[Asmund Voll tesdal]

[Joey Burnham] “the only reason I can think of someone saying that 720 is better for chroma keying is that there less to key. :)”

First thing that popped into my head was that if we’re talking 720p vs 1080i (not 1080p), I’d guess progressive footage would be easier too key than interlaced. But I have no idea how much that difference would matter compared to the increased resolution of 1080i.

[Asmund Voll tesdal]

Actually, you and your coworkers may both be right, since FCP’s behavior on this is controlled by its sequence settings.

However, the default settings should be that FCP does a stereo downmix of all tracks in the sequence and lays that to track 1 and 2, which means you’ll have to pan the tracks in your sequence to get them on the right tracks on tape.

But if you have set the audio routing for the sequence to “discrete channels”, in the last tab of sequence settings (command + 0), then it should work like you decribed in your post. However, if I remember correctly, the pan controls should be disabled in this case, so if you can operate the pan controls, the sequence probably is in downmix mode.

One thing: are you setting pan before or after laying the audio to the sequence? If the sequence settings seem correct, make sure you double-click on the clip in the sequence or use the mixer to set pan (or confirm that pan is disabled), and not open the parent clip in you bin.

Hope that ansvered your question, but be sure to check what is actually going to tape, there might be something I missed here.

Åsmund

[Asmund Voll tesdal]

Most of these questions are really dependant on who you’re going to deliver the project to, but I’ll try to throw in a couple cents..

[michael stark]
“-Standard-def or Hi-def, or both?
-What size?(aspect ratio)
-Frame rate.

This depends on so many other questions, most of which depends on who is broadcasting you project. Where are you located? US = NTSC (30 fps, but then there’s drop-frame and all that), europe = PAL (25 fps).

-File formats

Also dependant on who you’re delivering to. Some stations will accept an mpeg2 file, others will only take a tape, be it beta sp, digibeta or something in the dv family. And thats just for SD.

-Square pixels or both?

Pixel aspect is also decided by delivery format, but it’s probably not going to be square pixels.

-Should I add a time code to anything.”

You’ll probably have to make a tape master at some point, so yes. Some broadcasters might have starting TC as part of their delivery specs.

Sorry I can’t help more, but there really aren’t a lot of global answers to these questions.

[Asmund Voll tesdal]

[Kevin Reinicke] “I would rather like the video to be seen on a 4:3 screen with letterbox.”

Did you check with whoever is broadcasting this? Some places here in PAL-land, at least, prefer anamorphic.

[Asmund Voll tesdal]

Since the thread over at the broadcast video forum pretty much died, I’ll quote my own post here so you guys can tear it apart 🙂

(and after reading the thread here in this forum, I’d guess that constant focus while zooming is one of bigger factors. How does the pricing on film zoom lenses compare? I’ve always had the impression that they’re a lot more pricey than video lenses.)

My original post:

Interesting ponder. I don’t really have much clue when it comes to SLR lenses, but if I were to take a wild guess, I’d agree that servos and more lens elements is a big part of the equation. For one, video lenses have a set of elements in them to maintain focus while zooming, most have built-in extenders, and my impression is they generally have greater zoom ranges (starting around 15-20x) and smaller f-numbers (larger apertures). And since every moving part needs to be remote-controllable, I’d guess that comes with a price in servos, too.

But again, I’m really just making a qualified guess here, since I don’t know much about the “features” of SLR lenses. Feel free to educate me, though 🙂

[Asmund Voll tesdal]

Interesting ponder. I don’t really have much clue when it comes to SLR lenses, but if I were to take a wild guess, I’d agree that servos and more lens elements is a big part of the equation. For one, video lenses have a set of elements in them to maintain focus while zooming, most have built-in extenders, and my impression is they generally have greater zoom ranges (starting around 15-20x) and smaller f-numbers (larger apertures). And since every moving part needs to be remote-controllable, I’d guess that comes with a price in servos, too.

But again, I’m really just making a qualified guess here, since I don’t know much about the “features” of SLR lenses. Feel free to educate me, though 🙂

[Asmund Voll tesdal]

– With the advent of NLE editing, most tracks are batched in and so the editor has all the tracks available for preview. Having mic information is ancillary since the best track should be decided upon based on an actual listen.

Just thought I’d throw in a couple student-loan-cents:
I’m not really aiming to be a sound guy, but when I’ve been doing audio post or edit in school projects, and not doing the location audio myself, there have been times when I wished there existed some sort of audio log. Sure, you have to listen to what sounds best, but my impression is at times I could have saved a fair bit of time sorting out what to use if I knew what each track was at all times.
For example: “In this clip, track 2 is just a bacup cam mic and sounds much worse than track 1. In this well-written audio log, I can see that ALL shots on that location used the same setup, so unless there is a problem with track 1, I can safely mute track 2 on those clips.” 🙂

[Asmund Voll tesdal]

I too am having a bit of trouble seeing where you’re going with this, but I think most of what you mention is already available if you have the budget for it. I work part time filling in as an engineer in a local branch of a channel here, and although I won’t pretend to be an expert on all our gear yet, we control our router from a computer interface, and yes, we do have to log in to access the router.

As for web control/monitoring, in the sense of using a web browser to make connections, it seems a bit slow and unreliable to me, compared to dedicated software. There’s enough stuff that could happen in those busy minutes before going live that I imagine those extra seconds waiting for a web page to refresh/reload or loading another sub-page wouldn’t be worth it. But controlling the router over a LAN? Sure, we already do that here (and I wouldn’t be surprised if, given the right permissions, the branch in the next county could control the router in our control room).

But, this is all based on my workplace, and I’ve only been in this business for a couple years. Might well be other situations the stuff you’re mentioning is more useful. Larger editing facilities, perhaps? Or I might just be missing your point entirely 🙂

[Asmund Voll tesdal]

I’m by no means an expert when it comes to editing, but I believe you would do right in keeping the fcp sequence upper field. Since you have material in, and will be exporting to, animation codec, I’d say it makes most sense to use that as your sequence settings. But I may well have overlooked something, so do ask the folks in the fcp forum as well 🙂

If your sequence is upper from the start, fcp should automatically add shift field filters to any lower field footage added into it (and vice versa), but if you change sequence settings after editing, you’ll probably have to do that yourself and/or fix any now incorrect shift field filters. (Same thing goes for mixing footage with different aspect ratios in fcp, by the way.)

[Asmund Voll tesdal]

No, I don’t think it’s part of the standard. Here at our college, at least, we route TC separately from video and audio, either as part of the RS-422 signal or LTC distribution. The same has applied to rented OB trucks we’ve used in our productions.

Also, I can’t remember TC being mentioned at all when we went through the SDI signal in our classes last year. But that might just be my memory failing me 🙂 Actually, I haven’t heard of SDI carrying TC at all.. But if there in fact is a more or less standardized way to do it, I’d love to hear about it 🙂