[Winston A. cely]

I’ve been working doing almost exclusively this type of work for the last 3 almost 4 years. First and foremost, ask the client any questions you have. Trust me, getting your questions answered by the client early on will save you much headaches in the long run. Having said that, I’ll give you some notes on my experience.

For a 30 min long form show, you’re run time is actually 28:30. This is because the station that broadcasts has to have time to put their own disclaimers at the beginning and end of the show.

There are no breaks when you do infomercials. You edit the entire 28:30 from start to end, including the “This has been a paid presentation for the “whatever product” brought to you by “that company,” disclaimers (usually 10 sec long) – This is different from what the station disclaimer is. – There are “breaks” or “commercials within the commercial.” These are called CTA’s, or Call to Actions in long form shows. Usually you’ll have one editor do everything from the body of the show (the part where there’s usually a host) and the CTA sections. But, every now and then, you’ll have one editor do the body (maybe because they have more experience telling a “traditional” story) and you’ll have a second editor do the CTA (maybe because they have more experience doing infomercials and hard sell ads).

In general, infomercials are very graphic/title extensive. You need to be prepared to at the very least use Title 3D in FCP, if not Motion, and then what would probably be better is AE. Although, I’ve never used AE. What I tend to see work is a combination of Title 3D (for simple titles) and Motion (for more intense or animated titles). 3D animation is usually handled off site by a firm that might specialize in 3D animation.

As for those titles, you’ll have a variety of titles. Marketing titles are titles that specifically refer to attributes the product has, and are being spoken by on screen talent or the VO talent. Specialized titles are ones that are more animated, where you really want to grab the attention of the viewer. Other titles will be prices, name keys, etc. A hint for titles; Always make your titles match as closely as possible to what’s being said, and make them come in slightly ahead of the VO (10 frames maybe 15 frames). This makes it easier for the viewer to follow what’s going on, without loosing focus on your talent is saying or the message that’s being given.

If at all possible, get your client to lock your video as much as possible before you begin the title process. Otherwise, you’ll be adding render time and that can greatly increase over the course of editing. The way we try to do it (unfortunately there are exceptions to every rule) is the “offline” process is strictly content driven. Getting all the content you can, into the show, and getting it to time. The second part is called the “online” process because we’re only tweaking video (maybe adding better transitions or cuts) and more importantly the titles and graphics. Usually, the type of video we’ve used (DVCAM) can be ingested at native resolution, and therefore there’s no need for a more traditional offline/online process where you recapture footage after the show’s been edited.

Drop frame or non-drop frame is irrelevant, so long as you keep it consistent from beginning to end, including export of video and OMFs to the audio engineer doing the sweetening. Work with what’s best for the footage and your preference.

These are just a few of the fundimentals. There’s a bunch more and it’s totally worth everyone’s time invloved to have a talk about what specifiically they want from you. Don’t wait to ask and have the conversation after you’ve already started. You’ll be happy you did!

Good luck with the project!

[Winston A. cely]

I’ve noticed this behavior as well. Not necessarily the crashing but the no auto saving part. The only thing that I’ve found to happen consistently when this occurs is that I’ve been working hard-core non-stop editing. Its almost as if I hadn’t been giving FCP enough time to think to auto-save. This doesn’t really help, but at least you know someone else who’s had it happen to them!?!

[Winston A. cely]

That has to be the best end credits ever!

[Winston A. cely]

Same here.

[Winston A. cely]

BTW Here’s a link to a CNET article on the matter:

https://news.com.com/Apple+sides+with+Blu-ray+Disc+in+format+war/2100-1047_3-5608776.html

[Winston A. cely]

I was checking back!

[Winston A. cely]

Oh, wow. I thought Apple supported Blu-Ray, too. That kinda sux. I wanted Blu-Ray, because of it’s larger capacity, even though I’m pretty sure it’s doomed.

[Winston A. cely]

Exactly!!! Very good point!

[Winston A. cely]

I got distracted and forgot to respond to the cpu swaping. That’s one of the best things [swaping the cpus] I’ve heard yet!

[Winston A. cely]

I Love the case design too. I think it looks not only extremely cool, but also very professional.