Bill Davis
Forum Replies Created
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Point taken.
Clearly, the reality show is the exception. With that much footage to review, the process makes sense. But understand that long-form reality programming is a TINY fraction of the production work done today. I’d argue that virtually ALL of todays corporate, industrial, event, and a LARGE percentage of the traditional broadcast work – from news through episodic TV is NO LONGER done in anything resembling the traditional offline/online mode.
Reality and possibly documentary are the forms that will probably fall to the new workflow last – but that STILL doesn’t conflict with the reality that today’s “offline/online” process is a FAR cry from the process employed when it was originally coined in a world of 1″ type C – Beta SP – and even 3/4″ SP.
Also, please note that the OP specified “short promotional videos”.
Can’t get much farther away from the multi-cam reality format than that.
FCP since NAB 1999
creator: muti-track movies
http://www.starteditingnow.com -
John,
I don’t understand the “lighten up” comment.
I’m not arguing any kind of emotional point of view. Simply factual information as it appears to me.
Just as it’s insignificant whether a great piano player plays a Steinway, Bosendorfer, a Yamaha or a Baldwin – it’s in the same sense somewhat insignificant what tool a videographer chooses to use to make their content. Individuals are free to choose whatever suite THEIR production style.
And equally important, if the reader here is a novice and building a personal list of elements to consider BEFORE making their selection, it’s pretty hard to argue that the stuff I mentioned, like rental lens availability is NOT worthy of consideration for that class of user.
Micro 4/3rds is out there. It will compete on it’s own merits. As did the Canon approach to both still AND video capability. So far, It’s pretty inarguable that Canon is currently the safest choice since it’s DSLR for video ecosystem is so much larger than it’s competitors. And that’s all I’m saying.
Man, John Stewert is SO right. Too much “one of us must be RIGHT and all others are to be SHUNNED!” thinking going on.
In the SANE world he’s proposing, we CAN hold differing views without getting upset about it. OK?
FCP since NAB 1999
creator: muti-track movies
http://www.starteditingnow.com -
My answer is hidden in this short bit of imaginary dialog based not so loosely on real life.
Client: Hi Bill, great news, we have a new video project consisting of a few simple 10 minute training modules and I’ve got you a budget of 20 grand!
Me: Great. Oh, by the way how much can we spend if I can do the whole thing in HD instead?
Client: 20 grand.
Me: What if I add really outstanding fancy, schmancy motion graphics titles – like you see everywhere these days?
Client: 20 grand.
Me: What if I can to deliver it in SD, HD, letterboxed and pillarboxed, encoded into 23 different formats and in both NTSC and Pal?
Client: 20 grand.
Me: Oh.
Client: Oh, and I told the company IT guys that after it’s done you’d help them with distribution, web posting and the SEO stuff as well, that cool?
Me: (knowing when I’m licked) Mumbles “sure”
FCP since NAB 1999
creator: muti-track movies
http://www.starteditingnow.com -
Ruprict,
The very terms “offline” and “on-line” are now essentially historical curiosities. EVERYTHING is done “online” today. Yes, some people are co-opting the terms to mean “do the program at reduced resolution first – then come back and re-digitize the same footage at higher resolution later” BUT that has NOTHING to do with the original meaning, which was to use a cheap, basic A/B roll simple edit suite to complete the bare bones compiling of the scenes in your program in rough order without tying up the expensive main edit suite gear – then, once that was approved, you’d go into the on-line suite where you had access to fancy effects and other outboard gear in order to “finish” your program “on-line.”
Today, EVERY NLE has all the effects you’d possibly need built in. The ONLY reason to do two complete distinct passes is if your system can’t process whatever full, high-rez clips you wish to use for your final – in which case you typically STILL do ALL the production work with your reduced resolution clips – then simply substitute the higher rez data when you get to a machine that can handle the full strength format.
The process is useful for stuff like doing a rough cut on an airplane on a laptop – then transferring the results to a main system back at the office – but the process is really NOTHING like the original “offline/online” terminology.
As to very small clip length drift of the type you’re seeing, I’d suspect audio sampling rate inconsistencies first – followed by sequence numbering errors generated by mixing drop frame and non-drop frame timecode, followed by field dominance stuff in successive clips.
Most everything else screws stuff up by MUCH more than a frame or two here or there – but it’s entirely dependent on the length of your program – since a small discrepency in inter-frame timing GROWS over a whole lot of frames.
Good luck.
FCP since NAB 1999
creator: muti-track movies
http://www.starteditingnow.com -
Not sure I’m buying this.
I can walk into a choice of pro photo stores in my city and pick from an array of 20-30 lens choices in EITHER Nikon or Canon glass. This includes special purpose glass I’m likely never to need to own, like fisheye and tilt-shift.
In each, I can put them on a camera and ALL the photometric and lens performance information on the web is gold. No “conversion factors” no focal length shifting, no compromises.
I don’t know of ANY shops that rent Lumix lenses. I don’t know how the geometry of 4/3rds relates to the single gold 35mm standard that’s existed for nearly 100 years worldwide.
This alone makes a Panasonic investment seem more than squirely – it seems like something for the part timer.
Admittedly, I could be TOTALLY wrong about this.
But I haven’t seen a working professional still photographer in the field carrying a Panasonice still camera EVER. And I haven’t seen a working videographer – even an INDUSTRIAL practitioner with one since the days of the AG-456.
