• Compression Techniques

  How to compress my 56 minute film to 2gigs

  Posted by Sam Mayfield on November 19, 2013 at 8:10 pm

  I need help compressing my 56 minute film to 2gigs or under for submitting an online link to festivals and not have it look horrendous.
  Does anyone know a trick?
  It is 1280×720 23.98.
  I have tried many variations in compressor and straight from FCP but nothing is working.
  I have one version that sort of looks ok but it is squished at 768×576. Does anyone know if festivals expect the online screener to look spectacular?

  Rich Rubasch replied 12 years, 8 months ago 5 Members · 5 Replies
• 5 Replies

• 

  Craig Seeman

  November 19, 2013 at 8:50 pm

  Duration times data rate equals file size.
  Solve for data rate.

  Or use data rate calculator. Something like this.
  https://www.3ivx.com/support/calculator/
• 

  Michael Mcintyre

  November 20, 2013 at 4:23 am

  I know you hate squishing your film but you can get great results <2 gigs for 53 minutes.
  Looking at a very solid encode of a recent show:
  Duration: 0:46:25
  Data Size: 364.74 MB
  Bit Rate: 1.10 Mbps
  624 × 348, 23.976 fps, 971 kbps
  MPEG Layer-3 Audio stereo, 44.1 kHz, 128 kbps

  Bump up the size / bit rate as you wish.
  I always isolate a minute to test rather than encoding the whole thing.
• 

  Craig Seeman

  November 20, 2013 at 4:32 pm

  [Michael McIntyre] “Bump up the size / bit rate as you wish.
  I always isolate a minute to test rather than encoding the whole thing.”

  Yes, always test the most complex section (fast action, fast motion graphics, complex background, transitions) as that will likely need the most bits to look good.

  Note that Compressor will give you a size per hour estimate but I find that it’s as much as 20% off.
  The formula I mention is really just Junior High School Algebra so I’m not sure why people working in Post Production can’t simply reason it out. Granted not everyone is good at math in their heads but the principle is truly basic match and bit rate calculators online are free and plentiful.
• 

  Ivan Myles

  November 21, 2013 at 1:36 am

  [sam mayfield] “I have tried many variations in compressor and straight from FCP but nothing is working. “

  A 2GB file constraint allows for an average video bitrate of about 4.5Mbps. That should produce a good H.264 file at 1280×720-23p. What export settings did you try? What issues were observed (banding, blocking, color shift, other)? It would be helpful if you could post a short clip or screen capture along with the export settings.

  [sam mayfield] “I have one version that sort of looks ok but it is squished at 768×576.”

  Sounds like your media player isn’t compensating for rectangular pixels. Encode using square pixels at 1024×576 or 854×480 instead.
• 

  Rich Rubasch

  November 27, 2013 at 8:36 pm

  I agree with the 854 x 480 or even 832 x 464 (both numbers divisible by 16) is adequate.

  A film admissions judge is going to be looking for content not video quality and you better meet their specs…coming under is a plus!

  But the story and writing and overall production value (obvious even with a low rez clip) will be what they are looking for.

  Rich Rubasch
  Tilt Media Inc.
  Video Production, Post, Studio Sound Stage
  Founder/President/Editor/Designer/Animator
  https://www.tiltmedia.com

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up