Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums Adobe Encore DVD Stopping motion in playback with Director’s Commentary

  • Stopping motion in playback with Director’s Commentary

    Posted by Dex Craig on April 12, 2005 at 1:37 am

    Hi, everyone. Since my first question was such an easy one, I thought I’d try a slightly more complex one.

    This is in anticipation of a project I won’t be ready to start for a while, but I’d like to get a handle on it sooner than later.

    I’m putting together a DVD with Encore 1.5.1 of a feature that I’m editing on Premiere Pro 1.5. The director is already planning his commentary for the special features. (The film isn’t even 30% shot yet, but hey, he’s planning ahead.) He’s asked me if it’s possible to have the movie freeze during his director’s commentary so he can expound more thoroughly on a particular shot. Of course, the movie won’t freeze during normal playback.

    In scrounging around the manual and this site, I think there might be something I could do with Playlists. When the director decides that at 42min31sec14frame he wants the movie to freeze so he can talk about it for 30 seconds or so, I could strike a still out of Premiere and then have the playlist for the “Director’s Commentary” button jump to that still for the length he wants to go on about that shot. The end action of that still would be to return to 42:31:15 of the movie. Make sense? But is it possible to tell the DVD to play until 42:31:14 and then jump to something else? And then jump back into a timeline somewhere in the middle? Or am I asking for trouble? Should I tell him, “sorry, it ain’t possible?”

    Input appreciated!

    – Dex

    Dex Craig replied 19 years, 9 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Joe Bowden

    April 12, 2005 at 1:52 am

    That would not be possible with Encore, at least not yet.

    That sounds like a fairly complicated level of interactivity, as you wouldn’t want the pause to occur unless the viewer was listening to the commentary, correct? You may be able to do this with another DVD authoring application such as Scenarist (or another application which allows you to set/read GPRM and SPRM values), but ask yourself (and your director): have you ever seen a feature like this on a Hollywood DVD? Most of commentary tracks are linear commentary that simply runs along with the movie.

  • seanmchenry Sean mchenry

    April 19, 2005 at 12:31 pm

    OK, just a guess here but have you looked at the “Playlist” functions?

    Here’s what I would try. Not sure it will work or be smooth but it’s worth a shot.

    In your main timeline you will need to place a chapter point where you want to break away and show your stills or freezees.

    Export a frame from these points.

    Make new timelines with the stills in them for the length you will want to sit on them.

    Make a playlist and tie that to your “Directors Commentary” play button.

    Now, set the end action of the first chapter point to the timeline with your first still in it.

    Set the end action of the timeline with your first still in it to resume at the first chapter point. (This is the only part I am not sure will work but logically, it should)

    Repeat for each still you want to use.

    Note that changing timelines is not 100% smooth on playback sometimes. You may also have to split off segments the commentary track to play from the stills timelines as well.

    I think you should see the pattern from here.

    Please let us know if this works for you. Playlist functions are huge in my book. I used to author a seperate timeline for such things with a fully re-edited track. What a waste of time and space that was since I found playlist functions.

    Good luck,

    Sean McHenry
    Deep Blue edit
    https://www.DeepBlueedit.com

  • Joe Bowden

    April 19, 2005 at 1:15 pm

    Now, set the end action of the first chapter point to the timeline with your first still in it.

    This would not be possible, since chapter points are ‘in-only’: there are no chapter point end actions.

    You could do what the original poster asked by making each ‘chapter’ its own timeline, but that would necessarily introduce a brief pause between timelines. That may or may not be an acceptable trade off.

    Regards,
    Joe

  • Dex Craig

    April 19, 2005 at 10:38 pm

    Thanks to all for your suggestions. My thinking had been something like Sean had suggested, but I was afraid the reality would be what Joe said. And the movie needs to play smoothly, so brief pauses wouldn’t be appropriate. Bummer, though….

    If I come up with something I’ll be sure to post.

    Thanks!
    Dex

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy