[Skip Hall]

Thanks… but I know what the “Homeworks” font is. I need to identify the “video productions” font.

Skip Hall
Homeworks Video Productions
Suffolk, Va

[Skip Hall]

Hi Walter,

I apologize again if I’m off-topic, but I’m under a bit of a deadline and have already read two entire threads looking for an answer to this.

I’m making a credit roll in FCP using Boris Title Crawl, which I’ve done a number of times before… but never encountered this particular problem, and nothing I’ve tried seems to fix it.

The roll is for a large cast list (dance recital), so I need to have headings for several groups of performers. I’ve opened a .rtf file in TextEdit, changed it to plain text, and restructured the list so the names are stacked, and not in “paragraph” form. Then I copy the list from TextEdit, and paste it into Boris’ composition window, replacing a piece of properly formatted text. Then, I adjust font sizes, colors, drop shadows, leading, etc., until the roll looks like I want it to look.

Several of my group headings, however, are impossible to underline. No matter what I do, the underline extends several spaces beyond the intended characters.

I know the simple fix is to just not underline the text… but that would be too easy… right? AND I’d need to go back over about a dozen similar credit rolls to reformat those, or risk being exposed as an inconsistent graphics editor.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks for your time and any help you can offer.

Skip Hall
Homeworks Video Productions
Suffolk, Va

[Skip Hall]

Okay! I give! How the H–L does one [Theo van Laar] “use the ruler to calculate (and apply) for you the degrees of rotation you need to get a line strainght horizontal… “ ?? I’ve been searching and keywording and using every other search trick I know for nearly an hour, and yours is the closest I’ve come to the mark so far!

I’m sure when you’re rotating an image, there is a keyboard shortcut to use in making that image fit SQUARELY on the canvas. Trying to get that degree of precision by hand/eye seems fundamentally impossible. But which key to use for that shortcut, is a mystery to me.

Help?

Skip Hall
Homeworks Video Productions
Suffolk, Va

[Skip Hall]

Thanks for the input, fellas.
I’ll try calling AT in Stow, and see if I can email them the photos. I hesitate to call manufacturers these days, because it’s usually so hard to get a real human on the phone who treats callers with courtesy, and/or one who actually knows anything useful about the problem at hand. But sometimes, we get surprised, so maybe this will be one of those times.
And Wolf, thanks for your intel too. There are 6 holes (ports?) in the sides of the larger mic, but I don’t see any in the smaller mic with the AT logo on it. Both of these mics were sold to me as part of a used Samson UM1/UT1 system, but I get the impression from the Samson literature that the connector on the transmitter is a TB3M, mini-XLR, which is supposed to fit some Sony, Sennheiser, AT, and Crown mics, as well as Samsons.
Sure would help if these folks would figure out how to laser-etch a model number on the side of the housing or something. How hard could that be, these days?

Skip Hall
Homeworks Video Productions
Suffolk, Va

[Skip Hall]

Hi Matte! You are a fellow after my heart! I am always looking for alternative solutions that actually WORK!

Would it be possible for you to email me a few photos to accompany your assembly instructions? It might help to be able to visualize the whole set-up, at least for a two-line system. If that’s too much trouble, perhaps a little more information on the type of phone you used, and what you ended up using for a more permanent power supply.

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond!

Skip Hall
Homeworks Video Productions
Suffolk, Va

[Skip Hall]

Thanks for the input, Doug.

It seems that the Eartec system only allows for multiple remotes to talk back to a single director, and that director can talk to all the remotes. However none of the remotes can talk to each other. That limits their usefulness during set up and such, when people are working all over the theater, but I guess if all I’m going for is director-to-camera comms, then the Eartec might work.

It looks like DataVideo makes a 4-station full-duplex WIRED system, for about the same money as the Eartec wireless sytem… which is substantially less than a comparable Telex or Portacom system. Anyone every used a DataVideo system that they could comment on?

Skip Hall
Homeworks Video Productions
Suffolk, Va

[Skip Hall]

Don,
When you shoot dance recitals and such in Spotlight mode, what do you do about focus? Autofocus is too unsteady, and trying to keep focused manually is murder. Any suggestions on that?
BTW: your other suggestion about using Spotlight mode was the ticket for dance recitals. The exposure was excellent. So if I can just get this focus issue straight, things will be pretty great!
Thanks for any advice.

Skip Hall
Homeworks Video Productions
Suffolk, Va

[Skip Hall]

I don’t know about that “seasoned professionals” thing, but thanks for your input, Xeeb. Checking the audio setting is a good suggestion. When I have a problem, I always start with the “braindead” solutions FIRST! 🙂

I always leave both my Canon’s in 16-bit mode, but neither of them EVER record at a perfect 48K… always 48 with some three or four place decimal value. Just enough to make Final Cut have to render every second of every tape, and, I suspect, enough to contribute to the audio drift phenomenon seen on longer recordings.

I’ve been told that Canon cameras are, in fact, notorious for that. Perhaps they fixed the problem with the XL2, and GL2… which does nothing to help us XL1 and GL1 owners, but at least we’re not ALL stuck with crappy audio.

Skip Hall
Homeworks Video Productions
Suffolk, Va

[Skip Hall]

Thx, Thax.

I guess striping the tape IS a waste of time. I tell myself that I do it to eliminate any chance of timecode breaks, but as long as we don’t rewind and play during a shoot (which we never have reason to do), or reinsert a used tape to record more footage, I guess the risk of that is minimal. And I have always been worried about the additional head wear anyway.

And thanks for weighing in on the tape brand issue. Much of what I read sounded like some well-studied gospel, to me. I’ll add the appropriate grain of salt (but I’ll probably stick with Panasonic tapes just the same).

As for the drops, is it possible for them to be caused by the playback deck (in this case, my GL1)? Does the artifact look the same on the display, regardless of whether the problem is recorded on the tape, or being caused by a playback source in need of service?

I guess either way my GL1 needs to go in for service, despite the fact that the New Jersey Service Center wants about 45% of the camera’s value just to do a cleaning and “routine service.” I just had my XL1 serviced there, and they charged me a little more than half what they want to service my GL1.

Skip Hall
Homeworks Video Productions
Suffolk, Va

[Skip Hall]

Craig,
I wouldn’t be so quick to blame your Mac for these “tweaks” being necessary.
I shoot dance recitals with an elderly but well-serviced XL-1 and a gently-handled GL-1. I also use a tiny little Panasonic PV-GS120 (which is relatively new) as a third angle. My editor is a dual 2.5 GHz G5 PowerMac with 2.5 GB of RAM, separate 250 GB SATA media drive, etc. Not a slouch machine, by any means.
All footage captured from tape shot on either of the Canon’s shows a audio sampling rate of 48.XXXXXX kHz, so it all must be rendered. Tapes from the Panasonic capture at exactly 48K every time, without fail. Also, if I try to capture clips of anything more that 7-8 minutes in length (sometimes even LESS) from either of the Canons, the audio drift effect becomes very pronounced, and I end up clipping out quiet frames from the audio tracks and resynching the audio to the video… sometimes several times during a single dance number. Never happens with tape from the Panasonic.
I’m wondering why I even continue to shoot with these Canons, except that I keep hoping they will someday spontaneously blossom into the excellent prosumer cameras that I thought they were when I bought them. Oh… and who has thousands of bucks to spend on a couple of new cameras, anyway?

Skip Hall
Homeworks Video Productions
Suffolk, Va