Chris Blair
Forum Replies Created
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Dan,
Just noticed your question about whether the 24P will translate to both NTSC and PAL. I’m pretty sure the answer is NO. PAL standard definition is not only 25fps, it’s also a different pixel resolution, so your NTSC project would not play properly on a PAL DVD player…UNLESS the DVD player can do standards conversion (which some higher-end ones can). But standards conversion left to a DVD player usually uses a cheap chip which results in a poor quality conversion.
You’d have to convert your NTSC project to PAL…but shooting and keeping it at 24P makes the frame rate change the much easier since it’s so close to begin with.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
I agree with just about everything everyone has said, especially Bob Zelin and Walter Biscari’s comments…BUT…I believe you have to be both positive and pragmatic. The economy sucks right now. Sure there will be people who are doing well even in these tough times, but one thread mentioned trying mid-size markets like Nashville and Denver. I know people in both markets and can say with certainty that long-standing production companies, ad agencies, photography companies and design firms in both markets are closing their doors. And these are not start-up or young companies…these are companies with prestigious awards lining their walls and reputations that shine like the sun.
Many of these companies WERE branching out, and “doing thing differently” as everyone suggests. The fact is, your ability to survive or thrive in this economy is DIRECTLY related to your established client roster. If you were doing work for people that DO need content now, you’re probably thriving. If the bulk of your work was for companies or in industries that are cutting back or struggling, you too are probably struggling. Case in point is companies that were heavily tied to the auto industry. Do you think no matter what they were doing in terms of broadening their skills or offerings…that they’re doing well right now?? Probably not.
You can do everything that everyone suggests in these forums and STILL succumb in an economy like this. That’s the reality.
Should this dissuade the original poster from getting into the industry? Not if he loves the work. But as everyone has mentioned…he should be aware that making himself as marketable as possible (having as many skills as possible) will dramatically improve his chances of getting a job. But like those companies that have closed…there are no guarantees.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
Dave Johnson: the rule of never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, claim other people’s work as your own … whether in part or in whole.
Unfortunately, that will NEVER end. I think the majority of people we’ve hired over the years put stuff (lots of stuff) on their sample reel that they didn’t actually do. I’ve seen camera operators put elaborate, high-end videos on their samples claiming the entire video as their own. I’ve seen freelancers who shot for two days of a 5-day shoot put the entire finished video on their sample reel as if it was their own.
I’ve seen editors put high-end composited graphic segments on their reels because they cut together the handful of elements that the compositing artist gave them and again…claim the entire piece as their own. Time and again we’ve hired people and a few weeks later sat down and asked ourselves…did they do ANYTHING that was actually on their reel…because the stuff they were creating wasn’t anywhere close to the quality or creativity of the stuff on their demo.
So maybe the better advice to the OP here is…IF you want to keep a job, DON’T do that!
The flip side of that is we once got a reel from a college student that was fair at best. But he was a great kid, with a super work-ethic. He interned for us first, and he was so good we hired him. But if you had looked at his reel alone, you’d have never hired this guy. So reels have to be viewed with a level of cynicism in my book.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
Hey I like the spot! It looks pretty darn good overall and once it has buffered (played once), the stuttering wasn’t too bad on the dolly move. Did you shoot 24P in a camera that adds pulldown? We use the Panasonic SDX-900 and you can shoot 24P with pulldown or straight 24P with no pulldown (can’t remember what the settings menu calls it)…but we’ll sometimes see issues on really fast pans or dolly moves across stationary objects using 24P with pulldown.
There isn’t anything you can do about it after the fact. I’m old enough to have shot motion picture film and there is actually a panning speed guide that was created to help avoid these issues, which are inherent in shooting at only 24 progressive frames per second.
So if you shot 24P (with no pulldown), edited 24P (with no pulldown) and somehow expored to 29.97 or 30fps that’s the only thing I can think that would cause that. Otherwise…it really didn’t bother me much watching the video..except for the first time through. Second time I played it the dolly was much smoother.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
Use a bitrate calculator to determine what data rate you need to fit it. 160 min. should fit on a DVD, albeit at a relatively low data rate.
There’s a bit-rate calculator you can download here:
https://www.videohelp.com/BitrateCalc.zip
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
We can’t see your video….site says it’s password protected. My guess would be a mix up somewhere on the field/frame issue. You need to figure out what your source material used and stick with that through your production chain with NO deinterlacing tools used throughout…UNTIL your final encode for the web and only if the original footage is interlaced.
If you’re working progressive from acquistion to output…do nothing except keep everything progressive. If you’re working interlaced from acquisition to encode…DO deinterlace on final output for web.
That said, software deinterlacers are a dicey lot and depending what you’re exporting with, some do a better job than others. Then…what about if you have mixed material in your project…meaning some is interlaced and some is progressive…which is quite common.
In that case…you likely have to live with some artifacting somewhere…and it will usually be on the interlaced footage.
Give us the password so we can see what you’re talking about.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
No…not really…from what I’ve read there is usually a pause of from a half-second to several seconds as the laser transitions from the top layer to the bottom layer. I don’t know of any way to predict or reliably know where that will occur on the disc…so the only solution there would be to NOT use dual-layer and put two volumes each on a DVD-5 disc.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
Note to original poster:
See thread immediately above this one.
My advice…put that you will actually show up when you say you will!
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
Bob’s reply reminded me of a couple of classic Woody Allen quotes:
“80% of success is showing up”
and perhaps an even better one…when he was criticized for wanting to direct an opera:
“…incompetence has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm.”
It’s like the people who complain about not knowing how to do something…or about how difficult a piece of software is to learn…when they’ve actually never tried to learn the task or jumped into trying to learn the software. For me…half the battle to learning ANYTHING is simply taking that first awkward, uncomfortable leap….then floundering around for awhile as you try to NOT drown in confusion, fear or insecurity.
I don’t think this is a generational thing…because I see it with guys and girls in their 40s just as much as I see it in college age folks.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
If you used dual-layer you could fit all four on one disc if you kept the compression to around 6 Mb/sec. That would be 221 minutes or 13260 seconds x 6 Mb (6000kb/sec) = roughly 7.9GB.
There’s a DVD bitrate calculator on the videohelp.com site here that will give you a range of acceptable bit-rates you can use to fit your content on various disc sizes:
https://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog