Completely new to video

bluesfordan

Member
apart from some messing with camcorders back in the late '80s and early '90s, I have zero experience in video. I should ameliorate that statement with a college course of video production I took. But we really didn't get to do all that much in class that was our own personal production, it was all group and on analog video equipment, no computer involvement at all.

No, this is my first attempt at the ubiquitous music video of guitar in chair in front of camera. iPhone SE. Pair of SM57. UMC404HD interface. Mac Mini. QuickTime.

a nearly 6 minute video was almost 900 MB in size. I'm going to take a wild guess that i don't need to be recording at such resolution.

I want to be able to look at what I did while playing, find the bits and pieces that I want to work up into compositions. I'll have to go back to the other computer and see what I did, but I think it was in HD. That right there probably accounts for a lot of that 900 MB. The vast majority of the footage won't be kept.

After making sure I'm in SD, what's my next step in reducing the file size per minute?
 
In QuickTime, there are two options, HD and medium, whatever that is. I tried medium last night and I dunno, a shorter video still took over 800 MB.

Another video app, maybe?
 
Are you saying the original video format is that? What's the iPhone format set to?

I'd start with 1080p HD at 30fps and then render to 720p unless you've got something spectacular that needs the detail. Plus, it gives you some room to do cropping without ending up with a really fuzzy result.

The size seems a little high. I just looked at a video I made of a couple kids at an open mic and it's about 2.5m. At 720p the size is only 125MB. Keep in mind the amount of squishing that can be accomplished does depend to some degree on the video content and quality settings in the movie software.

Have you tried iMovie (assuming you're on a Mac)? "Share" to an Apple device at 720p gives about the most compact result IME. (Of course, if you want it really small, upload to YouTube and then download it again. No idea what they do, but it's pretty minimalist.)
YouTube
P.S. The video here was shot with an old camcorder at 1080p, AVCHD.
 
There is definitely a learning to curve with video. File format, compression, resolution, frame rate, and picture size seems to be the most obtuse. Do an hour or two of reading to get an understanding.

Purchase a video editor. You can find deals on Adobe Premiere Elements or Sony Vegas Home Studio. They aren't expensive and will do most everything you want, plus provide some guidance along the way. And they will format the video for uploading to the internet.

As it is in audio, getting a good video starts with having a good source. Lighting, location, props, lighting (again), people in front of the camera, and lighting. Get all that stuff the way you want it, then shoot the video. Shoot multiple times from different angles. Try to tell a story, maybe it's related to the song, maybe it isn't. Add in B-Roll to make it interesting.

After making sure I'm in SD, what's my next step in reducing the file size per minute?
File size per minute kinda doesn't make sense, but none-the-less. You want a small file size; look at converting your videos to MP4s. 900MB for a 6 minute video does not sound too big to me. I'd expect a lot larger file for 6 minutes.
 
... File size per minute kinda doesn't make sense, but none-the-less. You want a small file size; look at converting your videos to MP4s. 900MB for a 6 minute video does not sound too big to me. I'd expect a lot larger file for 6 minutes.
So, I did a check of my raw clips and I was wrong about 800MB seeming high. It's not. The one I checked was about 1GB for 6min, as [MENTION=57292]Chili[/MENTION] says. (Still living in the 480-past sometimes!)

I'd start by changing the iPhone's video capture to 720p if possible (I don't have an SE), but if not, and you want smaller files, you'll have to convert/render to a different resolution, as low as works for you, then delete the original file, if storage is really a problem.

Video eats storage at a gallop, and any kind of editing/processing will have you buying memory and looking at newer, faster computers, unless you've got patience...
 
So, I did a check of my raw clips and I was wrong about 800MB seeming high. It's not. The one I checked was about 1GB for 6min, as [MENTION=57292]Chili[/MENTION] says. (Still living in the 480-past sometimes!)

I'd start by changing the iPhone's video capture to 720p if possible (I don't have an SE), but if not, and you want smaller files, you'll have to convert/render to a different resolution, as low as works for you, then delete the original file, if storage is really a problem.

Video eats storage at a gallop, and any kind of editing/processing will have you buying memory and looking at newer, faster computers, unless you've got patience...

ok, thanks. I set the phone to 720 HD 30 FPS and will try this. BTW I was wrong about QuickTime's options, it was High and Maximum, not medium. D'oh.
 
I wouldn't stray from 1080p in today's world, if you're planning on sharing the videos. 720p looks OK on a phone, but put it on a computer monitor or television and it's immediately obvious that the quality is sub-par by today's standards.

The key to shrinking the files will be bitrate. If you're uploading to YouTube, they recommend a bitrate of 8 Mbps for 1080p video at 30fps or lower. If you're doing high framerate stuff (for whatever reason), they recommend a bitrate of 12Mbps.

Recommended upload encoding settings - YouTube Help

I'd recommend 1080p at 24fps if that's available. The motion will look more natural. 30fps looks like home video or public-access TV, and 60fps is downright uncomfortable to watch. 60fps and above are basically there so you can shoot something in realtime and play it back later in slow motion and still have nice fluid-looking motion once its slowed down.

All that being said, video files are large. Yours may already be optimized for size/quality. I've been shooting at a 10-bit depth lately, and those videos are about 1GB per minute of footage!
 
I wouldn't stray from 1080p in today's world, if you're planning on sharing the videos. 720p looks OK on a phone, but put it on a computer monitor or television and it's immediately obvious that the quality is sub-par by today's standards.

