Making Computer Videos

Here are notes on the process of making video movies using Adobe Premiere and other software.

Make Internet TV.org is a similar site. It's combined with MITVwiki.

Build a Workstation Designed to Edit Digital Video

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Steps to Create a Movie

It usually takes more time than people think. Remember Hollywood's "Heaven's Gate".
1. Plan out a Storyboard. The more you know exactly what you want, the less time you chance to waste. Some prefer 3M post-it notes for posting on a big wall. Others prefer a Word file with tables for ease of update and for sorting on several columns. Use screewriter standard abbreviations

   If you have flat images such as photographs, envision how you want the viewer's eye to pan and zoom into parts of the photograph (like Ken Burns does with his documentaries on the Civil War and other topics).

Screenwriting-on-the-net.com has the best list of links I've seen.

Final Draft

2. Decide on the (technical) formats to be used.

   When you create a new Adobe Premiere project (.ppj) file, select NTSC if you live in North America.
   The timeline exports at default 0.9 DV NTSC or DV PAL 1.067.

   High-end consumer cameras record in 530 pixels for 1280x960 resolution.
   However, select 640x480 for the most flexibility with zooming, or 720x540 for crisper resolution.

   The CCIR-601 digital television standard used by professional digital video equipment, called Main Level, is 720 by 243 by 60 interlaced fields (30 frames) per second. Its chrominance channels are 360 by 243. The source input format for MPEG I, called SIF and Low Level (LL), is CCIR-601 decimated by 2:1, yielding 352 pixels x 240 lines x 30 frames/sec,

   Web phones are usually exported as 240 x 180 at 15 fps, smaller and slower than the conventional 29.97 frame rate. High-budget motion picture film is 24 frames per second. They get "pulled down" to the 30 frames per second NTSC format used by North American television.

   File Types

   These incorporate the video codec with the video: Camatisa Studio, BINK, and SonicDVDit cDVD format.

Video CD (VCD) and Super VCD

To publish video files in CVD or SVCD format to a folder named MPEG2 or MPEGAV on a CD in Adobe Premier, use menu item Export Timeline > MPEG. But note Microsoft's Windows Media Player is known to have audio-video sync and aspect ratio problems playing VCD MPEG-2 files directly from a CD-ROM. Unlike previous versions, Windows XP does not come with a DVD codec.

Resolve this problem by installing a RealOne player or other commercial software DVD Player such as the $50 WinDVD player ($100 for dts) PowerDVD, or Maximus downloaded from cnet.com. So, most importantly, install the MPEG-2 codec downloaded from winsite.com, then run "FreeDVD Codec Installer Version 1.0" program codecinstaller.exe, which registers DllRegisterServer in DVDAudio.ax and DVDVideo.ax.

On the Mac, download and install the VideoLAN client (vlc) developed under open source to read VCDs and encrypted DVDs as well as MPEG and DivX files on OSX10.1, Windows, Linux and other platforms. It can read streams from a network sent by the VideoLAN Server or another source. The streams can be MPEG 2 TS in UDP or HTTP packets unicasted or multicasted on an IPv4 or IPv6 network

Not all DVD players support the SVCD format.

QTPro exports videos using the Sor3 1-pass encoder. If you do a lot of encoding and are willing to spend the bucks SorensonPro3 uses a 2-pass VBR which reduces bandwidth requirements for smaller videos.

Website Streaming

If your audience is on a website ...

Platform	Playback Service	MPEG Compressor	File Format	Procedure for output
Windows	Windows MediaPlayer	MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MP3	*.mpg, *.mpe, *.mp3, *.avi
	QuickTime 5.0 and later	MP3	*.avi
Mac OS	Windows MediaPlayer	MP3	*.mp3
	QuickTime 3.0 and later	MPEG-1	*.mov

DivX = AVI = MPEG4

Get the Microsoft Media Encoder

3. Create creative assets and copy them into a separate folder for the project.
   • Design Title and Credit pages (.prtl files). Select font shadows, textures, and sheens.

   • Scan, Size, and Process Photos.

