[Tom Matthies]

I’m running both an AJA Io for component analog input/output and a Kona3 for HD on the same computer. It’s a good combo and I have the ability to use just about any format both in and out of the system. The Kona3 is especially useful since it will upconvert and downconvert on the fly. It’s a great timesaver and very high quality conversion to boot. I have several AJA products as well to feed client monitors and to convert from analog to digital when necessary. The AJA products just work and make my life easier.
My 2

[Tom Matthies]

Soundtrack does have a “ding” sound effect. It’s a typewriter (remember those?) return sound. I just used it last week for a spot.
tom

[Tom Matthies]

Depending on what model camera they shot the footage with, there is a character generated marker that will get recorded on the color bars (or colour bars for you PAL guys). It all depends on whether the marker is enabled in the setup menu settings on the camera. If it isn’t enabled talk to them and ask them to turn it on for you. It will make your life easier.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

[Jerry Hofmann] “Baby boomers are apparently making up 46% of the Mac market… I posted a rant in the MacWorld discussions over the fact that the article about this went on to say that it was a “concern” for Apple’s “hip””

Damn! That makes me MAD! I’m going down there right now! Somebody wanna pass me my walker?
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I’d guess that it was a backlit scene with Hitchcock behind a piece of Tough Frost, or frosted glass (or whatever they used back then) and the light, from behind casting a shadow on the frost. From what I remember I’d also say that the signiture artwork/outline was also on that piece of frost. Hitch walked in and stopped at just the right time to match up with the artwork. Things were pretty simple back then.
Yea, another aging boomer here as well. It’s bad when I remember watching the TV show…and it WASN’T a re-run.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

[walter biscardi] “Finally, Maxtor is not a recommended brand for video editing.”

Hi Walter. For what it’s worth, yesterday our ProTools guy was having a problem with one of his Lacie “Porche” drives. It looks like the Firewire card inside the drive went south. Since it was out of warranty, I opened up the enclosure to remove the drive in order to transplant it into his G4 directly. Guess what? The drive in question was in fact a Maxtor drive. Hmmm….
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Render your effects?
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

The “B-Reel” option is a carry over from the linear tape to tape edit days. It teels you that two shots that are to joined by a transition are both on the same reel of tape. Obviously, when editing from tape, it can’t playback from two different spots on the tape at the same time. The solution was to dub one of the shots(or the entire source tape) over to a “B” reel that would play back on another machine which enabled you to transition from one shot to the other shot. A little later on, machines were developed that would do “Pre-read” edits where the outgoing shot would playback from the master record machine, thru your switcher where you would mix the incoming scene from a source tape and then record it back on the master deck. Basically the record machine was capable of playback and record at the same time. The master record machine had two sets of heads that were avtive at the same time basically making it do the duties of both a source machine and a recoed machine.It was a huge time saver. The only problem was that the process was destructive. You only got one chance to “Hit the reds” and get it right the first time. If you messed it up, you would have to go back and rebuild the previous scene on the master tape. It sounds a bit complicated but it worked very well in practice once you got used to the process.

If you are trying to generate an EDL to take into a tape to tape online room, you will need either the B-reel list or the Pre-read list for the editor. If it’s going into another non linear system, don’t worry about it. Just turn that feature off and you will be good to go when you generate the EDL.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Thanks John.
Unfortunatly these Quicktimes are destined for broadcast(!?). They will be downloaded from the clients FTP site by the broadcast stations so they need to be letterboxed 4×3 since few TV stations are airing true 16×9 for local insertion yet. There are standard defination tapes being delivered as well. This will be the first time the client has tried the download option for delivery of their spots.
So, since I’m under a deadline, I simply pasted the sequence into a 4×3 SD timeline, cleaned it up a bit and outputted it from there. The resulting QT’s look fine and are going to be uploaded in a few minutes.
I’d still like to find a reliable way to export directly from the HD timeline however…I’ll work on it. This is the first time I’ve edited using the DVCPro HD codec. I usually use 10bit uncompressed when editing HD. There were slight learning curve/workflow differences with this project but for the most part it went flawlessly from shoot to edit. Best of all, it’s approved, out the door and coming soon to a TV near you!
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I do stretching several times a day while editing. Usually it’s to reach a new coffee cup on the top shelf above the coffee maker. I then do several repetitions of wrist exercises while stiring in the artifical creamer. And then, ten or fifteen minutes later, I do some leg exercises while walking to the bathroom to get rid of the afore mentioned coffee.
I do however use a Wacom tablet instead of a mouse to save wear and tear on the wrists. Work smart!
Sigh, such is the life of the video editor…
Tom