[Perrone Ford]

Please post the specs of your machine. A screen-grab from My Computer would tell us plenty.

[Perrone Ford]

Mark, that was an entertaining read as well as a helpful post. Unfortunately, state law dictates this WILL be a video. I made all the same arguments in pre-production meetings, but I can’t change some parameters of this. I wish I could.

For better or worse, it looks as though I am going to be shooting the forms in the ways I’ve been devising. I’ll just have to use a variety of them to try and not make this as stale as it might otherwise seem.

Maybe I’ll digitize the original and post it for you to see. I could hardly do worse than what they currently have.

[Perrone Ford]

Oh MAN! If only I could get away with that. Sounds brilliant but runs somewhat counter to my needs. The purpose of the video isn’t so much to show people how to fill out the forms, only show them the required form to fill out before moving on.

Basic structure moves something like this:

1. Talking head says to become certified you need to attend class
2. 3-4 shots of classroom training
3. Talking head says “you then need to submit form A”
4. Form on screen while talking head mentions something about the form.
5. Talking head says “you need to observe real world cases”
6. A few shots, reverses, and POVs of real world scenario with talk-over.

Etc.

So right now, I am trying to come up with some ideas to get these forms on the page. So far I have:

A. Staged shots
B. OTS of person filling out form
C. OTS of person reading form
D. Semi-transparent form laid into “whitespace” on side of talking head. This is 16:9 so I’ve got some room. Think Evening News story graphic, but larger.
E. Cut away to scanne form on motion background

That’s about all I have. I don’t have Chromakey otherwise I wouldn’t mind playing with your idea.

And believe me when I said that simply re-shooting what they had before would be a huge mistake. But, it was a huge struggle to even get THIS much done. I’d show you what they had before, but you’d think I was lying. Scanned forms (with the staples intact), exterior shots in front of traffic in strong sun and no silks or reflectors, Full frontal indoor lighting with STANDING, and non-moving subject or camera for 30+ seconds, etc. And mastered to VHS for duplicates.

The fact that I am shooting HD, with dolly and stabilizer and mastering at 720p is going to earn me my money. Even if I simply did a re-shoot shot for shot of what they had before. I just want it to look as good as possible given the legal limitations.

So if you’ve got any other terrific ideas, please share them!

[Perrone Ford]

It’s only been a little while since this kind of metadata has become available on cameras costing 10 times as much. Do you really expect a $7k handycam to store metadata inside it’s 35mbps mpeg2 stream?

[Perrone Ford]

Thanks Bob. I am using software scopes which have been good so far, but I can get material to one of my broadcast buddies for final check before delivery. If it verifies what I’m seeing then I’ll feel comfortable. If not, then I’ll “explore other options”. 🙂

By the way, you’re in Orlando right? Do you know any reasonable post studios down there for small jobs? I got a call today from someone looking for a cuts, titles, and SD delivery job from Orlando. If I can’t do it, I’d like to recommend someone. I don’t have a full scope of work yet, but it’s coming. Production is in Canada, but they want to post here in FL.

[Perrone Ford]

I am so happy I read this thread.

I really don’t understand what people want. Wait, that’s not true. People want to absolutely discount the years of hard won experience, and tons of money invested by pros in this business, and try to play the same game. It just doesn’t work.

How do you explain to someone that they are not going to make a feature when one of your primes costs more than their production budget?

I’ve been working in video for many years. Only professionally for the past few, but I’ve learned a TON from these forums and others, and from people like Mr. Grumpy, and others like him. It’s those hard reality checks, and actually getting my hands dirty and working in the business that have taught me the most.

I don’t know if Marsha will get her film(s) done or not. But I think I understand, like most here, that her path ahead is going to be fraught with roadbumps and obstacles.

[Perrone Ford]

Thanks, I think I can make this work.

[Perrone Ford]

Yes,

Render your video at 1280×720 square pixels. Use h.264/avc to do it. I use about 6 Mbps. You can do a 2-pass if you like. I’ve been VERY pleased with the results.

[Perrone Ford]

The footage you linked from 599 Productions isn’t very clean but they are one of the premier RED shooters around. So I know how clean the source was.

You can upload to Youtube now at 1280×720. I’d suggest doing that with a bitrate around 6 Mbps and see if you like what you get. Here is something I shot and uploaded today:

Go here to see the HD version (be sure to select watch in HD):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pW2fmDAoSQ

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[Perrone Ford]

Well,

I can tell you what I do, and you can go from there.

1. Re-Wrap footage from BPAV folder to .MXF File

2. Bring MXF file into editor

3. Render to lossless .avi codec of your choice. I use uncompressed or huffyuv.

4. Here you need a GOOD resize function. There are many. I tend to use the resize function inside Virtualdub which is a free download. This resize function has a variety of methods, but the Lanczos is the one you want. This produces the absolute best results for downsizing or upsizing videos. Don’t let the free status fool you. This is about as good as it gets at any price. So use this tool to resize the video to your desired size.

5. Save the video with the desired lossless codec.

6. Bring the newly resized file into your NLE and edit.

Because of how Vegas works, I’d suggest you resize the video first before working with it, OR, edit in 32bit float, and STAY in that color space from beginning to end. If you work in 8 bit in Vegas for speed, as soon as you leave that color space (like jumping out to Virtualdub or other program with an uncompressed file or similar) you’ll lose your corrections. I just accept the pain of working in 32bit float in Vegas so I can jump out any time without these issues. Since I generally work with Proxies, it’s not too bad.

Resizing video footage cleanly isn’t a black art. You just need a good tool. Far too many programs cheap out and use the ‘nearest neighbor” method which produces garbage results. Some of the better ones use linear (decent) or bicubic (better) interpolation. The best use Lanczos interpolation and it shows. I can’t point you to some examples if you want to see some results.