DVTheatre Tech Notes 
DVTheatre Tech Notes Mac Blue&White G3/400/512/12GB/Zip/CD with Firewire and USB ports.
NLE: Adobe Premier 6.
Two IBM 16.8 GB UDMA ATA-33 HD's, provides 140 minutes video storage, connected to:
TurboMAX/ATA-33 EIDE PCI Host Adapter and cable. The card takes four HD's that will all fit in the tower. Two in the bottom and two in top with an extra bracket and cable available from Promax™.
LaCie 120 GB Firewire HD.
Viewsonic G810-2 21" monitor.
Sony DSR-20 Digital VCR: Connects to computer/camera via Firewire. S-video and composite inputs/outputs. Plays MiniDV and DVCam cassetes in MiniDV and DVCam formats. Records in DVCam format on both DVCam and Mini DV cassetes. A 60 minute Mini DV cassete only records/plays 40 minutes in DVCam format.
Sony PVM14N6U 13" NTSC monitor. 500 lines, 4:3 and 16:9 formats, composite and s-video ins and outs. Tea cart for Monitor.
JVC HR-S3600U, S-VHS, S-VHS ET, VHS, VCR. Makes copies for actors, friends, even some festivals require entries be submitted on S-VHS or VHS cassettes. We find the s-video connections make a noticeable improvement in our copies and output to tv's with s-video in.
Roland JV 1000 Music Workstation. This predates our DV stuff.
Roland SMPU64, MIDI Interface for USB.
Digi 001 Breakout box and PCI card. This hardware works with:
Pro Tools LE, which provide 24 tracks of MIDI and/or audio recording and mixing.
MACKIE 1202-VLZ, Mic/Line Mixer.
Epson Stylus 900 Printer. We make our own cassette labels.
Canon XL-1 MiniDV Camcorder.
Canon 14X Manual Zoom Lens: We bought a used lens for $1000 and a month later the retail price dropped to $1000.
Equipment Emporium's XLRH8, XLR to Hi8mm Audio Input Cable. This unit costs $50 provides one XLR input to the Canon. Add a 30 ft. XLR cable for $20.
Audio Technica AT835b, short shotgun microphone.
Audio Technica AT 8415, universal shock mount for microphone. Mounts to an aluminum paint pole until we can afford a real boom.
Two Audio Technica Pro 88W/R wireless mics.
Sony MDR 7506 Sound Monitor Headphones. The camera operator listens through these. We also have a splitter, 25 ft. extension, and other headphones for the boom person.
Matthews TH-M20, Tripod. We hope to do better.
Basic tungsten package can light a 20' X 20' room. Four Mole Richardson 650W Tweenie Solarspots with stands, doors and diffusion. Lowel 500-1000W Softlight. Lowel 5 unit plate kit with doors - fits tight spots for fill and backlight. Many lamps to provide source light. Ample cable to service all lights and equipment. Four tall and two short C stands. Apple boxes. Various colored gels, diffusion and flags.
Ford E150 van to haul it all.
The NLE
David and I decided to do this DV thing in December of 1998. We did several months of research, including a clandestine demo of a third party card in an upstairs office in Venice.
We went to the VideoMaker Expo in Burbank in January 1999. There we saw a demo by Intelligent Media running Adobe Premier with the FireMax drivers on a Blue and White G3, output to an NTSC monitor. We had seen ProMax ads for their system based on the Mac 333 desktop with the FireMAX card. But this was the first time we saw an off-the-shelf computer doing the job. We were ready to make our move but the new G3's weren't really available yet.
I shopped around for a good price. It got boiled down to ProMAX, where Mark Anthony Flores was very patient with my constant haggling, and Intelligent Media, where Ron Margolis, the owner, reassured us they would meet the ProMAX price and provide us with a turnkey editing solution.
ProMAX was in Irvine, a nasty three-hour round trip to Orange County. Intelligent Media was a pleasant half-hour trip across the San Fernando valley.
On 4-5-99, we met with Ron Margolis at Intelligent Media and expressed our trepidations about our lack of technical expertise. We asked to see our system up and running before we took it home. Ron assured us that wouldn't be a problem and took our $5,000 dollar deposit on a $9,923.51 system.
It included the Computer/Ram and Hard Drives with TurboMax card, Premier/StudioMAX Bundle, Viewsonic 21" monitor, Sony DSR-20 VCR, PVM14N6U 13" NTSC monitor, Recovery CD in case we crashed, one year phone support and a $299 Intellistudio Configuration-Testing Service for setting up our turnkey system.