The key to shrinking the files will be bitrate. If you're uploading to YouTube, they recommend a bitrate of 8 Mbps for 1080p video at 30fps or lower. If you're doing high framerate stuff (for whatever reason), they recommend a bitrate of 12Mbps.

Recommended upload encoding settings - YouTube Help

I'd recommend 1080p at 24fps if that's available. The motion will look more natural. 30fps looks like home video or public-access TV, and 60fps is downright uncomfortable to watch. 60fps and above are basically there so you can shoot something in realtime and play it back later in slow motion and still have nice fluid-looking motion once its slowed down.

All that being said, video files are large. Yours may already be optimized for size/quality. I've been shooting at a 10-bit depth lately, and those videos are about 1GB per minute of footage!

Can you explain why 24FPS looks better than 30FPS. That seems strange to me, but always ready to learn something new.
 
Can you explain why 24FPS looks better than 30FPS. That seems strange to me, but always ready to learn something new.

Oh sure! It's basically what we're all conditioned to expect when viewing video. Television, movies, etc. are mostly at 24fps. There are some exceptions like sports, where higher fps are common. But 24fps is pretty much the cinema look. Once I got used to filming at 24fps, anything higher is just painful to watch. 30fps really does look like home video to me now...there's just something unnatural about the motion.

Actually, does your TV have any of the anti motion blur features? If you turn them all on, you'll see what's called the "soap opera effect". It's this unnatural quality to the movement on-screen that's caused by the higher framerate that the anti motion blur effects generate. That's what 30fps and 60fps look like once you get used to 24fps.
 
Oh sure! It's basically what we're all conditioned to expect when viewing video. Television, movies, etc. are mostly at 24fps. There are some exceptions like sports, where higher fps are common. But 24fps is pretty much the cinema look. Once I got used to filming at 24fps, anything higher is just painful to watch. 30fps really does look like home video to me now...there's just something unnatural about the motion.

Actually, does your TV have any of the anti motion blur features? If you turn them all on, you'll see what's called the "soap opera effect". It's this unnatural quality to the movement on-screen that's caused by the higher framerate that the anti motion blur effects generate. That's what 30fps and 60fps look like once you get used to 24fps.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, and I've not really researched this lately. But is this due to moving from analog to digital? When I started doing video editing in the 90's, the higher frame rate was the intended target. From what I understood back then was, 60FPS was for cinema quality, 30FPS for TV and lower was for compression for streaming without it looking like a Wallace and Gromet/Davey and Goliath movie.

If this is the case, I am really glad you wrote this becuase I would have been working on some old out dated assumptions.
 
as far as I can tell the iPhone doesn't have any option for bitrate, it was either 1080 or 720. I guess I need a real video camera in order to get 24 FS.

I've got one more option if I can find the battery for it, a Canon digital camera. It had some video capability if I recall correctly.
 
as far as I can tell the iPhone doesn't have any option for bitrate, it was either 1080 or 720. I guess I need a real video camera in order to get 24 FS.

I've got one more option if I can find the battery for it, a Canon digital camera. It had some video capability if I recall correctly.

Yeah my Samsung phone is the same way...it's either 30p or 60p for framerates.

My little Canon G7X is the same way too, there's no 24p setting on it for framerates.

As far as bitrate, you can control that with your video editing software when you render your final project. There should be all sorts of quality/resolution options buried in there somewhere, whichever software you end up using.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, and I've not really researched this lately. But is this due to moving from analog to digital? When I started doing video editing in the 90's, the higher frame rate was the intended target. From what I understood back then was, 60FPS was for cinema quality, 30FPS for TV and lower was for compression for streaming without it looking like a Wallace and Gromet/Davey and Goliath movie.

If this is the case, I am really glad you wrote this becuase I would have been working on some old out dated assumptions.

24fps has been the cinema standard since they introduced audio into moving pictures back in the 1920s. Somehow it's persevered as the standard even today. Remember when Peter Jackson tried to release the first Hobbit movie at 48fps and everybody threw a fit because it looked weird? Everybody is just so used to 24fps for cinematic film-making that anything else just feels off.

There does seem to be a push to achieve 60fps for televised sports though. That makes sense since motion blur is exaggerated in the fast-moving action on the field/court and the higher frame rate can yield a more fluid motion and less blur. But the moment that a TV commercial comes on in the middle of the game, it'd be back to 24p I suppose.
 
24fps has been the cinema standard since they introduced audio into moving pictures back in the 1920s. Somehow it's persevered as the standard even today. Remember when Peter Jackson tried to release the first Hobbit movie at 48fps and everybody threw a fit because it looked weird? Everybody is just so used to 24fps for cinematic film-making that anything else just feels off.

There does seem to be a push to achieve 60fps for televised sports though. That makes sense since motion blur is exaggerated in the fast-moving action on the field/court and the higher frame rate can yield a more fluid motion and less blur. But the moment that a TV commercial comes on in the middle of the game, it'd be back to 24p I suppose.

Going back and doing some research I can see you are correct. I am not sure where I had in my head the 60FPS. Sometimes bad information is hard to purge from the system. I am glad you brought this up because I would have been chasing bad info and not even thought anything about it.

Good information, thanks again!
 
I shoot in 2.7k and sometimes 4K, so 1 GB for a 6 minute video is not at all strange.

As for FPS, I really don’t think it matters. On most camera, the bitrate will remain the same, which means that the quality will dip a bit the higher the FPS and will increase the lower the FPS.

But for a personal music video, 24 FPS, vs 48 vs 60 vs 120–it really does not matter.
 
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