Daniel Smith

Hi. I shot a training DVD for a company a few weeks back, I'm now in the process of editing it. I wondered what I should do at the end, if I should put © followed by my own name or followed by the company name? Not sure what to do. Dan.

yes I agree the beep at the correct bpm is ideal to not throw the talent off with timing.

It may help to edit the track and place 3 short beeps into it at the beginning, beeps are easier to sync and they are a good way to count the performer in.

Hmm.. last time I was rendering out video and checked task manager it looked asthough only one thread was being used. I just want to build a new PC with a budget of about a grand (£) but specialise it for CPU and ram power. But don't want to get a new i7 if Avids not even going to use it to its full extent. If you had about a grand to spend, give or take a few hundred, what would you go for?

Of course we're not! Just look at me at work. Oh.. uhh.. damn... But on a serious note this picture is a good example of 'Bokeh'.

wow great response, thanks. Yeh there were a lot of complaints about the narration, but even as a group we all agreed it needed much more work especially in post. Shooting in the caves was an educational experience as it doesn't matter how much theory you know, the practicality of these things are a whole different thing. It's called an industry for a reason, it's often a case of the getting the work done and getting it out there, not faffing around on something for months on end worrying if it's good enough. Lighting was such an issue on the day, as some bright spark managed to break the XLR powered lights leaving us with just torches, which along with the camera battery went dead quick enough in the cold conditions. Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. But yeh. Just thought I need to start posting more work on here.. I'm starting to come across as all talk and not much else lol Will try and post a recent studio programme I lit before christmas. (Have to get tapes back, digitise etc.)

Hi. I was rendering out some video through Avid (MC 3) and noticed that it was only utilizing one of the cores from a dual core processor. Just wondering if it's worth getting one of these new i7 processors if editing software isn't going to use all of the power anytime soon? Or is this something NLE software makers are working on? cheers. Dan.

Kinda unrelated but... if you noticed the cut I think the editor done a bad job. Unless it intended otherwise.

Liking both them shots. First has good perspective and framing, the second has some seriously nice lighting and composition. Well, this has probably been shown to death by now... it's not my favourite but it's my most popular. http://ashleysmithd.deviantart.com/art/The-Hours-64761214 Not sure I can link it to my own photographic personality is any way.. I'm generally a fan of naturalistic stuff (Roger Deakins work etc.) Processed stuff like my shot just bores me now. Anyone can get a cheap SLR take and merge several shots and make it look like something super expensive. It's just eye candy. But this is the shot I'd show someone if I wanted to score a job.

Hi. This is a short documentary I made at college, over the course of two days shooting. I was camera operator of the main camera (not the ghost cam) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OfAc9CBxYMo&...re=channel_page I know it's not great but, tell me what you think. cheers. Dan.

I love the way it's shot, and love the entertainment factor but, that's almost all it is. A lot of people assume it's a car programme that reviews new cars and gives you the low down, when.. most of the time it's just comedy with a guest chat section. There's very little actual 'informing' done. But.. I could never afford any of the cars they review anyway so what do I care. I watch it for the comedy. I just see it as a car orientated Jonathan Ross show.

Merry christmas. I hate cliche liberal hollywood egos. It's Revolutionary Road I'll be seeing.

Yep.

hmm... shame. It would be nice if everything was fully lockable. iris, shutter speed and iso. I'd hate for the footage to suddenly gain more exposure half way through a shot. Wouldn't be any different to a consumer market MiniDV camera as far as I'm concerned. Just higher res and less noise.

tnx. you or anyone know what manual controls it has for video? ie. shutter, locked off iris, options to go interlaced etc. or is it almost locked off? I do both photography and video so I wouldn't mind shooting two birds with one stone. Bearing in mind I'm a skint student and can't afford both.

But is it really 1080p? or 1080i? No where seems to specify, not even the Canon web site. H.264. Amazing codec.

Hi. I worked on an EP diary for a friend’s band Subversi0n to put on youtube and their myspace. Before you watch this, just remember what the genre is. There IS bad language, everything is done off the cuff and some things some members around here might find immature and possibly offensive. This is what I was trying to emulate: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7eVdKaLc-o4&...re=channel_page This is the result: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=z_8RhEiykS8&...re=channel_page Watch it in high quality though (link below the right bottom corner) I hope it brings some form of interested to the band. Let me know if I have succeeded or not. Cheers. Dan. (ps. yeh I know I screwed up the lighting on the interview... I'll never live that one down.)

There's way too much ignorance on both sides. I've done both film and television work and it's amazing how the opinions are polar opposite between the two. Come here, most people are pro-film. Come to my television college Ravensbourne, and everyone’s pro-digital. Although broadcast and cinema are slowly merging. The technologies supporting both are closing in.

No I mean the line the data is being sent through. It's bandwidth that's the real bottleneck not server space.

Sennheiser ME66 is a good and inexpensive microphone.

Hi. I'm in the process of building my showreel. So far I've obtained some royalty free music that my college bought, and have pasted in a whole bunch of video material I've shot and been a part of. Is there anything I need to do first, ie. obtain written permission from each and every production to use it? Or anything I should bare in mind when making this? thanks for any insight. Dan.

Rent a line or pay to use someone elses. Really depends what you mean by raw HD footage. I can send DVCPro footage through my net. But HDCAMSR and HD-SDI really needs some kind of business line. If you send it through your own connection, setup a software sever (sambar or something) and give your editor something like internet download manager where it gives him the opportunity to pause and resume downloads even when they start to hang. There is nothing worse than sending a huge file, getting to the end and finding out it's not sending anymore. Uploads on basic connections have a habbit of doing this. Not sure where you are from but IBF in covent garden (UK, london) offer this service.

Hi. I wondered what is the industry standard for mixing and encoding 5.1 surround sound? Software, not hardware. My first guess was protools. Any ideas? cheers. Dan.

Agreed. My college as an example homes a few arrogants and they often do very well. However, they've grown increasingly un-popular throughout the course because of this. Anything in moderation is a good thing.

Being nervous and carrying on a job IS fighting in the face of fear. Those who are fully confident sometimes get slack. And confidence can often be misguided.