Taggart Lee

I'm used to FCP but am using Premiere 6 for a teaching project and having a couple of problems with capture. 1) Timecode breaks (I think). It won't do a batch capture. I set the in/out points but when I'm ready for capture it rewinds all the way to the beginning of the tape then prompts that it was unable to locate timecode.??? 2) Other problem is that even with in/out points marked, when it does capture, say, a single clip it continues to capture passed the out point until I abort with the ESC and end up with nothing.??? Thoughts, feelings, journal entries? Taggart Lee DP/LA

Hi all, I'm cutting a reel at home on FCP 3 and have wondered for some time about the diference in quality I see between my NTSC monitor and the final output to DVD (DVSPro) on a regular CRT tele. Keeping in mind that the works were org. on S16 and 35, and other than it being a larger screen, should I be seeing an decrease in saturation and a marked increase in grain? Had good, fat negs to start with, happy with transfers. I've crushed blacks a bit, worked with the color and sats in FCP too and mostly played with the bit rates (8.0 presently) to export MPEG2 in Studio Pro but there remains a difference in quality from what I've seen of the same material from Lightning Dubs etc. Any thoughts? Taggart Lee DP/OP LA Transfer was to dvcam or mini dv in some cases and captured to FCP with a DSR-11.

It can be used as a reflective meter only though not incident...right? If so, my question would then be what degree of reflection is he getting? My Minolta spot is a 1 degree. I would assume that the still camera is governed by the aperature itself...right? Always wondered about that. Taggart Lee

How long is a day? 12 hours at least. At $75 a day that's $6.25/hr. At what point do we qualify for a livable wage? Before or after we read 'Painting with Light'? ;) I've done the 22 hr music video marathons in the desert and they were tolerated, you did what you had to do for a couple of days. But on day 6 of week 4 of 6?...NO. As schedules get tighter and tighter, unions help to keep producers honest and crews safe. As a DP I'm responsible for the safety of my crew. And at hour 16 I start to think about drive/turnaround time. Regardless of what we HAVE to get or whether it's a feature or student film. Besides, lack of planning on productions part does not constitute lack of saftey or commonsense on my part. I spent a while tonight speaking with a former Vons employee who's watching his union and his livelyhood go down the tubes thanks to the greedy few who've made demonizing unions a spectator sport in the name of their bottom line. In our business too, unions are a necessity. Right to work? Fine. You also have the right to a decent wage, health care, and safety while you're busting your ass getting a (hopefully) good story told. We're freelancers doing a job that requires a lot of sacrifices until the job is finished. It costs. Taggart Lee