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Best format to compress raw T2i footage to for editing?
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Yes. Too expensive. Margins don’t allow for it.
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[Steve Brame] “Not sure why Mercalli is holding you up. If you apply it to a proxy, then it will also be there when you replace the proxies with originals”
Artifacts in the proxy footage can throw off trackers, stabilizers, and keyers. Effects like these are best done with original media.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Victor Lin] “Yes. Too expensive. Margins don’t allow for it.”
Then you are trying to violate the quality-speed-cost triangle.
You can reduce quality by recompressing the footage further, you can reduce speed by sending the larger files over the Internet and waiting for them to finish, or you can reduce either margin or consumer price benefit by shipping. You can’t have all three.
Proxy workflow might work,if you upload proxies and begin cutting with them, while simultaneously transferring the larger files (though of course you will lose time compressing the proxies in the first place). Pr doesn’t have a good offline/online workflow, though.
What about hiring an editor in the same locale as your shooter?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Walter Soyka] “Then you are trying to violate the quality-speed-cost triangle.
You can reduce quality by recompressing the footage further, you can reduce speed by sending the larger files over the Internet and waiting for them to finish, or you can reduce either margin or consumer price benefit by shipping. You can’t have all three.
Proxy workflow might work,if you upload proxies and begin cutting with them, while simultaneously transferring the larger files (though of course you will lose time compressing the proxies in the first place). Pr doesn’t have a good offline/online workflow, though.
What about hiring an editor in the same locale as your shooter?”
Yes, I can hire an editor in the same locale as the shooting, but then I’d eventually have to hire numerous editors in numerous locations when the business expands, and get all of those editors on the same page in terms of how to cut the video, how to process, in what order, etc for consistent quality.
The triangle can be violated, and I know this from experience. There’s always a “standard” for quality/speed/cost. As long as each characteristic doesn’t go below the “standard” the triangle can remain intact.
For example, right now the video at 330MB/min has fantastic quality but it’s overkill since it’s just going to go on YouTube for streaming. As long as that arm of the triangle doesn’t go below YouTube quality, and the Cost/Speed arms stay the same or even decrease, the triangle remains intact. Becomes stronger, even.
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[Victor Lin] “There’s always a “standard” for quality/speed/cost.”
There certainly is. Now all you have to do is decide which standard to lower.
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“98% of all computer issues can be solved by simply pressing ‘F1’.”
Steve Brame
creative illusions Productions -
[Steve Brame] “There certainly is. Now all you have to do is decide which standard to lower.”
Not lowering any standard. Videos are going to be on YouTube’s 1080p. That’s all they will ever be played on.
It’s pointless to work buku extra hours to make video 4x the quality that YouTube is capable of, just to have YouTube decrease the quality to it’s own level anyway.
Just like we never shoot in RAW for our photo shoots, since the images will only ever be printed to 8×10 inches max and JPG is just fine for that.
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Oh OK…I misunderstood. I recommended that above, and thought that you had ruled it out as an option. My mistake.
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“98% of all computer issues can be solved by simply pressing ‘F1’.”
Steve Brame
creative illusions Productions -
Using MagicLantern, which QScale should I pick (-16 to +16) to best match YouTube’s VBR 1-Pass Target: 12, Max: 17 mbps?
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[Victor Lin] “It’s pointless to work buku extra hours to make video 4x the quality that YouTube is capable of, just to have YouTube decrease the quality to it’s own level anyway.”
It’s not pointless. Working with the highest level of quality possible throughout the production process ensures the best-looking deliverables.
If you recompress your camera originals, edit, then export, you will have at least two additional generations of compression (possibly three if YouTube recompresses your content yet again). You lose quality at each stage, similar to making a copy of a copy of an analog video tape, but a copy of a good tape is still better than a copy of a bad tape.
Compressing your originals also limits your flexibility for color correction, keying, and effects.
[Victor Lin] “Just like we never shoot in RAW for our photo shoots, since the images will only ever be printed to 8×10 inches max and JPG is just fine for that.”
Shooting RAW versus JPEG isn’t about retaining quality; it’s about retaining flexibility. Shooting JPEG does all the processing in-camera; shooting RAW lets you handle the processing separately, after the fact.
If you’re sacrificing flexibility for speed, I think you run the risk of lowering quality in the triangle.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Victor Lin] “Not lowering any standard. Videos are going to be on YouTube’s 1080p. That’s all they will ever be played on.
It’s pointless to work buku extra hours to make video 4x the quality that YouTube is capable of, just to have YouTube decrease the quality to it’s own level anyway.”
The problem is, it doesn’t work quite like that.
Compressed video is nasty stuff to work with. There’s a reason ProRes and NDxHD run at data rates of 150-220 Mbps
Try a test. take a clip from the T2i, compress it for youtube, and upload it.
Now take that clip that you just compressed, and encode it again at the same settings, and then upload that.
Those two situations simulate your editing possibilities. The first being if you sent the raw files back, the second being if you encoded the video to it’s final format and then sent it back.
See how the quality looks on Youtube.
Now, this test is still ignoring a few things. First, no color correction was done, so if you plan to have the video color corrected you should try color correcting the file you made the first time before you encored it again.
Second, remember this encode will have to be done by your shooter after each day. If you use Adobe to do the encode I know it has the option to upload the rendered files, which would allow your shooter to get queue everything up and go to sleep, and it’s all uploaded in the morning. Compressor may also offer this functionality. (though since you posted in the adobe Premiere forum I’m assuming that’s what you’re using.)
Also, you should try rendering a .mp4 rather then .mov The quality can be quite a bit better. Test that too.
The real way to do what you’re asking is ether FedEx, or hiring an editor to travel with the shooter.
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