Helping Hands from 2005

[Mark S Miller]

Need a video editor, or person of interest to edit wedding videos in Colorado. Work your own hours, on a sub-contract basis. Must be familiar with any pro video editing software and must meet deadlines.

Please call 1-800-958-9510 or email: work@rememberphoto.com

[Zohar Lokhandwala]

Hi guys,
I'm a student with the New York Film Academy here in Los Angeles in the one yr Filmmaking program.
I'm shooting a trailer for my thesis Film next week which is the week of December 4th.

Urgently require a DP to come on board. Should have his own gear (a DVX100A or better..an XL2)

Its an ambitious shoot, so definately need someone with a lot of experience.
This is URGENT and I need to meet up with all applicants like today and tomorrow itself.

My thesis Film is titled 'The Alchemist', a fable based on a book by Paolo Coehlo in which Santiago, a sheperd boy travels from the Andalusian plains of Spain to the Pyramids of Egypt in search of a treasure.

So far the shoot dates are 6th, 7th and 11th of December 2005.

Email you resumes and inquiries to me at zsl_12@hotmail.com

Compensation would be $200 a day, plus credit, copy and meals.

Best of Luck! and hope to hear from you'll soon.
Sincerely,
Zohar.

[Jun Tang]

Any luck Charles?

If not, you can possibly send Charles Papert an e-mail...if he's not busy.

I think I will have my Magiqcam by then...shoot me an e-mail jun@koolwebb.com

[Kathy Kegley-Moore]

Hello,

I am looking to add more work for my company and am offering my services of transferring 8mm/Super 8mm home movie reels/film to DVD. I currently offer this in my area of SE Missouri but it isn't quit enough to keep me busy full-time.

If anyone is sick of doing their film transfers themselves and want me to take them on, please send me an email. I can share my current pricing, what I would be willing to do the extra work for, and even send out a sample of my work to show I do have good quality transfers.

Plus, you are also welcome to snope around my website and read how I put it together:

http://www.katchvideo.com/8mmmovietransferspage.html

My email address is: kathy@katchvideo.com if you are interested in contacting me.

Thanks,
Kathy

[Don Donatello]

what method to you use to transfer ? ( as in equipment)
do you capture frame for frame or is it a run projector 18/24fps - run camera 29.97 ?

[Don Donatello]

you could look in the SF area reel directory ..

http://www.reeldirectory.com/listings/

[Brian Duke]

Hi,

I bought a Glidecam v20 but have been completely unsuccessful in mounting and balancing my Mini35/HD100U. hopefully someone in LA can help me out. I'll pay $100 to balance it and show me how to modify when I change lenses, and perhaps a few tips on how to operate.

Let me know.

Duke@superbadmusic.com

Put Glidecam in subject box

duke

[Dean Sensui]

Hi Brian...

Here's a few pointers that might help. Once you understand the fundamentals, it's pretty easy, actually.

First: Set up the sled as you'd have it outfitted, minus the camera. Mount the battery, monitor and other accessories as you would. Then suspend it off a c-stand or other sturdy support.

Now use the provided weights to get the sled to balance perfectly upright. You might have to shift the battery and monitor positions to get it where you want it.

Now, set up the camera with all the necessary accessories. Be sure to include battery and tape. Don't set it up on the Glidecam just yet.

Once you have the viewfinder and other equipment in place, see if you can find the camera's center of balance. Lay a pencil or dowel flat on a table and sit the camera on it so that it teeter-totters. Carefully shift the camera forward and backward until you find the point where the camera will balance nicely atop the dowel.

Make note of where the dowel is in relation to the camera. This is where the fore-aft balance point is.

Now do the same thing to see where the camera's balance point is from side to side to get its lateral point of balance.

Where the fore-aft and lateral balance lines intersect is the camera's center of balance.

The idea is to get the center of the camera's balance point to line up with the center of the sled's camera platform. The mistake often made is to put the camera's tripod socket right over the center of the sled's camera platform -- and a balancing nightmare soon follows.

Also, the sled itself needs to be properly balanced before the camera is mounted. That step often is overlooked and further balancing problems crop up. But if you balance the sled, and find the balance point of the camera then 99 percent of your balance problems get solved before the camera even gets mounted on the sled.

There are a number of holes in the sled's camera platform which will allow you to place the camera's tripod socket in the appropriate spot.

Once you mount the camera over the right spot on the sled, the whole sled/camera rig could either be top-heavy or bottom-heavy.

