[Paddy Uglow]

Thanks for suggestions and the link. I’m inclined towards the Sony one – I’ll do some more research and see whether I can persuade my workplace to go for some to upgrade the zi8s.
The Sanyo one I got (I don’t remember the model immediately) had the power input in the bottom, so it couldn’t use the tripod mount and the power at once!! And the quality was disappointing.
– Paddy

[Paddy Uglow]

Thanks Bill,
The other requirement I should have added was the the European version of whatever camera I choose shouldn’t have a time limit on how long it’ll shoot video for. I often want to shoot for up to two hours, and cameras here tend to be limited to 29 minutes shooting because of tax laws 🙁
I chose the GH2 because the restriction can be hacked off! 🙂

[Paddy Uglow]

I’m not so au fait with Log and Capture – does that actually create ProRes versions of your originals or just copy the files. I wonder maybe if the L&C might have created resized source files?

What’s the streamclip (presumably MPEG Streamclip conversion software?) part of the process?

Paddy, CreativeMedia.org.uk

[Paddy Uglow]

I’m not able to run FCP any more so can’t test this, but can you create a new sequence with the right settings and paste the contents of your existing sequence into the new one?
You might need to use some Paste Attributes too if you need to rescale all the clips.

Paddy, CreativeMedia.org.uk

[Paddy Uglow]

I hope it worked for you – I did something similar for a colleague yesterday – using Audition to remove noise from part of movie file and saving it out as a WAV, then using QuickTime Pro to combine the WAV with the original movie, and to remove the original sound. I used to be able to do all of this in SoundTrack Pro and save straight to MOV, but it won’t install on my 10.7 mac 🙁
I don’t know if any PC audio software will edit and save video files…

Paddy, CreativeMedia.org.uk

[Paddy Uglow]

Oooh, that After Effects upscale looks nice. Is there a similar (free or cheaper) tool that’ll do the same thing for those of us on a low budget?

On this subject, though slightly off-topic, if I’d converted all my avchd footage to AIC or ProRes before putting it on the timeline (eg in Premiere Pro), would it scale better, having come from a less compressed source?

Paddy, CreativeMedia.org.uk

[Paddy Uglow]

(I’m assuming you’re on Premiere Pro – I don’t know if it’s OS X or Win)
I always put each of my cameras into separate sequences, then put those sequences all into tracks on a new “sync” sequence (and sync them all up), then drag the nested sequence “sync” into another new sequence called “multicam”.
It’s a bit more time-consuming, but it means you can apply grading, audio levels, etc to the original camera sequences even after you’ve made your multicam edits. And you can drag “sync” into another new sequence if you want to do an alternative multicam edit.
In your circumstances, have you got anything that’ll edit the audio levels in the original movie files? You could back up the current source files, fix the audio levels and save over the source movies. I used to use Soundtrack Pro but it won’t run on my upgraded mac, so I use QuickTime Pro to do it in a rather more longwinded way.
I hope that helps

Paddy, CreativeMedia.org.uk

[Paddy Uglow]

This isn’t ideal but, could you make Photoshop Droplets for each of the different shifts, then use your computer’s search facility to find all the files that need to be dragged to each shift (maybe some kind of wildcard search?)
Or I guess you could just search for them and drag each batch into Photoshop and run an Action with the Automator on all open files and avoid having to make the droplets.

I’ve used the Photoshop Javascript stuff in the past – that *might* be able to read in the filename and base pixel shifts on it, but I’ve not done any scripting for a long time.

Paddy, CreativeMedia.org.uk

[Paddy Uglow]

Hi Bob,
Ach, I was trying to avoid confusion 😉
A movie can be encoded as h.264 (for example) but either be a MOV, MP4, AVI (or some others too I think). The MOV can have all kinds of other things embedded in it too, which might only work in QuickTime Player. MP4s can have all kinds of metadata embedded too, but they’re a bit more cross-plaform than Apple’s QuickTime MOV format.
Changing the file extension DOESN’T change what kind of file it is.

You’re right about my compression workflow – I’m not able to run Compressor any more, so I’m not sure whether you can export directly to mp4.
If not, in your situation I’d export a high quality quicktime “master” file (Animation codec might be suitable if it’s slides, or Pro Res or Apple Intermediate codec). I’d then use QuickTime Pro or MPEG Streamclip to make various MP4 versions (at the same frame rate).
Data rate is a bit hit and miss – try encoding small section at some different data rates and look for compression artefacts – make sure there are some fades in the section you export – compression artefacts show up badly on fade-to-black or cross fades. But too high a data rate might not play from a slow disk. And too LOW a data rate might give trouble to a slow CPU…!

Not knowing the pixel size of the projector (or aspect ratio!) is a problem! But MPEG Streamclip (it’s free and really useful) will allow you to crop a source movie when you export.

PS: I realise I haven’t read you mail properly, but I’ve got no time to alter this now. Sorry! 🙁

Paddy, CreativeMedia.org.uk

[Paddy Uglow]

Out of interest, does the colour temperature alter on LED panel lights when they’re dimmed? Is the warming effect a property of light transmission or of the light bulb technology?
Thanks

Paddy, CreativeMedia.org.uk