Friday, September 30, 2011

Exporting for HD streaming on the web


This process has probably been done to death in Post-prodn forums but thought one more reiteration can only help. For search purposes, the above topic can also be phrased Exporting for Withoutabox or IMDB Secure Screener online. Because the requirements state that the file to be uploaded should be no more than 2 GB. So if you have a HD file(1920*1080) that is 10 GBs or more, here's what you can do to conform and still have a reasonable quality.

1. Export as a Quicktime Movie with Current Settings and check the 'Make Movie self-contained'. I don't know if keeping it unchecked would make a difference.
2. Now open this full resolution file in Compressor and choose the following export options.
3. In the Settings window, under format, choose 'Quicktime, H.264' and drag it onto the file above.
4. Once you set the destination, click on the file. Now on the Inspector window, you will see the options available.
5. Now click on the second(Encode) button and click on Video Settings. Change the dimensions to 1280*720. Keep the setting as H.264 and in the bitrate change it to the desired value. For a 40 min HD video, we set the bitrate at 4000 kbps to keep it under 2 GB. Use the bitrate that would work best for you.
One question may arise as to why we need to export/convert to a Full resolution video before compressing on compressor. 1. To free up FCP when you are using compressor. 2. To speed up the compression process as opposed to exporting from an FCP sequence. (pic courtesy from ken's fcp)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Metroxical New York - New Documentary Film

Music. Metro. New York city. Future of society. A poetic narrative about underground subway music in New York city and how it forms the basis for a futuristic collective society. Metroxical New York is our latest production in the roster of Accessible Horizon Films' documentary genre. The doc. is about music, the musicians and the New York city subway. Well, it's actually much more than that. 
It really started out with our exploratory subway commutes over time interacting with musicians from almost every part of the world, eventually leading upto this moment where we just burned DVDs for submissions to various international film festivals. Audio post-production was really tedious but we made it through. Still tons of things to learn. Anyways, will add more stuff about it soon. Trailer's on the way.