Chris Bové
Forum Replies Created
-
[Shannon Brame] “these issues are not a problem in FCP”
Sure they are. Only now you might be getting into DV at 720×480, depending on the system. Try the test. Buy the book. You’ll be amazed.
Or don’t.
______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___) -
[Charlie King] “When depth is not an option, use a backlight most opposite the key color thus with green screen a light blue backlight will help counter the green contamination. Amber works well with blue screen. “
Man, that’s a damn cool idea. One of those “sheesh, yeah, duh?” moments. Good one, CK.
______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___) -
Wohoohooo!
Man, I can think of a ton of photogs that would take a checklist the wrong way… hehe… kudos, I’d like to see it in action!No advice beats getting your photog and your editor in a room together ahead of time. It beats any checklist by enhancing the art of the edit – shooting and editing both happening with a unified vision… concept!
Just for the DV, DVCam and MiniDV record, all them formats suck timecode wise. A small number of us editors really don’t care about the timecode that was shot in the field, because we demand that it all get upconverted to a more stable format with new timecode anyway. There’s just too many cases of up to 6 frames of slippage upon batch digitizing. Too many edit schedules are destroyed by the “miniDV slip”.
______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___) -
Yep. Also, did you install svc pk 2? It poo poo’d a lot of drivers and cards.
______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___) -
Here’s the link to the “Red Book” – a resource PBS offers to producers who wish to submit content. You don’t have to follow it note for note, but it’s a good start.
https://www.pbs.org/producers/redbook/Cheers!
______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___) -
[Shannon Brame] “have I been doing it wrong all these years? “
Yep. See, you wouldn’t really notice the difference too much, until you get into situations in your which After Effects and Photoshop stuff needs to match up perfectly with taped footage. Example – we edited a doc in which we wanted to have a blueprint drawing of a building’s exterrior dissolve to the completed structure on footage. What we did was export a single frame of the footage from our Avid (540), create the blueprint look in Photoshop (540), and reimport it into the Avid (540). If at any point we changed that to 486, the image distorted vertically.
Seriously, the best way I grasped the concept was by doing the following test:
1.) Find a coffee can, a spindle of CDs, anything that’s perfectly circular and shoot it with a video camera, straight-on.
2.) Create a perfect circle in Photoshop at 540 (red over a white bkgd). Name the file “Test A”
3.) Create a perfect circle in Photoshop at 486 (green over a white bkgd). Name the file “Test B”
4.) Open your “Test A” file again in Photoshop and squish the image size to be 486 (it’ll look oval). Change the color to blue over white. Name it “Test C”
5.) See which one superimposes over the coffee can best in your edit system.Cheers!
______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___) -
Hi Chris – I’m an editor at a PBS Member Station.
Answering your questions:
1.) Schedule: 3 months of post – includes everything from tweeking archive images in photoshop to creating the promos and intro/credit animations… everything.
2.) Usually, doc producers hate multiple editors in the offline, unless there are very separate segments. However, it’s not unusual to have different editors offline and online.
3.) Despite the nonlinear editing world, most producers still come to me with workloads that have been created in a very linear fashion. It’s probably a peace-of-mind thing on their part.With all that said, the best thing to do (that I’ve seen, anyway) with our more national series-based docs is to create a template for the series. Make a skeleton, then plug content into the holes. This way, regardless of your content, all shows feel like they’re delivered by the same entity.
______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___) -
Remember that the whole purpose of a chroma key is to be able to select that color and only that color. Mark’s right on the white primer. Also, make sure there is as little texture as possible. Also, no gloss! Reflections, no matter how dull, are translated by edit systems as a different color than what you pick.
Also, the biggest problem with chroma keys is having the subject too close to the color (thus it reflects onto their clothing, etc – like a weatherman). Build depth into your shot.
______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___) -
[Shannon Brame] “I feel like an idiot for not knowing this answer “
Please don’t. This is one of the foggy topics on a lot of chat lines.
((Incidently, for one of the best explanations of this subject, check out “Photoshop for Nonlinear Editors”, by Richard Harrington https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1578202094/103-5853685-2343823?v=glance))
720×486 is broadcast NTSC. No argument there. All the other resolutions are simply the way individual editing or graphics systems prefer to interface with you. For example, my Avid Media Composer knows fully well to output all its signal as 720×486 non-square pixel NTSC. However, it likes to receive stuff at 720×540. It displays its title tool and other features in this square pixel environment better. When it outputs, it squishes it all through its digital funnel back down to NTSC.
Why all the trouble? It’s because of the print world’s incarnation of programs like Photoshop, which deal with inches and cm and how true-to-life they look on a computer monitor. Unlike chairon systems which output directly to an NTSC source (and thus are 720×486 thru-and-thru), Photoshop-type programs need to be converted to NTSC, which uses different pixel sizes (nonsquare).
Some systems will automatically convert these for you. Most however, require images to be created at 720×540. When the image is done, manually change the verticle image size, thus squishing the image. When it’s broadcast, the nonsquare environment unsquishes it for you.
Clear as mud? Trust me, it works.
______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___) -
[MichaelP] “Adrenaline will then play back SD, HD, etc, in real time when in gre/yellow mode (real timne preview) but when performing a digital cut, needs to be of all one format (SD rendered as HD, etc.) Transcoding is the process of taking one format and converting to another. “
I think I understand most of that, but I’m still confused about one thing:
It looked fine crash recorded onto tape – NOT transcoded… is there something to do with resolution/bit rate/etc. that I’m just not seeing? Or is this just a pickiness factor on the Digital Cut Tool’s part?Keep in mind that all my footage was the same – DVCProHD – no intermingling of footage resolutions.
______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)