Ron said we would have our system in four or five days. By the middle of the following week, about ten days later, I called Ron and left a message asking what was happening with our system (figuring he was having trouble getting the G3).
A few days later, Ron hadn't returned my call. I called and got his voice mail again -- left another message. Two more days and still no response from Ron. I called the main number and got someone who, after a long pause, thought Ron was in Las Vegas and didn't know when he'd be back.
We're writers. Our paranoia shifted into high gear. Ron wouldn't return our calls. He took our five grand and split for Vegas... Because of our research, we recalled that the NAB conference was being held in Vegas that week. If we were lucky Ron was at the NAB thing and not gambling with our five grand.
We cooled our heels until the morning of 4-21-99, sixteen days later. Some guy named Richard called around 9:30 a.m. Our system was ready to be picked up. Anticipating trouble by this time, I asked if our turnkey system was up and running so we could see it. He would have to get back to me.
A short time later, Kurt, the warehouse manager, called and said our system was ready to be picked up. Again I inquired if the turnkey system was up and running so we could see it. Kurt informed me that there were no instructions on the invoice saying there was to be a demo.
I informed Kurt that we would prefer to wait until Ron got back from Las Vegas so we could see our system up and running before we took delivery and gave them the $4,923.51 balance. Kurt was perplexed but polite.
Kurt called back shortly and said our system was being set up so we could see it in a couple of hours. We made an appointment to come in. It was late morning by the time we arrived at Intelligent Media to get our long-awaited turnkey system.
There it was, sitting on the bench... Actually, there was a little RGB monitor and the Mac sitting on the bench plugged into a D/A converter and output to an old Panasonic tv. The 21" Viewsonic, Sony VCR and NTSC monitor were still in boxes stacked in a pile.
Besides Kurt there were two technicians, John and Mae Hsu.They tried their best to show us how to use Premier and render transitions. They even left some DV clips on the video drive we could play with. But they never said anything about how ProMAX codecs worked, which was the most complicated part of the software with the least amount of documentation. As far as we were concerned, our turnkey system was sitting in a pile of boxes.
They didn't have the authority to plug the whole system together. They drew a diagram of our system on a steno pad with a couple of boxes marked cpu, vcr, and monitor. Lines connected the squares and there were a few scribbled notes (we still have it).
Frustrated with the long delays, we decided to take our boxes and our steno pad page of instructions and go. We forked over the $4,923.51 check. Kurt loaded our boxes into the van and we took off.
We arrived at our office and unpacked the gear. I looked over the individual instruction manuals and our steno pad page for several hours trying to figure out how to put our "turnkey" system together. I realized we needed a few extra cables before the system would be functional... a couple S-Video and BNC cables... After two days and three trips to three different electronic stores we were up and running.
We played with the DV clips John and Mae Hsu had so kindly left on the hard drive, but wanted to get on with some serious learning. We broke out the Adobe Classroom in a Book and its CD. Everything was going great until we previewed a couple of transitions. We started getting messages of Parameter Errors, with mysterious numbers and commands to restart the computer. After several restarts and Parameter Error messages, the computer basically froze. We used the recovery CD several times. The computer would work for a while then freak out. It was four o'clock Friday afternoon.
Monday morning 4-26-99. I called Intelligent Media and told John what we were doing and what was happening. I admitted it could be user stupidity. He said it sounded like a hard drive problem, to bring it in and we would have it back in one or two days. I had the computer there by 10:30 a.m. Mae Hsu said they would let us know what was happening.
Thursday 4-29-99, 9:25 a.m. I spoke with Mae Hsu, who said the hard drive seemed to be OK... still testing... would call us around four that afternoon.
Thursday 9:40 a.m. I called Ron Margolis (actually got to speak with him) and said we felt seduced and abandoned. It had been three weeks since he said we would have our "turnkey" system in four days. And it was never "turnkey." Ron said that our idea of a turnkey system is different than his. I got impatient. If it was defective, we wanted our money back. There would be a 20% re-stocking charge. It would be worth it to get out from under this mess. Ron would try to get it straightened out by that afternoon.
Thursday 11:30 a.m. Ron Margolis called and asked me to reiterate the problems so he could assess the situation. We talked fifteen minutes about our problems and how David and I felt we were getting really shoddy treatment for customers who just paid him nearly $10,000 for a system we still didn't have. Ron was very sympathetic to our plight and understood why we felt abandoned. He said he would do his best to have it ready that afternoon.
