CJ Henke III

Yes the film has been color graded, but just exporting a 29.97, 30p or even 60i file to 23.98 would cause the footage to be jittery/ jerky right? wouldn't if have to go through a strong frame rate conversion in compressor or an alternative? Thanks for the reply.

I understand that there a multi-coated and varies degrees to which these are manufactured, but when someone puts Achromat next to a lens does this always mean that it is a "Macro Lens" technically speaking? Or are there different types of Macro lenses. Are these basically the same lenses? (Forget the obvious difference in Macro Strength and Brand/ Quality) http://cgi.ebay.com/MACRO-10-CLOSE-UP-LENS-FILTER-72mm-NEW-n- http://cgi.ebay.com/Marumi-DHG-Achromat-Ma...3%3A1|294%3A200 Thanks, Concave - Convex is about all I know about lens shapes.

A feature was made with an FX-1. (HDV format) and edited together on a Premiere Pro system. Now it is currently getting post sound work done, but in order to help save time and money what should be done now. Here are the scenarios that will shortly become real situations. As you know the FX-1 records in 1440x1080i, Not 1920x1080 square pixels nor progressive. For a film out it should be at least 2K, so how to go about the post workflow? Examples, They could give it to the post house as is, which will not be cheap. 1. I could convert the final film in (print-lock) to ApplePro Res 422 (HQ) and save them some money, but should it be converted (using compressor) to 1920x1080?, or should it be up-resized before hand? Should it be placed in a specific codec (DPX, Cineon, Animation, ProRes, etc.)? I am really just confused and post houses are not going to tell me information that will take added money away from their work flow. So can someone help? Should it be in DVCProHD? etc. etc. etc. The final film will need to be ready for a Print (film-out) and a HD version meeting broadcast and blueray requirements. Other then a (film-out) it will have to be ready for display on digital projects (which format is that). Thanks, I hope this helps other forum readers in the future.

Thanks for all of the advice. It is exactly what I have been thinking. I know they are going to try to push for me to work, 12 hour days. After an initial interview I was told that I would basically be doing all that was said above. Sometimes, (if I had the DP's & editor's "trust"), that I would be shooting and editing some stuff together, and getting it to the Playback guys a day before they need it on the set. Additionally, when there are LCD monitors on set, I would be "the playback" guy for some shoot days. Then, Randomly, out of nowhere. I was said that I should also search for local sponsors / advertisers, local footage to incorporate into basically, a television network stream with news anchors, a fight or two, & commercials all to be used in the film. Then, I was told that they would make up some job title for me, but I am still confused, because after what they said to me, I would basically be doing a producers job (that gets handed off to the assistant producer, and then maybe to a PA or secretary assistant). A second unit director's job, that I would not be getting any credit for and I mentioned that I know motion graphics (which in my opinion would be necessary for such a task), but I wouldn't get any credit there. Tomorrow I have a meeting with the director, I know I will get the job, but who should I ask and discuss my pay with??? Would it be an butt move once I show the director how much I can do, to ask him for the obvious need for a pay increase? Thanks, CJ Plus, they are all from L.A., it is a Lionsgate 30 million dollar film. I don't mind getting some experience in exchange for a little less pay, but I have a feeling they are really going to use all that I have to offer, thank me for it, and then take all the credit. By the way, I do not feel like putting peoples names out there, but if decide not to take the job, or the offer is re-tracked, I will post all of the films information. Thanks Again.

I production has come into my town and I am definitely looking for a job, but I don't want to run into working over 70 hours a week for only $600/ wk. Here is the job description, does this sound right to you? And what would the title for this crew position be? (CJ is me fore short) CJ, we are looking for a person to coordinate all of our video playback on the film. this person would work closely with the director, producer and 1st AD to list all, wrangle, get to editor for editing, put into correct format of all playback and get to our playback person on a timely manner for each day of shooting that would require playback to be done onset. rate; $600 wk. (not a lot of money but a good job to work closely with director and producer on the show). position would start on Monday 3/23 and go till the 3rd wk of June and maybe the end of june. let me know if this might interest you...........thx

Rick, I was interested in that, but Phil was basically saying that I wouldn't see much of a difference than working with firewire. The camera I would use 99% of the time would be the Sony HVR-Z1U, HDV camcorder. I just noticed in doing some research on SDI capture and Export cards, that most- if not all of them- have hardware downconverting, and it could have sealed the deal for me when it comes to spending the extra money on a SDI capture card verses just buying more hard drives for the computer. All in all, I'm looking for all of the benefits a capture card has to offer, and all the cons as well.