     Photos should all be 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels high. Retouch and color-correct the image. Images for display on television should not have colors that are too saturated or have important content on the outer edges.

     Images not cropped with the same pixel ratio (4:3 or 16:9) appear distorted in the monitor window until you drag and drop the "Image Pan" video effect filter on top of the still image bar on the timeline. Enable the filter in the Effect Controls palette. A blue line appears above the clip, and the image pan effect.

     If you use stills in Adobe Premiere, enable "Optimize Stills" (off by default) in Project > Project Settings ... > Keyframe and Rendering. To reduce flicker on stills, consider applying "Flicker Reduction" and apply about a .1 - .2 guassian blur.

   • Capture video on Hi-8 or, more preferably, mini-DV tape.
     To avoid disappointment, make sure to have enough lighting and sound.

   • Get .mp3 files by ripping songs from CD's or download from Kazaa. A soundtrack provides emotion texture. Music make video cuts seem more connected.

     Uncompressed .wav files require 250 Mbytes for 40 minutes of mono sound. Compressed .mp3 (MPEG 2 Layer-3) files require 5.5 Mbytes for 40 minutes of 16,000 Hz Mono.

   • Export .jpg from .avi

     To export a jpg file from .avi, pull down menu File > Export Timeline > Frame or press shortcut Ctrl-Shift-M. Save the file as .tiff or .bmp, then open it in Adobe Photoshop. In the Filters menu and Video submenu, choose “deinterlace” to “Eliminate Odd Fields by Interpolation.”

4. Import files into your project's file bin. Adobe Premiere 6 allows for multiple bins.

5. Sequence elements on the timeline by dragging the icon (not the description) of each element onto the video or audio row of the timeline. Use Video 2 and higher to superimpose tracks. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) clips in the Timeline for a menu to choose Speed, etc.

"Creating Video with Adobe Premiere" tutorial from UC Berkeley Multimedia Research Center

Tips on Premiere from Adobe US or au include "Create rolling multicolumn titles"

$32 Adobe Premiere 5.0 Classroom in a Book

Other Photoshop tutorials:

absolutecross.com

mccanas (Corel Draw & PaintShopPro tips as well)

andygraphics.com

bbeckham

6. Edit and Apply Effects. This is perhaps the most time-consuming part of video post-production.

   Adobe Premiere's Effects pallet window includes transition, sound, and audio special effects from Adobe's After Effects product.

   Preview transitions by pressing Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you drag the edit line. Make sure the transition's Track Selector arrow points the correct direction.

   Each effect acts cumulatively on a clip. For example, if you have two clips with the same two people on different sides, you can ensure visual continuity between two clips by applying the horizontal flip effect. This works in addition to the image pan effect applied to the still.

   To work on a specific segment, right-click on other elements and select un-enable clip on timeline so they won't distract you.

   Use the razor tool to cut. To more precisely find positions for making cuts, zoom in the timeline and slowly slide the slider. Right-click on videos to un-link the clip from its audio portion. But to avoid discontinuities, do this on small clips from a video.

   To freeze frame:

   1. Edit (scrub through) the clip on the timeline to find the frame to hold.
   2. Create a Marker 0 at the precise point (press Ctrl-Alt-0) You can hit "Ctrl-0" to go that marker directly.
   3. Copy the clip and paste it next to the original.
   4. Right click the new clip for Video Options -> Frame Hold
   5. Check "Hold On" and set it to "Marker 0".

   To fade to/from black:

   1. File > New > Black video
   2. Apply fade filter.

7. Preview the timeline so that Premiere knows when to generate transition effects on the Monitor. This usually takes a long time and takes a lot of disk space.

   The yellow bar at the top of the Timeline limits what part of the timeline is to be rendered. Red spots on the bar identify the frames of video that need rendering.

   File space management

   As you make changes, obsolete preview files remain in the folder. So before archiving your project files, it's a good idea to save your project to an new file name, then not copy the preview files.

   After you save your file to a new .ppj file, make room for new preview files by deleting folders for obsolete Adobe Premiere Preview Files.

