[Will Salley]

[Jeremy Fabiano] “Trying to get a job, and I only have AE under my belt. My roomie is learning Maya and we have aspirations of making our primary income based on graphic design. “

I would suggest that you both get experience in FCP and/or Avid, as well as any application you might need to help you produce a creative and useful product. Unlike most post-houses of the past, having a cursory knowledge of many apps is a good thing, in addition to specializing in just one or two. Photoshop is a must.

The best advice I can give anyone after my 20+ years of production is to make sure you have a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of ALL parts of the business. That means knowledge of the technical, artistic, and financial areas. It doesn’t hurt to know some marketing and personnel skills as well.

For example, you should know the difference between PAL and NTSC, you should know the difference between frame data rates and frame pixel dimensions. You should have an understanding of frame composition, color space and how it translates to different display and playback systems. And you should have an idea of what is billable time and what constitutes an ROI expense. Even if you plan on working for a large facility you will still be at an advantage because you know you have a balanced perspective on the business.

Primary System Info
Mac Pro 2×3.2 Quadcore – 6MBram – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro

[Will Salley]

With a crossfade.

Primary System Info
Mac Pro 2×3.2 Quadcore – 6MBram – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro

[Will Salley]

It’s actually an upgrade to the MOTU V3 – which was introduced before the ioHD. It’s not as popular as the AJA unit because MOTU is primarily an audio device designer. It, like the ioHD, is limited in function because of the data bottleneck imposed by the Firewire connection.

[Will Salley]

I have the 37″ Aquos 37D62U as a client monitor and, out of curiosity, set it up with my Eye-One calibrator (used for monitor calibration for print work). It provided a fairly close match to the SONY CRT but, didn’t have the same gamma response (relationship between the darkest RGB to the lightest). I too agree that it can be useful for color correction in addition to the pro monitors. If the public will view it on a LCD or plasma, shouldn’t we be previewing on the same?

Check this out if you’re interested in the Eye-One. BTW, You’ll need a Kona or Blackmagic card to set up the video monitor.

[Will Salley]

Thanks Kristian, I was trying to connect an HD-LCD and the PVM.. I was thinking I could display both SD and HD at the same time. PVM is component and the LCD is HDMI.

The Photoshop plug-in is nice. Just made an ‘action” button for one-click display.

Thanks for the help.

Will

System Info – G5/Dual 2 – 10.4.8 – QT v7.1.3 – 8GB ram – Radeon 9800Pro – External SATA Raid – Decklink Extreme – Wacom 6×8

[Will Salley]

Are you using a Sony Z1? If so, I’ve had the same issues when the phantom power is used with a cable with incorrect wiring (reversed hot). No problems with other cameras or correctly shielded and wired cables.

[Will Salley]

Check your mic powering setup. You don’t need phantom power for the wireless. You only need +48v on the 416. The third input should have the phantom power switch set to off.

If the problem persists, try resetting the mixer. I think the instructions are on the quick card attached to the bottom of the mixer.

[Will Salley]

I have not used a USB mic, but I could give a little insight as to it’s known limitations.

Firstly, it’s an analog device using an integrated analog to digital converter. The quality of design and build of this component will have a huge impact on the sound. Whether it will improve it or not depends on the quality of the device that it is replacing, which is, assuming you’re recording digitally, is another A/D device further down the signal chain. Most audio engineers, recordists, and studios invest in at least one dedicated A/D converter that is designed to do one job very good. These high-end devices typically start at around $700 and go up into the stratosphere in price. The AT USB mic cost, what , $300? Guess which one will perform better.

On the other hand, if you don’t have a dedicated A/D converter and you are going analog directly into a laptop, you are using a really lousy built-in converter that may not be as good as the one built into the USB mic. In that situation, the USB mic might be useful, but for

System Info – G5/Dual 2 – 10.4.8 – QT v7.1.3 – 8GB ram – Radeon 9800Pro – External SATA Raid – Decklink Extreme – Wacom 6×8

[Will Salley]

It pays to make a friend with the makeup artist as well as wardrobe. Many makeup artists I work with will have the experience of embedding a lav capsule in the hair…mainly because they don’t want some lowly sound guy messing with their hairstyle. LIve theatre can be challenging because you can’t just stop a scene to make mic adjustments or battery changes.

It helps to have a lav with a small capsule and thin cable and it should be an top-addressed omni. My favorite is the flesh colored Countryman B6. This mic is so small that it can be in plain view and no one will notice.

Years ago the mic heads were often disguised as a lapel pin or flower.

[Will Salley]

I would guess no less than 3 feet and no more than 5 feet away from the listening position for the FL, center, and FR. I don’t think the RL and RR need to necessarily match that distance. It’s probably more important to have some wall treatment and/or non-parallel walls to keep the reflections to a minimum.