Scott Sheriff
Forum Replies Created
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[Didier D'Abreu] “I’m trying to import footage filmed with a Sony EX1 into FCP X”
You should post this in the FCP X forum.
[Didier D'Abreu] “I’m on a Mac Book Pro Retina Display and I’ve just updated to Mountain Lion.”
Uh-oh…
Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post ProductionThe Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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[Robert Fargo] “Didn’t mean to offend!”
I wasn’t offended.
[Robert Fargo] “Do you feel that web design is best left to pro’s or do you handle it “internally” much like what has been lamented in this thread re: video production?”
In my case I don’t feel I’m doing the same thing that I complain about. Here’s why.
I’m only doing it for myself. I’m not a zero experience web design guy trying to solicit web design clients or outside web design work. Just like these (amateur) independent film makers that are all DIY. I don’t care about that, they are not hurting rates. Not the same thing as noobs soliciting paid gigs when they have got no experience. They are hurting rates, and bringing standards down.
I also don’t go to professional web design forums and solicit advice from working web designers, while also competing for their clients, or even when I have problems doing it DIY.
I do pay for web design, but at a heavily discounted rate. My web host, like many, have templates and limited design and trouble shooting help as part of an expanded hosting web package which I pay extra for. But I am paying someone, something. And someone at my web host is getting paid to help people like me. This in some way may be hurting your rates, but I don’t see it as the same as if I were taking your web clients by doing web design for a tenth of the going rate.
In a way, this could be its own thread, as there seems to be a lot of nuance to this, and a bit gray at times.
But I’m done because F1 qualifying is on!Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post ProductionThe Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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[Mark Suszko] “OTOH if I’m a pro myself, or had experience dealing with pros, would the hardware info there really be of much value? Could I use it as a shopping list to buy my own stuff to compete with you? I suppose it is a positive for netting clients, in the cases where you have specific file formats and you’re looking for someone already able to deal with those.”
It’s all a guessing game.
Go ahead and use it for a shopping list. It’s not like it’s proprietary. It’s not like we haven’t told a million people on the FCP forum how to fix their broken system, even though they are the competition.
Why list the plugins? I’m not shooting for the local ‘I need you to make me a video’ client. I’m looking for people that are already doing video, that might be interested in trying someone new. Some of these people have specific needs like EMA, that type of thing that they might have used before. And speaking of EMA, sure anyone can buy it. But wouldn’t you assume that someone that already has it on their system is fairly proficient at using it, as apposed to the person that was downloading it during a session and is learning it on their nickle?Why list the hardware and interface sundries? Because I will let you come and use my system for self edit, and a some have come by to do some training. If you were in either position, wouldn’t you want to know what the set-up was? Also have had calls from producers in the past that wanted to know if I was doing this on a laptop, or had a ‘real’ edit system, and what platform I used. So if this scares away some folks that are looking for a final cut X editor to sit with them in a coffee shop and cut their video, oh well.
Another thought, I filled in for a Shake guy on vacation and when I got there they didn’t have a full size keyboard or a tablet on the system. Not having either is a real PIA with Shake, and I could have brought my own had I known. Having the hardware on the web page might have tipped me off. Seems like all my friends that have audio studios do very much the same thing. Maybe I learned that from them.Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post ProductionThe Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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[Robert Fargo] “Sorry Scott, I should have been more specific and less snarky. If I was looking for a quote for professional video I’d be slightly turned off by such obvious grammatical errors. It seems that professional web design has fallen off as rapidly as pro video…”
I don’t give a rats ass about snarky, I just couldn’t see it.
This is why they tell you not to proof read your own stuff. Not really grammatical, as it is a simple typo. Glad you caught that, now I can go fix it!Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post ProductionThe Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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[Robert Fargo] “Maybe there are other issues with you not getting the rates you’re used to?”
I guess I don’t get why you posted a link to my web page, and what you mean?
Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post ProductionThe Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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[Michael Hendrix] “Do you guys remember when you got into the business? Did you step on anyones toes as a noob?”
Hell no. It’s rude, and wasn’t tolerated or embraced as it seems to be now. Plus there was actually respect for those that had experience, not the contempt that these wannbe punks have for us “old timers”. When you came back with crap and were criticized, you didn’t get up in anyones face and call them names or tell them it’s a new paradigm. You accepted it, and attempted to learn form those that had been there and done it.
