Who's working with video?

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Alexbt said:
Video Source = Misc VHS, converted to MiniDV
Audio Source = CD/Album or new mix from source tracks (seems unnecessary)

The point of the project is to put out some kind of live-looking video (since the audio from the VHS tapes SUCK royally) to the audio of the album. It's impossible to actually shoot a video because the singer died.

So this is the next best thing... I'm pretty sure that it's possible to tap out the BPM of a song in order to vary the speed without changing pitch (a la DDR and other beat based games) but I don't know if that's possible with video as well. That's the kind of trick I'm going for.
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Ok, I had it backwards; the video is from an analog source (VHS). It may be on DV now, but the the DV is really nothing more than a digital copy of the original VHS.

Evrything I said in the previous post still applies, just that the caveats regarding playback stability now apply to the video and not the audio.

To answer your question more directly, yes it is very easy to stretch and shrink video in a good NLE such a Premiere or Vegas. You could simply mark, for example, the beginning and ending of a line or a verse or whatever in the song, match up the start point in the video (match up the initial drum hit, for example), and then one fashon or another drag the end of the video clip to correspond with the end of that audio section. Technically that's not an issue.

The point I was trying to make, however, is that you can't do that kind of "fitting" of the video to the audio for very long and expect much matching between what you see and what you hear. It's not going to be as easy and calculating the difference in tempo, because unnless you guys are as accurate as machines, the tempo varies slightly as the song plays, and never the same way twice. Plus, when was the last time the bassist related to the beat exactly the same way in two different performances of the song? On one he might play just ahead of the beat, the other just behind. You'll see that on the video. You'll see the drummer play a fill differently between the two performances, thevocalist using a different cadence, etc.; all the differences in performances between the beats as well as the variations in tempo will show up regardless of how you try and linearly line up speed of the video and audio playback.

Again, you can go thorugh the video and audio frame-by-frame and make fine-tune adjustments and such, and that works as well as it can. But chances ae you will never be able to disguise for very long that the audio and the video are two entirely different performances.

If you're OK with that level of quality (which is fine), then yes, the technical tools are readily available in any decent video NLE to do what you need to with both the audio and the video.

If, however, you are expecting to just speed up or slow down the audio and video in relation to each other by a calculated amount or amounts and expect them to look like they belong together for more than a few seconds at a time, you can expect to be disappointed.

G.
 
Right, I know all that. When I do multi-camera sync I get differences too, but this is drastic, obviously, because the tempo fluctuates.
I'm just whining about finding an easier way to do it. ;)
 
Well, the easiest way to do it is to record all video and audio at the same time in digital with a global time code sync signal :) That said, I do multi-camera shoots in MiniDV and Digital8 with simultaneous digital audio recording - to ADAT or straight to hard drive - regularly with no time base whatsoever, and have no problem synching everything up in the editor and having it keep sync. The problem comes when you add the analog realm to it; then the digital time base is necessary to keep the analog synched.

And unfortunately in cases like yours where the performances themsleves are different and completly isolated, it doesn't matter if it's synched digitally or not, the actions and the sounds will not line up with each other for very long, or at least not consistantly. No amount of post-production hardware or software can fix that (not without going completly Forrest Gump on it, anyway ;) ) .

G.
 
Oh how I know. ;)

But while I have you here... is it possible to record MiniDV cameras (consumer grade, anyways) on some kind of sync? Yes, it is fairly easy to line up, but with FCP 5's new multi-angle mode, the angles need to be on the same timecode or it just doesn't work.
I don't know of any method of getting two or more cameras on the same timecode.
 
Alexbt said:
But while I have you here... is it possible to record MiniDV cameras (consumer grade, anyways) on some kind of sync? Yes, it is fairly easy to line up, but with FCP 5's new multi-angle mode, the angles need to be on the same timecode or it just doesn't work.
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Most common, perhaps, is the use of a master time code generator to which all other gear is synched. On the camera end, that would mean a camera that could take time code *in* and stripe the tape with the inputted time base rather than it's own (usually) LTC. Usually it's only the higher-end consumer and prosumer cameras that will be able to do that.

I'm not intimately familiar with Final Cut, but if it has the ability to serve as master clock itself, I would think you'd be able to capture video from any source and have it translate or assign the time code to the source clip as you see fit and save the clips with the new timecode EDL info. Think of it as having the computer re-stripe the captured clips with new timecode info. Then from there you'd have clips that would all have their watches synched.

I have no idea of FCPs capabilities in this regard, however.

G.
 
Whoa!!

Hi this is 'the wife' Anne.

Thx so much for your clearly thought-out advice!

Here's the story:

I took a filmmaking class every single one of 25 years ago- back when you actually did cut and paste the film for editing. This was just one semester taught by a local artist-in-resident. I absolutely loved it.

Ever since I have been craving getting back into it. It was the most creative fire-up that I ever experienced...however the career, the kids, you know.

So basically I'm extremely green- even more than kermit; However, I feel in my bones that I will produce a good film.

