title/ action safe + trade show specs

[Dave Johnson]

[can I enlarge everything outside of the title/action safe area since this will be displayed on a flat screen?]
You could, but you’ll create new problems either way you do it …
If you scale everything up beyond 100%, you’ll lose resolution so some of your text may become illegible, if not just ugly. If you go through and increase all the font sizes one-by-one, you’ll not only spend more time/money on projects than any reasonable budget would allow, but your text will get chopped off when DVDs are played under normal circumstances, which they inevitably will be regardless of what your client thinks they know.

Unless you plan to make all of your projects twice (once to TV specs using safe title/action & once without), you’ll have to get your clients to accept that video specs are what they are … not what they want them to be.

[how do I combat the stretch that happens when you output to DVD and then put in on a large screen. Is there a special encoding trick or is this something I should be considering in FCP?]
If you’re making a standard-definition DVD from a SD FCP project, which is what it sounds like you are doing, the stretch is from wrong settings on the player or TV the DVD is used with. If by “large screen” you mean wide-screen (as in 16×9 HD as opposed to just a large 4×3 SD projector screen), then there are only 3 options:
[1] set the player and TV to play SD content showing the black bars on the left and right
[2] set the player and TV to play SD content by stretching it to fit the 16×9 aspect ratio
[3] make a 16×9 DVD, which has start with your source material and continue all the way through both FCP editing & DVD authoring

The core of both of these issues is that its basically impossible to make a single video that is all things to all people and all playback devices … a TV screen is different from a computer screen which is different from a projector screen, all 3 can be either SD (4×3) or HD (16×9), and there is simply no way to make a video that’ll magically conform to all of them without some compromise (i.e., extra space, cropping, letterbox, etc.).

Sorry to offer what may seem bad news, but it sounds like your client is the one with issues, not you.

[Tracy Phillips]

Hi Dave,
Wow -thanks. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out. You hit the nail right on the head -the client’s expectations far exceed their budget. This started as just a small web video for a friend of a friend. I guess you could say no good deed goes unpunished 😉

Thanks again for your thorough and very informative reply.

Best,
Tracy

[Dave Johnson]

Glad to help, Tracy … we’ve all been there.

[This started as just a small web video for a friend of a friend … I guess you could say no good deed goes unpunished.]
They always start that way, they always end differently and I’d bet that cliche was first coined by a video editor. So, in my opinion, video production is a field in which it’s increasingly important to find the right balance between being a good friend and devaluing your own training, knowledge and experience by giving those things away for free … then, stick to your guns. Have you ever tried asking an attorney friend to take a case through trial for you for free since it’s only a “small” one? Then, when he gives you that “are you insane” look, try telling him “well, all you have to do is read some stuff and talk a lot”. Personally, it’s been many years since I’ve been willing to make a video for anyone for free, although I’ll sometimes do things that are not only very simple, but have a very clear end point like convert a friend’s vacation video so they can watch it on their iPod.

Best of luck!