Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
mojo1701a
Oct 9, 2008

Oh, yeah. Loud and clear. Emphasis on LOUD!
~ David Lee Roth

bassguitarhero posted:

BTW, does anybody teach Final Cut? I'm going in for an interview to teach FCP & general video production to youngsters - I used to do it at a film school in London, but that was more that I'd been hired for other stuff and sort of moved into teaching a few classes here and there.

I taught it last year during my last year at university as a TA to some first-years.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

mojo1701a
Oct 9, 2008

Oh, yeah. Loud and clear. Emphasis on LOUD!
~ David Lee Roth

Momonari kun posted:

Well, with reels/scripts/resumes/whatever, I always think that the person watching it is of the mindset of "any little thing off is a reason to choose someone else". I'd try brightening the clips a bit. If there's noise, it probably won't be too bad, especially on Youtube.

So I've tried brightening, and it really does look like absolute poo poo. I mean, I can try upping the contrast or whatever, but because two of these videos are 480p already, it's going to be tricky.

Momonari kun
Apr 6, 2002
Yes, you needed video.

mojo1701a posted:

So I've tried brightening, and it really does look like absolute poo poo. I mean, I can try upping the contrast or whatever, but because two of these videos are 480p already, it's going to be tricky.

Well, even if they have to stay dark, I'd still try to match the colors on the shots in the first video. The one shot two shot cut is really jarring as is.

cubicle gangster
Jun 26, 2005

magda, make the tea
Anyone here tried lightworks yet? They're making it free and open source.

http://www.lightworksbeta.com/

Our server is down for the morning in work so i'm giving it a go now :)

EnsGDT
Nov 9, 2004

~boop boop beep motherfucker~

cubicle gangster posted:

Anyone here tried lightworks yet? They're making it free and open source.

http://www.lightworksbeta.com/

Our server is down for the morning in work so i'm giving it a go now :)

That looks pretty...OSX release scheduled for 2011, guess I have to wait.

mojo1701a
Oct 9, 2008

Oh, yeah. Loud and clear. Emphasis on LOUD!
~ David Lee Roth

Momonari kun posted:

Well, even if they have to stay dark, I'd still try to match the colors on the shots in the first video. The one shot two shot cut is really jarring as is.

I just got rid of it completely. I just... couldn't do anything. I put in another clip that's not dark.

Anyway, here's the second draft. I switched around the videos and put the full lighting project on there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd-rjkXUCHo

Momonari kun
Apr 6, 2002
Yes, you needed video.
Sorry I'm late replying, but I think it flows much better now. I checked it again on my home computer, and the new one is not quite as dark as I thought it was, but it's still darker than I'd like.

I don't really like the scene you put in place of the priest and boy scene, though. The older kid actor's head is cut off, and there really is only one or two cuts. Also, since I'm on a better setup now, I can really understand about the bad sound. There are a number of missing/muffled sounds. I know you didn't do the sound, but in some cases (the missing hit sound from when the heavier kid throws the egg, the weak slap sound), I think you may need to add something else in there.

The two other pieces are much stronger, as they are really all about the editing, and they aren't overshadowed by production problems.

Edit:

Here's my updated reel, if anybody's interested:

http://vimeo.com/17528472

It's a bit more polished now. I took out a few scenes and trimmed down what was there.

Momonari kun fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Dec 7, 2010

MMD3
May 16, 2006

Montmartre -> Portland
A friend is throwing a Tron themed party and asked me to edit together some footage from old and new together into a loop to be projected on the wall.

Unfortunately I haven't done any video editing in a number of years so I'm running into some road blocks right off the bat.

I figured apple.com/trailers would be the best source of footage from the new Tron so I downloaded some clips and tried to import them into Premiere Pro but no such luck... same problem with iMovie apparently.

Can someone tell me if it's just because they're h264 compressed? I can't think of any other way to get decent footage that I could edit but it'd be good to know if there's a plugin I can get to be able to import these before I go off tracking down other sources.

Any help would be much appreciated.

1st AD
Dec 3, 2004

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: sometimes passing just isn't an option.
Can't you just throw them into Adobe Media Encoder and transcode to MPEG? Or even better, if you have access to Toast you can transcode to Apple Intermediate Codec for use in iMovie.

bassguitarhero
Feb 29, 2008

MMD3 posted:

Any help would be much appreciated.

Maybe try opening them in Mpeg Streamclip and export to another format. Are you working on PC or Mac?

Also maybe try downloading the files from another site like youtube, a high-quality trailer on their site might still be worth using once it's transcoded.

butterypancakes
Aug 19, 2006

mmm pancakes
They are h.264. If it's destined for a DVD you could just take it to DV 16x9.

