[Seth Hancock]

Glad it was that simple.

Cheers

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison

[Seth Hancock]

Jason,

I cannot answer the question about a jib as we always rent a professional one for commercial shoots. However, I can clearly talk about some cost-effective dolly solutions.

We priced Micro Dolly and Indie Dolly. We ended up going with Indie Dolly for a couple of reasons. One, it is cheaper, thicker product and very sturdy. Second, the basic Indie Dolly system comes with a seat so the camera operator can be seated when shooting. I recall that this wasn’t the case with Micro Dolly. We purchased this back in April and ended up buying 24′ of straight track and one full circular dolly system.

It has been worth the investment and has been used over and over and over again. Micro Dolly is a good company and we all have our own tastes. I just would recommend you look into Indie Dolly as well. I hope this confuses the issue more… 🙂

Seth

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison

[Seth Hancock]

Hey Daniel,

Just a couple of questions for clarity…

1) What was the frame rate of the clip? If you shot at 24Pa then those flags are transferred over firewire and could cause the loss.

2) What’s the sequence set to in regards of the clip?

3) Have you tried recapturing the footage? It also sounds like it could be a corrupt file since it is causing FCP to crash in playback.

I know these are remedial questions but I have to ask to better understand what you are capturing and how it is being played back. Please let me know and hopefully I can help.

Seth

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison

[Seth Hancock]

It is not. I was thinking about going into AE and telling it that it is interlaced footage and seeing what happens then. I am outputting some TV spots to Beta for delivery by tomorrow now and will be able to get to AE in about an hour or so. Hopefully, I can return with some good news.

Seth

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison

[Seth Hancock]

Guys,

I am starting to think this is an interlacing issue myself. The only reason I say this is because what I get in Shake is what it’s supposed to look like. What I am getting in AE is schmutz.

The only other time this happened was when it was footage shot for another TV spot with no green screen work whatsoever. I think that there is something I am not adjusting in AE to create this anomaly. This is the first time I have been given a project shot on 24pA. Since it came from the SDX-900 (which has no firewire) it had to be captured via SDI then ran through the pulldown conversion in Cinema Tools to get it to play back correctly. So, everything was done correctly and when it is in Shake the key the mattes and light wrap look great. I am just trying to understand what is happening in AE.

I fixed the previous issue through deinterlacing and re-working the footage. That was shot on an analog Beta D35 camera at 29.97 so I knew that could be the culprit. However, I am starting to think that perhaps there is an interlace issue even with 24pA stuff not captured through firewire. All the footage was captured via SDI 10-bit so I know the footage is good it’s just a matter of possibly going down a road that I didn’t think I needed to travel with progressive SD footage. I will give that a try and let you know what I find out here.

I GREATLY appreciate the input and thoughts and suggestions here. This makes me feel better knowing that you at least tried to answer this dilemma.

Peace,
Seth

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison

[Seth Hancock]

Thanks for the smug answer. However, I failed to see a response or posting to this issue. Are you referring to the aspect ratio for widescreen/pixelation post or the is this a job for masking or the ghosting issues or the chroma key issues posts? Frankly, none of those are specific to what I am talking about.

I didn’t just get my AE Boy Scout Badge an thought I would try something for goofs. I have been doing this quite some time and am perplexed at this very rare occurrence that has happened only twice in the last year and a half. This is a very rare instance and thought perhaps someone has experienced this before and might shed some light here.

Thanks, I guess.

Seth

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison

[Seth Hancock]

Kevin,

I saw that and that’s what I was really going for here. However, when I preview out on my broadcast monitor, I am getting a lot of schmutz around my principals face as well as in his jeans. So, I have decided to key the whole thing (primary matte, core matte, edge matte and light wrap) in Shake. Thanks for the tip. I will have to try something else in AE when I am not on such tight deadline. I really appreciate your input here.

Seth

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison

[Seth Hancock]

Thanks Kevin.

Yeah, I know the blue is always noisier than any other channel and I have really not seen something this noisy since I started in this industry and was shooting on crappy mini-dv. I was hoping the SDX in DVCPro50 mode would work better. It significantly did but the blue is still more noisy than I would like. I will give your idea a shot. I appreciate it!

Seth

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison

[Seth Hancock]

Jeremy,

I followed the instructions to the letter in the Cinema Tools manual for removing advanced pulldown. The SDX has a 24pA mode as well as a 24p mode. This particular video was shot entirely in 24pA so I will not work as a 29.97 sequence (at least it won’t match to the music). So, I did what the manual stated and everything matches up perfectly with the clips in 23.98. I know about the “Advanced” feature and that’s why I used Cinema Tools; otherwise, I would have just captured in good ‘ol 29.97 and gone from there if it had been in 24p, 30p or 60i.

I think that working with the SDX and trying to figure out the advanced pulldown is somewhat confusing and frustrating. I will make certain the videographer never shoots in that mode again as this has become a monstrous headache.

So, yes. I followed the instructions to the letter and it works. I know the difference between 24p and 24pA in the SDX-900. What I was uncertain about was the best way to capture via SDI and still maintain the timing of the song. That’s fixed and based on Cineam Tools (page 211-217 in the manual), I did everything correctly. Now, I just need to make certain that when I output this for broadcast with a number of national music television companies that it plays back accordingly.

Seth

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison

[Seth Hancock]

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it and thought it would be a simple fix.

Also, I don’t think I used the word “Advanced” in my post. I just know it was shot on the 24pA setting in the SDX-900 and needed to have the pulldown so that it would play properly and sync to the music. This is my first time using this setting in the camera and since the SDX-900 doesn’t have a firewire device (THANK GOD!) the terminology and tech-speak are a little foreign to me. I am so used to shooting 30p and not having to worry about pulldown/removal of frames for various frame rates.

It would have been easier if this were a Varicam shot! 🙂

Seth

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison