Gearin PT to work to film....options?

[cajonezzz]

My mission in our new room is to get geared up to take on smallish film projects, with the intention of growing into a "one stop shop" for indie's and maybe documentary stuff. The only experience I've had personally is as a muso on film sessions, jingles etc. I've never been the engineer guy on a film date or had to deal with he plethora of different formats/problems that I gather can come with the post world.

I'd appreciate a little input on the most effecticve ,economical soulution to get us started learning our way around the rig. I've taked some basic film production classes and understand a bit of the terminology but have yet to apply any.
we'll be soliciting a student film for a "freebie" to get our feet wet.

we have 2x's Mix plus rigs. one room wired for surround....we're set up for music only right now. don't own any efx library's or other Post specific software.

I'm aware of the AV option for PT but that's a bit out of our reach $$$right now....other options ?
We'd like to be able utilize a large flat screen TV that is available to us.
would one of you movie folks care to hold our hand through this process?

thanks!

[Bob Olhsson]

The most important tool is the largest video monitor you can get, AT LEAST 27". Otherwise you won't be able to see the necessary level of detail. Built in video in the computer is usually not good enough for film. Even then there will be rude surprises that will need to be fixed on the dubbing stage after you see the film projected.

A lot of people get a DVD of the work print burned with vertical Interval time code and play it on a DVD player locking their workstation to a split of the video. Another, slower, method is to have time code on one channel of the stereo audio and the work print sync audio on the other.

Before you begin, record the work print audio into your system and make sure you can play it back in perfect sync with the original coming from the DVD player or video deck. Bad sync on a work print is very common and you need to always test for this before you waste a LOT of time and money.

[C.Lambrechts]

From time to time I do some commercials / documentaries / tv / post stuff. Nowwadays I ask that they deliver the images on a DVD in DV format or on DV tapes. I have a consumer DV cam which I use to transfer the DV tapes to an external FW HD. I use a Canopus ADCV-100 firewire to video convertor. Connected to a normal TV through AV inputs. Works great for what I have to do with it. And it is pretty in-expensive.

Just a couple of thoughts that might help you in your search. If you don't do video editing, only playback shouldn't be too expensive to look 'professional'

[kosi]

I'm working here with a little Aurora Fuse card. (Apple, System 9) The video will be recorded analog in a Quicktime format, so it's very easy to import it into ProTools or Logic. We made some major films with this combination.
You have to store the video on an extra HD, otherwise you will have some trouble with your audiobus.
I receive a lot of my material on simple VHS tapes, which I digitize with a pretty small data rate (around 500-600kb) When you use uncompressed video, the computer can have a very hard time...
Then I record the audiomaterial and check for synchro. For a 90 minute film, I have to make 2 or 3 cuts to stay synchronous.


kosi