[Scott Sheriff]

This would be better to post in the FCP forum, since a lot of the other editors don’t come here.
But, the answer is don’t export a reference movie. Export a self contained movie, using your current settings.
It helps to know what type of footage your using, and what your sequence settings are, and desired output, so posting that stuff helps.
If a self contained movie is out of sync, some likely suspects are 44khz audio tracks in the timeline, sequence setting isn’t correct for the codec/frame rate. Often this will involve the use of 24fps footage.
Why use iDVD?
Normal professional FCP to DVD workflow:
FCP export self contained QT>Compressor>DVD Studio Pro

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

[Scott Sheriff]

To what everybody else said I would add record some room tone with the same mic in a similar room, if you can’t get the original. Use library room tone from another project.
But I have to agree with Michael, it is going to be extremely difficult to match the ADR dialogue tone in bits and pieces, even if the BG room tone is similar, and that doing the whole scene might be the quickest solution.

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

[Scott Sheriff]

Try Cabella’s, or any store that sells hunting gear.
There are gloves, mittens, and a combo mitten, that the ‘paw’ pulls off to reveal your partially gloved hand. If it’s really cold, get a silk or spandex glove liner to wear under, so your exposed fingers have a little protection.

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

[Scott Sheriff]

“…it shows an utter lack of respect for a viewer to me when I see it now.”

Alan
Thank you for proving my point so clearly.

LOL!

All trends and fads are constantly in a state of change. All of these plugin addicted, jump-cut, shaky-cam types better hope that good production values don’t suddenly come back into style. It’s easy for us to emulate this ‘look’, but I think it would be an uphill battle for the iMovie crowd to stop using shots and transitions that don’t jump off the screen and slap the viewer.

Carlton
AND. . .you don’t have to pay a PENNY to watch!
I love the justification for doing garbage work; because its free.
Not really something I would be all that proud of, and wanting to defend. But what do I know? I still think it’s cool to use the sticks when I shoot.

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

[Scott Sheriff]

I have to agree with Ken, you have quite a few challenges.

1. ‘Broadcast quality’. This is a moving target. There are several different accepted formats depending on the broadcaster. It isn’t like the old NTSC days with just one frame size and format.

2. How are you going to post this? Does the platform your using work well with both your field camera and the format from the studio output. And does it output in the desired format for your broadcaster.

3. I don’t want to get into a DSLR bashing thread, but you need to do some serious research on the post production forum that matches the platform your using to see what the post workflow and the pitfalls of the DSLR. One of the first problems your going to have is cameras like the 5/7D records in a compressed format, that is not edit friendly for many NLE’s. So this may need to be converted to an editable format. And there are other problems with these cams, such as line skipping artifacts, non-standard frame rates on some models, file transfer issues, and audio complications, just to name a few. And will the frame size match your studio footage? Most NLE’s say you can mix and match codecs and frame sizes on the timeline, but it rarely works as well (if at all) as they claim. What I’m saying is do your homework.

4. You want to record uncompressed HD for 2 grand? Not happening. It’s not happening for your 8 grand price either. And it sounds like your going to acquire a lot of footage. Do you know how much storage space you will need to store all this uncompressed HD footage? If you shoot DSLR (which isn’t uncompressed), the only place your footage will live is on the HD once you transfer it. How are you going to back this up?

5. IMHO, from what I have read in your initial post, and follow up, it doesn’t sound like you have sufficient experience to pull this off successfully. To produce, direct, shoot and edit (or at least shoot for a successful edit for someone else) a long format, long term project, mixing formats, and not having purchased or used your field cam, with only having basic knowledge of lighting and composition is not enough.
Not trying to be a jerk, just trying to save you a year of grief and wasted money. From a business and career perspective, you are entry level experience wise and this doesn’t sound like a entry level project.

Do yourself a favor and look at this objectively from an outside point of view, as if you were going to hire ‘you’ for this job, and work up a business plan before you do anything. You might want to consider hiring an experienced producer to oversee this project. If the budget is so tight that you have to ‘one man band’ the project, that is a warning sign. If you have to proceed without an experienced producer, consider hiring a producer to at least help you get started.

Good luck on your project, whatever you decide to do.

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

[Scott Sheriff]

This sounds familiar.
My wife used to run the local economic development office and a similar ‘company’ was trying to sell a half hour show to them. They claimed they had a connection to the Travel Channel and Discovery, and could get a documentary highlighting our area aired on either channel for free. But, they really needed about 65K to get the show produced.
My wife told them for 65K she could hire me to produce her own show, and just buy a half hour of air time to run it, and have money left over. They said it was impossible to do it for less. They told her that they had done the same thing for (named several other area economic development offices) and knew what it cost to produce a show. At that point my wife told them that she not only knew the heads of all the offices that they claimed to have worked for, but had previously worked at two of them, and that no such projects had ever been done, and they hung up.
Pretty sure they were also from Florida, can’t remember what town, or the name of the company.
She was convinced this was a 100% scam, but not sure if its the same as your deal. But it kinda has the same smell. This happened fall of ’09.