   Store captured files to a project folder in a separate from Adobe's Program Files folder.

8. Export
• If you publish CD's, design and print CD covers. Files exported in MP3 (or new VQF) encoding take time to download, but can be played off-line.

• If you publish your file on a website, link viewers to a html file that also provides a link users can download the client to play that file, such as to Apple for its Quicktime client plug-in for .avi files and Yamaha for its .VQF player.

  If you host mp3 files, provide users .m3u locator files which contain a "play-list" of files in a given location. A web server will streams .mp3 files if it has been setup to associate file extensions .m3u and .mp3. http://www.deliveryourmedia.com/article-audio-primer-5.html Special software is needed to convert media into streaming media. Special software is also used to host the files on on web servers.

  Use RealSystem Helix Producer software to create .ram RealVideo files.

9. Duplicate and distribute your work.
• YouTube
• video.google.com

Download the FLV (Adobe Flash) file for the URL to a YouTube page at Keepvid.com (thanks to saensu).

Upload a FLV (flash) file and upload its MP3 at media-convert.com

Brian Maffitt of Total Training offers training videos on Adobe Premiere

Adobe digital motion video tutorials

Video Editing Software

• Adobe Premiere
• Sonic Vegas Video
• Ulead Media Studio
• AIST MoviePack
• Apple Final Cut Pro

• Microsoft Movie Maker (bundled with Windows Me+)
• Apple iMovie (bundled with iMac DV)

• MGI VideoWave (4 million shipped)
• Ulead Video Studio, Pinnacle Studio, Sonic Video Factory
• Media 100 / Digital Origin FreeDV, EditDV

  $599 Terran Media Cleaner 5 for Video Compression & Enhancement

  Web Authoring

• RealNetworks RealProducer 8 (Basic free, Plus $150) Inputs: AVI, QuickTime, MPEG-1, Wave, MP3, AIFF, AU
• Apple QuickTime Player Pro (free, Pro $30)
• Microsoft Windows Media On-Demand Producer (free)

Cameras

Format Name	Frame size (height x width)	Aspect Ratio
Imax "15/70" Large Format	52mm x 70mm
35mm theatre film	17.5mm x 21mm

An analog TV cannot display progressive-scan DVD media or HDTV signals, which are digital.

So, ATSC tuners are needed to receive on-air HDTV broadcasts. But FTC requires new TVs to have this.

The older "1080" HDTV format (used by CBS, NBC, HDNet, and others) displays 1080 horizontal lines, each with 1920 pixels, using two variations:

The "p" in "1080p" is for "progressive scan" presentation.

The "i" in "1080i" is for "interlaced" presentation, where 540 odd lines are written, then 540 even lines.

The older "480p" is for EDTV (Enhanced-Definition TV) plasma TVs which display HDTV signals at 852x480 pixels.

The newer "720p" HDTV production format (adopted by ABC for HDTV Monday Night Football and MS Media Center and XBox 360) has 720 horizontal lines, each with 1280 pixels.

Get HDTV with a DVI/HDCP (Digital Visual Interface/ High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection)

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) connections digitally carries high-bandwidth video signals and 8 channel audio, plus control signals.

Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) trains professionals to calibrate televisions,

Plasma TVs are cheaper to make, but are more susceptible to "burn-in" than LCD panels.

Lights

Light Source	Degrees Kelvin
Single candle burning	1930
25-250W Household incandescent lamp	2600-2900
500-1000W Studio tungsten lamp	3000
2000W Studio tungsten lamp	3275
Quartz/tungsten halogen lamp	3400
Potoflood	3400
Fluorescent lamps	3000-6500
Sunrise & sunsets	2000-3000
1 hour after sunrise	3500
Sunless daylight	4500-4800
Midday sun	5000-5400
Overcast sky	6800-7800
Hazy sky	8000-9000
Clear blue north sky	10000-20000

Foot candles?

Wattage and ampage

Sound

Sound Source	Loudness amplitude Decibels (db)
Outdoor silence	10
Quiet whisper	20
Normal conversation	60
Airplane cabin	80
Heavy traffic	85
Niagara Falls	95
Prop. plane taking off	110
Jet plane taking off	125
loudest measurable	194

When editing, adjust volume up/down gradually -- slightly before strategic points in the video.

