Talking to a friend of mine tonight I got really angry as he told me his plight…He has been producing fantastic work for various “big name” companies and as a designer his work speaks for itself. The “big name” companies are now dragging their heals to pay him…the work is done, their fancy new designs are making them money and he is too proud and professional to “pull his work” till he gets paid…to the extent he has reached the end of his cashflow so he can’t pay his outstanding bills which sets up a vicious circle.

Why am I tell you this because we are all in the same boat, we all talk about workflows with our Canon 5Dmk2, Sony EX-3s but forget that a more important workflow, we should all be paying more attention to is “CASHFLOW”.

I like most of you are running small 1-2 people businesses and we are all held to task with our banks as we dare not cross the line between credit and debt…yet if “they” get into trouble they get 64 billion pounds to help them out. THEY have the Bank of England … WE have one measly £800 over draft and God help us if we use it up.

Banks today are no longer here to help small businesses even though we may have say for talking sake £5K to come in from various sources that are owed to us so my advice to small businesses are as follows…

1. Don’t be taken in by the “promise of more work”. Take my advice the 2nd job is a pipe dream.

2. Do not lower your price on the possibility of future work.

3. Tell the client you will invoice them in two parts, that helps your cashflow and keeps the bank happy.

4. If you are coming to the edge of your over draft phone the bank and put a case to them, tell them about payments owing to you, 99% of the time they don’t care but hang on to the 1% as that may be your bank manager.

5. Make a nuisance of yourself, phone the accounts dept. tell them your plight, you have done the work you are entitled to be payed…the 30 days are up. Write to the MD ask him if he/she can intervene, you have nothing to loose… by this time you no longer need or want further business from this company.

I get really pissed off when I hear good small companies being kicked around by big bullies when it comes to payment, there is no need to treat anyone like this in todays society…if only we had the power to stop their wages then the tables would turn.

It was a bit unnerving to say the least when Dennis Lennie showed us a deliberate but potentially fatal mistake during the making of his NanoFlash tutorial. We see a shot from his EX-3 footage showing a cameraman and all the viewfinder info is also in the shot.

I emailed Dennis to confirm he was using HD-SDI…so be warned…especially those of you who hire EX-3s that you need to have the SDI Out Display to the “OFF” position when using the NanoFlash otherwise you will record all the viewfinder info as well !

Yesterday evening I got an email from George Griswold from Video Now in Louisiana telling me he had been working with FCP-7 and the AJA io HD for over a month now.      www.videonow.info

I had a long think about this statement and came to the conclusion that George had upgraded Final Cut Studio rather than a fresh install. By upgrading his machine had retained the AJA settings and V6.0.3 firmware.

I was excited maybe if I installed the AJA firmware I too would get a working FCP-7 and AJA io HD. I downloaded the software from AJAs site and hey presto I also had FCP-7 working finally with my AJA.

This would be a good workaround till the new drivers appear so I did some preliminary tests to make sure the AJA was talking to my HD recorders and did some HM100 tests for someone else, everything was going smoothly…till…I tried to import a project from FCP-6 to FCP-7 and it crashed to the desktop. I repeated this 3 times and decided to re-install my FCP-6 SATA drive.

I can only assume that Mr Griswold has not had the need to import a project yet…how stable it is, time will tell but sadly I am back using FCP-6 on my second SATA drive.

After finding this out I thought it only fair to Email AJA with my findings…

“I’m pretty sure Engineering is aware of this issue but I will forward your findings to them just in case.
Regardless, I’m sorry for the delay but not too much longer.

Thank you for your patience.”

Best regards
Rudy

AJA Video Technical Support

Late last week, 9 to 5 Mac noted that a number of users have reported a Mac OS X Snow Leopard bug apparently related to Guest accounts that is resulting in a complete loss of user data. The problem appears to manifest itself on machines which had the Guest account option enabled under Leopard and were subsequently upgraded to Snow Leopard. Users booting their machines have reported that upon start-up, they have been logged into the Guest account. Upon switching to their regular account, the affected users have been finding all of their user data missing and unrecoverable except from a backup.

Further investigation revealed initial reports of the problem in early September, soon after Snow Leopard’s launch.

This could be due to a bug in how guest accounts are managed since data and settings are deleted from these accounts upon logout, but also could be from some corruption in the guest account. So far, it does not seem to be a widespread problem.

If this happens to you, immediately restore using your latest Time Machine backup (or other full system backup), and then go to the Accounts system preferences and disable log-in on the guest account.

One suggestion for preventing data deletion is for users who had Guest accounts enabled under Leopard and then upgraded to Snow Leopard to disable the Guest account and then reenable it. This results in fresh Guest account settings created under Snow Leopard, reportedly eliminating the problem.

Several threads on the issue have popped up on Apple’s support forums, but Apple has yet to make an official acknowledgement of the problem.