Thursday 3:50 p.m. Mae Hsu called... I should come right away. I arrived at 4:15 and saw the Mac up and running much the way I saw it the very first time. John thought I was having trouble with the FireMax codecs -- had I ever read the instructions from ProMAX? Yes, I even put the loose papers I found into a binder. If I wasn't mistaken, that section started around page 18. We looked it up and found instructions about using the FireMAX codecs but, understandably, nothing about changing to other codecs.
After a few more minutes of deductive reasoning, it was determined that all our problems were due to using the FireMAX codecs while trying to use the low resolution Classroom in a Book samples. I was embarrased, even though I confessed at the begining that our problems might be due to user stupidity. John was kind enough to say that it was more user ignorance than stupidity and agreed that I probably should have been supplied with a little more information. Heading back home, I was glad this wasn't my second three-hour trip to ProMAX in Irvine. Since Intelligent Media used all ProMAX stuff anyway, I'll always wonder if we would have had a better experience with ProMAX.
The XL-1
The lowest price I found on a Canon XL-1 in L.A. was $3,750 plus tax, which adds almost $300 more. There was a tiny ad in the L.A. Times with an XL-1 for $3,750, from www.mainstreetcamera.com. If they were out of state we could aviod the sales tax.
I found www.mainstreetcamera.com is really Ashland Camera & Photo Supplies in Oregon... no sales tax. I called and reached Doug Mitchell, who seemed to be the owner. It was Monday -- could we get the camera by Friday for the Memorial Day weekend? Doug said sure, if we were willing to pay $50 for two-day air, the camera would be in his store by Wednesday and he'd ship it right out. I gave him my credit card number. We planned actor readings and tests for that weekend.
Wednesday, Doug Mitchell called from Asland Oregon. The XL-1 didn't come in and wouldn't be there in time for us to get it by Friday. He was concerned the delay could be a problem for us. The soonest Doug could get it to us was Saturday by overnight air. If we still wanted the camera, he'd eat the $75 overnight shipping charges. The readings and tests were scheduled for Sunday. I told Doug he had a deal. We think we got a pretty good deal too. The XL-1 arrived Saturday around 10:30 a.m. Thanks Doug, for being concerned with our problems and a man of your word.
The Mic
There are several XLR adapters available for the XL-1, including the MA-100 from Canon. They run $150-$200 and take two mics.
While searching for one of the "other" models that I could see in L.A., rather than mail order, I found Equipment Emporium, run by Fred Ginsburg and Tom Hamilton, who used to be production sound mixers. They had the adaptors in stock plus some of their own that might work. I was getting a little gun-shy by this time -- hardly anything worked right out of the box. If I brought the camera over would they make sure it would work? They agreed without hesitation.
It was only a fifteen-minute drive and I reached their industrial park/warehouse/office. After introductions, we went into the back where boxes were still stacked from their recent move. Within minutes, Tom had their $10 adapter plugged in to the XL-1, but it didn't work. He moved up to their $50 adaptor which takes one mic. Bingo. We had great sound coming from one of their Audio Technica shotgun mics.
Soon Fred, who also happens to be a professor, was showing me the best distance and angle for getting good dialogue. I bought the adapter but not the mic. I called around to see if I could beat Equipment Emporium's price. I felt a little guilty after the free lessons but we're on a really tight budget.
Realize, we live in "Hollywood." There are ten or twenty professional sound houses in the Yellow Pages. I found the mic for fifty bucks cheaper. I called Fred, told him who had it and asked if he would meet the price. He did.
I bought the mic but not the shockmount Fred recomended. I thought I'd try it in the holder that comes with the mic. It was only a couple days before we were to shoot our first piece. We still needed a tripod, but that's another story (a story that delayed our sound test until the Friday afternoon before our weekend shoot). Stuart Ganong, a location manager I've worked with for years, voluntered to hold boom for the shoot.
Our sound tests were a disaster. It was impossible to avoid mic noise without the shockmount. I was discouraged. I was running out of gas. Rush hour was starting to build up. It was hot. Stuart voluntered to drive out to Equipment Emporium. I called and they were still there. Stuart's insistence that we go get that shockmount headed off potential disaster. We got terrific sound even though our shockmount was threaded to the end of an aluminum paint pole. I should've listenened to Fred in the first place.
