When I was at West Orange, the only Macs I saw were sorely outdated ones. Everything else was PC.

I may be coming back to OCPS or somewhere around there. After my first full year in the classroom, I have gained enough knowledge to know that my talents and skills will be better suited and appreciated somewhere where the school doesnt treat its TV and Business classes like dumping grounds for behavior problem students and not to mention a department that continues to get cut because of students scoring low on their FCATS (reading).

I left knowing that at least I made a nice easy transition for the teachers that follow me. A completely redesigned web site and a TV program that now has Vegas to edit and Ultra for green screening. The only bitterness I have is that next year, those that follow me, will look like geniuses because they will produce the same quality only quicker than I did while all the groundwork I did for both programs will go unnoticed and typically uncredited. Color me a bit jaded but thats why Im looking elsewhere.

I am convinced that they have an emotional security issue or that Apple offers such a deal that they can not risk looking outside the box. Vegas vs. iMovie is a no brainer. Even Vegas movie Studio vs. iMovie is a no brainer. I agree that FCP on a good machine and well used is top tool. I guess I just want to hear them say that it is not the ONLY tool. For schools that can not afford the MAC option or have infrastructures that do not play well with them, Vegas is a fabulous NLE. (For some of us, it is a preferred option). I just hate to see schools with 28 students in a class have 4 edit stations from MACland when they could have 7 or eight Vegas stations to engage more students. The highly funded (ya right) video magnet school in my district has two FCP stations and a small group of Casablancas. I have 15 Vegas stations including NTSC monitors on 6 and shared DV decks for input. I have 15 because I ran out of room, not money! Their FCP station goes down and they wait weeks to get hardware. If I have a hardware failure, I walk into the classroom next door and rip a part out of another computer until I can get to Office Depot for a replacement part. (I think my short downtimes are because of attitude rather than any hardware issue, hmmmm)
[/RANT]

p@masters,
Just had to gloat, my principal just approved my budget to add 5 new PD-170's with mics etc. for next year. I have 6 DVC7's which I really dislike but I will nurse them for another year or two thanks to adding the PD-170's. Did I mention that I am happy about the PD-170's?

KK

While there are lots of PC's in the district classes, the district pushes and supports iMAC's.

Olympia HS (has PC's with Adobe) just lost their TV teacher. Considering how hard it is to find TV teachers, they probably have not filled it yet. You might check there. That school supported the class very well.

I get lots of dumps in my classes because I am known for being able to handle them. About 60% were dumps last year. Yes we get cut for reading and FCAT scores. If they can't read, TV won't do them any good. Public schools in Florida are a tough ride. I am lucky though. I rode the horse through a couple of hard years and it paid off. I don't mean with better conditions or better pay. It paid off when the past students stopped by to tell me how that teacher with one camcorder and a bunch of broken gear changed their future. Yes my current principal supports me and I am seeing life improvements now, but nothing has paid off more than the future of one student.

Teaching, the hardest job you will ever hate, and be glad you survived to see the result.

As soon as I can get cleared with OCPS, Ill apply for the position or others like it. My students were never a problem for me. My problem was the administration expected hollywood type news with severely outdated equipment. I requested in August to have our new LCDs hooked up for teleprompting and they were still not hooked at the end of the year. I would have done it myself but our district has a firm policy on forbidding any teacher to do tech work.

We had 2 XL1s, and one DVC7 and a bunch of broken VHS editors. No budget, broken studio lights, etc... Production didnt improve until I started to throw my own money into the program (DVRack, Ultra2, Vegas7) and then I was still expected to produce "flashy" news casts.

I know I made a difference because I still get emails and messages from my students wishing I would return next year. Im just sad I wont be there to see those that managed to learn a lot this year dazzle the students again next year.

Im definitely not giving up on teaching. It has definitely been the most rewarding job I have had yet.

'I just read an article about how great a new plug-in for After Effects is. It is a new cartoon look creator for $295. After taking a look at the samples and output from it, I could only shake my head. Take Vegas and add a $39 plug from VASST called Edge Detective and you not only have the looks, but the looks are even better. OMG I love this NLE."

Even better than this.. for the whopping sum of $0 u can gab yourself a virtual dub adapter called Debugmode Plugin Pack adapter. From there u can grab some free filters such as old film, deshaker, and a really nice clean plugin called CARTOONIZER

If u think pencil sketching and the likes look good, u havent seen this...

all i can say is trust me on this..

