Noam Gagliardi Rabinovich

I personally use stretch-mode, not letterbox mode; it's a truer 16x9 plus better resolution. I don't know vegas, I use final cut, but this might work in vegas too: crop the frame until you remove all the video black (remember that black is part of the video, so all effects apply to it too), what remains should be the default black background which should be unaffected by effects.

haha cool, thanks. damn I've been trying to get that Soulja Boy song out of my head for the past month ...

Ok, thanks. yea because in film school they told us that you don't need permits as long as you dont get caught; but better safe than sorry. I think I'm just confused... I've been reading a lot on the production aspect of film lately; I would like to produce my own project some time, and I'd like to be prepared and do things right. but the whole legal side of film production seems very overwhelming... thanks for the help all. ... o, Errors and Omissions insurance is a must though, right?

yea I know that for releases (DVD or theatrical) distributors do ask to see paperwork, I don't know if any festivals do. meanwhile, I have a related question: how does this work for guerilla films? I know the movie pi, for example, had a few shots made on unauthorized locations. how were they allowed to get such wide distribution, seeing as they wouldn't have had all the release forms etc. (the subway scene was stolen, for example)? is it possible to get a deal with a distributor for a film that doesn't have the proper release forms or insurances and all that?

O, you might want to use an aiff file for the music. mp3's sometimes cause audio problems in videos, and even if they don't they sound like crap if you're planning on playing the vid on good speakers... the conversion to mp3, then back to an uncompressed format that isn't even the native for the original sample rate (44.1 music --> mp3 ---> 48 khz audio) will create weird artifacts in the sound.

boards of canada woot! ... sorry 'bout that

I have a bunch of projects on a hard-drive for which I don't have the original tapes. with the tapes it's easy to just delete the mov files and backup just the project files; but, having to keep all those files, how do I back up such a large amount of memory (many gigs per project)? ... I'm guessing this is a problem people who film straight to a disk are faced with too.

haha cool. well then... there you go I guess :D .

are the requirements for shooting a music video the same as for a film? do music stations ask to see permits and releases or are they less strict about such things. ... on indie music shows you see some videos that look like they were shot by the band with their cellphones (you know, those punk videos of the band out partying and walking around the city and whatnot)

I'm no effects expert, so this is my right-off-the-top-of-my-head, low-tech idea; there are probably better ways: - create a red shape (or import an animation of a shape going across the screen), - blur its edges, - bring the opacity way down, and experiment with different blend modes until it looks right... you might also need to use a garbage matte if you there's an area where you don't want it to show (like if you want it to go across a window or a mirror). if it wasn't an animation you'll need to use motion to make it go across the screen... though I think the in-final cut motion options should be enough. tell me if it's what you had in mind and if it worked

yea, from the little I've seen it seems confusing. but it seems worth learning if I want some more job opportunities. I'm in Hamilton/toronto Canada, and around here from what I've seen jobs are just a bit more Final Cut for independent films and short films, but a lot more Avid for TV stuff. there seems to be more FCP now than before though... maybe it's since they released color and the whole studio thing... I know 300, zodiac, king kong, letters from iwo jima have all been edited in final cut.

I only know FCP, and I know it pretty well. FCP felt pretty intuitive to me from the first use, the only things that weren't were the more advanced features and better file management. but I think that I might be cutting myself off from like half of the job opportunities out there; not everyone has come over to the dark side of lord Darth Jobs... are the two programs similar enough that if I had to work on an avid system I wouldn't be completely lost or make deadly mistakes? is it a matter of a few things that are a bit different but can be overcome with a bit of common sense? or are they really different, enough to have to take a course and start learning AVID from the basics? and another thing... there's like, more AVID versions out there than there are movies made in india!! ah! which one?

did you correct it using a filter or manually? I know that when you use the broadcast safe filter in final cut without fixing the whites/mids/black manually first, it squishes all the superwhites down, creating that burn.

I got a related question. I have an imac (intel core 2 duo, 2.16 GhZ, 1GB RAM [i'll probably add one or two more GB's to it soon], two firewire 400), up to now I've only been using it with miniDV and it works more than fine. would I encounter any problems if I tried HD on it? because I'm taking a course on HD this fall (I've never even worked with HD before, so I don't know much about it), and it would be great if I was able to use what I've learned with my own setup.

hm... we'll, I'm definitely not working on the next Ridley Scott Epic :P , but I still like getting as high quality as I can given my budget ... I've just looked at renting a deck, and I can definitely afford that. it seems like a good option, since the deck is not something I'd be constantly using once I captured everything. I was hoping there'd be something cheap out there; it's always nicer to not have to rely on other's equipment, but I think a deck is something I can rent since it's something I'd be using only once or twice per project... thanks for the info