Kristoffer Newsom
Forum Replies Created
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that’s a great idea! I’ll have to do multiple exports to get enough frames on either side of a fade or wipe transition, but there aren’t that many of those in each episode (just two or maybe three).
Totally simple solution, I was WAYYY over thinking this.
Cheers man.
-K
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Michael,
I totally see where you’re coming from. Some of the buyers we’re going for are pay TV, others are other miscellaneous cable, and a few are network, you’re totally right, they are all going to have various requirements that we’ll have to fulfill, and it’s very difficult to prepare those deliverables until they’ve told us what they need. David has a point though, that we can begin QCing the film and making sure it’s all in spec already so that’s one less thing to do once we have the buyer’s requirements for the project.
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no, you’ve definitely got a point, and that’s pretty much been my motto throughout this whole project. I’ve been asked to put the cart before the horse a number of times (hence not being broadcast safe to begin with), this time it’s less an issue of desire to have it done sooner and more a literal lack of time on my part combined with a lack of anyone else who can do it.
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You mind if I quote you on that to my Producer? 😉
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Hi David, thanks for your help.
I’m not taking offense, it’s just that you’re telling me the exact thing I was afraid of hearing! X0
I’m now in a different city from my project, and starting a fulltime gig tomorrow morning so I’m really not going to be able to give it the human touch unless some major arrangements are made. The Director and I pretty much don’t trust the project to anyone but ourselves, so either he’d have to come down to LA with all the hard drives, or I’d have to cruise up there for a couple weeks. *sigh* I’m continually amazed that anyone ever makes an independent film.
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Hi Mark,
Thanks for the advice… Getting ahold of the technical requirements document is definitely something I need to do, trouble is, I don’t know who our buyer will be yet, and I imagine they’ve all got slightly different requirements. And then there’s the question of how will I even GET that document? Is it usually something we receive along with all the rest of the paperwork involved?
The plan was to do a preliminary QC during the upres and if the HD intermediate was way out of range, we’d correct that in FCP. From what David has said, it’s best to start in broadcast safe before going to HD in the Teranex, but I’m pretty sure the Teranex outputs only broadcast safe video, which is why I planned on using it as an intermediate.
The plan with the upres was to create an HD master of the film so we had that as a optional deliverable. Not all buyers are requesting an HD master, but many are. We didn’t want to upconvert our current master with titles because the process is usually not kind to them, hence wanting to retitle in FCP after the fact. Furthermore, from the tests we’ve done before, the Teranex process helps smooth the colors in the film a bit (we’re very satisfied with the current look and visual quality of the film, but that’s like icing on the cake), and wanted to preserve that by doing a downconversion from the D5 master to digibeta to see if the quality of the end product was improved over the original direct to digibeta master. I know that’s not the simplest, but it’s what my producer wants.
Audio is stereo PZM, the ClosedCaptioning is all typed out and ready to be coded in. The trouble is, I don’t think there’s going to be budget to have a post house do all our deliverables (especially since we’ll have to recreate our titles in High Def in order to create an HD master, and that’ll require either time in their edit bay, or renting a D5 deck). I have a pretty solid technical base, even though I’ve never prepared a film deliverable before… I just need to know exactly what the QC is going to look at so I can make sure it’ll pass. If I have to rent scopes to do this or an edit bay to QC the film myself first, then I’ll do so. If anyone has any suggestions on houses in LA to QC a master, I’m all ears for that too, as well as the average costs for doing so… I’m just kinda flying blind until I have more information about what buyers want, which is partly why I posted here.
Thanks for your replies so far.
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David,
whoah, nobody’s throwing reason and responsibility out the window here… we’re just trying to find the most efficient effective and transparent way of mastering our film now that the plan has changed, without having to color correct it again – that’d take more time than we essentially have.
Are you suggesting I apply Broadcast Safe filtering to individual shots that exceed levels, after checking the film shot by shot and making notes? Or blanket my entire master with that filter and then QC it to ensure it worked properly? Or are you suggesting I manually adjust the levels of every shot exceeding broadcast safe ranges?
What are the specific ranges QC typically uses as their benchmarks? nothing to exceed 100%?
thanks for your help.
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You may also wish to inquire as to whether or not DVCam or DVCPro would be acceptable delivery formats, as there are models of decks for each that accept firewire input.
In regards to Shane’s post, yes, those are basically a couple GREAT widgets that are a go-between from your computer to a deck, and convert a firewire DV signal to an uncompressed analogue (or digital SDI) signal that you can run to a deck. What he meant by the keyspan serial adapter is a method with which you can transmit and control the timecode on the deck. In my experience, some places are really specific about timecode, and they need your program to start at exactly X:XX:XX;01 or thereabouts, but MOST places will pretty much just cue up your spot to the first frame and capture based on that. As long as the timecode doesn’t have breaks in it, it should be fine. In two years making promos at CBS, the only time timecode became incredibly important is when delivering a tape with multiple spots, and even then, the ability to dictate to the tape what timecode to write wasn’t crucial. What WAS important was the ability to write down the stare timecodes of each spot, so the person ingesting it into the station’s server could act accordingly.
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David,
Thanks so much for the tip, this looks like it may be just the thing! I’ll do some more investigating.
Again, cheers.
-Kris
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Graeme Nattress has made some incredible and very affordable plugins that can do a great job of mimicking some of that Super8 look. Of course, Super8 is one of those formats that can really look a LOT of different ways (I’ve seen it look stunning and pristine like Super16, and I’ve seen it look like WWI battlefield archival footage, and everything in between), but the plugin is pretty flexible.
good luck.