Balzac
Sep 20, 2001
Premiere CS5 has native h.264 support. I'd just download the 30-day trial and work from that.

butterypancakes
Aug 19, 2006

mmm pancakes

Balzac posted:

Premiere CS5 has native h.264 support. I'd just download the 30-day trial and work from that.

Not for all levels of h.264

MMD3
May 16, 2006

Montmartre -> Portland

bassguitarhero posted:

Maybe try opening them in Mpeg Streamclip and export to another format. Are you working on PC or Mac?

Also maybe try downloading the files from another site like youtube, a high-quality trailer on their site might still be worth using once it's transcoded.

apparently I'm a complete idiot... I had downloaded the quicktime containers. Hadn't installed QT Pro on my new system before this so I was trying to load the reference files (which show up as .mov) into Premiere. Once I downloaded the actual files I was able to edit them no problem.

although then the problem that arose is that once I burned to mpeg2 and authored to dvd it looked really horrible. I'll just have to figure out a better way to get the files on dvd without compromising the quality too much next time.

LividLiquid
Apr 13, 2002

Finally, a place for this question:

Is there any decent video editing software that's free? Nothing fancy at all. I'm talking something that can cut together standard wide/close/coverage from a Mino HD together and add recorded audio from a different device. This is just for dumb little internet comedy videos and I'm honestly shocked that there's no open-source or freeware option out there. Googling "free video editing software" just turned up a bunch of poo poo that's been discontinued or doesn't work on modern systems.

Windows Movie Maker blows and the Vista version doesn't even support MP4, which is what the Mino uses.

Kolchak
May 3, 2006

If I don't tell this story now, I don't think I ever will.
Ten posts up:

cubicle gangster posted:

Anyone here tried lightworks yet? They're making it free and open source.

http://www.lightworksbeta.com/

LividLiquid
Apr 13, 2002

Kolchak posted:

Ten posts up:
:doh: Thank you. Thread's two drat pages. Not sure how I missed that.

Edit: Whoa. Complicated. Can't even figure out how to open my timeline or tracks.

LividLiquid fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Dec 20, 2010

1st AD
Dec 3, 2004

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: sometimes passing just isn't an option.
Does anyone know what Facebook's bitrate cap is set at? I've tried uploading various flavors of SD and HD videos and it always looks like poo poo compared to the high-bitrate H264 video that I upload from.

cubicle gangster
Jun 26, 2005

magda, make the tea

LividLiquid posted:

Edit: Whoa. Complicated. Can't even figure out how to open my timeline or tracks.

Theres a user guide on their site in the downloads section.


I've used it a little now and I really like it. Crashes quite a bit though, save continuously. Ridiculous amount of potential in it though.

Smoking_Dragon
Dec 12, 2001

WOE UNTO THEE
Pillbug
I have to make a DVD out of some training sessions I video taped. I work at a construction company and the DVD will be for maintenance workers so it will be pretty simple. I'm looking for something that can do DVD menus and isn't overly complex.

The Affair
Jun 26, 2005

I hate snakes, Jock. I hate 'em!

Smoking_Dragon posted:

I have to make a DVD out of some training sessions I video taped. I work at a construction company and the DVD will be for maintenance workers so it will be pretty simple. I'm looking for something that can do DVD menus and isn't overly complex.

Which platform? Mac or PC?

On a Mac, iDVD is pretty straightforward, just drag and drop your media onto the premade templates and it does most of the work for you. With a little practice, DVD Studio Pro can get some great results, too, and is not at all complicated once you understand how everything needs to be connected.

butterypancakes
Aug 19, 2006

mmm pancakes
Encore would also work.

Smoking_Dragon
Dec 12, 2001

WOE UNTO THEE
Pillbug

The Affair posted:

Which platform? Mac or PC?

On a Mac, iDVD is pretty straightforward, just drag and drop your media onto the premade templates and it does most of the work for you. With a little practice, DVD Studio Pro can get some great results, too, and is not at all complicated once you understand how everything needs to be connected.

PC

Since I work for a construction company in central Florida anything free or with a trial period would be best.

1st AD
Dec 3, 2004

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: sometimes passing just isn't an option.
This will sound retarded, but goddamn where the hell has Color been all my life? Work is a bit slow at the moment so I just tagged along to one of my friends photo shoots, shot some video and really dove into Color's interface. Having RGB curves and secondaries with trackable masks really makes a difference in making as precise a grade as I want.

