[Richard Blakeslee]

The gaffer’s behavior was rude and strange and uncalled for at best.

I did about 60,16mm, charity stories and CEO messages, for a production company over a six year period. (We finished last year) They were done all around the country (including Hawaii). I probably used 45 to 50 different gaffers — (crews) (some cities we went to more then once or cities where located close to other cities.) All those different gaffer and 99 percent trouble free — most were outstanding to say the least. (I brought my AC, and the production company — with my suggestion at times–the soundperson) I only had one problem in all that time — and that wasn’t because of arrogance — it was that he didn’t really know what he was doing and tried to hide that by being, how can I say it? An ass I guess. He just tried to bull he’s way through it. He owned the lighting company and I think he had got into it without near the proper experience and training. He had a great grip working for him and I asked the producers that they hire another grip (they did) and kind of promoted the grip to gaffer. Later he became a gaffer and a good one at that. I used him a few years later on another job.

The only time I had a gaffer cross the line was about 20 or so years ago. We were doing a low budget 35mm PSA for the government. (It was me, my AC, the gaffer, one grip, food stylist and makeup — we also had a Fisher — my hands were pretty full)) Again I was on the road. We had a young girl talent — towards the end of the day I overheard the gaffer say something to her like, ‘don’t worry, someday you’ll be in a real commercial’. I went to the producer/director ( a good friend of mine) and said I was going to fire the guy. He talked me out of it — only a couple hours to go, we wouldn’t be able to get somebody else, etc. Needless to say I never worked with that guy again. But boy did that eat at me. All the way back to LA I was just fuming. I really wanted to tell him to get the hell off the set. I could never understand why a gaffer would say something like that to the talent. In 40 years I’ve been doing it I’ve never heard such rude behavior before or since. And I don’t think that I’ve ever had a gaffer ask me what focal length I’d be using. It usually goes like this: We have a lot to do, the first setup will be such and such with the dolly and the talent walking in front of this or that (windows, etc.) The next set up is going to be in this room and it’s a teacher and kid together — maybe something soft, a kino? HMI through a silk? What do you think? We work together and work out what has to be done. I’ve exasperated gaffers at time — mostly by working to fast or having the director want to get a kid’s (in a documentary type setup) reaction or some special moment was happening. Once in New Orleans, we were working very fast, and the director wanted this shot right ‘now’. So we spun around and got it but like light stand,C stands, sandbags, one steps, etc. were all in the way. Later the gaffer said that if I only could tell him which way the camera was going to be pointed he probably could get it lit for me and keep most of the equipment out of the shot. That cracked me up. He was a good guy. I’m surprised a lot at how hard they work, really helping me with the look, coming up with great ideas, working through lunch at times, etc. And never having a bad thing to say. At the end of the day they’re loading the truck and talking about what shoot they’re going to do tomorrow. Either I’m very lucky or there is a ton of great, personable, talented professional gaffers out there.

[Richard Blakeslee]

Steve and Jeremy,

Thanks for the tips. I did the Photoshop way Steve suggested.
works great. I knew that — I think. I like the black slug idea also.
That way it would always line up.

cheers,

Richard

[Richard Blakeslee]

Hello Nick,

I’ve been letterboxing a lot of my edits out of FCP. Question, How does one encode in 16×9 to avoid letterboxing? I’ve tried using QT Conversion with 16×9 checked, anamorphic: and compressor. I can’t seem to make a DV 4×3 come out ‘encoded’ as 16×9 without looking ‘streched’.

Thanks for any input on this.

Richard

[Richard Blakeslee]

Rob,
Thank you. I thought it must be something like that.

Have a good Holiday.

Cheers,

Richard

[Richard Blakeslee]

The tutorial for Soundtrack has a great section on how to do this. I think it’s about halfway into it. It’s pretty simple and works like a charm. (I’ve had to use it to remove ac hum)
Richard

[Richard Blakeslee]

Brian,

Thanks so much for the info. You’ve cleared up an area that had always been kind of gray for me. I appreciate it.

Cheers,

Richard

[Richard Blakeslee]

Brian,

Thanks so much for the info. You’ve cleared up an area that had always been kind of gray for me. I appreciate it.

Cheers,

Richard

[Richard Blakeslee]

Hello Brian,

I’ve been editing with FCP for a few years. Burning my DVDs (until lately) with iDVD. Now I’m using DVDSP. I mostly do short videos, from a few minutes to ten or so. Now my question.

I’ve never used Compressor. I just Export a reference QT, import as an asset in DVDSP (or video in iDVD) and do the menu, etc. and burn. Should I be using Compressor? I feel a little silly never having used it and all the DVD look great. Is there something I’m missing? I always thought that Compressor was to compress a video file down to be small enough to fit on a DVD so I thought it was just for large files.

Thanks for any insight on this.

Richard

[Richard Blakeslee]

Thanks Ed — the SDI is important note. Also the iola firewire lets one move it around. I also found this in the FCP Forum: (I thought the part about the Timebase Corrector was interesting. I hadn’t read that anywhere else — and I was planning to capture some older Umatic 3/4 inch. So I think the Kona LS might be the right card for me. — one other downside — I have a G4 33/66 PCI slots — When I go to the G5 it has PCI Express slots — so the card won’t work — need the Kona LSe)

Name: AJA Sales Department
Date: Mar 23, 2005 at 3:27:57 pm
Subject: Re: Kona LS vs. Io LA
Hello-
The Io LA and KONA LS do share some similarities, but here are a few differences:

– KONA LS supports 10-bit SDI and 12-bit analog video, Io LA supports 10-bit analog video
– KONA LS supports 2-ch.analog audio, 2-ch. AES and 6-ch. embedded digital audio, Io LA is 4-ch. analog audio (all 24-bit on all models)
– Io LA connects via Firewire, for 10-bit uncompressed and more, making it very flexible and portable for use on multiple machines, and/or Powerbooks (when properly configured)
– KONA LS supports KONA Desktop, for Photoshop, etc. Io LA does not.
– Io LA has simultaneous component, composite, and s-video output. KONA LS is either component, or s-video and composite.
– KONA LS supports JPEG, and 24-frame (3:2 pulldown) material
– Both KONA and Io product lines have RS-422 built-in
– Both KONA and Io products have a 3-year warranty, and unlimited technical support.

More information can be found here:
https://www.aja.com/products_Io.html#iola
https://www.aja.com/products_kona.html

Hopefully this helps! If not, please feel free to contact us with any questions, at sales@aja.com, or (530) 274-2048, (800) 251-4224 US.

Name: Francois Stark
Date: Mar 24, 2005 at 3:20:07 am
Subject: Re: Kona LS vs. Io LA

You left out the best part: Kona LS includes a timebase corrector, which allows it to capture from VHS and umatic. NO other card or external capture box from any other manufacturer that is compatible with FCP does this.

[Richard Blakeslee]

Reminds me of a story a friend told me about a feature he was working on — this was years ago in LA. The rushes where really dark, moody — underexposed. Everyone seemed worried, etc. After a few weeks (or something–this is a secondhand story, after all) the DP was fired and a new one brought in. Months later my friend saw the trailer at a theater and guess what –? It was made up of a lot of the ‘underexposed’ footage. Hmm? Maybe the Frenchman is into some kind of new artform. How are we to know? I saw a feature last night (Half Nelson) that was, apparently, handheld the whole time — without any trick of Steadycam or attempt to smooth it out. It bothered me at first (well really all the way through) but it did kind of grow on you. But the story was compelling, the acting good and soon (for the most part) I found myself just watching the movie. Maybe this will also happen with this film. Just my two cents.

Richard