Thanks whoever that was who listed Vt studios. There is another located just 15 minutes away from home. Not only that, but Adelphia is paying for all the training AND will let me use a television camera AND give continual help along the way, as long as the film will be aired on local acess TV- pretty good deal.

My film subject is pretty heavy: what a major depression episode actually feels like from the point of view of the person experiencing it. This just plain is a film that must be made.

For sound I plan on recorded readings of feedback from people with this exp., readings of poetry and of course background music. There will be a variety of video, such as panning landscape, clips of artwork being created, dream/nightmare images using lighting and some acting, some footage of a psychiatrist and psychologist, a dance performance, a piano performance.. Ideas keep just appearing in my head out of nowhere..I expect I'll have local help on these, but I may need advice from you guys as I move along...

To finance this I will be applying for grants (including a stipend for me) (I'm setting up a non-profit). So before I do any serious work I need to write specs for professionals to estimate the cost & time requirements of their work, create a short pilot film, plus whatever else comes up.

What alot of nerve eh?,.. I can just imagine the looks on your faces.

My first bid for help: I need definitions for the acronyms you guys are flinging about..(I'll be dumb for awhile but I have no fear of steep learning curves, as long as there are people available for rappel duty).

AMD
ASUS
DAW
WAV
OTOH, NLE, IMOH, DTE, DIVICAM?
CCD
OMF
DV25
MBRAM

Thanks again- maybe I can give you help with some of the things I know-
sewing, knitting, how to write code that can bring a mainframe to its knees...

Thx -Anne
 
for the acronyms

AMD - Advanced Micro Devices is a computer processor manufacturer like Intel http://www.amd.com/us-en/

ASUS - is a computer motherboard manufacturer http://usa.asus.com/index.aspx

DAW - Digital Audio Workstation is the computer you recording and edit audio at...there are generally different types of computers
laptops - portable single processor computer
desktop - the computer you normally find in an office or home single processor computer
workstation - a very nice desktop designed for a single professional purpose... like audio, video, 3D ... single or dual processor computer (like a Mac G5, Sun Ultra, or IBM Intellistation
server - designed for redundancy and speed... a little more expensive than an average car... though servers can be single processor they are usually 2 to 16 processor computers.


WAV - a wav is the common audio file "wav" is the file extension aka example.wav

OTOH, - acronym for "On the other hand"

NLE - Nonlinear Editor - usually referrs to the editing program used.. for video this would be something like Final Cut Pro (FCP), Adobe Premier, iMovie, or Windows Movie Maker

IMOH - IMHO In My Humble Opinion

DTE - Direct To Edit is a video recording technique where instead of recording video to tape the video is recorded to a hard drive in a NLE allowing the editor to instantly manipulate the captured footage... it allows the director to assemble scenes as they are recorded... it's suppoed to save time and money by cutting out unnecessary takes and angles.

DIVICAM - DVCAM is summarized the professional version of miniDV... http://www.tvcameramen.com/equipment/video_formats.htm

CCD - Charged Coupled Device... the sensor inside the camera that detects light and color... the bigger the better... and the higher resolution the better... sort of like film size...

OMF - Open Media Framework is a video file format

DV25 - is a digital video compression level http://www.dvcollections.com/support_dvcompress.html
 
OMF is actually more of an audio format, as I see it. Can be used to interchange multitrack audio between different audio editing programs and video programs.
 
OMF is neither a video file format nor an audio file format. In short terms, OMF is actually Avid's next-generation answer to the EDL (Edit Decision List) file.

In lay terms, OMF is a type of computer file that contains all the editing information (timecode listings for clips, cut locations, transition parameters, etc.) needed to take the edits to media one has made on editing system "A" and reproduce them on editing system "B". The idea is to have a cross-platform file format so one can, for example, edit their A/V in Vegas and then send the project over to another editor via OMF files and they can continue the work in Final Cut Pro. Any editing system or software on any platform that can support OMF could be used.

Where the confusion on definition of OMF comes in is that the OMF file *can* contain the actual media (video or audio) itself within the OMF file. However this is not a requirement; OMFs can be simple EDLs that simply refer to the actual file names of the original media files and don't actually hold the media content themselves.

G.
 
I'm hoping to make the move up to digital video soon, but have been working with my old analog camcorder. And I've been converting all my old VHS tapes and camcorder movies over to DVD using these:

Plextor ConvertX USB2 video converter (uses hardware MPEG conversion)
Captures analog video directly to MPEG2 using USB2 with zero problems
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&Category=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

Sony Vegas Movie Studio + DVD Architect - $90 or less
GREAT simple editing software and DVDArchitect is FANTASTIC for making menu'ed DVDs!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...-1888200-0959337?v=glance&s=software&n=507846

Lite-On 16x DVD burner - $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106988


------------ These really work great to make printed DVDs: ---------------------------------

Taiyo Yuden Inkjet-printable DVDs - 35cents each
http://www.supermediastore.com/taiyo-yuden-white-inkjet-printable-8x-dvd-r-media.html

Epson R200 inkjet printer (prints on CDs/DVDs) <$90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16828103160
 
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