[Bob Bonniol]

We’ve ‘worked’ with a bunch of the AM stuff, and this is just my personal opinion so sorry, but I would RUN not walk in the opposite direction. Specifically as it relates to scripting and controller code issues… Just had some really bad experiences in mission critical situations.

Looking at Watchout or AVStumpfl is a good idea. Also a good idea is Media Server solutions like Hippotizer, Catalyst, MBox, or Brash. All of these enjoy WIDE support in the touring industry. We tend to use Hippotizer’s on all of our tours (currently out on Nickelback, 3 Doors Down/Lynnrd Skynnrd, and Cartel for us)…

Best,
BB

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Tom,

Thanks for the pointers… I’m going to give this a shot.

Best Regards,

Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Oh… where I say DC codec, I assume you figured out I meant DV. As in DV NTSC 29.97 .9 pixel aspect, 720×480. you know…

And no worries on posting here ! It’s all of a kind so to speak !

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

This is a bit off topic for an FCP forum, but what the heck, it’s an NLE right ?

So, first in a case like this, you have to ask what KIND of Quicktime are they ? What is the codec ? If they are uncompressed or animation at 100% quality, they might just be a bit too beefy for your PC to play well. Conversely if they are one of the apple proprietary codecs (like H264) then your PC might be ‘grouchy’ about playing them as well.

One useful thing to do when posing a question like this is to provide your platform specs. What kind of PC are you on ? How much RAM; what processors,;what kind of video card ? Any and all of this can have an impact on your performance in Premiere. If you are serious about using Premiere you might look into having a robust I/O card helping out (if you don’t already). Matrox in particular makes fantastic cards for PC that are very attuned for use with Premiere. There are many other manufacturers with other options as well. But I digress…

Have you tried transcoding to AVI, perhaps in the DC codec ? This should work smoothly on most PC’s set up for editing. Usually you can’t go wrong with the DV codec.

And one other basic question: Did you render a preview on the timeline before you scrubbed around ? Sometimes the computer just needs to process it all before it can playback smoothly.

Sorry if any of this seems oversimplified.

Good Luck,
Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Well, the big red X is surely a sign that the plugs aren’t officially registered… If you had purchased them, then it’s probably simply a matter of re-entering the serials (process varys from plug to plug). Usually found in the “about” heading…

-Bob

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Magic bullet can be found at Redgiantsoftware.com…

Have fun.

Bob

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

OK, this is a classic, so I’ll give you the classic solutions:

The ‘hands-down-best’ way to differentiate the dream sequence is a snap exit. We’ll talk about the dream look momentarily, but regarding the dream exit, the hard cut is your friend. In your case, a phone interrupts the reverie… I would cut to XCU on the phone… right up on the thing… holding for the duration of the ring, then cut away to your now slightly bewildered (and differently dressed) women as she ‘shakes it off’ and reaches for the phone. This requires nothing more than a good sense of timing.

Now the wedding… Wedding videos have a dreamy look often. The quintessential is a gauzy defocus around the subject, and or slightly blown out and contrast softening in the footage. All of it color shifted to a light, light golden feeling. The defocus appears in almost every app as a simulated DOF focus, or you can just wack the whole image with like .1 or .2 gaussian. The slight luminance blow out happens by adjusting your Levels filter. If you happen to have a good color corrector, something like Color Finesse, you’ll find excellent controls for this there. But you can get to it through stock level filters too… You might even consider rocking on over to the Wedding Videographer COW and asking some questions from those folks… They all have some great ideas on ‘magical’ treatment of wedding footage. I know you don’t want to buy anything, but I’ll put this out there: ANYBODY who edits or composites, and doesn’t have Magic Bullet, should get it immediately. I’ve never seen one particular app that is so universally good at applying all the industry standard color looks (bleach bypass, etc) as Magic Bullet. As well as giving video a grain and luminance control that brings it really close to film… Back to the topic, if you CAN, when you shoot, overcrank. Whatever you can get… Some of the new prosumer (and most of the pro cams) can pump out 60i, some more, some less. What I’m getting at here, is that dreams get ‘dreamier’ when all the footage is slow by between 10 and 15%… Subtle, but it helps.

Hope these tips prove useful.

Good Luck
Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Given your resolution you are going to have to use a robust playback system anyway… And most of them have screen blending. You DON’T want to lose pixels by overshooting the screen. Your projectors should be lensed to fill the screen in the vertical dimension, and then have anough projectors to fill the screen horizontally. Probably 3. Maybe 2 if you overshoot vertical a bit.

On the software side, media servers like Hippotizer (my hands down favorite in this catagory), Catalyst, or Pandoras Box will all do very nice screen blending (what you’ve referred to as stitching). Also, systems like Dataton Watchout and AVStumpfl WIngs Platinum will accomplish this nicely (although they require more gear: basically one computer per projector, plus one master).

I’m going to assume an AV rental company is handling the actual gear side of things. You should ask what they plan on using for their front end, and how they plan on filling the screen. This is not a really hard thing for experienced folks, but it can really look bad if tackled by somebody who’s never done it before.

Best,
Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Barend,

Check out the Hippotizer from Green Hippo. It supports 2048 x 768, it takes care of edge blending the projectors (very important consideration), it supports alpha channels, and it supports interactive protocols like RS232, 422, MIDI, serial code, whatever… You can run Jitter applications to send midi triggers for your interactivity.

Also worth looking at is Dataton Watchout, AVStumpfl’s Wings Platinum, and High End Systems Catalyst.

Good luck,

Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Thomas,

Both Barco and Mitsubishi, as well as China’s Opto-Tech, are manufacturing outdoor, dense pixel pitch (think 8mm to 18mm) SMD LED screens that are hugely bright, and come in all kinds of giant resolutions. We are working on content for one in Beijing right now that is 5120 x 768 and is playing back content via 6 Electrosonic MPG players operating in XGA. Then blended by a Vector multiscreen controller.

So the first point is that you don’t know for sure that you are dealing with a low res ‘640 x 480’ 40mm pitch old outdoor screen anymore… Especially in China, where huge beautiful screens are going up everywhere.

The second point, and this is for the poster, is what is the aspect ratio ? If it’s a regular 4:3 or even something more 16:9, then you will be fine on DVD. If however, the screen has a very wide aspect (as many stadium screens now do), you will have to take that into consideration in the creation of your content, dealing with it anamorphically if it is to be displayed at wider aspect. Most new screens have either MPEG2 playback decks, or computer based media servers providing signal these days. If this stadium has such a device, your content will look much better coming off it, rather than DVD.

Cheers everybody,

Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader