While shooting a surf comp with my PAL XL1 the other day, the camera we had to use as a deck gave up the ghost. I remembered something in a post about NTSC PD150/VX2000 playing back PAL tapes. One of the guys had a small Sony DV Palmcorder so we decided to give it a go. It worked, we were watching a tape recorded with a PAL XL1 on a Sony NTSC Palmcorder on an NTSC TV.

I plan to do some more experiementing with this and will let you know of what I find out. It could be helpful for crew wanting to shoot PAL in the States.

Adrian,
that would be sweet if you could run a firewire out of the palmcorder and dub that PAL tape onto a NTSC dv tape, cheap and easy PAL to NTSC mini DV conversion, seems too good to be true. Can't wait to hear your results.

If it works then I guess you can use your XL-1 for work here in Japan, crossing my fingers, hope the pal to ntsc dubbing works for you.

Still no word on the Tokyo shoot, my friend is still talking with the producers, let you know when I hear something. from my friend.

Yeah, that's one of the things I want to try. It'd be great if I could just hook up to John's camera and hey presto insta-dub.

Still no luck on finding people who rent XLs in Tokyo, not much luck on finding anyone who rents anything actually.

adrian,
yeah, that's pretty much what I told my friend, he can't rent an XL-1 or the XL-1s, the most they could get would be Betacams which would run at least 80,000 yen per day, getting all of us with our own XL-1's for the price I gave him per day is a great deal.

I wonder if I ran one of your pal tapes through my vx-1000 and firewire it out to my XL-1 if it would give a good dub? That would be a great discovery. Are there any DVinfo awards for very good, cool ideas that save people tons of time/money, it seems like this dub solution if it works would be a Godsend to so many people.

BTW, I'm going back home to Texas next week, the only day I could get tickets for was on 9/11, fly from Osaka to Tokyo-Narita to Dallas and then to El Paso on American. I'm seeing the news right now, they are already beefing up security, I'm taking my vx-1000 with me when I go. Hopefully there won't be anything newsworthy to shoot. Haven't been back in 4 years, wondering how I'll find the situation there, friends have told me what it was like so I pretty much have an idea. Just want to get home and relax with my family, on the good side, I get to spend the 16th of September(mexican independance day) in El Paso, can't get any better than that, music, food, dancing, can't get that here in Osaka, actually you kinda sorta can but it is a big joke. Looking forward to eating real mexican food again. Want anything from Texas? let me know, I'll get it for you.

Hey Rik,

Will you still be in EP on 9/29? I've been asked to shoot the final fight of Cliff "Magic" Thomas, KICK World Middleweight Champion. Cliff will be retiring after this fight and wanted to end his professional career in his home town of El Paso. If you're still in town and are interested, I'd enjoy meeting you and invite you to help out with the shoot. I could use a second camera operated by someone who knew what they were doing for a change. I'm sure I could learn from you as well. Since this is not relevant to this board, please contact me at hdracing@zianet.com.

Hey Rik,

"Feliz Diez y Seis!" Have a good one! Eat some chalupas, tamales, and cabrito for me, and belt out a rendition of "Volver, Volver" while you're at it.

Man! I miss that stuff!

John,
you read my mind, I already told my sister to have a huge supply of menudo waiting for me when I get in. I'm going to try to get a hold of a DVinfoer who lives in Jaurez, he posted this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=974&highlight=Blues

leaving the XL-1 but taking my VX-1000, do you want anything from Texas?

Rik,

I hope you get to meet Angel. The "Paganini's Blues" trailer has stuck with me...been hoping to see the full documentary someday. If you do meet him, tell him he already has a fan base in Japan.

What can you bring me!? Caramba! Are you taking a cargo plane?

Since there's no way you could carry everything I miss, how about some good footage of the sights and sounds of Diez y Seis? I'd love to see that!

John,
I'll shoot some video for you, I'm pretty sure they'll have a big fiesta at the park near my grandmother's house (Washington Park). I'm going alone so my wife is jealous, while I'm at a real fiesta with real music/food she'll be stuck at the Mexican fiesta here in Osaka, aside from the two real mexican entertainers, the rest is Japanese wanna be stuff, they actually
did an Obon style dance last year for a half hour, I don't remember the 16th of September celebrations back home doing Japanese dances. people starting looking at me weird when I started to laugh uncontrollably, not at them but at the whole situation. had to leave till they were done. But speaking of dances, one day I have to check out the awa dori in Tokushima, the ultimate dancing festival in Japan, a friend went there, shot some video, I have to check it out. I'll get to see some of them at the Midosuji parade here in Osaka at the end of sept or begining of Oct.

Rik,

It would be good if the "DVInfo.net East" wing could keep each other up-to-date on festivals and events going on here. Last month, I heard some ruckus going on at street level and it turned out to be the "Mikoshi" parade. Huge! Lasted about five hours...and I hadn't heard anything about it until it was at my doorstep.

I'll keep my eyes and ears open and let you know when I hear about things. I've heard that a lot of little theaters are popping up in Tokyo that feature works by indie filmmakers, so I'm in the process of trying to track that info down. Also, I've heard something about a "Boat Dance Festival" that sounds interesting.

The other day I hopped in a taxi and the driver, for no reason whatsoever, whipped around and said "I am independent filmmaker." He then took out a sort of scrapbook that had photos of his shoots and equipment, and also photos of his "extra" roles in some of the major Japanese feature films. He also showed me his prized possession, Akiro Kurasawa's signature on a paper napkin. Really strange that our paths crossed...talk about serendipity.

He shoots with 16mm, but said he could tell me places to pick up lighting and audio equipment. I'll let you and Adrian know what he tells me.

Buen viaje.

P.S. Adrian, sorry to have strayed so far off your original post. Like I said, you can use my camera any time to experiment with the PAL/NTSC workaround you came up with.

John,
a friend on mine lives in tokyo and he knows a group of japanese guys who get together once or twice a month to show their dv shorts. we wants me to submit a video, or better yet to get together with him and make a short, haven't had time recently, he might come to Narita and we'll spend my 8 hour layover there shooting something at the airport, I'll get the info from him, you could get in touch with him and maybe check out their next get together. Another friend of mine lives with the director of the last Godzilla film, he got to spend the whole time on the set and hung out with the cast and crew, got a great shot of him and Godzilla arm in arm. Meeting that taxi driver was cool, people aren't always what they seem, people need to have a sign on their back listing all their interest/talents, who knows, maybe the person serving you coffee at Starbucks just bought the latest G4 and an Xl-1s and is dying to make a film with someone else.

At least we all know each other through this board, one day we gotta have a big DVinfo convention in Vegas, get all the DVinfoer's together in one spot, Chris if you're reading this, pick a weekend during the summer a year ahead of time and I'm sure a lot of us would go. The more of us that meet in person the better.