If it's top-heavy, you'll need to shift the support arm higher on the sled's column. If it's bottom-heavy, you'll need to shift it lower.

The precise location of the support arm will be determined by how fast the sled swings from a horizontal position back to vertical. Some say two seconds. Some say three. Depends on whether you want the rig "tender" or "lean." A lean rig will be easier to keep upright but will tend to swing if you accelerate or shift quickly. A tender rig will be harder to keep upright but is less likely to swing with sudden movements.

The fine adjustment screws on the sled's camera platform can be used to make fine corrections in tilt and roll. You can get the camera to operate with a slight downward tilt or upward tilt, depending on circumstances.

You might also want to set up the camera platform with a quick release to allow the camera to be mounted on a tripod and back onto the Glidecam without having to wrestle with the Glidecam's camera plate. I'd suggest a Manfrotto 394: It's got a low profile, it's pretty robust, locks positively and the camera will go back to the exact same position everytime, which makes keeping the balance a whole lot easier.

Hope this helps!

[Charles Papert]

Good advice Dean. The only thing that I might wonder about is doing the initial sled balance (i.e. dynamic) off the dock; it will be so bottom heavy that it will be hard to get anything close to a fine tune of balance this way. I would probably suggest using the dowel/pencil method on the camera-less sled instead, which will give a more accurate reading of the fore/aft balance of the sled.

[Dean Sensui]

Hi Charles...

In the Glidecam seminar we were using a circular bubble level placed on the camera platform, with the camera-less rig suspended from a c-stand and dock, to get the sled balanced.

How do the Steadicam pros do it?

I don't use a Glidecam all that much but it's a wonderful tool when it's needed.

[Charles Papert]

Well, the way I do it is with the camera in place, by spin-balancing the whole assembly once it is static balanced and then making adjustments from there. It is actually not always the case that just by having a "centered" rig that dynamic balance will always be achieved; the point is that the whole mass including the camera must be dynamically balanced, and because the monitor is raised off the base somewhat, it's not as simple as drawing straight lines through the center of the post and assuming those will always be good. It's sort of too complicated and cerebral to get into here.

In any event, it should be pretty intuitive that if the rig is extremely bottom heavy as it would be if you hang it off the dock with no camera in place, it will make it hard to finesse the fine-tuning of fore-aft level. It's just the same as if you have the camera onboard and have the rig very bottom heavy (1 second drop or faster. Same thing without the camera.

Finding the basic fore-aft balance of the rig with the fulcrum method as you described with the camera by itself is likely to provide a faster and more accurate method, but ultimately the spin balance is the final test that counts. The problem with many DV rigs out there is that the gimbal may not be linear enough to deliver a flat spin even when the rig is truly in dynamic trim.

[Dean Sensui]

Sounds like the way engine crankshafts and even wheels are balanced.

As with all things worth knowing well, this is also subtle and complex!

[Mike Henderson]

Hello, I am looking for help with a script writing issue and don't know exactly where I should post for help, I joined 2 script writing forums but was told that they deal only with "screenplay" script writing so I am hoping this forum will either help or lead me to the correct place.
I use a music playback software that has a small screen which displays the Album Art Covers of each Artist when their respective songs are playing, I need to magnify that small screen and though of using my slideshow software to display the images but was told that I would need to write a script to do this. A person on my music software's forum wrote a script for this and when I tried it, I ran into some technical difficulties and she does not have the time to help troubleshoot it.
I can provide her exact instructions for anyone to see. Anyway so I need help in either getting hers to work or getting someone to write me a script for this. I have the basic instructions that is needed for this from both my music software and slideshow developers. I don't know anything about script writing so I am lost here, if there is anyone who can help me with this, please post, if not, then canyone refer me to any other forum where I might be able to get help with this please? Thanks.

[Brian Duke]

Thanks for the advice guys, however, I am more of a visual person so I would need to see it before me. Paying soemone to help me out and get started will be worth it.

Dean too bad you're not in LA. Unless Charless wants to help me get started -=)

[Jun Tang]

Hey Brian,

Steadicam is having a workshop this December 10 & 11. It's a 2 day workshop. Cost is $500.

There is also another workshop which is 5 day intensive. At Malibu and over $2K.

Or beg Charles...Or go to DVXuser and ask "pookie" aka Chris...

Or ask Millo?...wait he isn't in LA.

Good luck anyways