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Media Communications Association - International
San Diego Chapter
2001 Meeting Recaps
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November 2001
Tax, Legal and Insurance Tips
Intuit, makers of Quicken and TurboTax, hosted our November meeting that covered some of the basic tax, legal and insurance information necessary for video and media production people. Our knowledgeable and very energetic guest speakers kept us entertained while they filled our heads with lots of good information.
David Branfman
, Branfman and Associates started off his presentation with some basic information on the question of being and/or hiring an independent contractor or an employee. For more information about this important question, visit www.mca-i.org and click on Full Resource List and then scroll to bottom of list. A key point brought up by David was that hiring someone as an Independent Contractor who should be an employee can result in serious taxes, fines and penalties.
Copyright issues are wrapped up in this IC/Employee question as well. Here is where a "Work for Hire" agreement might help you assign rights to footage and also insure payment for services rendered. (i.e., "I will only assign you ownership if I get paid in full.") Visit www.loc.gov/copyright
A second area he covered was Production Insurance. The bottom line here is that your needs will change throughout your career and with each job. We have collected some names and numbers of people who provide production insurance and are familiar with the business we are in. Click here for that list.
David's final topic was on the importance of Branding and Trademarks. Your name is important! Find out more about Branding and Trademarks at www.uspto.gov. You can register trademarks online now.
Lane McKeller, our Tax expert, works with Intuit and has his own tax firm. He addressed the tax implications of being an Employee or an Independent Contractor. Although employers face stiff fines, penalties and additional taxes if they hire people as IC when they should be employees, there is a lot of financial temptation to hire IC. It saves an employer about 7 1/2 percent in dollars, without the extra paperwork of W9s, W4s, Quarterly Reports, Year End Reports, etc.
And if you qualify as an IC, it will save you money on taxes as well -- because you can turn nondeductible employee expenses into deductions. Take mileage -- this year (2001) the rate is 34.5 cents a mile for mileage. Just make note of your mileage on New Year's Eve and keep a small log in your glove box to keep track of where you go.
A couple other points:
- Keep records for 3 years if you don't get any notices, 7 years if you do.
- Use an accounting software to keep your records (Quicken, Money, Quickbooks)
- Have a personal and a business account.
- Plan for your taxes all year long -- save 15-18% of your gross.
October 2001
The Art of the Interview
Solar Turbines hosted this month's meeting in their freshly painted studio filled to capacity with over 40 people, monitors and enough camera, audio and lighting gear to demonstrate "The Art of the Interview".
Aspen Electronics, Inc., our Vendor's Corner this month, opened the meeting with an interesting presentation on the evolution of batteries for video professionals. Some sage advice from this battery manufacturer included: Know the size of the cells in your battery pack. Know the trade offs. Understand the relationship between voltage and current. Select a battery good for your application. And avoid adapter plates.
The main part of the meeting began with a down and dirty interview intended to give us a starting point for improvement. Our fine panel of industry pros then stepped us through some basic considerations for getting the best look and sound we can with the least amount of effort. Our volunteer "CEO" Mark Schulze is seen here before and after.
Thom Owens, Director/DP offered valuable pointers for getting the best out of the interviewee. While acknowledging that eye contact is more compelling, not everyone can do this and pull it off. If an off-camera interview set up -- where the speaker has someone to actually talk to -- is not right for the project, then Thom suggests breaking the piece into smaller bits -- vary the shots -- try not to memorize.
Ron Hyatt, Sound Mixer stepped in next -- continuing a theme introduced by Thom -- of making the subject as comfortable as possible. Most subjects are not used to having people touch them in order to put on a mic, particularly someone they have only just met. Ron suggests enlisting the help of someone else who may have had just a bit more time with them. The make up person perhaps, or the producer.
As far as mics -- small unhidden lavs in the middle of the chest provide the best sound. Hard wire whenever possible. They can be backed up by a short shotgun boom just out of camera. And be sure to remind the subject that they are now tethered.
Wendy Perkins
, Makeup Artist reiterated the theme of helping the subject relax. Make up artists develop a relationship as they apply their special skills to make the subject look as natural as possible. Wendy uses the airbrush techniques which results in a very natural look without a heavy application of cosmetics. In this case, she also buttoned up the shirt a bit. The make up artist works as a team with the cameraman and the lighting director.
Capping the evening was
Andy Hall
, Lighting Director/Gaffer. He demonstrated how one larger softer diffused key light with a bounce card can actually light the entire interview. Of course he didn't stop there. He discussed back lights and depth of field and background lighting tricks.
Door prizes this month were donated by Digital OutPost, New and Unique Videos, Duplication Center of America, and Panasonic.
September 2001
Planning the Corporate Meeting
Many thanks to SAIC Productions for letting us use their videoconferencing room for this meeting. Due to the attack on
America
on September 11th, this room has been in constant use and we were lucky to still be able to hold the meeting there.
Ed Keyes of <www.bizjazznet.com> kicked off the meeting with a quick overview of his new web-based multimedia tool to create online streaming multimedia presentations.
After which, a fine panel of producers spoke to a full room of media professionals on the subject of Planning the Big Corporate Meeting. Fred Ashman (Multi Image), Eva Langer (Qualcomm), Steve Hutchison (SAIC), and John Gray (Solar Turbines and formerly General Dynamics) covered everything from the basics -- things like big screens with PowerPoint presentations, IMAG, video playback, multi-camera record -- to the extremes -- singers, dancers and pyrotechnics.
We heard some horror stories and about some of the successes of working for the corporate client -- from the in-house point-of-view, as well as from the eyes of a subcontractor.
While there were some differences between the three in-house producers about what they do in-house and what they subcontract when staging a meeting at a hotel -- they agreed across the board that it is usually not cost effective to use the equipment from the hotel. We heard from one member that the current mark up rate is close to 60%.
The panel will either rent from another source or buy equipment, many times actually saving money by buying equipment such as VHS players, over renting from the hotel.
The panel discussed the difficulties of trying to get clients to spend just a little more time and money to enhance the creative aspects of the presentations -- particularly those engineer types who try to cram their entire presentation onto one PowerPoint slide in 8 point font.
After a lively Question and Answer period, the meeting wrapped up around
9 o'clock
, with many of the group staying around to continue their conversations.
August 2001
Summer
Beach
Party
OK, this was a fun time! We had a nice turnout with members, new members, non-members and guests. Even a brand new baby -- with mom Simone Hogan. Photos were taken by
Patty Mooney
of Crystal Pyramid Productions.
Simone Hogan and new baby girl
Many many thanks to Craig, Ray, Deborah, Mark and Mike for putting this together. Craig staked out the perfect location on
Crown Point
-- near the beach and the bathrooms with lots of room for the food tent and the volleyball net.
Dave Copenhaver,
Bill Wade
,
Ray Asturias
, Carl Perkins and Mark Schulze
The food from Rubio's was good and abundant. We had door prizes and kids and dogs and fierce competition on the volleyball court -- as well as a rousing game of Frisbee football late in the day just before the last of the McCAI tribe called it quits.
Marti Krane
,
Mike Sterner
, Connie Terwilliger,
Dan Hrigora
and Mark Schulze
July 2001
What's all this I hear about DVD?
The July meeting was a complete success. We had a full house -- standing room only. Digital OutPost outdid themselves with a wonderful spread of food and a marvelous program featuring
Brian Douglass
, President of Digital OutPost, who spoke to MCA-I on the benefits of DVD and streaming video. We also had a fine selection of door prizes courtesy of Digital OutPost, Applied Magic and Duplication Center of America.
Here is an overview of the presentation ...
DVD delivers full-screen, full-motion video, 48kHz stereo and surround audio, text, graphics and interactivity all on a disc that not only plays back on DVD-equipped PCs and Macs, but also set-top DVD players.
Here are some DVD facts.
- It can be played on a player found in many home entertainment centers (DVD-video) or on a personal computer (DVD-ROM).
- A DVD-5 is single layer, holds 4.7 gigabytes, and has data burned or stamped on one side only. It can hold over 2 hours of high-quality video whereas a CD-Rom only holds 650 megabytes.
- DVD-9, DVD-10, and DVD-18, all dual sided/dual layer, are also available for holding more gigabytes. DVD-9 holds 8.54 gigabytes. DVD-10 holds 10 gigabytes. DVD-18 holds 18 gigabytes or 8 hours of video.
- Using MPEG-2 video compression and depending on the bitrate per second, DVD achieves broadcast quality.
- Eight different language tracks can be embedded and chosen by the user (i.e., English, French, or Spanish audio).
- DVD will not degrade with age or after many playings like VHS will.
- DVDs can be programmed with menus and interactive buttons. Chapter buttons act as an instant fast forward and rewind function that allows a user to skip immediately to a scene of his or her choice.
- DVD-R, a burned master, is a recordable disc that allows a user to see what his or her final project will look like. DLTs, Digital Linear Tape, are used for mass duplication and archival. A glass master is created from the DLT and copies are stamped.
- DVD is formatted into one of the two television systems (NTSC & PAL). If a tape was shot in NTSC, the DVD will be in NTSC format.
