opinion and you’re unlikely to get that here. My guess however is that you might be able to get away with the highly generic path described at the risk of getting a nasty cease and desist letter.