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 Different
Forms of Layoff for Stages of Editing
From the Earliest Stages to that Final Output
by Daniel Gaucher
... Continued
1. Compressed QuickTime Movie: This is usually
used during a rough cut to fine cut stage. It is low quality,
easy to transfer via email, microdrive or FTP, and only illustrative
of the pacing of the edit, not of the picture quality. The most
common method of output is to set in and out points on your timeline
(either a section or the entire piece if completed), render all,
and go to File/Export. Save as an MPEG4 (improved), for wide compatibility,
with 320x240 scaling at 300kps. Set for 15fps with deinterlacing
(or “single field”) on if possible. If you are in widescreen you
may need switch to regular MPEG4 to adjust to 320x180 with preserve
ratio on. These settings have worked for me before, but technology
and compatibility are always improving, so research blogs or experiment
for settings that suit you best. Your file size should be about
3MB/minute of edited video. It is now common when I work for History
Channel or Discovery to send cuts-in-progress this way for review
via FTP.
2. MPEG2 for DVD: This stage is often used for
a fine cut approval, where picture quality is of importance, especially
if graphics have been placed. Most NLE’s come with this output
setting as a menu option under File/Export. You will either make
a QuickTime “shell” for your output, similar to a reference movie
where the DVD authoring program will still need to encode the
actual media files, or you may actually output an MPEG2 file directly,
the format needed to play on consumer DVD players. Either way,
you will need an authoring program to create menus and burn a
playable DVD. This format begins to reflect good picture quality,
but remember… It is still a compressed format and is not acceptable
as a master layoff.
3. Uncompressed QuickTime Movie: This setting
shows up under “File/Export/Send to QT Movie” (AVID) or “File/Export/QuickTime
Movie” in Final Cut. The idea here is to get an uncompressed movie,
also called same-as-source, into a stand-alone file, which can
then be re-imported into a NLE or graphics program with no loss
of quality. It also serves as a digital archive file. The only
problem… File size is quite large and will require it to be stored
on a hard drive. This item is usually included in the dreaded
“deliverables” and is expected by the client.
4. Layoff to Tape: In this brave new world of
HD and variable frame rates, layoff to tape has become much more
complicated than ever before. Basically there are three questions
you need to ask yourself. First, is this 720 or 1080 HD? Secondly,
is this interlace or progressive? Finally, is this 23.98, 29.97
or 59.94 frames per second? These questions should properly have
come up before you digitized any material. At this point, however,
you have to make sure you know what format you need to master
in. Case in point, on my last job we were going to master in 720p
at 23.98fps. This required a Panasonic DVCPRO HD deck, which we
rented. At the last minute the client decided that a 1080p layoff
would be better, so the Panasonic deck went back and was switched
out for a Sony HDCAM SR deck. We then had to make adjustments
to both the output of the video card and the editing program.
We discovered one timeline had been improperly created at a 59.94fps
rate, forcing us to rerender the entire timeline to make it compatible
also. In the end, footage from different sources, incompatible
frame rates, and different resolutions all combined to eat up
an entire day of online as we corrected our own mistakes to make
the final output work.
Continued on Next Page...
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