Lead in with sound to help the audience anticipate the next scene.

In Premiere, open up the audio by clicking the arrow. Click the red line to create an inflection point, which is pulled above or below the dark green line to raise or lower the volume.

Almost every TV sold today has MTS stereo reception and stereo speakers.

Graphic equalizers have markings for hertz and db. One sound mastering technique to make sounds "clearer" is to boost 4kHz by 2-3db, because most humans notice difference in volume every 3 db.

The sound spectrum audible to most humans is from a low Bass of 20 hz to a high of 20,000 Hz (20kHz - kilohertz). Thuds from a subwoofer is about 50-70hz. Human speech (vocals) are around 1-2kHz.

The octave of Western music is subdivided into 12 notes equally spaced on a logarithmic scale, beginning with 220 Hz.

$250 Cool Edit from Syntrillium transforms sound files for noise reduction and other feats.

Voice remover plug-in for DirectX and WinAmp.

This toilet flush sounds three dimensional from only two speakers because it was processed by the NuReality Vivid 3D(tm) system, which adds indirect ambient sound to recreate the "live" feeling of the original performance. It's based on the work of Arnold Klayman who completed SRS (Sound Retrieval System) technology in 1988 after 10 years of research at Hughes Aircraft Corporation.

Sampleswap is a free site enabling electronic musicians to share their original sounds and music.

AudioDub

Camtasia videos use Camstudio Lossless codec of Lame MP3 audio .avi file compression at 22050 Hz 32 kbps ABR, Mono 4KB/s.

Note in Octave	-	Frequency Hertz (Hz)
A	La	220 = 220 . 20/12
A#	-	233 = 220 . 21/12
B	Te	247 = 220 . 22/12
Middle C	Do	262 = 220 . 23/12
C#	-	277 = 220 . 24/12
D	Re	294 = 220 . 25/12
D#	-	311 = 220 . 26/12
E	Mi	330 = 220 . 27/12
F	Fa	349 = 220 . 28/12
F#	-	370 = 220 . 29/12
G	So	392 = 220 . 210/12
G#	-	415 = 220 . 211/12
A	La	440 = 220 . 212/12
B	Te	494
C	Do	523

Action

Screenwriting Abbreviations

Abbreviation	Meaning
INT	Interior
EXT	Exterior
F/U	Fade up
CU	Closeup
WS	Waist shot
LS	Long shot
POV	Point of view
O/S	Over shoulder
LD	Lock down camera on tripod

In "Hollywood", camera angles and shots are specified by the director, not the screenwriter. Including them in a screenplay may detract from its rhythm and readability.

Still Pan and Zoom

Any .jpg or .bmp file that does not have a 4:3 pixel ratio should use Adobe's "Image Pan" video effect.

To achieve the "Pan and Zoom" effect where the camera seems to move around an image, define beginning and ending keyframes. Key frames specify what the camera sees at various points in time. Premiere then uses OpenGL software in real time to smoothly interpolate pixels from one key frame onto the next.

1. Select the clip on the timeline
2. Drag the "Image Pan" icon from the Transitions Effects pane (on the lower right by default).
3. Enable the effect: In the Effect Controls window, click the box next to the words "Image Pan" to make the stopwatch icon appear.
4. Position to the beginning frame by clicking the left arrow on the left pane.
5. Click "Setup" and define the portion of the still the camera sees. Close the window. To define the screen size, type in a vertical size number smaller than the one shown. Premiere automatically selects a horizontal number befitting the pixel ratio (640x480, 720x480, etc.). Drag the outline to position it in place. To maintain the aspect ratio while sizing the outline, hold the ALT button down while dragging the outline's corner viewpoints.
6. Position to the ending frame by clicking the right arrow on the left pane.
7. Click "Setup" and define the portion of the still the camera sees. Close the window.

A 10 minute finished movie takes 2GB of hard disk space.