As a royalty free music business, we get asked many questions about copyright. There are numerous people that believe they can legally use up to 30 seconds of music without any legal repercussions and without having to seek clearance or a license.

Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news…. This is simply not true and a bit of a modern myth.

Copyright law is complex and varies in different countries. US copyright law in particular, has a fair use clause, whereas here in the UK, there is no such clause.

This fair use copyright clause is misinterpreted by many who think that using up to 30 seconds of music is legal. The fact is that any use of music needs to be cleared or licensed. Even where copyright law includes a fair use policy the legal interpretation can vary considerably.

For instance, using a 10 second music clip as an intro to your podcast would probably not be classed as fair use, whereas using a 10 second snippet to critique a piece of music may be seen as fair use in copyright law. However, never assume you are covered by fair use copyright as there is no guarantee you will be safe.

I once heard an American music lawyer say… “When your use of music gets challenged you need a defence; having a license is always your best defence. If your defence is ‘fair use’ this will probably not be sufficient to save you in court.”

She went on to say that it is not worth the risk in nearly all cases.

A good rule of thumb is that it is not OK to use any amount of copyrighted music without permission from the rights owner or a music license. If you do feel fair use applies you will need to study the fair use guidelines for the copyright policy of your jurisdiction and to be completely sure you would need a music lawyer to confirm your belief for your particular circumstance.

In my opinion, it is going to be much easier, cheaper and less stressful to get royalty free music licenses from a reputable company.

Excerpt from http://www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/blog/2009/04/18/fair-use-music-copyright/

Many people are under the misconception that as long as music is not used for personal gain within a video then it’s fine to use… WRONG ! MCPS told me today if anyone wants to use copyright music on a video for online use they need to negotiate a price with that artists record label which could start from £1000 upwards.

YouTube are now excluding music from home made videos as they are not willing to pay the copyright fee. YouTube have recently struck an agreement to pay for the use of commercially made music videos eg. Those made by the record companies themselves.

I have been a long time campaigner (15 years) for production companies to pay a flat fee allowing us to use copyright music anytime we like but so far this has not happened.

I reckon if all the video production companies in the UK paid £250 a year it would rake in £1.25 million…that’s a lot of money to share between music producers and owners.

If for instance you are filming a wedding video you need to have a Limited Manufacture Licence now this licence starts from £8 allowing up to 5 DVD copies…plus you must have a PPL licence (Dubbing copyright music) costing £19.55.

To be completely legal for filming and copying 5 DVDs of a wedding is £27.55 and that still does not cover you for putting any part of the copyright music online.

Limited Manufacture Licence

http://www.prsformusic.com/users/musicforproducts/LM/Pages/LM.aspx

PPL licence via the Institute of Videography

http://www.iov.co.uk/showarticle.pl?id=29046;n=40

I get asked many times by corporate clients if they can use copyright music in their video, my stock answer is…” £1500 plus or copyright free music at zero cost”…copyright free wins every time.

There is actually no excuse these days for not using copyright free music as it’s far better than it used to be…here are some links to the ones I have used over the years…

Trackline Music    http://www.trackline.com/

NotePad Music   http://www.notepadmusic.com/

AKM Music   http://www.akmmusic.co.uk/

Digital Juice    http://www.digitaljuice.com/

SmartSound    http://www.smartsound.com/sonicfire/

I still do not know what the answer is to this problem but I would like to share a word of warning…I was filming yesterday and choose to film in SP 1080i mode as I had a 12 hour day. Now as we all know we do not film 12 hours of material in a 12 hour day but those precious 22 extra minutes per 16Gig card can be useful.

Now why did I choose 1080i and not 720p well firstly there is a lot of action footage and the final production ends up on SD DVD and watched mainly in the UK. A rule of thumb for filming in HD is as follows…

1. End result = DVD = interlace

2. End result = web = progressive

So I stupidly choose SP mode instead of HQ mode to “save on card space”. My 16G cards being SDHC Transend cards for archive purposes as this job will not be completed till sometime in July. So you start to see the picture…I was saving card space when I had at least three 16G SDHC cards with me and even at full HD would not fill 3 cards. 

So as they say in the good old Indiana Jones films “You choose badly”…why. I have an Apple Mac Pro with an AJA io HD box so I can afford to start with the best setting and down convert later if needed. 

To get to the point I was reviewing some of yesterdays shots and it came to the canoe section when I noticed square pixel boxing all over the water shots to be fair this will not be seen by the time it gets to an SD DVD but it’s there all the same. I have not experienced this before but I also have a nagging doubt that it may also be the cards fault as well.

In my own Sherlock fashon I took things back to basics and tried to re-create the problem without success…I filmed a sink of water at 1440 and 1920 but both looked fine although the 1920 was crisper looking as you would expect, but no blocking.