It looks like they went for all natural lighting. It is easy to see based on the color temperatures with color correction added on. I agree with the lens, but how many people really have a few grand to drop on a longer heavier lens? (Especially if they are shooting a feature with the FX-1 on all digital. Good job Sanjit. I hope to see your movie soon.

...Excuse the large pictures... I always take uncompressed files and use compressor (with the settings above) as the last step. It mainly has to do with artifacts and anti-aliasing. DV ORIGINAL MPG via Compressor DV ORIGINAL TWO MPG via Compressor TWO Can you see the differences around edges, lines, etc. (The top logo appears to be squeezed, but it is from the screen capture) The problem truly occurs when a small .mpg is stretched to fit a larger screen with these artifacts.

My workflow: If video footage is involved, I capture in FCP, editing, (Make graphics in after effects, export with alpha or pre-made background in Animation files .mov), Place them into my timeline. Then export another animation file. Open up compressor, and export the .mpg file with these settings: MPEG2 files must meet the following specifications. Resolution – 720x480 Aspect Ratio – 4:3 Stream type - System stream Audio type – Mpeg1 Layer2 Audio sample rate – 48Khz Bitrate type – CBR or VBR Bitrate – 5 to 10 Mbps Or I may make the entire commercial in After Effects, either in HD, or DV NTSC, export animation file. Do the same as above in compressor. And upload the final .mpg to an ftp account. I do not have betacam-anything (no doe for that), I am curious about delivering the commercial in some other means, while remaining cost effective. Please note these are the accepted methods of spot delivery in order of preference. Betacam SP tape Betacam tape Betacam SX tape Betacam Digital tape DVC Pro tape DVCAM tape Mini DV tape (except long play) DG Systems electronic delivery Fast Channel electronic delivery Vyvx electronic delivery MPEG2 file via FTP ¾” tape I always assumed with compressor that the video files would maintain their quality, but once converted to .mpg's (they die). Would HD to SD hardware down-conversion help with this problem? Or should I look for some sort of USB MPEG2 encoder? Thanks Again.

Ok so let me get this straight. You want to make a mock tv news broadcast and have it playing on a television in the room that your actor is going to be filmed in? Correct? If so, I know a few ways to do it, but a lot depends on your television, DVD player, and Camera settings. (Also, take into factor, that if you composite the image on the TV screen, lighting will be a factor. (reflection on the glass, or not, are you trying to capture your actors reflection in the screen while they are watching it? etc.) If you have your shots already pre-determined I could give you an exact answer, but in the meantime look into doing as follows. 1. If you have an extra camera, (same forumla works with DVD player), you can record the News Anchor footage with that camera, then just plug it into the TV and push play. However, if you have a tube television, you may or may not get the horizontal lines moving up and down, (test out your HVX on the television first, some TV's work, some don't). The same thing would happen if you recorded the footage and put it onto DVD, but if you are going to do that, test out your DVD player with the TV first while you are recording it. Some dvd players change the HZ rate, or differer based on the connection to the television and, may or may-not cause the nasty horizontal lines. If you have an LCD TV, Plasma, or Computer monitor, in most cases there should not be a problem. 2, Compositing, which I have done before. It takes a little bit more after effects, shake, etc. knowledge to pull it off, but it will look however you want it to in the final version. (You can add reflections and all to the television. Step one, film your news anchor. Step 2, if you have an LCD TV, burn a DVD with a color that you can key out (such as a green screen), make sure to place 4 points in a square to motion track later on. Something such as this The blue lines in the corner will allow you to determine the curve and distortion near the edges of the television. (You do not have to use this part, unless you need to accurately replicate the edges of the screen). Then you simply motion track the shot, you can use after effects perspective corner pin for tracking or I recommend obtaining various track points and merging them via TrackerViz Long - Super Long A** tutorial in three parts: Part 1: http://www.mackdadd.com/CG/trackerviz/TrackerViz_part01.zip Part 2: http://www.mackdadd.com/CG/trackerviz/Trac....1_tutorial.zip Part 3: http://www.mackdadd.com/CG/trackerviz/Stab...ackerViz_01.zip Download: http://www.nabscripts.com/downloads/scripts/TrackerViz.zip Visit Nabscripts.com, for more information (in French) ----------- With that said, any basic knowledge of compositing will greatly help your chances to conserve time and get it done. A simple Mesh warp effect in AE will help to give the composited screen a curve. 3. Just do a cut away and fake the screen around your shot... (super easy), a step above that is compositing the entire TV into the shot, if it's a still shot it's not a problem, but it seems pointless if you just used a LCD screen and played back your footage. A nice DVD set to loop the video would make it easy to film multiple takes.

