San Francisco DVX Users Group STARTING!

[dillont]

Greetings!

I am pleased to announce that the Bay Area Video Coalition has offered to host the San Francisco DVX Users group in San Francisco!

As I am not sure exactly how many people there are in Northern California who are willing to come, I am putting the first meeting TENTATIVELY for October 17th, Monday from 7-10pm. If there are *more* people who would be interested in attending on a Saturday or Sunday Evening, I will reschedule the event.

Bay Area Video Coalition is the Nation's largest non profit media education center. I am a technician and teacher there and have been hosting other user groups there for over 2 years.

BAVC is located at 2727 Mariposa Street, 2nd floor, corner of Bryant and Mariposa in the Mission District of San Francisco. Parking is plentiful.

INAUGURAL SAN FRANCISCO DVX USER MEETING OCTOBER 17TH, 7-10PM!

If you're interested in coming, please let me know so I can be sure there is space enough.

Edit: I can be reached by email: dillon@bavc.org or by phone 415.558.2150.

Talk to you soon

Dillon Thomas

[Cheesesailor77]

I'd more than likely come. cheesesailor77@hotmail.com

I asked this in another dvxuser meeting thread, what do ppl do a these meetings, besides saying hi to ppl u know from the forums?

[TC]

I may be able to treck up to the city for that.

[TJIsACoolGuy]

I think it would be interesting if we showed up and had some sort of guest speaker present...or one of the more experienced guys show us something interesting....give us a lesson in this art form.

[BLUESPIDER]

Dillion, let us know how it goes. I know I wont be able to meet during that time but keep me posted! I would like one day like to meet some of you folks!

[dillont]

I would definitely like to get some suggestions for a speaker. It looks like there will be a strong showing by City Locals. If y'all know anyone who has a DVX that isn't a member of the list, please spread the word.

We have access to the main facility projection room, so we have a big screen to project and a nice amp system to show stuff.

I definitely would like to have a speaker - if you know someone who loves to speak and got their contact information please let me know.

Also, does anyone have a micro35 or mini35 they can show off? That would be a cool thing to show. My partner and I are contemplating on purchasing the micro35, but she has questions about the PL mount.

After our initial meeting, I would like to format the meeting so that there is time for "show and tell" and time for lessons on the art of 24p, and the occassional guest speaker as well. If anyone has any other contributions they'd like to how to format the meeting please let me know.

Just so you all know - BAVC has lots of resources - we have Avid systems (Adrenaline), G5 systems running Shake, Motion, FCP), light kits, sound kits, and the whole 9 yards. We can really make this a stellar group because of the resources we have access to.

See you all on the 17th (of October)!

Dillon

[dillont]

We're 3 weeks away from the first Northern California DVX user meeting. We'll have producers and owners of companies and directors of independents showing up so far.

Anyone from here definitely going to make it? Please bring suggestions for future speakers and presentations/tutes on our beloved technology for future meetings.

The location is: 2727 Mariposa Street, 2nd Floor, corner of Bryant and Mariposa in the Mission District of San Francisco.

Y'all can reach me at dillon@bavc.org or call my office line at 415.558.2150

See y'all there. (Who from here is definitely coming!?)

D

[Cheesesailor77]

lol I dont know! We're trying to schedule my short and thats right when we want to be shooting, so i'll have to see what happens. But i really wanna come! :D

[dillont]

Hey Cheese

I grew up in PG!

Whereabouts are you and all that other stuff

DT

[Larry Rutledge]

I'm planning to come... although I am not a DVX owner yet (I hope that doesn't exclude me).

Larry

[dillont]

Thats okay - I don't own a DVX either, and I'll be hosting the group (Part of why I'm hosting the group >:)

2 weeks left until the first meeting.

There are a *lot* of Northern California DVX users on this forum - any idea as to how I can reach them via a pm on this board?

Dillon

[TC]

Just click on they're name, and there's an option that says "Send a private message to _____"

[Cheesesailor77]

Dillont, I live in Skyline Forest, in Monterey. You in San Francisco now? Let me know when your next project is so I can come up and help. :)

[dillont]

Skyline forest is beautiful - had a few friends living up there. Did you go to MHS or PGHS?

