Game-Changer

[Mike Cohen]

We started posting videos and other media files to our client website in 2002, but really ramped up this process in the last 18 months.

Our latesxt incarnation has been a game-changer of our own. The changed game is more than just saved shipping costs, but includes satisfied clients who can see revisions within 24 hours or less, and slightly easier for project management as some of the manual labor of tracking comments is automated.

Whether one uses Media Batch, another application or proprietary software as we do, changing work processes to save time and increase client satisfaction is money well spent.

While it is true that some corporate clients do not grasp the “right-click to download” concept, just as some people are not familiar with alt-tab or other “basic” computer functions, most of our clients find it very easy to click on a e-mailed url, login with the supplied password and download files from a basic index.php page.

Lately we have been using e-mail addresses for logins, so people do not need to remember a password, and the database records logins.

Last year we created a content review website of our own, because we needed a way for people to review documents images and flv videos all in one session. Comments on all pieces of media are saved to a database and immediately displayed for others to see.

We simply put a time-code burn on the FLV video and people can easily type the timecode numbers into their comments.

The document review feature was especially important. If you have a half dozen people reviewing a document, options are either send everyone a Word doc, then you need to compare all of the revised documents manually. Another option is to use a separate service such as Writely or Writeboard, but it is a separate application and not as easy to manage. With our system, we simply open the original word doc, then display the comments from the database which are sorted by user and date. It is always being improved.

Mike Cohen

[Marco Solorio]

[Mike Cohen] “Last year we created a content review website of our own, because we needed a way for people to review documents images and flv videos all in one session. Comments on all pieces of media are saved to a database and immediately displayed for others to see.”

Hey Mike. Thanks for the replies. Yeah, Media Batch works in the same way although it actually natively reads almost 200 file formats, including some off-shoot ones like DivX, Real, some pretty strange audio formats and many more. We figured since this will be going to a global audience, we need to cover as much ground as possible. In fact, we recently got a feature request from a facility owner that needed M4V iPod video support. For some reason we forgot to add that format as a natively supported format. We’ve added it and works great (will officially be out in the next update release, but if anyone needs it sooner, let me know).

[Mike Cohen] “We simply put a time-code burn on the FLV video and people can easily type the timecode numbers into their comments.”

You should check out the demo regarding the Media Batch FLV Viewer. In short, it’s completely timecode based, down to the frame (reads the frame-rate, whether 24, 25, etc. and displays the frame-count appropriately). You can also offset the master timecode. While the video is playing you can hit the “M” key on your keyboard to add marker points (or click the “+” icon). Once you create a marker point, you can add notes to that specific marker point and even draw on the video frame for that marker point. You can change in/out points for each marker, re-order the marker points, etc. Once you have a list full of marker points and their notes, you can print it, save it to a text file, email it, copy to the clipboard, etc. There are also aspect ratio conversions so you can play back the video in square pixel format, NTSC, PAL, anamorphic 16×9, etc. The video can be re-scaled in real-time, including overlayed drawings and marker points. Even true full screen mode without any OS menu bar is there. It’s incredibly powerful!

Here’s a small screenshot of the interface populated with notes and a drawing on a marker point. Click it to view full size.

Marco Solorio | CreativeCow Host | OneRiver Media | Codec Resource Site | Cinesoft | Media Batch

[David Battistella]

That is the kind of deep thinking I am talking about and it is because Marco comes from a production environment and build it to work.

The thing that amazes me is that every time I have a “yeah but” question, it’s answered. And it’s notsome kind of BS answer, it often is better or more than what you wanted.

I just want to be able to get my FCP timesline to encode directly to flash. That would make it all complete.

David

[Marco Solorio]

Thanks for the nice comments, David!

[David Battistella] “I just want to be able to get my FCP timesline to encode directly to flash. That would make it all complete.”

An expensive way to do it, but if you have Flash installed you can. :-/

BUT…

Since Adobe is going to be incorporating H.264 as part of the their native Flash support, you might be able to do this sooner than later… right out of your FCP timeline. I’m still not totally 100% clear on their format intentions, but you might be able to render to QuickTime H.264 and play it right in the FLV viewer. I’d have to make some changes to the Media Batch FLV Viewer to support that, but that shouldn’t be too big of an issue. At any rate, Adobe’s H.264 integration will be a big deal. =)

Marco Solorio | CreativeCow Host | OneRiver Media | Codec Resource Site | Cinesoft | Media Batch

[David Roth weiss]

[David Battistella] “I just want to be able to get my FCP timesline to encode directly to flash. That would make it all complete.”

David,

Flix Exporter is your ticket. Check it out at https://www.truecast.com/products/flix/exporter/

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

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY™

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

[Mark Suszko]

Wait, so, your software is enabling MORE people than just 1 to have sign-off powers over my work!?!?!

Hope you have a remote starter on your car, Marco:-)
Seriously, if there’s one thing I DON’T need, it’s the ability for more kibitzers to chime in on our projcts:-)

[Marco Solorio]

Ha ha, well Mark, it’s completely up to you whether or not you want to share the user login with others. If the client shares the login with others on their end, well, there’s nothing anyone can do about that! =)

On a serious note, I usually assign a main user login to a client. He or she may opt to share that login with others, but it’s understood that any feedback/approvals will be made by one person.

So yeah, I couldn’t agree more that too many “approval people” can make things congested. In a strange sort of way, using Media Batch keeps them in check because the system is so organized.

Bottom line is, no mater what, the client needs to see the files we send them. Using Media Batch makes it easier for them and us. If too many people chime in on approvals, we tell them to keep it under control and it always works. If it doesn’t, you can always change the user login! 😉

Marco Solorio | CreativeCow Host | OneRiver Media | Codec Resource Site | Cinesoft | Media Batch

[Nick Griffin]

[Marco Solorio] “but it’s understood that any feedback/approvals will be made by one person.”

And that, my friends, is always one of the bigger problems many of us face when dealing with clients — explaining that THEY must appoint a single point of contact and THEY must speak to us with one voice. Otherwise we’re put into the administrative function of assembling and resolving notes from multiple sources and HOPING to build a consensus. Personally I’d much rather be shooting, editing, mixing, writing, or even having a root canal. If Media Batch makes it easier to coordinate and resolve multiple inputs by giving the CLIENT a tool for managing the process, all the better.

[Chad Briggs]

Marco-
Was looking at your product, seems pretty nice. I have a question tho, you have the ability to use timecode on the FLV stuff, but what about using timecode on QT movies, WMV, or AVI’s?

-Chad

[Marco Solorio]

Adding displayable timecode (by means of JavaScript) for QuickTime is easy to do (which I should add) but creating the interface for QuickTime that I’ve done for FLV is much more complicated due to the inherent nature of how QuickTime works.

Adobe has recently announced that they are going to support H.264 in Flash. This is big news as it could allow your QuickTime H.264 to work in the Flash interface. This would mean I wouldn’t have to re-build a QuickTime version of the FLV interface. H.264 support in Flash was supposed to happen sometime in October. I’m just waiting to see what the final support standards are going to be and then go from there.

Marco Solorio | CreativeCow Host | OneRiver Media | Codec Resource Site | Cinesoft | Media Batch