Digital Video Lab
DV Lab Introduction
The DVlab is equipped with 9 Apple Macintosh Computers (Quad Core 2.5GHz processors, 2GB RAM, 500GB HD space, CD/DVD drives and burners) as well as Sony MiniDV/DVCam video recorder/players, 13" Sony Trinitron NTSCvideo monitors, JVC DV/VHS dubbing workstation, a 27" Sony Trinitron Presentation Monitor, RCA Video projector, Animation and Copy Stand.
We are open twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, to all students currently enrolled in a PennDesign video or animation class, to students provided with special permission to access the lab, and to PennDesign faculty members.
Primary software applications used in the lab are: Final Cut Studio 2, Logic Pro 7, and Roxio Toast Titanium Pro 8.
The Lab is staffed by Final Cut Pro experts. Special topic workshops are offered weekly to address extra - curricular interests. The DVLab is also the site of the PSAS Summer Arts Workshop for gifted high school students every July. For more information contact Ellen Reynolds at villavillekula@aol.com.
Access Policies
The DV lab is for use by students enrolled during the semester in a video or animation class. Beyond this, students who have requested and received special permission to access the lab from Undergraduate Dean Julie Schneider may also freely access the lab. School of Design Faculty members who have informed Julie Schneider and Ellen Reynolds of their intention to use the lab and who have been instructed in the use of the hard and software may also freely access the lab.
Faculty members should plan not to use the DVLab during the last three weeks of the semester.
Classes held in the lab take priority. Their meeting times are posted on the wall outside of the DVLab and on the online sign-up page.
Supervised access times are posted on the wall inside the lab and on the online sign-up page.
Special topic workshops are offered throughout the semester. These are to supplement the in class material and to address special needs of fine arts majors, faculty, and graduate students. Sign up for workshops on the online sign up page, or on the sign up sheet outside of the DVLab. If there is no one signed up for a workshop, it will be cancelled without further notice. If you have a suggestion for a workshop, please contact Ellen.
Students may sign up for two four-hour blocks of time per week, or the equivilant. Beyond this, students may come in and use a workstation at any time, providing no one is signed up for that workstation. If you have signed up and cannot make your scheduled time, please delete your sign up block so that others may use the time. If you are 15 minutes late for your sign up period, someone else may use your entire block. Conversely, if someone else is 15 minutes late, you may use their block.
Guests are not permitted into the DVLab. You may not give out the door code or workstation access password. Please keep the lab door locked when you leave the room, even if only for a short time. Food and drink are not permitted into the lab. For more information contact Ellen Reynolds at villavillekula@aol.com.
Assistance Available in DVLab
Assisted hours in the DV lab are as follows. If you need extra help outside of these hours, please contact Ellen Reynolds via e-mail and we will try and accommodate your schedule. E-mail: villavillekula@aol.com. If you experience technical difficulty, getstuck, or need urgent help, please phone Ellen at (215) 222-2145 or (215) 620-7482 (cell).
Ellen's hours in DVLab:
Tuesday 7:30pm - 9:30pm
Friday 10:00am - 6:00pm
Matt Emerick's hours in the DVLab:
Sunday 6:00pm - 11:00
Monday 5:00 - 10:00pm
Thursday 5:00 - 10:00pm
**Additonal Hours possible by appointment**
Operating Policies
DVLab computers are not networked for editing. Please back up your project files on a CD or DVD along with your Quicktime Media Source files and any other image/sound files. If you have your own external Firewire Drive, that's even better. Back up of Project Files /Quicktime media files / Image or Sound files on a CD or DVD is done using the application "ROXIO TOAST".
Please label your tapes carefully, and if you have multiple tapes for a project, label each with the unique reel number you have entered into Final Cut pro during the log and capture process. If tapes are left behind in the DVLab, they will be placed on the railing of the Whiteboard.
External Firewire Drives must be approved before use.
You are not permitted to download any type of software. If you believe there is a software application which the lab could benefit from, please inform your professor or Ellen Reynolds.
Your media and project files must be stored within a folder with your name on it, within your teacher's (or other appropriate) folder. Free Floating and unnamed files may be deleted. All Media files are deleted after one month from their capture, unless special dispensation is granted.
Set your Autosave location at the beginning of every work session. Set your capture Scratch location at the beginning of every capture session. Close your project before leaving your session. These steps will do a lot to insure the integrity of your project files.
You may capture footage in the amount of to 4 times the total duration of your finished program. Students creating programs of longer than 30 minutes must inform Ellen.
Broken time code is a problem and can be remedied by copying the problematic tape to another Mini-DV tape using a 4 to 4 pin firewire cable from the wall hook. Connect one 4 pin to the videocamera, the other to the deck, and select "DV IN" as the input to the deck. Use the video camera as a playback device, and the deck as a record device. Use the new tape as your source tape for capturing into FCP. There will be no resolution loss. You can re-record over the old tape later.
If anything is malfunctioning, please contact Ellen. If it is a hardware issue (computer crashing, for example), contact IThelp (ithelp@design.upenn.edu) or the IT office on the 1st floor.
USE "Force Quit" from the apple menu if the application crashes. There are instructions for "force quitting" on the wall of the Lab.
When playing out to the NTSC monitor or printing you may experience a "Blocky" image. Restarting the application often helps, if not you must restart the computer.
DO NOT re-cable workstations. If you feel there is a better way to cable a workstation, please contact Ellen but DO NOT do this yourself.
USE only Sony Tapes when possible.
Please use headphones when working.
We will periodically send the best work to the bridge movie theater for presentation in their lobby. Work that contains copyrighted material (i.e. music) cannot be included in this package.
For more information, contact Ellen Reynolds at villavillekula@aol.com.
Digital Video Reservations
Online Scheduling System - Only students registered in current Digital Video courses may reserve a DV station using the Online Scheduling System with their PennDesign username and password.
Users can access the Online Scheduling System through one of two methods depending on the Web client used (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) (Safari in OS X 10.3 is not supported):
1) Enter your PennDesign username and password . Note: this is the same password used to login to PennDesign lab computers. When prompted for username, you must preface your username with "design\". For example, if your username is "jsmith", you would enter "design\jsmith".
2) Enter your username, followed by your password and domain.
User name: username
Password: password
Domain: design
Users who do not have Design accounts may reserve machines using the following username and password:
User ID: design\dvlab
Password: F!nalcut