Helping Hands from 2006

Lori Starfelt · July 22nd, 2006, 04:38 PM

to pick another script. No budget productions are entirely reliant on having open access to the locations in the script. If you don't have a friend who can get you a location, and you can't pay to rent one, then you're pretty much just SOL.

What areas of the hospital and hotel do you need to use? How big is your cast in those scenes and how big is the crew? What's actually happening in the scenes? And what is your budget for locations?

Maybe with a little more info we can help you figure some good alternatives out.

Brian Wells · July 23rd, 2006, 09:28 PM

Good crew positions are earned through relationships built on trust with producers at established production companies. Responding to internet ads is a fruitless exercise because established production companies do not post job listings. Instead, they rely on their network of crew members who have earned their trust. Thus, the only ads posted on the internet are by producers who do not have a network they can rely on. Something is usually very wrong if that's the case. Be advised.

K. Forman · July 23rd, 2006, 09:59 PM

Actually, a few of the jobs I have found on the net just needed an extra shooter, and it was cheaper than flying somebody else out. A few I've done, were through here, helping out different levels of people. Granted, you are still correct about networking. The more people you meet and work with, the further you will go.

Jon Bickford · July 24th, 2006, 05:34 PM

I actually know an unused hospital in Long Beach that was VERY cooperative with low budget film makers and i've shot there but then a production company came in and destroyed the place, ruined floors and ceilings all over the place (it was a splatterhouse movie) and so alas, it is no longer available.

Matt Peltier · July 24th, 2006, 08:39 PM

Hey guys,

This is my first time posting on these forums so I apologize if I'm a little unorthodox in my question asking (and if this the wrong forum to be posting these particular questions in). I have an interest in post production and editing, in particular, and would like some kind of an idea about what kind of equipment I'd need aside from the computer and editing suite I'd like to use (I'm on a Mac and fairly competent with Final Cut Pro 5). What kinds of external hard drives are people having good luck with? What about a compact desktop recorder? Are those (the latter) absolutely necessary or is there another option of which I'm not aware for capturing taped data without a camera?

Outside of the technical aspects, I'd like to get some actual real-world experience in the form of an internship or something, and Craigslist searches haven't been too beneficial. Does anybody else around the Seattle area know of better venues to use in finding open positions? Is there some kind of a website like Craigslist, but tailored more to media job searches?

I'm sorry about the ridiculous amount of questions, but I figured it'd be best to get all of my ignorance out of the way all at once rather than distribute it over months of forum posts (which I'm liable to do, anyway).

Thanks for any help that can be offered,
Matt P

Shedrick Mask · July 24th, 2006, 10:23 PM

Yeah I'm still working on the networking aspect of this business. So is there a way of finding producers? I always wanted to go to the Mediabistro meetings in Dallas but I'm always working at that time (Only night photog). What should I do? Should I just take a trip to Austin and Dallas one weekend, hand out my resume and reel to every production house I see? ( No sarcasm I'll actually do it)

Don Donatello · July 24th, 2006, 11:37 PM

you need to network in seattle ..
you find somebody that works at a POST house ...
they give you a few names - you call them and ask if you can come out for few hours to see what goes on in real post house ..
they may or may not invite you- either way you asked them for other names at other post houses ...

there must be a "meeting " place for seattle media types .. in past they use to meet once a month at some place ( can't remember name but it was a non profit) .. you need to find that place and go over and shake some hands ...

there's some book for the seattle area ( can't remember the name .. in LA it's called "411" ... SF "reel directory" ... look up post/editing houses and make some calls ( you'll get 95% NO's = that is why you need a NAME ) .. again somehow you need or should i say they need to meet you in person BUT nothing is like having somebody give you a name and you call then and tell them Joe smith gave you their name/number ...

do you have a editing reel ?
internship - usally means you will work for FREE ....
any other post skills ? like after effects ? photoshop, graphic's ?
portland is booming at the moment - you willing to relocate ?

Matt Peltier · July 26th, 2006, 03:17 AM

Don,

I apologize for not responding earlier (not that you've been banking on my reply, I'm sure, but it was still impolite of me to not respond more quickly after you'd helped me).

I realize an internship would be free or for little pay, which is why I'd like to use one as a means to learn; I'm pretty inexperienced. I have somewhat of a background in graphics, using most of Adobe's static graphics suite (which excludes Premier and After Effects).

Would you recommend learning After Effects, or any other software such as a 3D or compositing package?

And do you have any advice on the hardware I mentioned?