There are also consumer DVD programs and burners on the market that allow a user to create a "one-off" DVD-R general purpose. A one-off is a consumer DVD-R designed as a single copy only. It is not replicatable unless it is rebuilt and burned on professional equipment.
The consumer programs are "buggy," play unpredictably in various set tops and computers, and are unable to achieve a quality of look that a professional DVD authoring studio can. Due to these difficulties, a producer is better off financially outsourcing his or her DVD authoring to Digital OutPost. Digital OutPost has various reseller programs that allow the producer to resell Digital OutPost services. The Digital OutPost program gives a percentage of the profit back to the producer.
Brian Douglass
displayed several examples of past DVD projects such as for the Army, No Fear, and
Yellowstone
Park
. In addition, samples of streaming video for DreamWorks, Viejas, and the Army were displayed in QuickTime, Real Video, and Windows Media format. Digital OutPost's background in compression began in 1991, as GTE Interactive, doing MPEG1 encoding. Digital OutPost builds its own proprietary encoding boxes and digital proprietary signal processing, allowing our technicians to manipulate the video and audio signal for better picture quality for all digital distribution technologies.
Late June 2001
Location, Location, Location
It was a gorgeous evening in
San Diego
and the view from the
office
s of the San Diego Film Commission were breath taking. Many thanks to
Cathy Anderson
and Kathy McCurdy for hosting and speaking to our assembled group of around 25 to 30.
The topic was about finding a location here in
San Diego
, what it takes to actually shoot there and why having a location manager can save you time, money and frustration.
The Film Commission can smooth out many of the bumps in the permission and permit process. While it is easier to shoot here in
San Diego
than many other cities, there are some areas that are not film crew happy at the moment (including
Balboa
Park
and some of the surrounding cities).
Having the Film Commission around to provide a liaison to the City, County, Port District, and the Community is just part of the service they offer. They help with any permits necessary for the parts of the county they cover. They have contacts in the other cities in
San Diego
county. They will assist in scheduling police as necessary.
Insurance is required (one million dollars general comprehensive) and should name
San Diego
City
and County, the San Diego Unified Port District and the San Diego Film Commission. They have a huge location library of photos from all around the county. And all of this is a free service.
After this introduction to the Film Commission, Nancy Spooner of Salty Spoon Productions filled us in on why it is a good idea to hire a location manager. She covered her top three reasons their expertise, their relationships, and the perks!
A seasoned location manager has resources with lots of contact information, as well as knowing which cities are sensitive to shooting, any special fees, curfews, etc. They have built relationships with the location owners and they also know what the director needs. They plan and put out any fires so you can keep the cameras up and running. And then there are the perks. Because of their connections all sorts of unexpected little perks could pop up -- tickets to things, hotel rooms, food certificates -- who knows!
Mike Sterner
of Crystal Pyramid Productions wrapped up the meeting tying together the benefits of using both the Film Commission and a Location Manager.
Our Vendor's Corner was Applied Magic, who presented their stand-alone, nonlinear video editing appliance offering true real-time video and audio processing. It's called Screenplay and is an affordable, easy-to-use system -- great for creating high-quality broadcast, educational, corporate and event videos. Eric Wright introduced the system, answered questions and provided details on a complete demonstration they gave in June.
Door prizes this month courtesy of the San Diego Film Commission and
Jan Baxter
with AdGap. Thanks so much to our sponsors.
Early June 2001
NAB Recap at Televideo
Televideo hosted May's meeting that focused on a review of NAB. Over 40 people showed up to see Televideo's sales reps present new webcasting, DVD, and wireless audio products. Televideo always throws such a nice party.
Sony showed off its new High Definition, MPEG and DVD equipment. Mark Schulze, of Crystal Pyramid Video Productions, demonstrated the Easy-Rig Camera Support System that literally takes the weight off of a camera operator's shoulders and adds new moves to a DP's repertoire.
Chapter president Craig Bentley, and MCA-I members Jim Larime and John Gray from Solar shared their personal favorites, and Carl Perkins demonstrated his new 3-chip lipstick camera.
Door prizes this month courtesy of Val Reynolds and Sony (a CD Boombox and a Walkman), David and Linda Stepp of Televideo and
Jan Baxter
with AdGap. Thanks so much to our sponsors.
March 2001
DV to High Definition for Film Conversion or Archiving
This meeting was jammed packed with information. Held at Audio Video Supply in Kearny Mesa, we fortified ourselves with a fine spread of food sponsored by AV Supply and Panasonic in preparation for the workout ahead. Thanks to Ray Hayden and Steve Milley for handling the details of this meeting. Door prizes were donated by AV Supply, Panasonic and AdGap.
