Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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Yes the story should carry the story, but equally relevant here is that you choose the technology BASED ON THE STORY. Blair Witch, Rec and 28 Days Later all leveraged low end technology for authenticity’s sake and to place the audience uncomfortably close to the action. In contrast, The Transformers needed the precise and ultra-clean look of very high end gear because of the story and the intended audience.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
It all depends on how you are planning to connect your computer to the TV. Are you running an HDMI cable from your computer’s video card to the TV? If so, you should probably compress the video using one of the formats I mentioned in the last post and play it back full screen on the computer. You may see the frame of the media player in there as well since this method just shows your desktop on the TV. The only other method I know of to pipe HD to your TV with Blu Ray authoring is to put the file on an Xbox or PS3 connected to your TV, but you can’t loop the video with this option.
For what it sounds like you are trying to do, you may need to author a proper Blu Ray DVD but I can’t even begin to explain to you how to do that. It’s pretty complex and requires a Blu Ray burner. Google around to find out how to properly author Blu Ray discs, and expect to waste a few discs until you get it right.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
As ben mentioned, yellow is directly related to blue, so if you want to remove yellow you must increase the blue component. You can do this quite easily with the “Color Correction>Levels” tool. Apply it to the footage, and use the dropdown to select the blues.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
This is screwy on several fronts:
“- I used film (2k) for the preset”
Why such overkill? It would be much easier if you were just using a standard HD preset such as 1920×1080 square pixel. It’s not like you gained any quality by doing that since you’re just going to squash it back down to 1920×1080 (or 1280×720, the most commonly used HD size) anyway.
“- I rendered with the preset video for windows and used the xvid MPEG-4 Codec
Is the above correct?”If you don’t care in the slightest about 50% of the whole point of HD, which is image quality, then that will work. If you want true HD, you should be outputting to something uncompressed and feed this file to your authoring application (like Adobe Encore) once you author it to Blu Ray. If you aren’t authoring to Blu Ray, then there is absolutely no point in using HD at all since you would just be squashing it back down to Standard Definition resolution for a regular DVD.
“The file must stay:
– High Definition
– As low of a file size as possible”These are totally conflicting requirements. HD at a very small file size isn’t HD. It’s like hauling around a giant steamer trunk that only contains a single pair of socks. What you’re asking for may be the same physical dimensions as HD but the quality is the whole point of the format. Why are you needing the smallest file size? are you planning to stream the file from a computer to the TV for playback? If so, smallest file size isn’t necessarily best, you just need a very efficient codec that looks great and streams smoothly.
I would try Windows Media 9 Advanced Profile (VC-1) with a bitrate around 8,000 to start. Another option is Quicktime H.264. Either way, you SHOULD NOT be rendering these files out of After Effects. The proper workflow, if you want to retain any image quality at all, is to render an uncompressed version (using the Animation Codec) out of After Effects, then use a third party app for the encode to VC-1 or H.264. The reason is that After Effects is famously horrible at rendering out compressed versions, the files are always way larger and way lower quality than you can get from just about any compression application on the market. If you don’t have a lot of money to work with, try Quicktime pro – it’s only $30 and will export to both formats listed above on a PC, but requires the Flip4Mac Quicktime plugin to render Windows Media format from a mac.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
The deliverables agreement is usually a section of your overall contract, not necessarily a separate document unto itself. You DO use contracts, right? If not, you will after the first time you get burned and find you have zero legal recourse. And it WILL happen. Failing to use a contract is a giant red flag to clients that you’re not a professional, and you will attract the more unscrupulous grinders like a giant honey pot.
If you don’t currently use a contract, search Google for “sample service contract” or something along those lines to find a starting point document that can be modified to suit your specific needs. The language for covering deliverables doesn’t need to be fancy or formatted in some standardized way, you can have a section as simple as:
Delivery Date: 01/01/2001
Delivery Formats: Authored Blu-Ray Disc, web-ready h.264 Quicktime, web-ready Flash video file
Estimated Video Running Time: 8 minutes
Deliver To: John Smith – 123 4th street, Anytown USA 12345Any delivery item not listed here is not covered under this agreement. Invoice must be paid in full before any items will be delivered.
You can put together something more involved depending on your needs, this is just a potential starting point. The important thing is to note how the language above covers the more obvious scenarios under which a client may complain, try to wring more work out of you, fail to pay or even sue over. And this is where having a proper contract really comes into play. If the language above is a standalone document with no contract, it’s completely open to interpretation because there is nothing stating what is expected of the client in return for these deliverables. Sure, the text above says they must pay the invoice in full before delivery, but it doesn’t say what the amount of the invoice is and therefore has a bit of a legal hole for the client to worm through.
In a well constructed contract you will list exactly what the cost and payment terms are going to be, and state clearly that the price includes only the items listed in the contract – anything else will be added for an additional fee and as an addendum to the contract. You would also state that no changes to the contract are valid without a signature from both parties. Sounds stupid to jump through all these legal hoops, but should it come down to a court case any ambiguity or obvious holes in your contract will frustrate a judge, give the client room to legally screw you, and greatly increase the odds that they will win.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
“If the footage you imported into AE is any kind of the following — Native HDV, MPEG1, MPEG2, mp4, m2t, H.261 or H.264 — you need to convert it to a different codec. “
In this age of fake HD using every bogus codec under the sun, and every hobbyist on the planet “going HD” this needs to be a sticky comment at the top of this board. It comes up like 3 times a day…
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
“Just out of curiosity, are there any industries that you have found who have a tendency to lend themselves to a lot of creativity in their ads?”
When you find that industry, let me know…
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
This is a no-brainer. You say you don’t want to alienate them because they may spend money with you down the road. Well, if they can shoot and (thanks to you) edit their own videos probably not.
They are basically asking you to train your replacement, to which you would be wise to find a tactful and respectful way to decline.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I agree that this particular client will never agree to higher rates in the future, it’s a law I’ve experienced first-hand.
I guess I just see this particular situation as a gamble – take a lower rate and live to see another day but ditch the idea of working with that client again, or stick to principals, lose the client anyway, and be broke.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
You can’t color correct your way out of bad chromakey footage. Most keying applications, including Keylight, are “color difference” based, which means they look at the difference in color between your backdrop and the actor to know which parts to remove. If you boost the blues in your footage, the blue in the actor goes up just as much as the backdrop and the relationship between actor and backdrop is exactly the same as it was.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com