Phil, thanks, that was information that I was looking for. Question then, what do you recommend? My main purposes for this work is to export for the internet (which means nothing), but I do upload TV commercials to comcast via Mpeg2 and I notice (aside from the loss of compression for MPEG2) that most video quality drops before hand. Would a Hardware down conversion piece of equipment (such as Blackmagic or AJA) be a good investment for such means? Thanks Again.

Thanks for the advice.

A lot depends on your budget IMO. I will go from what I know which are all under the $10,000 range and if you are using the GRHD1, then I know you are working with a conservative budget. From top to bottom is my list. 1. Sony PMW-EX3 (Like someone else mentioned shooting uncompressed is the best for any situation, but don't forget to add SXS cards into your budget) 2. Sony PMW-EX1 (Same recording format as the EX3 minus some features, and will save you more money). I have seen these shoot in super low light and work perfectly. 3. Sony HVR-Z7U (It picks up picture at 1.5 LUX, lowest of the HDV cameras and also supports recording uncompressed with it's compact flash storage unit. 4. Sony HVR-Z5U, Z1U, or FX-1, these mid range work phenomenally well in low light. I recommend sony for this because they have worked the best for me and my friends in every low light situation / problem, we've had. The HVX200 will work with High Gain, but still needs more light. Based you put up, a lot of cameras have a spotlight feature on them, which is meant for those type of situations (a hard contrast between darks and lights).

I am a FCP editor and I just purchased a Sony HVR-Z1U. Instead of capturing via firewire, which has worked fine in the past - - I would like to get the best out of the footage that I shot. I was guessing that purchasing an SDI capture card would be the next best step, but which one? I'm not concerned with down converting, just more or less interested in capturing the cameras data at it's best. My comp specs: Quad Core Mac Pro, 2.66 HGz Intel Xeon 5 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM 4 500 GB Hard Drives. ATI Radeon X1900 Would something such as this work for my needs? http://cgi.ebay.com/Blackmagic-Decklink-SD...3A1%7C294%3A200

Each year it seems that the latest Sony, Panasonic, Canon, etc. "Professional -to- Prosumer" camcorders are released out of thin air. Last year I was fortunate to be a DuArt in New York and hear about the PMW-EX1 and HVR-Z7U before they were released, but no far away from New York I do not have a clue as to when the next generation of camcorders will be released. Do you? or better yet, where is a good place to find information on them before they come out. I hate buying a new camera and then realizing that the latest model will be out in a few months, help me to avoid that. Thanks, CJ

I am making another music video, but this time I am trying to find a lotion or some sort of golden paint that is skin friendly and wash off. I want to give a golden tone to the various models skin without modifying the lighting. I have conducted some searches on the internet, but besides a bronzer (which is intended for tanning) I have lucked out. I would use the bronzer, but then it is going to temporarily stain my models skin. Do anyone know what the name of this lotion or body paint is called? Example, a hype williams music videos is full of models covered in lotion. Thanks, CJ

In the recent years with NLE systems and filmmaker's shooting 29.97 fps, a big issue has been how to convert that 30p footage to 24p (from a cinematic approach). Currently I have 2 friends whose film is getting independent industry attention, but they have a serious concern with their footage. They shot it with a Sony FX1 in Cineframe 30, which was described to us by a DuArt Chief Engineer as being 30p. There is much debate has to how to convert their footage to 24p for a film out transfer and so far I have seen too many "possible" options for conversion, but none of which are a garmented, or even close to it. Has anyone done this or found any software out there that will allow us to convert this footage properly? I have seen these recommendations, but have yet to of hear or seen any tangible results. http://www.nattress.com/Products/standards...sconversion.htm http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/magicbulletframes.html I heard Lumiere HD, but they are now out of business. I also heard about Twixtor, but after testing an older demo of it, I was not too happy. Or even Twixtor and FieldsKit for After Effects which I haven't heard of being tested in this situation. Anyone with real knowledge about this please Help. It has been a major concern and I am about to crack if I can't find someone with any sort of real hands on knowledge. Thanks, CJ

