[Todd Terry]

Not exactly, Aaron… but close.

And it wasn’t an LCD, it was a 42″ plasma monitor. This was a few years ago when an LCD that big was pretty much unheard of.

We were shooting an infomercial that sort of had a fake newscast format. We built a set in our studio, which had the monitor behind the “anchorman.” The original idea was to roll live graphics and video in the monitor, but quickly found it was a pain in the rear to get the timing right with the talent, and we were constantly re-racking the video (which was being played off of tape) for another take.

So… after a few tries we just fed the monitor a pure green signal instead…. which, yes, turned the monitor into a perfectly flatly lit key screen. And it worked like a charm. In fact, it was probably the best and cleanest key we’ve ever done here.

So yes… it can be done and I think it’s a pretty good idea. Just make sure your monitor and camera work and play well together. A camera that has a clearscan mode might be best (and I think most higher-end cameras do now) just to make sure you don’t have any phasing or flickering issues.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

One more thought, Lawrence…. can you adjust the shutter speed on that Sony camera… and most importantly does it have a “clear scan” mode?

If so you may be able to dial out the phasing by tweaking the shutter speed a bit. My guess is that a 60.1Hz clearscan setting would be a good starting point.

Again, that wouldn’t help you with the stills, but might solve the video side of the problem.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Mike…. maybe it will warm your heart to know that even though I’m about as gentile as they come, one of my favorite parts of the holiday season is LATKES!!.

Sadly (and perhaps a bit sacrilegiously) they are often my first thought when I notice that B&H Photo is going to be closed for a few days).

Mmmmmmmmm.

Fortunately my better half learned to make them a few years ago when she was doing the graphic design and layout for a holiday cookbook (“Oh, these do sound good”). I was finally able to stop so meticulously timing my social calls to Jewish friends (“I was just in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop by to say happy holid….wait, do I smell latkes?”).

For those of you on the other side of the aisle… I urge you to Google a latke recipe now, get to cookin’, and join our Jewish brethren in the spirit of the season. And in a big heartwarming pile of potato cakes. Just like the Good Lord intended.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Just found Ron’s Christmas present!….

Ah, Photoshop and a little free time! Just yanking your chain, Ron 🙂

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[Shane Ross] “They were COCKY”

I think Shane nailed it there. One of the reasons I never had the remotest warm-and-fuzzy feelings about Avid.

Pride goeth before the fall.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Firstly, in re your samples….. HELLO!

I’ll bet a dollar that what you are seeing is not actually a phasing of the color of the HMI light itself, but rather a phasing of its intensity. I’ve never ever known an HMI to color phase, unless a globe was just about to go (and yours has low hours). However, even minuscule almost undetectable phases in intensity can cause a visible color shift IF the HMI is accompanied by other light sources. That is, the ratio of the HMI lighting to the amount of lighting from other instruments is changing (even if it’s not enough to affect exposure or even see with your eyeballs, it’s enough to affect the color balance), and therefore you see a color phase. I haven’t had this happen with HMIs, but I’ve seen it with flos that were out of phase.

Do you get this problem when your HMI is your one and only lighting source, in a completely dark studio setting? Or when it is one instrument mixed with others (or mixed with daylight)?

I would at first think you were getting a dirty out-of-phase power source… but you say you get this phenomenon at all locations, so it’s unlikely that’s it.

I think the problem is in your ballast… which is unusual, as magnetic ballasts usually go on forever. People don’t get rid of them because they are unreliable, they get rid of them because it’s like carting around an anvil.

Firstly, I bet you are powering your Betacam with a battery. Try powering it with AC, so both the camera and the HMI are getting the same cycled source (although that won’t help you with stills, but I imagine that’s less of a problem).

Secondly, look at the ballast. To be honest, I’m not real familiar with magnetic ballasts anymore, it’s been years since I used one. Does it have a switch on it anywhere that lets you switch from “24fps” to “Free Run,” or some verbage like that? That may be something that’s on electronic ballasts only, I’m not sure. If so, try it in the opposite position than it is now.

