[Marc Israel]

David, Heads up: Sent you an email at drwfilms.

[Marc Israel]

Alright David. I just did the codec sequence setting change cut and paste on the particular sequence where a certain clip spurred the original issue (cuz it’s heavily laden with special affects). For the first time, those special effects rendered properly on that clip without all the blotches and random cubes. That’s great news, a sight for sore eyes! You’re the best – thanks for your guidance!

[Marc Israel]

David, been hypervigilant for an email notice announcing reply to my last post where I answered your questions. Wondering should I give up hope of a reply. Maybe the variables finally rendered you clueless or exasperated or you’ve just crawled fully into retirement. If you can just let me know whether changing only the render settings within a sequence should have not required me to re-render various clips or if it’s okay that it did require re-rendering some….and if this simple settings change suffices to fundamentally make the project more healthy and workable….I’d appreciate it, and then we can call it a day/night/thread. Thanks.

[Marc Israel]

“does your sequence set to render to Pro Res play without rendering? It should. ”

Most of it plays without needing to render. But the clips wherein anything was tweaked (motion, dissolves, filters etc), there’s the red line above, needing to re-render. Did you mean all the clips should in general play w/out render, or you mean specifically that the ones originally requiring rendering should not need to re-render?

And, how does it look? Otherwise, looks the same, in quality and dimensions.

“here are just too many variables for me to have a clue”. To have a clue about…what?

[Marc Israel]

David, thanks so much for the help.
“Does this make sense to you?”
A little. My response below might be the best indicator.

I mentioned changing the Compressor from HDV 1080p24 to ProRes422. I figured this was “codecs” as I didn’t see anything else with the word “codecs” ( perhaps here revealing a staggering level of ignorance). But I now see, under the Render Control tabs, that there’s a dropdown menu to change the codec. I just tested this with the cut and paste method, and again, both audio and video are all madly desynchronized with each other and with themselves. I tried the setting change within the original sequence, and, like before, everything is in tact, except it started to drop frames, a problem, along with the others originally mentioned, which has incidentally otherwise disappeared.

“Meanwhile, when changing the sequence settings on a previously edited sequence, not all parameters you change in the settings actually do apply and affect the underlying clips, and that it why best practices would dictate the cut and paste I previously recommended. “

What settings do not apply/affect the underlying clips? I hear you that “the best practice” is cut and paste, however, the different effect and implications of these two different “practices”, in this case so far, is as extreme as it gets. If I can get away with changing the original sequences, this seems relatively….easy. If I have to cut and paste, I practically can’t perceive see any end in sight regarding the level of time/work required to go into piecing all these clips and layers back to form, especially given being relegated to a 5 hours of work a day limit due to enfeebling tendinitis which threatens to totally disable me any time now by continuing to push this work at all. With cut and paste, it could take half a year or even more. And the original issue for which this was prescribed has, for the time being anyway, disappeared. So these matters and decisions are very directly effecting my very life.

“you could try duplicating the sequence and simply changing the codec in seq settings, while keeping all the other parameters the same.”

I just did this (assuming I’m correct that the Render Controls codecs dropdown is in fact where one changes the codecs). By just changing it from “same as sequence codec” to ProRes422, via cutting/pasting practice, everything remains in tact. No “desynrchonization” of clips. Is this good enough?

[Marc Israel]

Late-breaking: it turns out that, despite the audio clips being cut and pasted with the rest, all the audio plays out of sync w/ the video. Didn’t realize this until now as was viewing instrumental bits without sync sound. Not the case when I change settings of original sequence. Can this be explained?

[Marc Israel]

I have looked further into changing all sequence settings on this project, both by reading as well as experimentation. One good thing is that the pixel aspect ration, that you, David, advised (square), is what turned the screen into letterbox but this time around (oddly, none of the options were making the proper canvas shape first time I tried), I was able to get the proper image by using HD 1440×1080, and the same aspect ratio. I could do this either by making a new sequence, and cut/pasting the old sequence, OR by changing the sequence settings in the original sequence. Same difference it seems, yes? So I’m wondering if these settings (with ProRes422 as compressor of course) will be fine, safe, kosher, better, bestest for my project, if I can go ahead and change ‘em all, or if for some reason, they are not, OR I have to tweak some other settings other than the three things listed above. Mark, you mentioned making sure frame rates match. I don’t see anything about frame rates specifically in the sequence settings, but it might be staring me in the face because I’m not abundantly clear on the concept. Am I good to go?

[Marc Israel]

David, I never said I couldn’t fix the letterbox issues. I only said I don’t know how to to fix them, point blank.

Thanks for your offer. My budget for this film is exactly $0, so I will have to consider that as a very last option, and only then after a robbing a bank.

Meanwhile happy 65th!!

[Marc Israel]

Ok I just reread some of pervious posts, and can understand well enough the portrait painted of stubborn, in-denial, defiant-in-the-face-of-facts filmmaker because of my own past inbred blissful ignorance, yes ok I concede there’s that aspect. But I’ve also been digesting, even with the bitter taste, the tonics you two talk of, taking in the flavor without wholly vomiting from the innate agitation produced from the flammable mix therein. But I can’t get past the letterboxing…

[Marc Israel]

Hey fellas,
David: “you’re a proud independent creative dude, and you’ve relied on your own logic, instincts, and anecdotal evidence throughout your life in all of your creative endeavors, so it’s hard to change now.”
Mark “ You’ve made your position pretty clear. “

I’m not sure I recognize the guy you are describing as the person I see in bathroom mirror everyday. Maybe it just needs a good cleaning (it’s too close to the sink and water regularly splashes up, creating a kind of grime over time). We all know it can be challenging at times to express…things, whether they be highly technical or highly emotional, through writing. If I have given the impression that I am not open to change, or that I have ANY firm position on this topic, then I’ve failed with my words. I have been open to the idea of changing the sequence settings, enough to begin to do exactly that, to see how it might work, to employ the workflow. What I ran into was the issue with the framing of the image, represented in the photo I attached several posts back. As recent as my last email, I was reporting on the inability to solve that problem, hoping for further instruction. The fix that you offered, Mark, unfortunately wasn’t applicable to the actual issue and it otherwise was not addressed.

You guys have been exceedingly generous with your time and thoughts, and so if you wanna clear this thread and head for greater vistas, we can end it here. I am not “unwilling” to do what needs to be done, at least not certain things: I can consider changing all sequence settings, for example, but…starting the whole project over, on the other hand, is simply out of the question because I can’t do that, it’s literally not earthly possible for several practical reasons, which I tried my best to explain. AND, if the issue truly IS the sequence settings, not matter how much work that would take to reset, it would still be eons less work than starting from scratch. And so I simply want to understand all of what’s involved, and also part of what I was last expressing was that there have been multiple diagnosis projections on this lowly populated thread, each with their own implications and troubleshooting workflow and there does seem room for reasonable doubt, at least within my own brain’s chemistry, because of how all things ad up or don’t. But, as said, I must do something, and I’m trying to go the sequence settings route, for starters, but have immediate run into a snag I can’t fix.