[Mark Suszko]

Agree the catchlights are a feature, not a bug. Also agree the softlights could have been set 45 degrees off-axis or a little more, especially if the subject wears glasses…. THEN you’d possible have a reflection problem with the lights close to centerline.

I have had some success filling-in hat-shadowed faces in post, especially using the “spot” tool in FCPX. It’s like a virtual fill light you can adjust more or less in virtual 3-d space, and it’s keyframeable. Similar effect to “power windows” used in color grading applications. Max out the feathering slider when trying it.

[Mark Suszko]

Imported SRT to the project, dragged it to the timeline, adjusted position on the timeline to get the timing right. On export, used the metadata settings.

[Mark Suszko]

NDA’s are not a big thing for interview or event recordings, long as it’s not something criminal. They were typical when I did deposition work, and I have signed a few since then. You just have to realize that nothing from the project will be usable for your reel, is all. But the reference that you’re secure and reliable can be worth the trade-off.

[Mark Suszko]

Thanks, Jeff. I’ve inspected the DVD I burned, and it is as you describe: two folders, and vob and associated files in the proper place.

One funny thing; when playing in Apple’s DVD player, the captions appear offset to the left side of the screen instead of centered, but I didn’t make any changes in the positioning of captions when making any of this.

[Mark Suszko]

I don’t *think* it’s a data disk, but I’ll play with it some more Friday.

[Mark Suszko]

No, right off the timeline’s own export function, which I guess uses Media Encoder. I’m adding caotions in the metadata settings.

[Mark Suszko]

It’s not healthcare specifically, (that’s just a handy excuse) but a trend that’s become well-established in IT industries and beyond to the wider business world. It’s called: “The Gig Economy”.

It’s not new; businesses are trying more than ever to reduce all human capital costs and offload as much responsibility for their workforce as possible, so yes, freelancers and contractors are becoming more and more the norm, and there is no more “social contract” where a worker trades time and loyalty for steady compensation and benefits. Shareholders do not care about such things, only profit.

On the employer side, it maximizes workforce flexibility, allowing for fast growth or reductions in workforce to suit business conditions. Expanding? Plug in some temps and get cracking. Bad quarter? Drop a few dozen or hundred heads, watch the stock price go up. Every time. A complete commoditization of human capital, which forces keen competition that keeps wages low, and benefits, thin. It’s not that great a deal for the workers, because it creates chaos, uncertainty, and instability when the income stream is unreliable and prone to interruptions when the gig dries up and you have to go find another one. It reduces the value and thus the bargaining power of a worker negotiating their compensation, because someone will always be a little more desperate than you, and willing to undercut your price for what you do. It end-runs around Organized Labor and the worker protections and policy oversight it can provide, when workers are all individual bargaining units and not a collective, creating a ripe environment for abuse without complaints or consequences. And you’re more or less completely on your own for managing the health care, insurance, and retirement savings, again without much bargaining power because you’re an individual.

Optimists thought that global trade agreements would spread American values, work practices and compensation levels to other nations, third-world nations, raising the standard of living for people everywhere. My observation of what’s actually happened is that the low-wage, anti-worker policies of those nations are more and more getting established here instead, forcing a race to the bottom here at home. Like a foreign missionary “going native” and abandoning their faith.

But on the bright side, hey; “shareholder value“, amiright?

I don’t have an answer to fixing it. And I think it will get worse before it gets better – if it ever does get better, because IMO business has gotten too embedded into government and law, which ordinarily would be the gatekeeper and referee for these things. I hope it can be again.

[Mark Suszko]

Danke!

[Mark Suszko]

Update: Running create cloud update must have patched whatever was wrong, because the same .SRT from before comes in at full duration and complete now, so… it was a bug? Maybe?

I would pay good money for a detailed guidebook or online resource dedicated just to working with captioning in PPCC.

[Mark Suszko]

Butting in with a probably useless two cents, and AE is not my forte’, but the problem I see in your comp is: nothing’s got a shadow, or a reflection, so everything and everyone looks like it’s floating, pasted on and not really “grounded” on the backdrop. If you just add a soft shadow to the existing elements, warped to lay on the floor and softened with Gaussian blur, they will immediately seem more realistic in the comp. Adding some light wrap on the sides facing key light sources will further enhance the effect’s realism.