[Bob Cole]

Totally empathize with the problem of creating B-roll elements due to lazy clients.

On the other hand… “graphics creation” has become a lucrative add-on to the editing assignment.

Now that the clients know we can make something out of nothing (moving on stills, creating graphics in Photoshop and animating them in After Effects), the only incentive for the clients to write to the material is paying the editor for the time it takes. It can go so far that the editor becomes a sort of producer.

[Bob Cole]

Thanks Dave. I went back to the original and had DVDD write an .iso file instead of the various other files. (I had done it the other way because of reading a web tutorial.)

When I selected the .iso file for writing the new DVD, DVDD gave me the following, amusing error message:

“You should have selected the MDS file and not this one. I’ll do it for you automatically this time, but don’t do it again!”

Wouldn’t it be nice if other software programs emulated that approach, instead of saying, “Error in marspegian dilexoid sector 0x00009x00w00… and if you have no idea what this means, too bad.”

[Bob Cole]

[Alex Alexzander] “What authoring application are you using?”

Currently using Encore, and have DVDSP4 available, but willing to learn others.

[Bob Cole]

A client has a two-hour show he’d prefer to sell on one DVD. Can I create a dual-layer DVD master (assuming I go out and go a dual layer DVD burner) which a replicator could handle? — and if so, will my client start to get nasty phone calls from buyers of his DVD, who can’t make the disk work in their players? (I will be calling replicators, but I’d appreciate hearing of experiences from other DVD producers.)

The FAQ at DVD Demystified gives a rough guideline as follows:
Single Layer DVD: a little over two hours @ 5 Mbps
Dual-Layer DVD: two hours @ 9.5 Mbps

I don’t think 5 Mbps is going to be good enough quality, using my Digital Rapids card and Stream (Mainconcept) software. I’ve suggested to the client that he consider two DVDs.

— BC

[Bob Cole]

I’m with Joe. For the market you are talking about, where your production has no commercial value at all, and the only value is the units sold, a copy protection scheme is entirely justified. The reality is that people think they are heroes to make illegal copies, as long as they give them away. Don’t know whether it comes from our Free TV heritage or what.

I suspect that all of us have had the experience of being asked to make illegal copies of tapes and DVDs, by people who would never think of shoplifting the same tape.

— BC

[Bob Cole]

These are DVD-Rs that I burned on a Sony DRU-540A.

[Bob Cole]

thanks. Great points.

What I am curious about though is the opportunity for shaping the light that a long-skinny fixture gives you.

[Bob Cole]

You nailed it!

I appreciate the information.

— BC

[Bob Cole]

[Mark Suszko] “For simple joy of/ease of use, I’d say Apple Garage Band, Apple Soundtrack and Sonicfire are the best choices. On the PC side, Acid has the advantage of a large user community and many aftermarket resources.”

Thanks very much for the informative response. Is there a list somewhere of the file types which those products can use? When I look at sample libraries, they don’t mention any of the above, but rather such products as

HALion
EXS 24
Intakt
Kontakt
Giga Sampler
Mach 5
Reason NN-XT

[Bob Cole]

[mike] “the audio clips are color coded”

maybe a little post-post work in Photoshop, just to make the graphics stand out better for the presentation?