gdp's Comments

Powered Production : Lowest DSLR Kit Possible

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 04:40:12 +0000

Here are a few ideas... Now - please understand that I'm not ask you to recommend items in these categories but let get some thoughts on what kits do you want to start talking about at this point. Lighting Kit under ($500 / $1000 / $1500) We would need to talk about what lighting technologies would be used in these price ranges and what DV Rebel tatitcs would have to be used to get a kit in that price range. Set Essentials ($250 / $500 / $750) When I say set essential - what are the go to goodies that you have with you all the time on a shoot that you would never want to be without? Field Audio Kits ($750 / $1250 / $1750) Most shooters never think about audio - my radio days have taught me to always have a kit handy as you never know what will go down.

2GetSales.com : How do you make the best use of Video in Sales?

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 03:43:58 +0000

I'm going to flat out tell you all - I'm biased toward the use of video. I produced the video that Mark makes reference to. Video - just like publishing blog posts , is a medium of communication - if you can distill your message down to the one thing that you want them to walk away with. Keeping it simple, you will WIN (regardless of what medium is used). If you are all over the place in a blog post and never really make a point or have a call to action, is that effective? Not really, Right! When you do the same with video it's just a bit easier to spot. Also - if you'd like an effective video like what Mark is using to market this product - be sure to contact PoweredProduction.com for any of your media creation needs.

Powered Production : The Teeth Of The Tiger

Mon, 7 Jun 2010 14:30:04 +0000

I\\\'m sure that it\\\'s set for you, but you can control it in the menu under \\\"Picture Style\\\" according to http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E7D/E7DMODE...

Powered Production : The Teeth Of The Tiger

Mon, 7 Jun 2010 14:22:15 +0000

Thank you very much! And Thanks for the heads up about the post will be checking it out soon.

Powered Production : 3 Reasons to Ignore your Analytics

Sun, 6 Jun 2010 02:31:35 +0000

Well Mark, I didn't mean more in your life - but more at this site, next time I'll be more direct. :) I agree with you about number, they can be spun to say what ever you want.

Powered Production : The Teeth Of The Tiger

Fri, 4 Jun 2010 21:38:26 +0000

Dude, thank you so much for posting! I know that you've been out shooting today, thanks for taking the time to post real world examples of what works! So you had no issues pulling a key from the 7D footage?

Powered Production : The Teeth Of The Tiger

Fri, 4 Jun 2010 14:57:47 +0000

I DM'd him via twitter - but he's out on a shoot already this morning -- so I hope he will be able to comment on it soon.

Powered Production : The Teeth Of The Tiger

Fri, 4 Jun 2010 14:51:42 +0000

Keying can be an issue - I'll see if I can get a buddy to comment better on this as he shot DSLR footage next to a HVX and ended up using the DSLR footage to key with. With any project - it will come down to lighting as much as the optics and the camera back. If you shoot with a scope, you will be able to see if you're lighting is on target or not.

Powered Production : The bit that bites you in the butt!

Fri, 4 Jun 2010 14:46:46 +0000

Yes and that is kind of the issue - that if you put bad glass on the 5DmkII it will look like crap. That's what has been making me look at the T2i (550D) it's the little bro of the 7D - it looses alot of the features but has the same chip. The core of the stuff you loose is buried in a menu (smaller body - not as many buttons). When you take a look at stuff put out by Shane Harlbut and thing - wow, I could do that with a 5D!!! You don't also note that he's using Panavision 10:1 glass ($500,000+ from what I've been told) and yes you can do that if you have access to rent some Panny Glass too! I believe that the DSLR movement / fad is a great thing for Indie Guys and people who want to make great productions at budget prices - but it's going to be a while before it's fully democratized the film industry. What's happening now is the front end of the Desktop Publishing curve - recall when everyone could make a poster - how badly everything was designed.

Powered Production : Backup Solutions for Media Producers

Fri, 4 Jun 2010 00:43:48 +0000

Will do that for sure! I've been kicking around the idea of doing more system / IT stuff - as I've seen the reaction from this post. Things that I've taken notice of is the need of people to talk best practices in regard to file system organization. As well as more work flow -- "How I do it" like posts.

Powered Production : Backup Solutions for Media Producers

Thu, 3 Jun 2010 23:25:04 +0000

Wow bro, Thanks for the mini-blog post!

Powered Production : Tiger Tamers

Thu, 3 Jun 2010 16:00:53 +0000

I've been looking at the Cineform Codecs and have always thought that they were going to be way too expensive for me - but this solution looks to have some legs, and will be looking adding this very soon. As I'd love to see a 8x - 16x improvement (without spending a $1k for RT hardware that's not really RT). ^_^ (( Yes - that's a shot in the arm too all you Matrox RTX users. )) Very great write up bro, looking forward to more Tiger Taming!!!

