Your tapes are small, tapes are cheap and tapes soon become the most precious thing to you after you’ve shot your scenes. So look after them! Below are some useful tips to help you look after your material.
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When using your tape for the first time, the first 20/30 seconds are known as the danger area, so always allow some run up time before you start to film.
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Don’t run your tape up until the very last second because you want to squeeze your footage in. Your footage is more important than the cost of a new tape. There is a chance as the tape is near the end, something could go wrong.
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It is not recomended that you re-use tapes, recording over old material. An old tape is far more likely to have picked up overtime, some dust or grit on the tape. Putting this older tape into your camera can lead to future material having errors or frame drop outs, or clogging of the tape machanism.
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Flick the “write protect” switch on your tape to ensure you or a collegue doesn’t record over it.
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Label your tapes using tape numbers, date it, and write notes about the content of your tape. Dont get yourself into a situation where you record over valuable rushes using it’s still a new unlabelled tape.
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Do not leave your tapes outside in your car or in any place that’s likely to get cold, or hot, damp or dry.
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