Again, thanks for the help,
Matt P

Seth Bloombaum · July 26th, 2006, 10:10 AM

I'd echo John's suggestions.

*******edit**********
oops, sorry Don, it's your suggestions I'm echoing...
********************

Is there a Seattle-area video production industry organization? A great place to network.

Regarding a mini-deck, if you have the money it *is* good not to burn hours of capture on your camera, but not essential. For mini-dv most people I know regard the sony DSR-11 as the minimum capture deck for DV and DVCAM.

There are many choices for hard drives for DV editing. I buy raw drives and slap them in ADS USB/FW cases, because my old projects get archived on HD on the shelf. With this approach I can get less than $.40 per GB. Usually an ATA100 Western Digital or Seagate drive with an 8MB cache and 7200rpm. Similar drives can be found in cases for perhaps $.60/GB. I see a lot of mac users with Lacie external drives. But there is nothing particularly special about a drive for DV25 beyond what I've written above. As a student, you might not be concerned to much about archiving all sources on HD they way you would be if a client were paying you.

If you have good grounding in Illustrator, Photoshop and have some design skills, then, yes, AE would be the obvious next step. There are other solutions for motion graphics, but AE skills are very important for most graphics-oriented video editors.

Ray Lane · July 26th, 2006, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Wells

Good crew positions are earned through relationships built on trust with producers at established production companies. Responding to internet ads is a fruitless exercise because established production companies do not post job listings.

Nonsense. I have found many of my freelance positions through on-line postings. Some of them are quick one-time deals, and others have been long-term. I currently work full-time as a freelancer. I am able to do that mostly due to four companies that provide me a ton of constant work. Each one of these were found through internet postings.

Also, if you go to 2-pop.com, you will find occasional postings from large companies like Pixar, LucasFilm, etc. However, most postings are for smaller companies.

Matt Peltier · July 26th, 2006, 06:01 PM

Seth,

Thanks for the information.

Don Donatello · July 26th, 2006, 09:30 PM

ALSO !!
you will get many NO's when calling around for a internship or job ..
BUT i think it would be of great value if you talk/interview some real editors that are making a living at it ... so if you call/write post houses and simply explain you ( just got out of school or you thinking of changing careers or whatever ) and you would like to meet their editor to find out what you need to know, what other skills are helpful etc to be a editor they are very likely to set up a hr for you during down time ...
when i 1st went to LA i called up DP's whose work i liked and wanted to see them LIGHT - i have to say NOT a one turned me down - most of the time it was just arranging a good time to go out to their set - that could have been few days to few months down the line . most at first said to give them a call back in week/month ( i think just to make sure i would follow thru) anyway i got out to see all my favorite DP's light ( i go out to the sets for 1/2 to full day ) ... i think the difference was i was asking to view their work and not asking for a job lead ...

i've been using G drive like 1394b enclosures .. i like the 2 drive enclosures - i've been putting 2 400 gig in them ..sometimes i'll raid them .. internal 400 gig drives are 114 - 179 on sale .. i have 4 of those ...

... i have a couple 4 drive enclosures (called ice box by cool drives ) in one ice box i have 4-250 gig drives and the other 4-400 gig - been having problems with the 4- 400's with write errors - from my testing IMO the power supply doesn't have enough amps for the 4 - 400 seagates ...

Matt Peltier · July 27th, 2006, 03:51 AM

Don,

Thanks for the ammendment, there. I've been looking for a hard-drive solution similar to what you've described (being able to use normal SATA or even ribbon IDE drives with some kind of external firewire consolidator) but haven't been able to find anything. Could you tell me where you got those, please?

Don Donatello · July 27th, 2006, 09:53 AM

the 2 case 1394b i have i bought from addlogic at macworld expo - the show price was 79ea ...

http://www.addlogix.com/firewire/emb..._eb2_body.html

i'm not buying anymore firewire drives.. i going to start buying external SATA enclosures like

http://www.cooldrives.com/dudralenfors.html

here's link for ice box - note it tends to go onsale for 199 3-4 times a year ..

http://www.cooldrives.com/qudrmifi80dr.html

Matt Peltier · July 28th, 2006, 08:17 AM

Though those look like nice solutions, I'm in a situation where I think I'd need to go with external firewire (it's/they're for an iMac). Do you have any recommendations for good, reliable drives, or is that the reason you're getting away from them to begin with?