One question I have though, is there any way to transform a mask shape as a clip is moving, or to manipulate the distance from which it's anchored to your tracking point from frame to frame? I don't see any keyframe tools in the interface, and that would be helpful when I'm isolating a moving object like someone's face.

butterypancakes
Aug 19, 2006

mmm pancakes
Color only has a one point tracker, so you can't track how something scales or rotates. You can add keyframes to a user shape once it's assigned back to your secondary. Adding a keyframe is control+9.

TheBigBad
Feb 28, 2004

Madness is rare in individuals, but in groups, parties, nations and ages it is the rule.

1st AD posted:

I do event videography, mostly for the local clubs and some magazines, and for some reason I see legions of unpaid videographers sporting 7D's or 5D's with 50mm primes even when they're impractical. Everyone talks poo poo about my HMC40, but I've paid for it several times over in 9 months of usage, and after something like 30 shoots, I've had a grand total of 1 client complain about image quality.

I have access to 5DmkII's and a collection of fast primes, but they are really unwieldy to use in the types of shoots that are my bread and butter.

I just shot on the HMC40 for the first time. I was amazed... Its perfect for videography.

TheBigBad
Feb 28, 2004

Madness is rare in individuals, but in groups, parties, nations and ages it is the rule.
The head of my post-production department at my Alma Mater adheres to the philosophy that the language of film editing hasn't changed much in 100 years. It has simply just gotten faster.

Sure there are stand out examples of exceptions but by in large would you guys agree?

butterypancakes
Aug 19, 2006

mmm pancakes
That seems like a huge over simplification. Watch something like White Christmas and then watch Breathless. They are very different films, only 6 years apart, but it's not the pace of the cut that makes them different. For the most part Breathless is slower.

There are plenty of films and TV shows that aren't cut fast. Bullitt is just as fast as many action films today.

Ishamael
Feb 18, 2004

You don't have to love me, but you will respect me.

butterypancakes posted:

That seems like a huge over simplification. Watch something like White Christmas and then watch Breathless. They are very different films, only 6 years apart, but it's not the pace of the cut that makes them different. For the most part Breathless is slower.

There are plenty of films and TV shows that aren't cut fast. Bullitt is just as fast as many action films today.

Yeah, but he said "the language of editing", not the pace. We are still using techniques from Griffith and Welles, no one has really invented much in the way of new editing.

I guess you could say something like Timecode, where you have a split-screen real-time edit, but that is more of a gimmick than a new style of editing.

1st AD
Dec 3, 2004

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: sometimes passing just isn't an option.
Excuse me sir, I make liberal use of the page peel, star wipe, and water ripple transitions, I'd like to see Griffith's editor do THAT :colbert:

bassguitarhero
Feb 29, 2008

Editing hasn't changed because the language of storytelling hasn't changed. We're still using the same senses to tell story in the same way, so if you want to get that large as a concept, language as a vehicle for conveying ideas hasn't really changed, either.

We've still got the same 5 senses and they're used in the same way. You can't telepathically put a story in someone's head (yet), although you can sort of broadcast audio into people's heads, but they're still going to interpret them in the same manner. We can't travel through time and our perception of the universe is still based on a single linear perspective, so there's not really a whole lot new in the ways we can communicate with each other.

Movies like Memento probably come the closest to challenging traditional storytelling narrative, but then it's still based on the audience putting the film together in a linear, time-forward fashion in order to make sense of the story.

Smell-o-vision never took off and having something in the theatre to physically interact with (like from Captain Neo or the other Disney 3D films) can't be recreated at home, so you're still stuck with basically one vehicle for conveying a story.

EDIT: DVD did bring about a change in some parts of editing language, along with video games, where there's more of an interactive story. I made a DVD in film school in which you saw an intro, then there was a screen with 6 choices and you could pick which scene to watch next. Building in those sorts of story choices and trying to direct the audience to choose a particular path while allowing them to do others MIGHT fall under a change of editing language but I'm not sure if that still falls under editing.

bassguitarhero fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Dec 30, 2010

Unexpected EOF
Dec 8, 2008

I'm a Bro-ny!

bassguitarhero posted:

Seriously. A buddy of mine from college just bought a 5D and won't shut the gently caress up about how much better it is than my HVX.

Okay yeah your camera that came out in the last year is better than my HVX I've had for 5 years. Duh. But I've also paid for the camera a dozen times over and shot movies across the world. So I don't need some waiter with his new DSLR talkin poo poo about my camera

And of course you get piles of insufferable morons who post job ads who ONLY want a DP with their own 5D so they can do every single shot with a ridiculous DoF.

But that's the industry for ya

Good god, I know this post is ancient but this is something that always pisses me off and is only related to your post in the name of a single product.

