Film / TV / Media Crew - Technical, employment opportunities and ranting

Have you tried opening them with textedit or OpenOffice? They always seem to be able to open most things.

Had word files alongside the final draft ones in the same folders. Word documents for characters and treatments/synopsis, final draft ones for the actual scripts themselves, and I’ve downloaded libreoffice and it’s able to read the word ones, but not the final draft ones.

Not yet, but will try tomorrow if I get time..

Any result?

I can open my old word documents with libreoffice and save them in the .odt format, the final draft ones I need to add in the extension .fdr open in final draft 11 and it saves them as the newer .fdx.
It’s a bit of a faff, and I’ve got lots of documents to go through, but there’s no point in archiving old work if you can’t reopen them at a later date..

Anyone know where I could pick up a Mini HDMI to HDMI cable for my GH2? Ideally north of the river, don't fancy cycling to RS Components in Bermondsey, and not costing an arm and a leg (£40 for an Atomos cable lol)

Also, on a related quest, I found that CeX seem to be about the only place that still sell Mini USB cables, thankfully very affordably priced, and stocked in many of their stores.

CineGearPro in Shoreditch - https://www.cinegearpro.co.uk/pages/search-results-page?q=hdmi

pickup in shop there always good for me

Sadly too late, I've a date with the RS collection counter tomorrow ... but good to know for next time. I see that CineGearPro have HDMI USB capture cards for £12, wondering if they could possibly be any good at that price. I'm looking to put my old GH2 to use as a webcam.

If it's not critical it will be fine. Even the 80 quid one from Atomos uses the same guts:
https://cvp.com/product/atomos-connect-hdmi-to-usb-capture-streaming

Do you know that for a fact, or just suspect?

I picked one up from CineGearPro today. It is showing some occasional flickering of the bottom half of the frame, with my GH2. Will have to try it with my other camera, could be something to do with the 1080i output of the GH2.

Edit: yep works fine with my GX80 and desktop.

99% sure someone on one of the forums took it apart and it showed the same serial / kits etc as one that cost a fiver from Amazon. Can't find link rn so take with pinch of salt but pretty confident I saw a thread somewhere. Maybe reddit.

Any good sources for stock footage? I typically use ArtGrid and Adobe Stock but anything else for modern, high quality commercial stuff? They've actually got a budget so I can go wild and not worry about only using 3 shots in a 15 minute video.

Used filmsupply on a couple of jobs recently, some really nice stuff on there.

Ooh I remember them - good shout, thanks.

Shutterstock?

Pond5 is my favourite at the moment. Or motion array.

On a side note I’ve had a load of work pushed until after Christmas (covid…) so if anyone needs a producer (development / edit / location) between now and mid Jan hit me up!

Looked into this a bit. You're right that there are lots of cheap HDMI capture cards out there that look identical to the Atomos one.

Interestingly, the CineGearPro one has a different casing. I've seen comments raising concerns about the other models overheating, as they have a tiny heatsink inside and no airflow, and no coupling to the outer casing. That doesn't seem to be the case with this CGP one, which has vents, and I've also felt the case becoming warm when in use (which is a good thing, it means the heat is being dissipated through the outer metal)

I haven't actually used it for an extended period though, it could still break down after longer use...

Are there jobs for electricians in film and TV? Anyone know anyone I could maybe speak to about it?

Loads! May be worth getting in touch with these guys for a start, https://mbseco.uk/bring-to-light-trainee-programme/

Then reach out to ScreenSkills as a second port of call - they also fund training to get people into film and TV. I don’t work directly with any electricians so can’t be of more help but let us know how you get on.

https://www.screenskills.com/

.

I’ve worked in the film lighting business, for the last 20 years, not as an electrician although that was my trade.
I’m happy to talk to you about it and your options.

You have to wear cargo shorts and grow a mullet though.

Incidently I heard the other day wiremen at my place of work are on over 1200 quid a shift. But yes cargo shorts and totally destroying the toilets are a big part of the trade.

Was just typing this. There's great demand at the moment so they're often 2 or 3 x APA rate from desperate producers.