Has anyone touched the z7u yet or had a chance to give it an assessment? I was at DuArt and I was able to see some test footage that they captured in Times Square. I must say it looked amazing and handled Vivid colors (especially red) perfectly. I was also told by a DuArt staff member that it records in the XDCAM format. Who has had a chance to look at it? I am looking to purchase a new digital camcorder and this is the one I have been interested in for some time. April will be the judge after the other manufacturers release their new equipment at the expo in vegas. Links: Sony News About z7u B&H Photo Price

I don't know about that. Rode and Oktava. I was more or less focusing on the Sennheiser MKH-416. It starts at $1,099 dollars, but I don't think any mic or kit through bandh can come close to the performance of the 416. It even has a stellar review. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/7950...l#goto_itemInfo

To all whom may help, I was recently assigned to sound for a 10 minute documentary/ research scholarship and I have $1,500 to purchase any and all audio equipment necessary. I do not want a dat recorder and would like to run the audio into a DVX-100 directly. Basically I believe I am looking for this: A belt mount XLR mixer A Shotgun Microphone Boom Pole Wind-Defuser HQ Headphones and 2 XLR cords. Does anyone have any professional input as to what I should get specifically. Especially the audio mixer. If any of these exceed the budget, please fill me in on what would be the best for recording Natural/ Non-flat, sounding audio priced out through B&H photo. Thanks

I would shoot the shot on a tripod, tell your actor to remain still for the length of his sequence. Then motion-track the eyes in the shot in case it shakes and replace his pupils with a simple keyframed expanding mask in after effects. Then add a shine that would naturally be over his eyes. Simple.

MiniDV is under estimated because everyone thinks that the lower quality, means a poor end product. In reality, it all depends on your cinematographer. Real professionals can take a simple DV camera with advance manual settings and a 35mm lens adapter and make it look like film and professionally done at that. If you are using greenscreen for most of your project, then DV would be easier to create a more realistic background. When you work in HD or a better quality, you are going to have to make a better quality background image, that can be much more time consuming. In HD as I work, you must put twice as much effort into the shot composition-ing to make it look believable. If you are a student, then just shoot in DV, if you are attempting to go the festival route and your end-product is amazing, then you will be able to find a sales agent who will get you funds to transfer your video to film and up-res the lower quality footage to 2K. DuArt takes DV to 2K HD for $1,000 or more pending on the length. Also,Film transfers and transportation are what makes indi projects jump in budget.

I know a limited amount about this, but since no one has replied I will give you as much as I know. A popular song from an Independent (mainstream) Example Road-Runner Records. Label will vary from 5,000 to 9,000 per song. A popular song from a Mainstream Label ex. Atlantic, Universal, etc. will most likely not release their songs for under 10,000 if they choose to release them at all. You must contact their legal office and ask about copy write release for a song. Then you have to give them a detail description of what you are using the song for, where you expect to show it/sell it. And all of your company's legal information. If you are attempting to re-record the song, it all depends on the results of your recordings. If you just use the Instrumental, then you must pay for the composer/producers fees. Which I am unsure of. I would estimate 500 to 1,000 from an Indi, and 1,000 to 7,000 from a mainstream. If you use the words from the song, add more money. You then have to pay for the songwriter?s fees. Which could be anywhere from 1,500 to 9,000 depending on the label. If you want to know, contact the company that owns the rights to the song. They will inform you of how much it will cost, but from my experience, it has never been cheap. The best way to do it is to record the song as if it is a new song, change the lyrics at least 70 percent of them, or the order in which they are sung, and modify the instrumental so that it does not resemble over 30% of the original. Almost any mainstream label is going to give you a hard time about releasing the song, but if you are persistent and conduct yourself in a business manor, then you will be able to find someone to give you the answers. Also, look online, there is exact information about this on other websites. Or I could be way off, but I am almost positive that these are ball-park prices.

That can be easily done, but I need to make sure that the WAV files will not loose their quality during the "Free" program Conversions. Is there a specific converter that is recommended?

I am working on a project that was shot and the audio was recorded separately and directly into protools. The files that Protools created are 24-Bit WAV files and I cannot load them into FCP. Is there a converter for WAV to MP3 (Or A Better Format that is editable?) Are there plug-ins for FCP to accept WAV files (I Am sure there are, but cost is an issue) What would be the best way to use the WAV audio in FCP for editing? Thanks, CJ