T. Payton
Forum Replies Created
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Without addressing all the issues, I don’t really think this is an improvement with FinalCut per say, but with ProRes. In my view ProRes is what we have needed to unify editing, especially now with alpha channel support, there is little reason to use anything else.
Think about it, we now have a universal editing codec for both video and CG elements – ProRez, and a great delivery codec – h264.
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
I do this all the time for presentaitons, use Compressors “Apple TV’ setting.
The client can put that in Keynote or play it out of iTunes full screen if he does not have QuickTime Pro.
– T.
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
3:1 ratio. Humm. That is interesting.
PowerPoint is weird in that you can’t specify a pixel size for a slide. In the versions I have you can tell it a size in inches, so in “Page Setup” 16 in. x 9 in. should work fine (or 8 in. x 6 in. if you are doing this in SD). Compute a safe area and let them know they will need a margin around the slides.
From there ask the client to “Save As…” the slides as PNGs (or TIFFs). You’ll have more than enough resolution to work with.
However, if you have Apple’s Keynote you can probably do all of this yourself, and the quality of the output will be far superior than the PowerPoint Exports. This is what we do:
No Transitions – We have opened the PowerPoint files in Keynote and made any slight adjustments to the size to fit your video. We also go through and add some drop shadows to text. Then export out a sequence of stills (whatever format you prefer) and then import into FCP.
Transitions – Again size the file in Keynote as needed, adding shadows, etc., then export a QT movie as full resolution ProRez. It will look very good.
Once in FCP, you’ll need to apply some flicker fixing and vertically blur if you are going to broadcast, especially in SD. If this is for web, you’ll probably be fine without any blur. Also make sure you apply the broadcast safe filter because the colors will definitely be illegal.
I hope this helps,
– T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
Another vote for Screen Flow.
It does everything you want. Record from a video source and the screen at the same time. You can zoom, pan, etc. all within the App. You might think $100 to spend is a lot for screen capture software, but you should be charging at least that much an hour and it will save you many, many more hours on your project.
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
One thing we should mention, an Apple TV acts like an iPod. You install the Apple TV on your network, either wired or wireless, and then you’ll access it through iTunes.
You can also “sync” your itunes library with the Apple TV, and even stream from your iTunes library over a network, but in your case it seems a little unnecessary.
I hope this helps,
– T.
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I have to throw and in a couple of more reasons for an Apple TV.
One thing that I don’t think has been mentioned is the fact that you can train the projectionist on the Apple TV quickly. And if something goes wrong they can just pull the plug and restart the Apple TV, much like they can power-cycle a VTR. This is not the case with a MacBook. Also if you put a nice head and tail on your movie, they can switch to another source so the viewers will never see the Apple TV Interface.
Also, if someone “walks off” with your Apple TV, you are only out $250, instead of thousands for a MacBook or MB Pro. I think Apple should actually create a “pro” version of the Apple TV with a projection interface. I think they would sell well.
Regarding color correction, if you have a bit of time I would find a few typical shots (dark shot, medium shot, lightest shot, and balanced scene in your movie and do a number of different gamma corrections (midtones) to create a test strip so to speak. Mark them well, even throw in a screen capture of the scopes and load them up on the Apple TV then play them in the theater and see which one gives the best look. Then based on the scopes of the best correction, do a global correction pass on your movie to match. It will not be perfect, but will be watchable, and won’t cost you much time or money.
– T.
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If the theater is using a digital projector of some kind (they must be doing this) you might consider playing off an Apple TV at 720p.
The apple tv ($200) is probably about the same cost as a HDCAM dub.
T.
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Adam, Thanks for the thought. However, shift field filter was not applied.
This is a new project, started with FCP 6 BTW.
Also, I sent some footage to a friend and he had the same issue.
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque, NM -
All to no avail.
Spots are due right away so I turned field dominice off and went with progressive, and it doesn’t do the excess interlacing.
Something is apparently very much wrong with FCP 6 and interlacing.
– T.
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque, NM -
Jeremy – thanks for the quick reply and the article link. Unfortunately that didn’t apply to my issue.
Concerning the footage types. I’ve got all kinds that it is happening with. Imported JPEGs, imported TIFFS, animation Codec and DV coded.
Thanks,
– T.
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque, NM