FS7: Emergency Help w/ XQD Cards and Audio

Any decent client that has footage so sensitive that they don't want to allow copies would surely have you sign an NDA which covers any of their fears about leaks or footage use for personal.
 
I'd also say that unless you've signed a contract that is "work for hire" prior to the start of production, then by law, if you're the one pressing the record button, the copyright is solely yours. That's US law. So, I think they'd have very hard time punishing you for keeping a copy.
 
Were you using the digital 3rd and 4th audio channel via the MI shoe and a sony UWP wireless lav?

I have done shoots like that, one lav plugged in, one shotgun plugged in, and a second lav connected to the MI shoe... In my experience, I played the file back on VLC media player and heard only the XLR channel 1 and 2, no mention of a 3rd channel to be heard - yet I heard it in my headphones while recording.... I then took the SAME file into adobe premiere CC, and everything played fine and sounded great.

Without knowing for sure if thats your situation, it seems very possible to be the problem. I made sure I did that test the night before my shoot but boy I was scared for a second! That was the first week I had the camera

-Wes
 
Doug Jensen said:
One more thought. For future reference, always make a backup for yourself. WD Passport drives are dirt cheap. The client doesn't even have to know you made a copy and if it makes you feel uncomfortable having it around you can erase it a couple of weeks later when things seem okay. ShotPut Pro is fantastic for backups because I can make 3 or 4 copies all at the same time just as fast as it would take to do one copy. Nobody even knows if I made a copy for myself or not. Don't you wish you had a personal copy right this minute? Point made.
Click to expand...

That's my thought. You can buy 1TB drives as low as $50. I have a box of them, which I sell to clients for $150. But this makes a very good case to get an off board recorder/monitor. I have the Odyssey. It's a great monitor that records. Nobody has to know you are dual recording but in this case, you would be able to validate your position.
And..if you have update your camera and set ch 3+4 ON, you would at least have something.
If you were recording camera mic and lav, then there is some switching involved but if you wisely were monitoring audio via earbuds, then it's in there.
Another case for having enough cards to to not have to re-format until the bastards fly out of town. Almost can't have to many cards.
 
One of the most valuable things my Business Law professor taught was that half of what we learned about legal details is useless, and social leverage is a lot more important than any court. Having a record as someone who sues their clients is not helpful to people, and has a chance to be more expensive and stressful than just taking a hit. Of course, you sometimes aren't left much choice, but it shouldn't be the first one.
 
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I totally disagree with that advice. But if you want to bend over and take it with a smile you are welcome to do that.
 
Alright friends, I finally have an update on this situation. Saturday morning I received in the mail the original hard drive that I created for this client with all of the raw footage on it. I plugged it into my Mac and dropped the clips into Premiere and went straight for the ones that he claimed didn't have audio. Guess what. It was there. All of it on every clip that he said didn't have it. The only difference with those clips were that track one had no audio because I had removed the shotgun from XLR 1 like I told him, but the wireless mic on track two played just fine. I don't understand why he didn't see any audio, but he can back off because it is there. He claims he tried it on all of his computers using Premiere, Final Cut, transcoders and other players to try and hear audio when he was accusing me that it wasn't there, but now I'm starting to think he made all of that up. I don't see how he can't hear anything on any of his computers using all of those various programs. I find that hard to believe, especially when I dropped it on Premiere and was listening to it loud and clear just minutes after receiving the drive.

Anyway, I contacted him via text and email to let him know it was there and I even exported two clips and uploaded them to a private link on YouTube so that I could prove that I wasn't making it up. Well, he still didn't want to admit that he was wrong so he insisted that I transcode those files to ProRes HQ and then mail it back to him. He then went on to say that when he received the drive with ProRes HQ files that played audio on his computer, then he would pay me. I said no. I said that wasn't my responsibility and that my YouTube link proved the audio was there and that I no longer needed to prove myself to him. I said that I had other work to do and that I couldn't waste all my time proving that I did my job and that I needed to be paid by the end of this week. He BLEW UP on me and said that it was ProRes HQ or no deal because "in fourteen years of being a professional he had never once had audio problems, so it was all mine and my camera's fault." Well, I could've told him to screw off and taken him to court and no doubt won my case. There's no way I could lose this battle; I did my job and even proved it to him. BUT, because I don't want to have to deal with that, I swallowed my pride and agreed to transcode only those clips that he claims were missing audio. I did so last night and mailed him the drive today. By the way, since I had the drive on hand, I made a copy of all of the footage for me to keep as evidence.

So, we will see what he says when he recieves the drive tomorrow. If I don't have my check by the end of the week, I will have no choice but to take it to court. I'm still not very confident that I will get paid, not even after I have proved that I did my job successfully. I will keep you all updated.
 
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Congratulations on your progress with the situation. Like I said, the first step is always to go back to the originals and see what is what. I'm glad it worked.
 
I love tapeless/file based shooting, BUT audio on file based footage has become a HUGE PITA for me because so many clients are complete morons in post. I have had years taken off of my life in the last few years because of "audio problems" and "missing clips" that of course ended up being nothing more than screw ups by those handling the post. It just blows my mind how kids in middle school production classes can do this stuff in their sleep on their laptops, but television networks with dedicated edit suites and millions of dollars worth of equipment F it up like they were monkeys trying to do advanced calculus.
 
I'd be willing to bet $50 that Wes is spot on. I've had the EXACT thing happen to me. That is, client calling in a panic… "There's no audio!!!!" and I say, well, did you check channels 3 & 4? Silence. "Oh, nevermind." Yeah. That. VLC doesn't play tracks 3 & 4 audio, nor does "preview" on a Mac. That's what I'd bet happened (sheesh, I did it to myself before thinking I didn't have audio). Sometimes it goes wonky recording from camera to a Shogun (even if you pipe audio into 1 & 2, it ends up on 3 & 4 on the Shogun). Now, I often send a "read me" file with my footage saying to check other audio channels before calling. Glad you got it ironed out. And I'd bet you're right too, he was just too embarrassed to admit that he couldn't figure it out on his own.

And for WIW, I'll +1 +1 +1 to Doug's comments as well.
 
Maybe old fashion, and maybe you do this already, but is it an idea to give your clients the HD or the files with an form, or a sticker with the tech. specs?

Good for marketing too, a sticker/form with name of maker, used audio tracks, slog or not, codec, duration, framerate (all the things you can read in Catalyst or other software.) etc. Just as an extra service that can save you a lot of discussion.

You have to deal with lot of different clients, with different software and hardware, some very professional, others not. This extra service can make the difference for your clients.

Happy for you it worked out well.
 
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name and shame.. who is this prat.. often the legal expense is more than the pay you would get.. presuming you never want to work for this dip s*%t again.. go to his client.. you can cause him trouble this way without any expense and or doing something "stupid" in anger.. thats worked for me once . just the threat that I would get payment directly from his client.. was paid the next day.. of course the bridge is well and truly burnt.. but no loss if you dont have to deal with them again... I would also put their name out there..
 
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