How to compress my 56 minute film to 2gigs

[Craig Seeman]

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]

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]

[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]

[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]

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