[Ryan Holmes]

[Herb Sevush] ” Just for the convenience of Thunderbolt I’m thinking about going nMpro.”

I’ve been looking more seriously at the HP Z workstations. You can get Thunderbolt 2.0 on those if that’s your concern:
https://www8.hp.com/us/en/workstations/z840.html

I’m in a similar predicament with needing to replace machines, but all the rumors seem to point updated MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and/or iMacs. The trash can is nearly 3 years old now, which is ridiculous for a major tech company like Apple, IMHO.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Craig Seeman] “It’s Telestream Vantage or Telestream Cloud encoding service.”

I’m very curious to see if Telestream Cloud can work as a SaaS. Adobe Media Encoder works, in part, because it’s a part of the whole package. I wonder if there’s enough of a market for Telestream to support the R&D, maintenance, and support for Telestream Cloud when it flips solely to a SaaS offering with month-to-month payments – https://cloud.telestream.net/episode

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Robin S. Kurz] “No matter what or how much it is, there are those waiting in the wings to trash-talk it no matter what, rest assured. And I think we can already take bets on who it will be first and foremost here, no? ;-D”

[Robin S. Kurz] “But mainly to justify having made the choice to something else 5 (or less) years ago… as if anyone actually cared.”

This sentiment also perfectly sums up the Adobe Creative Cloud Debate forum every NAB and December (for the mid-year bug fix releases). I’ll be linking to this in the future! 🙂

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Andrei Constantinescu] “Is there such a camera for a…. um… professional-amateur such as myself? 🙂 “

I don’t think there’s a camera at any budget level that would meet all the criteria you listed. The above mentioned cameras are good to check into depending on what you’re willing to sacrifice and what you’re willing to spend.

Canon Cameras:
Canon 5D2, 5D3 or wait for the Canon 5D4 (likely announced next week, released shortly after)
Canon 1DC
Canon 1DX Mark II
Canon C100 Mark II
Used/New Canon C300 Mark I (Mark II is great but at $12K…..you decide)

Sony Cameras:
Sony A7S/A7SII
Song FS5 or FS7

Panasonic Camera:
GH4

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Bernhard Walzl] “The picture will be taken a bit after noon.”

[Bernhard Walzl] “Would you place them that the sun is in their back, from the side or front?”

You can’t shoot this at noon (or 11am or 1pm) and get anything other than the sun directly overhead. Which means it won’t matter if you want front light or backlight, because you’re only option at those hours is directly overhead light. That will create deep shadows under the eyes and neck.

You’re best options are to move the shoot to a more “sun-friendly” time – 8am? 9am? 5pm? 6pm? The times when the sun is less overhead and more in your eyes. Then you can use Warren’s advice to put the sun at your back and use it as your main light source. Your other option is to shoot this at noon in a heavily shaded environment (park, forest, large tent?). The shade would provide a diffuse and more even lighting to a noon-day sun.

Your third option is to shoot it at noon and embrace the dark circles under their eyes, because that’s just how it works from 11am-2pm.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Christoph Hagemeier] “However, when I choose DnXHR as an intermediat codec, the Output file does not contain any Video. It’s simply black.

Any ideas on that? What might be the reason for that? “

There’s plenty of reasons that could be in play:
(1) Confirm you have the DNxHR codec installed on your system
(2) The video track in Premiere is muted
(3) The clip is disabled on your timeline
(4) The “Export Video” check box is unchecked in the “Make Movie…” dialog box
(5) You have an incompatible version of Adobe Premiere for use with DNxHR? (maybe you’re using CS3, or CS4 or something??)
(6) Have you tried other codecs? JPEG, MXF, h.264? Not that you want to use any of those, but to verify that this is strictly codec related.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

In movie mode you can’t change the aspect ratio. You can only shoot 16:9 in movie mode, either 1280×720 or 1920×1080. Those are both 16:9 ratios.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Mark Jackson] “Will I need a Blu Ray Drive to complete the process?”

Yes. A BluRay burner is required to burn a BluRay. You can buy one from Lacie or other vendors that work over USB or FireWire on your Mac.

DVD = standard definition (720×480)
BluRay = high definition (1280×720 or 1920×1080).

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

What version of Premiere CC are you running?

Anything earlier than a recent CC probably won’t open C300MkII footage. That camera just started shipping less than 6 months ago.

You’ll likely need to upgrade your system if you want to work on native files.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

Lisa is right. Use a MP4 with the h.264 codec. That’s probably the most universally compatible format at this point – Mac/Windows, iOS/Android can all handle it.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost