Steve Covello
Forum Replies Created
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What they said.
Couple other P2 pieces of advice:
Keep the MXF files on a totally separate drive from the QT media that is created from it. it is your negative. as obvious as that is, I am still amazed some people don’t do it.
If you shoot overcrank at 59.94, be sure the orig media and the frame rate converted reference movies are kept in the same place forever. Otherwise you will have to waste SOOOO much time reconnecting the reference movie data to the original QT. this cannot be done via Reconnect Media either. it’s stupid.
Here’s the DVCProHD frame rate converter utility, in case you don’t already have it:
https://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/support/fcphd.asp
No batch capability — kinda blows.
steve covello
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Sometimes I feel like Lincoln in this forum.
It seems that artists and their tools are intimately connected in a way that bears emotions seen mostly among owners and their pets. So it is to be expected that criticisms, however unintended, will be taken personally.
My wife is LIVID over the fact that Syracuse, NY has two art supply stores and NO GAMBLIN OIL PAINT!!! She’s a true believer.
Just pretend that that when you speak of AJA, you are speaking about the collective captain-of-the-cheerleaders girlfriend of all us geeks have who labor in dark caves, speak in acronyms and use terms like “organic” and “baked in”.
I should also say something useful like read the manual or something.
Read the manual, or call Tekserve in NYC.
steve covello
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Easy, easy, Mr. Z – I love ya, but you’re crossing the line here. Borrow my kids’ Teletubbies vids and turn up some Pink Floyd. I almost got into a brawl with some guy about whether bowling is as ‘legitimate’ a sport as table tennis [which it is], but it proved not worth jeopardizing 21 years of corrective dental work. Same applies here with regard to compromised reference sync practices. Some men simply like making extra work for themselves so their wives leave them alone. 😉
steve covello
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There have been previous strings about problems with 10-bit UC and color corrections not ‘sticking’. Snoop around a bit. [sorry for being lazy].
It seems unresolved whether it is a QT or an FCP issue, from last I read. There were some workarounds suggested, so it’s not hopeless.
steve covello
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Thank you all for such a great response. Keep it coming.
After some thought, I am considering a new policy for the freelance rate based somewhat on the NYC going rate of, arguably, $650/day:
$400/day – “cuts and dissolves”, no setup skills, no effects, no compression, no mixing, no color correction, no DVD making, fulltime assistant required.
Add $50/day for each of the following:
– FCP/AJA setup skills
– AE, PSD, IL skills
– 3D graphics skills
– DVD and web compression skills
– Color Correction and mixing [includes prep/export of OMF]
– Online, mastering, legalizing and output to tape skills
– Perhaps a negotiable Creative Fee on a per day basis, if the talent is prized that muchI am ready to stop being a ‘slave to the talented creative genius at ANY expense’ regardless if skillset. There has to be a line drawn somewhere.
I believe that the tiered prices would create a clear delineation of skills/expectations, and an incentive for those motivated to improve. Same goes for, in my opinion, of graphic designer/animators who don’t know squat about video formats and send files not usable in the video domain.
Comments?
steve covello
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1. You can hire different editors who know what they are doing.
They’re never available unless you book them two to three months in advance [no exaggeration]. Viacom and HBO have them in lockdown.
2. Hire assistants who are skilled on the technical side to assist editors who might be valuable for their creative talents.
Assistants who want ONLY to be an editor, not a director or a DP or a movie star or a rock star, who are committed, willing to learn, with an understanding of client services, with talent worth committing to develop, who show up, who stay late, who aren’t drunks, who don’t move in 6 months, who will work for entry level wage, are hard to come by.
Not only that, if you factor in the cost of an editor AND an assistant on a job that the client has already squeezed you down to a mouse’s worth of profit, it just doesn’t make good business sense. Back in the day when you could get an $8000 creative fee, add in another $4000 for “assistant labor” [oohh, those EDL’s are sooo haaard to export], then a room rate, dubs, shipping, meals, and then [gasp] MARKUP, these staffing issues did not exist. As Poe would say, “…Nevermoooorrre.”
3. Bring in someone to train them.
A good proposition, but training takes a long, long, time, and should be done on the editor’s own nickel, not mine. If they are staff, that is one thing. Freelance – no way.
4. Knock done their pay.
Wish I could, but when you’ve been booking someone at the same rate for a couple years, and then now you tell them, “Sorry. You don’t know how to use the Control Panel. I’m bumping you down to $400/day.” They’ll never work for me again.