"Just had to gloat, my principal just approved my budget to add 5 new PD-170's with mics etc. for next year. I have 6 DVC7's which I really dislike but I will nurse them for another year or two thanks to adding the PD-170's. Did I mention that I am happy about the PD-170's? "

Dont do it.. id rather have 3 fully loaded A1's to ensure a future proof investment.. either that or i'd be hanging back for an XDCam EX unit.. maybe 2, with yoru budget...
Honestly, the PD's as nice as they are, have seen their day, as have almost every other 4:3 camcorder. The only redeeming factor the DVX has is its progressive scan functions...

>>>>>******Dont do it.. id rather have 3 fully loaded A1's to ensure a future proof investment.. either that or i'd be hanging back for an XDCam EX unit.. maybe 2, with yoru budget...
Honestly, the PD's as nice as they are, have seen their day, as have almost every other 4:3 camcorder. ******* <<<<

This is my answer assuming that you mean the Sony HVR-A1U.

This wasn't a snap choice. Trust me, the PD-170 is clearly the way to go.

Our school will be using 4:3 SD distribution for at least another five years. We would have to completely replace our infrastructure to change that fact and we are not scheduled for an infrastructure design (yet alone implementation) until 2012 or later. The cost of changing over to any other distribution would be about $263,000. It just isn't in the budget priority. Even the local broadcast station that we provide content for wants 4:3 SD from us.

For short film production, we already use other hardware for acquisition. Right now we use a Z1U.

These camcorders are for schooling high school students in the basics and are used for daily ENG tasks as well. Other than the HDV and the lower price, there is no advantage to the A1 and it has disadvantages. The A1's use touch screen controls and do not have separate iris and shutter controls. (an important conceptual lesson for them to learn.) The PD-170s by pure bulk are durable and repairable. They are also harder to hide in a jacket and steal. I expect to begin replacement of the 6 DVC7's in two years. At that time I will be looking toward a future format if a good value like the Z1U or V1 is available. We will have to see where things are going at that time. Right now, future proofing is not a concern because my ENG environment is guaranteed not to change during the working life of these units. Size, durability and teaching configuration is more important. So is low light performance which the PD_170's excel at.

I do like the A1's. I have suggested it to several schools who only have a budget of $2,000 for a camcorder. It is great bang for the buck. It is just not as good a teaching camera.

Now looking at what you said, you may have meant a Canon XH A1, then there might be room to talk. It is a bit complex for my students, HD is much harder to shoot even when downsampled to SD. That said, if it is as durable, the GL2 and XL1 we have have not proven to be as durable as a PD-170, it would be attractive. I still need five units and can't go up in price and take fewer units because I have huge student counts in each class.

Hmm, I need a way to ingest the HDV on more stations and then I need to upgrade Vegas ... The $2500 difference in the cameras ...

That is an interesting idea. Are you familiar with their durability?

installed the wax plugin but it crashes from Vegas 7.0. Re-installed but still no dice. Any suggestions?

never mind, I got it to work

i was refering to the Canon A1, as not only does it allow for straight DV for your current workflow, but also supports almost every form of HDV..
For students geting out into the real world HDV WILL be something they will need to be on top of.

As for durability, like any camera, if care is taken, there shoudlnt be a problem. on teh flipside, the cameras tehmselves offer MANY more features and functions in regard to teaching as students can learn how pedestals, and gamma nuances behave wihtin the acquisition stage.
The idea i have alwys had with students was to teach them to shoot properly, in turn, the editing is much faster with less need for "correction" or "making it look right"

Dont get me wrong, the PD's are great, but IMO, for an investment of this nbature (financial and educational) the canon A1 is a perfect tool considering the myriad of options available within the camera itself and the options available for editing.

Most broadcast cameras have these same options, and their behaviour, irrespective of the form factor, will give the student just that tad more insight if they ever come across these features in another camera.

As for systems having the ability to edit HDV i run a lowly intel single core HT 3.0ghz extreme with 2mb cache and it works a treat with M2t and cineform. I get realtime rendering if im not messing with scales and i dont use a raid (on that particular system)

there are many options, but if it were up to me, i would be thinking ahead