Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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[Mark Suszko] “If you never saw the King of The Hill episode about Sturgis, you need to”
Classic…
Hank: It just doesn’t work that way with biker couples. Lumpy and Pepperoni Sue have a great relationship, and she never rides up front. In fact, the spot behind the driver is called the…er…”bitch seat.”
Peggy: What? So then that makes me a —
Hank: No! It’s a motorcycle term, I don’t even think it’s spelled the same.
No wonder my better half won’t ride with me on any of my bikes (I bought her a Vespa to get her used to two wheels… which she loves… but still won’t ride with me two-up).
I’ve seen footage taken from a motorcycle where a rear-passenger was shooting, but sitting backwards on the bike. I’ve always been intrigued by that, but afraid to try it. Looks a bit dangerous.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Thanks for the ideas, guys, there were some tips there we will try.
Dave… it wasn’t within the QuickTime player that we were getting poor results. Every time we made a test file I would throw it back on a Premiere timeline so I could view it on a broadcast monitor. I figured this was the best test of what a file really looked like, or would look like on the air.
Michael… thanks for the detailed info. I will have our editor try your exact specs. I think he has probably pretty much tried that combo, except I belive he was generally using VBR (2 pass) since that is what we normally do. I’ll have him give the CBR option a try.
Tim… yeah, Comcast SHOULD have specs available, but they seem even more fuzzy about the whole thing than I am. We’ll keep pressing them. Funny that you mentioned movie screens… as we’ve been outputting and uploading files to play in cinemas for quite a while with never any trouble… but this has proven to be a whole new can of worms.
I was thinking about this just today when I had to make a Beta dub for a client… which took me about 90 seconds to do and another 15 seconds to put a label on it. I’m thinking it won’t be long before I’m looking back at today as the “good ol’ days.”
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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You know, if it were made today “Dead Men…” wouldn’t be nearly as good… there would be so much compositing and CG voodoo placing Rigby Reardon actually in those old movie scenes that it would destroy the charm.
The beauty of “Dead Men…” was that had none of that… made only with new footage intercut with the old stuff… with clever angles, body doubles, duplicated lighting, and flawlessly recreated sets. And pretty darn seemlessly. Pretty clever story construction, too.
Actually, that movie looks better on TV than it did in the theatre. On the big screen there was a noticeable grain difference in the old footage vs. the new… but on a television screen you barely notice it.
The only thing that bothers me about it is the blaring wall-to-wall music score… which I’m betting was done because 30 years ago (almost) they didn’t have quite the technology we have today that would have allowed them to cleanly remove the music track from the old clips… so a new loud track was overlaid to more or less blot it out.
Still, a great film though…still makes me laugh. The scene where Steve Martin makes the coffee is worth the price of admission alone.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[John Cummings] “Could it be that what looks good projected doesn’t necessarily hold up well after it gets bounced around a few times before it hits the home screen?”
Often often true. Both the acquisition format, personnel, and workflow seem to be of pretty darn high pedigree. Too bad all that work didn’t wind up looking good on the boob tube. Will be interesting to see how much better the Blu-ray is.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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You’ll love it Ron… great foolish foolish fun, especially for the fans of the many movies that it parodies. And Armand Assante, whom you normally do not think of as a funny guy, is hilarious.
Ties with “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” as my two favorite Carl Reiner-directed films.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Is there nothing that can’t be found on the internet??
https://www.vbox7.com/play:40737330?r=google
Morrison (and the real foolishness) starts at 1:23
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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LOVE Van Morrison.
There are few bad moods that a listen to “Brown Eyed Girl” won’t cure.
Although, the song has been ruined forever for me by the image of Armand Assante dancing to the song wearing rolled-up suit pants and bright red ladies’ pumps in the movie “Fatal Instinct” (funny, check it out).
Have you noticed that Van Morrison is one of those people whom is only and always called by his full name? It’s never just “Van,” or “Morrision,” always “VanMorrison”?
Jeepers… I’m rambling today.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Oliver Maingay] “If you are editing uncompressed I would recommend delivering uncompressed, either 10-Bit using a codec such as Blackmagic or 8-Bit if file sizes are an issue. The station can then encode to their MPEG-2 specs”
Yes, we edit uncompressed… but I can’t deliver such gigantic file sizes… our masters are typically 10-bit uncompressed AVI files that are pushing a gig for a :30 spot…. and I’m pretty sure Comcast wouldn’t be able to handle them or the format… they specifically asked for mpeg2 or mov files.
[Oliver Maingay] “you need to contact the network for their specifications”
We have, and they are clueless. They are asking (and requiring) something that they don’t even know how to properly ask for.
It’s frustrating…
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Thanks Vincent…
Most of these are SD delivery projects that started as SD, so the downscaling is not an issue.
I believe my editor tried exporting as a Quicktime Animation, but still had very poor results.
We have just not been able to hit on the right recipe. I’ll pass your notes on to him and see if he has missed anything… I’m trying as well. We’ve had two suites cooking on this for two days and still can’t seem to get acceptable results. Grrrrr.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Mark Suszko] “several different companies that do this sort of thing, not just DG Fastchannel.”
Yeah, I go back two decades with them (God I’m old) back when they were DGS and just doing radio delivery… but haven’t used them in years.
Comcast is just requesting direct FTP delivery. In this particular instance, there’s no point in bringing in (and paying for) DG Fastchannel… if I have to FedEx someone a dub, I might as well just send it right to Comcast rather than a middle-man.
[Mark Suszko] “Have you asked the service you’re considering using for their specific tech preferences yet?”
Yes… well the “service” is Comcast itself, and they couldn’t be sketchier. All we get from them is to send “mpeg2 or .mov files” and to make sure to put plenty of black at the head and tail. Oh, and “You might send a test file, first.” They seem clueless. Obviously not a Bob Zelin client.
[Mark Suszko] “In whch case it may take a few test runs to develop a “recipe” that works best for your specific users.”
That’s the biggest problem. We’ve tried countless setting and output combinations, and can’t find that elusive recipe that works and always looks good.
I know it’s the wave of the future, but right now it’s a big pain in the rear.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com