[Tom Dunn]

Thanks so much for going to the effort to run these tests using the same camera source. We ran this similar test about an hour ago bringing audio into the camera and then sending both audio and video via SDI to the Ki Pro Mini and got synced audio. This will be our new camera/sound configuration.

Once again, thanks for the speedy support.

Tom Dunn
Director Digital Media Production
JP Catholic University
San Diego, CA

[Tom Dunn]

We are shooting 2 cameras recording to 2 Ki Pro Minis. We are slating all the takes with a clapper. I have viewed the footage straight off the Ki Pro via SDI, brought it into Final Cut, brought it into Soundtrack Pro, and viewed the native QT files after transferring, and they are out of sync in all of these instances.

Tom Dunn
Director Digital Media Production
JP Catholic University
San Diego, CA

[Tom Dunn]

Years ago I did a lot of work for Court TV in LA when they were covering lots of ‘Live” trials. This is what we always did for audio.

Most of the courtrooms we worked in had hard wired mics for the judge, witness and attorneys, and most people involved in the trials were conditioned to speak into the mics. The only exception was attorneys who walked around while questioning witnesses. We would attach our own lavaliere mics to the bottom of the hard wired mics and run them into a mixer. If there were no mics at the attorney table, we would use boundary mics/PZMs. We often would place a couple of shotguns pointing into the area an attorney may walk around in while doing questioning. This setup gave us very good coverage for most situations, IF we had a competent mixer working the board.

As has already been mentioned, the judge controls his courtroom, and may be very welcoming to extensive audio setup, but he may not. I have experience many of both.

Tom Dunn
Director Digital Media Production
JP Catholic University
San Diego, CA

[Tom Dunn]

Brad, those sound like potentially good classes, but I would start by first identifying where you want to end up? Are you hoping to get a management job with a media company where you can manage a staff and projects, or are you looking to start your own place and work for yourself? If you know you want to end up in Denver, you will look at the map and find the best way to get there. If you just hit the road and go where it takes you, you may or may not end up in Denver. If you want to work for a corporation, your initial preference may be to take classes to learn how to manage people, how to project manage and how to not fall asleep in staff meeting. But if you are wanting to run your own shop, you may want to first tackle marketing and sales since you’ll need to bring in the bucks to keep the door open each day. Sure, you will need to have some marketing and sales skills if you manage a corporate department, since you may have to “sell” your ideas or projects to other divisions or managers, but if they have a sales and marketing dept, that load won’t fall on your head like it will with your own shop. And if you want to create your own content and get it aired and sold, then you will need distribution and capital knowledge.

I know USC and Full Sail offer courses that focus on specific media business topics, so you may want to check out their class offerings on-line to get an idea of what is available. Or you could always take courses in a traditional business setting and focus all your work in a media direction.

[Tom Dunn]

There are elements of truth in all of these statements. Just like Nick said, it all depends on where you want to go with the degree. If you want to teach or go the corporate route, it can be very valuable. My father-in-law took an early retirement a few years back from his sales vp position in a Fortune 500 company because he didn’t have his masters. He got real tired of all the young MBAs that were being hired by the company that he had to then train on how to really do the job, and then watched as they all got promoted to higher level positions.

But that being said, if you are planning to run your own shop, a business background will be invaluable. Although you may not need an full master’s degree. A few select and specific business courses may suffice. I remember when I was in college back in the late 80’s, I didn’t want to have anything to do with any business classes. Business was the degree all the clueless students seemed to go into. Don’t know what I want to do with my life, might as well get a business degree. Nowadays, the business side of our industry is what seems to attract me more than anything. I can only imagine where I would be these days if I had a clue years back about creating a business plan, or proper marketing or customer needs analysis, etc. How many of us out there have more ideas than there is paper to right them down on but have no idea of how to market them, or raise the capital to produce them, or how to connect with right partner to execute the ideas? I think that is one of the main reasons this forum is so popular.

A few universities are starting to see the value and are offering degrees in the business side of the media world. So if you decide you need to pursue the Masters, but from a business side, maybe you could go the MBA route but with a more affordable and flexible scheduled school that will allow you to tailor your learning from the media side.

[Tom Dunn]

[Cable is a losing proposition in my opinion. There is much more opportunity on the internet]

Randall, interesting statement. Can you elaborate on your comment? I have seen situations that have gone both ways. Thanks.

[Tom Dunn]

Thanks for all the input. A test is exactly what I will be conducting to determine if an uncompressed conform shows any visible different on my broadcast monitor. I will post the results here, hopefully in about a week when I am at the point of finishing the project.

Tom

It’s ALL ball bearings these days.

[Tom Dunn]

Joel, I know that in many cities, there are ad clubs that many agency personnel belong to, or at least frequent their meetings occasionally. This would be a great place to get to know them in an environment that may not feel like you are trying to sell to them. Remember, people like doing work with people they know, so if you can develop relationships first, that would be a great start.

Here is something that worked for me, completely accidentally. A couple of years ago I moved to another county and demographic market. There is an AE that I knew at an agency in my old town, but whom I had never done any work for. She landed a client in my new town but had no production contacts and didn’t want to use her regular production company because she felt the distance would not be beneficial to the working relationship. Needless to say, I became her production company in my area. So you may also want to pitch your services to any agencies in surrounding demographic areas. IE: if you ever come to Denver, I am your man, etc. I would imagine this is more of a long term attempt, but you never know where your next job will come from.

Tom

It’s ALL ball bearings these days.

[Tom Dunn]

Thank you for your answers. Regarding why I would conform to uncompressed: I am seeing a bit of noise in the shadow areas of some of my shots (lot of footage in low-light situations) that I hope I can eliminate by not compressing my footage. I know that technically, DV50 compression at 4:2:2 and roughly 2:1 should not be visible to the human eye, so before I go to the work of recapturing, I will review my camera masters to see if the noise exists there or if it was introduced during capture.

Tom

It’s ALL ball bearings these days.

[Tom Dunn]

Unfortunately, most of us have dealt with clients who won’t tell you how much their budget is, if they want talent, what they hope to accomplish with the finished product or anything else regarding details. Usually this is because they don’t know themselves. Maybe this is their first time ever doing a video and they have no idea how much it really costs. They can’t tell you how much they are willing to spend because they don’t know how much to be prepared to spend. Or maybe the person who is requesting the bid is doing the job handed down to him. “Hey Joe, go get me a bid for doing a couple of videos,” says the marketing director. Either way, it is very frustrating.

At this point if I decide to pursue the work (have I eaten in the last week or has it been a month?) I create something for them. I put together a very brief outline of a concept and cost. I become proactive. This is what you need, this is how to communicate it and this is how much it will cost.

Usually one of 2 things happens at this point. 1) They will realize they are not prepared to spend what it really takes, or they do not have all the elements on their end lined up and are not at a stage to move forward. Or 2) they will start giving you the info and details you need. “I like your idea, but this is what we had in mind… we’d rather do it this way… that’s exactly what we want, you’re awesome.”

We’ve all heard “I don’t know what I want but I will tell you when I see it.” this could very well be one of those.

Hope this helps.

It’s ALL ball bearings these days.