
 25-plus years writing, directing, shooting, editing corporate video, government video, commercials, PSA's, DVD's music videos, forensics and the occasional wedding.
I shoot news, documentaries, and many, many training pieces. I have some minor r... [ more] 25-plus years writing, directing, shooting, editing corporate video, government video, commercials, PSA's, DVD's music videos, forensics and the occasional wedding.
I shoot news, documentaries, and many, many training pieces. I have some minor regional awards. I also occasionally rent out the best teleprompter deal in central Illinois within about 100 miles of Springfield.
I work with Final Cut Pro7, Motion, and AE. We run beta and DVC-Pro25/ DVCpro HD/ P2 cameras. I am always working on improving my 3-D CGI and compositing skills.
I specialize in champagne looks on a beer budget, also writing great copy with an emphasis on smart humor.
My dream is to someday be known as the greatest second-unit director in the history of Hollywood;-)
In partnership with John Morley, I publish a series of articles on the COW called: "Save That Script!"
I am a script writer for the daily space and tech-related radio podcast show: "Innovation NOW!" which has won a Communicator Award this year. | | | | Member Since: December 22nd 2002 Location: Central Illinois | | | | |
Friends:  Abraham Chaffin  grinner hester  Jeremy Garchow  Ronald Lindeboom  Stefani Rice  Tim Wilson | | | | |  | watermark discussionby Adina Zaiontz 20 hours agoHi Guys Accidentally deleted the video watermarking thread. But feel free to post if you have any other comments on it. | Re: watermark discussion by Mark Suszko 15 hours ago Back in the day, before exif and metadata, we either snuck an ownership status message in line 22 closed-caption data, or made a C.G. text file that was super-tiny and placed outside of safe title, so
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| | | |  | Do I need a release form?by bizatch 8 years agoIf shoot video of people in public places to use in a documentary do I need them to sign a release form Examples: People at a protest march, on the sidewalk, in a shopping mall. How about if I intervi | Re: Do I need a release form? by Mark Suszko 18 hours ago Well, Jeff, you're right about not being an expert. http: diymusician.cdbaby.com 2012 02 how-to-legally-use-a-famous-icon-like-the-hollywood-sign-in-your-album-artwork-or-music-video http: www.esbnyc.
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| | | |  | chromakey isn't renderingby Andy Pearson 1 day agoI am trying to key a JPEG over moving footage in FCP 6. The JPEG is a packshot with a chromakey green background. I have set it up in the timeline with a Chromakey filter that is working fine and I ca | | | | |
| | | |  | What are you watching on the pay channels?by Kylee Wall 4 days agoI'm sorry, I'm littering the forum with my nonstop replies. I've been doing a lot of backups and archives the last couple days, okay Stop judging me. What's everybody watching on HBO and Showtime and | | | | |
| | | |  | Copyright video questionby Aaron Sheffield 3 days agoProblem I am sure many of you have had... I have a client who is very persistent in wanting to use copyrighted material, i.e. old movie clips and or music, in a video production that will be shown com | Re: Copyright video question by Mark Suszko 3 days ago You could ask those IRS staffers that did a StarTrek-themed convention opener, how "internal" any internal-use-only footage is. http: www.youtube.com watch v=jfDLKxwc0yU (shhh, it's for internal use o
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| | | |  | vertical green lines in chroma keyed exportby melissa 4 days agoGreetings. I'm using FCP 7.0.3 to chroma key some green screen. The work in Final Cut looks decent, but when I export the video in compressor to Apple Pro Res 422 (the same as the footage I'm working | | | | |
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| | | |  | Advice on Shooting Pro Bonoby Sareesh Sudhakaran 6 days agoFrom time to time I get a few requests to do free work for charity. I've decided to take a few on in my free time, and am working out the legal aspects with my lawyer. I've worked for free before, but | Re: Advice on Shooting Pro Bono by Mark Suszko 5 days ago One thing I usually advise on freebies or pro bono work is to always submit it with an invoice for what you WOULD have had to charge a for-pay client, then you mark the invoice as comped or "no charge
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| | | |  | FCP Pro 7 Academicby Randall Champion 1 week agoI am sure this has been addressed, but I could not find it. What are the differences from the Standard and Academic versions of FCP Pro 7 Not all who wander are lost.... | Re: FCP Pro 7 Academic by Mark Suszko 1 week ago Not to contradict Shane, but to re-phrase what he said: Don't teach editing on FCP7. Teach EDITING. Do it in as platform-agnostic a way as possible, and your students will have skills that never go ou
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| | | |  | Is bootlegging really so bad?by Clint Wardlow 1 week agoConfession time. My first copy of Final Cut was a bootlegged copy of 2.0. My first copy of photoshop was a bootleg of 7. However, it was working in these pirated copies (which I was reluctant to try b | Re: Is bootlegging really so bad? by Mark Suszko 1 week ago I don't know what age you an Clint are, but I suspect we are from different generations. I'm going to make the generalization that Millenials as a group tend to share the Chinese approach to copyright
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| | | |  | Standard Definition 16:9 to letterboxby Grant Strac 1 week agoI have a video filmed in SD 16:9 and the dub house is saying I need to letterbox it in order to get it on broadcast. I have never heard of this problem in the past from a dub house so I am not sure th | | | | |
| | | |  | New Adobe Creative Cloud Debate Forumby Steve Connor 1 week agoThe COW have wisely created another forum to discuss the second biggest NLE marketing disaster in recent times. Might be nice to move further discussions over there http: forums.creativecow.net creati | | | | |
| | | |  | Steady Filming without Steadicam?by Mohammed Anis 2 weeks agoHey guys, I know the subject sounds far-fetched, but I was asked by a senior videographer to look up techniques on the internet on how to film walking shots without producing any wobbliness. He kind o | Re: Steady Filming without Steadicam? by Mark Suszko 1 week ago There are many techniques like that, another is to use the weight of your tripod or better yet, a monopod, to act as a pendulum attached to the camera. One of the basic rules to minimize visible camer
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| | | |  | Shooting into glassby Marc Lucas 1 week agoDone some test shots today where we are shooting fireplaces some with glass fronts. Any advice so I don't see the camera in the glass The only problem is that I need to be quite front end on to get th | Re: Shooting into glass by Mark Suszko 1 week ago That, and shooting thru a hole in some black card or cloth, but also, remember that angle of incidence = angle of reflection. Just a few degrees makes all the difference.
