[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Lynne,

If you edit with Mac, the .mov file could be Apple ProRes, which is very commonly used for mastering. ProRes cannot be exported from PC, so in that case Avid DNxHD would be similar quality. The Cineform codec is also excellent.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

It seems that reading from, and writing back to the company server is a huge performance bottleneck. If you can work from FAST local storage (a dedicated video drive, not system drive) that should really help a lot.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Just as a test – put 60 seconds of raw footage onto a timeline, no effects, no editing. Export to a LOCAL drive, not the server. What does it say for time?

There is obviously something going on…bottleneck exporting to server maybe? On what drive is the raw media kept?

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

What effects are applied to the video? That would seem the most likely cause of the long export time.

Also, what is the hard drive arrangement? The video clips should be on a dedicated, fast drive. If using the system drive (C: ) and it’s getting full, that would hurt performance.

Could we please see a screen shot of the Export Settings window, to review the export setup you are using?

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Joe,

I used to freelance for a company that hired videographers nationwide to go out and shoot 1-minute promo videos for local businesses, as part of an advertising package for Yellow Pages. They’d give me a time and place, and I basically had to just show up and “wing it” but it usually went pretty well. Never spent more than 2 hours on site, usually 1 hour or so was sufficient.

There was no script, but we had a sheet with a few questions we were supposed to ask of the client (usually the business owner) to get a feel for what they do, what makes them unique, etc. Based on that, I would ask additional questions and build some rapport with the “talent” as I listened and formulated an outline or script in my head while taking notes.

What I would then do is get them on camera briefly introducing their business, just to put a “welcome face” on the business. Many were hesitant or a little uncomfortable being on camera, but with the right coaching and putting them at ease, the intro usually came out great and felt genuine. In reality, client was only on camera for a few seconds, then cut to b-roll with their voice. Maybe we later see them helping a customer or working or something under VO.

I’d then ask questions of the client to elicit the response I needed to effectively communicate what their business has to offer. Since the client was no longer on camera, and I was only recording their voice, I could just sit with them and “talk” and get them to open up about their business and why they are passionate about what they do and such.

When I felt that I had enough sound bites – and that they were done in such a way as I knew I could splice all the bits together and have it flow and make sense later – I would then shoot several minutes of B-roll footage of the business inside and out. Usually just natural lighting.

A few times, we had quick takes of customer testimonials or other employees saying a few words. Whatever worked.

Remember, this was cheap and quick and unscripted. When I was comfortable that I had enough sound bites and b-roll, I’d get back to the studio, edit together the 60-second spot and upload it for approval the same day. Maybe 1-2 hours of editing.

This was several years ago, but I think it paid like $200-250 per job, and I sometimes did 2 or 3 in a week, so was nice “extra income” for a few hours work here and there. Just an HDV camera, tripod, and wired lav. Low buck. No Cinema cameras, lenses, SteadiCam or any of that! The results were not overly artistic, but definitely clear, steady video with perfect audio and clean editing and story. Background music added from provided library, plus opening title from template.

I have a full-time day job now, but if I could go out on my own and do something similar, with just a little more planning (time and effort) involved at $500-700 a pop, I’d do it in a heartbeat. From banging out those YP shoots, I found that I could produce a decent product without a bunch of meetings and scripting (and re-scripting) and all those time-sucks.

I met a lot of nice people running floral shops, hotels, a church, machine shop, funeral home, you name it!

Hope this is helpful. This workflow may not work for everyone – you have to be able to connect with the client and wring the words out of them that you need, on the fly. Different than working from a script.

Thanks

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

Ditto, fast 7200rpm drives in RAID 0 will serve you very well. Save your money.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

If it really is only a few frames that need to be fixed, you might find them in the timeline and “snapshot” stills of them, along with a “good” adjacent frame, then layer them in Photoshop and adjust the “bad” frame somehow to line up better to the good frame, then save the new still frame and insert into the video. Or maybe even do that right in the timeline – razor cut a frame of video to isolate it, then apply Position and Scale as needed.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Douglas,

Ask yourself a question. If burning a disc at 8x, or 12x, or 16x meant that it would be unreliable….WHY would the manufacturer of the media and burners even offer the higher speeds?? Consumers losing data would be unhappy consumers, right?

I used to burn a lot of DVDs myself (dozens to hundreds per job), had a 1×7 duplication tower. I would try to burn the “master” at 1x to make sure it was “the best”, then the copies burned at whatever speed the machine wanted to burn. But guess what I found over the years? All the copies burned at 16x were 100% reliable!! Using top-grade media of course.

So what I’m saying is lose the old-school mentality. If the slowest you can burn is 6x or 8x, so what? Why is that an issue? It’s not 2008.

Once I stopped worrying about, my life got a lot better ????

Thanks

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

Don’t overthink it, just use the calculator – https://dvd-hq.info/bitrate_calculator.php

Also, do yourself a favor and forget about the 40mbps max. Don’t go there! First off, you will probably find that 25mbps looks fantastic. Go 30mbps if it makes you happy. But keep in mind that store-bought DVDs and Blu-ray discs are stamped/pressed from a mold. The pits are physically pressed right into the disc surface.

You and I are burning the pits with a laser beam, on entirely different media, so when really pushing the data rate one is more likely to get playback/compatibility errors. DVD and Blu-ray players are not required to play burned media, it’s just a bonus that it works at all. Use high-end media and don’t push the data rate for best results.

Regarding the calculator for BD, use the BD-SL presets. Set audio at 384kbps (Dolby rate). For 120 minutes, the 25mbps average for video is good. I have put longer videos on Blu-ray, like 2.5 hours, and still looked very good using lower bitrate. Remember that H.264 is more efficient than MPEG-2, so can provide good results at bitrates that would not look as good with MPEG-2.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

I should add also that yes you do have 1080p sources at the high bitrates, but…those files are also high frame rate at 120fps. That is 5x the frame rate of the intended 24p export. Less frames to encode each second = less data needed to do it. Divide the 50mbps of the 120p source by 5 and you are at 10mbps to deliver 24p.

Jeff

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers