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Planning project properties
I am going to make a personal skateboarding documentary. In the 70’s I was part of a big group of skateboarders who skated and competed through-out the southeast. We recently had a 30 year reunion and I showed a film/dvd that I made using FCP 4 and video that was digitized to vhs tape. I added photo slideshows but did not combine photos and video at that time. I combined video and photo many times before but this project will be much larger so I want to start right from the beginning.
I have photos that I’ve scanned and have received from others via email. A variety of resolutions and dpi. Most I have color corrected and cleaned up in photoshop. I also have about 24 roles of old 8mm film that was digitized and recorded to dvd. I have converted the .vob files to .dv for a previous project but I still have the original disks and .vob files.
I recently purchased FCP studio 3. I’ve been using FCP since version 1 and have been using FCP 5 before I upgraded but mostly for short videos for home and for retirement and school celebration type of things.
I am asking for advice on how I should prepare the photos and video for this project. The final video will be output to SD for a DVD and also the web and/or youtube.
Should I use the .dv files or convert the video to pro-res or use another format?
Should I batch process the digitized pictures to a common size?What settings should I use for the sequence.
Thanks
Kirk -
8 Replies
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What is the size/format of the bulk of your footage?
MiniDV SD NTSC 48k ?Launch a new FCP project.
Choose the easy setup DV NTSC 48k.Capture your DV footage native.
Your sequence will be 720×480. If you are NOT creating moves on the stills. Make em about that size. 72dpi. RGB.
If you are creating moves on the stills double the size.Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC -
The original files on the dvd are 640 X 480 mpeg2 muxed. There is no audio because the old 8mm films didn’t record audio. I have done various conversions over time to clean up the original footage in photoshop but always the content is 640X480 in either quicktime or quicktime dv. I’m just wondering if I should convert the video to another format ahead of time that will work better when combining photos.
Yes I will be using movement with the photos.Here is a short segment of one of the videos.
Thanks again. I just want to make good decisions to start with since this will be a long process. -
You need to convert that footage.
Convert it to DV50 720×480. Or prores 720X480.
Then import the clips for editing.Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC -
You need to convert that footage.
Convert it to DV50 720×480. Or prores 720X480.
Then import the clips for editing.Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC -
[Kirk Pitts] “Should I use the .dv files or convert the video to pro-res or use another format?
Should I batch process the digitized pictures to a common size?”“.DV” never. Tha´s a “DV Sequence” file. A format proprietary of iMovie.
[Kirk Pitts] “The original files on the dvd are 640 X 480 mpeg2 muxed.”
Download “Mpgstreamclip” and convert the MPEG-2 files to a good codec (At least DVCpro50, as Chris suggests. I prefer Prores, or bettr 8b Uncompressed).
Have a look to the “Stream info” and keep the original setting (size, field order, time-base).
Convert the MP2 audio to PCM-16b-48Khz.
BTW, your MPEG-2 is 720×480, even if its shows 640×480.
rafael -
Is Mpgstreamclip better than the apple mpeg2 encoders? I bought the Apple encoder some years back to convert the files. I’ve already converted them to .dv files, I was just wondering if FCP works better with another codec than dv.
Thanks for the advice.
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Go back to original files. Do not convert to .dv files.
See advise above.Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC -
[Kirk Pitts] “Is Mpgstreamclip better than the apple mpeg2 encoders?”
Mpgstreamclip is not an mpeg encoder. Is used mostly to decode mpegs and convert to QT and a tool that you can not miss. Is free download.[Kirk Pitts] “I bought the Apple encoder some years back to convert the files. I’ve already converted them to .dv files, I was just wondering if FCP works better with another codec than dv.”
You need to convert to QT (.mov) so you can edit that native in FC.
“.dv” can´t be edited native in FC.
rafael
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