Client wants to view footage at home

[Bouke Vahl]

I would say Media Manage to a quick and dirty codec.
Should be fairly quick (if you use the ‘video’ codec or even Mpeg1 in a QT wrapper it is way faster than RT, even on your machine)

QT can display timecode (right-click on the time field, and choose timecode)

If you want it a bit more sophisticated, have a look at the RS422 / file logger on my site: (You then have TC and Reel info in XML and/or batch lists, but also in paper, most of the time way more handier since all is ingested already)
https://www.videotoolshed.com/?page=products&pID=24

hth,

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pro’s

[Jerry Alto]

Nayim-Do you have a video card in your system? If so go video out to a $39 DVD recorder. In extended mode you can get 3 or 4 hours on each $.10 DVD-R. Charge’em for your time of course.
HTH,
Jerry

G5 Dual 3GB Ram
FCP Studio 6.02
External 1 TB SATA Raid 0
Kona LH, Second system w AJA ioLA
Sony Z-1
GV-HD700

[Zane Barker]

[Bouke Vahl] ” would say Media Manage to a quick and dirty codec”

That is a good option. But still bill for every hour your computer is tied up doing that. You cant edit other projects for other clients so you need to be paid for the time your computer is in use.

There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity!

[David Hartnett]

750GB of DVCPROHD is only something like 16 hours worth of footage… If you use the 150 minute preset in compressor it should fit onto 7 or 8 DVD’s. It will take a while to encode on your G5, but it shouldn’t be too bad.

Editor – Speakeasy
http://www.speak.co.uk
FCPS & CS3
6 Intel Macs w/Kona 3/LH

[David Roth weiss]

Nayim,

Why don’t they just have some kid with Premiere capture all the material to their PC?

Or, have the client acquire a very modest used Mac.

While the client is always right, that doesn’t mean they always know what’s best… Your job is to manage the project efficiently and manage the client as well. Taking you away from your creative duties to make hundreds of DVD copies of their project is ludicrous, and it tells me you’re probably not charging enough to make them understand your value.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Nayim Saati]

so i can just put 150 minutes worth of footage into the timeline and then export using compressor and use 150 minutes, probably the least quality one? you think it will fit on less tan 10 disk that would be great. how long do you think the compressing time would be, for 150 minutes? i have a kona lh card for whoever asked me if i had one.

[David Rowan]

Zane is right. When the client says he wants it on a DVD they probably mean a DVD they can watch on TV, not a data DVD of the original files.

If you used compressor to convert the files using “fastest encode-150 minutes” you might be able to get the footage down to 5-6 DVD’s (Its about 15 hours worth?)

For my clients who want to log clips at home I make a timeline in some low quality codec, add the timecode filter (make it nice and big) Position the letterboxed footage and the timecode window so they don’t intersect, and export. Then I just use iDVD to make the DVDs.

Another possibility, invest in one of those consumer DVD recorders. Once your timeline is built simply play video/audio out into the DVD recorder. You will play-out in real time, but you save encoding time. One advantage is that these machines usually offer a 6 or 8 hour speed, meaning fewer DVD’s. As long as you remember to finalize the disk it will be watchable on most consumer equipment.

DWR

[Ed Dooley]

Window dub means a video with the time code super-imposed on it. It’s a lot of DVDs if you give the video to them as HD. If you do a low resolution hardware encode to MPEG-2 it’s not (but that assumes you have hardware for the job).
Ed

[Mark Suszko]

Maybe it is because I made my bones back in the one-inch and 3/4 days of analog and linear editing, but I don’t think it’s necessarily bad that the client wants to do a paper edit using window dubs. This is their program, not yours, and if this method is comfortable for them, then give it to them. They can work on the paper edit for days and weeks while you go work on something else, then when they DO finally come in, the time spent will be very productive.

Doing it your way, you put them on the clock for every second of pondering or indecision. For a large doc, that’s death. Though the billing may put your kids thru college:-)

Doing it their way, once they show up, they will keep you hopping, grabbing and laying-in the select cuts thay want, and at home they can spend as much time as they want to try this and that, becoming intimately familiar with the raw material, off the clock. On a massive documentary, I think this is the only sane way to go. What we’re arguing about mostly I think is how to execute this technically from a point of being cost efficient and time efficient.

We have Panasonic stand-alone DVD recorders here that can cram up to 6 hours onto a single DVD. I have one at home and it does a decent job at making an 6-hour disc that’s still good enough to base a paper edit on. You can set up a timeline play-out with a time code super, just six hours long at about 4 PM, set it dubbing, off the clock if you want, and finalize it in the morning in about two minutes. I think That’s how I would handle it.

Don’t let the imagined slight to your editor’s ego impair your customer relationship. It is NOT an insult to your editing. It is giving the client what makes them happy.

[Nayim Saati]

i do have a dvd recorder, how would i finalize the disk after i burn straight from playback… that or the dvd burning after compressing 150 minute might be the best and easiest option. thanks everyone!!