First up on the agenda was our Vendor's Corner with Steve presenting the latest Panasonic AG-DVC200 1/2" 3CCD Full Size DV Camcorder. After taking us on a complete tour of this camera with a list price of $4,995.00 (lens not included), Steve began the main presentation.
Digital video and High Definition video is an issue for our business. The FCC has dictated that the broadcast end of our business has to be digital by 2002 -- not high def, but at least digital. To this end, the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) has been working on defining industry standards, coming up with 18 different analogue and digital formats available today.
What makes it so complex is the way each of the factors in this next chart can be combined. You need to consider scan lines, number of pixels and their shape, aspect ratio, picture rate and if it is interlaced or progressive, and horizontal frequency.
Using the basic data from the chart above, particularly the fields and frame rate boxes, Steve also tackled how to get regular digital video into an acceptable high definition video or film formats. There are several ways to get an acceptable image.
You could shoot DV 60 fields, upconvert to HD and then transfer to film using a 3:2 pull down. This has been used successfully on projects such as Blair Witch and Selena. Or you could shoot 60 field/30 frame mode, upconvert to HD and again transfer using 3:2 pull. This has questionable results for film transfers, but is useful for "film look" video. You could shoot PAL format, which is 25 frames -- do the upconvert to HD and then slew your VCR to 24 frames. And finally he suggested shooting DVCPro Progressive, uconvert and then transfer at 3:2.
Using the basic data from the chart above, particularly the fields and frame rate boxes, Steve also tackled how to get regular digital video into an acceptable high definition video or film formats. There are several ways to get an acceptable image.You could shoot DV 60 fields, upconvert to HD and then transfer to film using a 3:2 pull down. This has been used successfully on projects such as Blair Witch and Selena. Or you could shoot 60 field/30 frame mode, upconvert to HD and again transfer using 3:2 pull. This has questionable results for film transfers, but is useful for "film look" video. You could shoot PAL format, which is 25 frames -- do the upconvert to HD and then slew your VCR to 24 frames. And finally he suggested shooting DVCPro Progressive, uconvert and then transfer at 3:2.
February/March 2001
Using Streaming Media and Web Sites for Marketing
Picturesque hardly begins to express the setting for our meeting on March 1, hosted by
Jeremy Sykes
and Planet Post. www.planetpost.net About 25 people gathered in Planet Post's new location just steps from the ferry landing on
Coronado
. After a lively social hour with food, conversation, demonstrations of one of the Planet Post's AVID systems -- and even a couple of folks bringing items for Show and Tell -- the group gathered in what Jeremy calls the Bat Cave for the main presentation.
Just before the presentation, Jeremy had a chance to showcase Planet Post's mobile AVID editing systems during the Vendors' Corner. Our main presenter for the evening was Dan Biggs of DDS Technologies (Now called Designed Internet). In addition to providing a basic primer on the state of streaming video on the net that included examples of what video looks like at different bandwidths, Dan talked about why more and more people are choosing to use streaming video, despite the still less than perfect quality. There are no constants in streaming media -- we are always at the mercy of net traffic. Statistics gathered by Dan's company is showing that there seems to be a trend toward Windows Media Player -- away from RealMedia -- for displaying streaming media.
The second part of the presentation was a discussion on using the web to promote your business. If you do use the web, it is going to need to be dynamic and interactive, as well as provide some sort of service or convenience to the visitor. And remember -- a good web designer will sit down and talk to you about your business and your needs before suggesting a solution.
Door prizes this meeting were provided by Mark Shulze of New and Unique Videos www.newuniquevideos.com and
Jan Baxter
with AdGap
January 2001
MCA-I Planning Meeting
Our kick off 2001 meeting was held at Televideo
San Diego
with a good turnout of MCA-I members. After a sumptuous spread of snacks sponsored by Televideo, we set down to the business of planning for the rest of the year and selecting a new board. We also gave out a bunch of door prizes donated by Qualcomm, Intuit, Jack-in-the-Box, Televideo, Duplication Center of America, New & Unique Videos/Crystal Pyramid and Digital OutPost.
Outgoing Chapter Coordinator, Connie Terwilliger (ISDN Voice Talent) would like to thank incoming Chapter President Craig Bentley (ImageWorks) for agreeing to take on the position. Connie will remain on the board as Communications and Advertising Chair. Deborah Bravandt (Digital OutPost) will continue as Treasurer and tackle Membership as well. Working together on Programs will be our new Vice President, Mark Schulze (New & Unique Videos/Crystal Pyramid Productions) and Programs Co-Chair,
Ray Asturias
(Sightline Productions).
We look forward to a new year of events here at Media Communications Association International. We encourage you to join so that you can take advantage of the free admission to these great meetings, plus valuable networking both on a local level as well as national.
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