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| | | |  | ENG Camera package recommendations?by Ben Muehleisen 1 week agoThis is a duplicate post from the XDCAM EX forum, as I thought I may get some other varied responses in this forum. We are currently building out some new camera packages. We have been using 2 EX1s fo | Re: ENG Camera package recommendations? by Mark Suszko 1 week ago For a one man band run and gun setup, it's sometimes more about what to strip away than what to add. You want to keep the weight down and not force the shooter to carry too much around besides the cam
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| | | |  | Music on a non-existent budgetby May Mirsman 1 week agoHello Everyone, This is my first post, glad to be here :) I have been working on a documentary film for the last six months, and so far I've gotten by using little out of pocket (because I just finish | Re: Music on a non-existent budget by Mark Suszko 1 week ago Have you reached out locally and regionally on social media and the like, to find musicians and composers that would be willing to work with you on your budget terms There's a maybe-not-so-surprising
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| | | |  | FCP7-Motion- keying problemsby anthony Faulkner 1 week agoHi I have to motion track a figure to place him on a variety of hand held objects. So I have been doing the tracking in motion and then taking the clips back to FCP to do the keying on both layers. Th | | | | |
| | | |  | Kickstarter to Fund Films with Celebsby Kylee Wall 2 weeks agoZach Braff's film hit its funding goal quickly a while ago (which is like a hundred years in Internet time) but I still wanted to ask the forum dwellers what they think about this. There has always be | Re: Kickstarter to Fund Films with Celebs by Mark Suszko 1 week ago Gilliam and Welles have a lot of similarities. You know, all those wine commercials Welles did, that people like to poke fun at He was doing all those commercials and appearances in other peoples' mov
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| | | |  | Legal Music Dance?by Jake Anderson 2 weeks agoI have filmed for a client a group of people dancing to some top 40's music at a wedding party. Would that fall under the incidental copyright. Or do I have to cut the music. | | | | |
| | | |  | False Live Production Workflowby Adrián Sánchez de la Sierra 2 weeks agoGood morning everyone, First of all I would like to apologise if I am not creating a new post in the wright forum (I am not shure that I am doing it well). I am trying to find a way an its appropriate | Re: False Live Production Workflow by Mark Suszko 2 weeks ago When cameramen shoot news footage, they often do what is called "edit in-camera". This means that they only shoot the exact shots they want, in more or less the exact order. This takes some skill and
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| | | |  | Iron Man 3by Mark Suszko 2 weeks agoJust got back, it was AWESOME. Better than the second one, equal to the first.. What a roller-coaster of a script, and I'm glad I avoided the spoilers to completely enjoy several "didn't see THAT comi | Re: Iron Man 3 by Mark Suszko 2 weeks ago I think there are many layers to this script. As far as Stark's character development, the conversations with the kid are really Tony talking to himself as a kid and acknowledging coming to grips with
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| | | |  | can I buy Walter Biscardi ?by Bob Zelin 4 weeks agoI always wanted to buy Walter Biscardi. Not only is he a great editor, but he can cook ! Maybe I can teach him how to do the laundry, and then I can sell my wife. :) Bob Zelin +2  | Re: can I buy Walter Biscardi ? by Mark Suszko 2 weeks ago I represent my client, the cookie maker, Walters' Biscotti, and I am formally requesting that you immediately cease and desist the operation of your forum, due to the similarity of your name interferi
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| | | |  | Treasure Island starring Orson Wellesby Mark Suszko 3 weeks agoI finally got to watch this 1972 version on a pretty bad VHS copy, it was a Christmas gift from my ever-so-thoughtful wife. While Wallace Beery owns the role for his iconic, though broad performance, | | | | |
| | | |  | Demo Reel Guidlines Copyrightsby Ian Zainea 3 weeks agoHello all, I am currently working for a video production company. We produce a TV show and several commercials. I was under the impression I could use clips from the projects I was heavily involved in | Re: Demo Reel Guidlines Copyrights by Mark Suszko 3 weeks ago It is always smart to discuss this topic in advance of the work, regarding how much if any the client will allow you to use in your demo reel, and under what conditions. Asking after the fact, you hav
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| | | |  | Basic editing trailer questionby stan welks 3 weeks agoI'm new to editing and want to use Premiere to edit a trailer for a film. I've been reading up online and have come across some info suggesting that if a movie is boring, that it is best to make a lon | Re: Basic editing trailer question by Mark Suszko 3 weeks ago 1: Trailers are often farmed out to production houses that specialize in them, and they take their cues for content from the Producer, with input from the Director, Editor and Studio marketing types.
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