[Roger Van duyn]

I’m pretty sure that lawyers understand contracts. They can’t fake ignorance. They are purely and simply bullying you. You probably need to talk to your lawyer, and there are procedures for dealing with lawyers that abuse their membership in the bar association. Find out how to file a complaints, then let them know that you know how to file the complaint.

If they’ve let on to you that they can make your life difficult because they are lawyers, that in itself might justify a formal complaint.

Of course, now that I think about it, they might not have read your contract before they signed, and genuinely misunderstood what you were offering. But that could be a stretch with them being lawyers. It’s hard to imagine two lawyers, neither one reading a contract, and not striking sections or asking for parts to be changed to their liking before signing.

I do a few weddings myself, and the most recent one the five minute highlight I added for free to my main package. So if there was a genuine misunderstanding, the customers may just be a little panicky due to the emotional involvement they have as newlyweds. Even lawyers have feelings. So I can see the point they raised about only getting 5 minutes, but only if they didn’t read the contract.

Because of this, you might want to reexamine what you are offering your clients, because misunderstandings are bound to occur since so few videographers offer a five minute wedding video package. I know it’s probably not your only package, but, some clients are bound to be confused.

Short is the norm for corporate, but not for weddings, at least as the only offering. It’s a completely different mind set for me doing my corporate gigs versus doing my occasional weddings.

A lot of us choose either corporate or weddings, but not both. I know of corporate videographers who avoid doing weddings like the plague because it’s so different dealing with the clients and their expectations. Many wedding videographers would hate dealing with Net 30, Net 60 etc. payment schemes.

Most of the brides from the few weddings I do, and also the mothers of the brides, want to see “everything”, as much as possible anyway. All the relatives and friends…

So there are legal, moral, and practical issues to consider. It’s a real mess. Your comment about them not wanting to pay the tax on video productions delivered on physical disks could be viewed as a strategy to coerce you to evade sales and use tax here in Florida.

Since I do both corporate work and wedding work, your lawyer couple seems to have given you some of the worst problems I’ve brushed up against from both types of gigs. Fortunately, my worst problems have been a rare clients slow to pay up.

Man, what a long post I’ve written. Not sure if anything I wrote can really help. Just try to reach a solution you can live with and try to avoid similar misunderstandings in the future.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

Avid Media Composer can “AMA Link” to the AVCHD files. (You can wait and transcode at the end of your edit, only the portions of the footage you actually use).

It runs on both PC and Mac, plus there’s an Avid forum here on the COW, and well over a hundred free Avid Media Composer tutorials here on the COW as well.

Expect a learning curve if you switch to MC, but some of the tutorials here on the COW are specifically for people like yourself switching from FCP to Avid.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

Isn’t an HV40 an HDV camera and HDV footage M2T, a variety of MPeg2? I had two HV30’s and they were, along with my Canon XH-A1 and A1S. The format .mts is usually AVCHD, a variety of MPeg4 (mp4) not HDV. How are you getting .mts from HV 40?

All the HDV recorders that I’ve ever used attached to my cameras have saved as M2T. When I capture from tape, files are M2T also.

You’re not likely to get better quality than importing the camera’s native codec into an editing program.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

I also use two DataVideo DN-60s for my XH-A1 and newer XH-A1s. However, I’d recommend you get a special cable with an angled connector to plug into the fragile 4 pin firewire port on your A1.

The cable I use is an Up Angle Firewire DV Cable from a site online https://www.usbfirewire.com

The cable that comes with the DN-60 is a straight connector, and I damaged the firewire port on the A1. Had to send the camera in for repairs.

The DN-60s have performed flawlessly for me.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

I’m no audio expert, but what Bill said is more or less what I try to do with my H4N and a venerable old Shure M267. But there is one difference to the approach I’ve been using.

I send tone from the mixer to set up the H4N, with headphones plugged into the H4N and then leave the H4N alone. Then I adjust the mic settings and output settings from the mixer. It’s much easier to make the adjustments on my “antique” mixer. Wish it had bars instead of needles though. Still, it’s been a pretty good alternative until I can buy something better.

From all my years in the medical laboratories, we calibrated our instruments with calibration standards. That precise tone from the mixer is the calibration standard I use to set up whatever it’s sending the signal to, whether the camera, or in this case, the H4N.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

Isn’t it great when a client dreams big, and actually has a budget to match!

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

From what I’ve read online, it depends upon the individual record label and how they feel about protecting their intellectual property. Sometimes they have an agreement with YouTube and ads are placed. Other times, there are lawsuits, BIG ONES!

My company has a policy written in stone, only licensed music, no matter what the customer says. Even if you have an indemnity clause in your contract, just see if that protects you when the record label starts suing. Even E&O policies ( and they are expensive ) only cover inadvertent infringement, not deliberate infringement.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

I’m afraid we’ve entered the age of “The Selfie”

Plus, marketing myself as a guru with “The Secrets of How You Too Can Be A Successful Video Producer, Cinematographer…” doesn’t look like a good option either because that market is already flooded.

Personally, I think the answer for survival is old fashioned word of mouth from satisfied customers. Plenty of people would rather not do the work themselves, but a lot of them are holding on to their money because we live in uncertain times. Ditto for businesses cutting back their advertising budgets. They’d rather not, but…

So, my single person company isn’t swamped with work, at the moment. However, a short while ago I was. It’s the old feast or famine adage. One big project and I’m swamped for awhile. It would be nice to have a steady stream of income, but that’s not the nature of being in sales. And when you run your own company, you’re in sales.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

Hey Mark,

It’s good for dear old dad to feel needed.

As a matter of fact, I’m getting ready to capture two more of my son’s tapes for his high school JROTC. This spring will be the fourth year I’ve put together the highlight video for his battalion’s awards banquet. (It’s usually about six tapes for about six minutes for the finished video).

My son does a pretty good job shooting, in fact, he took tv production for three years in high school, after taking it in middle school. But he’s not always the camera op, so there’s a lot of messed up footage. Nevertheless, we always get enough for the video and the other parents love it ( and so does my wife! )

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

Hi Joel.

In the past couple of years I was experiencing more and more tape glitches on my HDV cameras. I had an XH-A1S, an older XH-A1, and two HV-30s. The glitches were random, and on all four cameras. (Won’t give you the detailed trouble shooting routine similar to when trouble shoot instrument problems in the lab I went through with the cameras).

By the trouble shooting scheme, I finally decided the problem appeared to be a higher percentage of defective tapes than in years past. Perhaps Sony and the rest don’t even manufacture their own anymore, I don’t know. At any rate, something needed to be done about the problem.

Now, I’ve cut back to two cameras, got rid of the HV-30s, and just use DN-60s on both, without a tape in the camera. At first I did use a tape too, but the tape issues seemed to cause issues with the whole system. Now, with no tapes, so far, no glitches at all with the DN-60s, not one lost frame since purchase. Just be sure to use good cards (San Disk).

Just my opinion, but you’re not alone when it comes to tape glitches.

Roger