Jon Allen

I remember quite a bit of soft focus in "Lost in Translation" -from what I heard it was "intentional", for me, it was kind of distracting. Either way, I thought Murray did a good job, in spite of there not being too much plot.

Now, now. Let's be nice. It's not easy starting a new TV network. I mean, we only have so many superstar actors and former vice-presidents to help hype our launch.

So all this is under the assumption that any of us could do a better job than Lucas taking care of my money maker movies? Thanks for the clarification :)

Concerning the future-proofness of film. Why is it that even Star Wars & Indiana Jones both needed a bunch of digital tuneups just so that they could have a decent dvd release? It seems that if all that is needed is 20-30 years for your original print/negative to deteriorate almost to the point of oblivion. So I say, Yes you can always scan it at a higher res, but only for so long it would seem. I'm not saying video OR film is better, I'm just wondering about this "archival" ability of film in general. I suppose it also could be Lucas and Spielberg were just sloppy with their storage of their materials...

I noticed that the people that liked this movie were the kids who were geeks like Napolean, and the kids who hated it were jocks in high school. A friend of mine (former jock) had a reaction similar to "Why would they make a movie about the guy I picked on?" (Evoking the pattern of guilt- but I'll leave that to the Freud Forum) I think the general "niche" that this movie appealed to was the nostalgia of the 80s. Who else would plug moon boots and "trapper keepers"? Concerning the sequel. I think it would be a bad idea. There's little chance they're going to get that ensemble back together. Even if they did, the rights have been bought by Fox, the script would stink and it wouldn't be consistent at all with the previous film. Remember Whistler from Blade?

True, stock photog is amazingly competitive. HD has initiated a new round of stock gathering- so I would say the outlook for stock is just as good as it's ever been.

I'm not sure what a $500 consumer camcorder will teach you about filmmaking that a $200 of the same won't.

Yeah, there are break-out cards which convert the signal, but there are also cards you can add to your computer to directly import the signal. Blackmagic Design has some great prices for their cards. All their stuff can live in both Mac and PC worlds. http://www.blackmagic-design.com/site/decklink.htm

I'll second that, a home computer is probably the worst place to test your dvd. Decoding software on PCs is ALWAYS less than optimal... less than nominal in my experience. If you want to guaruntee maximum compatibility, use -R. I read a report by some guy that tested about 80 dvd players (circa '01) and found that even with the most compatible dvds were only playable on about 60% of set top players. Hopefully we've improved a small amount since then.

I can't imagine a network complaining about the extra ad time though. ;)

I tend to think this forum is a great resource ;)

If you misplaced your manual, you can get the pdf here: DVX Product Page Check page 63. There are two 24p modes that the dvx is capable of recording, one which records a 2:3:3:2 (Adv) and one that records a regular 2:3 pattern. Most decks and editing suites are able to record either pattern from the tape. However, if you tell it to capture one or the other and that's not what you recorded, then you're in for another batch of capturing. This is all speculation of course, I don't know what your problem is. I would sugguest learning about your equipment first. If you don't know what a 2:3 pulldown pattern is, I would sugguest not shooting in 24p at all.

Could you possibly be capturing your "jutter" frame? This looks like something that could happen if you didn't use 24P Advanced.

you can record DVCAM onto either regularly sized DV tapes or miniDV tapes. The DVCAM compression is exactly the same as DV25 codec: 4:1:1. The only differences I'm able to find is the fact that DVCAM tape rate is 1.5 faster than regular mDV and that it records at 15 micron track instead of 10 like mDV. This is probably similar to the DVCpro format that Panasonic developed with an 18 micron track. The real nerds can discuss the differences in greater detail and why one is better than the other. The nice thing is ou don't need any special DV cassettes to record onto either. The faster tape rate of DVCAM turns a 60 minute regular miniDV tape into a 40 minute tape, and the slower tape rate of regular DV turns a 60 minute DVCAM tape into a 90 minute DV tape. I wouldn't recommend mixing recording formats on the same tape though, that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

You think that's his real last name??? :P

Does the DVRACK have the option to record photo-jpeg offline footage onto the HD? It'd be nice if you could record onto the laptop and then transfer that footage to your server, then do your offline edits on FCP. I suppose FCP has this ability- doesn't it? But pricewise, it would make more sense to take el cheapo PC laptop into the field than your $1700 powerbook.

Hee hee! It looks like Johnny 5 from Short Circuit! No disassemble!

The way that guy rips on technology is proof of the fact that he knows nothing. First of all, he gets the new, smaller iPod confused with the new, smaller G4. Second, all mac minis come with the standard crappy mouse and keyboard. Thirdly, for this guy not to know about DVI is even more evidence he hasn't seen any new video cards since '95. Lastly, he mentions the "benefit" of Windows XP, need I say more? I don't need so say more, just one question: With the site he blogs for, they're still in the middle of the Linux v WinX debate, are these serious articles- or an onion ripoff?

I think the lack of serious response is somewhat of a tribute to the fact that there is no real "formula" for getting "in" the biz. Granted, a lot of kids think that going to the right school is going to get you the gigs you want. But from my experience, it's all about where you want to go, how fast you want to get there, and how you are with people. There are a lot of dicks that went to film school and think they're the next hitchcock and DESERVE to land that big director roll immediately after graduating school. I read a short article about a production assistant opening up to higher and higher jobs, that is, once you're already on the set of a production. There are a lot of experience sets that aren't readily associated with the glitz and glamour, one being a truck driver- sometimes a CDL will get you places an MFA won't, second is electrical and construction knowledge- if you can build it... I digress, most of my "cinematographical" education began after my BA was earned (electronic media, to be specific). A movie is a great way to become famous, but until that happens, some of us will have to make do with making TV commercials for the local bank.

Jason X? That seems to bring some memory back... ... forget it.

I think it has to do with eating cereal... or maybe chili... dunno.

"Half of your ability to succeed relies on your level of confidence- or the level of confidence you can facade."

Again, you yourself said that music videos are more practice than actual "real" filmmaking. I'm not arguing one way or the other, I had just heard that and was curious what other people thought of that. I personally feel that any work is great, and if you get paid so much the better. On the other hand I also feel that if you're given the option to make music videos for no-talent over-hyped over-produced pop artists, why would that be your first choice? Of course, you could say that about a lot of things- and most everything whose first outlet is television.

2 Guarunteed Formulas for Success in Moviemaking: #1. Go to school, learn all you can from your profs, learn even more from cinematography.com, graduate with a decent reel, move to hollywood and get on the bitch squad (PA), forsake all human contacts to be available for production assignments, borrow all the money you can from every relative, max out your credit cards to pay for your first short film, land a very lucky 3am show at sundance, sell it to the first distributor who talks to you. #2. Get born a Cappola.

So if I'm a big-time 14 year old hacker, I'm going to gain notariety by bothering to figure out a crack to OSX when I can exploit any already well-known security gap in windows? Yeah right. I think we forget that people only become well-known in the virus writing community if their code successfully travels through many computers. Meaning that they're probably going to exploit a vulnerability that they know has the potential to hit a lot of machines- not pore over lines and lines of BSD and UNIX to find a hole that might make it possible for code to maybe travel to a few hundred macs- instead of a hundred million windows machines.