Emre Tufekci s.o.a.
Forum Replies Created
-
Without getting into format wars P2 vs XDCAM, any tapeless workflow has advantages over Disc based recording as well as bringing long term storage problems along with it.
We are a P2 house and here is our workflow:
-All content is ingested in to a RAID 10 drive, eliminating the risk of disk failure.
-Content is created with Metadata in advance so it is simply placed in pre-selected slots for storage with no need to log.
-The content is also backed up to a raid 1 drive for long term storage with independent control interface.
-The Raid 1 drives are archived to VXA tape back ups for deep archive along with all project files.
-If the client does not wish to retain or archive the content the drives and VXA tapes are wiped.
3 years and we have not lost a single frame of footage.
Emre Tufekci
http://www.productionpit.com -
Here is a good start:
ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/Drivers/PBTS/papers/P2HDMetadata.pdf
Emre Tufekci
http://www.productionpit.com -
The answer is relative:
-When you feel that you can walk into a edit session with a client you have never met before and you feel absolutely confident you will come through technically and visually….no matter what.
(Yes, experience is something you get right after when you could have used the most…catch 22…but you got to start somewhere)
Degrees are not relevant as much as experience is (IMHO), I would not discriminate against a candidate if he had no formal training but was a natural.
You have to understand the technology and what goes on under the hood. If the machine fails you need to know how to fix it. If you run into a problem and you can’t go any further because you don’t know what to so, it doesn’t matter if you are the best editor in the world.
You have to establish the fine balance between being a video engineer and an artist. Practice, practice, practice… watch a lot of movies, dissect TV shows. Adapt the styles you like and advance them to make them your own. Most creative people I have met, hired or learned from had absolutely no formal training.
We are not doctors, we don’t require “certification” to do work. You just need to be really good at what you do.
I personally hire the best and pay top dollar because they do good work, don’t complain, make me look good and get the job done.
Hope this helps,
Emre Tufekci
http://www.productionpit.com -
Not really, hair and other objects would be a problem. they probably would bleed in if you are using contrast to cut them out. Same thing with white and wedding gowns.
Emre Tufekci
http://www.productionpit.com -
1-Raw or Tiff will produce better result. you just have to deal with larger files. If this is no inconvenience go for RAW.
2- You are correct, after DCT there are a lot more that goes in the camera to compress the image further. If you want to totally geek out watch these series:
https://media.panavision.com/ScreeningRoom/Screening_Room/Demystifying_Part1.html
3- White background will speed up the process, other than that green background will be just fine.
4- We primarily deal with DVCPROHD and AVC-I formats. But over the years depending on project needs we have used every high-end format under the sun.
Emre Tufekci
http://www.productionpit.com -
Now having said all that, when we do photography that will be used in a video we do not use chroma key. We use contrast.
We shoot the subjects agains a white background (overexposed) and than set up a automation in photoshop to use magic wand to process the pictures.
We get super clean images an can process thousands of pictures in minutes.
Just another way of doing it.
Emre Tufekci
http://www.productionpit.com -
The biggest differences comes from dealing with one frame on Photoshop vs thousands of frames in video.
Since video is compressed in different ways, color space (4:4:4; 4:2:2, 4:2:0,3:1:1, 4:1:1..etc)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling
the bit rate varies (14-12-10-8 bit)
https://www.larryjordan.biz/articles/lj_video_bit_depth.html
resolution (1080, 720, 486, 480) and the scan methods differ progressive vs interlaced there is a lot to deal with so prolonged clean mattes are difficult to achieve.
Still images don’t have to deal with the issue of color space, bits, resolution and I vs P as same as the limitations of video.
Also the process of keying differs in still photography. In video most common is the chroma key. But in still photography you can use chroma, luminance, contrast or neat tools like magic wand to cut out images.
There are also nice plug-ins available to make the process easier: (just a sample there are much more)
So to summarize it:
Yes-shoot the highest resolution possible so when your feather or clean up your matte’s edges you will see less softness.
Yes- try to use less compressed formats as there will be more information work with.
Again this does not mean with a 1000X1000 pixel, jpeg format still can’t be keyed cleanly. It just makes sense to shoot large and then reduce it as you need it.
Emre Tufekci
http://www.productionpit.com -
Since we are on the topic you can get access to DOD footage from DVIC.
https://www.defenseimagery.mil/index.html
If you want you can walk into their riverside CA facilities and dub the tapes yourself.
Emre Tufekci
http://www.productionpit.com -
Raylight allows you to read the P2 content as raw MXF, which is something FCP cannot do alone.
Without Raylight you would have to Log and transfer the footage. At that point you might have to manually reconnect the media since the structure changes.
Emre Tufekci
http://www.productionpit.com -