Alan Lloyd
Forum Replies Created
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I’m involved in a project right now using (in part) PPT exported to PPro.
Much of the problem is the stuff people make in PPT. Tiny font, things run out to the very edge of the frame, and those incredibly horrid, cheeseball animations. Oh, and 4×3 slides they want in widescreen programs.
The sad truth is, it will never look better than the original, rarely even as good, and most PPT isn’t that good to begin with.
/rant
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Well put, Mark.
And if the guy absolutely, positively (sorry, Memphis delivery folks) has to work with what he has, and needs to get a bit past “presence of signal confirmed” might I suggest learning the test instrumentation in pro NLE packages? Waveforms, vectorscopes, audio meters, decent headphones (computer speakers are generally utter crap with bottom-heavy subwoofers designed to boost the bass on crappy MP3 files) and even camera zebras are there for good reasons. And they are your friends, once you get to know them.
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“Fair use” may apply if you’re commenting. If it’s a bed track, or integral to the piece in any way, you need to clear it.
Sounds like a short call to a decent IP attorney would be a good idea – may cost you a bit, may save you a lot. Nonprofit status means nothing once a trial starts. I’ve heard of six-figure awards by juries for the deliberate lack of synchronization rights.
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I was on a festival panel one, where a company’s internal video magazine sent in multiple episodes, all wall-to-wall with music they clearly hadn’t cleared – Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, stuff of that prominence.
The first set of comments was something along the lines of how it really wasn’t a good idea. By the time we had watched and were commenting on the fourth, the comments had turned overtly hostile, and some of the other judges were outright refusing to grade their material.
This is a way of making enemies – don’t do it.
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Render those at SD letterbox uncompressed. They will then be files. Large files, to be sure, files nonetheless. Uncompressed in intermediate stages is your friend, as long as disk space is along for the ride.
Once you have them as uncompressed SD letterbox files, what do you intend to do with them?
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Look into some of the other systems there at B&H as well. For the sake of your own sanity, if nothing else.
I can tell you from experience that I am a very long way from being a Bogen/Manfrotto fan. They are, in my experience, very awkward from a user perspective. for one thing, I have encountered Manfrottos where the tilt lock is on the axis of tilt. Mechanically, this is a very bad idea. Sachtler, Libec, and Vinten have it right in that respect, just to name three others.
Also – make sure your tripod capacity is over the weight of your camera. While it’s possible to go overboard with this, if you add wireless RX, a matte box, or other accessories, you’ll want the extra capacity. Something that will hold 15 pounds ought to be good enough with a DVX-100.
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That’s the good part about uncompressed. Do all your submastering that way, and you can get away with a few more things. All it does is eat up drive space. Flexibility preserved.
Can’t help on the machine problems – that’s something else again…
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If I’m understanding this, you need to combine sequences. Can you not output a sequence from a project in uncompressed AVI form and then load it in and crop it as part of the master project? If you do that, most of what you’ll need is disk space.
I know recompressing (concatenation) gets ugly pretty quick – I learned that the hard way.
What I’m suggesting is this:
Project =====> uncompressed AVI sequence output (n);
Master project =====> multiple uncompressed AVI files (n1, n2, n3…) =====> final output, including cropping or other manipulation.
Or am I missing something else here?
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Is Mag Image still in San Rafael?
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I’ve done quite a few documentaries over a number of years. I’m not sure you need much in the way of AE that you could not do in Premiere.
One suggestion I’d offer for anything other than a speaker you put font over – defocus the background slightly. If it’s a screen with a lot of font, slow the BG video down and darken it as well, so it’s less distracting. Motion behind text makes it hard to read.
Other than that, just tell the story in as straightforward a manner as you can. Put your lower thirds over your speakers without a fancy background – the simplicity will (rightly) help focus attention on your subject matter instead of your technique.