[Todd Terry]

Well, I’m sure this is not the right way to do it, but it works…

We don’t really do music videos, but I have done a couple just for fun, and did them exactly the way you said…

Performers lipsynced, of course, and rather than shooting MOS we did record location audio, just for reference purposes.

Then back in post, I just used the video and the reference audio track to “eyeball sync” the footage back up with the real track. It’s relatively easy once you get in the swing of it… although can be just a little tedius when there are lots of fast cuts, but not too bad.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[Bruce Bennett] “I tax everything.”

Not that Bruce is wrong, but we go 180° here… we tax nothing.

When I started this company I was told by a colleague/competitor company that we should tax, that’s what they did, and was right.

My theory was that yes, we were selling the service, not the goods (and our CPA agreed). Even our dubs have a tiny fine print line on the label that says “This videotape remains property of Fantastic Plastic and must be returned upon request,” just to make it clear we were not selling the videotape (and invoices list it as dubbing service rather than just “dubs”). Of course, we never intend to get them back… although a television station in another state does ship us back a big box full of Betas about once or twice a year. I keep meaning to tell them they don’t have to… their dumpster is a lot closer and cheaper than our dumpster.

My colleague told me that we would eventually get bit doing it that that way, and that we should at minimum be taxing dubs.

However, a couple of years ago we went through city, county, and state audits. We did nothing to red flag them, just the luck of the draw. We did get hit for not paying enough sales tax on equipment and such that we bought out of state… but all three auditors agreed that we were providing a non-taxable service and did not have to be charging any sales tax to any of our clients.

Your milegage may vary depending on your local municipal and state laws… probably best to ask a CPA in your own area.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[Terence Curren] “So you ALWAYS tell a potential client that you haven’t done something in the past, even if they don’t ask.”

Nope, never said that.

I said I would admit that we haven’t done something IF they asked. I wouldn’t volunteer the info that we hadn’t done it before if they didn’t ask and it was well within our capabilities. But if they did ask, I wouldn’t pretend we had done something when we hadn’t.

Maybe that little “fudge by omission” is a fib in a way, too… but it’s not a blatant lie saying you have done something when you haven’t.

Frankly, it’s just not an issue here. I can’t remember but one or two times in the last decade+ than anyone has ever asked “Have you…?” It’s always “Can you…?” But if they did ask, I know what my answer would be.

And back to the previous extreme example… no, although I can appreciate the fact that everyone has to start somewhere (me included), I personally don’t want to be that heart surgeon’s first patient no matter how many cadavers he’s cut on. I just don’t want to be the next one. 🙂

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

I was told a while back by someone who claims to have some Canon insight that the 5D was basically built on an existing Canon hardware platform… ergo, it’s framerate limitations were hardware restricted to 30fps. He said a 24fps camera would require a new physical build. Perhaps in the next generation of them.

Whether that’s all actually true… who knows?

As for manual control, that does seem more likely something a firmware update could handle.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[Terence Curren] “You are jumping to an extreme.”

I admitted that… as an example.

And “Can you do something?” is a very different question from “Have you done something?” With two potentially different answers.

Our policy stands. Tell the truth.

Maybe I can’t expect that from those looking to us for jobs, but we expect it from ourselves.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[Terence Curren] “are you telling me that every time a client or potential employer has asked you to do something you had never done before, that your response is always “I’ve never done that but I’m willing to try”?”

Pretty much.

Our response is usually “We’ve never done that exactly, but it’s definitely within our capabilities.” Or just simply “Sure, we can do that.” If we can. If someone pointedly asked me “Have you done that before?” and we haven’t, we’d certainly be upfront about it.

I wasn’t picking on you, honestly. Everyone fudges. But there comes a point when it crosses a line and honesty is almost always the best policy.

If I had a crew member who didn’t know what a high hat was, who cares? That’s no big deal. But if I hired a loader who told me “Sure, I’ve loaded a Panavision Millenium hundreds of times, I practically grew up with one” when in actuality he had never even touched a film camera… well, that’s not just a little fib, that’s a boldfaced lie that can end up costing a shoot day and thousands and thousands of dollars because of one missed sprocket hole or one loop just a tiny bit too big or too small… because he only pretended to know what he was doing.