Fortunately 99% of the footage is fine and it spans 2h 24m using 3 cards I had forgot I had used 20mins of one of the cards last week. So my advice is as follows…

1. Only choose HQ mode for filming with the EX1, EX3

2. Web based productions look better shot with 720P 50

3. TV and DVD based productions look better with motion shot on 1920 x 1080i 50

4. If like me you need archive where the SxS card becomes a pain only use Transend Class 6 SDHC or Panasonic Class 10 SDHC cards.

My conclusions…

I doubt if this was card problems as the rest of the footage is fine and the SDHC card is only a problem if you are using over cranking as they do not work in this mode. You do not get a choice of HQ and SD for the sake of it…HQ gives you the best quality so don’t compromise for the sake of a £40 SDHC card !

UPDATE…It’s not a card problem it’s the technology, seemingly moving water is very hard for digital to understand and compresses it into wee square boxes, you only see this effect when you have moving water. I filmed further test footage this morning and it did not matter a hoot wether it was on HQ or SQ mode and I also filmed onto Sony SxS and SDHC both the same quality…though the HQ pictures were much punchier.

I have to admit I have not filmed a lot of water shots with this camera so I was caught out when I suddenly saw the square boxes in the moving water but as I can do nothing about it I will avoid filming water sports in the future. The best part about video is that you never stop learning.

If you want exposure on my web blog please supply a picture of the item you are writing about. I will not print any press releases unless accompanied by at least one decent resolution picture of your product.

Do not stare at high brightness LEDs, because doing so may cause permanent damage to your eyes.

The optics of our eyes focus visible light onto the retina, which is the light sensitive part of our eyes, similar to the way a magnifying glass can focus an image of the sun onto a piece of paper. Just as the piece of paper might smolder and catch fire, a light that is brightly focused on your retina can cook and thus permanently damage your eye. Exposure to bright white and blue LEDs can also cause permanent damage to your eyes through photochemical action.      

Here is a link to an article about the particular hazards of blue  LEDs:  http://www.mdsupport.org/library/hazard.html#blue

The key factors that determine whether or not a particular exposure to light from an LED causes permanent damage are the wavelength and intensity of the light, the length of the exposure occurs, and the distance from the light source to the eye. 

This danger is most pronounced with the use of the newer high output blue and white LEDs. These are intended to illuminate large areas, and for those designed for direct view applications, to be viewed at a significant distance. These LEDs can be identified by packaging or mountings that are designed to carry heat away from the junction. LEDs without these special thermal management features can also pose a danger when operated beyond their specified maximum current.

Infrared and ultraviolet LEDs can also be hazardous, and when using those, please consult the manufacturer’s data sheets or IEC 60825-1:2001 for guidance with respect to safety. You may find IEC 60825-1:2001 summarized on the web. The standard can be purchased from IEC’s web store http://webstore.iec.ch/.

The IEC specification was written to apply to primarily to lasers , though it also applies to LEDs. A new standard, IEC TR 60825,  is in development that promises that includes a section that is intended to address LEDs directly. You might want to check the web for drafts or summaries of this standard in the future.

The standards mentioned above rely on measurements that can only be made with very expensive specialized equipment, though some manufacturers state the safety classification of their LEDs, under specified operating conditions, in their data sheets.  Take note of these comments on the data sheets for LEDs you may use. In the mean time, play it safe by not staring at any bright LEDs.

My thanks to Geoff Davies of Lucid Optical Services Ltd. (http://www.lucidos.co.uk), for raising the issue of permanent eye damage, and providing the information contained in this section.

This card is not compatible with the MxM card readers as used in the Sony EX-1 and  EX-3 HD camcorders even although it is clearly labeled ’CLASS 6′, just thought I would let you chaps and chapettes know.

I am big on Health and Safety, you become this way when you film H&S induction DVDs and film in hospitals as I do. The eye is a very sensitive organ and looking direct into LED lights is as bad as looking direct into the sun.

High intensity LED lights are in my opinion dangerous to use direct into a persons face, if nothing else they leave a terrible after image at the back of the retina which takes ages to go away. (Talking from first hand experience). 

I use LED lighting all the time but if you follow my advice you will not cause problems…

1. As they are heat free you can use stick on velcro at the back of the barn doors, then it’s a matter of applying spots of velcro onto sheets of diffuser and diffusing the light.

2. 1000W LED lights are great for bouncing light or you could attach a white foam board using simple clips and bounce the light if the roof is not white.

I can’t stress enough how bad LED video lighting is when directed into a persons face without diffusion, manufacturers should be aware of this and supply their lights with diffusion. If you have ever bought a hi intensity LED torch you will notice it comes with a warning not to shine direct into a persons eyes and that’s a warning for ONE LED not ONE THOUSAND LED’s !