Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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I know that can be super annoying, and like you said is no doubt very frustrating.
However… unpleasant as you might find it, I think the best route is just to suck it up and do it.
As you said, this is the person you are editing for, and these are re-edits that your employer does based either on the client’s direct wishes, or what your boss anticipates that the client would want.
As they say “The customer is always right,” and I’ll add to that, “So is the boss.” I think the best you can do, if this is a situation that you just can’t handle, is have a conversation with them about this working method. You’ll have to weigh the risks as to whether that’s a conversation worth having.
On the upside, you are a freelance editor and not really obligated to this person to the degree you would be if you were a “real” employee. If it proves too frustrating you can always walk away.
Bottom line, I’m assuming they are paying you to do both the editing and re-editing… it’s just a job. Unless you are taking gigs at a set fee for the entire project (and if you are, please don’t do that), then really it’s just more work.
I’m reminded of one of my favorite exchanges from “Mad Men” when Peggy is complaining to Don that she doesn’t quite feel appreciated for the good work she does, and Don yells at her “That’s what the money’s for!”
Many editors these days find jobs hard to come by. Just look at it as more work and more money.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well I second the C100 as an outstanding camera choice… I shoot with the C300 every day (same sensor) and everything in the C line is awesome (C100/300/500).
BUT… Philippe said he had $5K max to spend on camera and glass… and the C100 is $5500 for the body only so it might be out of reach. It’d be a great choice, though. If you can swing that, you definitely wouldn’t be disappointed in the images.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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The JVC GY-LS300 is very interesting, I wasn’t familiar with it… some of the specs are super puzzling though.
It has a Super35mm-sized sensor, yet they put a Micro four-thirds (MFT) lens mount on it. Why would they do that? Yet they say you can use 35mm format lenses and still retain their native field of view. I suppose that part is possible. But they also say you can use smaller format lenses, such as Super16mm lenses, and also still maintain their native field of view. Most smaller format lenses (including virtually all 16mm format lenses) would not cover the size of the Super35mm sensor… and the only way I can see that could happen is that their “Variable Scan Mapping” only uses a small center portion of the sensor (and blows it up), thus you couldn’t actually shoot 4K with anything larger than full-frame lenses (I don’t know that this is how it works, but it’s the only way that I can conceive of).
I’d love to learn more about it. I would also love to know what it’s native ISO is (and other available speeds), which is most important but I didn’t seem to find in the specs.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well firstly, maybe you have and maybe they are out there, but I’ve never heard of any place that will rent a quadcopter. Considering with the lower-end ones and newbie pilots about one out of 10 flights ends in a crash (and that’s a generous estimate) I can’t imagine anyone having them in rental inventory. If there were, no doubt there would be a very hefty deposit.
As for ease of use and good picture, the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ would be my recommendation (that’s the highest-end one in DJI’s Phantom lineup). I had one for a while but I sold it recently. The Phantoms are relatively easy to fly and the Vision+ has its own integrated 3-axis gimbal and 4K camera. Gives a very stable and surprisingly good picture…. when everything works right.
I will say though that while DJI is by far the most popular of the smaller consumerish drones, I did have a great deal of frustration with the company. My first Phantom had an “uncontrolled flight” into the top of a fairly tall tree when it suddenly lost all GPS communication (it suddenly went from 22 satellites to zero). It was sent to DJI helicopter hospital in California where it spent 17 weeks. SEVENTEEN WEEKS. It was returned with a new and different problem (a gimbal issue). It was immediately returned to them where it spent THREE MORE WEEKS. It was returned with exactly the same problem. That’s when the yelling started, and I insisted that they FedEx overnight me a brand new one. That was met with a little bit of resistance, but they did it.
I like the company, but I do think they have some issues and definitely some customer service problems.
As I said, though, I sold the Vision+… a very fun toy but I didn’t think it was quite up to professional broadcast work, which is what I do. I sold it to a buddy who is a wedding videographer, and he had previously had one exactly like mine (until he had an uncontrolled flight into the side of a Holiday Inn).
My next move would probably be an Inspire 1, but since it is about 3x the price of the Phantom I’m waiting to see how people are happy with it (or not), and whether a next generation will follow quickly.
And also waiting to see what happens with the legalities of using them… the news this week about proposed regulations seems like something we could live with, if that all happens.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Obviously you have big issues there.
Does the footage look like that when you play it back in camera, and view it on the camera’s LCD screen? If so, you have a problem with the camera.