In pre for another short - will attempt to shoot this november/december - depending on how everything comes together. Script's almost finished and boards have begun.

See you soon!

TC - thanks for the suggestion. Was hoping to be able to do a search for members based on their locations. Was informed there is no way to do a search based on location. :P

See y'all on the 17th

Dillon

[HansK]

Just spotted this... Will check the calendar and try to make this event.

[dillont]

Excellent!

Bring a friend or two if they're DVX users too.

I'm still looking for suggestions for our first meeting. I have access to a projector to project movies and such. I have a piece to show, but it wasn't shot on DVX (wish the camera existed then).

See y'all soon

Dillon

[Cheesesailor77]

sry Dillont, but I'm pretty sure I wont be able to make it the SF meeting. I doubt I'll be shooting, but I have a college seminar that day.

I hope others go though, and let me know all the cool things that happen afterwards. :)

[VizPictures]

I'll come down from San Rafael. Will do my best with the traffic to be on time. I should normally drive in reverse commute so that should be ok.

[Mister Big]

I live in the Mission. Not too far away. My DVX just arrived today. I've used one a few times before professionally (surprising, since I don't have much experience shooting video).

[Larry Rutledge]

Ok, I feel like an idiot. For some reason I had marked today, Friday, October 14 in my calendar as the date of the meeting. So after work I hopped in my car and braved my way through traffic to get to S.F. I found the building at 6:00, I didn't want to go in an hour early, so I went into Starbucks and had a water and a nice piece of Apple Crumb Loaf. At around 6:40 I tried to go to the meeting and found the front door locked.

After standing around a while, not sure what to do, a group of people came out of the building and I slipped in before the door closed. I made my way up to the second floor and found the door to BAVC locked. I knocked and got no response. A little later a couple guys happened by and one of them had a key and was unlocking the door. I asked him about the meeting and he hadn't heard about it.

Then as he was opening it, a young lady came along and when I asked her about it, she had heard about it, but was certain it was on Monday. But she was nice enough to check for me. After she checked around and found that Dillon wasn't there it was assumed by us both that she was right and I wasn't.

She did mention that she had recently bought a DVX and was planning to come to the meeting. I was so embarrassed that I apologized and got out of there as quick as I could, and didn't even introduce myself or get her name.

So Dillon, if you know who I am talking about, or can figure it out. Please let her know I appreciated her help and give her my apologies if I came off rude, I was just embarrased.

Looking forward to Monday night.

Peace,
Larry

[TC]

Aww, that sucks Larry! Man, I wish I could go... stupid work...

[dillont]

Hey Larry,

That's pretty funny. You most likely ran into our web guru and teacher Jennifer. She's awesome. Good to know you make a great first impression! :)

Sorry you can't make the initial meeting, TC. Hope you can make the next one.

Looking forward to meeting y'all on Monday (tomorrow!)

7-10 pm @ Bay Area Video Coalition
2727 Mariposa Street (at Bryant)
San Francisco, CA 94110

Dillon

[Larry Rutledge]

Good to know you make a great first impression! :)

Thanks Dillon :embarasse I know, in 10 years I can look back on this and laugh!

Actually, I'm already laughing about it, and my wife just thought it was hilarious (some support she is) :grin:

[Alexa]

I really wish I could go, but there is just no way. I hope lots of you go, anyways..and thanks to dillont for organizing. For sure video/film production requires lots of friends and associates.

[Larry Rutledge]

Well, I'm leaving the office now and heading to S.F. for the meeting. Here's to hoping the meeting is really happening tonight and I won't look like an incompetent bufoon again. :thumbsup:

[TC]

Your all together right now... chatting it up, having a ball.

And I'm stuck at work. You bastids.

[Larry Rutledge]

Yep, you missed it, we had a good time. There were about 7 or 8 of us that turned out for this inaugural meeting, not bad for the first meeting. You'll have to call in sick next time :)

I'm looking forward to future meetings, I think this can be a very useful group. Kind of a physical extension to DVXUser.com.

[dillont]

Hey!

It was nice to meet some of you last night!