There was never any shame in being new, as long as you knew your place. We used to have this thing called “paying your dues”. It goes along with another thing we called “seat time”. People that didn’t pay their dues, didn’t have seat time, and were shunned by all and pushed out of the industry. This was all before the invention of the word noobs. We had a word for people that were inexperienced and clueless who thought they had the same skills as the rest of us that did pay their dues. But I can’t share it here.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comhttps://www.affordabledolly.com
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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[Christopher McDonell] ” Is it really necessary to do a clean install of FCP and/or OS X every single time?”
Yes, but only if you are running FCS, and only if you are on a major revision like FCS2 to FCS3, or Leopard to Snow Leopard.
[Christopher McDonell] “It’s time consuming, means I have to dig out all my serials and reinstall every other piece of software, etc.”
If you are a professional editor, you should be organized in everything you do, and shouldn’t have to dig out anything. And you don’t have to reinstall everything, only FCS. You simply drag your old software from your clone to the new drive.
If you are really concerned about time, don’t upgrade. FCS is not going to be any better, or faster, and there is always the chance that plugins, driver, etc will not work under a new OS. Just because apple is selling something doesn’t mean you have to run out and buy it. Wouldn’t it be better to spend that useless upgrade time editing?[Christopher McDonell] “It’s 2012. Sure this isn’t just being overly and unnecessarily cautious?”
Without going into the minutia of how FCS and the OS work, I’ll instead point out the numerous posts over the years from people that didn’t follow this advice in the past and thought all was well because FCS opened, and they were able to do a couple of quick edits and such. Then when they really needed the system to perform with big projects and deadlines they were faced with the beachball, and kernel panic after kernel panic. There have been a few that report cutting corners works, but how trustworthy are their reports? Do we know how hard they push their system, or how many KP’s they’ll tolerate?
Just because someone upgraded yesterday, and reported all is well, is not the best yardstick to judge by either. How much real stress can the average user put on the system in just a couple of days?
If you are organized and have disc images and all the items you need, this only takes an afternoon. If you corners it is possible to lose much more productive time to to KP’s, the beachball or other anomalies. And then when you have had enough, and decide to do the clean install, you have lost more time that if you had just done it right. Not only does this cost you money, but it hurts your reputation. Scheduled maintenance is a normal part of being a business professional, but in the end it’s up to you to decide if your the cut corners type of person, or not. If you find that you are, perhaps you should rethink your vocation. I don’t want my plumber, mechanic, electrician to cut corners on work I’m paying for, or miss an appointment because the truck broke down from lack of proper maintenance and I bet you wouldn’t either.[Christopher McDonell] “P.S. You can pounce on me all you want. But it needs to be asked. ;)”
Actually, it doesn’t need to be asked. There is a search box right at the top of the page. If you searched ‘clean install’, you would get over 1400 results, going back to at least Tiger installs. This story has been told again, and again. But hey, you did invite us to pounce on you, right?Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comhttps://www.affordabledolly.com
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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You might look at Digital Rebellion tools.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comhttps://www.affordabledolly.com
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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[Matt Tureck] “A friend just migrated an older computer to an up to date MPB. Anytime I try to launch FCP, or any other part of FCS, it crashes before even starting to load.
Any idea how I can fix it?
thanks”Search the forum for “clean install”.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comhttps://www.affordabledolly.com
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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[Michael Layne] “But I’m wondering about the egg crate material… what’s your read on using the foam type instead of the pressed paper? The foam type is fairly inexpensive and is usually used as a mattress pad for folks who are bed bound.”
The foam that they use in mattresses, or actually the stuff used for Pelican/Anvil cases would probably work fine. The slightly stiffer scalloped road case foam would be a little nicer looking and hold up to wear and tear better than the softer mattress foam. Even hanging wool blankets, moving/elevator pads will do a lot. If you need something you can put up/take down fit some clean fresh moving blankets (harbor freight) with grommets so you can hang them like they do in commercial elevators.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comhttps://www.affordabledolly.com
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair