Media Lab Information and Policies

Location

Winston Hall, 201H and 201J

Hours of Operation

The Media Lab is open Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm, except for University closings (including inclement weather situations). On days when no classes are being held, but the Communication Department office is open, the lab may be available; check with Robert first.

Lab Manager

The Media Lab manager/instructional support entity is Robert Bell: rtbell@ncsu.edu, 919-513-7472.
With multiple decades of production experience, Robert is your one-stop shop for technical support; do not hesitate to contact him with any questions.

“If you ask me questions before or during your production, I will offer helpful information and advice. If you ask me questions after your production, I may only be able to offer condolences.”

Food and Beverages

• In W201H, food and beverages may be enjoyed at the table only, not at the workstations. Your instructor may rescind this permission. As we have no wait or bus staff, it is incumbent on each of you to clean up after yourself.
• In W201J, food or beverages are not allowed, with the exception of plain water in a container that can be securely closed.

Equipment and Edit Time Reservation

• Equipment and edit time reservation is accomplished using online Google Sheets. The appropriate Sheet(s) will be shared with the appropriate class roster. Notes and instructions are included in the Sheets – please familiarize yourself with the information provided.
• If you find you won’t need the equipment or edit time, please update the signup Sheet, so that the resource can be unencumbered.
• Normally, equipment is checked out from Monday to Thursday, and from Thursday to Monday. University closings may alter this schedule, and the signup Sheet will reflect this. If you need to check out equipment longer than these standard intervals, contact Robert first.
• Equipment pickup and return times will be stated on the sign-up sheet. Please honor these times, to ensure that everyone has fair access to the equipment.
• If you experience any problems with the equipment, contact Robert for troubleshooting. If you choose not to do so, please let Robert know about the anomaly when you return the gear.
• If you replace a burned-out lamp, please discard the inoperative lamp, and make Robert aware of this as well, so he can restock it.

Reconfiguring/Modifying Equipment and Software

The general policy here is: Please don’t.

The workstations are set up to provide you and your classmates with an enjoyable post-production experience. Changing cabling, or software presets, can lead to confusion, frustration, and angst. Special requests may be accommodated, but please ask first. The same holds true for the production equipment; the configuration in which you receive it is the configuration in which it should be returned.

On a related note, do not store any project media or files on the internal drive of the lab computers. All of your project’s assets should be stored on an external drive, or USB flash. The lab computers are wiped and reinstalled occasionally, without prior warning; if you store media or other assets on them, they could be lost.

Tutorial Videos

• COM 334 Tungsten Lighting Tutorial
• COM 334 Panasonic HPX250 Tutorial
• Lighting Aesthetics Tutorial
• Marantz PMD661 Audio Recorder Instruction

Production Tips

Editing

• When beginning a project in Premiere Pro, it’s imperative that you correctly establish the folder/file structure at inception. Never store any project assets on the local (internal) drive of the computer you’re using. Instead, on your external drive, create a folder named with the course number, and within that, a folder named Project 1, and another named Project 2.
• Everything that’s a part of Project 1 must be moved or copied into the Project 1 folder. This includes the Premiere Pro project file itself, and additional media files (video, music, photos, graphics, etc.).
• Remember – using the Import Media function in Premiere Pro only establishes a link to the media; it does not move or copy that media into any location. For example, if you import a music file from your USB drive, it will become Offline (unavailable) when that drive is ejected.

Course-Specific FAQs

COM 357

Technical Reference

Some items are downloadable PDFs, and some are links to the information hosted on external sites. Please report broken links to Robert.

• Panasonic HPX250 Camcorder User Manual (PDF 13.2 MB)
• Kodak Essential Reference Guide For Filmmakers (PDF 4.2MB)

Forms and Templates

Various and sundry materials useful in your production workflow.

• Raleigh Film and Photography Guidelines (PDF)
• Storyboard templates and software (Link)

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