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Marking Commercial Insertion Points?
Hello, everyone. I’m trying my hand at producing content for TV. I have a question about commercial insertion that I was hoping someone could help me with.
My question is this: How do I indicate the commercial insertion point in the actual video? Should I put in a graphic with the text INSERT COMMERCIAL HERE at those spots? If yes, how long should that graphic stay up? Just a couple of seconds or the entire duration of the commercial break?
Is there something automated/electronic I’m supposed to add to mark the insertion point? If yes, is this something Sony Vegas can do?
Any tips, thoughts, and/or advice would be extremely appreciated!
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7 Replies
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Each station will be different so you need to ask them what their requirements are.
Most broadcast stations will have very specific requirements as to commercial breaks (i.e. length and location).
I produce programs for my local cable provider and they always tell me when and where the breaks can go. When I deliver the program to them, I leave black where the commercials go as it’s their job to handle the insertions at the appropriate times.
Another thing to ask is whether they want a fade or a cut from your program material to and from black at the beginning and end of each break. -
Thank you so much for responding!
>> I leave black where the commercials go…
Do you leave the black up for the entire duration of the commercial break (2 minutes or whatever) or is it just black for a second or two?
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I leave it for the entire length of the break. It’s best to ask the station though as they may want you to stick a “commercial break here” title.
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Thank you so much! I will ask the station, but now I can ask the question intelligently.
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I would be upfront with them and say that it’s your first time delivering commercial content and that you want to make sure you’re doing things correctly which is why you’re asking them if they have specific rules regarding commercial breaks.
A great example of this can be found on the American PBS site at The Red Book
You didn’t say whether your in the NTSC or PAL world so there are two other issues that I just thought of that you should ask/be aware of.
Is black at 0 IRE or 7.5 IRE? Either way you have to make sure that you meet the technical specs as well as the programming/commercial specs.
This includes proper audio levels, whatever they may require so always ask.
Further to technical specs, do they want drop Frame or Non Drop Frame time code? On a 60 minute program the difference between the two is 108 frames (3.6 seconds) with NDF being longer.
I found and keep an excellent tutorial (PDF format) on this on my Dropbox site at Time Code Tutorial -
More excellent information.
On the matter of drop frames, is that simply a matter at selecting the correct frame rate in the project (or render) settings? That is, if the station asks for drop frames, set the frame rate to 29.97 and I’m good?
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Yes it is that simple. If you’ve never done it before, right click in the Time display box, select Time Format and choose either SMPTE Non-Drop (29.97, Video) or SMPTE Drop (29.97, Video).
It’s best to do this when you first start your project.
If it’s NDF, there will be a colon between the seconds numbers and the frame numbers.
If it’s DF, there will be a semi-colon.
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