David litz

Help! I am a DP with about 15 years of experience. I have seen many formats come and go. Over the years, I have amassed the individual elements of my reel on a witches brew of formats: Beta SP, DigiBeta, DVD, DVCPRO, and even 3/4" ! My question is, what is the most efficient way to get these diverse elements onto a reel for not a lot of $$$? When I first started out, I would rent an edit suite and have an editor cut a reel for me. I would walk out with a great reel, but usually $1500 poorer! I recently bought a MacBook Pro G4, with the hopes of putting Final Cut on there before too long. So, do I: 1) buy Final Cut, and teach myself the program, and cut my own reel? 2) transfer all my weird formats onto one "universal" format, (DVCAM? MiniDV?) and then rent a deck and import all of my stuff into Final Cut? (transfer costs may be huge!) 3) Say "the hell with it", and just keep hiring editors/post houses that have decks for all the formats at their disposal? FYI - a major post house in my town owes me a favor, they say they will let me sit and review my elements for free in one of their suites. Maybe I can sweet talk them into a discount for some transfers? Also: I know very little about compression, CODECS, etc. What is the best way to go for an online reel? Flash? Quicktime? Any help/advice would be appreciated!

Man, this year has been full of cancellations! 5 day shoots turning into 1 day shoots, jobs going away altogether, etc. Sometimes with plenty of notice, sometimes during the shooting week! I try to have agreements/deal memos whenever possible. However, a lot of times I go on "good faith" that a job is going to happen. You know the drill...a producer calls, asks your availability for a block of days, and you say "sure", only to have most or all of the shoot "go away". Lately, even steady clients have been backing out of jobs at the last minute. Do you think new clients would balk at signing deal memos with a DP they've never worked with? More importantly, if you started forcing deal memos on your old "hand shake" clients, will they resent it? The kind of jobs I'm talking about are reality TV, corporate videos, things like that. I usually never get burned on bigger jobs like features. Any advice? I don't want to alienate producers with deal memos, but I feel I have to start protecting myself against cancellations. It is eating into my income. Thanks!

Hello, all... What a great forum! Just a question for everyone: Do you charge differently for hi-def shooting vs. standard def shooting? For example, let's say a corporate, commercial, or network client wants something on Beta SP or DigiBeta. Then another client wants something on hi-def (Sony Cine Alta, Varicam). Do any of you charge differently depending on the format? My rate sheet is broken down into 3 categories: High Def, Standard Def, and Film. Standard def is currently the least expensive, high def is in the middle, and film is the most expensive. My sticking point is in what day rate to charge for camera systems like the P2 and the XDCAM, which are certainly more involved than a Betacam, but maybe not as complex as an F-900 with a downconverter, lens adapter, et, etc. Again, I'm not talking about equipment charges, but day rates. I actually called one of the rental houses I have a relationship with (they are in a different market, about 5 hours away)and asked the rental manager what the DP's down there do. I figured he would be a good "neutral" person to ask. He said, "yeah, you should absolutely charge more for high def. There is certainly more skill and knowledge involved in regards to settings, menus, etc". I tend to agree with him. The dreaded part (for me) is justifying the high-def upcharge to clients that you shoot a lot of standard-def AND high def with. Any thoughts on this? Thanks! David

Hello, all... I have a commercial coming up where the client is requesting slo-mo of a person exercising. We are debating whether to use the Varicam or the XD Cam. I am leaning towards the Varicam because of the 2/3" chip size (as compared to the XD Cam's 1/2" chip) and I am generally more familiar with the Varicam. I even have the Goodman Guide. Also, isn't the XD cam compressed at an MPEG and/or Mini DV quality? I am also curious about what the post requirements would be. I am not sure what edit system the production house has. I think Final Cut Pro. If we shoot 60fps on the Varicam, do they need to do any conversion of that footage before it gets into their system? Thanks in advance for your answers!