[Martin Curtis]

Pro Res LT comes in at about 70% of the file size of full 422.

From Apple’s white paper on ProRes (2009):

“(ProRes LT) balances incredible image quality with small file sizes, and is perfect for digital broadcast environments where storage capacity and bandwidth are often at a premium. Apple ProRes 422 (LT) is ideal for live multi-camera and on-location productions where large amounts of footage are acquired to disk. The low data rate of Apple ProRes 422 (LT) also makes it an excellent choice for transcoding complex camera codecs like AVCHD.”

“Apple ProRes 422 (Proxy) is intended for draft-mode or preview uses where low data rates are required, yet full-resolution video is desired. It is the ideal format for use in offline editing workflows with Final Cut Server. The traditional offline-to-online workflow with Final Cut Pro has relied on the Offline RT codec, but today’s HD workflows demand offline video formats that support native frame size and aspect ratio. Apple ProRes 422 (Proxy) supports full 1920 x 1080 and 1280 x 720 resolutions, enabling full HD resolution while editing, and accurate representation of FCP motion effects from the creative stages through finishing.“

Sounds like Apple made a judgement call: HD capacity is going up and getting cheaper (not SSD), Proxy is good enough for multicam, so the reasons for LT are fewer and fewer.

I understand the feeling at its loss (I lament the passing of DV, in all its 8-bit glory) but I like the ProRes/ProRes Proxy workflow for multicam, plain Prores for anything complex, and AVCHD for simple cuts-only edits.

I have come around to Larry Jordan’s way of thinking (published 12 November 2013):
“Rather than buy a large, internal SSD drive, I plan to spend a small fortune on a high-speed, fully-loaded Thunderbolt RAID 5 with a minimum of 8 drives. THAT provides all the storage and performance I need — even for editing 2K multicam clips containing up to 30 angles!”

All I need is a small fortune. I’ve heard the best way to get that is to start with a large fortune, open a post-production house…

[Martin Curtis]

IIRC, some people said the same thing about Macs with NuBus slots, Macs with 68k chips and Macs with PPC chips…

[Martin Curtis]

The entire email reads:

Franz,

Thanks for your email. Our Pro customers like you are really important to us. Although we didn’t have a chance to talk about a new Mac Pro at today’s event, don’t worry as we’re working on something really great for later next year. We also updated the current model today.

We’ve been continuing to update Final Cut Pro X with revolutionary pro features like industry leading multi-cam support and we just updated Aperture with incredible new image adjustment features.

We also announced a MacBook Pro with a Retina Display that is a great solution for many pros.

Tim

[Martin Curtis]

Hi Tom,
At this stage, it’s DVD.
I have replied to the initiators (it’s our “Deaf and Hearing Impaired Workgroup”) and told them I can film the signer and probably create the movie (using the method described by Mark above, so they aren’t impinging on the original video frame) and create a DVD with just the signing, but if they want a DVD with the signing plus all the subtitles/captions previously created, we’ll have to go back to an outside provider to do the authoring. My DVD skillz are limited to “advanced iDVD user” 🙂

FWIW, I found out how expensive it is to get foreign language subtitles on an existing movie…

[Martin Curtis]

Hi Mark
We recently produced a multi-language version which included English captions, so this is an extra.

Sign language (in my case, Auslan) is considered a separate language. It’s not the same as “English being signed”, there’s different syntax etc. I have no first hand experience, this is what I have gleaned from the interwebs over the years (having been introduced to the importance of accessibility by the super amazing Joe Clark) and the two signers I have worked with before.

This has just come up for me, three months after delivering the captioned version… I’m not sure where the money’s coming from, but large organisations like mine can be a bit like that: money just appears and it needs to be spent.

[Mark Suszko] “The way I’ve seen this done is to put the signer in a soft-edged oval wipe in a corner of the screen, which is a fight between covering too much of the original material and scaling them too small to read well as a signer. “

That’s what I’ve usually seen, and it is quite distracting especially if the material isn’t shot with that in mind.

[Mark Suszko] “In a 16×9 frame, however, you now have an opportunity to put them in a larger frame of their own, on one side of the SD original. I’d ask the clients if they’d like that kind of setup.
“

Just today, I saw a powerpoint/talking head video with the PPT being 4:3 and the delivered video being 16:9 so they could stick the head in the side without covering anything of importance. That seemed to work.

Perhaps this project is ultimately being funded by a Deaf advocacy group and if so, I’ll suggest we produce a DVD with English captions and Auslan as menu choices.

[Martin Curtis]

There’s no PCE slot on the Mac mini. Just USB3.

[Martin Curtis]

Couldn’t Colm change the playback quality and frame rate in FCP so he could just get the edits done?

[Martin Curtis]

[Mark Suszko] “What I would do if this were my gig, and the budget was low, is hook a scan converter to the output of the laptop, and feed that iso powerpoint video to a DVD recorder. Mixed audio from the podium would also feed to that master iso recording. “
That’s what I have in our auditorium, right down to using MPEG Streamclip, and it works a treat.

I think the OP is just being hired as a camera man, with the client wanting to do the editing. Mind you, editing 5 days of presentations would be my idea of hell. Oh, hang on, that’s what I’m in the middle of right now…

The way I do these things is to record the presenter (with audio coming in from the house audio system wirelessly via a sony wireless mic with line-in) on tape (don’t laugh…) and the PPTs out the back on a DVD recorder. Convert the DVD to Quicktime-DV via MPEG Streamclip. Bring live vision and PPT into FCP. Edit as a multicam project.

If I didn’t have a DVD recording to use, I’d go with Vigen’s suggestion, and indeed I have seen it done here by outside shooters.

What I’d like to try one day is Presto software which seems to be perfect for this sort of thing. Alternatively, if I was a PC guy, I believe MS make something that hooks into PPT (post production) for doing something similar to Presto.

I know this has come in late and the OP has probably been through whatever conference he had to video, but I’m here watching an MPEG Streamclip progress bar so I thought I’d jump in anyway.

[Martin Curtis]

Camera mounted industrial laser is the fix you want. The smell and pain of burning flesh is enough to move the most recalcitrant view-blocker.

[Martin Curtis]

[Bob Cole] ” Tapping on “note” brings up a keyboard – I don’t want that -“

I suppose you could type in “x” or something and leave it at that. I just found the app by putting “iPad app which just records a timecode mark every time you tapped the screen.” into G00gle.