We did have 7 people turn out for the first meeting. We've got some really talented film makers and producers from the industry who came to the meeting. Lots of technical discussion about tripods, 24p vs. 24pA, benefits/drawbacks of editing on avid vs. FCP, camera cases, and other odds and ends.

A couple of people shared their most recent works.

A tour of the BAVC facility was given by me, peppered with "ooohs" and "aahs!".

We discussed what we'd want in the future - more sharing of information about different technologies in film making and how to best support the 24p format. It looks like we'll be having our meetings on Mondays.

I will get the room reserved for next month (November), and let y'all know what day that will wind up being - how's the 3rd Monday of every month sound to y'all?

Looking forward to the next meeting. Please pitch in your ideas for what specifically we could cover for the next meeting. There are quite a few more people who will be attending next time around.

And TC - we spent about 1 hour talking about you too. Too bad you weren't there. :)

Take care

Dillon

[TJIsACoolGuy]

I would have really liked to have been there Dillon because I am only an hour away. Mondays are no good for me right now because this quarter I have a film history class until late on mondays. Maybe next quarter. Keep it up guys.

[redcap]

Hey, I just moved to the bay area and would most definately attend the next meeting you have.

[dillont]

Hey there Redcap

I will be scheduling the next meeting over the weekend. Need to make sure the room is available. Most likely will be the 3rd Monday of November (Thanksgiving week?)

If y'all would prefer the 2nd Monday of the month, let me know

Dillon

[Larry Rutledge]

Either is fine with me

[redcap]

Dunno if thanksgiving is a good time.. My schedule may be open anyway, but it is the holidays. I'd prefer the second monday, but the third will probably work anyway; other people might have plans for the week.

[Cheesesailor77]

3rd week sound ok for me. 2nd and 3rd weekends are my shooting days for my short so either monday is tight, but at least the 3rd monday I'll have more to bring? ;)

[dillont]

Okay lets have a vote.

Monday November 14th, or
Monday November 21st.

I can book either day for the main room.

Dillon

[HansK]

Either works for me.

[Larry Rutledge]

As I said before, either works for me... but I'll put in a vote for 3rd Monday.

[dillont]

Okay

3rd monday it is. I'll reserve the room tonight. It will be 7-10pm Monday, November 21st. Hopefully that guy from Monterey will bring in some dailies of his current shoot.

Any topics and/or speakers you would like to have discussed?

Dillon

[dillont]

Any suggestions for speakers and topics?

Who is coming? And if you're coming, do you have anything you could show? We have access to a screen and projector.

Dillon

[Larry Rutledge]

I am in postproduction on a 3-minute short that I am doing for a contest...it will be done by the time we meet again and I can bring it; however, it was shot on a consumer panasonic 3-chip, not the DVX.

[redcap]

I have a few pieces that I can show. Most of which is already on my site: but I have a 3 part series of PSA's that I shot on the DVX w/ the anamorphic adaptor from panasonic.. and maybe some other stuff that I'm working on. Otherwise I have a few documentaries that I shot on a DVX.. I'll put it all on a single DVD and see if their is enough time to show it all if their isn't anything else to show.

Recently I've been learning more about special fx and shake, so maybe we could talk about that? And maybe we could talk about the issues associated with shooting and lighting while using an anamorphic adaptor. I have a few pieces that would make good examples of good /poor use of it.

[NewYorkLion]

Hey folks,

I'm new here to the bay, and I'm psyched to see there's a DVX group in town. I always ended up missing the NYC meetings so I'm hoping I can get to these.

[grunberd]

hi to all

please let me know when/where you decide to meet. I can also make my home available as a meeting place if there are problems finding a place.
i've had the DVX100AE for over 1/2 a year and have barely had time to explore all it can do. I do have a buzillion questions of course.

Name is Dorit and i live in THE CITY

[dillont]

Dorit, please see the 1st post for location.

next meeting will be Monday November 21st, 7-10pm.

Redcap, do you have the anamorphic with you? Can you bring that into the meeting? I'm curious to see what it looks like, how it changes, and whether you've tried to do 2.35:1 aspect ratio with it.

See you all in 2 weeks!