If that’s not the case, I think you’ll have to do some switching and swapping to locate the problem source, which is going to require getting another 1200 HMI for testing. I’d suggest that you beg borrow or rent another one and start swapping (you might even be able to do this at the rental house, if they are accommodating, and not get charged anything). Firstly, swap the globe. Then the header cable. Then the ballast itself. Then you might want to try the new (rented or borrowed) head with your old ballast.

I think you’re going to find that the ballast is the issue… and that the best fix is going to be upgrading to an electronic ballast. Which, unfortunately, isn’t cheap.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Thanks for the memories, Mark…

Yes the tree is authentic, I bought it in an antique store about 15 years ago. It’s in good shape, though not GREAT shape… but it still has the original box and all the dozens of wax paper sleeves that the branches are stored in. I wish I had been able to take a little better care of it.

If you like that stuff you should come visit! Good eye on the coffe table… I built that as a scaled-down Noguchi replica because a real one is much too big for the room. Both our studio and my home are all mid-century era furnishings… and not just jumping on the train, they’ve always been. I was a mad man years and years before Mad Men made it cool (upstairs is very Sterling-Cooper, my basement is the Tiki Lounge). I just love the crisp clean look of all that stuff… great design work going on there. Fortunately I started collecting it while it was still considered cheap “junk” not yet even kitch or the uber-collectible stuff it is today. My general manager’s gigantic “Larry Tate” Herman Miller desk I stole 10 years ago for $100 (it’s the same desk Roger Sterling has on MM). The only other one I’ve seen like it was in a NY antique store going for roughly the same price as a good used Buick.

I shudder to think of all the great stuff my parents and grandparents threw away through the years….

So come on down, we’ll even throw on some Sinatra (don’t tell Ron).

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

On my….

I’m now glad we didn’t send Ron our company Christmas card last year (at least I think I didn’t)… where all our small staff and I were dressed as Rat Packers under the Sand’s sign in Vegas with our names on the marquee.

Now, off to cancel the Lindebooms’ present for this year (Sammy Davis Jr. box set).

I never thought I’d have to strike Ron off the “cool list,” but if we must we must….

Happy holidays anyway 🙂

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Yes, some positive changes there, but I think will prove to be too little too late.

AVID may have more-or-less invented electronic nonlinear editing (or at least brought it to the masses), but they sure didn’t keep up with needs, customer expectations, or seem to give a hoot about looming competitors’ developments and pricing structures.

Anyone bought an IBM computer lately?

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Actually, I think you’ll like the H1… as I said earlier it is among my favorite cameras ever.

The stock lens on the H1 is pretty darn good. I’m not sure what you would gain by going with primes, unless you wish to use a DoF converter to get more of a 35mm look. If so, I’d heartly recommend the P+S Technik Mini35 converter, or its less-expensive compact version (which does not do picture inversion). Those will attach right to the H1 body and not just stick on the front of the stock zoom which all other brands of lens adapters do.

I will say though, I think it would be pretty darn challenging to shoot a reality show with primes. That’s one instance that I would stick with the stock zoom… which surprises even me to say, since I’m a hard-core primes guy.

The Nano is one of the flash drive recorders from Convergent Design, which would record the full HD signal out of the H1’s HD-SDI port on the right rear of the camera. You can get details about the Nano as Flash XDR at https://convergent-design.com. I haven’t used them, but they do have cheerleaders that say they work well. They are expensive though.

If you don’t need full HD recording but HDV recording is fine, then you are probably familiar with the FireStore recorders. Another less-known option though is the Sony HVR-MRC1 (which is actually a fair bit less expensive than the FireStore)… and although I haven’t used that yet either, it does get stunningly good reviews from users whereas FireStores have somewhat of a reputation for being finnicky.

T2

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