[quote="JohnHowardSC"]What a GREAT IDEA! A TD-UTE (pronounced Ta-Doo-Tee)! I can see it now ... (cue the dreamy harp music and wavy effect...) (Set Day, 7:30 AM) Me: "TaDooty! Get my coffee - Starbucks - Vanilla Latte - GRANDE - NOW!!!" TD-Ute: "Sir, Yes sir!" Me: "But only AFTER you map my switcher, label that router and stick these labels on that monitor wall! Are my 700 SpotBox elements loaded and clipped off yet? What about the 49 DVEous effects I wanted built this morning? I'll be ready to pre-pro after my coffee!" TD-Ute: "But sir, it's still another half-hour til CREW CALL and..." Me: "A half hour??? WE'RE BEHIND! The camera guys will be here in 40 minutes ready to fax!" :-)[/quote] Um, wouldn't that make you a Director?

[quote="JohnHowardSC"]TD-Ute: "But sir, it's still another half-hour til CREW CALL and..." Me: "A half hour??? WE'RE BEHIND! The camera guys will be here in 40 minutes ready to fax!" :-)[/quote] I love the subtle hint that the Camera Ops are 10 minutes late!!

[quote="JohnHowardSC"]What a GREAT IDEA! A TD-UTE (pronounced Ta-Doo-Tee)! I can see it now ... (cue the dreamy harp music and wavy effect...) (Set Day, 7:30 AM) Me: "TaDooty! Get my coffee - Starbucks - Vanilla Latte - GRANDE - NOW!!!" TD-Ute: "Sir, Yes sir!" Me: "But only AFTER you map my switcher, label that router and stick these labels on that monitor wall! Are my 700 SpotBox elements loaded and clipped off yet? What about the 49 DVEous effects I wanted built this morning? I'll be ready to pre-pro after my coffee!" TD-Ute: "But sir, it's still another half-hour til CREW CALL and..." Me: "A half hour??? WE'RE BEHIND! The camera guys will be here in 40 minutes ready to fax!" :-)[/quote] John, I gotta say...I'm rethinking that offer to caddy for you that I made awhile back! Sean Kelly

What a GREAT IDEA! A TD-UTE (pronounced Ta-Doo-Tee)! I can see it now ... (cue the dreamy harp music and wavy effect...) (Set Day, 7:30 AM) Me: "TaDooty! Get my coffee - Starbucks - Vanilla Latte - GRANDE - NOW!!!" TD-Ute: "Sir, Yes sir!" Me: "But only AFTER you map my switcher, label that router and stick these labels on that monitor wall! Are my 700 SpotBox elements loaded and clipped off yet? What about the 49 DVEous effects I wanted built this morning? I'll be ready to pre-pro after my coffee!" TD-Ute: "But sir, it's still another half-hour til CREW CALL and..." Me: "A half hour??? WE'RE BEHIND! The camera guys will be here in 40 minutes ready to fax!" :-)

[quote="Rick Tugman"]All they have to do is take out a camera and build it.[/quote] I thought that was what utilities were for. :D Hold on, that gives me an idea... Think I could convince the crewer to hire a control room utility? That's how you make sure the tape is peeled off everything after the show...

[quote="JohnHowardSC"]You TP'd my house AGAIN! Man ... Hey, I too hate the sticker thing. Clean up your own mess! And I'm with Tugman - reset everything back to a default, clear the Lance registers and delete the DVEous effects. It's common courtesy and will keep Tiffee's TP where it belongs ... on the bottom of his shoe.[/quote] Here, here John ..... Geezz nothing sets me off more than coming into the truck and cleaning up after someone else.... that is except for camera guys who want to fax so they can have a 3 hour lunch. All they have to do is take out a camera and build it. Can't they wait till the truck is patched and things are labled (again <--- joke) :-)

You TP'd my house AGAIN! Man ... Hey, I too hate the sticker thing. Clean up your own mess! And I'm with Tugman - reset everything back to a default, clear the Lance registers and delete the DVEous effects. It's common courtesy and will keep Tiffee's TP where it belongs ... on the bottom of his shoe.

If it's a mess, I'll usually ask the EIC who TD'd the last show. Then when I'm in their town, I'll Toilet paper their house. Sorry John Howard. :-) The ESPN on ABC cap drives me insane.

Walked into a small truck this weekend and the previous TD had left the tape on the panel, yep CAM1 , 2 etc.. as well as the little stickers on the Master E-Mem panel. The EIC didn't understand when I said that the previous TD needed to be shot. Not killed, just wounded. Why do some people think every time you "roll out", a capper is needed? Why do you need to "roll out" when going to every break??

Yes, there is a middle ground if everybody plays right...... but some people need their mommy to tell them to clean up after themselves.

Sounds like someone's been ignoring the big "NO FOOD, DRINKS, OR ANIMALS NOT ON THE CREW ALLOWED IN THE ***ING TRUCK" signs... Or the engineer's been lax in enforcing them, unlike the guy around here who wouldn't let someone drink coffee (with a lid) at the back of the room. Then there's the guy on another local truck who I saw eating sunflower seeds in engineering. There's some kind of nice middle ground isn't there?

Stephan, I have to respectfully disagree.... the worst is when you sit down at the switcher and there are crumbs and stains and crust and hairs and other random objects all over the panel. Director: Take 2 Me: Hold on, my rubber gloves are caught in the fader.

The worst is stickers that don't peel off cleanly.

A TD friend of mine who has since gone on to directing once called me theday after I was on a truck. (I was just starting out) He told me to clean up my stickers and tape. I usually did but forgot in the midst of being tired from travelling. I hope I haven't forgotten since then. Scott

Mike - I hate that too .... I'm not someone's maid where I have to clean up after them. People should have a little more consideration, when your done leave the truck and the switcher the way you would like to find it. When I leave a truck I always load in the trucks default back into the switcher, clear the DVE registers and clear out all the Lance Cue points. That way it's a fresh start for the clients and the next show coming in.

Things that make me groan? TD's that can't peel labels off the switcher and router before leaving the truck at the end of a show.

You are absolutely correct. And I didn't say it was a bad thing; on the contrary, my point was that a lot of TDs attach a lot more importance to the, let's say, more fancy-shmantzy features of our shows, than the actual stuff that matters. Like, for example, whether the replay brand is up long enough for the viewer to notice it. Meanwhile, as you said, the viewer isn't even aware that a replay transition exists, much less whether or not there's a brand on it.

[quote="EricG"]Ask someone (while you're not watching TV with them) what happens on the screen ...[/quote] In my experience actually asking viewers, they don't even notice a difference between a cut and a transition effect. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing. If something stands out, then it was probably wrong. The transition is not the feature, and so it shouldn't take centre stage. A good show is one where everything all works together without any single item to distract from the [i]content.[/i] Once the window dressing becomes the centre of attention, people are no longer looking at the product.

By fast I mean the brand was in and out in 10 frames. I know FSN already does stuff like that with stuff like their "baseball" wipe and the similar-looking FSN logo wipe, and it works for going to chyron and stuff like that, but I still think it's quick for a replay wipe. I originally built it to be in and out in 30 frames. I can't see anyone missing anything because of a 30-frame wipe that they wouldn't have missed (perhaps slightly less) with a 10-frame wipe.

[quote="Mike Cumbo"]What effects/transitions/things that clients DEMAND or require that drive you nuts?[/quote] These are mostly from my editing days, but I know most of you have heard'em: "I'm paying for that there DMV thing, so I want everything to fly in! Pictures, text, everything! If you show me ONE dissolve, so help me...!" "Hey, can this thing do one of those pasturization effects?" "Can you make the text flash?" (remember how they would flick all ten fingers at you, in case you didn't know what "flash" meant?) "What would white text over a blue background look like?" --which would ultimately evolve into-- "I'm sick of white text...show me blue! Nope, too dark...show me red! Nope, still too dark...don't even think of showing me green or yellow, I HATE those colours! *sigh* Okay, white it is..." But this one is my favourite: Back at Telemundo, when we first got the Kalypso I had the Wipe Patterns menu called up, and the (then) executive producer said "Half a freakin' million dollars and THOSE are the only wipes it can do???"

I was sort of making a joke when I said the font fly thing, but I HAVE actually said that to directors, along with the letterbox thing. Let's face it, those are the star wipes of today. Usually I'm successful in getting them to agree with me. I do, however, have a sneaking suspicion that they only agree because some directors a) really have no idea what looks good and what doesn't, they're just copying other shows' looks that came before them, and b) they don't want to SEEM like they don't know what looks good, so they nod their head as if they've come to the same conclusion as me on their own. PS No offense, Stephan, but there is no point to a branded replay wipe. No one, and I repeat NO ONE, at home (besides other TDs) notices that replay wipe in the least. I know its a hard thing to accept, being that it's such a "main" element in many of our shows, but that's how it is, and as far as I'm concerned, the quicker the wipe, the better; lessens the chance of missing a pitch/faceoff/snap/whatever. Don't believe me? Ask someone (while you're not watching TV with them) what happens on the screen when a particular channel, any channel, goes from live action to a replay. I've done it. It's a real wake-up call.

[quote="Scott Dailey"]I don't really care what effects a director asks for. what gets me is someone who doesn't follow the basic rules of editing.[/quote] Same here. I mean, the whole reason you're a director is you should be able to tell when you're about to make a bad cut, right? I know sometimes you just might not have any options and you just have to take the shot even though you know it's gonna look bad, but there's a difference between that and consistently making terrible cuts. Here's a paraphrase of a great conversation I had with a director about a brand new replay look I was building for them. It was a DVE look. Funny thing is they bought a switcher (a Kayak) with the intention of using the switcher's stillstore to make DDR wipes, but in the two years since they bought it they're STILL using the original DVE animation I made for them. Dir: "The effect has to be faster, I want to be in and out of replays as quick as possible." Me: "Okay... How about this?" "No, like twice as fast" "Uh huh..." {Knows what it's going to look like but punches it up anyway} "Perfect" "But you can't read the brand. It flashes by too fast. You can't tell what it says" "Nah, you don't need to read the brand" "Then what's the point of having a branded replay wipe?" "We want the professional look of a branded wipe" "But if you can't read it, there's no point to an actual branded wipe. That's the point I'm trying to make here. It doesn't look professional. It's got to be slower." "But I want to get into and out of the replay as soon as possible." "THEN CALL IT SOONER."

I don't really care what effects a director asks for. what gets me is someone who doesn't follow the basic rules of editing. dissolving from one CU to another with the exact same framing. Cutting from one wide shot to another. Crossing the Z axis indiscriminantly. Live tv is jsut live editing. The same rules apply. Is a director going to get it right 100% of the time. No. But the effort that goes into a well cut show without the latest, greatest animation or DVE move beats the pants off of a poorly cut show with all the bells and whistles. Happy Punching, (don't punch the director) Scott