Hey, I’m just being a jaded ranter right now. I completely know you are right.
steve
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Frederic –
As you’ve probably surmised by now, the two variables are connected despite it seeming like they wouldn’t be.
Digital decks have a funny way of being able to work ALMOST correctly under less than ideal situations because of their ability to conceal/correct. So an incorrect reference signal arrangement will actually cause audio distortions, sometimes minute enough to make you think it’s something wrong with something else.
Unless there is A) something fundamentally bad about the source audio itself; B) a bad mix in the FCP timeline; C) something wrong with the AJA card or Mac, you can pretty much count on the problem being bad reference setup.
steve covello
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Bob “the King of Sync” Zelin –
Oh, how I long for the simple days of Avid 11.x, with Ref in to everything and it just works.
Phooey! Not anymore. I tried setting everything to Ref In [AJA, decks] and had OK playback on monitor, but it would not output to DBeta. Had to switch the deck to Video Input, then switch it back to Ref in case someone wanted to output from the Avid [we had both for a while].
Same headaches when we got our HDCam deck. Granted, we were using SD ref in, but there were no issues with playback, striping or digitizing. Only output to tape, no matter which format/frame rate we used e.g. 23.98, 29.97, 59.94 — which fostered the above solution to this original post.
The necessity to keep the Control Panel in Free Run defies all that I assumed to know up this point with regard to reference sync. Ideally, if I just SPENT THE MONEY [as you would say] for a tri-level sync, I probably wouldn’t have any HD problems. But until recently, there hasn’t been an affordable product. Thus, my inconvenience.
Surely, you have a solution for my inconvenience, but I’ve sliced and diced the issue a lot of ways already, and it seems no one solution works all the time. Beat me over the head if you wish.. It is your dharma.
steve covello
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I believe this a reference sync issue. I have had this problem with HDCam numerous times about a year ago. this was with K2, so it might not be the same problem.
Damn, I can’t remember the magic combination but I think it involves the Control Panel set to Free Run, and then the HDCam deck has to be set to Video In for reference via the Setup menu [F2? F6? Should say so on the display panel]. I’m pretty sure it is that, or try some other combination of HDCam settings while running AJA in free Run.
It annoyed the hell outta me that my Ref in blackburst seemed to be insufficient to make the AJA and HDCam play nice together. Wasted much time getting it right, then remained paranoid ever since.
Sorry I’m being a weenie about the answer, but at least I’ve had the problem and found a way out of it, so hang in there.
steve covello
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Hate to be a monkey jumping on the same back, but you are in over your head, even but for an inch.
There are complex setup issues here that go far beyond monitoring, including media drive setup, D/A conversion for multi-channel sound, downconversion, crossconversion, HDCam setup, Control Panel setup, Genlock, and on and on.
The cause of such ire among “us” is that there has been a prevailing attitude in the burgeoning sector of this industry thinking that just by simply buying the stuff, that the person is somehow “well qualified” to manage it. this is not to discount the possibility of a newbie becoming a seasoned and grizzled pro at it, but I assure there is a lot of distance in between the two.
Anyone who has tried to keep all of the marbles in one pile with these systems, through all of the updates and upgrades and revisions and format developments can tell you that you are “in for it”, and that your best chances for surviving it is to form a working relationship with a pro whose job it is to make your life easy.
The bittersweet part of posting in this particular forum is that: A) Mr. Zelin is a wealth of knowledge unparalleled, despite his “bite”, so get thick-skinned to it, capital letters and all; B) some of us are a bit soured by the downward pressure there has been to fees and rates due to the sheer ease at which some people can jump into the business simply by buying the stuff off the shelf without going through somewhat of a journeyman’s apprenticeship where, presumably, all of the stuff you inquire about would’ve been learned before you were even permitted to BREATHE next to a high-end system.
so yes, there is some elitism and, honestly, some envy for the ease at which you have been allowed to enter among “us” [speaking for myself, at least]. So it comes across as irritating to hear that you have this $75,000 HDCAM deck and not a clue how to set up your monitor. Boo hoo!
But that is not the rationale behind this or any other forum, so please forgive me.
As a previous poster suggested, do look through the AJA recommendations for setup, and DO contract a professional who will streamline your system so that all the other problems I can already predict you will be having next won’t happen.
steve covello