Dillon

[redcap]

Yes, I can bring it with me. And do you mean have I tried using squeeze mode with the anamorphic adaptor? Yes. I have. It did not come out as well as I would have hoped but I'd like to try it again (back when I did not know what I was doing with the adaptor I mistakenly set the squeeze mode with the adaptor, but when you put it into your NLE you can stretch it until it looks "right.")

[dillont]

REMINDER:

SF DVX user group meeting at BAVC 7-10pm this Monday! I'm looking forward to seeing y'all and hope to see some great footage. Redcap hope you bring your anamorphic. I'd love to see it at work, versus squeeze mode. And then using squeeze mode with the anamorphic.

See you there!

[VizPictures]

I won't there. Will be on the road. Have fun.

[HansK]

I should be able to make it this Monday.

[redcap]

Alright.. I'll be there tonight. See you guys..

[Cheesesailor77]

damnit! I forgot!

I just finished shooting my two weekends and forgot there was a meeting today! ahhh amn, 3rd times he charm right? Any idea when the next one is?

[BLUESPIDER]

You guys want me to bring the HVX? :)

[dillont]

That was a great meeting!

Redcap brought his anamorphic adapter and we did a comparison between the digital squeeze mode, and the adapter and discovered a few things:
1. Limitations on zoom legnth used on adapter. Never full wide (barrell distortion) and never completely zoomed - chromatic abberations show up.
2. The contrast of the image appears richer when using the adapter - better color saturation and better rendition of subtle grades of light to dark.

Then we tried out the anamorphic adapter WITH digital squeeze. That was awesome ... got an image that looked cinemascope. Recorded a bit and made comparisons.

Brought out a light from the arri kit and used Final Cut Pro, as well as Adobe Premiere and captured live to both computers to make the comparisons.

Also discussed the advantages of using 24P vs. 24PA.

Thank you all for participating. I will see if we can get our hands on a mini35 or a micro35 for the next meeting.

Dillon

[yasodic]

crap i totally missed this thread going by, I would love to come to the next meeting, I will keep my eye out. I'm just finishing up at the Academy of Art University and know quite a few people over there with dvxs.

[dillont]

The next meeting is slated for December 19th, 7-10pm at the usual Location - BAVC! See you then

Dillon

[HansK]

Dillon - Do you have a agenda? Also, do you have a steadicam or similar system available? It would be great to play around with one with the dvx.

[Cheesesailor77]

whens the next one?

[joemiked]

oakland here waaaz up dvx peeps saw this thread and decided to post
months too late so.....hit me up when the next meeeting is!!
www.mikedvideo.com

[RichW]

Just found this. Looking forward to attending the next meeting.

[Cheesesailor77]

me too

[Cheesesailor77]

are we giving up on the SF DVXuser group?

Even if I lived in the city, I dont have the know how to organize such an event. Does nobody else wanna try?

[Aaron Marshall]

I might be moving into the bay area soon. I'd like to hang with some fellow filmmakers out there.

[dillont]

Looks like we'll be having an HVX/DVX meeting at BAVC this WEDNESDAY at 7pm at BAVC.

See posting under HVX forum.

Bay Area Video Coalition
2727 Mariposa Street, 2nd Floor (above starbucks)
San Francisco, CA 94110
@ Bryant street in the Mission

[RichW]

Sorry I can't make it that night.

[Larry Rutledge]

Sweet! Does that mean you can help me with the audio on my future projects? :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG) I've learned on this Herofest that I don't know NOTHING about film audio!!!


I might be moving into the bay area soon. I'd like to hang with some fellow filmmakers out there.

[lisa hayse]

when will the next one be?

[Aaron Marshall]

Sweet! Does that mean you can help me with the audio on my future projects? :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG) I've learned on this Herofest that I don't know NOTHING about film audio!!!

for sure brotha

[xep5k]

Count Me In

[sez911]

Hello

I am looking to purchase either a dvx 100 a or b

I am looking for recommendations of anywhere online, the bay area or los angeles area, where they offer great deals toward those cameras. Mostly i am looking for a reliable customer friendly company either online or in those cities.

Could anyone point me in the direction of great deals, maybe something with a rebate along with some accesories for the camera.

I am really looking foward to purchasing this camera, this will be my first time shooting 24p and I would like to get my hands on the camera asap for an upcomming documentary.

Thanks any help would be appreciated