[Tim Kolb]

many third party vendors never really dialed in CS4…

Did you save the CS3 project? Typically Adobe apps like PPro and AE make a new file to advance versions…the old project for CS3 should still exist somewhere.

…and of course, you’d be best served by going back to CS3.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Tim Kolb]

Is there a chance that the app was installed under administrator, and an update was installed as another log on?

Any plugins not installed as administrator?

It sounds like a mixed install of some sort to me.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Tim Kolb]

A couple things come to mind…

How fragmented is the capture drive? 100 GB free on a highly fragmented 1 TB drive isn’t a lot.

Have your media settings changed since the update?

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Tim Kolb]

Was CS4 installed on the administrator account?

I wonder if something went wiggy on install?

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Tim Kolb]

I’ve had situations where we had audio challenges and the audio guy brought them to the director’s attention and asked about emphasis, preferences, etc. so they could advise the director and crew on what options they had available and what arrangements would likely create the best audio in their estimation, but it’s always been a completely cooperative deal.

I want a sound guy to advise me if the setup or environmental conditions are affecting the audio quality, but I appreciate a sound guy who will first identify the options he/she has to address the issue without affecting anyone else’s contribution.

Lighting is a weird one…is there no option to boom in underneath?

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Tim Kolb]

[Rob Lagerstrom] “I use “make new title from current” if all I am changing is the text and not adding any new graphic elements.”

My bad…that’s what I was actually referring to…and by ‘going south’ I mean that when i get 40 or 50 titles which are 80 percent ‘new from current’ I’ve experienced project instability…and I’m not alone in that respect.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Tim Kolb]

[David Roth Weiss] “On the other hand, if you just bite your lip, and do this one job, you have just bought yourself the ability to raise this very issue with your employer anytime you want to bring it up in the future. And, you will have the moral high ground when you do.”

I’d have to agree here.

While it probably isn’t identical treatment to how the company would handle freelancers (or is it? Do you know for a fact that your boss would simply refer work to a freelancer for no consideration at all?), it’s an opportunity to make a little money, help out your employer, and thereby bring up the compensation issue next time as an ally instead of an adversary, which will also have an impact on your daily job.

Now…that being said, your employer is masking the fact that you work for them to this client, or they’re playing games with employment taxes as he’s (or she’s) having you bill this party directly instead of billing them through the company. This is likely because it can be very difficult for tax accounting purposes to sell the idea that an employee is also a freelancer.

I’d make sure that you get all the information to issue a 1099 at the end of the year, otherwise you have to pay the income taxes on their ‘cut.’ You might see some thinking on their part when you very courteously and matter-of-factly approach them regarding this very standard business arrangement.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Tim Kolb]

In Media Encoder, make sure you’ve turned off the option to include xml metadata in the fly-out menu on the right side of the initial export settings dialog.

titler…I don’t know what to tell you here, Any project I have that I create any number of titles via ‘save as’ goes south (I had this on CS3 as well). Adobe has neglected the best standard equipment NLE titler on the market to the point where I now have to use Photoshop to make titles. (and I’m probably one of the biggest Adobe Title designer advocates out there…).

I think embedding the title documents inside the project file has never really worked as well as simply saving the title documents out like any other asset.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Tim Kolb]

I think the client boundaries can be relatively easy…it’s a top-of-mind thing.

My business move of the same type just ended without much warning as the production studio I sublet the edit suite space from decided to go live with a production company in a bigger facility.

So…these things ebb and flow. Try not to become too inter-dependent on each other for work as that can be a problem when the ways part due to one of you outgrowing the space available, or maybe the larger of the entities needs to downsize…it can all happen and happen fast with no malice or ill intent. It’s all business…

It’s a good overhead move to be sure, but keep your head up and your eyes open. I just signed a lease and need to execute a buildout in about two weeks in the “dry” season. It’s a little hectic.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Tim Kolb]

[Joe Moya] “Frankly… in my opinion, there are much more stable editing softwares available than PPro”

While PPro handles AVCHD native…converting the footage to CineForm handles any runnability issues (though PPro still would probably cut AVCHD native sufficiently well, CineForm will be much faster, but allow for bigger files).

CS4 is far more stable with large projects than CS3 was, and on a 64 bit machine, it’s a pretty reasonable tool. I’ve got a project that I’ve been working on that has 8 EXcam 35 Mbit 60-120 minute rough footage timelines and one 65 minute master edit timeline. And (for reasons too tedious to bother with here) it’s on a WinXP 32 machine. I’ve been surprised at the stability of the project, frankly.

Now…that said…I’ll echo the remarks regarding dynamic link…it’s a fantastic idea, but in practice it’s promise just doesn’t play out on today’s computer systems.

To deal with your edit-to-compositing workflow, I’d suggest a slightly different route.

I’d do your edit in PPro, and put all your greenscreen shots on one (or two) video tracks. Then I’d take your draft edit sequence for a given video and duplicate it…call it “draft video 1 green screen” or whatever…and delete all the video from the sequence except the green screen material (your original sequence preserves your complete edit). Save your PPro edit project.

Then…open an AE project and import a PPro sequence. You can access a PPro project and then pick any sequence from inside the project you wish to import. Import the draft 1 greenscreen sequence. Each clip will show up on it’s own layer. You could then key each clip with their own settings and render each clip as needed (keeping them in small bits will avoid rendering a bunch of empty timeline) if a huge clip is unwieldy.

I don’t know how much greenscreen you’ve done, but Keylight in AE is a pretty solid tool. I typically load solid layers underneath to check my key settings…I tend to use red, white and black…it’s a matter of what helps you track any anomalies before you key over a real background.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,