[Richard Herd]

There’s a couple of issues there. Are you talking about cutting Matching Singles or cutting a “mise en scene”?

With matching singles, the footage was shot (as Camera A), Actor 1 delivered all of his lines and reactions in one take while Actor 2 stood nearby off camera “feeding” the lines. Then the camera was swung around (as Camera B) for Actor 2 and the scene was repeated, so Actor 2 could deliver all of her lines and reactions while Actor 1 was nearby off camera “feeding” the lines.

In editing, this means you have sync of Camera A (take 1 – 5) and sync of Camera B (take 1 – 5). You might want to use dialogue from take 1 but reaction from take 4. This gets tedious.

You are correct, though, it is (at least) two tracks of audio. It’s an easy way to:
— CAMERA A Take 1,
— Reaction CAMERA B take 5 (maybe say a line?)
— CAMERA A Take 3.

Sometimes this can make the narrative feel a bit fragmented, so the director may choose to cover the scene with a wholly separate technique: mise en scene, it’s sometimes called–where the operator pans/dollies/steadicams/swishes–basically moving the camera, “setting the scene” between Actor A and Actor B. In that instance, there would be a single track of audio. Problem here is that while the camera is on Actor A, there is no coverage of actor B.

So…

It’s important to note that this is not an either/or scenario. I mean, you can cover a scene in matching singles AND in MES and then really use the editing to ramp the pacing as the scene reaches its denouement. “24” does a very good job of this, by the way.

[Richard Herd]

THe edit will have perhaps one second of picture followed by a 1/4 second of black followed by the next picture, and so on. This will appear as a flicker.

Here’s the definition of flicker:

flicker 1 |ˈflikər|
verb [ intrans. ]
1 (of light or a source of light) shine unsteadily; vary rapidly in brightness : the interior lights flickered and came on.
• (of a flame) burn fitfully, alternately flaring up and dying down : the candle flickered again | [as adj. ] ( flickering) the flickering flames of the fire.
• [with adverbial of place ] figurative (of a feeling or emotion) be experienced or show itself briefly and faintly, esp. in someone’s eyes : amusement flickered briefly in his eyes.
2 make small, quick movements; flutter rapidly : her eyelids flickered | [with complement ] the injured killer’s eyes flickered open.
• [with adverbial of direction ] (of someone’s eyes) move quickly in a particular direction in order to look at something : her alert hazel eyes flickered around the room.
• [with adverbial ] (of a facial expression) appear briefly : a look of horror flickered across his face.

[Richard Herd]

Mark, that was an excellent post.

[Richard Herd]

The whole point of “how to” is moot without reading the script and feeling the tone. Whether it’s a comedy or drama matters.

[Richard Herd]

Have you thought of using a Macbook pro through an ioHD box and recording to Apple Prores?

The suite of lenses canon offers, man, it’d be hard to jump brands.

I use the Panasonic ag-hvx200 (for many kinds of things, corporate, short form movies, ads, just cool nature shots), and I rented a P+S w/ prime lenses a while ago, and while I liked the image quality, it just felt cumbersome and “uncameraish.” It was like a weird, top-heavy, hybrid, Frankenstein.

Canon video has been developing some interesting things with their dSLRs, so they can’t be that far off with some kind of intraframe thing that rivals Panasonic’s AVC-Intra. And to be completely obvious: Canon set the bar pretty high for this form of camera with the XL2.

[Richard Herd]

One big difference here is your camera requires a lens, whereas many other models have a fixed lens.

Do you think Canon will adopt a tapeless camera for their line of cameras? The thing that bugged me off the Canon was the HDV.

[Richard Herd]

Of course you want it to be beautiful, but the producer in me also says:
GET INSURANCE!!!

[Richard Herd]

I can’t even get my camera in the front door of Harrah’s & Harveys Lake Tahoe Summer Concert Series without paying huge chunks of cash, per show. Last year’s lineup was Robert Plant, Journey, Toby Keith, James Taylor, Steely Dan, Sammy Hagar, Alan Jackson, Sheryl Crow, Kiss, and Luis Miguel. This year, so far we have Kenny Chesney, Earth Wind and Fire, Chicago. Even if we paid the license agreement to shoot these shows–or the band decided to pay someone else–the footage would not belong to Harrah’s, and–if we had the footage–its use is very restricted to promote the band, only. The overwhelming fact is that music videos (whether live or a single) are a vehicle to promote the band.

The original poster though is in a very very very very different situation. The band he’s trying to shoot is about to launch their first CD. His question was: What I was wondering is what the standard procedure is when the video is completed, rights wise.

The band gets paid by selling tickets and selling CDs. Tripp Watt, in my opinion, you need to get paid by saying “Look what I did for that band. I can do that for your band too, for only $ X,000.” Use this first piece as a calling card. From there, hit up every other band you can find. (Finding the right price point is key.)

I also worked with the above mentioned bands’ promotional folks. The bands trust “their guys” to edit the material. I would say, “I need a :30 spot” and a week later, I get one. Tripp, you’re in a position to be cutting that stuff too, not the most fancy work around, but there’s definitely a fee involved.

The four Ps of marketing:
— Promotion
— Price
— Product
— Placement

[Richard Herd]

Thanks for the clarification. With all the tutorials available, you’d think someone would post a boilerplate. Perhaps you could. Thanks!

[Richard Herd]

This isn’t good news.

The standard arrangement is called “work for hire.” They are hiring you to do a project for them. They own the footage.

Be real: in the very very rare event this band gets signed to a major record deal, they will re-make the video, probably on 35mm negative.

Here’s a pie-in-the-sky example: 20 years from now, the band is super famous, and there’s a documentary in the works. Sorry, they can’t use your footage because you won’t let them edit it. See what I mean?

It’s their footage. You work for them.

Best case scenario is next time they can pay you.