[Todd Terry]

In case anyone is wondering… I got the recorder in, the FireStore FS-4Pro HD…

Even though quite old I’m sure, it looks to be mint, original box and all the stuff, even all the various cables which were still in their individual un-opened plastic bags. The battery won’t hold a charge for more than a few minutes, but I’m not surprised by that, I expected the cells in it to long have been kaput (but I will power it via the powertap on the goldmount adapter on my camera).

I’ve recorded a few clips with it and they seem to look fine and import into editing just fine.

I’ve got a continuous test running now that I’ll let last for 90 minutes or so… I have the camera set up just recording the second hand sweep around on a darkroom clock (and yes I still have one of those, but it’s in the audio booth for timing VO cuts). Hopefully all will be good.

Thanks to everyone for the input!

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Mark Suszko] ” you still got a stand-alone boom operator/mixer operator/recordist on hand, right? ☺”

Not since I was shooting film when the dinosaurs roamed. Who do you think you’re dealing with, Mark? Some pro? You know me far better than that.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Yeah, you can still get it….

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1006307-REG/shining_technology_fw1258xd_cf_64gb_1000x_citidisk_compactflash_digital_video.html

I’ll probably buy one if the FireStore I bought on eBay doesn’t work out.

I’m not too worried about power (something tells me the FireStore’s battery is long kaput). I power my H1 with a goldmount brick on the back (because I used to use it with 35mm primes and a P+S Technik converter, so I used the same brick to power both the camera and lens converter. So I can use the powertap from that to power the FireStore, too. I’m guessing (hoping) that setup would work with the CitiDisk unit as well.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Yes it does, Blaise… and that would seem the logical and best choice…

BUT… (and isn’t their always a “but”?)…

For some reason in their infinite wisdom Canon chose not to embed audio in the HD-SDI signal of the first generation of the XLH1. They wised up and did in later versions, but not at first (and of course mine is like serial number 000008). So, I could go that route, but I’d need a recorder that can take analog audio in, and more of an arrangement of cabling that I’d rather avoid. I would get a better full HD data stream rather than the HDV via firewire, but sacrifice the ease of just plugging in one li’l cable…. and for most of the applications that I’d be using this, HDV is more than fine.

Also, I think (and I don’t know that this is true) that the first generation H1s only pumped out 60i interlaced video via HD-SDI… and that you were out of luck if shooting in one of the camera’s other modes (which I always do). I never tested this, but that’s what I was told.

At any rate, I hit the old Electronic Bay Dot Com (as Ron Swanson would say) and bought a near-mint Focus Enhancements FireStore FS-4. We’ll see if that works (it’s not here yet). Even if it is DOA it was only a couple hundred bucks.

If that doesn’t work, B&H turned me on to an alternative, the CitiDISK CompactFlash Digital Video Recorder, which is pretty much exactly the same thing, and still available. I’ll try one of those if the FireStore doesn’t work.

If only Canon had rigged the HD-SDI port properly in the first place. I love Canon products, but every now and then they’ll pull a boneheaded move.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Filmtools?
BulbAmerica?
B&H Photo?
Osram Direct?

These are the usual sources for HMI globes. If no one at those places can help, maybe they can point you to someone who can.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

That seems pretty clear cut to me.

You are the producer, and if I were you I’d make sure you own and retain all the rights.

On the client side of things, you just need to make sure your contract spells out that the client owns the rights to the finished production as a whole and as a single entity… but that you retain rights and ownership to all elements that make it up… everything from photography to graphics to music performances and everything else. That way your client can do whatever they wish with the project… as long as they don’t alter it. And they cannot, for example, rip the music track and use it elsewhere or for something else, or take a piece of the video and use it for something else.

On the vendor side of things, you just need to make sure all parties know that it is “work for hire,” and that, for example, you have drone photography… that the footage generated is owned by you and those rights do not stay with the drone pilot/photographer.

I’m not sure about this “double rate” business… as long as you spell out that it is work for hire then no one should have a problem with whatever their regular rate for that is.

At least that’s the way I’d do it.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

What Rick said.

Remember this is SNL, where they have a crazy CRAZY production schedule (also access to about 972 lighting instruments already in the grid in studio 8H).

All the sets used in an episode of SNL are located in one of two places… most of the sets go up during commercial breaks, and are located on “home base,” in front of the band where the host stands for his or her monologue. There is a secondary location just stage left of home base down on the deck level where sets sometimes go.

I’m a big SNL fan and have sorta studied how their production happens for quite a while…

Usually the very first time these sets go up is Saturday afternoon… just a few hours before dress rehearsal. The rundown isn’t even finalized by that point and it doesn’t give a whole lot of time for finesse lighting, especially when multiple sets go in the same space in the span of 90 minutes.

SNL gets a lot of criticism sometimes (“I remember when that show used to be good” etc.), but I think it’s a miracle that they pull it off three times a month, especially when they don’t really start working on a show for Saturday until Wednesday.

Here are a couple of videos that make me tired just watching them….

Here’s a timelapse of an entire show… pretty amazing to see the crew at work and all the sets going in and out…

https://www.nbc.com/snl/exclusives/snl-backstage/video/2771661

Here’s a neat video about the Chapman crane that lives on that stage…
https://www.nbc.com/snl/exclusives/snl-backstage/video/3859465

What I think are even more amazing are the remote film pieces (commercial or movie parodies, etc.), in addition to the live show. The director doesn’t even know about these until usually Wednesday afternoon or even Thursday morning. Yet they manage to find locations, build sets, create wardrobes, and turn out some pretty amazing stuff. The film unit doesn’t get a lot of sleep for about three days, and often the pieces are still being edited when the show starts.

https://www.nbc.com/snl/exclusives/snl-backstage/video/3859465

https://www.nbc.com/snl/exclusives/snl-backstage/video/2759817

https://www.nbc.com/snl/exclusives/snl-backstage/video/3719054

Good show or bad, I’m always impressed with what they do in the time they do it.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I noticed in Fox’s recent debacle of “RENT” live that everyone wore Countryman mics. Not overly obtrusive, but for some reason it still bothered me to be able to see them.

Conversely the cast also wore them in NBC’s live staging of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” and for some reason those didn’t bother me nearly so much… I guess because it was much more of a big-stage spectacular. That, and it was just an incredible show.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Absolutely correct, from 1988 when I was a mere pup of 25.

Most fun show I ever did…period. Got to ride a motorcycle on stage, hang with a pretty girl, beat up on my best friend (who played Seymour), and scare children. Who could ask for more?

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I personally have worn many a mic above my ear in my now-long-past stage acting days….

Plus I’ll take any opportunity to show any very rare pic of me looking cool.

As Mark said hair mics are also very common on stage, usually top/center right at the hairline. I had an actor friend who did a role where his character wore a baseball cap (and never took it off), so his mic was built into the front edge of the hat’s bill.

But… those are pretty much stage applications and I’ve never known any instances of anyone using those techniques on camera though…

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com