GL1 Play back Problems

[Rick Gann]

Hello All

This is my first post on this amazing board, I have been reading and lurking around for several months, I have gotten so much useful information from everyone, I can't begin to explain how much help this board has been.

Now the setup I am working on a documentary in Oakland California about a group of day laborers attempting to organize themselves and petition city government for better treatment. (Oakland recently passed a no solicitation ordinance making it illegal to solicit work on any public street). Early in the shoot we rented a GL1 from a fellow film maker and got tons of great footage locally and in Washington DC. Everything played back fine from that camera; halfway through production I picked up a GL1 to finish the shoot. Here is the dilemma, when we began editing we found that all the footage shot on the rented GL1 being played back with my GL1 is heavily pixilated and generally distorted. The answer seemed simple go rent the other GL1 and capture or dub everything with the new camera. Unfortunately the original GL1 has suffered an untimely death and is unavailable.

Finally the questions. Does anyone have a recommendation on how to save this footage; has anyone had problems playing back tapes from one camera to another? My solution has been to try playing the tapes in as many other cameras as possible but I still have had no luck.

Rick

[Frank Granovski]

Rick, have you tried cleaning the cam's heads yet?

Welcome to the DVI forums!

[Rick Gann]

Frank

Thanks for the reply! I have not tried cleaning the heads, I may have made the problem overly complicated. I have tried the tapes in other cameras with similar results. Off to get a head cleaner...

Thanks!
Rick

[Rick Gann]

Problem Part II

Well looks like I am down to my last shot at help on this problem. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated (left field included). Otherwise I have managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory once again.

Quick synopses:

I shot 6 hours of footage on a rented GL1; play back was perfect at the time. I purchased a GL1 and shot more good footage. Began editing using the recently purchased GL1 as play back deck, the original footage to my horror plays back pixilated and distorted, I ran screaming into the streets of San Francisco. Called owner of rental GL1 he reveals that the camera has stopped working. I clean heads of my GL1 same problems with tapes. I take tapes around town to several rental houses and try playing in numerous decks, same problem. I speak with owner of rental camera (I was planning on sending him a chain letter so I needed his address) he recently gets camera back from Canon now its ship shape and he has the same problem I have all his tapes are pixilated, but he claims to have sent tapes to some mystery guy, (rental guy shoots for Billabong) that was able to fix everything. The explanation was that the original GL1 recorded everything at a slower tape speed (slow death of motor) so by increasing tape speed footage was saved. For reasons far too numerous to enumerate I can’t get in touch with mystery man. I have called several people in town about this and no one has a clue. I have tried incrementally changing play back speed in Premiere with no luck.

Cut to man with head on desk holding bottle of bourbon.

Ok so it wasn’t a quick synopses but at least it has story potential.

Any of you DV gods and goddess have a clue, I would really appreciate it, bad news would also be appreciated I would like to put this to bed and start over if need be.

Thanks
Rick

[Adam Burtle]

i would say to find a dub house in your city that is in good standing, and go ttalk to their techs.. someone who dubs 100's of tapes a week will probably have some insight, and for a price they might be able to sort this out for you.

sorry i cant be of more help.

[Rick Gann]

Thanks Adam

A ray of hope, i will keep at it.

Rick