The Tripod
I've worked around professional tripods and fluid heads for years. It never really had much impact on me that those cases we were throwing into the back of the truck cost thousands of dollars until I went out to buy one. The stuff at most camera stores isn't up to the level I was used to. I called several pro houses and was not suprised to find out good tripods cost more than our camera. Hearing my plea of poverty, one salesman tipped me off to a place that dealt in used tripods... a strange little storefront in Burbank.
Transylvania Film/TV Ltd., Camera Support Technology, Sales-Service-Repair-Upgrade -- Michael Saar, owner; Jack Kchoyan, Technician Manager. Even the used stuff was out of our price range. We were going to shoot in two days. Michael showed me the Matthews TH-M20 and said it was perfect for the XL-1, which I had with me. We tried it on. It seemed to be OK, better than the camera store stuff, and under $300 out-the-door.
The TH-M20 worked great for our first shoot. I saw it three weeks later in the new B&H Photo catalogue for $180. By the time we were ready for our second shoot, the head had become sloppy around the panning joint. It was noticeable at the start of a quick pan and also had some wobble when it was locked down.
I took it back to Transylvania. Jack said he checked the three other TH-M20's they had in stock and they all have a little wobble. He took ours apart and showed me a washer bent in a wavy pattern, he was able to put in a spacer to take up some of the slop caused by the wavy washer flattening under constant pressure. It helped, but the only cure is a big investment in a better tripod.
Feb 1, 2000. I just got back from dropping our XL-1 off in Irvine, CA, a two-hour and forty-five-minute round trip. I finally got around to dealing with the notorious back focus problem, thanks mostly to Chris Hurd who created the XL-1 Watchdog website. I ran into Chris on January 27th at the Videomaker Expo In Burbank Ca., where he was working the VariZoom booth. Chris urged me to call Canon service to have my XL-1 looked over.
I went to an XL-1 training class on January 29th conducted by Timothy Smith, Senior Technical Representative, Western Region Video Division for Canon. The four-hour session was hosted by William Meurer, President of Birns and Sawyer, a professional equipment house in Hollywood.
Having used the XL-1 for eight months now, I've developed a kind of love / hate relationship with it. I love the image and sound quality it gets, but hate some of the technical features, most notably the lack of focal length markings.
I had some hard questions for Timothy and I must say he took them well. Unlike a few other people I've talked to from Canon, Timothy acknowledged the camera's shortcomings and offered some practical work-arounds. He noted Canon's attempts to address customer complaints with the new mechanical lens, B&W viewfinder and zoom control. He agreed the viewfinder was expensive and that the zoom control accesses only five of the eight speeds available on the lens.
One Canon representative in their booth at Videomaker Expo wasn't sure about the 5 speed / 8 speed issue of the zoom control, but he assured me that people who really need the B&W viewfinder don't seem to be concerned about the price.
During a break at the Birns and Sawyer class, Timothy looked at my XL-1. Seeing that it was manufactured in April of 1999, he said I should take the camera in. The factory corrected the problem in August of 1999. So, if you have an XL-1, look in the battery compartment to see when it was made.
On Monday January 31, I called Canon in Irvine and told them I wanted to bring the camera in. The receptionist said I had to call the XL-1 owners club to get an RMA number. I called the toll free number and Tara gave me an RMA number.
I drove down and dropped the camera off about 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Thursday morning, shortly after nine a.m., Jerry Moore from Canon called and said the camera was ready. I waited for rush hour to ease up and drove to Irvine. I had the camera back forty-eight hours after I had dropped it off. I consider that pretty good turn-around time. It cost me five-and-a-half hours driving time, but I could have shipped it if I was willing to wait a couple of weeks.
I'm a little concerned that I had to find out about the problem with our camera on the XL-1 Watchdog. I'm curious why Canon didn't notify me of the problem. I'm a registered owner, a member of the XL-1 owners club, and I've called Canon a couple of times when I had to give them my serial number. They should know who I am and where I live. Is their failure to contact me an oversight, poor customer support, or do they think if I'm too stupid to figure it out I don't need the fix? Will they discover other problems that they wont tell me about? Do I sound paranoid?
I have used the camera for ten days of shooting since the the XL-1 was gone over by the factory and I'm happy to report that I haven't noticed a backfocus problem and the camera is performing flawlessly.
Last updated 7/1/01.