At 4 MB/sec. a firewire connection would take 50 minutes to transfer.

This tutorial from Peachtree Press explains Pan and Zoom.

To enhance DVD-Video with DV-ROM or internet connectivity, use PC Friendly or Player 2.0 from InterActual.

Several companies have refined the interface by combining both pan and zoom tools into an single (easier to use) interface, including real-time previews:

StageTools' MovingPicture Adobe Premiere plug-in for pan and zoom of high-res digital flat images.

Imaginate (from Canopus Corp) uses the model of moving a virtual camera over the image versus a fixed camera and moving objects.

Video Factory from Sonic Foundry

$59 Video Vegas

Webcams

Higher network bandwidth allows you finer resolution, more frequent updates, and archives.

This picture (.jpg file) is from a Logicam "eyeball" camera, which captures at a resolution of 640x480 pixels.

Such a resolution is what is obtained by camera phones.

$10 Conquercam and $39 digi-watcher periodically captures and FTPs images to websites. Its many features include a motion detector that can email an .avi movie of the movements detected.

cinema verite —a French phrase meaning "cinema truth", for the art of film so as to convey candid realism.

DVD Media

There are two different types of DVD-R (write-once) media:

• DVD-R for Authoring (635 nm wavelength recording sensitivity) for "professional" applications.
• DVD-R for General (650 nm wavelength recording sensitivity) for consumers. This uses CSS (Content Scrambling System) copy-protection scheme controlled by the DVD Copy Control Association. In Dec. 2003 the Norwegian appeals court upheld Jon Lech Johansen's acquittal for his DeCSS program.
• CD-R (780 nm wavelength recording sensitivity)

DVD readers can read two types of DVD-R media (created by different burning hardware):

• "1X" DVD transfer rate, equivalent to 11.08 Mbps (megabits per second), -- about 9 times that of CD-R -- will create a 3.95 GB DVD disk in 50 minutes and a 4.7 GB DVD in an hour.
• Cutting Master Format (CMF) containing DDP (Disc Description Protocol) header on the 4.7GB Authoring media makes it a direct replacement for DLT master tapes for duplication. DVD-R uses the "UDF Bridge" (Universal Disk Format) file system that also supports older ISO-9660 used by CD-ROM. The minimum size is 32KB because that's the Error correction code (ECC) block size.

Recording begins from the inner radius out.

It looks like losing the VHS-Betamax format gave Sony the drive it needed.
Sony's aggressive marketing deals have pretty much won the High Definition DVD format war.
At the end of 2007, all the movie studios except Paramount announced they are going with Blu-Ray.
Blockbuster is Blue-Ray. End of story.
Part of the payoff for Sony is increased sales of PlayStation 3, which has a Blu-Ray player.

How to rip DVD to avi using the XviD movie codec and downlaod
DVDx

HandBrake is freeware that turns a DVD into MPEG-4 files on PC hard disks. It also grabs audio from MPEG audio tracks and outputs digital files in MPEG-4, AVI, OGM for video, or AAC, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis audio.

"There are some very nice extras in here, such as being able to select individual DVD chapters, grabbing subtitles, and more. You get plenty of control over your recording, including selecting the bit rate, maximum file size for video, and bit rate and sample rate for audio."

Showing videos on you website

The megabucks acquisition of YouTube by Google makes video the current darling of startup technologies. So this list is probably outdated. So I appreciate your help on more current information.

YouTube has the "first mover" advantage of having the widest audience (currently). Several people (lonelygirl) have become famous (for 15 minutes) when bloggers talk about it.

However, popularity has its downside. brightcove, viddler, and video egg provide a more "professional" look and feel for a more serious vibe.

For hi-definition quality, consider div-x.

YouTube has the infrastructure of streaming servers to make it fast. But metacafe is also known to be fast.

Hosting: http://www.wikifortio.com/

http://video.google.com/ provides a way for visitors to download to video iPod/Sony PSP.

Bubble Guru provides AJAX script that pops up a video on your site.

Video cartoon saying speech-synthesized text in your server.

GodTube, like YouTube, for Christians.