July 22nd, 2006, 04:38 PM	#601
Lori Starfelt Major Player Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Los Angeles, california Posts: 228	I don't mean to be glib but my advice would be to pick another script. No budget productions are entirely reliant on having open access to the locations in the script. If you don't have a friend who can get you a location, and you can't pay to rent one, then you're pretty much just SOL. What areas of the hospital and hotel do you need to use? How big is your cast in those scenes and how big is the crew? What's actually happening in the scenes? And what is your budget for locations? Maybe with a little more info we can help you figure some good alternatives out.

July 23rd, 2006, 09:59 PM	#603
K. Forman Capt. Quirk Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Middle of the woods in Georgia Posts: 3,596	Actually, a few of the jobs I have found on the net just needed an extra shooter, and it was cheaper than flying somebody else out. A few I've done, were through here, helping out different levels of people. Granted, you are still correct about networking. The more people you meet and work with, the further you will go. __________________ www.SmokeWagonLeather.us

July 24th, 2006, 05:34 PM	#604
Jon Bickford Major Player Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Las Vegas, NV., Los Angeles, CA, Posts: 220	I actually know an unused hospital in Long Beach that was VERY cooperative with low budget film makers and i've shot there but then a production company came in and destroyed the place, ruined floors and ceilings all over the place (it was a splatterhouse movie) and so alas, it is no longer available. __________________ Jon Bickford, Trepany Films San Pedro, CA Trephine001@aol.com

July 24th, 2006, 08:39 PM	#605
Matt Peltier New Boot Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 6	Equipment / Internship / Experience-gaining advice... Hey guys, This is my first time posting on these forums so I apologize if I'm a little unorthodox in my question asking (and if this the wrong forum to be posting these particular questions in). I have an interest in post production and editing, in particular, and would like some kind of an idea about what kind of equipment I'd need aside from the computer and editing suite I'd like to use (I'm on a Mac and fairly competent with Final Cut Pro 5). What kinds of external hard drives are people having good luck with? What about a compact desktop recorder? Are those (the latter) absolutely necessary or is there another option of which I'm not aware for capturing taped data without a camera? Outside of the technical aspects, I'd like to get some actual real-world experience in the form of an internship or something, and Craigslist searches haven't been too beneficial. Does anybody else around the Seattle area know of better venues to use in finding open positions? Is there some kind of a website like Craigslist, but tailored more to media job searches? I'm sorry about the ridiculous amount of questions, but I figured it'd be best to get all of my ignorance out of the way all at once rather than distribute it over months of forum posts (which I'm liable to do, anyway). Thanks for any help that can be offered, Matt P

July 26th, 2006, 10:10 AM	#609
Seth Bloombaum Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,420	I'd echo John's suggestions. *****edit****** oops, sorry Don, it's your suggestions I'm echoing... ****************** Is there a Seattle-area video production industry organization? A great place to network. Regarding a mini-deck, if you have the money it is good not to burn hours of capture on your camera, but not essential. For mini-dv most people I know regard the sony DSR-11 as the minimum capture deck for DV and DVCAM. There are many choices for hard drives for DV editing. I buy raw drives and slap them in ADS USB/FW cases, because my old projects get archived on HD on the shelf. With this approach I can get less than $.40 per GB. Usually an ATA100 Western Digital or Seagate drive with an 8MB cache and 7200rpm. Similar drives can be found in cases for perhaps $.60/GB. I see a lot of mac users with Lacie external drives. But there is nothing particularly special about a drive for DV25 beyond what I've written above. As a student, you might not be concerned to much about archiving all sources on HD they way you would be if a client were paying you. If you have good grounding in Illustrator, Photoshop and have some design skills, then, yes, AE would be the obvious next step. There are other solutions for motion graphics, but AE skills are very important for most graphics-oriented video editors. Last edited by Seth Bloombaum; July 26th, 2006 at 11:25 PM.

July 23rd, 2006, 09:28 PM	#602
Brian Wells Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 143	Good crew positions are earned through relationships built on trust with producers at established production companies. Responding to internet ads is a fruitless exercise because established production companies do not post job listings. Instead, they rely on their network of crew members who have earned their trust. Thus, the only ads posted on the internet are by producers who do not have a network they can rely on. Something is usually very wrong if that's the case. Be advised.

