Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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Don’t know if you’re still checking this thread (it’s a little old now) but I see your problem. Your solution is certainly one way to do it.
In my experience, however, things like this are usually a planning consideration. Either planning the shots in advance so that you know what is needed, or waiting for the edit to be done before focusing on graphics. This way, you can import a low-res version of the cut into AE and time your animations to it. This will save you the back and forth you mentioned, but will also trim a LOT of time off of your workflow, save storage space etc.
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I agree with the other comments here – I would definitely avoid mixing corporate and consumer/wedding video within the same site. Couples getting married might not mind, but 99% of companies out there will have a negative reaction to this.
Here’s a few other comments:
1. On your home page, it says “Our passion is working with new and different clients.” Most production companies (and their clients) thrive on long term relationships and repeat business. This statement seems to conflict with that reality, almost like you are saying you thrive on moving from one client to the next, which has a lot of customer service implications. Also, a lot of business video contracts go to companies that specialize in a particular field since they are familiar with that client’s industry and particular needs/challenges. This “new and DIFFERENT clients” statement says that you will shoot anything and have no particular specialty. While you can do fine without specializing, you don’t necessarily want to advertise that you thrive on NOT specializing.
2. On your Services page, you list about 11 (…and more!) types of video your company will do. I would go through them carefully and completely nix any that aren’t business video related, such as dance recitals, etc.
Businesses want to know you can deliver professional-grade video that will make them look good. Many assume that someone shooting dance recitals isn’t going to understand business issues like branding, marketing, customer relations, purchasing psychology etc. since it’s a completely different ball game. Anything you can do on your site and in other marketing materials to show that you are capable of handling these things will increase the number of B2B video gigs you get.
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Your camera has an HDMI output built in. You can use this to capture footage directly in an app like FCP to any codec you want.
Also, don’t convert to HDV. HDV is the same bitrate as mini-DV (25Mbps) and is a total crap codec. AVCHD is almost as bad, but you really want to avoid any conversions downward in quality.
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Any reason you aren’t just doing the zooms IN After Effects instead of within your editing app? Rendering them 1440×960 would work, but it would slow down your workflow, double disc space requirements etc. Seems like a lot of extra headache that could be avoided.
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If you are selling copier machines there aren’t many details to work out except price, so not as much need for a contract. In the video business, it’s the particulars that will kill you because it’s your word against the client’s when it comes to budget, delivery items, who provides what, what is included in the budget and on it goes.
I hear what you’re saying, but I would never, ever do a project in this field without some form of contract, even if it’s a $100 job.
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Yes, 16-bit can help reduce (or eliminate) banding issues and generally produce higher quality results. Even though you will ultimately be rendering out to an 8-bit codec, working in the 16-bit color space truly has advantages that are easier to justify than the jump up to 32-bit.
Darby’s explanation re: 32-bit is much better than my own. I agree that certain effects look more photographic in 32-bit – for example, when done correctly gaussian blurs transmit the pixel values behind them much more accurately and treat light values more like a camera might. Still not worth it though unless you are working with film.
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Open the master file in QT Pro, go to File>Export. In the export type dropdown, choose “Movie to Quicktime Movie” and click the “Options” box next to the dropdown. In the window that opens, click the “Settings” box. Choose MPEG-4 from the dropdown, and to the right there is a box you can type in which is labeled “Limit data rate to…” Type in the bitrate value.
Good luck!
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99% of the time 32-bit float would be an utter waste of space and time. The only scenario I can think of that truly warrants it is if your work will be the basis for some HDR lighting in a 3d package, or other specialty film-fx related need. I’m sure there are other uses, but it’s one of those “if you have to ask” things – if you needed it, you would know! 🙂
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Actually, the judge will be equally ticked off that dvproducer is doing business without contracts. I’ve heard stories of contractors/business owners suing and getting angry rants from the judge because they did work without any legal agreement.
CONTRACTS, PEOPLE, CONTRACTS! 🙂
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After reading your post, I couldn’t wait to read other’s comments before I say this:
“Now of course all this would be much easier if I had a written contract from the beginning, but I don