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

[Scott Sheriff]

Timothy,
Thanks. It was good to have some voices from both sides. I hope that this thread covered the pro’s and con’s well enough for folks to figure out what will work best for their particular situation.
Happy Holidays,
S

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

[Scott Sheriff]

Timothy,
I see your point, because when you say Fortune 500, I think that could apply to bureaucracies in general. And that is how they work. There was a time that you needed a 1st Class FCC license just to get an entry level shipping dept. job at broadcast stations. Need isn’t the right word, because no one except the ops and TX people really needed that. It was just a screening tool. Having a 1st Phone ticket didn’t make you a better cameraman, or floor director. But it did get you in the door.

And sure it probably doesn’t hurt to have some continuing education, at least not in the sense that it would erase whats already in your brain. But these things do cost money and time, both of which have a value. I think for a lot of folks the ROI for formal training just isn’t there. If some type of formal training is a requirement, perhaps a better investment would be to send editors to a writers workshop, photoshop, or Pro Tools class. Why go over something you already know?

Back in the linear editing and early NLE days, it was rare (not unheard of) to go to formal classes on the gear. You learned OTJ, usually from someone that gave you the basics, and then set you loose to build your skills on easy projects. Over time you were given more difficult projects as you learned. Occasionally you might assist, or sit in with a big client, but you didn’t start at the top. While you were building your technical skills as an operator, you often learned to make the gear do things it wasn’t intended to do, and learned how to get yourself out of problems and tight spots. That is when you actually became an editor.
So compare this to the newly certified NLE editors that often post here. I only know a couple of these new folks personally, but I read what they post on the FCP and other forums. What the two biggest problems seem to be is that there is a lack of problem solving skills, and overconfidence.
There is a crop of folks out there that can’t build anything from scratch. They have no troubleshooting, or organizational skills. They are so reliant on plugins, and what ‘can the software do’, that they can’t reverse engineer some simple thing they have seen and replicate it on their own. We have all seen these posts. Last week there was even someone looking for a plugin that would find all the dead space in long recordings and cut those chunks out. In my day that plugin was called the editor.
On the overconfidence front, there is at least one a week. New editor, new client, huge project, its due tomorrow and they are stuck. It isn’t that they are asking for advice is the problem. It’s this idea that as a rookie, that certification makes them feel they have the skills to take on huge projects like cutting a feature, or something equally as challenging. And the client thinks they must know what they are doing, because they have some formal training.

It may be painting with a broad brush, and I know there are fine editors with certifications. But I think the whole certification process actually places too much emphasis on the tool and contributes to the ‘short-cut’ mentality prevalent among the many of the new editors. And that is why I’m not a huge fan of the certified editor, or spending the money on certification.

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

[Scott Sheriff]

Timothy,
P1
“I’ve taken some of the courses in Tewksbury and have certifications in a variety of software so I know first hand they may or may not mean anything as far as judging an applicant’s creativity, expertise, or even basic ability.”

P2
“Was it because they “had to”, or were they generally motivated to get better at their craft?”

Interesting how these two statements are in conflict. First paragraph is an admission that certifications are meaningless even for judging basic ability. But the sentence from the second paragraph implies that getting better (or being good) at your ‘craft’, is somehow related to training and certification.
This points out the basic flaw in using certification as a resume’ filter.
It may (most likely IMHO) keep out those that are actually good editors, and let in those that are good at taking tests, or see the world through the IT departments eyes. These type of folks are generally not the best editors, even if they can rattle off every KB shortcut from memory.
Editing is a craft, not a set skill that you can use a benchmark to determine someones ability.
Does a four year Art History Major make you Picasso? No.
Does certification make you an editor? No.
What makes you an editor is your problem solving and decision making skills, your eye, your ear, your style.
None of which can be learned from a certification course.
Problem #2 in using this as a yardstick, is that the world is changing so fast that these courses are probably out of date, by the time you get through them. A good editor will be self-motivated to keep up to date with the latest codecs, and formats on his own, and not waste time on things that are out of date. That wasted time could be better spent actually editing.
And does certification show your desire, or level of motivation?
Perhaps, or perhaps not.
It could just as easily be argued that those who are trying to break in by using certification, are actually less motivated.
Why?
Because they could be seen as looking for a short-cut, or to bypass the ‘pay your dues’ phase of the job, and jump to the front of the line with the least amount of work. And that is where you do the most learning.

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

[Scott Sheriff]

Grinner,
“…all thr trim I could handle.”

LOL, that is an expression I haven’t heard in a long time.

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com