[Ron Craig]

Yes. But this is 2009.

Sometimes clients need a nudge to do the right thing.

[Ron Craig]

Just as a point of interest…

I have clients now who are doing their PPTs in 16×9. Much more up-to-date look. And they obviously cut better with stuff that we shoot. Any chance of telling the client that they can give themselves a much better look by redesigning their PPTs in a “newer” aspect ratio? That would solve two problems at once.

That being said, I hate PowerPoints in videos!

Sorry… Couldn’t help myself.

[Ron Craig]

I copy all projects to a thumb drive as well as to my iDisk for offsite storage, and for good measure I copy to across my network to another computer as well.

Wow! Belt, suspenders AND a parachute!

[Ron Craig]

I hate to make you feel worse but I don’t see any way that you’re going to have any luck removing that trumpet. Even if you were experienced in audio you wouldn’t have any luck.

Just imagine that the trumpet sound is actually the sound of another person standing nearby, talking. You’d never be able to remove that second voice, right? The trumpet is no different.

If you have a narration/voice-over on this piece and you absolutely must use the interview, you might consider having the narrator very briefly call attention to the fact that there is a trumpet playing nearby during the interview. That “inoculates” you a little bit from your error.

And frankly, you have to accept this as an error in judgment and learn from it (as I have done so many times in my career). You say that you had no choice other than to proceed with the interview. Frankly, that is never true. Move the interview someplace far away. Delay the interview. Go talk to the trumpeter and ask for 15 minutes of silence. Do anything…but don’t record trumpet playing during an interview. If you just accept the trumpet playing during an interview then what you have is a trumpet playing during your interview — forever.

[Ron Craig]

I’ve used FCP Attic successfully for a long time to save and restore preferences. Two questions:

Does anyone here know if FCP Attic is FCP7 compatible?

And since the Digital Rebellion product for that job — which I haven’t used — is recommended here, can someone who knows the two programs explain why one is better than the other?

Tnx

[Ron Craig]

Yeah, I think I’m with you on that. I’ll check out Digital Rebellion.

Sometimes I think the technology is so advanced.

Sometimes I think it’s really horse-and-buggy.

I guess both are true.

[Ron Craig]

Nobody said it was NECESSARY. It’s just a good idea.

Well, yes they did. Shane wrote:
“Don’t upgrade. Do a full erase of the hard drive, clean install of the OS, then install FCS 3. Sure, this will eat up a day…Otherwise you will spend many MORE days chasing bugs.”

And Walter heartily agreed.

That makes it sound pretty necessary to me.

Which way would you do it, Richard?

[Ron Craig]

Maybe I’m late to the party on this but I’m shocked to read this advice. I believe it, of course, coming from Shane and Walter. But it seems like a terrible indictment of Apple.

My main editing computer is purely for editing. But it is, nevertheless, stocked full of other apps, drivers, etc. other than FCP. Doing a complete drive erase, OS install and then FCP install is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a huge amount of work entailed in rebuilding a system drive, beyond just those three steps, as we all know.

So why is this necessary??!! Is it actually true that Apple has created an upgrade to the software that we all use with the expectation that all of us will willingly erase and rebuild our hard drives because they decided to code their upgrade this way?

How high-and-mighty is THAT?! It looks like Apple is no longer the woman throwing the hammer; they’re the guy on the screen.

[Ron Craig]

Let’s see…

I had that spare $15,000 lying around here somewhere..

Hmmm…. can’t seem to find it right now.

Thank you, sir.

[Ron Craig]

Actually, what is staggering is how much I have benefited from Bob Zelin’s help over the past couple of years. And here it has happened once again.

Darn, Zelin!! I did search the forums for an answer on this. I did; I did. My search terms much have been deficient. Or my reading skills below par. Or my patience unaccountably too thin.

However, I still have a follow-up: Does your answer address the deck control issue? (I’m working overseas right now and can’t get to my edit system.) Or does this deck require that I go with “uncontrollable device” in my FCP deck control settings? Sorry, if I were in the studio I could test this out. But I just didn’t see how the connections and settings you specified would give me deck control.

Thanks for taking the time. I know I am not worthy! I’ll do better next time.

Ron