Little bees of the busy variety
Been real busy around here. Last weekend we went and filmed an opera for the Casa Italiana opera company in LA. It was a 2 hour show with a 30 minute intermission. Nance had done one of these last year but it was a 3.5 hour opera and she had to do 2 shows in one day (7 hours total!). She had to stand on a chair to operate the camera and it was a really bad experience for her.
Adding to that, we had 1 day's notice for the gig and the sound gear failed so all we had was the on-camera sound. All in all, it was a terrible experience. The sound gear belonged to the guy that was supposed to do the gig but his gear was all crap.
So this time, Nance put together a little platform for herself to be able to sit and operate the camera. She used a swivel bar stool on the platform and it really worked well. We used a pair of Oktava condenser mics with the hypercardioid cartridge in them, positioned them on stands by the corners of the stage and then I operated the Tascam HD-P2 field recorder.
The results this time were excellent. Sunday, we will be doing it all again at a center out in the valley and then the following Sunday we will be in Santa Monica at a theater doing it yet again. We generally spend most of Saturday before the gig prepping and testing gear so it makes for a full weekend.
LAFCPUG bonus!
We went to the LAFCPUG meeting last month and as always we participated in the raffle. We won a copy of Shane Ross's excellent DVD "Getting Organized in FCP" that we already had a copy of so we gave that away to another attendee. We also won a portable 100GB USB drive. Nance also entered us in a drawing that was being done by Focus Enhancements where they were giving away one of their FS-5 recording systems. Well, they called Nance up today to let her know that she won the drawing.
So I will be posting an in-depth review of it as we plan to use it for the Santa Monica opera shoot (yes, we will have a backup system in place a'la tape). Check out the website and watch the demo on this. It is AMAZING!
Gas Prices.
I commute about 60 miles a day in a Camry that gets about 26MPG. Since gas prices have been going insane (they are FINALLY starting to ease up a bit now), I started considering alternatives to driving the Camry. There is a MetroLink commuter but it only runs in the morning...
Hybrid cars are expensive and the milage they get is not *that* great. Years ago, I was a hard core biker. I gave it up when traffic in the valley was just getting far too congested. We live out in the sticks now and my commute is across a couple of farm roads. Pretty mellow. So I went out tonight and bought a Suzuki DL650 that should net me about 55MPG if I drive it right. And it was a hell of a lot cheaper than a hybrid car. And, lets face it, bikes are fun :)
So, other than all of that, we have been bored.
Adding to that, we had 1 day's notice for the gig and the sound gear failed so all we had was the on-camera sound. All in all, it was a terrible experience. The sound gear belonged to the guy that was supposed to do the gig but his gear was all crap.
So this time, Nance put together a little platform for herself to be able to sit and operate the camera. She used a swivel bar stool on the platform and it really worked well. We used a pair of Oktava condenser mics with the hypercardioid cartridge in them, positioned them on stands by the corners of the stage and then I operated the Tascam HD-P2 field recorder.
The results this time were excellent. Sunday, we will be doing it all again at a center out in the valley and then the following Sunday we will be in Santa Monica at a theater doing it yet again. We generally spend most of Saturday before the gig prepping and testing gear so it makes for a full weekend.
LAFCPUG bonus!
We went to the LAFCPUG meeting last month and as always we participated in the raffle. We won a copy of Shane Ross's excellent DVD "Getting Organized in FCP" that we already had a copy of so we gave that away to another attendee. We also won a portable 100GB USB drive. Nance also entered us in a drawing that was being done by Focus Enhancements where they were giving away one of their FS-5 recording systems. Well, they called Nance up today to let her know that she won the drawing.
So I will be posting an in-depth review of it as we plan to use it for the Santa Monica opera shoot (yes, we will have a backup system in place a'la tape). Check out the website and watch the demo on this. It is AMAZING!
Gas Prices.
I commute about 60 miles a day in a Camry that gets about 26MPG. Since gas prices have been going insane (they are FINALLY starting to ease up a bit now), I started considering alternatives to driving the Camry. There is a MetroLink commuter but it only runs in the morning...
Hybrid cars are expensive and the milage they get is not *that* great. Years ago, I was a hard core biker. I gave it up when traffic in the valley was just getting far too congested. We live out in the sticks now and my commute is across a couple of farm roads. Pretty mellow. So I went out tonight and bought a Suzuki DL650 that should net me about 55MPG if I drive it right. And it was a hell of a lot cheaper than a hybrid car. And, lets face it, bikes are fun :)
So, other than all of that, we have been bored.
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