I loving hate people who just got an HVX camera and expect me to fix all of their footage because they don't realise how much light the thing eats up. This obviously doesn't apply to you since you give me the impression that you know how to use your camera, but every so often I get some student coming to me with some HVX footage they want me to comp something into and goddamnit poo poo gently caress I can't fix your footage because you hosed up.

Basically, I'd really like it if people made sure they were properly lighting their shots and maybe used a monitor instead of the really inaccurate LCD the HVX has.

Ishamael
Feb 18, 2004

You don't have to love me, but you will respect me.

1st AD posted:

Excuse me sir, I make liberal use of the page peel, star wipe, and water ripple transitions, I'd like to see Griffith's editor do THAT :colbert:

But what about the naked lady wipes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1OVWfmynPw&t=48s

bassguitarhero
Feb 29, 2008

Unexpected EOF posted:

Basically, I'd really like it if people made sure they were properly lighting their shots and maybe used a monitor instead of the really inaccurate LCD the HVX has.

It took me a really long time to get used to that LCD. I had to go through a lot of bad shoots before I really learned how it works and how it translates to real screens. I'd be better off buying an actual monitor but until I can get one, I've figured that if you push it until the image just starts to wash out, you're almost at peak.

I think it over-reports color to try to make up for the bad resolution, I'm not sure. But either way, that's been my eyeball technique and it's been holding thus far.

1st AD
Dec 3, 2004

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: sometimes passing just isn't an option.
Why not just get used to looking at the EVF + waveform/vectorscope?

Unexpected EOF
Dec 8, 2008

I'm a Bro-ny!

1st AD posted:

Why not just get used to looking at the EVF + waveform/vectorscope?

Because on the HVX it is a notorious piece of poo poo. I love the camera to death when somebody knows how to shoot with one but 90% of the time when I get footage from one it's a trainwreck. The worst time for me was when somebody used an adapter kit to attach another lens to it and the adapter+lens combo ended up eating another stop. It was just so loving dark I had to wonder why nobody noticed.

Protip
Sep 24, 2002

I am the Walrus.

I wasn't sure where to ask this, but this thread seems good a place as any: I'm getting a little more serious about my video editing having recently picked up a Panasonic SD60, so I'm at the point where I want something more powerful than Windows Movie Maker for editing. I've downloaded and installed a few trials (Premiere Elements Pro and Sony Movie Studio HD, I'll also be trying out Lightworks thanks to this thread) to see which piece of starter software works best for me but I've run into a snag I hadn't considered before.

When editing the compressed AVCHD m2ts files each program I use starts to lag when playing back the video. This makes it very hard to edit since I can't actually see what the video looks like as I go along. After talking to a friend of mine who is more into editing than I he suggested I may just have to convert my files to a more standard format first so the programs won't have to deal with the compressed format on the fly.

Does anyone have any recommendations for programs that will do the video conversion with as minimal loss to quality as possible? Or any other suggestions to improve the editing experience?

I have a 3ghz dual core PC with 4gigs of RAM, so I'm not too concerned about my computer's abilities. I guess the only real problem is I'm running an ATI video card since I just learned Nvidia cards are necessary for GPU rendering (at least with premiere).

1st AD
Dec 3, 2004

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: sometimes passing just isn't an option.
Not sure about their consumer line, but Panasonic's prosumer AVCHD cameras all come with a Windows app that will convert AVCHD to DVCPROHD. And if you want to edit AVCHD natively, I think you need 4 or more cores to be able to do it in real time

Protip
Sep 24, 2002

I am the Walrus.

Unfortunately the HD Writer software that came with the SD60 only has the option to convert to mpeg2 format, and it converts it into a standard format instead of widescreen, so it doesn't really work for me. I did just try Avidemux 2.5, which at the settings I used seemed to output the video at a high quality but the audio lost sync. Still looking for something that will do the job a little better, and it would be nice if I could automate a batch to convert a bunch of videos at once since they are all broken up into individual clips off of the camera.

I know I won't be able to edit in AVCHD natively, and given how many consumer cameras use this format you'd think finding something to convert it to an easily editable format would be simple, especially given that most consumers aren't going to have the processing power to edit AVCHD natively (like me!).

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Cubemario
Apr 3, 2009
It's fairly complex, but SUPER is quite effective (and free) for video conversion and I've had very good success with it and it has many options available. The main problem I've found however is it's kind of slow and it's interface is truly awful - but it works just like Buckley's.

As far as converting something, it's often not easy just because of the nature of codecs. I'm sure one day you'll be glad when you can edit most things in native formats, it's a lot less time spent. However for now you'll have to endure the hardships of re-encoding video.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply