So, I do audio/visual work for a bank downtown. Today I was to videotape a seminar that would later be made into DVD's. I ended up using a Betacam deck I might never have used before, and wasn't able to get blank tapes until this morning--hence, no time to do a little "test record" to make sure everything was kosher. Everything's set up, camera, deck, mics, monitor, and looks good, and I man the camera for 2.5 hours for the duration of the meeting. After the whole thing's over, I get a chance to see what I recorded. Audio was great--but absolutely NO VIDEO, as I had patched into the reference video in/out, which doesn't go to tape. All this for a meeting of international banking specialists who flew in from all over the world.

I am an IDIOT. Although, if my boss had been able to get me the tapes yesterday, I'd have figured out something was wrong with my setup.

Fuck.

www.monster.com

dude
start drinking


heavily

No backup camera? amateur.

Seriously though, that is mighty fucked up. Still, if you had that tape in your hand even for five minutes before this shindig started you could have rolled tape to figure out whether you were getting some kinda reading. Do you ever get an external monitor to see what the feed is like?

It sounds like you might get handed your hat for this and shown the door but I can only hope your boss might be understanding. Besides, who was gonna watch this seminar anyways? Sounds like it's just a bunch of talking heads. Sorry to hear this went bad.

Curious. How long you been doing this? Does it pay well?

Sorry dude. That sounds like the kind of mistake I'd make. Hopefully it won't be as big a deal as you're thinking.

Hang in there

I started at an A/V rental place 6 years ago, and got this job about 4 years ago. It pays well and is cushy, but that's what comes with the corporate gig. It's also pretty boring, but the hours for non-corporate stuff can be pretty extreme. Still, I keep wondering if I'm doing the right thing. I suppose if the axe falls, I'll have that chance to do something different....

I would think that the audio portion was the most important part anyway...what was the dvd going to be used for? It would be a little retro, but you could caption stills of the players and synch those w/ the audio, no? I've "been to" effective webinars done that way.

I was having such a shitty day. But now I'm doing a little ironing. Ironing calms me down.

Ironing and boarding at the same time? How do you do it?

Not that difficult, brah.

My iron is at the dry cleaner's. I pay someone else to use it.

Yeah, I offered that as an option, as most of the heads were giving Powerpoint presentations. In a worst-case scenario, the presentations could be synced up with the audio. However, I think the point was more to show highlights of the folks speaking--which, again, will never be watched.

Anyway, that day is over, and a new one has begun. A few hours of Gladius on the Gamecube last night, along with a Guinness and some Italian food delivery, put things in order. Chalk this up in the "experience" column.



Yeah, I offered that as an option, as most of the heads were giving Powerpoint presentations. In a worst-case scenario, the presentations could be synced up with the audio. However, I think the point was more to show highlights of the folks speaking--which, again, will never be watched.

Anyway, that day is over, and a new one has begun. A few hours of Gladius on the Gamecube last night, along with a Guinness and some Italian food delivery, put things in order. Chalk this up in the "experience" column.