[Tony]

You also need to factor in the true rental value of your gear.

Best way to compare is what does the gear cost to rent at the local equipment rental houses or facilities.

Take into account any discounts they offer and this will let you know a ball park figure on where you need to be.

Of course some low ball independent will hack his rates well below a reasonable amount but in the end those operators will end up going out of business as their cost of operation will exceed what they charge one day.

As an owner/operator you are at a disadvantage because low ball clients expect you give gear away for cheaply since they consider it as bonus income above your labor rate. Don’t ever fall for the line “But if your gear is sitting around doing nothing why would you not want to at least make a little money on it for the day”. The logic behind that is wrong because the client does not consider the minimum cost of operation (upcome, repairs, life cycle etc) for that particular gear.

The best trick when dealing with a low ball client when they want you to give the gear away for cheap is to explain you don’t own the gear and need to subrent it. This automatically tells the client that you will have a fixed cost for the gear and there is no way to get around that.

If you give your labor and gear away you will never gain the respect of clients and always get the bottom feeders.

However when you are new to the business you need to develop a wide range of clients so a little give and take may be required.

Keep in mind the long term client you really want are the ones who will bring you repeat business time and time again because they see the value added services you personally can provide. Setting yourself apart from others in your business is all about what you can deliver personally which results in making you unique thereby valuable.

Good luck,

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Varicam settings to shoot 23.98

Set vtr to 59.94 hz which will results in 23.98 when camera is set to 24P
Set vtr to 60.00 hz which will results in 24.00 when camera is set to 24P

Only Varicams above “F” model can do 60hz as well as 59.94 hz.

Why shoot 23.98?

Well if your editing or eventual distribution route involves NTSC at 29.97 then you need to use 23.98.

F900 HDCAM settings to shoot 23.98

Set camera to 23.98 psf which results in 23.98 recording
Set camera to 24.00 psf which results in 24.00 recording

Options for post if you shot at 24.00 but really need 23.98 is to play back vtr at 23.98 (in effect playback the original 24.00 recording slower at 23.98) Just like what occurs when you shoot film at 24 and do a telecine xfer.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

The only decks which allow betacam and betacam sp recording are the bvw series.
The pvw and uvw studio vtr’s do not allow for recording on betacam tapes.

As far as camcorders you need to also use the bvw series vtr’s which allow betacam or betacam sp recording such as the Sony D600 or Ikegami V55 or V59 or Sony BVV-5 dockable vtr. PVW or UVW series camcorders do not allow for using betacam oxide tapes for recording.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

If the issue was a component signal path issue you would not have had the problem on the composite outputs of the CCU.
It would have only affected the component outputs.

Another issue to consider is if the cables connected to the vtr were reversed during the original recording ie PB was patched PR and PR patched to PB.

Have you tried another vtr for capture to confirm if the vtr might have a playback problem?

Check the component and composite outputs on the DSR-50 to confirm if the problem really exists on tape not just the firewire output.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Outputting a 4:2:2 source tape will not give you 4:4:4 magically unless you have the correct version of software for the SRW-5000 which can convert 4:2:2 footage to 4:4:4.

Sending one of the HDSDI 4:2:2 feeds to the A link works because the A link is the 4:2:2 while the B link is 0:2:2. This is why it is called dual link. Add 4:2:2 and 0:2:2 together and you get 4:4:4 (half of the chroma is information in carried in both the A and B link whereas the luma information only needs to be carried in the A link.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

If the output from the camera was analog component and there was a problem with the cable going to the camera then indeed this could account for why the video has missing color.

If you used a base station between the camera and vtr bars would have been generated in the base station and would be fine pointing to the actual camera cable having the problem. Unless bars were created at the vtr via the internal menus bypassing the feed from the camera or base station.

In anycase if the the chroma information is missing (which generally looks like you have only one color such as green skin) this leaves little hope.

How are you inputting the footage into FCP via a video card or firewire? Did you check you signal flow to verify the problem is not on your end?

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

What format was the footage shot on? Was the signal an analog component feed or digital?

If the camera had a problem outputting the proper color channels to tape and indeed you are missing some of the color information then you are screwed.

A quick check is to play color bars at the end of the tape and confirm if it is missing color also.

The only method to restore what is missing is to paint in the missing color which would take you forever.

However if the operator had the wrong color correction filter dialed in this would result in the wrong white balance which you could color correct in FCP.

Look for white, gray and black in the shot and use the three way color corrector to adjust.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

My suggestion would be to rent the hotel ballroom which has much more space and is empty allowing you to bring in your office furniture.

The hotel room is wrong environment given the variables and lack of cooperation from the hotel you describe.

Don’t set yourself up for failure because the client can’t see the chaos in the making.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Mark,

Tell us more about the details regarding the intern class action suit. I never heard about this story.

Did this occur in LA as in Los Angeles?

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Another item to consider is what releases or copyright restrictions occur if the video is seen or shown outside of Canada where the laws are different?

TS