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Old May 12th, 2005, 06:18 AM   #16
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Thanks Terry. The $75 is where I started at a year ago, I now start pricing at $99 and that's up to 2500 sq ft. and then it's $25 per each 1000 additional sq ft. Right now it's about $50 per hour, and that's the reason I was wondering if a better low light camera would be better so I could cut out color correction (brightness/contrast) in post.

I only use a tripod to pan the rooms, I have tried the steadycam thing, but the response I got and I agree with is, it makes people dizzy. From a videographer view point it seems really cool, but people looking for a house don't like it.
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Old May 12th, 2005, 06:49 PM   #17
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Todd,

Steadicam type shots are real useful when going from one room to another showing their relationship. You have to be a real smooth operator (sorry) to keep it from making people dizzy and you have to know how to frame a good shot. Once in a room I use my Indicam as a monopod to pan the room like you would when using a tripod. Most people realize they are looking at professional video but they can't tell you what it is that made it look that way. This is because they are used to steadicam shots all the time on TV and in the movies.

I'm glad you have raised you prices as a "good" videographer should make at least $50 an hour for his overall time. Not many people realize all the time, money, and expertise that you put in to creating a good finished product.

I just finished a dance festival that I did for free including Indicam shots, three other cameras, and all the editing. The finished DVD was about an hour an a half in length. The person in charge of getting the DVDs out mentioned that they needed the project finished a week after the festival. I politely let them know I was editing four cameras with correction, titles, effects, and all the rest and that it would take me about 80 hours total to get it done. Let's see...a little patience for $4000 in free work. They apologized and I finished it as soon as possible. It turned out great!

Tery

P.S. Like I said before, if I were in your shoes I would buy a Sony VX2100 as it's picture looks great under low light. Bringing a light with you is also a very good idea.
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Old May 12th, 2005, 09:51 PM   #18
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Thanks for the advice Terry. I agree that the steadycam does give the video that cool feeling, if I were a realtor I would want it done in my Video Tour, but no realtors show any interest in it, I guess it is a good thing though, one less piece of equipment to buy, learn, maintain, etc.

I shot 10 houses today, and had them all shot in under 5 hours, so hopefully editing takes around 30 minutes. The realtor also wanted 250 business card cd-r's. I wish all realtors knew that you have to spend money to make money.

I think I am going go with the Sony line, but with the pd170 (unless I can find a clean pd150), I still have a few weddings booked, and had 2 calls for them today (not usual) and like the audio features of the 170.

Maybe I'm wrong in looking for a camera to help me shoot faster by not hauling a light (which I will still need) Would the Matrox card for Premiere Pro be something to consider? I had a huge house the other day; the finished video was 6 minutes, but rendering the Windows media file probably took 30 minutes. Now these 30 minutes I can walk away and not worry about it, but if it rendered in real time, that would be almost 25 minutes ahead of schedule I could start on the next video. I mainly use brightness/contrast, speed controls, the shadow effect, and the distort effect. Would this rendering be sped up as well.

Glad to hear of the great turn out of the DVD, very nice to volunteer, it will come back around to you.

Thanks-Todd
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Old May 12th, 2005, 10:46 PM   #19
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Todd, a Matrox RTX100 would not help at all with Windows Media Encoder.

Things that will help for Windows Media Encoder:

A faster processor will.

Procoder may help you automate things a little. As would Cleaner. In Cleaner, you can make watch folders where it automatically encodes anything you drop into the "watch folder". Procoder has a droplet thing, where you drop your video onto the shortcut and it'll encode the video for you.
Both offer possibilities with editing + encoding at the same time, or using a second computer for encoding.
If you want to go the second computer route, I would look at a hot deal from Dell. Get a base system with no monitor, NO upgrades (they are overpriced, and you don't need a single one of them). Grab a KVM switch off newegg, or run UltraVNC on the computer.

Using "easier" settings.

2- I think the Matrox card will accelerate particular effects. I don't have any experience with hardware acceleration cards like them, but they should have lists of the effects they speed up (because they don't do all of them).

3- The PD170 doesn't have top notch sound, which is why the BBC mods them (and the VX2000/2100) to use the line input and they add a XLR adapter box. In the US, Greg Winter offers the same mod. A modified VX2100 would give better sound than the PD170 at roughly the same cost (there are figures floating comparing before and after).
If you'd just like the XLRs, you could get a beachtek DXA8 or similar device. (It might be another battery to worry about though.)
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