Or… does the footage look fine on the camera’s screen, but looks terrible like that when you take it into editing? If so, then you have a problem somewhere in the ingesting or transcoding or whatever you are doing to import that footage (I don’t know what platform you are editing on, nor am I familiar with that camera enough to know what kind of files it generates… but that observation would apply to whatever method is used to do that).
That’s not a camera settings issue… obviously there are no camera settings that would yield that kind of result.
I wouldn’t want to say for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the camera is toast… and sadly, since it is both older and a not-that-expensive consumer model in the first place, any repairs would likely far exceed the value of the camera.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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HMIs would definitely be helpful in the penthouse setting… you wouldn’t have to have them, but that’s what I’d use.
I’d get one or two 1200w PAR or fresnel HMIs (my personal preference is for fresnels although seems like most people prefer PARS). You could actually benefit from bigger instruments if you have tons of walls of windows to fight, especially if it is bright out… but a 1200w is the biggest that you can be comfortably guaranteed to get adequate power for in a residential setting.
How to light with them exactly, I couldn’t say without knowing exactly what you are going to shoot, and how you want it to look. But you’d probably benefit from having some white 4×4 bounce cards and maybe some 4×4 Hollywood frames with silks for the HMIs.
If you have a similar setup to your sample video, I would also try to avoid shooting at midday if possible… a location like that would be great for either magic hour or actual sunset shooting.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Couldn’t say what the problem is, although I suspect a card malfunction.
I believe you’d have a lot more hope for successfully recovering the footage if you still had the camera card, but since it has been wiped that’s a moot point.
My only suggestion would be to first put the footage BACK onto a camera card (this will take a bit of work if there are a lot of clips, you would need to rebuild and “fake” the exact same file/folder structure that is created when you initialize a card with the camera. THEN take the Canon XF Utility and use that to generate merged MXF files for editing. That might fix the problem… although the results might be exactly the same as well. It’s worth a try though.
In the future always use the XF Utility to merge and export your files.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I’d be interested in hearing what other people say, but as far as I’m concerned you gave the right advice… “whichever way looks best.”
Obviously you can do it either way, I would suspect that depending on your light environments you would get a bit more diffusion if the Pro Mist filter was on the front rather than on the camera side (likely more noticeable if there is strong backlighting). In that case if you want more diffusion, put it in front… if you want less, put it in the back.
I suspect there are some folks out there who will take a hard-core stand that the filter should always be in one particular position, but in my opinion this is a case of “if it looks right, do it.”
If you can’t tell any difference at all, then I’d put the ND filter in front… for the simple reason of economics. A Pro Mist filter is more expensive than an ND filter. If one were to get damaged, it would likely be the front one and I’d rather the cheap filter take a hit.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well I wouldn’t worry about “overkill” that much with the Astras, as you don’t have to “use it all”… they are continuously variable 0-100% with (supposedly) no color shift.
So if that’s the only thing to take into account, they would be my choice as they would be more versatile in situations where you might need more firepower… such as when you are combating conditions in an uncontrollable environment with a lot of existing (but ugly) available light… or even for exteriors when you need to give talent a little punch, or a back or side light.
BUT…
There are other considerations. The Astras are a fair little bit more expensive than the regular 1×1 Litepanels. They are also a bit clunkier with that big power module thing in the yoke. And very importantly to me, they are more than twice as heavy as regular Litepanels.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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One thing that I meant to mention but completely forgot until now… maybe this thread is still being watched….
The game itself was seen at 60i, obviously.
BUT the halftime show was either at 24p or 30p… I couldn’t tell exactly without recording and counting frames, but it definitely wasn’t 60i (although it probably appeared that way to my dad and countless others who watch TV with that gawd-awful high-refresh-rate frame/field interpolation turned on).
Love it? Hate it? Was that to add drama or make the show seem more “upscale”?
I’m as big a fan of 24p as they come… I produce virtually everything we do at 24p. I can’t even remember the last time that I chose to do something at 60i.
BUT, I think 60i has its place, and that’s for live events. I think a live event should look live, and 24p or 60p doesn’t look live.
There was something of a backlash years ago when some soap operas (sorry, I meant daytime dramas) tried 24p… many viewers didn’t like it and most went back to 60i (although I think some 24p still lingers).
These days we also see a lot of progressive shows that used to be interlaced (I’m guessing 30p… they don’t look quite like 24p)… everything from “Hollywood Game Night” to “Jeopardy.” Sorry, but to me Jeopardy should be 60i.
Does this bug anyone else?
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