Powered Production : Backup Solutions for Media Producers

Thu, 3 Jun 2010 14:20:49 +0000

I hope that the copy that you give the client is not the only copy of the project as the adage is if you have a copy you don't have a backup. If you make a copy and give it to the client - but dump the original off your drive (to do more work) and then don't keep two copies yourself - then if the cheep drive fails the entire project is lost. I had a feeling when recommending the tape backup - the only other then that I could figure would be two SAN system's one that you archive to - and one that you replicate that archive and keep in a safe off-site location. If you are not editing from these drives then you can get away with less expensive drive with larger capacity. I'd also make sure it's a RAID 5 solution so that you can rebuild (would even put in a hot spare). Also it's not impossible to build your own RAID box these day - a few years ago there was a great write up of John Flowers doing such (if I recall correctly).

Powered Production : Backup Solutions for Media Producers

Thu, 3 Jun 2010 02:52:13 +0000

Well Deane, there's a ton of ways to skin that cat! The best method might be a LTO drive that will let you ghost your system image to a tape so that you can bring it back to life if your drive goes bad or something else goes horribly wrong. Like Ben was saying - keeping a ghost image can save you a week of work trying to get back to system zero. There are also a few apps that will help you make a system restore DVD set etc, I know of a few shops that do integration - I cannot for the life of me remember what app they swear by, but I'll find it. Here's the down side of a Tape based solution - it's going to cost a serious amount of green. A 6.4Tb LVD will set you back aroun $4,300 this for a Tape library (auto-loader). This is what HP consider their entry-level automated backup solution. As to backup NLEs man I'm all ears there as I know most people have invested in their one machine - and when (not if) that goes down, it's a bad time!!!

Powered Production : Backup Solutions for Media Producers

Wed, 2 Jun 2010 15:55:22 +0000

Even though this is a site dedicated to Media Professionals, and fact that a majority of media pros use Apple products. The strange thing is that 65% of the readers here are on some flavor of a Microsoft product. I guess what you are is who you attract, as I have worked with Apple products (in fact I'm at my office writing this comment on a G5), but my workstation at home is a PC - as I refuse to pay the apple tax. Regardless of what system you're on - there is a viable system of backing up your system.

Powered Production : Backup Solutions for Media Producers

Wed, 2 Jun 2010 14:53:06 +0000

Oh, and congrats on winning the Sapphire for Shake! Yeah - you'd be slick if I told you what I was paying for 20Mb / 4Mpb upload. -- CalDigit make some very solid products, but you pay a premium as they know what you're using them for. (Anything associated with video production seems to have a price tag to go with it) the Drobo is more of a consumer level product (but they have been making in roads toward more pro use). I also look to the guys who say that they are using them - like Stu Maschwitz ( http://prolost.com/blog/2007/12/8/prolost-holiday... ) just to name one...

Powered Production : Backup Solutions for Media Producers

Wed, 2 Jun 2010 14:43:24 +0000

OUCH!!! Man that could potentially hurt a ton! Full drives mean a huge loss in performance - I know the standard is 80% of free space - but I shoot for 60 - 75% max as head room on the drive really makes a difference with read / write speeds. I'm not sure what would cause the call for a re-install, but I'm not a mac guy - I'd clone the drive asap! And move as much as you can off of the drive to a NAS or SAN to free up the space (as you had stated). The 3 copies thing is true, if you don't have Local, On-Site, and Off-Site you don't have a true backup. The day of could computing gave us the ability to use products like Mozy to do our off-site, but if you don't have the broadband and it would take months to get a full off-site via your connection - you might need to look to a LTO or DLT tape backup solution that you can keep some on-site, and some in a safe off-site (like at a bank). This isn't going to be as inexpensive as a SaaS solution as you have to pay for the hardware too, but it will give you a rock solid way to do it. Also remember that tapes age - and you'll have to change them out over the years. In building your 3 x 1.5 TB RAID - I'd go with a Drobo and use fast drives (not green) if you plan to edit from these drives, if it's just Backup Storage - then go green. The Green drive are slow, but great for plain storage.

Powered Production : Backup Solutions for Media Producers

Wed, 2 Jun 2010 14:43:01 +0000

Very good point Ben! I really need to start doing that on my system.

Powered Production : Real Work Requires Real Tools

Wed, 2 Jun 2010 00:31:13 +0000

I\\\'m really glad that you asked, as we have a blog post coming out asap all about backups! Will hit the web tomorrow morning, so stay tuned in!!

Powered Production : Real Work Requires Real Tools

Fri, 28 May 2010 00:59:12 +0000

Hey Mark - Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I've seen entire desktops full of files and shortcuts before, and love the two rows of quick start - that's a first! The thing about a back up that most do no understand - is that one copy (on DVD / CD) is not a backup. That's why I love cloud based solutions like Mozy - that run in the background. I also use DropBox and SugerSync to backup client files ( this also allows me to access client files remotely ). I'll have to think about turn this into a series -- as I see a ton of people who have issues like what you mentioned.