Maybe theres something I don’t know. But that’s how I see it.
FCP since NAB 1999
creator: muti-track movies
http://www.starteditingnow.com -
This is personal but…
I think Panasonic is mis-judging the market place. They’re trying to shoehorn yet ANOTHER sensor standard (micro 4/3) into a market that simply doesn’t need another sensor range.
People flocked to the 5d, because it had a BIG sensor and all the capabilities that that represented (listening depth of field junkies?) PLUS it had something that video shooters had seldom encountered. Incredible image quality at a LOWBALL price.
It was WAAY better than any camcorder in image quality. At a price far closer to a camcorder than a professional video camera. It also succeeded, because of the 2-million FCP seats out there who could EDIT the footage without much pain (and other quality NLE system options a few months later)
Every video shooter making money in the business looked at the 5d and said, “I can get this quality still camera AND stunning high def video in one unit for $3k? Sign me up.”
Nothing I’ve seen from Panasonic OR from Sony OR from RED comes close to this “choice driving” value proposition. Nothing.
If RED had kept even 1/50th of their promises over the past decade, they would be a threat. But sorry, they haven’t. Panasonic is trying the old, nearly always marginal strategy of re-inventing something that does NOT need re-inventing. (You want me to go back into the world of lens Adaptors or own a bag of LUMIX lenses? Please!)
And wherever Sony has gone, I’m sad to say it but – yes they’re gone. They had a lock on my purchasing decisions for the majority of my career – but today, I see them with a history of so many HORRIBLE business decisions (Like their original NLE editing solutions that each died a horrible death until they wised up and bought something from someone who knew about what the young editors wanted (Vegas)
that they’ve lost any “good will” they ever had.Right now, the market could belong to Canon – if they’d just move all the camcorder designers and their still camera designers into the same freekin building and come out with something that’s the best of worlds between an XL-1 and a 5dMkii.
Other than that. All these companies need a Steve Jobs. Someone who will push teams to come up with GREAT solutions rather than incrementally re-making what everyone else already does.
Cest la vie.
FCP since NAB 1999
creator: muti-track movies
http://www.starteditingnow.com -
Both great.
So is Moleskin (available at any local drug store in the Dr. Scholes footcare display)
I kinda like it better since you can cut the pieces as small or large as you need.
Still, they all work fine when used properly.
(don’t forget to use makeup to match the patch to the skintone if it’s going to be seen!)
FCP since NAB 1999
creator: muti-track movies
http://www.starteditingnow.com -
If you have a laptop in the field and your camera has Firewire, you can do precisely this with Red Lightening software’s DV monitor Pro.
It overlays the live camera shot on top of ANY still shot you capture with both at 50% luminance.
For what it’s worth.
FCP since NAB 1999
creator: muti-track movies
http://www.starteditingnow.com -
“Hi, I’m Bill. I own the company that’s producing your video.”
In my experience, that introduction establishes that I’m qualified to toss my 2 cents in on ANY subject at hand from budget to wardrobe. Credibility with the others on-set, in pre, and in post has to be earned by my asking intelligent questions and making intelligent comments that are experientially based – as opposed to theoretical or formed by WATCHING content.
But in capitalist culture – nothing trumps OWNER. Period.
FCP since NAB 1999
creator: muti-track movies
http://www.starteditingnow.com -
These guys are making things FAR too difficult.
They just need to post what they REALLY WANT. Like this.
Help Wanted:
Video Shooting Philosopher King.
Must be comfortable making global decisions in all areas relating to human interactions flawlessly, without mistake or fault.
Technical and engineering skills mandatory at board level repair including the ability to hand re-solder semiconductor traces at a micron level even tho nobody in the rest of the industry bothers repairing anything beyond the level of replacing the entire host unit.
Artistic skills must be in the general range of Michaelangelo, Klee, and Picasso, with at least one portfolio sample which has functionally changed the direction of modern thinking about what ART might be, ala Velázquez, Dali, or Keyboard Cat.
Must be able to conceive and solve Math problems in the range of establishing that Xeno’s Paradox, really wasn’t, isn’t and may never be depending on the nature of all conceivable parallel universes.
Solid business skills also a must. We’d prefer someone with demonstrable talent in market prognostication and global trade to a level that he or she has accumulated wealth to a degree where the salary we might offer becomes essentially meaningless.
If female, must look HOT in standard business attire. If male, must be described as either “studly” “cute” or “possibly dangerous – but in a bad-boy cool way” by a majority of the female employees in HR.
We’re an equal opportunity employer. Which means that we maintain a working environment where every associate is guaranteed to be be equally ignored or annoyed regardless of national origin. (Arizona employees see employee handbook dated 06/10/2010 for modifying language and the latest definitions of “immigrant”, “hispanic” “illegal” and/or “muslim.”)Salary: Trade for credit.
Come join a state of the art modern organization where your hard work will generate an incredible return for others (us) in an environment where a visible fraction of the success you generate for the company will come back to you after no more than a decade or two of effort.
Unless we decide to let you go before that.
Apply at the front office.
(Be sure to list on the FRONT page, if you’re a blood relative of someone we already know and like, particularly anyone working in the executive wing.)
Thank you.
FCP since NAB 1999
creator: muti-track movies
http://www.starteditingnow.com