Boyd McCollum

Hi Jose, nice site. A couple quick observations. I like some of the work on your reel, but I have no idea what you did or didn't do. You combine camera op with assistant, gaffer, and dp (i.e., I don't know if you were the assistant on the shot with the good lighting, etc.). I think you could focus the reel more on the type of job you want. I have a similar comment with your resume. By breaking down your work by film type (short, feature), you diffuse the work you've done. For instance, with Shorts, the first thing that comes up is Video Assist. Also, it may be a feature, but no way being a PA on a feature should ever come before camera op on a commercial or anything else, yet it's the second thing I see. Eventually, you'd just drop all the assistant stuff, as you really don't need a website for that type of work. You may want to organize what you've done by job function: Lighting/Camera (gaffer/dp/operator), Crew (any assistant job), Director, etc. You could even put a project in two locations if you were both the dp/cam and director. Oh, and the link to your documentary is broken - I was kind of looking forward to seeing it. Anyway, just some thoughts.

In fairness to McG, once someone goes off like Bale did, there's really nothing you can do. I've learned this over many years with my 9 year old son and his occasional melt-downs. Once the explosion happens, the only thing you can do is let it run out of steam on its own. The real question, and what we don't know, is how McG handled the situation afterwards, and whether this blow up destroyed set harmony. One part of the whole incident that is not getting a lot attention, if any, is the effect this kind of blow up has on the entire crew or even Bale's own fellow actor in the scene. He claims Shane was being rude to Bryce Dallas Howard, but I'm sure it wasn't helpful for her frame of mind as an actor to be exposed to his rant. One of the things that bothers me the most are those people trashing Hurlbut's professionalism in an effort to excuse Bales's behavior. That's just wrong.

it currently plays on a Mac running Safari.

One thing to note is that a "workflow" never becomes plural. A workflow is a singular entity, or a specific way to get from a to b. You can have multiple workflows, or multiple ways to get from a-b, but each workflow is discrete and never random. Workflows are also planned out in advanced and become more critical as projects and budgets get bigger. It's about breaking down each step of a process and being consistent in how things are done. Good workflows allow for greater creativity along with increased savings in time, money, and (most important) stress.

Hi Derek, I think Chad was suggesting posting in other threads on this forum - there's an Off-topic thread and an Editor's Corner Thread. Since they may not get used as often, especially when time is critical, for FCP questions you may want to check out the LA Final Cut Pro User group (lafcpug.org) or the Creative Cow. Both are very active and should get you quick answers for your FCP questions. Btw, I'm glad you got a few extra days to work on your project. Post back to let us know how it goes.

I'm curious which films in b&w you were watching. I would say that I wouldn't look towards your classmates (I say this with affection - I was a film student myself back in the day), as arbiters of art, arty, or whether b&w is a legitimate filmic look in modern cinema. It can be an eloquent way to strip away the fluff and focus on the essentials of the story. There are also many films that are so desaturated and stark, or otherwise monochromatic, that they may as well be b&w.

You probably already have this figured out, but some quick input: 1. Check in the FCP user guide, chapter 2 under audio mixing. It should tell you how to set up your tracks to output for 5.1 (or use the search feature). The trouble you will probably run into is that, if I'm not mistaken, iDVD doesn't do surround sound. I'm not sure, but a surround system maybe able to play out a stereo track to all the speakers by default, but I've never tried it. 2. Read the HD and Broadcast Formats guide under the Tools menu. AVCHD is not supported for editing in FCP 6. It's recommended to transcode AVCHD either to Prores or AIC. Your render issue are because you're taking a nasty processor intensive not supported codec and trying to edit it with another processor intensive codec. So FCP is basically transcoding each clip you use. When you move or edit it, it has to transcode it again, etc. You should export QT movies of your footage out of FCP into a codec that edits easily, then reimport it back in. In the timeframe you have and the media you're going to (SD DVD), I'd just bring it in as DV25 and it'd be quicker at the end to make a DVD (with the MPEG2 conversion). It'll still look pretty sharp. 3. There's no "film look" filter in FCP. The film look can also be many things, but usually you get it in production and how you shoot and light your stuff and real grading on the back end. Don't forget, dp's and directors spend lots of time together to develop the look of a film before they even shoot. Doing some simple color correction and adding contrast back into your footage will help. Use the 3 Way Color Corrector for contrast and color adjustments. For time saving purposes, you can save specific filters you're going to reuse by dragging them into your favorites folder under the Effects tab in the Browser. The most efficient workflow is edit for story, get to picture lock, then do any color correction and audio mixing. It goes without saying that in the future you really should work out these issues well in advance and not the night before the project's due. Each of these elements can be rather time consuming on their own. Good luck, I hope your showing goes well!

deleted - duplicate post

doing 600 of anything is a great way to work out best practices! I'll need to add that (8 bit uncompressed, not burning 600 DVDs) to my workflow. Thanks Walter! Boyd

My thinking is that with HDV, any clip that needed rendering would lose something by having FCP rerender it (and the filter) back into the HDV codec - so using Prores would maintain higher quality on applied filters, such as the 3-way Color Corrector. Also graphics, stills, or other cgi elements not already HDV would be of better quality and wouldn't be rendered down to HDV for export, then be rerendered again in Compressor. Any native HDV material not needing to be rendered would still go out as HDV during the QT export. Another benefit would be faster render times (though larger render files). Just my $.02 and I'm always open to learning better ways of doing things.

It's been a while, so you've probably already got this onto a DVD, but if you're using a Mac, I'd export it out at it's native codec with Export>Quicktime Movie>Current Settings, then use Compressor to do the MPEG2 compression - select the appropriate best quality preset for the size file you'll need (90 min, 120 min, or 150 min). You can do a fastest encode if this is more of a screener. Also, prior to exporting your project out of FCP, I would do a couple of things. If there are any filters (hopefully you're doing some basic color correcting) I'd set the renders (Sequence Settings/Render Control Tab) to use Prores 422. Under the Video Processing Tab, select Render all YUV material to High Precision YUV and Motion Filtering Quality to Best. Use the render manager to delete any previous renders for your final sequence, then render with the new settings.

A rolling shutter from a light flash lasting 2.5 seconds? I've seen it for 1 to 2 frames, but never more than that and don't see how it's even technically possible for it to last longer than that (from a flash) - are you sure you weren't seeing some other issue?

No experience with delivering from an EX1, but check what HD format the broadcaster will accept, you should be able to export out of your NLE to the appropriate format. Delivery on HDCAM/HDCAM SR tape is fairly common.

The pricing per gig is similar for both the SxS and P2 cards (around ~$900 for 16GB cards), however the record times are vastly different. The 16GB SxS card will give you 50 minutes at 1080/60i while the 16GB P2 card will give you 16 min at 1080/60i (or 40 min at 720/24p). I found a couple of good charts comparing recording times for each card using various formats and sized cards at TapeStockOnline: http://www.tapestockonline.com/sxspromecavs.html Boyd

I don't have any experience with Discovery HD, but you could ask them directly on upressing the footage, though I doubt that's going to improve the footage any, or that they will change their policy. From the programming I've seen, it's as much about the HD-ness of the look as anything else. The resolution on the HVX just isn't the same as a 2/3" HD camera with real glass. I imagine when they throw it on a high-end HD production monitor, and after watching 1000's of hours worth of programming, it'll be pretty obvious. You could try sneaking it by them, though I'm not a fan of that approach, or rework your workflow to use a camera that's in spec. At least you know up front - the worse would be to shoot with the HVX and have the program rejected. I'd be interested to find out what their decision is on the EX-1.