Alan Okey
5
COW Coins
2
DaVinci Coins
Forum Replies Created
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I’d like to see a shootout between the Thompson Viper and the Dalsa Origin…
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I think you may have hit on something that could help you to differentiate yourself from other mid-level post houses: the vertical integration factor. By offering a wide range of delivery formats (web, DVD, broadcast, etc.) simultaneously for a given production, you can capitalize on clients’ desire for one-stop shopping. If you can partner with an agency or agencies that handle creative while you concentrate on the technical, you could create a nice niche for yourself. The key is to offer a high level of skill in producing each distribution format so that you can provide your customers with a seamless, pleasant experience. The convenience of getting everything done (and done well) at the same place is worth a lot to the client.
Those who can afford true HD can also probably afford to go to the big name post houses. Such clients are willing to pay a price premium in order to have the peace of mind that comes from working with an established entity that has an established reputation and can provide a fast turnaround. It’s not that other places couldn’t do the work just as well, it’s that the clients can’t afford to experiment and find out. I think that’s what you’re seeing with the phenomenon of the decline of non A-list directors that you mentioned. People will pay extra for a sure thing.
Become a sure thing to your clients, and they’ll keep coming back.
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I think it really just depends on your business. Are your clients mainly low end to midrange, or high end? As to your comment about “real” HD occupying only a small niche, that’s already the case. Those who can afford “real” HD will choose it. If you offer post services for pro HD formats, you can automatically charge more and get higher end work than if you stick with HDV, etc.
Having said that, if you live in an area that doesn’t have much demand for pro HD production, then you’ll be wasting your money just to offer services that no one wants or can afford. If you don’t live in one of the industry hotspots and you have connections to major markets (LA, NYC, etc.), you may be able to offer services at rates that are competitive with post houses in those cities, as you do not have the high overhead that they do. However, it could put you in a precarious position – the high end clients can afford to have their work done in high end post houses with high end infrastructure that no individual could ever hope to match. The “prosumer” clients or indie film clients, once limited to using either DV or true pro HD, are now focusing their attention on the new consumer HD formats (HDV). I think the middle is dropping out, with work either going high end/pro HD or low end/prosumer HDV.
Who butters your bread?
😉
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It’s not a plugin, but Combustion has great typography features.
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Could you be more specific about what you mean when you say that the picture has lost quality? It could could just be that it’s the nature of the beast, since you are scaling down your image vertically. If you think about it, you’re actually downsizing the image from 720×480 to roughly 720×405, so you’ve lost 75 pixels worth of vertical resolution in the process. It might also be the quality of Final Cut Pro’s scaling algorithm.
The quality of image scaling/resampling can vary between different applications. You may find that downscaling your footage in After Effects or Combustion provides different results than doing so in Final Cut Pro. Experiment with test clips and see if there is any noticable difference in scaling quality between different apps.
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The broadcast safe filter is a quick and dirty way of making sure that peak luma and chroma is within broadcast legal tolerances, but it’s not an ideal solution in terms of quality. The filter clips excess luma and chroma signals, but it’s not necessarily subtle or aesthetically appealing. I think it’s best to perform color correction mannually on a per-shot basis in order to achieve the best possible result. Like most things, it takes more time, but it’s worth it.
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[MrVideo] “I guess what I am asking is : can you do this without a capture card interveening? MY point is that since titling in DV is iffy, edit in DV – move to SD for titling and then bring it back into DV? Would that really help titling a DV sequence?”
You need a capture card in order to send 8 or 10 bit uncompressed video out to tape. If you recompress your project back to DV in order to export it via Firewire, you’re defeating the purpose of creating your titles in 8 or 10 bit uncompressed to begin with.
An exception would be if you’re making DVDs. In that case, there would not be a need for a capture card to export the uncompressed video to a deck. Creating all of your titles and graphic elements in an uncompressed sequence and encoding directly to MPEG-2 will provide better results than encoding a DV sequence to MPEG-2.
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Your best bet would be to add something like a Blackmagic DeckLink card if your ultimate goal is to preview on a video monitor.
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Is the G5 under warranty? If not, have the Apple tech reinstall the OS, and when it doesn’t work for them, maybe they’ll actually start looking for the cause of the problem instead of giving you glib responses.