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Jason Sikorski

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About Jason Sikorski

  • Birthday 10/14/1977

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  • Occupation
    Director
  • Location
    San Francisco, CA
  1. Would there be any interest in an Atlanta sub-forum?
  2. If you're unable to format the drive, you should at least do your best to confirm that it's not trying to index all of your files, make automatic backups of your internal HD, or any other craziness like that. ..and if you really want to find out if you're hitting the upper limits of Firewire 400, you can see exactly how much data is being transferred by following these steps: Open your Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities - or just use Spotlight to find it). Type the command "iostat -w1 -d", and let it run in the background while you're editing. Once you've done a bit of work and you feel that everything is moving slower than it should be, go back and examine the output in your Terminal window. Each line represents one second, and each disk will be represented by three columns (with a heading of diskN over all three, repeating every 15 lines or so). "disk0" is your internal HD, so "disk1" should be your WD MyBook if that's the only external drive you have hooked up. The column you'll be most interested in is the right-most "MB/s" for your external disk (e.g., disk1). Firewire 400 can theoretically transfer 400Mbits/s, which translates to roughly 50MBytes/s. Look back and see if you ever came close to that maximum transfer rate - my guess would be "no". If you do eventually decide to try another external HD, I would personally try to find one without any of the bells & whistles found on the WD MyBook, as they will only slow things down in most cases.
  3. I've owned or used MBPs with both the matte and glossy screens, and they're both basically unusable in direct sunlight. You may want to consider one of those laptop cases that fold out into a sun shade around the screen: http://www.teamworkphoto.com/images/seaport/ivisor.jpg That's a picture of the Seaport Digital i-Visor (the one I happen to own).. although I'm sure there are myriad alternatives.
  4. Well, I believe there's an important lesson to be learned from all of this, and that is to never allow a single online product review (or poll) to carry too much weight, because there is simply no guarantee that what we're seeing or reading is genuine. Should we fault CNET and/or Apple for engaging in this form of purposely-deceptive advertising? I don't believe so, as this would appear to be just another chapter in the never-ending book of cat and mouse games between advertisers and consumers. Advertisers always seem to find their way into whatever consumers are currently focusing their attention on, and consumers always seem to direct that attention elsewhere once they realize that someone is trying to sell them something. I'm unsure about the "legality" of what they're doing, or shill marketing in general (i.e., how it is viewed by the FTC), although I did come across the following disclaimer in the CNET.com Terms of Use: We do not guarantee the accuracy, the integrity, or the quality of the content on our sites, and you may not rely on any of this content. Regardless, look on the bright side - without their technical ineptitude, you would most likely continue accepting CNET reviews at face value (or however you previously considered them), instead of treating them like giant pop-up ads. :)
  5. Rosemary's Baby sticks out in my mind as one of the better horror films I've seen. I also enjoyed my first few J-Horror films (the Japanese original Dark Water was terrific), but I believe they lose their "edge" after a while due to the high number of recurring motifs. When I was a kid, something about the The Gate (a B-movie if there ever was one) terrified the living %*!# out of me. I remember having nightmares for weeks after seeing it for the first time. Subsequent viewings (much later in life) left me wondering why I found it so terrifying. :)
  6. Well, the question of whether or not it's economical is greatly simplified if you can't afford to spend $100/day (~$1,200/month) to rent a doorway dolly. As for the cost of tubular steel, etc- you'll notice that prefabricated parts (desk chairs, wheelchairs, etc) are often used, lowering the cost & reducing the overall construction complexity. Either way, regardless of whether the equipment is DIY, rented, borrowed, or purchased -- the quality of the "end result" is really the one and only measure of success. Twenty years from now, nobody will be watching your film and wondering whether you rented a real doorway dolly, or just made your own from spare parts -- unless the quality of the shot is compromised.
  7. Because something like this can be built for less than the cost of renting for one day. Even if that wasn't the case, all it takes is some simple math to figure out if you benefit more from renting or buying. If buying something turns out to be cheaper in the long run, I'd say that's a good reason for buying it.
  8. When I initially did my research, the JVC was my #2 choice. A couple reasons why I preferred the HVX: Something with the cost of lenses, or the need for an expensive lens mount converter (this one is a little foggy). At the time, the price of the JVC HD110 (or HD100U) was higher than the HVX200. This sounds like it's no longer an issue, but make sure to include the cost of 35mm adapters, lenses, lens adapters, etc, etc. The JVC didn't seem to have a very large online community, whereas the HVX200 did (dvxuser.com). To me, this is critical, because large forums are a goldmine when you're trying to solve a problem. For all I know, I wasn't looking hard enough - so please don't take my word for it. When you get right down to it, this is a decision based on your personal taste more than anything. There is no substitute for reviewing test clips for each camera - if you make the decision "on paper", you're setting yourself up for disappointment.
  9. Just to clarify the definition of "natural light" (I've always been a bit confused about this), it would be any lighting that mimics the actual lighting in a given environment? For example - I'm shooting at night in a room with several large windows, and I put one or more large lights outside each window (diffused). Assuming that's all I use to light the shot, I'm using "natural lighting", right?
  10. If I were in your shoes, I would probably look into getting a Panasonic HVX200 w/ some third-party 35mm adapter (Brevis & Redrock were both solid choices at the time I was initially investigating all of this). My opinion is based on the footage I've seen from various lower-priced HD cameras. The HVX200 is far from "perfect" - you have to deal with P2 cards, carry an external HD monitor used for focusing, etc, etc. I would recommend lurking in the forums frequented by owners of each camera you're considering - get a sense of what they complain about most, etc.
  11. Some very creative solutions here (all of them) - thanks for sharing. Since we're sort of on the subject already - why do you suppose this sort of thing is even necessary? In other words, if it's possible to build something yourself from inexpensive materials, it's almost always possible to mass produce something better for less than you spent improvising. That's why you typically don't see people buying crowbars and shaving them down into flathead screwdrivers, or bolting two kitchen knives together to make a pair of scissors. I guess I'm just wondering why film equipment like this (e.g., dollies, basic cranes, jib arms) always seem so overly expensive, without any cheaper/lower-quality alternatives. Does it have to do with the relatively small target market (i.e., mass production doesn't make sense)? Or is it more like wedding-related products, where they just jack up the price because of what the product is being used for?
  12. While that certainly is sound advice (no pun intended), I believe the sound for her film is already finished in basic two-channel stereo - she just needed help choosing the closest match from the list (since "stereo" wasn't listed).
  13. That's an interesting list, because it appears to contain a mix of audio formats (e.g., "Dolby Digital") as well as transport mediums (e.g., "optical"). I suppose it's just a way for them to allow rare or proprietary formats - you bring the decoder with an optical output, and they'll broadcast it. Either way, "LTRT" (LtRt -> LeftRight) is probably the most sensible choice -- unless I'm missing something.
  14. If leaving the US is out of the question for the previously-mentioned economic reasons, both Austin (TX) and Shreveport (LA) are both very popular cities for independent filmmaking. I know shooting in Louisiana is desirable (at least in part) due to various post-Katrina tax breaks; however, I'm not 100% clear why Austin is so popular.
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