You wouldn’t want your heart surgeon to sneak a little white lie past you (“Oh sure, I’ve done this a thousand times”)… and while it’s not life or death, I take my job just as seriously. Ok… only half as seriously. But serious enough.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[Terence Curren] “…asked if I was familiar with the Arri camera. Of course I lied and said I was.”

[Terence Curren] “Having no clue what the heck a high hat was, I would find a grip and ask if he’d seen it laying around”

No offense intended at all (and sounds like in your case you pulled it off), but those are the kind of people I’m always afraid I’m going to accidentally hire whenever working with a new crew member. Yikes.

I’d much rather someone be truthful and willing to learn something, than to lie to me and say they are proficient at something when they aren’t.

If I ever found out a crew member’s padded resume jeopardized the success of a shoot, they definitely wouldn’t be working for me again. Or probably for anyone else that I know either.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Not saying they are a bad product, but just keep in mind that these are not true HMI cine instruments, rather they are sodium vapor HID bulbs. Basically, they are growlights that are being marketed as photographic lighting.

Not that it’s a bad thing, especially for the price… but note that the CRI is not going to be nearly has high as a real HMI, and ergo some of them have very noticable green spikes that must be dealt with.

Also, read the “fine print” very carefully… because both of these dealers tend to be a bit purposely fuzzy with their wattage specs. For example, they might say it’s an “800 watt HMI.” It’s not. It’s an HMI (well, sort of) that has the equivalent output of 800w of tungsten light. In actuality, it’s really just a 150w instrument.

If that’s what you need, fine and good… just don’t think it’s the same output as, say, an 800w Joker-Bug. It’s going to be about a fifth of that.

Actually I did buy one of the Alzo ballast/bulb combinations last year. I really just bought it because it was cheap, and to see what it was all about. I never use the bulb, but I do make use of the ballast… I gutted an old fresnel instrument that I have and turned it into a little 150w HMI (a real one, not sodium), and I use the Alzo ballast to power it. Works well (and actually the output is quite a bit greater with the 150w Osram HMI globe than with the Alzo sodium HID bulb)… the only downside is that it isn’t hot re-strike, you have to wait a good 10 minutes or so. On the upside, because the wattage is so low the instrument doesn’t require a separate ignitor in the head to strike it.

Also, if you do use the bulbs that come with it… be careful. I only had the one here on for a few minutes to test it, and I could definitely tell my eyeballs were getting more UV than one would hope. A UV shield of some kind would be most recommended.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[Mart Parker] “would I shoot 24f with the 2:3:3:2 cadence selected?”

I’ve never done a filmout with Canon footage, so to be honest I’m not sure. That would be a question best for whatever filmhouse is striking your print.

[Mart Parker] “If the 24f is still in a interlaced wrapper, do I have to deinterlace on export?”

Despite what some people have said, I’m not sure 24f is in an interlaced wrapper… at least it certainly doesn’t seem to be. Yes it is in an interlaced wrapper if you shoot in standard-def mode, but in HDV mode my 24f footage captures as true 23.976 progressive footage and imports into a 23.976 project perfectly and I cannot tell there is any kind of wrapper. If there is one, it certainly is undetectable. Unless you get advice from someone smarter than me (which is very likely), I would think that you do not have to deinterlace on export.

[Mart Parker] “How do you handle your Genesis footage for export?”

I’m gonna have to play dumb here, as I simply don’t remember. The Genesis project I did, the client brought the footage on their own drives and I cut exactly to their parameters. I probably was using a 10-bit uncompressed 1920×1080 23.976 Matrox HD project, and just exported as the same.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

There are a half dozen or so design firms that specialize in graphic and motion design creating “looks” for television stations, cable outfits, and networks (the last one I worked with was Hothaus in Dallas)…. they all have websites and should be easy enough to find by Googling.

However… they are all fairly aggressively protective of their designs, so I wouldn’t be “inspired” too closely by any of them.

T2

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