Scott Sheriff
Forum Replies Created
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Scott C.
“In addition to charging for the mileage, do I charge for the travelling time, perhaps a reduced rate? It is using my time even though I am an in transit.”Absolutely. Mileage (whatever the standard rate is where you are), plus travel time, counting load in/out, plus reasonable expenses.
Or mileage and per diem, which would be better for overnight travel.
Some (non media) businesses that travel to the client is a regular part of the job, often incorporate travel time into their mileage charge so it is easier for the client to anticipate their costs.
I usually go with mileage/travel/expenses.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
“I have been using a mac pro with a Sony VTR to import footage into final cut pro, recently the tape imports have been failing with an error message saying there are dropped frames. I have tried to import the same way into Imovie and this works fine so i think it could be an issue with Final cut. Does anyone have an idea of what this could be?”
I’m assuming this is an HDV camera. HDV is a long GOP format. In the case of the Sony flavor (as opposed to the JVC 6 fame GOP) a one frame dropout actually ruins 15 frames of footage. Even if the footage doesn’t have any dropouts, a glitch in the TC will do the same thing.
If you turn off ‘abort capture on dropped frames’ FCP should just make a new clip where a break occurs, instead of aborting the capture. If this is turned on and your capture is stopping, FCP is doing what it is supposed to, not a problem with the software.
Capture settings and how to set up FCP are covered pretty well in the manual, you should have a look at it some time. It would save you a lot of grief.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
Richard,
“The follow up question is…what are you all using for the long term storage of the DVD? A backup archive on a computer or an actual dvd, or something else?”Not sure if this is aimed at me, or not.
But the encoding files to burn a client DVD are not very big, so I just keep them and the project on the HD when I’m done. So if I need another copy I just open the project in DVD Studio Pro and I’m off to the races.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
Get a Gralab timer. They are analog, but very easy to see across a room. And unlike a digital, very fast to set. They are priced well under your budget.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
You might be able to cheat the mirror by angling it slightly, and having the camera shooting over the shoulder of the character, slightly off to the side. If it isn’t on screen long you may be able to get away with it. But I think you would have to be the luckiest person in town for this to actually work without altering the angels and sight lines so much that it looked odd.
I think the best idea is to do a green screen shot.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
I don’t have an explicit warranty for discs, but for projects like trade show loops etc that the client only gets one disc I usually give them three. That way they have some spares. Discs are cheap.
If they called 4 years later, I’d just make them another copy. Someone else mentioned getting the old disc back. Good idea, but in this case I wouldn’t bother since it is most likely wear and tear on the disc that is the problem.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
I really like what Andrew said.
Couple of things I would ad is a lot of the ratio of noobs to experience has a lot to do with the type of client, and the working environment. There may be some decent ‘wet behind the ears’ editors that might have a tempting reel, but I don’t want them spending hours in the bay with some clients. Seems like there are a lot of youngsters out there that don’t really have a handle on etiquette. This may not matter if it is the type of gig where you just turn them loose on a project solo.
And if you are going to have more than one editor, get your experience in place first. And if your only going to have one, I’d say go experience, since if your going to be that small they will have a bigger impact on your operation.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
“I love being able to use the arrow keys to precisely move the text over images and don’t have to deal with the “center” numbers on FCP…”
You can just use the mouse/tablet to move your text around in the canvas.
“creating text with gradient colors. It’s so easy to create a two-color gradient on Avid and see it immediately on your text, but is there anything like that on FCP? I don’t know Live Type or Motion,”
Motion is your friend. You should learn how to use it. Not only can it do a bunch of stuff like this, but your text will look better.
I’m not sitting in front of the mac so I can’t check FCP to see if there is a grad built into the text, but you can always do it old school by matting out your text over a grad BK.
Motion is easier.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
Rick,
“By the way, I find that if you half-blue your tungsten lights the resultant look is pleasant when mixed with daylight. Full blue actually over corrects. Obviously, half blue chews up less light, but still a lot.”I totally agree. Sometimes you can even use tungsten lights uncorrected in a situation like this to warm up the shot with nice results. It pays to experiment.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
If I was doing this by myself, I would boost the DP’s up to daylight. Gelling that much window would be a lot of work. Get some dichroic glass for your DP’s (expensive, but nice) or just use some booster blue gels.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed…