L.A. boy looking to learn
 

Hey everyone. My name's Daniel and I live in Alhambra, CA. Looking to learn the DV filmmaking process. I own a Mac, have Final Draft. Eventually, I'll get my hands on a DV camera after I learn some things. I've been writing. Hoping to direct some shorts soon. Anyone who wouldn't mind some help during shoots, please feel free to contact me.
Also, I work at a post production house in Burbank. Anyone needing miniDV or DVCam dubs or stock, VHS screeners, etc. let me know.

Thanks for listening,
Daniel

Welcome aboard Daniel! Can you tell us a bit more what you do
at a post-production house? Any inside details or tips that you
guys have on processing DV material?

Welcome to the boards, Daniel!

Does the post-production house have a web site? If so, let us know.

Post Production House
 

Hey Everyone,

Website is www.point360.com.

We have alot of film students come in wanting to transfer their 16mm film or miniDV/DVCams to VHS screeners for various film festivals or screenings. Some of it actually quite good. We work with other video formats including D1, D2, D3, D5 (standard def and hi def), betacam sp, digital betacam, DCT, HDCam...
We also get alot of clients using the miniDV/DVCam format for their various b-roll footage during film shoots, interviews, etc.

Hope this is informative.

Thanks for posting that, Daniel!

So any tips for us? What to do or not to do with DV footage if
we plan to use it for festivals or converting it to 16/35 mm?

Cheers!

I see they have a job opening for a Computer Software Engineer,
hmm... That is my profession. Do they hire from across? :)

miniDV and DVCam experience
 

Some things I've learned:

1) Never recycle stock. This should be obvious but re-using stock will cause numerous intermittent video and/or audio dropouts. Sometimes it won't even play back at all.

2) Always rewind your tapes. If you have to eject your tape, do it at the head or tail of your tapes. Ejecting it in the middle of program or footage may cause concealment errors (tape stretch, edge damage, etc) which will affect video/audio playback.

3) Watch your audio levels. Most if not all miniDV and/or DVCam camera masters have hot audio levels which peak in reds which causes audio distortion, which is enchanced when bumped to an analog format (VHS. 3/4", betacam sp). We run it through an audio limited @+12db which usually fixes that.

4) Video luminance, chrominance and black levels. Camera masters and/or final masters usually have high luminance and chrominance levels and/or raised or crushed black levels; sometimes causing video tearing or breakup and loss of detail respectively. Make sure it is clipped or legalized to broadcast standards especially if this will be your dubmaster and/or protection master (back up copy).

Those come to mind. Hope this helps.

Thanks for sharing that! Much appreciated.

Welcome Dan - thanks for sharing what you've learned. Definitly smething to cut and paste and add to my personal FAQ reference.