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View Full Version : Future software feature suggestion



Hrvoje Simic
02-28-2007, 06:30 PM
Imagine you need to shoot a scene from 4 to 5 angles and you have 1 or 2 cameras. Paying attention to details when re-shooting the scene is essential in order for every shot to be edited together...facial expressions, body gestures, precise actor location, or any other detail in the scene which can differentiate one shot from another when it shouldn't...

The solution which could help for this situation would be software's capability to automatically downrez/compress clips in lets saaaay 20-40 Mb/s H.264 1080p.
It's not even important for it to be done in real time, just as it can be ready for the next scene.
That way the shots could be reviewed quickly (even shuttle-like "flown through") on a laptop connected to a 23 inch lcd. This could also be used for monitoring any other important factor of the shot (except color and the finest details of the picture itself).

Without the need for additional massive & expensive hardware the director could compare the previous angle with the current one in real time, and the last scene with the current one, getting the better "feel" at the set.

After the whole shoot is over all the downrezzed clips would momentarily be available for practical reviewing, as the director would have all the material of the day ready on his laptop and maybe few external 2.5'' HDD's (with camera's clip marking feature available he could even quickly avoid the bad shots).

No need for heavy machinery. No need for additional crew taking care of it.
Speeding up the production process and saving money.

What do you guys think about this ?

Nick Shaw
03-01-2007, 02:39 AM
Automatic proxy generation is a good idea, although it's yet to be seen of course whether the dynamic resolution and quality of playback that can be done because REDCODE is wavelet make proxys redundant.

I would suggest that h.264 might not be a good codec to use, as although it's very efficient in terms of quality for the data rate, it's much better at playing at normal speed forward that it is at scrubbing or jogging through a clip. I think using an intra-frame codec like plain old JPEG would be better, even at the expense of picture quality, and that could also be used as an editing proxy.

Jance Allen
03-01-2007, 10:14 AM
Off-topic, but I thought I'd ask: Are y'all familiar with how Mac Core-Video apps (like Quicktime) attempt to use color profiles and shift colors of h264 movies? Resulting usually in a somewhat washed-out and color shifted image? Totally frustrating. I've dug around on the web but haven't found an effective workaround, so I'm advocating PhotoJPG for things like client review. More compression artifacts but better color. Thanks for any info.

Emmanuel Cambier
03-01-2007, 10:25 AM
Quicktime and gamma shift is a nightmare, nothing short…

Yours "all gamma shifted" Emmanuel

Hrvoje Simic
03-01-2007, 11:13 AM
H.264 was just an example...the point was on the ability of quick, affordable and portable footage reviewing, concentrating on the content