July 24th, 2006, 10:23 PM	#606
Shedrick Mask Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: The Woodlands, Texas Posts: 30	Yeah I'm still working on the networking aspect of this business. So is there a way of finding producers? I always wanted to go to the Mediabistro meetings in Dallas but I'm always working at that time (Only night photog). What should I do? Should I just take a trip to Austin and Dallas one weekend, hand out my resume and reel to every production house I see? ( No sarcasm I'll actually do it)

July 24th, 2006, 11:37 PM	#607
Don Donatello Hawaiian Shirt Mogul Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: northern cailfornia Posts: 1,261	you need to network in seattle .. you find somebody that works at a POST house ... they give you a few names - you call them and ask if you can come out for few hours to see what goes on in real post house .. they may or may not invite you- either way you asked them for other names at other post houses ... there must be a "meeting " place for seattle media types .. in past they use to meet once a month at some place ( can't remember name but it was a non profit) .. you need to find that place and go over and shake some hands ... there's some book for the seattle area ( can't remember the name .. in LA it's called "411" ... SF "reel directory" ... look up post/editing houses and make some calls ( you'll get 95% NO's = that is why you need a NAME ) .. again somehow you need or should i say they need to meet you in person BUT nothing is like having somebody give you a name and you call then and tell them Joe smith gave you their name/number ... do you have a editing reel ? internship - usally means you will work for FREE .... any other post skills ? like after effects ? photoshop, graphic's ? portland is booming at the moment - you willing to relocate ?

July 26th, 2006, 03:17 AM	#608
Matt Peltier New Boot Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 6	Don, I apologize for not responding earlier (not that you've been banking on my reply, I'm sure, but it was still impolite of me to not respond more quickly after you'd helped me). I realize an internship would be free or for little pay, which is why I'd like to use one as a means to learn; I'm pretty inexperienced. I have somewhat of a background in graphics, using most of Adobe's static graphics suite (which excludes Premier and After Effects). Would you recommend learning After Effects, or any other software such as a 3D or compositing package? And do you have any advice on the hardware I mentioned? Again, thanks for the help, Matt P

July 26th, 2006, 06:01 PM	#611
Matt Peltier New Boot Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 6	Seth, Thanks for the information.

July 26th, 2006, 09:30 PM	#612
Don Donatello Hawaiian Shirt Mogul Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: northern cailfornia Posts: 1,261	ALSO !! you will get many NO's when calling around for a internship or job .. BUT i think it would be of great value if you talk/interview some real editors that are making a living at it ... so if you call/write post houses and simply explain you ( just got out of school or you thinking of changing careers or whatever ) and you would like to meet their editor to find out what you need to know, what other skills are helpful etc to be a editor they are very likely to set up a hr for you during down time ... when i 1st went to LA i called up DP's whose work i liked and wanted to see them LIGHT - i have to say NOT a one turned me down - most of the time it was just arranging a good time to go out to their set - that could have been few days to few months down the line . most at first said to give them a call back in week/month ( i think just to make sure i would follow thru) anyway i got out to see all my favorite DP's light ( i go out to the sets for 1/2 to full day ) ... i think the difference was i was asking to view their work and not asking for a job lead ... i've been using G drive like 1394b enclosures .. i like the 2 drive enclosures - i've been putting 2 400 gig in them ..sometimes i'll raid them .. internal 400 gig drives are 114 - 179 on sale .. i have 4 of those ... ... i have a couple 4 drive enclosures (called ice box by cool drives ) in one ice box i have 4-250 gig drives and the other 4-400 gig - been having problems with the 4- 400's with write errors - from my testing IMO the power supply doesn't have enough amps for the 4 - 400 seagates ...

July 27th, 2006, 03:51 AM	#613
Matt Peltier New Boot Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 6	Don, Thanks for the ammendment, there. I've been looking for a hard-drive solution similar to what you've described (being able to use normal SATA or even ribbon IDE drives with some kind of external firewire consolidator) but haven't been able to find anything. Could you tell me where you got those, please?

July 27th, 2006, 09:53 AM	#614
Don Donatello Hawaiian Shirt Mogul Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: northern cailfornia Posts: 1,261	the 2 case 1394b i have i bought from addlogic at macworld expo - the show price was 79ea ... http://www.addlogix.com/firewire/emb..._eb2_body.html i'm not buying anymore firewire drives.. i going to start buying external SATA enclosures like http://www.cooldrives.com/dudralenfors.html here's link for ice box - note it tends to go onsale for 199 3-4 times a year .. http://www.cooldrives.com/qudrmifi80dr.html

July 28th, 2006, 08:17 AM	#615
Matt Peltier New Boot Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 6	Though those look like nice solutions, I'm in a situation where I think I'd need to go with external firewire (it's/they're for an iMac). Do you have any recommendations for good, reliable drives, or is that the reason you're getting away from them to begin with?